The Milwaukee Brewers have struggled in August, watching a two-game lead in the National League Central turn into a five-game deficit over the last three weeks.
Milwaukee is 3-5 in one-run games this month, but left-hander Eric Lauer thinks the clubhouse reaction to the Josh Hader trade has played a part in the skid.
\"It didn\'t send us the right message from the upstairs people trying to say, like, \'We\'re doing this and we\'re trying to put you guys in the best position and we\'re trying to win right now with you guys,\'\" Lauer said. \"It seemed more of a, \'We\'re trying to develop for the future.\'\"
The Brewers traded Hader to the San Diego Padres for a handful of players.
\"I personally wasn\'t a huge fan of the way they described it to the public,\" Lauer added. \"I\'m not trying to just get a bunch of bites of the apple. Especially if things are going the way they are, the way the Brewers have historically traded [before] paying guys. I don\'t know how many bites of the apple we can take in the next few years. We\'re not going to be able to afford a lot of guys in this room.\"
