What should the Brewers do now?

Cincinnati	25	19	.568	-	13-8	12-11	171	163
St. Louis	25	20	.556	.5	12-9	13-11	240	176
Houston	21	23	.477	4	16-10	5-13	182	170
Pittsburgh	20	24	.455	5	11-10	9-14	126	160
Milwaukee	18	26	.409	7	11-13	7-13	191	220
Chicago Cubs	15	29	.341	10	9-15	6-14	155	201

Obviously things are not getting any better for the Brewers so the question becomes:

Is it time to rebuild or do we still have enough talent to retool and make a run in 2013?

Ryan Braun is under contract for years yet so I say RETOOL, give Zack Greinke a long term deal NOW, it will cost a lot but without him the Brewers will not be able to contend in 2013!

My advise for Brewer fans!

Normally a record of 15-20 just 35 games into the season does not mean you are out of it. There are still 127 games remaining, that is 78% of the season! The problem is that Milwaukee has already lost 3 of the key players for the season due to injury and our new 3B Aramis Ramirez was a huge waste of money. It looks like 2B Rickie Weeks will never live up to his potential and worse yet, his best days might already be behind him. What do we have, really, as far as stars? Ryan Braun and Zack Grienke, and that's it! Maybe Jonathan LuCroy is on his way but does anyone else on this team excite you? Argue for Yo if you want, or Corey Hart but I don't see them at the same level.

Manager Ron Roenicke does not appear to be the right guy to lead this team. Not only did he totally get out-managed in the NLCS last season but he has failed to react quick enough to what has been happening. He has started to tweek the lineup a little but my god, he still has Aramis Ramirez hitting cleanup. This makes no sense. Don't keep guys who are not producing in production spots in the lineup, no matter how much they make. That is my opinion anyway.

Any expectations of playoffs this season need to be put to rest right now. They simply don't have what it takes. Doug Melvin will not be adding any more expensive players to this team. They need to have some cash to go into the off-season with a chance to re-load again while there is still some talent here. Even if later this season they do jell into a team with good chemistry and get hot a few times, it's a .500 season at best. If this team is not going to get better then what should we do?
Here is my advise:

I say watch just to watch and enjoy baseball and root for your team. Enjoy watching Ryan Braun continue his remarkable career. Support the team, enjoy the Miller Park experience when you are at the game but don't take the losses hard and celebrate the wins, every wins, even wins over bad teams like the Twins or the Cubs because we are not much better.
Take the pressure off of the players and yourself. Drink a few and have fun!

Injuries will be blamed for this poor Brewer season but...

remember...something was wrong with this team before the injuries became so devastating. See the previous post if you need a reminder of how bad it already was before Gomez and Gonzalez went down!

What is wrong with the Brewers? (5 players to blame)

When a team starts 11-14 it is never just one thing. Yes we do miss Prince Fielder but I need to place most of the blame on the the pitching. Yovani Gallardo has been the ace of this staff for years now and we are still waiting for him to reach potential. Up until this season he was progressing okay but I always felt like once we acquired Zack Greinke, Zack should be considered the #1 guy.
Yo is 1-3 with a 5.79 ERA...the only way to describe this is TERRIBLE.
Zack is 3-1 with a 3.94 ERA...also not as good as expected but still unbeaten in Miller Park.
Randy Wolf is 2-2 with a 6.84 ERA...he has not been worth his contract.
Shaun Marcum is 1-1 with a 3.19 ERA...he is better now than in the playoffs last season
Marco Estrada is 0-1 with a 3.71 ERA...solid in relief and now a starter because of a season ending injury to Chris Narveson...BIG LOSS... who is missed because the bullpen suffers from losing Estrada. I like Marco as a starter but the relief pitching has become a huge problem. part of this problems is because the starters are not able to go enough innings.

The bullpen overall has been HORRIBLE with the worst being K-Rod. Francisco Rodriguez came back to the Brewers this season because no team wanted him enough as a closer to give him the kind of contract he was looking for. Are his best years behind him?
Right now as the Brewers set up man he is 0-3 with a 6.57 ERA...he is second to Yo on my list of where the blame should fall.

John Axford is 0-1 with a 4.70 ERA...he is doing his job being 5 for 5 in save opportunities however.

Overall Brewer pitching is 11-14 with a 5.04 ERA. No offense can be expected to put up over 5 runs every night so the pitching is the biggest problem here. The Defense is still a problem as well but better than in past years so it can't be blamed for the poor start.

What about the hitting?

George Kottaras .304 with 3 HR and 9 RBI in limited action is the only bright spot.
Carlos Gomez .292 1/5...better than last season and I think he should be the regular CF
Ryan Braun .283 7/17...not what we expect but I am not worried about our biggest star.
Corey Hart .280 6/13...solid overall, we need him to become a .300 hitter
Jonathan LuCroy .279 2/8...just what we expect and need from him.
Norichika Aoki .269 1/2...he might be able to help us as he gets more playing time
Alex Gonzalez .263 4/14...this is what we expect and a little more
Mat Gamel .246 1/6...he was looking okay but is now out for the season...BIG LOSS
Aramis Ramirez .207 2/10...these are not clean up hitter numbers, he needs to get hot
Nyger Morgan .175 0/0...what happened to T. Plush, losing is not fun!
Travis Ishikawa .172 2/5...he will stay on club as he plays 1B but he is no answer.
Rickie Weeks .172 3/6...time to face it, he has become a solid second baseman but as a hitter, he will never be the star we hoped he would be.

Izturis .167 0/1...obviously the Brewers have a very weak bench.

Overall the Brewers are hitting just .229 with 32 HR and 98 RBI. The fact that we are 11-14 is actually hard to believe. These numbers look like a club than loses twice as often as they win.

Here are my top five under performers so far:

1. Yovani Gallardo
2. Francisco Rodriguez
3. Rickie Weeks
4. Nyger Morgan
5. A. Ramirez 

THINGS ARE MUCH WORSE THAN I THOUGHT!...all we can do is look for solutions. Manager Ron Roenicke really messed up in the playoffs last season but this lack of production can not be blamed totally on him. THE TIME IS NOW to do something about it. He has a lot of options here one month into a six month season sitting at 11-14 after 25 games with 137 games to go. There is plenty of time but is there enough talent? If things don't turn around I think Doug Melvin might be the one to go but maybe both of them. The question is...What lineup would you put out there given the options you have with this team. Please post comments with your plan.

Here is my plan:

First off, don't worry about any players feelings and bring up some other guys from the minors to replace the ones who continue to fail to produce off the bench. The five starters will stay the same for now but only Zack Greinke has a secure spot in the rotation. Gallardo is not going anywhere either but might need some rest and be later in the rotation. Only Ax is secure in the bullpen. Look to trade an outfielder and consider any offer for any player other than Braun. As far as the starting lineup I think a few things need to be tried here in May and I would start with dropping Aramis in the batting order and get Carlos Gomez and Norichika Aoki in the lineup every day and play more small ball:

1. Gomez CF
2. Aoki RF
3. Braun LF
4. Hart 1B
5. Gonzalez SS
6. LuCroy C
7. Ramirez 3B
8. Weeks 2B
9. Greinke P