Matt LaFleur watching someone take accountability:
I’ll say this about Trevor Megill, he does always own up to his bad outings immediately afterwards. And he is BLUNT. “Dog sh–.” “We’d be in a better f—– place if it weren’t for me.” Okay, okay.
Now before we expound on Megill, I want to say about the season as a whole: CHILL. It’s bad right now. 6 game losing streaks are no fun. No, they are no fun for anyone. First time this has happened since 2023, first time it’s happened under Pat Murphy overall. But keep in mind, last season this team was 3 games under .500 heading into MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND. Then they set a franchise record with 97 wins. It’s April 15th. They’re 8-8. It’s a bummer that this is where they’re at after an 8-2 start, but I’m not punting the season into the sun because of a rough stretch of April baseball.
On Megill: You’ve got to remove him from the closer’s role for the time being. Last night was *TECHNICALLY* his first blown save, but he’s been a mess for about a week. And the most concerning thing to me isn’t even his location, his velocity, or the fact that he can’t land an off-speed pitch to save his life. It’s his body language. You could read it all over his face when he came in with that 4-3 lead last night. Guy looked as comfortable as my mom does when she’s riding shotgun and I’m driving on the interstate in Milwaukee. I know people are going to compare him to Derrick Turnbow (Trevor Turnbow does have a ring to it) because that’s always our fallback as a fanbase when the closer starts to lose it, but he literally looks like Derrick Turnbow at the moment. High-velocity guy who is extremely hittable when he’s not locating. And Turnbow had that same expression on his face anytime he’d come into a game when he started to go off of the rails in 2006. You knew it was a wrap before he even threw a pitch.
So give Uribe a shot, and get Megill to some lower leverage for a while. Hell, I’m not a huge fan of using ‘openers,’ but use him as an opener in some random Thursday afternoon game. That way if he pukes on himself you’ve got all game to try and make a comeback.
Related: Pat Murphy was NOT a fan of the crowd booing Megill last night:
The end of that clip made me laugh out loud as Murph became self aware. “That was in poor taste, but I’ve done things in poor taste too, so….” Look, this is the Barry Alveraz, “go boo at a bar” mentality. Coaches are NEVER going to support a fan base booing their players. And fans are ALWAYS going to boo when they’re paying hundreds of dollars to go to a game and million dollar athletes play the way the Brewers/Megill have been playing. Nothing to take personal on either side.
PS: What happens if we lose 12 in a row? Do we have to give those burgers back to George Webb that we got last season?
Double PS: The bats looked slightly better last night, but that has been a problem as well. Rengifo, Hamilton, Perkins, hell even Sal Frelick, they’re all blackholes right now. And if I never have to see Joey Ortiz his with the bases loaded again it will be too soon. Injuries are a big reason why the lineup looks the way it does, and eventually getting Yeli/Vaughn/Chourio back will fix that, but I wouldn’t hate calling up some of these young guys until that happens. At least they’d bring some energy.
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