How the Nats managed to win 6 of 7 against anybody is beyond me. They suck. I'll be fairly annoyed if the Cubs don't follow the Brewers' lead and sweep the Nats later this month.

Not only did the Nationals start Pete Orr today. They started him at SS.

If somebody told me Pete Orr was playing this week, I'd assume he was on Canada's olympic team.

The 6 of 7 came against the Reds and Rockies. When crap team plays crap team, strange things happen!

Don't worry. The Nats face the Mets next, and I can feel the coming heartbreak already.

The Nats had three guys swing the bats ok in the four games: Milledge, Belliard, Harris.

Everyone else was inept. It was pretty mind-boggling...

They consistently have the worst approach I've ever seen. They have ZERO plan at the plate. It's like the exact opposite of guess hitting.

I'm not sure if we're still on pace for it, but the team OPS+ was in line to be among the two or three worst since WWII.

You know you suck when your cleanup hitter is slugging .319 and all you can is shrug your shoulders because, well, nobody else really deserves it either.

They are playing the Mets next series. They'll manage to win one or two at least.

On the plus side, Luis Ayala pitched a clean inning, so Acta may have found what situation he needs to use him in: pitching the eighth inning in a blowout where the home team just wants to get the game over with, so they can get on a plane to the West Coast.

I'm not sure what kind of -GY that would be, though.

On the plus side, Luis Ayala pitched a clean inning, so Acta may have found what situation he needs to use him in: pitching the eighth inning in a blowout where the home team just wants to get the game over with, so they can get on a plane to the West Coast.

Especially since the Nats don't travel west of Chicago the rest of the season.

pitching the eighth inning in a blowout where the home team just wants to get the game over with, so they can get on a plane to the West Coast.

So Ayala is a PTEIABWTHTJWTGTGOWSTCGOAPTTWCGY?

I hate to find something to complain about, but Craig Counsell is the worst player (non-Gagne division) on the Brewers by a pretty large margin and he's started at 3rd base 7 times already this month. It's unbelievable to me that Yost apparently thinks he is the best option they have there.

Meanwhile Jeff Cirillo has repeatedly pleaded with the Brewers to sign him and has admitted that they are the only team he would want to play for. And he plays third base. And was better than Counsell last year, and the year before.

WaPo:

The sun was shining, perfect enough for a picnic -- but wait, it cast a nasty shadow bisecting the infield, and the glare reached its worst point just when the Nationals needed to rally, and the darn beautiful sunshine made it really difficult to score.

Meanwhile, starter Garrett Mock was filthy, using his on-point breaking balls to notch strikeout after strikeout...
...
"It was kind of hard to see the ball here," catcher Wil Nieves said. The Brewers "are used to it, but this was the first time I've played here in a day game. At night, you can see better. But day games? The umpire was telling me this was the worst place for day games, just because of the shadows. But, it was just a little bit hard. Their pitcher today, he was throwing fastballs right by us, and they were, like, 85 or 86" mph.

Apparently the Post writer failed to connect the sunshine & shadows (early afternoon starts are always brutal on the hitters at Miller) with the fact Mock was racking up so many strikeouts.

Meanwhile Jeff Cirillo has repeatedly pleaded with the Brewers to sign him and has admitted that they are the only team he would want to play for

My point wasn't that they needed a new guy, it was that Yost should go back to the Branyan/Hall platoon that worked beautifully until he abandoned it for some inscrutable reason.

Not to defend Ned, but after his hot start Branyan did go into a not-wholly-unexpected tailspin. On June 27 starting against righthanders he was hitting .300 with an OPS of 1162. He then went 4 for his next 35 with no power, through which Ned did continue to start him. Ned finally gave up in late July and put him in his current pinch-hitting and spot-starting role. He's done pretty well as a pinch-hitter, but still he's hit only one homer since June 27. The fact is, neither Counsell nor Branyan has done much since the end of June. Since June 27:

Branyan .263 OBP in 57 PA with 4 XBH
Counsell .276 OBP in 58 PA with 2 XBH

Branyan probably should still be getting most of the starts against RHP, yes, but given his tendency to slump, his complete inability to hit LHP, and his inferior defense, you can't say they've been much worse off as is.

But it's 57 PAs. Branyan's track record is much, much better than Counsell's, current slump notwithstanding. You're talking 31 points of career OPS+, but Counsell hasn't even approached his career number since 2005. He's terrible and he's 37.

Well, not ALL of Counsell's PAs have been at Branyan's expense - he's been sucking at SS and 2B, too. Counsell is not good, and I acknowledged that Branyan should still get the bulk of the starts vs. RHP, but that's more an indictment of how few choices the Brewers have than anything else. As I said, Branyan's and Counsell's downturns have coincided. Through June Counsell's OBP was around .350 - he was doing his job. I don't see how Branyan has merited that much of a benefit of the doubt. If anything I'd play Bill Hall over Counsell before I'd play Branyan - and Yost has done that, too, with some success. When Branyan wasn't starting against the Cards' RHP in St. Louis, Hall was going hog-wild. So it hasn't hurt them that much.

Yost stuck with Branyan for a pretty long time through a prolonged slump. I don't know how much longer he was supposed to wait. If he sticks with a guy too long, you guys give him the Wes Helms treatment. Then if he yanks a guy too soon, he's wrong again. I don't like defending Yost, but I think they've actually gotten pretty good mileage out of Branyan. I think he's tried to put Branyan in the best situations to succeed, and for the most part he has.