Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Kevin Cooney of Calkins Media put it bestIf you had June 3 in the “Bowa says something to cause a stir” pool, congratulations and pick up your winnings at the window.

After his team dropped four of five to the fat Mets, Larry Bowa decided that it was time to be Larry Bowa while talking to Tony Bruno and Harry Mayes today.

Transcriptions via Matt Gelb:

“It was pretty quiet,” Bowa said. “It should be. You have players here in the big leagues who aren’t playing like big leaguers. I understand; it’s a long season and there are periods of time when I played and things went bad. But we’re going into June. And there are some players right now who need to pick it up. There’s no question about that.”

“It’s not like we have a lot of options right now. We have Cody Asche out. We’re playing two kids; [Cesar] Hernandez had never played short in a big-league game before. He just started third. [Reid] Brignac came up as an extra man. Yet these guys have big-league uniforms on and they have to start playing better baseball.”

And then he turned on Domonic Brown, who continues to be nonchalant about his struggles:

“I don’t know how he does that because if it were me, I’d be going nuts right now,” Bowa said. “The big thing you have to be concerned about is take away a six-week period from the equation, and the numbers aren’t very good. He did most of his damage in those five or six weeks. He made the All-Star team. In fairness to him, he’s hit some balls hard lately, but he’s not playing the way he is capable of. I just think there’s more in there than that. Ryno’s playing him every game. I think we’re going to find out one way or another if this guy can play up here. That’s what you have to do. [Sandberg] has been pretty patient with him. We have to keep going and see what happens.”

Totally agree with everything Bowa said. But of course, this is what got him fired last time. There’s a weird mix of veterans and rookies on this team. Right now, it doesn’t seem like either group is taking to Sandberg’s new practice-heavy tactics. They probably weren’t too thrilled with the team meeting today. And they certainly won’t take well to Bowa ripping them on the radio. Fun times.

Audio here.