Did Prince hate Yost?

The Brewers won tonight. I try to shy away from the cliche "must win" phrase, but when both the Phils and Mets etched Ws earlier in the day, tonight was truthfully a must win. Finally, the Brewers got it done, although it took another outing when the team had to at it without Ben Sheets when he's needed most. His dentist called me and he's out with gingivitis for awhile. He should be ok.

We've been pretty critical of Prince at the BTB (but what blogs haven't been?) and it got me thinking, did Yost pile unnecessary pressure on the big boy? He started to come out of his slump in Philly, but has flat out taken it to the Cubs. He's historically hit really well at Wrigley, but he's looking like a left handed Albert Pujols, not a .270 power hitter with no wheels.

The guy obviously has some anger issues, as it's not an everyday or every season occurrence to witness a guy toss a starting pitcher around. I can't help but wonder if Yost told Prince that he was the leader of this team, he could carry the team, etc., etc.

It's theorizing for sure and I'm basing it off an extremely small sample size (two games), but the fact is, Prince has yet to truly carry this team in 2008 and maybe that was because Ned was expecting him to and the pressure of Ned's wound too tight attitude made the big fella press too hard. Hardy, Braun and Cameron have all carried the team at different times this season and aside from one stretch when Prince homered in five straight games, Brew Crew fans have been waiting for him to REALLY heat up like he did at times last season.

If some pressure weight that Ned had placed on his broad shoulders has been lifted, look for Braun to start seeing some fat meatballs soon. No matter what is going on with Prince, maybe it's just the law of averages, he was bound to snap out of his funk at some point, here's hoping it sustains for another two weeks.