Tuesday, September 16, 2008

First Game of the Sveum Era Open Thread

In his first move as manager, Dale Sveum shook things up a bit with the line-up:

CF Mike Cameron
2B Ray Durham
LF Ryan Braun
1B Prince Fielder
SS JJ Hardy
RF Corey Hart
3B Craig Counsell
C Jason Kendall
P CC Sabathia

I think the biggest thing is that Weeks and Hall are on the bench. Cameron is at the top of the order, which is odd from an OBP standpoint, but may be good from an it-may-get-him-another-at-bat standpoint. Hardy also drops back to the 5 spot. Sveum seems to have been cognizant of keeping his lefties spaced out in the line-up, which is good. I think we'll get a better idea of whether yesterday's dugout personnel change will matter when Sveum is put into substitution situations. Will he pull Kendall for Rivera or Salome if we need some offense? Will he pull Counsell for Gamel or Escobar? Find out the answers to these questions and more at 7:05 tonight.

The pitching match-up is CC Sabathia (15-8, 2.81 ERA, 55 BB/225 SO) against Ryan Dempster (15-6, 3.02 ERA, 74 BB/173 SO).

Go Brewers!

99 comments:

  1. Already, he's a smarter manager than Yost.

    I've been saying it since the trade - there's no way in Hell that Weeks should be playing when Durham is on the team. Vast improvement on both offense and defense.

    Plus, when both Weeks and Hall are in there, if I were the opposing managers, I would fine my pitcher if he threw either of them anything but a breaking ball low-and-away.

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  2. 100% agreed. Weeks's OBP isn't what I'd call "good" but it's actually better than Cameron's though. I wonder why they don't just have Durham lead off. He has the best OBP on the team.

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  3. Looking better already IMHO. Hopefully, Sabathia has his good stuff so we don't need any bullpen management...at least tonight.

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  4. Whether or not Sabathia has his good stuff, I hope Sveum doesn't let him throw 120 pitches. That'd make it hard to have him pitch on 3 days rest, which I really hope Sveum will do, so we can get 4 starts out of him. That's what a competent manager would do with a rented monster in this situation.

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  5. Well it's improvement

    I agree that i think Durham should leadoff.

    Is there convenient way to list a players batting hand in the lineup? THat would be a real value add for those of us who don't have such things memorized.

    Oh and thank you for the lineup and open thread and lack of emotionalism. 'Cept during the game of course ;)

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  6. I'm disappointed at no Rivera, but not terribly so. I didn't really expect Sveum to make him the starter anyway.

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  7. CF Mike Cameron - R
    2B Ray Durham - S
    LF Ryan Braun - R
    1B Prince Fielder - L
    SS JJ Hardy - R
    RF Corey Hart - R
    3B Craig Counsell - L
    C Jason Kendall - R
    P CC Sabathia - L

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  8. Definitely a different look to the order. If the Brewers win tonight, that will bode well for the other 11 games because this doesn't look good on paper.

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  9. I didn't realize Hardy is 0-13 against Dempster. Strange. Also, and it sounds awful, but Mike Lamb may have been a sound play:

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/p-pvb.cgi?n1=dempsry01#choice=&bats=&minPA2=0&minPA=0&orderbydir=DESC&orderbydirb=ASC&n1=dempsry01&as=pitcher&year_game=career&opp_id=MIL&orderby=PA&orderbyb=Name

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  10. http://www.salon.com/sports/daily/feature/2008/09/16/yost/

    nice article on the Yost firing (heaping heavy praise on FireNedYost.com)

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  11. it's a new era gentlemen...here we go!!!

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  12. Did you guys here that? McClung to the ROtation, Parra to the pen.

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  13. I'm in class so I can't hear shit.

    I would rather a 4 man rotation

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  14. That's what they said.

    Braun just got held up at third. Sveum would have sent him for sure. It would have been close.

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  15. Riske done for the year, Gallardo likely to join the club in Cincy in the pen

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  16. Damnit Cameron, scared of the brick wall.

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  17. BS call. Cameron should have walked.

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  18. The Cubs have an absolutely perfect approach to Sabathia. It's sort of stunning really.

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  19. Yeah, they're pretty good. We NEED some offense.

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  20. This isn't going well. On the bright side, the Astros and Mets are both losing too. On the not bright side, Philly is up by one.

