TooLiveBrew

Good catch, Jim. Sorry I missed that.

It works well for football. Seems like a pretty simple solution. The grey areas are obviously what to do with other baserunners involved in a given play, but I have faith that MLB could eventually work out a good system for that.

Going off on a slight tangent here, and I don't mean this response as some ad hominem attack at you, Adam. I have a huge problem with the sense of entitlement with which many (most?) fans treat MLB umpires. I won't deny that there are badly-missed calls, and even that some MLB umps just simply don't belong at this level. However, with very few exceptions, these are the most qualified people that exist for these jobs. They are going to make mistakes occasionally, and sometimes those mistakes will extend innings that yield dramatic results. But, for example, Tim Welke didn't serve up the meatball that Starling Marte blasted for a 3-run HR tonight. The umpires have a 100% thankless task, and, as Gerry Davis so precisely put it: "We’re judged not by excellence, but by perfection." There exists this widespread notion, from little league, to MLB, to your softball beer leagues, that the umpires shouldn't miss any call... because any idiot could've seen that one! There is this acceptance that umps have to be perfect, or else they deserve to be not only questioned, but berated in many cases. And I think it sucks. What rules knowledge does even the diehard MLB fan have? The amount of rules knowledge required to be a MLB ump is nothing short of astonishing to me. You see/hear even an experienced former player like Rock get rules issues wrong multiple times in a season, and he's been 'just' calling games for what... over 20 years now? In addition to his likely 20+ years playing baseball? It's not as simple as just go out & make the bang-bang calls correctly. An ump has to be extremely well-educated, experienced, and good in the 'clutch'/bang-bang situations. Fwiw, I welcome any & all modes of instant replay review in MLB and wherever else plausible in baseball. I'm just tired of relatively clueless (wrt MLB's extensive rules, I'd include myself in the clueless category) fans calling for the heads of umpires based on one/a handful of missed calls. Players make errors, fans are ignorant of many rules of the game, and sometimes umpires miss calls -- even obvious ones sometimes. I welcome more instant replay. But not more than I'd welcome fans at all levels of the game taking some time to learn everything that goes into being a good umpire.

Just remember that the Cardinals, Reds, and Pirates lose those free wins, too. Better than losing the Pirates to the AL -- decent team that we beat up on. And that the Brewers only went 9-8 against HOU last season, too

Rickie Weeks is just a class act. I can't not root my butt off for the guy. So glad to see him with a (hopeful) slumpbuster game tonight. When he gets asked questions about his individual success, he always answers about hard work & being part of a team. When he gets asked about a team being hot, he answers about hard work & putting it in every day no matter the result of the previous game. When he's struggling, he answers about working hard every day & staying focused. Just everything you want in a leader. And yes I know these are sports clichés, but when Rickie talks about them I don't hear just PR-speak.

