The Brewers are almost halfway through the season, and I thought it appropriate to provide some comments about the new manager, Ken Macha.

Macha gets the whole roster involved. Everybody gets off the bench at least once a week, and the only guy who is on the field every day is Prince Fielder. Most notably, Mike Rivera, backup catcher, has already started 11 games when last year he started 15 games ALL SEASON.

Macha gives guys time to work things but will step in if things aren't moving forward. Bill Hall started out ok but after a lengthy struggle was pushed aside first for Casey McGehee and now Mat Gamel. And speaking of that....

Macha is willing to stick kids in the lineup. Gamel came up and even with not hitting lights out stays on the team and plays in a semi-platoon role. (He has faced the tame looking lefties who don't have the hard stuff).

Pitching wise he tried to push his starters into the 7th inning and after a solid six to seven week beginning the last month has been a train wreck as every starter but Gallardo and Suppan have collapsed. Not struggled. Not been hit or miss. Just collapsed. Over the last month Looper's ERA is 6.59, Bush is at 10.55(!), and Parra is in the minor leagues. To compound matters nobody can seem to get past the sixth inning, if that, so the bullpen is already heavily stressed.

Everyone knew that the starters save Yovani were a question mark so one could take the stance that none of this should be surprising. But THIS level of ineptitude? Looper and Bush are blah guys but not completely without talent. They should be able to get some guys out SOME of the time. The line drive off Dave's arm might be a contributing factor but that still leaves Looper tossing gopher balls.

As for Manny, he just couldn't find the strike zone except to toss up grapefruits. A huge step back from the signs of promise in last season's efforts.

There are mostly promising signs from Macha. He is plain spoken about the players and what is needed to succeed. He doesn't overreact in either direction. He moves guys around both in the field and in the lineup. Does some stuff "by the book" but also gets a bit funky just to see what happens. The only thing that really jumps out is the lack of base stealing by the club. But as Macha points out, the guys stink at it so why give the opposition outs? Pretty common sense.

I will mention that during his predecessor's tenure the Brewers were INFAMOUS for running into outs. This team has either gotten a lot smarter overnight or the change has caused the players to be smarter on the bases. The guys still take some chances. They hustle. But I don't see players getting thrown out on some willy-nilly attempt. Save for Prince a while back hightailing it for third for no good reason. Followed by a lecture in the dugout by Macha.

Anyway, seems like a bit like Alston to me. Very even keel...................

And are JJ Hardy and Stephen Drew competing as to who can be the bigger disappointment at NL SS this season?

Yuck times two......

And are JJ Hardy and Stephen Drew competing as to who can be the bigger disappointment at NL SS this season?
HW, Jimmy Rollins' 56 OPS+ says hello. He has had some tough luck recently although he was a popup machine earlier in the year. To top it off, yesterday he hit a chopper up the 1B line, brilliantly avoided the tag but was called out on a tag anyway by the probably blocked ump. Chollie came out pleading for the ump to ask for help, to no avail. It was time for Chollie to throw a tantrum to shake the Phils out of their doldrums but to no avail, as they went down meekly in the 9th.

Tonight against the Angels, Aaron Cook will be bidding to become the winningest pitcher in Rockies history. He and Jason Jennings both have 58 wins for the Rox.

I haven't had a chance to research this, but does SS Alcides Escobar deserve a look for the Brewers? I know he has a good glove/no hit reputation, but just wondering.
EDIT: He's hitting 295/340/418 for the Nashville Sounds with 27 SB....I say give him a shot. I believe he's already on the 40 man roster ...of course, it uses up an option, but what the heck?

SKbb:

Hardy is on a short leash. A good many folks were thinking earlier that Hardy should move to third wiht AE taking over short. Now with Gamel working out and a roving platoon of McGehee/Counsell tackling second there isn't a need for a position switch.

JJ has a history of being streaky at the plate so Melvin/Macha keep waiting for him to get going. Note that beginning in the latter part of June and thru July he hit some a crazy sumb&tch;after a poor first two months. But folks are getting antsy with Hardy having a .226(!!!!) slugging percentage over the last month.

And Melvin LOVES Escobar. LOVES the guy's defense.

It would not shock me to see Hardy as part of a deal this offseason. Right now? It would almost have to be an injury situation. Doug is bold but that is REALLY bold.

JJ isn't hurt. No nagging owies. He just is not hitting. It's incredibly frustrating..................

Tonight against the Angels, Aaron Cook will be bidding to become the winningest pitcher in Rockies history. He and Jason Jennings both have 58 wins for the Rox.

No ####? Good for Cook.

The lowest franchise leading total must be, although I haven't looked in great detail, Kazmir's 51 for the Rays.

Who's the Marlins' winningest pitcher? Pat Rapp had 37 wins for them, which is kind of pathetic if he's the leader. Ricky Nolasco is already at 30 and could catch Rapp this year if he remembers how to pitch.

Dtrain has 68 wins with Florida.

