The season is over (the silver lining)

Note: I meant to post the following at The Wisconsin Sports Bar. Go there and read it with a virtual beer instead of here.
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Well, at least the Gwynn family had a nice day today. Tony Gwynn Jr. got his first hit 24 years to the day that pops got his first big league hit.

Sorry, that's about all I got for silver linings.

The talent on this team has improved, despite what we are seeing on the field. The attitude of the team has also changed, as evidenced by their ability to fight and claw their way back in games, particularly at home. Those were two huge mountains they needed to get over to get back to winning ways.

Unfortunately, some other things that winning teams do, and that they don't, haven't changed. The defense is atrocious. We can attribute a little bit of that to young players, but the entire team has a problem with it. Even Jenks, who at one time in his career had been a very, very good defensive outfielder. Winning teams don't play defense like the Brewers do. Playoff teams certainly don't.

They are also still prone to making stupid baseball decisions. Just look at last night's game. Bill Hall got picked off by a mile, and Weeks got thrown out by a mile going from first to third on a ball that he never held up on to see if it would be caught first-not that it mattered, he'd have been dead as a duck either way. Stupid decisions on young teams can be overcome with experience, but the Brewers have to be careful to ensure that these guys get smarter out there. Stupidity on the diamond can infect teams. The most irritating thing about the poor decision making is that there is absolutely no excuse for it. Most of the these guys have been playing baseball since they were about 8 years old. If you haven't figured out how to play smart in that amount of time, you're just lazy.

Finally, the Brewers' habit of relying on Mike Maddux to work miracles for them is finally backfiring. Maddux is a hell of a coach and a minor miracle worker, but even a miracle worker can only do so much with the guys he has. I wouldn't give you a nickle for for all of the heads in the bullpen. Also, I haven't really wanted to say this because so many have pinned their hopes to the return of Sheets and Ohka, but let's remember that we have no idea what we're going to get out of Sheets for the remainder of the year. I don't expect ace stuff, that's for sure. Ohka may be the more significant return because he at least adds some consistency to the rotation. And that's provided his rotator cuff holds up.

I look forward to some exciting moments in this season yet, but I just can't see how the playoffs will be in the cards. Yost had best use this time to iron out some of the kinks in this team, because next year there will be tremendous pressure on them to compete for a post-season spot.