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  21. And the Braves just pulled ahead of Philly!

    C'mon now Brewers!

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  22. You guys really need to get HaloScan :-)

    Seriously, not a bad live thread. This is turning out about as I feared.

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  23. You can't see Haloscan comments on a blackberry. Or at least I don't know how to. And I travel a lot.

    What's the advantage of haloscan anyway?

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  24. I wish I would've bee home to see the CC bunt single. Unfortunately, I got back in the bottom of the 5th.

    Any word on how the Crew has done with RISP tonight?

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  25. Atlanta just got out of a jam. Still lead the Phillies 7-6

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  26. danny, the thing I like about haloscan comments is that it's a pop up.

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  27. They left the bases loaded with one out last inning.

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  28. HaloScan lets us know (some of the time at least) when new comments show up. That's something I haven't seen with either Blogger or WordPress.

    Now, what was I saying about piss-poor performance with RISP? Thank you, Prince.

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  29. Dude watched that one fly! That's what we need, a little swagger.

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  30. HARDY!


    Paul and I thought about Haloscan. We can add it if that's the concensus. We were both mehhh on it. My only problem is sometimes I like to check what you morons are saying from the airport or something.

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  31. We can do pop-ups with Blogger.

    Figures there would be a mass-stranding.

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  32. That bases-loaded stranding was kind of bullshit though. Cameron should have been safe at first.

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  33. Ah, now I'm on the right account (have a second Google account for a group).

    I'll bet that call was approved by The Sports Netork That Shall Not Be Named :-)

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  34. VERY nice play by Hardy to finish off the Cubs' 6th.

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  35. He's letting Sabathia bat. I don't think that's a bad idea, especially since he can hit.

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  36. I'll take those losses. Hopefully it's 1-3 with the Crew providing the 1.

    As for pop-ups, that's Settings > Comments > Comment Form Placement

    Sabathia out there to force Pinella's hand and hopefully not bat for himself.

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  37. Congradulations to Bronson Arroyo on his 15th victory tonight.

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  38. That was a ride, but not quite deep enough.

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  39. I'm not sure what's going with letting CC hit for himself.

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  40. Aw crap. Philly pulled ahead 8-7 in the 9th.

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  41. Just one of those things. If it makes you feel any better, Nedley would've left him in to do that as well.

    Why didn't we dump Maddux when we had the chance?

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  42. Good, because I can't watch games without the "occassional".

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  43. That's one way to set up a potential inning-ending double-play.

    Winning run on for the Braves, but 2 outs.

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  44. Okay, now we just need a double play.



    If we get out of this in striking range, it'll be interesting to see if Sveum pulls Kendall.

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  45. I'll add that, although this isn't exactly "working" I like CV in the 8th inning.

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  46. It will work if they can get either the double play or a K and another out and strand Ramirez

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  47. Thanks for the K, now sit down and let Shouse have a crack.

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  48. Unfortunately, the Phillies also got the big K for the win.

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  49. If we can pull this off, we'll still be a half game up because the Mets lost.

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  50. Why is Shouse pitching to a righty again?

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  51. Shouse does what he does against righties. DAMMIT!

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  52. We do have more pitchers. Even more lefties. We should have pulled Shouse without throwing a pitch.

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  53. Sveum's gone in 2 weeks. We need to start up firemikemaddux.com.

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  54. Can't we just have a computer make these decisions? How about letshirearobot.com?

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  55. If memory of the rulebook serves, we were committed to Shouse for at least 1 pitch. Unfortunately, it was a grooved one.

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  56. great steve, lets fire the beer vendors too, they have roughly the same impact.

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  57. Kendall is hitting. More of the same.


    Is that Mike Fucking Lamb on deck?

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  58. Bill Fucking Hall must be busy.

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  59. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

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  60. This one goes onto Mike "Ned Jr." Maddux. I doubt Sveum is running the pitching staff.

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  61. Speed kills. Fortunately, it's our speed.

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  62. If Fielder hits another dinger, I'll take back everything I've ever said about vegetarians.

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  63. Way to leave the fucking bat on your shoulders, Prince.

    Buh-bye share of the wild-card lead.

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  64. These postgame guys are idiots. We didn't fall a game behind Philly, we fell a half-game behind the Mets.

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  65. They caught it.

    That's the positive aspect; the Mets have one more game to play than the Crew. </ommmmmmm>

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