Whipped Macha Latte

As a writer and a Fan, it is hard to sit here and make judgements that really aren't this writer's right to make. Plus, this electronic universe makes it far too easy to lose sight of the humanity behind the names we write about. It is far too easy to blithely make statements that if heeded, would cost a man his job. The Fan gets all that and pleads guilty. But even after thoughtful consideration of that guilt, the Fan simply would be remiss without stating one more time that the Cubs and the Brewers need a leadership change in the worst way.

The Fan won't pick on the Cubs anymore in this space. Enough has been written here the point of nausea. The Cubs are a misshapen team poorly constructed with a manager that doesn't fit them with his personality. But the Brewers are a sad story because of how successful they have been in past years at building their fan base. They, along with the Twins, have been the major league success story. And after such success, it is heart-rending to see the team play with so little life and spirit.

The Brewers have now lost eight of their last twelve games. They have lost four in a row and have been out scored 34-5 in those four games. They are 15-20 in their own division. They have scored two runs or less in eight of their last twenty games despite being third in the league in runs scored this season. The team seems flat and often over matched.

Now their best pitcher, Gallardo, strained a muscle in his side and they can hardly afford to lose ANY pitching at this point. Naturally, pitching has been thin all season. The biggest criticism of the Brewers front office is that they didn't make any moves to strengthen their pitching. But even for a team with pitching that ranks third from last in the NL, when they do pitch well, the runs aren't there from the offense. And the offense has all kinds of nice players. Ten players on their roster have over a 100 OPS+ and their team OPS+ is 107, which is excellent considering that includes pitchers batting.

Ken Macha doesn't seem to have the right answers for this team. He has constantly changed the batting order and it has seemed odd that Trevor Hoffman has not been given the opportunity to pitch his way back into meaningful games.

The bottom line here is that the Brewers made wonderful strides in bringing people to the park. They have created a love affair with the city of Milwaukee. But Macha isn't inspiring the product to keep those people in the seats. The team seems directionally challenged and they need a change. Any change wouldn't matter for this season, but a positive change for the rest of the season could at least make this year's product entertaining for the remainder of the season and give hope for next year.