Sep 08 2009
Patterson leads off….again
I know the Brewers are all but dead in the playoff race, but c’mon, Ken Macha, there’s no reason to have Corey Patterson lead off ballgames.
Mike Cameron, the usual center fielder, has missed the past several games with a strained hamstring, and he has said he will be out until Friday at the earliest. Jody Gerut should be the clear choice to play centerfield in Cameron’s absence, but Macha feels, for whatever reason, that Corey Patterson of all people is the man for the job.
This is the same Corey Patterson that has a career .695 OPS and is a liability in the outfield. He was once a can’t-miss prospect with the Cubs in the early 2000’s, but his high strikeout rate and inability to take a walk derailed his once-promising career.
Let me repeat that - Corey strikes out a ton and doesn’t walk at all - sounds like perfect leadoff material to me! Not.
I watch the Brewers intently, and until recently, I had absolutely no reason to dislike Macha as Brewers manager. Sure, his style of managing didn’t really fit the club - he refuses to let players try and steal bases and his laid back personality is probably a cause of the Brewers inability to hold a lead and put the clamp down at the end of games, but from a strategic standpoint, Macha has made all the right decision.
Even though the team isn’t playing for anything, you’d still like him to act like he cares. He’s passed on pinch-hitting late in games, still plays Kendall every day, and has given the aforementioned Patterson two consecutive starts in center field, with who knows how many more starts on the horizon.
He should be fired after the season. Macha is more suited to manage a team like the good Oakland teams he had earlier in the decade. He needs a veteran team that plays station to station baseball to be successful. Sorry, Ken, that’s not the Brewers.
