yost [yohst] -verb, yosted, yosting to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Oh, to be a Reds fan. I'd have all kinds of vitriol to heap on the manager, then. I don't even know how this guy continues to get work. The stupid, it burns.

With the Reds trailing by one run in the ninth inning Saturday, Adam Dunn's initial intention with runners on first and second and one out was to bunt his teammates into scoring position. After two unsuccessful sacrifice attempts, a frustrated Dunn chose to swing away.

Fortunately, those bunt attempts drew in the infield, allowing his home run to clear the fence and end the game.

At the very least, Ned understands the concept of BABIP, which for Rickie is an obscenely low .200 this season.

"His walk-to-strikeout ratio (23 to 30) is so much better than it's ever been. He's hitting in very bad luck. The low percentage of balls put in play being hits says that he's hitting in bad luck."

What Yost won't say on the record is that he has so many hitters in prolonged skids, changing one spot is like trying to plug a leaking dam with your finger.

"The worse thing you can do, especially with no viable options, is flopping guys around," he said. "It disrupts everything. Guys start looking over their shoulder.

It's pretty interesting that he also mentions he has no other options. That isn't exactly the case, as someone pointed out to me yesterday that Kendall would be a decent option in the leadoff spot. I'm convinced that Rickie will have a better season than Kendall when all is said and done, so I'm not really on board with that switch, but I can agree that Kendall would be a decent leadoff man. Especially since the Brewers don't steal, anyway.

I think I'm going to post this link periodically, until Ned is shown the door. You know, because it demonstrates his command of simple mathematics and probability.

If Chicago merely splits its remaining four games, the Brewers would have to sweep a four-game series from playoff-contender San Diego just to tie for first and force a one-game showdown Monday at Wrigley Field.

"We still have math on our side," insisted Brewers manager Ned Yost.

Ah, memories.

Shouse Tracker is at 10-11. Contrary to overwhelming opinion in the comments, I don't think any game has been a Yosting this year. In the offseason, we talked about how Melvin was Yost-proofing the lineup, and as a result Yost pretty much has a pat lineup to work with.

Yost also has an awful bullpen, which I think was mentioned several times in the offseason. As we've seen, replacing Gagne with one of the other weak options from the pen doesn't actually help the team, since even Gagne is better than the sorry lot of Brewers relievers.

So, while I enjoy imagining myself in a bar surrounded by people complaining for the sake of complaining, I can't get behind that. Yost hasn't had an opportunity to screw up the team this year.

And, seriously, I thought the idiocy of calling to replace Weeks in the lineup spot would have ended with the disastrous Cameron experiment. No one actually likes a guy who works the count and walks a lot in the leadoff spot? Here's the quick difference between Corey Hart and Rickie Weeks:

Runs: 31-17, advantage Rickie
Hits: 45-29, advantage Hart
Walks: 23-10, advantage Rickie
Strikeouts: 30-26, advantage Hart
RBI: 19-13, advantage Hart

You want to move Hart out of an RBI spot, and Weeks out of a run-scoring spot? Or, perhaps some people would like to see Cameron go to the bench (not gonna happen), and Gwynn start in center. In that case, the best place for Gwynn to bat is the second spot, so someone can put contact on the ball with Rickie on base. (Side note: Does anyone else remember how Cameron was going to see a lot of pitches so Rickie could steal? Yeah, well....the Brewers don't steal. That was a lame justification at the time)

Here's a fun game. Try to think back through Melvin's tenure as GM and come up with good pitchers that were acquired through trade or free agency. I came up with Cordero. How is any manager going to win in a situation when the GM absolutely fails to provide him with quality pitching?

Gagne is sure a quick healer.

Yost announced Sunday he was temporarily removing Gagne as closer to give him a mental break after a series of failures. Gagne has five blown saves, a 6.89 ERA, 1.85 WHIP (walks and hits per inning) and most recently surrendered two runs in the ninth Saturday that allowed St. Louis to win, 5-3.

"I had my mental break (Sunday)," said Gagne. "I'm good to go now.

I have a feeling that Gagne was tired of answering questions on Saturday, and tried to play the honorable teammate by saying he wasn't worthy of the closer role. Then, Ned shocked him by actually taking it away. Then, Gagne looked around and thought to himself, "Lose my job to these guys? Inconceivable!"