For a franchise that's been around for 40 years, that the Padres' all-time winningest pitcher only has 100 victories is kind of embarrassing. And when that pitcher is Eric Show, it's even more embarassing. Here's hoping Jake can add nine more wins before SD dumps him.

FWIW, Milwaukee is now letting Escobar play a little second in AAA - he's really struggled in the early going (4 errors in 7 games, .879 FA, compared to .983 @ SS)

Who are the only two non-expansion franchises that do not have a 200 game winner in team history?

quiz on leading winner for each franchise

Who are the only two non-expansion franchises that do not have a 200 game winner in team history?

The Red Sox don't.

quiz on leading winner for each franchise

That was fun. I got 24/30. Some were real stumpers though, particularly the non-expansion teams. Dodgers answer really surprised me (hint - its not Koufax or Drysdale). I've never even heard of the Pirates leader (hint - its not Kip Wells or Todd Ritchie)

Trivia answer: The Red Sox is one correct answer. Cy Young and Roger Clemens each have 192 wins in Beantown.

Pettitte is going to become the third winnest Yankee pitcher this year unless he or the team really falls apart the rest of the way. I'm kind of stunned at that news.

Mets release OF Wily Mo Pena and C Javier Valentin

13. My God I did terribly. 17/30... and that's with a couple of random guesses where I didn't actually know what team they would have set the record for.

Also, there were two pitchers on the list I had never heard of before today (Dauss and Slaton).

Trivia answer: The Red Sox is one correct answer. Cy Young and Roger Clemens each have 192 wins in Beantown.

I'm hopeful we'll see a new leader here next year.

Just a stab -- Cincinnati.

Great guess! Cincy is right - Eppa Rixey is the winningest Red with 179 wins.

It was either the Reds or the Pirates, two clubs that really haven't produced many memorable hurlers. And after checking out the Bucs leaderboard at BBRef, they're probably the next in line from the bottom.

Post 11:

I believe that experiment has ended.

Also, Alcides has a HUGE platoon split this season. He's crushing lefties and hardly adequate against right-handers.

And after checking out the Bucs leaderboard at BBRef, they're probably the next in line from the bottom.

The Cubs leader is Charley Root, with 201.

Mets release OF Wily Mo Pena

I don't recall him ever joining the Mets.

I don't recall him ever joining the Mets.

He never made it to the major league squad.

He never made it to the major league squad.

He would have, if he could pitch an inning or two in relief.

The quiz inspired me to check out some team leaderboards. Most shocking?

San Diego Padres career home run leader is.... Nate Colbert, with just 163. Phil Nevin is in 2nd!

Donald Fehr is stepping down as head of the MLBPA, to be replaced by Michael Weiner.

Seeing how it was DK who posted this, I am assuming that Weiner was in charge of the Carolina League Players' Association at one point and he has seen him in action.

Wow, that's big news. Any idea if the leaked test results did him in?

Thanks for the update, HW.

Seeing how it was DK who posted this

Heh. As Emeigh and Dial (among others) could tell you - I don't actually get to see games (must .. raise kids .. to like baseball) - I just watch clips online...

San Diego Padres career home run leader is.... Nate Colbert, with just 163. Phil Nevin is in 2nd!

Adrian Gonzalez should crush that record, providing he stays healthy.

Wow, that's big news. Any idea if the leaked test results did him in?

I haven't noticed any performance spike in Fehr's career, so I don't know why you'd suspect he did steroids.

Or Gonzalez isn't traded.

Adrian Gonzalez should crush that record, providing he stays healthy.

113 already. He should top it by 2011.

I don't actually get to see games (must .. raise kids .. to like baseball) - I just watch clips online.

These are minor league clips? Where do you see them? I'm slowly embracing multimedia and I occasionally go see the Rock Cats play in New Britain, but that's usually a social event so I'm not watching with the intensity that I should, but I'd love to see some Red Sox affiliate stuff.

Speaking of which, I assume Pujols will someday pass Musial for the St. Louis lead (he's 130 back now), Wright will probably pass Straw (118), Uggla might pass Mike Lowell (40 behind at this point) if he lasts in Florida, Hanley has a shot too.

And of course, it's only a matter of time before Matt Wieters passes Ripken in Baltimore.

And of course, it's only a matter of time before Matt Wieters passes Ripken in Baltimore.
Isn't only because of some time/space warp that he hasn't passed him already?

On the local (for me) front: does anyone know what happened to Chris Luck? Judging by milb.com transactions page, he may have been released - which would be odd as he made a deep Rays' top 30 BA list.

Clips: Around - a milb.com tv subscription is your best source. Beyond that, googling/web search will lead you to stuff (I almost always look for things as opposed to find things/players by chance). That said, I don't have a lot of faith in my scouting abilities / visual assessment skills - I'm simply a researcher/aggregator type (which why I don't have a blog / other outlet for my rants).

Isn't only because of some time/space warp that he hasn't passed him already?
In some alt universe, he already has. Maybe in most of them.

I was disappointed to hear Weiters pronounced like wheaters instead of whiters.

Donald Fehr is retiring next year.

Twins DFA Luis Ayala, bring up Bob Keppel