Our NL Central man-about-town, Pat Lackey, has long voiced every baseball fan's collective wonder: Just how in the name of everything holy is Eric Gagne still closing baseball games? It's been clear for over a year that the man is not the Eric Gagne of old, but Brewers manager Ned Yost seems to be the only one not paying attention. Four or five blown saves later, and Yost still won't take the man out of the ninth inning spot. So guess what? Eric Gagne did it himself:
"I don't sit here and make decisions five minutes after a tough loss," Yost said after watching Gagne saddle the Brewers with a defeat that never should have happened.Ah, embarassing indeed, but who should be more embarassed? Gagne, whose tools are just clearly not there anymore? Or Yost, whose tools are supposed to involve proper decision-making and talent management? Who's done a worse job?
Minutes later, Gagne took his manager completely off the hook with a pronouncement that was evident to anybody who has watched his work of late. "I don't deserve that ninth inning right now. It's very simple," said Gagne, who surrendered two ninth-inning runs that allowed St. Louis to pull out a 5-3 victory at Miller Park. "It's embarrassing."
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. The Brewers were complete morons to pay GAG-Ne $10 million to close games for them. Did the Milwaukee front office miss the fact that this guy didn't have a single clean outing for the Red Sox at the end of last season and single-handedly lost 4 games for Boston? Hello? The guy is an out of shape has been who needs to go back to Canada.
Posted at 2:13PM on May 11th 2008 by G. Know
2. Give the Brewers *some* credit on this one. At least they only signed him for a year. Previous management (I'm looking at you, Seligs) would have signed him to a multi-million/multi-year contract and paid the price for years.
Posted at 4:03PM on May 11th 2008 by thecrisper
3. #1 get rid of general manager for the bone head descision to sign Gagne and not making a extra effort to sign cordaro, at least they knew what they had in him. I said all 2nd half of last year that for a former catcher, Yost still can't tell when a pitcher is not on it or tired. Should have dumped him last year. I still feel with way this team is being managed, Yost should be gone by memorial day, would eat the 10 million and cut Gagne, create roster spot for someone who can pitch, and seriously start looking for a new baseball general manager before these two destroy the foundation this team has built and is chipping away.
Posted at 7:36PM on May 11th 2008 by Ron
4. The reason my Brewers took a shot at Gagne is because he was great as a closer for Texas. His numbers for Texas weren't far from his Dodger numbers in his prime. Especially when you consider Texas is much more a hitters' park, and he had to face DH's in the AL (he would face pinch-hitters as an NL closer, but those still can't compare to DH's)
Having a pitcher be a closer is such a crapshoot. Turnbow's stuff was incredible for over a year as a closer, but he couldn't keep it together. And people forget that Cordero had pitched his way out of Texas' closing job; that's how the Brewers got him in a trade in the first place. The Brewers passed on a four-year megadeal for Cordero (who's awesome but has walked 10 in 14 IP) to take a one-year risk. It hasn't worked out, so they'll just move on.
Posted at 11:22PM on May 11th 2008 by Tman
5. The reason Gag Me can't close anymore is he doesn't have a Rajah juice shot in his Canuck butt.
Worthless bum can't do it without roids.
Brewers are stupid for any money they offered this overstuffed turkey. He couldn't do a thing last year with the World Champ Red Sox.
Posted at 12:47PM on May 12th 2008 by bigflyer