So, that was a fun little drama they worked up for our benefit, but it sure looks like the job is Gagne's to throw away (see what I did there? ha, I kill me).

On a more serious note, I wonder if this is one of the takeaways from today's routine "meeting to discuss the team."

Hi Kiddos!

Generally speaking, I am not a big fan of bunting or the hit and run, trading bases for outs often is a losing proposition.

Here are my thoughts on the botched attempt last night.

#1.) You can't blame mosquitoes -- too early in the year.

#2.) You can't blame Bill Hall, he was standing next to Sveum, there is no way Bill Hall to miss a signal, as there is no signal to give -- Sveum just tells Hall to run.

#3.) You can't blame Dale Sveum. I know it has become en vogue in Milwaukee to run through Dale's stop signs, but it looks like he got the signs correct from the dugout.

#4.) You can blame Jason Kendall for missing the sign. I am not sure why he did, but he certainly didn't do what he was supposed to.

#5.) You can blame Ned Yost for not understanding the game situation -- Here is a recap of the game situation before Yost called for the squeeze

a.) Ron Villone enters the game in the bottom of the Eighth.
b.) Fielder hits a HR
c.) Russ Springer replaces Villone (Springer 7.50 ERA 7BBs/7IP)
d.) Hart flies out to center
e.) Hall BBs on 4 pitches.
f.) Hardy gets an IF single
g.) Dillon BBs on 5 pitches.
h.) On the first pitch to Kendall, Hall is caught stealing home.

Essentially you have a pitcher that is struggling, walking 2 batters on 9 pitches, and a professional batter in Kendall that is certainly able to take a walk -- squeezing without seeing a pitch.

#6.) You can blame Ned Yost for not understanding the run expectation of the situation.

Run expectation.

For bases loaded and 1 out, the "Runs Expectation" is about 1.66, if the squeeze fails (2nd, 3rd 2 outs) the Expectation falls to about .612. If Kendall strikes out or pops up, i.e. bases loaded 2 outs the Run Expectation is .785. Therefore putting on the squeeze in last night's situation reduced our chances of scoring runs. I am sure someone is wondering about the DP...

#7.) You can blame Ned Yost for overestimating the chance Kendall hits into a DP. -- Anytime a runner is on first base, and there are less than 2 outs, hitting into a DP is a very real possibility FOR ANY BATTER. Kendall has hit into a grand total of 0 DPs this year. Last year, over 200 major leaguers hit into more DPs than Kendall, so I think the likelihood that Kendall hits into a DP (especially against Springer) is entirely overstated (Kendall's GO/AO has trended downward as well). Also, if it was a foregone conclusion to Yost that Kendall was going to hit into a DP, why not PH him? Furthermore Kendall has decent wheels, and the IF was playing in -- a DP was unlikely.

#8.) You can blame Yost for playing for one run, when everyone knows our BP has been whoring up runs pretty regularly. -- As the old saying goes, you play for one run, you get one run. Getting 2 or 3 runs in last night would have given Gagne a little more cushion to work with, if you haven't noticed, Gagne has been struggling.

#9.) You can blame Yost for not having Kendall acknowledge the sign -- Most teams run competently have the batter signal back to the coach, that the squeeze is on for 2 reasons. First, the obvious reason is so you don't run your team out of the inning. Secondly, if Kendall swings away he could kill the runner coming down the 3rd base line. Make all the jokes you want about Hall's recent lack of production, no one needs to see him taking a line drive at point blank range.

#10.) You can blame Yost for failing to properly understand his team's ability to execute -- No one seems to pay attention to Dale Sveum, players run through his stop signs continually and the team makes a lot of blunders at the plate and on the field. Yost does not seem to understand, that the Brewers are not exactly the tightest ran team in MLB right now, and calling a play like the squeeze was probably doomed from word go. Perhaps a struggling team should get back to and stick to the basics.

At the end of the day, I think Yost wanted to show everyone how smart he was, perhaps even smarter than Tony LaRussa, and I think he outmaneuvered his team out of a win.

If Freddie Mercury was still with us, maybe he'd tell Ned this...

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