Welcometo the On Deck Circle, Brewers writer Kyle Lobner’s weekly preview of the team’sweek to come and beyond.

Before I get started here, let me level with you for a moment: This isn’t thestory I intended to post today. I was hoping to interview someone who coversthe Cubs, as the Brewers and Cubs meet at Wrigley for the first time in 2016 onTuesday. Those plans fell through. That’s frustrating.

Speaking of frustrating, I was at Sunday’s game to seeWily Peralta in what is quickly becoming a disappointing start to his season.In the best of his five appearances to date, Peralta allowed four runs (threeearned with a fourth unearned run due to his own throwing error) over sixinnings, including two runs on back-to-back two out doubles in his final inningof work after his teammates had come from behind to tie the game. Peralta wascredited with the win, his first of the season, because the offense put up asix-run sixth after he was out of the game. Early in that outing, longtimeBrewers blogger Jason Dondlinger posted the following:

Wily Peralta is a top 5 all-time most frustrating #Brewers player to watch.

— JD (@IgnitorKid) April 24, 2016

I find myself inclined to respectfully disagree.While your opinions may vary, here are five Brewers from recent years that I’vefound to be noticeably more frustrating than Peralta:

CoreyHart

Corey Hart played nine seasons in Milwaukee, but hisBrewers legacy may be best defined in a single moment. On October 2, 2008, theBrewers had Phillies starter Brett Myers on the ropes in the top of the firstinning. Hart came to the plate with the bases loaded against a pitcher who hadthrown just seven strikes in his first 20 pitches, and had just walked J.J.Hardy with the bases loaded to drive in the game’s first run. Hart swung at thefirst pitch and grounded weakly back to the mound, starting the double playthat took Myers off the hook. The Brewers lost that game 5-2.

Bad plate discipline wasn’t the only cause forfrustration with Hart, of course. There was also the time the Brewers found hisvision to be below 20/20 and he opted not to wear any corrective lenses, thetime he criticized the Miller Park fans for booing during the Brewers’ poorperformance, and the offseason workout-related injury that cost him the entire2013 season, his final in the organization.

MannyParra

Several years before the Brewers expected WilyPeralta to take that next step forward and become a frontline starting pitcher,Manny Parra was on the same trajectory. He was a household name for many Brewerfans even before making his major league debut, at least partially due to theperfect game he threw for AAA Nashville about a month before getting his firstcallup in 2007. Both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus listed him as oneof the game’s top 100 prospects heading into the 2008 season.

Unfortunately, the inability to consistently throwstrikes was Parra’s undoing. Among the 33 pitchers in franchise history tothrow at least 500 innings, Parra ranks dead last with 4.6 walks per nineinnings and no one else has more than four. His career 5.12 ERA in Milwaukee isalso the worst on that list. Parra’s potential was enough to keep him in thebig leagues for a long time (eight years and counting), but as a Brewer hisresults simply never followed.

YovaniGallardo

Listing Gallardo next to Manny Parra really isn’tentirely fair, because their careers really aren’t comparable. Gallardo wasbetter than Parra (and to be honest, nearly every other Brewers pitcher in theMiller Park Era) in nearly every way. The issue with Gallardo is that it alwaysseemed like he was on the cusp of being so much more.

Despite results that look impressive on paper (sixconsecutive seasons with 30 or more starts, with an ERA under four in five ofthem), Gallardo always seemed to be laboring when he should have beendominating. His Achilles heel was an inability to put hitters away: He had aknack for turning 0-2 counts into a 3-2 counts, wasting pitches and beingforced to exit games early as a result. That’s a challenge that followed him toTexas in 2015, where he made 33 starts with a 3.42 ERA but averaged just 5 2/3innings per appearance.

RickieWeeks

Despite arguably being rushed to the big leagues (hewas still only 22 when he became an MLB regular in 2005), Rickie Weeks was aserviceable to good major league second baseman for a long time. He just neverquite seemed to advance beyond that point or become as great as many felt hecould be.

Weeks faced very high expectations from the firstday of his professional career, entering the organization as the #2 overallpick in the 2003 draft and making his MLB debut after just 21 minor leaguegames. The pressure to meet expectations was renewed again when the Brewersbought high and signed Weeks to a four-year, $38.5 million contract extensionin 2011. Those expectations magnified every swing and miss, every ball that clankedoff Weeks’ below-average glove at second base and every prolonged slump, ofwhich there were quite a few.

YunieskyBetancourt

The fact that Yuni appears on this list isn’tentirely his fault. Brewers management, both on the field and in the front office,has to take at least some of the blame for needing to see him play in 289 gamesover two separate stints with the team before they realized he was completelyovermatched at the major league level. As Joe Posnanski once wrote,Betancourt must tell the best jokes.

Posnanski chronicles Betancourt’s remarkable careerand ability to find and retain work despite consistently poor performancebetter and more thoroughly than I ever will, so follow the link above if you’dlike to marvel at it again. The only thing more amazing than Betancourt’sfutility in nearly every aspect of the game is the fact the Brewers elected tobring him back for a second stint in Milwaukee and allow his .240 on-basepercentage to play frequently at first base (a position vacated by Corey Hart’spreviously mentioned injury) in 2013.

Honorablementions

Four veteran pitchers who failed to live up to theirfree agent contracts are almost worthy of their own list: Jeff Suppan, RandyWolf, Kyle Lohse and now Matt Garza. Like Rickie Weeks, Bill Hall was probablyalso at least partially a victim of the expectations created by his bigcontract. Finally, Marco Estrada heads a list of players who struggled at timesduring their time as Brewers and rebounded elsewhere, leading fans to wonder ifthey might have saved their best work for the years after they left Milwaukee.