Sounds Edged In Bricktown, 4-2 Nashville's Gindl Homers; Gennett's Streak To 11 Games Nashville Sounds http://i.imgur.com/eyl4BSF.jpg Caleb Gindl (Mike Strasinger / Nashville Sounds) AUDIO: Hunter Morris RBI-Single AUDIO: Caleb Gindl Home Run OKLAHOMA CITY - The Nashville Sounds never recovered from the Oklahoma City RedHawks' three-run second inning Tuesday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, losing their sixth consecutive road game by the score of 4-2. The RedHawks big inning came against Sounds starting pitcher Johnny Hellweg (1-3), though only the first run he allowed, a Marc Krauss lead-off home run to left field, was earned. The homer was Krauss' sixth and the first surrendered by Hellweg this season. The RedHawks' following two runs came after a passed ball from catcher Anderson De La Rosa put two runners in scoring position with one out. Brett Wallace, who reached base on balls, crossed home plate on a groundout, while Jonathan Villar stole home to make it 3-0. Villar's steal of home is the first scored against Nashville since Las Vegas' Manny Mayorson did so on August 15, 2011 at Greer Stadium. Hellweg ran into a jam in his final frame when a pair of lead-off hits put runners on the corners, but the 24-year-old displayed poise by striking out the side to end the inning, unfortunately not before De La Rosa's third passed ball allowed the runner from third to score. Reliever Donovan Hand entered in the seventh inning to take over for Hellweg, who threw 101 pitches en route to his first quality start of the year, allowing four runs, one earned, on four hits. The 6-foot-9 hurler fanned seven, which ties Tyler Thornburg's Opening Day outing for the most by a Sounds' starter this season, and walked four. Hellweg took the tough-luck loss. Hand and Michael Olmsted each pitched one scoreless inning out of the 'pen, allowing one hit apiece. The two combined to strikeout three and walked none. Sounds' hitters did not find a hit against RedHawks winning pitcher Jarred Cosart (3-0) until the fifth inning, as outfielder Caleb Gindl connected for a double to the left-field corner. Gindl also recorded the Sounds final hit of the game, a solo home run in the ninth inning off Josh Zeid. The team plated their first run in the sixth inning via Hunter Morris' single into centerfield. The hit scored infielder Scooter Gennett from second, after legging out an infield hit and stealing second. Gennett's hit extends his hit streak to 11 games, in which he is hitting .403 (20-for-45). He has reached base safely in each of his first 19 games and has a hit in 18 of them. The Sounds finish the opening month of baseball 7-16, collectively hitting .234, while Nashville pitchers hold a 4.36 ERA. The Sounds look to snap their losing skid in game three against the Oklahoma City RedHawks on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m. Manning the bump for Nashville will be RHP Tyler Thornburg (0-2, 5.04) against the 'Hawks LHP Dallas Keuchel (1-0, 0.00). Baseball returns to Greer Stadium on Tuesday, May 7, as the Sounds host the Fresno Grizzlies (AAA-Giants). Nashville Box Gindl has quietly gone on a tear recently, sporting a slash line of .355/.462/.613/1.074 over his last 10 games. If he can stay hot, that can only mean good things for the middle of the Nashville lineup. Gennett: 1-4, SB Morris: 1-4, RBI Stephen Parker: 1-4 Gindl: 2-3, 2B, HR, RBI, BB Cole Garner: 0-1, BB, HBP Blake Davis: 1-3, BB De La Rosa: 1-3, 3 PB, PO (def), 1/2 CS [pre]Hellweg: 6 IP 4 H 4 R 1 ER 4 BB 7 K 101 TP (57 strikes) 8:1 GO:FO Hand: 1 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 1 K Olmsted: 1 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 2 K[/pre] Nashville PbP The top half of the 2nd was painful: Okla. City Bottom of the 2nd -Marc Krauss homers (6) on a fly ball to left field. -Brett Wallace walks. -Jonathan Villar singles on a ground ball to right fielder Cole Garner. Brett Wallace to 2nd. -With Andrew Simunic batting, passed ball by Anderson De La Rosa, Brett Wallace to 3rd. Jonathan Villar to 2nd. -Andrew Simunic strikes out swinging. -Che-Hsuan Lin grounds out, second baseman Scooter Gennett to first baseman Hunter Morris. Brett Wallace scores. Jonathan Villar to 3rd. -With Cody Clark batting, Jonathan Villar steals (7) home. -Cody Clark called out on strikes. After only managing one baserunner (via BB) in the first four innings, the 5th was Nashville's first chance to get on the board. Unfortunately De La Rosa wasn't able to atone for his two (at that point) PBs: Nashville Top of the 5th -Sean Halton called out on strikes. -Caleb Gindl doubles (6) on a line drive to left fielder Trevor Crowe. -Cole Garner walks. -Blake Davis singles on a ground ball to left fielder Trevor Crowe. Caleb Gindl to 3rd. Cole Garner to 2nd. -Anderson De La Rosa grounds into a double play, first baseman Marc Krauss to shortstop Jonathan Villar to pitcher Jarred Cosart. Blake Davis out at 2nd. They did score in the next frame, but again were burned by the double play: Nashville Top of the 6th -Scooter Gennett singles on a ground ball to third baseman Jimmy Paredes. -With Jeff Bianchi batting, Scooter Gennett steals (4) 2nd base. -Jeff Bianchi strikes out swinging. -Hunter Morris singles on a line drive to right fielder Andrew Simunic. Scooter Gennett scores. -Pitching Change: C. J. Fick replaces Jarred Cosart. -Stephen Parker singles on a ground ball to right fielder Andrew Simunic. Hunter Morris to 2nd. -Sean Halton grounds into a double play, third baseman Jimmy Paredes to second baseman Jake Elmore to first baseman Marc Krauss. Stephen Parker out at 2nd. More timely defense from Oklahoma City in the 7th spoiled yet another good scoring chance for the Sounds: Nashville Top of the 7th -Caleb Gindl flies out to center fielder Che-Hsuan Lin. -Cole Garner hit by pitch. -Blake Davis walks. Cole Garner to 2nd. -Anderson De La Rosa singles on a line drive to right fielder Andrew Simunic. Cole Garner out at home on the throw, right fielder Andrew Simunic to catcher Cody Clark. Blake Davis to 2nd. -Scooter Gennett strikes out swinging. Nashville Gameday

