6-4...No time to panic, folks

By: Big Rygg

There are plenty of people around MIlwaukee and in the Brewer Nation that are worried about this team's "slow start".

The last time I checked, ladies and gentlemen, 6-4 is not a terrible position to be in; it's not even a bad position to be in. There are 11 teams in the National League that are looking up at the Brewers in the standings (12 if you count the head-to-head tie-breaker we currently have over the Scrubs). Out of 16 teams, that's not bad air that we're breathing.

And you know what the real silver lining to this whole situation is? According to Manager Ned Yost, nobody on our team can be considered "hot" right now. I don't know that that's entirely true. Afterall, Jason Kendall is still batting .483, Gabe Kapler is still at .389 and Ben Sheets is pitching lights out so far (knock on wood) with 15.1 IP, 15 K and exactly 0 R. Nobody else with any significant amount of at-bats is hitting .300 let alone over it (Corey Hart is the highest at a stellar .257).

Of note, Prince FIelder (2007: .288, 50 HR, 119 RBI) is hitting .243 with 0 HR and only 6 RBI. Ryan Braun (2007: .324, 34 HR, 97 RBI) is hitting .227. Yes, he's got 3 HR, but he's got exactly no walks...that means his on-base percentage is only .227, that's not a good number.

Dave Bush is 0-2 in two rough starts, Carlos Villanueva and Manny Parra have each had a rough inning and each have a loss to show for them as well.

But, despite all of these problems and all of the slow starts, the Milwaukee Brewers would play a one-game playoff with the Chicago Scrubs for the NL Wild Card if the season ended today.

If you can't see the silver lining in that, then let me spell it out a little more clearly...

Our best hitters are struggling. Our pitching staff isn't pitching as well as they can. We don't have our starting center fielder or our #3 starting pitcher right now. We don't even have our backup CF right now.

Basically, everybody is scuffling at the same time. Just wait until everyone starts firing on all cylinders together. There could be some stretches this year of some pretty special play.

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What do you guys think, Brewer Nation? Is there any cause for panic here? Do you think this team is pressing at all? I think that a reason they might be pressing is that for all of his positive locker room influence and presence, Prince Fielder's personal offensive woes and attitude about them (not an unfounded attitude by any means) are rubbing off on everyone else. Prince either needs to snap out his emotional funk a little bit, or just hit a damn dinger already! Everything will fall into place from there on out, in my opinion.