So, the Crew beat the Pirates again today, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first behind a red-hot lineup. The Brewers had another 13 hits today to follow up a 15-hit performance at Miller Park on Wednesday night, and this time, they drew five walks to boot. Zach Duke never had a chance. Weeks, Hardy, Mench, and Hart all had multiple-hit games, and, coincidentally, all had doubles. J.J. went yard for the second time this season. In yesterday’s game, Ned went with an all-righty lineup against the lefty Paul Maholm as Damian Miller got a start at 1B and Prince took the night off. Mench in LF, Hart in RF, Hall in CF. Today was the same OF, but Prince was back in, though Damian stuck around to catch and Estrada was given the day off. With another 3-4 game from the plate and a .405 season batting average, Kevin Mench has put his money where his mouth is. Corey Hart has 5 hits in the last two days and has been hitting the ball hard all season. Geoff Jenkins, who didn’t bat against Pittsburgh in the series, is second on the team with 3 HRs, and is batting .325. The Crew will face rookie RHP Matt Albers when the Astros come to town for a weekend series, and manager Ned Yost will have some decisions to make. Does Mench deserve a shot against a righty, as hot as he’s been, or has Jenkins proved that he needs to be in there against right-handers? Will Ned decide to do both and snub Corey Hart yet again, despite the fact that they stated before the season began that Corey would play everyday? It’s not like Sunglasses has been stinking up the joint. And what about Gabe Gross, who has a team high 1.027 OPS (on-base + slugging)? Surely Ned can’t ignore those numbers, either. As they say, this is a great problem to have. I think most Brewer fans expected to have the OF situation figured out by default by this time, but it looks like there’s no end to the carousel OF in sight. That they have five OF all mashing at the same time (heck, even Tony Gwynn Jr. is hitting) is pretty much the reason the team is 9-6 and in first place in the NL Central. And although I’d still stubbornly love to see Hall and Hart play everyday with Gross and Mench splitting time in LF and Jenkins on a plane to anywhere, I can’t really make an argument for doing things other than how Ned has done them (with the outfield, that is — the bullpen usage has been an utter idiotic disaster), at least until something break and someone starts sucking — or better yet, until someone makes a trade offer for Mench or Jenkins. Another decision the team will have to make is about ¡Gallardo!. With Claudio Vargas K-ing people all over the place, it’s be great if there was no need for Gallardo in the rotation, but I’d still be in favor of swapping out Greg Aquino or Carlos Villanueva, or even Elmer Dessens for ¡Gallardo! so that he can work big league innings on a regular basis. Doug Melvin has hinted that they’ve already decided when Yovani will come up, regardless of need, and that’s at the beginning of June. Finally, the Braun question. He’s got just one error, he’s going off at the plate (5 HR), and the Graffanino/Counsell platoon is more boring than a lecture about the origins of the zipper. I mean, it’s not a necessity at this point, but why wait for it to be a necessity? Let’s quit screwing around.
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