An oppo shot is a good sign. Please keep this going, Rickie.

RICKIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RIP bigredrobbo's retinas. Never forget.

Give me more Craig Counsell. Guy's a natural.

Heater. Martin can't catch up to it.

Yuni B Goode

YOU get a home run! And YOU get a home run! And YOU get a home run! EV-ERY-BODY GETS A HOME RUN!

Gennett extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single to lead off the home half of the 6th. On the pitching side... let's just say the 2nd inning was eventful.

The most recent I'm aware of from Roenicke on Weeks is from McCalvy's 4/21 blog post. That this is still the plan after Weeks has gone 3-27 with a .398 OPS since these comments suggests that Roenicke is not an asset, strategically.

I posted something similar about his pitch/PA rate in last night's IGT -- but you've provided much better context. From that IGT post, here are a few quick comparisons for Carlos's much-improved rate -- '12 Braun: 3.75 '12 Aoki: 3.89 '13 Segura: 3.75 (Segura's rate was from FanGraphs, heading into play yesterday, so it probably has changed slightly) We're definitely still in small sample territory wrt to Gómez, but it's not some fluke that he's seeing more pitches. His discipline & pitch recognition have been greatly improved, and his PAs have been better due to those improvements. Whether he can keep this improvement as part of his repertoire or not remains to be seen, but the early eye test is very encouraging. I don't think we should be expecting a .900+ OPS for the season, but .800 or better appears pretty attainable with his current approach.

FanGraphs' WAR usually seems to pass the smell or eye test better for me. But that's not exactly an opinion I can back with tons of raw data. I just feel like I scratch my head more often with BBRef's version.

What's funny about Ramírez last season is that from his 11th game through the end of May, his OPS was .875. Yes, I know you can't do that. But his slow start wasn't a month or two, it was really just 10 games.

