TooLiveBrew

Thank you for this post, Hammer... good insight.

Ok, since you mentioned a car dealership... Bob Fish, THIS IS NOT A FISH http://pictures-e1.thumbtackstatic.com/pictures/274/wn9a468zofhrwnck_450_fill.png

Just because there were not a lot of SS's in Ripken's time who hit for power (thus raising his WAR scores) does that mean that Ripken Jr was better than say, Barry Larkin? I don't think so. That's an interesting question, because the answer could just as easily be "yes". Context is incredibly important in terms of defining player value (WAR or otherwise).

Um... Axford probably more than makes up for that on his own.

Joaquin Arias with one of the best throws you'll ever see from the shortstop position. Not a bad diving stop, either, and made in a tied game in the 10th inning. Oh yeah, and it was his first play of the game: http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21115101

Come on. I'm no trainer, but jogging back to the dugout didn't escalate his injury from "bad" to "season ending." In fact, it likely had no effect at all. I'm sure the trainers checked his knee, didn't detect anything right then and there, so they gave him a chance to test it out, probably even saying, "Look, if it hurts at all, don't be a hero." He tested it, it hurt, and he sat down. I'm no trainer, either... which is why I was concerned that jogging back to the dugout might not have been good for the knee. If that's wrong, then I'm wrong. I'm definitely good at being wrong I do understand that once the ligament is torn, it's torn & you can't do any more damage to it. I guess chalk me up as one more who's a little gunshy about trusting the Brewers' medical staff, whether that's fair or not.

I don't agree with this at all, but I'm also not one who had a huge problem about Gamel getting benched/rested (I didn't like it, but imo it's not a huge deal given the circumstances). Resting a sore shoulder =// taking extreme precaution with a knee injury

Time for a dominating start from Yo. The Padres' offense is anemic. Just pound the zone with the fastball tonight, please, Yo.

Aokittaras! Like the idea, love the mash-up nickname.

But it's the trainer's job to do what's best for the player, not what the player wants to do. Any pro athletic trainer is around athletes enough to know that an athlete saying "I'm ok" can mean next to nothing about whether or not he's actually ok. The image I can't shake from last night's game is of Gamel jogging to the dugout after the end of the 1st inning on a severely injured knee (or an injured knee that jogging to the dugout turned into a severely injured knee). With just one more day to review his situation, Gamel's knee has been put in an immobilizing brace -- and the team didn't exercise enough caution last night to just help him off the field immediately after the injury?

Even if Gamel is out for a long time (looking likely, unfortunately), the very simple move is to put Hart at 1B and utilize the insane OF depth that this team has. The advantage at the plate with Hart over Ish outweighs the advantage in the field with Ish over Hart imo. Not to mention that either Aoki or Morgan will likely be a net defensive upgrade in RF over Hart as well.

qft Actually, as Mass Haas points out in the MiLB Transactions thread... Taylor Green, who's hit. 378 in his last ten games, probably never wished he was right-handed more than right now, should the Brewers go the Conrad route.

Woof! Ouch.

