huntsvillefan

they do know this is the Brewers' eighth season in Huntsville, right? I love you guys and this site http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif But the answer to that question is no, nor do they care much (the majority of atendees anyhow). I was considerably more surprized that Tejada, Chavez and Hudson didn't get a mention in that commercial than I was about Weeks or Fielder. Sheets is the only Brewer who played for the Stars who might produce a vague glimmer of recognition, in the type of person that commercial was aimed at and even he doesn't get that much exposure outside specialist baseball shows. Unless Minor League clubs are affiliated to the Sox, Yankees, Cubs, Cards or Braves(especially the Braves in the South), there really isn't any point in them advertising their affiliation. Most casual visitors don't care and those of us who do care would attend even if we were affiliated to Kansas. If Weeks and Fielder achieve the status of Tejada and Chavez, they might eventually make the commercial - but not before it, just by virtue of being a Brewer. If Kenny Ray makes it with the Braves, he'll be the first Brewer ever in a Huntsville commercial, that would be HUGE here. Having said all that, they were truly awful commercials and Benny and Co aren't missing much by not being in them. (I also wonder if there may just be a financial reason why they didn't use any current MLB players)

Watching Dillard and Villanueva, much more pleasurable than it was last week. A simply wonderful weekend of baseball in Huntsville. Even last night's loss had the plus of wonderful weather and an insight into what Carlos really has to offer. Some amazing outfield D today from Moss & Bibbs. I'm almost afraid to jinx it , but this team could be a lot of fun to watch. Interesting piece of info on the radio, is that the organizational philosophy of patience at the plate seems to have reached Huntsville, who, despite a woeful OPS are second in the league in walks.

Kremblas has Mark Johnson stealing bases I well remember the day he sent Brad Nelson to steal home and that was before he went on the Atkins plan. In 2004 he promised Prince 10 stolen bases and got him 11 (8 last year under him in AAA). It is his way of perpetuating his self image of being a crazy genius. But he did deliver a AAA championship to Nashville. I'm not sure it does any real harm and it may even do some good. HIs players all love him and that must say something. On a personal level, I always found Frank's teams too much about Frank and not enough about the players. It felt like he always had to be strutting his stuff as the master tactician rather than just letting the guys play. But Prince, Rickie, Corey & JJ all spent a fair bit of time under his management and they haven't turned out too badly. You pays your money & you takes your choice - but in Frank's case I'm actually pretty happy with Money.

Pretty pretty numbers from Carlos in a great win. He continues to look like an ace away from Joe Davis. Maybe I'm going to have to travel to one of his away games to see him in his pomp!

He has AAA stuff right now. I'm going to be ecstatic just to see some AA stuff out of him. The step from A to AA is a big one for a pitcher. I like control pitchers (Derek Lee - what Stars fan doesn't?), but I just wish he had an extra weapon somewhere in his arsenal. It is possible that replacement umps aren't ideal for a guy who wants to live on the margins - but the Umps in Huntsville last year were regulation issue. I'm a bit cheered to to hear what you say about Dillard, when I watched him his sinker/slider just wasn't sinking or sliding much. At least in that case I can assume that there is something that will improve in a major way.

I'm not going to get down on the Stars this early. There is a lot of season to go and Don Money has a lot of work to do. The highlight so far really was last night's pitching duel and I look forward to seeing some more of Corey Thurman. He and Lumsden had me entranced for 6 innings or so (though I do confess to wishing that Lumsden was ours). For the most part, Huntsville's offense is the same one that propelled Brevard County to a late season playoff push last year. Now I confess to not having followed my Brevard County as well as I should last year, but I think we've a bit more of a mixture than that. My guess is that our offense this year is going to be propelled by those guys who were brought in or those repeating AA. If they do well the team might just catch fire - if not, I think its going to be a loooooooooooooooong season. the pitching staff will keep them in a lot of games. A better rotation (and bullpen I think), found it difficult to keep a better offensive staff than this in too many games last year. Very small sample so far, but my biggest disappointment has been watching Dillard and Villanueva. It was very difficult to see what they had that might make them special eventually. Villanueva I watched last year too and I so wish he was a lefty. Having said that they both performed well in Mississippi (and if I recall correctly Villanueva did fine away from Huntsville last year), so I'm hoping that after they settle down they're going to surprize me. So far, apart from Thurman the pleasant surprize has been Ozzie Chavez. Looking like he can actually play SS, ranging deep and making a few excellent throws for outs. It would be wonderful to see him have a good season. Kennard Bibbs still looks the best defensive OF in the farm system including Gwynn, Moss & Krynzel. Apart from that the cupboard has been pretty bare. One small spark of interest for those of us with occasional delusions that psychology may actually have a small part in the game. Last night Callix Crabbe got furious over a safe call when he thought he had tagged the runner. He jumped up and down and waved Don Money onto the field like a particuarily demented New Yorker hailing a cab. A bit strange as if the call wasn't good it was certainly very close. Last year Crabbe would have been a lot more likely to just laugh it off. Maybe this year's team will have the 'eye of the tiger' http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif EDIT I just used your quotes to spark my thoughts Colby - I wasn't particuarily taking issue with them.

