huntsvillefan

Great post rluz, wish there were more like this and the HOF thread.

I think he's campaigning for a big league job in the wrong manner. Constant bellyaching doesn't cut it. I certainly can't be categorized as a Kremblas fan and this is one of the reasons. In 3 years with the Stars, I only once heard him accept any personal responsibility for things going wrong and even then he spent the next 10 minutes explaining how it wasn't really a mistake anyhow. But I do have to say that despite the fact that he blames everything on them publicly, his players are incredibly loyal to him and praise him at every opportunity. I also have to grudgingly concede that he has done a great job this year. As last years Stars will testify, great talent doesn't necessarilly mean a winning team. I'm most impressed by the way he seems to have developed tactically as the year progressed. The base running bloopers have grown fewer and fewer as the Season went on.

Highlight of the Stars game (from a Stars perspective) was a triple play reported in the game log as Steve Baker grounds into a triple play, first baseman Brandon Gemoll to third baseman Nelson Castro to catcher Jeff Winchester to first baseman Brandon Gemoll. Jeff Duncan out at home. Corey Smith out at 3rd. Interesting, but 100% inaccurate. Bases were loaded as stated. Ty fielded a sharply hit ball (much to his own surprize) and was alert enough to throw it home for the force there. Winchester at Catcher then threw to first making the out there. So far a nice, but fairly routine double play. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that Brandon at first threw the ball back to Ty, who was busy trying to control his laughter (honestly) at the fact that he had fielded the ball. Everyone was joining in, when someone (Brandon I think) pointed to 3B where the runner was taking a short stroll down the 3B line. Ty threw to Castro who tagged him out. It may have been just Brandon throwing straight to Castro instead of returning it to Ty, but my recollection is a 1-2-3-1-5 Triple. It may have been a 1-2-3-5, but it certainly wasn't anything like what the log describes. Its not the first time that I've found an error in it ( Vandenberg in RF springs to mind), but you'd think they might take care to get something as rare as a triple play right! It also does rather ruin one's confidence in the rest of their reporting. I really like the info and layout of their boxscores a lot, but if the information is untrustworthy, it negates all the nice touches. I've rather trashed the Stars' D recently, so I feel obliged to report there were web gems by TGJ and Callix as well as the triple. EDIT Brett Pollock's authorized version came in as I was typing this, and I'm sure he is right and that it was the 1-2-3-5. I was so busy watching the ongoing laughter on the field, that I nearly didn't notice the third part of the triple. I do distinctly recall that someone shouted and pointed at the guy who had literally walked a little way down the line. I think he possibly had some intention of trying to sneak home amid the hilarity.

If you look at the Huntsville game log, Carlos was a victim of some bad luck... He could have been out of the inning with no harm done... Stephen Drew reached on a WP strikeout to start the inning... Rottino & Crabbe also fail to make the double play in the same inning before anyone scores. Doing a rough check, apart from last night, every Stars' starter has had at least 4 scored off them in the last 12 starts. This includes Bradley & Sarfate who had been economy personified, and Ty and Carlos who had been superb in the lower league. You can believe all these pitchers went bad at the same time. Or you might consider the possibility that they are getting no help from the guys around them, who can't wait for a bad season in a bad team to be over.

Carlos with a pretty terrible line Have a look at every Stars' starters line for about the past 3 weeks. Pitchers need a little help.

I think for a reliever to get to the HOF, you have to be convinced that he acheived something that those top quality non - HOF starters (like Morris) could not have emulated or surpassed. I just don't think there is anything about Sutter's career that suggests this. It was short, he was average at best for a third of it and he didn't have the range of pitches or stamina to survive as a starter. Yes he helped to develop a pitch, but that is already reflected in his numbers, the advantage it gave him that batters hadn't seen it much. He didn't pioneer the role of closer - his manager decided to use him that way. He simply pitched when asked like any other reliever. Someone in an earlier post mentioned Walter Johnson, it wasn't uncommon for him to pitch one day and then come out and pitch long relief the day after. Times change and pitchers have changed more than most, but when you place Sutter's body of work beside that of most of the guys in the Hall, I really don't think it stands the comparison.

Roger Maris was MVP two years in a row and broke the record despite having to face the antagonism of most fans and the baseball establishment. He's not in the hall, because he didn't do enough for long enough and no-one seriously argues for him. If he doesn't deserve it for that year, how on earth can you consider a guy who pitched good relief for a few years.

OK I'll play - No He had a 12 year career and his numbers in hislast 2/3 years were pretty mediocre. Besides which, if you aren't good enough to start, you probably aren't good enough for the HOF. Guys like Beane (and Maddux) have shown that you can manufacture closers out of smoke and mirrors. Sutter came out and threw a couple of innings, he didn't need a good range of pitches or much of a game plan. We argue about guys like Jack Morris not deserving to be there. There's a better than average chance that Jack Morris could have done what Sutter did. There is zero chance that Sutter could have done what Morris did. Most guys who pitch relief or close are failed starters (Smoltz excepted), to put them in the HOF ahead of guys who started over a long career seems strange. What about admitting a few pinch hitters and pinch runners?