Sounds Suffer Tough Loss To Open Road Trip Nashville Blows Early Six-Run Lead In 9-8 Loss At Oklahoma City Nashville Sounds http://i.imgur.com/NaD5Ytp.jpg Scooter Gennett (Mike Strasinger / Nashville Sounds) OKLAHOMA CITY - The Sounds squandered an early six-run lead as Oklahoma City RedHawks plated eight unanswered runs en route to a 9-8 victory over the Sounds on Monday evening at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in the opener of a four-game series. The game featured 17 runs and 27 hits, including 13 extra-base knocks, in the contest. The teams had combined for only 13 total runs in their three-game series in Nashville in early April. Every Sounds starter recorded a hit in the game, led by rehabbing infielder Jeff Bianchi's 3-for-5 effort. After scoring only five runs in their previous three games and 23 innings of action, Nashville exploded for seven runs in the first two innings against RedHawks right-hander Ross Seaton. However, the offense would slow down from there, netting only one run over the final seven frames as the Sounds left nine runners on base and grounded into four double plays while Oklahoma City rallied to earn the win. The Sounds got off to a quick start, jumping on Seaton for a pair of first-inning runs and an early 2-0 lead. Scooter Gennett (2-for-5) opened the game by extending his hitting streak to 10 games with a double to right and scored the night's first run when Bianchi followed with an RBI single to left-center. After Hunter Morris flew out, Stephen Parker -- batting in the cleanup spot for the first time this season -- doubled the Nashville lead by lacing a run-scoring double into the right field corner. Gennett is batting .411 on the year while Bianchi raised his average to .294 in his eight rehab games with Nashville. Oklahoma City got a run back in the home half of the frame, halving the Sounds' lead to 2-1. A leadoff walk issued by Frankie De La Cruz came back to haunt the Nashville right-hander as Trevor Crowe eventually scored on Brett Wallace's two-out RBI single in the frame. Nashville continued its offensive surge in the second, batting around for the first time all season and plating five more runs to extend the advantage to 7-1. After a Cole Garner double and a pair of walks loaded the bases to start the frame, Gennett smashed a sharply-hit ball to first that caromed off the glove of Wallace into right field for a two-run single. Bianchi followed with his second RBI knock of the day, driving a two-run triple off the top of the center field wall to up the Nashville lead to 6-1. After Morris lined out, Parker followed with an RBI single to right to drive in the frame's fifth run. The RedHawks fought back in the bottom of the second, scoring three runs off De La Cruz to cut the Sounds' lead to 7-4. Former Sound Jason Jaramillo got one back by driving a one-out RBI double off the right field wall before scoring on Crowe's second longball of the year, a two-run shot to right. Following Seaton's departure for Oklahoma City, left-hander Kyle Hallock (1-0) took over on the hill and stifled the Sounds' offense. The southpaw picked up his first victory of the year by tossing 4 1/3 scoreless innings, limiting Nashville to two hits over that span. Oklahoma City rallied to take its first lead of the evening by posting a four-spot against De La Cruz in the bottom of the fourth. Jake Elmore (3-for-3) blasted a two-run homer into the bullpen beyond the wall in left-center to get things started before back-to-back triples by Jimmy Paredes and Marc Krauss knotted the contest at 7-7. Two batters later, Jonathan Villar (3-for-4) dropped a bloop single just beyond the outstretched glove of Gennett in shallow center field to plate Krauss and put the RedHawks on top, 8-7. De La Cruz (1-3) drew a loss for the third straight start after surrendering eight runs on 10 hits in his 3 2/3 innings. Entering the contest, the veteran had permitted only 10 hits in 15.0 IP in his previous four outings. The RedHawks added to their lead when Elmore struck again, this time with an RBI triple to right off Chris Jakubauskas that plated Crowe for his fourth run scored of the night. Nashville recorded three hits in the top of the seventh but also grounded into its fourth double play of the night and stranded a pair against left-hander Eric Berger in a scoreless frame. Kyle Heckathorn worked around a pair of runners in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh to work a scoreless frame and keep the Sounds at a two-run