Branyan still not in Milwaukee

Tom Haudricourt asked Ned Yost why the Brewers had not called up Russell Branyan yet.

His first answer makes a lot of sense.  Russell does not have any options left, so he would have to clear waivers if the Brewers tried to send him down to Triple-A again.  I agree with the reasoning there, except there is no reason to believe that Russell wouldn’t produce in a Brewers uniform.  That .368 average is a big cause for concern…

Then Ned proceeded to say that Russell is a left-handed Bill Hall.  This is where Ned lost me.  I understand that both strike out a lot (Hall has 44 Ks to Branyan’s 40 K), but that is only one comparable.  Branyan is outproducing Bill on every level, especially those important things like walks, average, and on-base percentage.  It’s a big difference too.  In fact, Russell’s .449 OBP is 150+ points higher than Hall’s .272 OBP.

I’m not saying that Branyan should take over Hall’s job at the hot corner.  I do believe, however, that a platoon should be implemented.  Billy’s .161 average against righties almost makes me want to cry.  Ned wants to have confidence in his players, but this is just stubbornness on his part.  He says that one player cannot turn an entire offense around.  True.  One player can make one position less than inept offensively though.

Ned is essentially saying that third base sucks right now, but so does short, second, and center.  Since they all are doing bad, there is no point in changing things at third base because it won’t change the other positions.  That’s just dumb.  A manager should take any opportunity to improve any position on the field that he can.  Not making the change because it won’t jumpstart the rest of the offense is just stubbornness…or stupidity.  I haven’t decided yet.