Eric Gagne enters the game for the Milwaukee Brewers in the eighth inning Monday against the New York Mets and struggles. He gives up a two-run home run and the Brewers lose the game.

Is this a recurring theme? No doubt about it.
I am simply a Brewers fan. I don’t see these guys play up close every day. But it’s astonishing that I as an outsider can see these things coming and team manager Ned Yost, a guy who does watch these guys play every day, can not.

I’ve never felt totally confident when the $10 million former closer enters the game. It was much the same feeling I had when Derrick Turnbow was inserted in the game in recent seasons. He’s had a history of giving up significant runs, why would you ignore that?

It’s a real simple strategy: Play the guys who produce, sit the ones who don’t. It’s about winning games at this critical juncture, not about playing guys just because you feel you owe it to them. Or in Gagne’s case, because he’s getting paid an inordinate amount of money and it’s being wasted with him sitting. It’s being wasted with him playing, too.

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