Time for Brewers to Stand Pat

Right before the All Star Game, the Brewers had just lost their division lead but it looked as if they were a move away from getting it back. The Astros were playing well but they were the Astros, and the Brewers were not worried about them making a 2nd half push for the division. The Cubs were missing routine flyballs and looked as if they could be in a reality show with all the drama in their club house. Ramirez was hurt and the team were not hitting like the Cubs of 2008. The Cardinals were a strong club with a nice acquistion of Mark DeRosa but with a nice trade upgrade and pitchers coming back from DL, the Brewers looked to be buyers.

A lot has changed since then and now it looks like this is not the Brewers year. The pitching has gone from bad to worse having a hard time finding quality starts from pitchers and our bullpen is struggling because they are being overworked. The hitting has been dismal led by the offensive woes by team leader Ryan Braun. Braun is starting to have a decent week, but before this week has been putrid. Braun has been hitting as bad for a month stretch, as I have seen in the career of the young slugger. Fielder has been an MVP, but other than that not much production from the lineup.

Besides the obvious glaring troubles with the Brewers pitching what I am most dissappointed about is our 5-8 hitters. For instance, Corey Hart since getting voted last season to the All Star has been playing awful baseball. Everytime I see Hart in the box he looks like he is guessing with his big looping swing. Hardy has had fans see a future with Escobar very appealing. Hardy is a streaky hitter and has been his whole career, usually having two streaks in the season where he is on fire. The problem this year, is he has not had a streak like that. These two players are bats that the Brewers rely on to help score runs. Bill Hall I stopped getting frustrated about because he is a lost cause. I wonder the last time Kendall ate his Wheaties because all I have seen this year is groundouts to infielders. He hasn't even sniffed a home run all year which I don't have a problem with if you can hit over .240. Cameron started off great but again he looks lost at plate swinging at bad pitches. These Brewers to me have been more frustrating then pitching staff. They are producing so few runs and make it hard to watch because Hardy and Hart are Brewers who you thought could be our future. Batting Averages of these hitters (Hardy- .235, Hart- .259, Kendall- .239, Cameron- .249, Hall- .202) are just too low and it frustrating not having base runners.

So what do we do now?

After losing the first two to the Washington Nationals, it is clear we should not be buyers for big names. No use in doing a "Sabathia-esque" trade for Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay when the Brewers are about 3 all star caliber players away from playoffs. I wouldn't even like to see a smaller trade for a mid level starter like Doug Davis for a half year for a prospect we could use in the future. I think the two options are the Brewers do not trade anybody and ride their roster to the end of the year, hopefully we have a great August and September and maybe sneak into playoffs. Or we sell some players that we think we could get good value for. I think many players could be traded but I have don't touch list in order: (Braun, Fielder, Yovanni, Escobar, Gamel). If the trade makes our team better the next three or four years I say pull the trigger Doug. I wouldn't say we are buyers though contrast to what Haurdicourt reported in his blog today (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/51931102.html).

Time for the Brewers to stand pat!

BUT THATS JUST MY TWO CENTS FROM THE NOSE BLEEDS!