Geoff Jenkins is our best outfielder, but he's too slow to play CF. If Jenkins is your best OF, why has he played LF for years , rather than the more difficult RF spot? Clark played the more difficult RF on his starts last year. I tend to think If he is too slow then he simply isn't your best. He may be your most polished looking, but not IMO your best. No offense intended, but I've watched a fair bit of college ball and mostly the D isn't that great. So its hard to compare a college OF with a major league one http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif What I have noticed watching it, is that it is a lot easier to avoid having to make a difficult play in CF, than it is in either corner spot. College corner OF often look like a deer in the headlights as the ball homes in on them (and past them), whereas the CF is in so much space that it doesn't look nearly so bad when he has to turn and chase one.

maybe your best fielder doesn't have the speed to cover CF I basically agree with you Diskono, but speed is one of the (many) attributes of being a good OF Saying someone is our best out fielder, but he's too slow to play CF, is like saying Vandy is our best defensive catcher but he doesn't have very good reflexes.

What I was TRYING to say is two doubles is actually worth MORE than a single HR Thats what I thought you were saying. What I was trying to say is that I thought a homerun WAS worth two doubles and even by the stats you quote its pretty darn close. From a Brewers angle the great thing about a homerun is that you score at least one run from it - no matter how bad your team mates are.

only infielder Nelson Castro can say he pitched well, retiring the final batter in the 8th I just want to say again something I said in another thread. I know you all think I'm hard-nosed on D, but charging anything other than a homerun or a walk against any pitcher on this team is probably unfair, especially in the last couple of weeks. Apart from padding their own stats, they have more or less given up on everything that resembles baseball. Why move 3 feet to catch a ball when you can stand still and watch it going past you and become someone elses problem? And guess what - you don't even get charged an error playing that way - http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

HR worth 1.41 runs, and a double worth .74 runs, That was all I meant really that I suspected that a homerun was worth as much as two doubles, which according to that it roughly is. I'm not sure why it has to be worth twice as much as two doubles as per rluz quote?

a HR ISN'T twice as good as two doubles I'd love to believe that, I like doubles a lot and I'm not a homerun sorta guy........... But can anyone check up whether or not twice as many runs come in off homeruns as do of the same number of doubles? EDIT, I just re-read the quote and now I'm really confused, doesn't a homerun only count the same as two doubles in SLG? - not twice as much?

Huntsville score 7 with 2 out in the 6th inning. All off 3 singles and a triple. Vinny makes the first and the last out. Why do these things only happen when they are away?

I honestly think that what you just said adds up to the established position, that CF is a more difficult position than RF. I really don't see much doubt in the matter and I'm pushed to think of many MLB teams who have their best defensive outfielder at RF, and that would be the case if it really was more difficult to play.

I don't disagree that there are some interesting things out there,. But I thought that Bret's premise was that it only mattered if you could prove it. DIPS and the various defensive stas are nowhere near anything that could be called 'proof', and don't correlate with runs allowed even remotely. (except when they actually use them as part of the formula) So do we say that D & Pitching don't make a difference just because we haven't a formula that ties them in with runs scored?

I've nothing against stats and while I agree that OPS (or OXS) predicts runs you'll score very closely, I'm not aware of any similar stats that predict how many runs you'll allow, with any accuracy. Have I missed something significant or do we ignore D and pitching because it isn't provable?

This is the second time this RF / CF thing has come up and I'm very curious. Could someone explain to me why the Brewers put guys who have struggled defensively like Hart into RF and guys who are supposed to be defensively excellent like Gwynn & Krynzel into CF. If RF really is the most difficult spot to play, why don't they put the Gwynn's and Krynzel's straight into that position? Or do I presume that Ben Van Iderstine is really the best OF defender on the Huntsville Stars?

I don't know about America, but it says a lot about people who do the espn poll. The guys on PTI (which I like) both think that RBI is the most important stat, so maybe it also says a lot about how sports journalists present things.

Final: Mobile (Padres) 14, Huntsville 3, 7 1/2 innings, rain They say the rain stopped it, but it was more likely the mercy rule... Not that it matters, but it actually went the full 9, and for some reason I sat through each and every one of them. I think it was the same sort of morbid fascination that some people get from watching a train wreck. This is an incredibly poor team, even by last year's dismal standards. At times watching them in the field is like looking at some sort of baseball still life. I have seldom seen pitchers get less help from a defense Of those with talent, the lucky ones like Cruz & Eveland were permitted to escape to somewhere where a game resembling baseball was actually played, the unlucky ones like Sarfate were left to be tortured and pulled down into the parody of the game currently practiced in Huntsville. I just feel so sorry for the few guys on this team who have legitimate hopes of some sort of baseball career.

Cruz is very similar at SS to how Rickie was at 2B here, except for some reason Enrique actually gets charged for all his errors. But like Rickie he has a lot of tools, good range and does some very good things too. Perhaps he is the Brewers next CF! This whole team is brutal defensively, it really is like someone has said 'just forget about your D this year guys'. Callix Crabbe is a great example. I believe that last year he was his leagues' best defensive 2B, this year he is struggling (to put it very kindly). On lookin at the boxscore, I can't believe he wasn't charged an error for one he let go under his glove last night. I keep wondering if they are struggling to learn some new defensive system or something here. It really is impossible to believe that so many toolsy guys can play D so badly all of a sudden!

Nelson Cruz with a DP, throwing the runner out at home in Nashville's win. (feeling obliged to report instances of good D by Cruz & TGJ)

Sadly I wasn't there, but I turned on the radio in time to hear the commentators raving about a diving catch TGJ made going forward. As I often criticize his D and his abilities going forward in particular, I wanted to make sure this one was documented. I'm still not a convert to him as a defensive wiz, but,of late, he has been coming back to last years standards after a flaky start.

Much as I'd hate to see him go, hasn't Dennis Sarfate done more than enough to justify finishing his Season in AAA, or even to be given the same sort of relief opportunities that Eveland has in Mil?