Cruz may actually get ab's at 3b when vinny is catching or pitching, or one of the other 20 things he does.. With two catchers already, I wonder how much catching time Vinny will actually get. I honestly don't see him cracking this position without playing there on a regular basis. In his short run for the stars last year he was absolutely brutal - not his fault, its a difficult position to learn. But it would seem impossible for him to learn it without reps and expert tuition - was all the post season talk of him playing catcher just talk?

No Vinnie at catcher? Does that mean he'll start as catcher in AAA? If they are serious about turning him into a catcher, they really do need to give him an extended run at it.

I've read a fair bit of tangotiger and enjoyed him and I like the dialogue that is generated by hardball times - the fact that you get responses to the theories. I think the amazing thing is how much information is readily available now compared to even 10 years ago. I was genuinely surprized that Fox could readily access the data he needed for that study. I'm still pretty suspicious of the Math in the final section that translates into games won and lost (even though it feels a very reasonable number to me). In that it feels to me that there are too many approximations bundled together to produce meaningful final numbers. But he has produced a stat that I'd love to have in front of me as I watched players over the course of a season.

Thanks, I'd want to read it a few more times and let it sink in, but on first reading its certainly a far better yardstick than runs scored. Its actually one of the more persuasive stat articles I've read recently and I'll be looking out for more by the same author.

Do they have anything at all to do with the individual player? The simple answer is yes. Anecdotal though this may be, some guys simply run the bases a lot better than others and are consequently easier to bring home once they get on. Of course runs scored are also a reflection of the batting line up behind the player and how they perform. Base running (& stealing) seems to be a lot like Defense, the number of variables involved seems to make it almost impossible to come up with a decent metric for performance comparison or even relative importance (compared to other skills). Until someone comes up with something better, looking at runs scored in conjunction with OBP & PA is about the only way of evaluating a base runner you haven't seen on a regular basis. (Remember to discount homeruns) Just how significant the skill of base-running is in the grand scheme of things is also anyone's guess. I think the data required is going to be too hard to gather, but it would be interesting to see if someone could even design a satisfactory 'thought experiment'

It would be interesting to see their 2005 projections, just to see how close they actually were to reality.

As for Rottino, I think his point was that he caught a lot early on, and rarely if ever after that (he said 20-something games). He felt it was because he was needed at other positions since they had two other competent catchers moreso than the Brewers deciding he couldn't catch. Possibly not, but they had two other catchers early on when he got to catch a lot, and they had plenty of guys to fill the other positions throughout the year. Effectively nothing changed except that Rottino just didn't start at catcher. I'm not questioning his impression, but the explanation as given just doesn't hang together.

Zuniga gets promoted, and he plays 3b. that's how it went I think if you care to check DHonks, you'll find that they more or less gave up on Vinnie catching on any regular basis, long begore Tony went to AAA. I'm not saying that he didn't improve, but if he did it was in ways not apparent to the casual observer. There was a radio interview in which Nicholls said that 'the Brewers knew he could play catcher' and I was a bit surprized when they just stopped playing him there except very rarely. He did look absolutely brutal behind the plate, but he was pretty much bound to be bad until he got a lot of experience. My only strong feeling on it was that it really wasn't fair to the pitchers development to have someone that inept behind the plate, but there really isn't any other way for him to learn and pitchers with even less experience than AA have to cope with learning catchers, so I assume its thought not to impact them too badly.

So you're blaming the Brewers for Eveland, Hardy, and Fielder complaining publicly? Yes - if it had only been one of them, you could assume that the guy was a loose cannon. When 3 guys make it this obvious publicly that they're unhappy over a decision, you've got a management communication problem. I'm not saying the players aren't to blame too, but good management would have found a way to handle this privately.

From my point of view one of the biggest botch ups, was showing an inability to manage young players effectively. While I thought the choices were peculiar, I can just about accept that the Brewers knew better than I who needed to go there. What I find difficult to accept is that they couldn't sort this out professionally and privately with a group of young players, rather than attract the ammount of public dissent that they did. Eveland, Hardy & Prince all publicly griping was a sorry spectacle which honestly didn't say anything positive about their relationship with the club.