adambr2, I will say that I think the most important part of your post #6 in this thread is "I've never officiated" -- and I don't mean any kind of malice in saying that. It's just not as easy as it appears to be. I don't mean to imply that I think you wouldn't be able to umpire or umpire well. The only umping I've ever done is slow-pitch softball (in my 7th season now), and I can tell you even that job is not as simple as it looks. It's by no means really really difficult; that's not the point I'm trying to make. But I can assure you that umpiring baseball at any level is much harder than it appears to those who've never tried it... especially when, as fans, we're able to watch the games on TV like we can with MLB/MiLB/college... great camerawork, replays, etc. It's not necessarily always true that you have just one piece of action to watch at a time, although I suppose if you segment a given play, you could discuss it in terms of pieces of action strung together to comprise the play on the field. Every single time a ball is pitched/put into play, every umpire has a sequence of things he/she needs to be watching. So examine a 1B umpire's p.o.v. while a pitcher delivers the ball to the plate: - Did the pitcher balk? (in & of itself this rule has several things that need to be watched... hands, legs, feet, upper body) - Was there a check-swing by the batter, & if so, did he swing or hold up? - If runner(s) on base with a ball hit into play, was there interference or obstruction? - If ball is hit into play, where is my proper positioning? (very important for seeing things like a diving catch in the OF, or a fair/foul call) - Batter-runner safe/out at 1B? - If the batter-runner rounds 1B while advancing toward 2B, did he touch the 1B bag? - If a runner tags up, did he leave early? - What call is mine, and what call is the responsibility of one of the other umps on the field? I'll freely admit ignorance of knowing exact *baseball* umping techniques, positioning, & runner/batter-runner call responsibilities, but hopefully my layman's example here can illustrate just how much an umpire has to be prepared to watch, & then watch, all in the amount of time it takes for a pitch to be delivered to the plate & possibly batted into play. And I feel pretty confident that I've probably overlooked some responsibilities the 1B ump might have on any given play. Yes, each of these individual items is not necessarily complicated; but with every pitch an ump has to be mentally prepared to watch a sequence of events, & do so in the timespan of just seconds. And that's not even mentioning the incredibly extensive knowledge that's required of the MLB rulebook... I wouldn't wish that curse on my biggest enemy! The physical positioning is something that's easy to notice when watching a game. The mental 'positioning', however, is just as important to being a good ump, and one simply can't see that as a 'lay' observer. To further reinforce my "this is freakin' difficult" stance, look at Jim Joyce's blown call during Armando Gallaraga's perfecto bid in 2010. Joyce is widely regarded by players & managers as being as good as it gets for MLB umps. And the call he blew in that game is about as easy as it gets for MLB umps. It's just never as easy as it looks to us fans imo. There's so much that an umpire has to be ready for on any given play, that sometimes mistakes are made on what appear to be (& in some cases are) really routine, easy calls. EDIT: Just like a hitter striking out or fielder making an error doesn't automatically make him a bad hitter or fielder, an umpire missing a call doesn't necessarily make him/her a bad umpire. The average MLB umpire most likely misses that call more times than not. That was an example of an absolutely brilliant call imo -- it was all due to good positioning, & knowing what to be watching as the play unfolded. The latter is a combo of experience & mental preparation. I don't think I see the point about determining if MLB is easier or harder to officiate than other pro sports. I get the relative comparison angle, but just because MLB may or may not be easier to officiate than the NFL or NBA, that still doesn't mean it's easy.

The thing is, though, that the umpiring hasn't been awful or anywhere close to it. The problem imo is twofold: 1) Umpiring at the MLB level is incredibly difficult 2) Our fan expectation of what umpire success rates should be is somewhere around 99-100% I won't argue that every MLB ump is a good ump... but if you held a gun to my head, I'd side with that extreme rather than that there is a systemic problem with MLB umps.

I think 'stole' is a decent figurative term in this case. Soup took the cash, stunk up the joint and ran. No. He signed a legally binding contract that guaranteed him the money he was paid. "Stole" is nowhere close to being a useful word here.

I can't help but be pretty pissed off that they didn't pull Gamel immediately after the injury.

If Gonzalez got injured in the first inning, I don't like the thought of watching Aramis Ramirez playing a whole game at SS. I like that (worst-case scenario) option for one game over having Izturis get any more PAs.

This was my thought as soon as Gamel hit that wall last night. I just really hope he's not out for an extended period; that would be a pretty big blow.

I think the Kotsay HR tonight sealed this deal.

I'd really like to see Ishikawa & Izturis DFA'd, and replace them with Conrad & Green. I realize this leaves Gonzalez as the only SS, but he doesn't appear to need many nights off. If he were to get hurt, you have Maysonet at AAA & Bianchi at AA. Also, I cursed a lot at Kotsay tonight.

I think Estrada is all but a lock for one of those spots next season, & I think we're looking at Yo, Peralta, Estrada, Wolf, ? for 2013 at this point. My guess is that Melvin will trade for a(nother) veteran SP this coming offseason, unless a FA can be found at a bargain cost.

Add Miguel Cabrera to that list. And yes, these guys are freaks in terms of talent, but that's what the Nats have (imo) in Harper.

Nice! Congrats!

Hmm, I guess I lumped some of the discussion of how he wasn't really a top prospect because his stats weren't impressive (probably in the Marcum trade thread) into the callup discussion. Guess I was wrong. Where can you check MiLB splits for past seasons? I know minorleaguesplits.com is obviously long dead at this point.