deficit. The Sounds got back on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth, rallying for a run against Berger to stop Oklahoma City's string of eight unanswered runs, but missed a golden opportunity to do even more damage as they wasted a no-out, bases-loaded situation. Blake Davis led off with a double to left and Dayton Buller followed with a chopper through the right side for an RBI single that drew Nashville within a single score at 9-8. Gennett reached when Crowe dropped his fly ball in left field and the Sounds loaded the bases with no outs when Bianchi hit a chopper to third on which Rauol Torrez made a bad throw to second on the attempted force out. Jose Valdez took over on the hill for Oklahoma City and escaped the inherited bases-loaded jam, fanning Morris and Parker for the first two outs before retiring Sean Halton on an inning-ending groundout. Valdez closed out the game by retiring Nashville in order in the ninth to earn his league-leading seventh save of the year. The teams continue the series with another 7:05 meeting on Tuesday evening. Right-hander Johnny Hellweg (1-2, 4.00) will make the start for the Sounds and face RedHawks right-hander Jarred Cosart (2-0, 2.86). Nashville Box Gennett: 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI Bianchi: 3-5, 3B, 3 RBI Morris: 1-5 Parker: 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI Halton: 2-5, 2B Caleb Gindl: 1-4, BB Garner: 1-4, 2B, BB Davis: 1-4, 2B, BB Buller: 1-2, RBI, 2 BB, PB Tonight's game might well be the 2013 Brewers MiLB winner in the category "Most Surname Letters in the Pitching Portion of the Box Score": [pre]De La Cruz: 3.2 IP 10 H 8 R 8 ER 4 BB 2 K 83 TP (46 strikes) 6:1 GO:FO Jakubauskus: 2.1 IP 3 H 1 R 1 ER 1 BB 3 K Heckathorn: 1.0 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 0 K Rob Wooten: 1.0 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 0 K[/pre] Nashville PbP Big money in the 2nd! Nashville Top of the 2nd -Cole Garner doubles (2) on a line drive to right fielder Marc Krauss. -Blake Davis walks. -Dayton Buller walks. Cole Garner to 3rd. Blake Davis to 2nd. -Scooter Gennett singles on a sharp ground ball to right fielder Marc Krauss. Cole Garner scores. Blake Davis scores. Dayton Buller to 3rd. -Jeff Bianchi triples (1) on a line drive to center fielder Che-Hsuan Lin. Dayton Buller scores. Scooter Gennett scores. -Hunter Morris lines out to first baseman Brett Wallace. -Stephen Parker singles on a ground ball to right fielder Marc Krauss. Jeff Bianchi scores. -Sean Halton flies out to center fielder Che-Hsuan Lin. -Caleb Gindl walks. Stephen Parker to 2nd. -Pitching Change: Kyle Hallock replaces Ross Seaton. -Cole Garner grounds out, third baseman Andrew Simunic to first baseman Brett Wallace. And the aforementioned (painful) top of the 8th: Nashville Top of the 8th -Defensive Substitution: Raoul Torrez replaces third baseman Andrew Simunic, batting 7th, playing third base. -Blake Davis doubles (3) on a soft line drive to left fielder Trevor Crowe. -Dayton Buller singles on a ground ball to center fielder Che-Hsuan Lin. Blake Davis scores. -Offensive Substitution: Pinch-runner Joey Paciorek replaces Dayton Buller. -Scooter Gennett reaches on a fielding error by left fielder Trevor Crowe. Joey Paciorek to 2nd. -Jeff Bianchi reaches on a force attempt, throwing error by third baseman Raoul Torrez. Joey Paciorek to 3rd. Scooter Gennett to 2nd. -Pitching Change: Jose Valdez replaces Eric Berger. -Hunter Morris strikes out swinging. -Stephen Parker strikes out swinging. -Sean Halton grounds out, shortstop Jonathan Villar to first baseman Brett Wallace. Nashville Gameday

In this hypothetical, regarding the deferred money beyond Lohse's '14 & '15 salaries... I'd be happy for the Brewers to eat that money if it meant getting the right player(s) in return. I think two seasons of Lohse for a total of ~$22M would be pretty attractive to many (most?) contending teams in need of pitching.

http://i.imgur.com/uYMjv2Q.gif

I thought it was a nice round number.

I just wanted to quote you to say that your username gets an A+ from me. I guess I hadn't noticed until this thread.

As one of the biggest Rickie Weeks fans... I completely agree. Very disappointing that Roenicke hasn't taken the initiative to sit him down for at least a couple days. Whatever they've been trying to get Rickie back on track clearly isn't working. Time for plan b.

Ok, it's my fault. 2 hits through the next 4 innings, and Nashville now trail 9-7 heading to the top of the 7th.