Whether that was because he was fatigued physically or mentally due to the number of innings he pitched, or because he was out of shape, or a change in his routine I don't know and I don't think anyone else does either. I agree. I overstated the case for change in routine. It is just one of many possible explanations and I over emphasised it in reaction to the posters who had him in next years rotation in early September and would rather have their spleen removed than watch him late in the month. (yes someone actually said that) You're correct that none of us here really knows what caused him to struggle late in the year. However, if an organization takes a young prospect from AA all the way to the majors and at the same time completely changes how they want him to play, they have to accept some of the blame when it works out badly. Brewers' pitching coaching gets lavish praise in this forum, but they certainly aren't infallible and they may well have made several wrong calls in the case of Dana.

It strikes me that Dana has gone in the space of a month from getting overblown praise to receiving overdone criticism. I'm not in love with his present attitude either, but then I wasn't in love with the move that took him from AA to the majors and asked him to change overnight from a guy who threw 6 innings every 5th day to someone who was brought in for single innings and partial innings at completely random times. I think the phrase 'fell apart' that has been used more than once here is accurate and tells its own story. Maddox, who gets so much praise here, wanted him, pulled him out of a routine, where he was getting regular work and developing very well and put him (a 21 yr old) in a situation where he had no routine and no regular work. Guess what? After the initial honeymoon period, he didn't do so well. I just don't see how anyone can find that surprizing and I think the Brewers deserve just as much of the blame for the "falling apart" as Dana does.

So have you revised your opinion of a month ago that Dana may well be a starting pitcher for the Brewer's next year?

Looks like there's a decent chance that SP (2006 Brewers' Starting Pitcher) Robert speaks of may well be Dana Eveland, as he will again be used as a starter, per the JS this morning. Eveland has had a marvelous '05, dominating AA as a 21 year-old, and then pitching well out of the bullpen in the bigs. Obviously Al, as per your quote above, you actually thought that Dana was doing rather more than 'a good job in early September

To be honest, I'm not convinced that Rickie can play 3B either, it was more I wondered why those in favor of moving JJ for defensive reasons (that was how the thread started) are so happy to give Rickie a free pass. I see as much point sitting him on the bench for a better 2B as I do sitting JJ for a better SS at the minute - perhaps more. From a Brewer's viewpoint I tend to agree that as long as Hall gets the equivalent AB's of a starter, the most important thing is that he plays whichever position they need him in most on any given day. But I do think that Hall is getting a slightly rough deal, had he been the starting SS all year, he'd be getting recognition as one of the NL's premier shortstops by now.

Leave JJ at SS, give Bill Hall the permanent 2B slot putting your two best defensive infielders in the premium defensive spots. Move Weeks to 3B where he'll do less damage and actually has the potential, both offensively and defensively, to be very good. When Braun is ready in a few years time you can consider who you want to move to OF.

This post has been deleted on the grounds that the author wasn't in his right mind when he posted it.

It is so illogical to me that I cannot help but wonder about the racial component to this Wow! If you don't follow my line of logic you must be suspected of being a racist. Why not make it a fascist or a communist or any other label that comes to mind. Indulge yourself, go for the trifecta and make it all 3! Usually when accusations like this are made some slight smidgeon of proof is required, but hey why ruin a good slur for want of any evidence. Nevermind, I'm pretty certain that most of the people who post against Branyan here are probably in the NAACP and want the 3B job for Hall. And all of us who want him to keep playing Rickie, despite the fact that he plays 2B like an elephant playing the piano. WE just want to keep that white guy Steve Scarborough from getting a call up! I actually agree with certain of the core elements of what you are saying about the relative baseball merits of Hall & Hardy this year, but your total inability to even see that others might have a valid viewpoint, makes it a lot more likely that you are indeed the bigot here rather than them.

Back to the original question about D. JJ is my favorite Brewer, but if he and Hall are making SS errors at roughly the same rate, I'd bet the ranch on Hall being a better SS at the minute. Hall's only fault was a propensity for errors, apart from that he has it all. JJ's big assets are getting a good read and being rock solid. He is as slow as molasses and despite good positioning and good jumps has nothing like Hall's range. Now longterm, I think he'll probably hit better than Hall and I think that this year has been a necessary part of his growth with the bat. He has always taken his time to adjust to new levels. But any time Bill Hall can match him in error rate, Bill is defending better at SS IMO.