Posts tagged NedYost at FanHouse

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On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups

Do you remember last year when the Milwaukee Brewers jumped out to a big lead in the NL Central, but then began fading as the season wore on? A lot of the blame for this collapse was placed on the front office not making any moves at the trade deadline by the team's fans. So as a response to such criticism last season, the Brewers went out and made a couple of moves this season.

The biggest one (both literally and figuratively) of course being the addition of CC Sabathia to the starting rotation.

Well, they may have a new philosophy, but unfortunately for the citizens of Milwaukee, they're still the same old Brewers. After climbing to within a game of the Chicago Cubs last week, the Brew Crew had a pivotal four-game series with their divison rivals in their home park. Instead of taking advantage of the opportunity, the Brewers collapsed under the pressure and before they knew it, they were being swept out of their own park.

Now Milwaukee has lost eight of it's last eleven games, and have fallen five games back of Chicago. Instead of working together to fight through this slump and beat the other team, they've begun fighting amongst themselves.

Can the Brewers get their act together tonight, or are they doomed to another late season fade? Find out after the jump.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Houston Astros (47-56) at Milwaukee Brewers (60-44) 2:05 PM ET

The addition of CC Sabathia was supposed to give the Brewers a chance to catch the Cubs in the N.L. Central by the end of the season. Their ascension has been much quicker ... as a 9-1 run combined with the Cubs going 3-7 in their last ten has but the Brewers in a deadlock for first with Chicago. To think that Ned Yost was once the guy we thought was on the hot seat. We were probably right, but it's how a well-timed trade will cool down that seat.

When the Brewers traded for Ray Durham yesterday, the move was widely seen as the team's attempt to replace the weakest link in their offense and gear up for a playoff dogfight with the Cubs, Cardinals, Mets, and Phillies. The message sent to Rickie Weeks seemed to be along the lines of, "You're a great guy and our second baseman of the future and everything, but your .685 OPS just isn't going to cut it." Well, Ned Yost doesn't see it that way. From the Journal-Sentinel's Brewers Blog:

"Rickie's doing fine," said Yost. "I'll play Ray a couple of days a week, maybe. We'll just see how it goes. I'm not setting anything in stone. We'll take it day by day. Veteran, quality depth is what it gives us."

[...]

Yost, who routinely defends his players, whether they are producing or not, said it was unfair to have expectations too lofty for Weeks.

"I wouldn't say he has underachieved," said Yost. "He has never been a .300 hitter (in the majors), so who says he is underachieving?"

First off, Durham plays second base kind of like a poorly oiled robot while Weeks is a pretty decent fielder at second. So there's plenty of reason to keep giving Weeks time. Second off, if Ned Yost won't say Weeks is underachieving, I can find 100 people that will. Dude's hitting .216/.326/.365 after killing the ball at almost every level of the minors. If that's not underachieving, Mario Mendoza was an all-star.

Now that the Brewers have added CC Sabathia to their starting rotation, they have a bit of an overflow in the starting rotation. When Jeff Suppan returns from the disabled list after the break, the Brewers will have six pitchers for five spots. Normally that would mean that either Dave Bush or Seth McLung would be the odd man out, and relegated to long relief out of the bullpen.

That is, if Ned Yost wasn't a visionary who plans on forever changing the game of baseball as we know it. Will the world be ready for it when Ned breaks out the platoon starting rotation after the break?

"I'm thinking seriously about matching up," Yost said. "You look at numbers and try to put each of them in a position that they can be successful. 'Bushie's' numbers are starkly different between home and road. McClung's better on the road: a (4.95) ERA at home compared to a (3.28) on the road."

In Yost's playing and coaching career, he has never come across anyone who has managed his rotation in such a manner.

"I think it makes sense," Yost said. "I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. All I'm trying to do is give us the best chance to win every day. . . . I'm trying to do what's smart."

You know, during his time in Milwaukee, Yost has done quite a few things that have made me sit there and scratch my head (the latest incident would be sending Yovani Gallardo back out to the mound after a collision at first base). Still, the longer I sit and think about this platoon pitching situation, the more I like it.

If Yost goes through with this and it works out well for the Brewers, platooning your starters will be the new pitchers batting in the eighth spot in 2009.

For a long time now, most managers in the National League have been content to bat their pitchers in the nine slot of the batting order, making only the rare exception for guys like Micah Owings and Dontrelle Willis. Starting a couple years back, Tony La Russa began batting his pitcher eighth from time to time. This year, the trend grew when Ned Yost has been hitting Jason Kendall in the nine slot most of the time. Tonight a third convert emerged when the Pirates' John Russell moved Jack Wilson to the nine slot and hit Paul Maholm eighth.

I haven't seen an official explanation from Russell as to why he made the shuffle, but it's already been shown that batting the pitcher eighth and putting a real hitter in the nine slot, allowing for more of a chance to put runners on base when the best hitters at the top of the lineup comes up. Since Wilson has an OBP of .346 but only five extra base hits this year (all doubles), I'm going to give Russell the benefit of the doubt and assume that was his reasoning.

As for the actual result, Wilson did go 1-for-3, but he didn't score (maybe because Freddy Sanchez and Jason Michaels batted 1/2 and defeated the purpose). As they are wont to do, the Pirates lost the game, though not through any fault of John Russell's lineup shuffle ... Ken Griffey Jr. hit a two-run walkoff homer in the ninth to erase a one run deficit. Will the experiment continue tomorrow? Why do only NL Central teams seem willing to try this? I don't have the answers.

