TimesFour

You want to read something ugly? This weekend the Brewers dropped their 11th game in their last 14 (starting September 1st) by getting swept by the Phillies this weekend. The Brewer bats continued their free-fall, being outscored 26-10 in the 4 game series with the Phillies. They have scored just 38 runs in those 14 September games- and making the situation worse, their pitching staff has started coming apart (75 runs allowed in that same period). Criticism of manager Ned Yost is

reaching a fever pitch, and you have to believe that owner Mark Attanasio is starting to listen.

The question to me is: where is the clubhouse leadership? Who on this team will step forward? Forgive me for being cynical, but Ryan Braun’s “complete disaster” comment after this weekend’s debacle is merely pointing out the obvious- they are tanking in September for the second consecutive season. Brewer fans are seeing the downtrodden expressions of the players, the frozen look of their manager in the dugout, and the silence of their ownership and front office- and at some point they are going to start wonder: why did we invest so much in this team? Financially, emotionally- the investment of the Wisconsin sports fan has been record-setting this summer. The message boards (including x4) and blogs have been steadily covering a team once an afterthought in the Wisconsin sports landscape to the Packers and Badgers. Yet the frustration continues to mount as their approach at the plate continues to fail, their pitching staff is either getting shelled out of the gate or the bullpen can’t hold a lead, and the players start to blame the fans.

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