When Brewers fans talk about their favorite team these days, many do so through clenched teeth.

That's understandable.

A 6-3 victory over Los Angeles Monday afternoon at Miller Park snapped the Brewers' losing streak at 10 games. In addition to vanquishing the team's meager post-season hopes and the chance for the team's first winning season since 1992, the skid riled up a lot of fans.

The natives are getting a restless. They want answers. They want accountability. They want a guarantee that this won't happen again. They want someone's head on a platter. They're howling for manager Ned Yost to be fired. Or, hitting coach Butch Wynegar. Those fish aren't big enough for some fans, though. They want to blame general manager Doug Melvin for putting this group together or owner Mark Attanasio for not giving Melvin a bigger payroll with which to work.

Here is a bit of breaking news: Attanasio isn't going anywhere. Neither is Melvin. If the Brewers don't lose EVERY game the rest of the way, Yost will be back, too.

In the next few days, you're going to hear a lot of people dumping on the Brewers. (Beginning Sunday, most of them will turn their attention to the Packers). Some of the criticism will be provocative, reasonable, biting and valid. The other 95% will be complete and utter crap. To help you differentiate the two, we offer our take on some of the more common talking points emanating from barrooms and Barcaloungers. We'll start with the big one:

Yost has got to go.

No matter how many injuries a team suffers or how many players underperform, managers are always in the cross hairs when things go bad. It's part of the job. Yost certainly has made some questionable moves this season. So have Joe Torre, Jim Leyland, Tony La Russa, Willie Randolph, Jerry Narron and every other manager in the game. The difference is in how the teams perform and how the performance is perceived by the public.

When the Marlins lost 31 of their first 42 games, rookie manager Joe Girardi was given a pass because most people figured he had been dealt a team of young inexperienced players. Now that the Marlins have crawled back to .500 (with a gigantic assist from the Brewers), Girardi is being hailed as genius and a bona fide manager of the year candidate.

A year ago, Yost got some notice in manager of the year polling. Today, many fans want him fired. That's life in the big leagues. Many people in Milwaukee think that Yost took a team that was on the brink of the wild-card race heading into mid-August and screwed it up. Outside Milwaukee, a lot of people are complimenting Yost for holding things together as long as he did.

Forget the injuries for a moment and look at the numbers. The Brewers rank 15th in the National League in team offense, 15th in team pitching and 13th in team defense. Based on Bill James' Pythagorean theorem for figuring out a team's expected record (Runs scored [squared] / (Runs scored [squared] + runs allowed [squared]) the Brewers should have a record of 59-78.

I'm not suggesting that the 2006 Brewers have overachieved in anyway, but does anything in those numbers scream "postseason contender" to you?

Yost has made his share of strategic missteps this year, but the circumstances don't seem to warrant a pink slip. Not yet, anyway.

(Note: To the bloodthirsty masses, a local writer who expresses this opinion is labeled a "homer," "apologist," "shill" or simply a "coward who is too gutless to tell it like it is." A national writer or broadcaster (Buster Olney, Jayson Stark, Jerry Crasnick, etc) is simply dismissed as being distant and "not really knowing enough about the situation.")

Save those e-mails, folks. And, while you're at it, save the notes about Yost "not showing emotion in the dugout" and "not being able to motivate his players." We heard that about Ray Rhodes, Terry Porter, Davey Lopes, Mike Sherman and every other unsuccessful coach that has passed through these parts. Yost takes losses as hard as any manager in the game, but he keeps his composure on the bench and in media interviews. That's an asset, not a liability.

For all of the "Fire Yost" people, we ask: would any other manager have done better with this group, given the payroll, slumps and injuries?

The Brewers are using injuries as an excuse.

Actually, they're not. Reasonable people certainly may point to injuries as an explanation for what has happened, but Doug Melvin and Ned Yost really haven't done any whining about it. Why should they, really? They've only lost their ace and No. 4 starter for half the season, their starting third baseman, shortstop and second baseman and their top setup guy. Oh, and they traded one all-star corner outfielder and saw another play his way out of everyday duty.

Last week, Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Haudricourt asked Yost about the injuries. The manager's reply: "I don't feel pity about that. You have to be able to adjust and move forward, with whatever you have. My mind-set has always been that I don't cry about what I don't have. I just try to do the best with what I've got."

Yep, sounds like an excuse to me.

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Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by OMCreader on Sept. 5, 2006 at 2:20 p.m. (report)

eaglescout said: mary, i'm curious. how does your reasoning explain road losses? if what you say is true, and you're reasoning seems sound, wouldn't the poor fielding be hurting them at home as well?

Posted by OMCreader on Sept. 5, 2006 at 1:43 p.m. (report)

Jon D. said: I would certainly hope the Brewers would not make the mistake of removing Yost. People who are quick to criticize need to step back and see this team for what it is at the moment. Injuries and gap filling trades have made it slow up the middle. Only Bill Hall and maybe Corey Hart have any sort of speed to steal bases. Yost can't bat Hall leadoff because he is strikeout prone and hits for power, which make him more valuable as 3rd 4th or 5th place hitter. Trading Rickie Weeks (speed & power) for Tony Graffanino (steady) is a definite downgrade. David Bell is only adequate at 3rd but so is the outfield. You want power at the corners but the Brewers only have it at first and shortstop. When the season started the consensus was this team was 1 year away. We need to get the kids back in the lineup, move Hall to 3rd permanently and put power back into the outfield in right and left. Then Yost will look like a genius as we're pulling away with a division title.

Posted by OMCreader on Sept. 5, 2006 at 10:45 a.m. (report)

Daddy said: What is there to debate about - they stink as usual! Losing Lee was major but even with him they were still not playoff caliber. They need one more quality pitcher and they need somebody to fill Lee's void.

Posted by OMCreader on Sept. 4, 2006 at 1:49 p.m. (report)

Mary Simon said: My theory on why the Brewers are terrible on the road is the overall bad defense on the club. I'm not talking about errors. I'm talking about the lack of range in the infield and, especially, in the outfield. Baseballs that would be caught by outfielders with better range turn into hits or extra base hits when we can't cut off singles in the power alleys. Solution #1 for the offseason. Sign or trade for a center fielder who can cover a tremendous amount of ground and can protect our left and right fielders. Mike Cameron or Torii Hunter come to mind.

Posted by OMCreader on Sept. 4, 2006 at 11:54 a.m. (report)

steve said: The photo cracks me up. There is no way I'm getting that close to another humans face if I'm not going to kiss it.