The Milwaukee Brewers signed their ace Ben Sheets to a four-year $38.5 million deal before the 2005 season started, and in the years since Sheets has spent a lot of his time earning that money on the disabled list. Last season, after spending the majority of the year in first place, Milwaukee's slide down the Central coincided with a Sheets injury.

Ben's injury history is probably the main reason that the Brewers didn't want to discuss a contract extension with Sheets this spring before the season started, and because of making that decision, Sheets has every intention to test the waters when he becomes a free agent at year's end.

"That's the direction I'm headed right now," Sheets said. "You can't invite yourself back.

"In all honesty, that would be pretty tough (not to test the market). We're getting pretty deep (into the season). It would be hard not to (test the market), especially when you start putting together a (big) year."

So the Brewers didn't want to talk extension, and Sheets plans on testing the market. Doing the words and intentions math, those two things together equal Ben Sheets in another uniform next season. Which begs the question: are the Brewers better off trading Sheets before the deadline or holding on to him and letting him go for nothing?

That's right, Mr. Diamondback fan, you can leave Mr. Cub fan out on the ledge and step on inside. It would seem, at second glance, that Brandon Webb is going to be just fine. We hope. At least it does not seem like the line drive he took off the sternum is going to be the problem.

"He felt it a little bit, but at that point, the way we had been riding him, I didn't want to run him out there for two more innings and get his pitch counts up," Melvin said. "Innings-wise he's pitched quite a bit for us. Just wanted to give him a little blow."

Melvin pulled Webb (likely "just being cautious" as Mullet said) after he took a "line drive off his belt in the fifth."

Good for freaking you, Bob Melvin. Now, which session of your Managing for Dummies Summer School do you have Ned Yost signed up for again?

Because, really, the sooner the better for him. But despite solid bench work, there's still something a little troubling about the decision, if only because it unveils some potential arm issues.

Webb said his velocity has been down in recent starts and allowed for the possibility that he might be experiencing a "dead arm," in which everything feels healthy and sound but the ball doesn't come out of his hand in the usual manner.

"Yeah, it doesn't hurt," he said. "Maybe a dead-arm period or something like that. Like I said, it doesn't hurt, so it's tough to tell. Everything feels good."

Now for all my medical wisdom, I believe that "dead arm" is not something other than just being tired, no? Which means a little extra rest should actually prevent further injury. So consider the non-fatal liner actually a good thing.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

San Diego Padres (23-37) vs. Chicago Cubs (38-21) - 10:05PM Est.

I know it's still way too early in the season to start talking about the World Series, seeing as how there are still two-thirds of the season left to be played, and anything can happen between now and October. Especially when the Cubs are involved, because four months is plenty of time for an asteroid to crash into Wrigley Field or for Carlos Zambrano to feel a tweek in his elbow.

Still, you look at this team right now, and it's hard to not wonder if they're a serious threat to win their first World Series in 100 years. They have the highest batting average in baseball (.288), they have the highest OBP (.368), they've scored more runs than anybody else (340), and they have the best record in baseball at 38-21.

Oh, and they've also won their last nine games.

So is there anything that can stop this team?

Despite the heat check that the Tampa Bay Rays are on right now, they still suffered some bad news yesterday when shockingly efficient closer Troy Percival injured his hamstring in what was described as a nasty little landing. Nasty enough to get him sent out for an MRI.

That begs the question, who's the new save guy in Tampa? Dan Wheeler would be your likely answer, and if he's not owned, and you need saves, he's an immediate add. If he's already taken, pounce on Al Reyes for a backup. Both guys could see save opps, but Wheeler came in for Percival today and he has the better ratios on the season. Plus, he hasn't been tased at all this season, for whatever that's worth.

In Milwaukee, although nothing is ever made really clear, it does appear as if Salomon Torres has gotten a pretty good grip on the closer's job, picking up three saves and a win over the last week. There's no guarantee that Crazy Joe DaVola Ned Yost will actually stick with him, but for now, he should be getting run in your lineup. And certainly shouldn't be a free agent.

The Braves welcomed back Rafael Soriano on Wednesday while putting Matt Diaz on the disabled list. That's decent news for Soriano's fantasy owners -- of course you want to see him back. The bad news is that John Smoltz is going to close as soon as he is healthy, which could be soon. Start Soriano when he's pitching, but obviously look to trade him if you can.

I've read a lot of things said by a lot of managers in the sixteen or so months that I've written for FanHouse. Every once in a while, something that someone says really takes me off guard. Unsurprisingly, it's Ned Yost that's provided the most recent example of that. From his press conference following yesterday's 3-2 win over the Braves (the key quote comes at the 1:49 mark of the video):

Prince is swinging the bat a lot better, to the point where we had first and second and nobody out and I was afraid to run the runners because I thought he was gonna rip a line drive to one of the infielders and hit into a triple play.

He was worried ... about the triple play. The fluke play that happens maybe three or four times a year because of insane circumstances? Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, right now, I'm starving, but I can't go to the grocery store because there might be a nuclear holocaust and if I stay in my house, it might not get me.

Hat-tip to Fire Ned Yost, who had a field day with this thing.