TooLiveBrew

Yep, I heard that too (on re-watch like #5), but it's pretty subtle. I KNOW! AND CAPS LOCK IS THE ONLY APPROPRIATE WAY TO EFFECTIVELY CONVEY MY EXCITEMENT!!!

The MLB Network actually does a pretty good job of covering the draft. Between the network & the website, you can get a lot of info. I don't think they're the best at rating or ranking the talent, but I do think they do a solid job covering a lot of prospects.

Yeah I watched this today too. Goosebumps the whole way through. And Vader nearly 100% HAS to be in this movie, given the mentions in Ep. iV about him searching for the stolen plans, spies, etc. I REALLY hope we get to see Vader tearing stuff up on the battlefield -- prime-aged Vader... oh man, goosebumps again. And since I didn't comment on Ep. 7, I want to weigh in & say that I absolutely love it. I don't care that the plot had some similarities to IV. It *felt* like Star Wars again, from the very first scenes (so far Rogue One has the same type of look & feel -- I'm loving the universe/settings that Disney is creating so far). I actually just picked up my Blu-Ray copy yesterday & had a blast watching it all over again.

Yeah, when I saw who'd posted this I did a double take. Although the lead post was seriously lacking in caps lock & exclamation points, so that should've tipped me off!

Ok, Gantner story time for me. I think I can help with some schadenfreude here. Disclaimer: early teen 'glory days' post forthcoming... So when I was about 12 or 13, I played in a baseball league where Gantner's kid was on one of the teams in our league. Gantner was one of the coaches. Usually that didn't really mean anything one way or the other -- he wasn't a jerk of a coach or anything like that, & I can't remember his kid ever being a diva or anything. I wasn't good enough to hit at the top of the lineup, but in this particular game our coach decided to change things up & flip the regular lineup. So I was batting like 3rd & I was jacked. I played my normal LF position, but with a bit more go-juice in the system. So early in the game, think first three innings or so, one of their batters hit a dying quail into shallow LF. I came charging in & made a sweet shoestring catch into a rolling tumble. Robbed the single. I was psyched, but tried to play it cool. Fast forward through the game, & it was really close. I had I think a hit & walk, plus a nice play or two in LF. But we wound up losing, & I was fuming. As I was walking off the diamond, Gantner was chatting with my coach. He saw me coming, & walked toward me and said, 'Hey great catch kid' -- I was so ticked I didn't say anything & just stormed past him. I hardly even noticed him, to be honest. Well let's just say that my two Brewers-fan parents were none too happy with me. I got quite the lecture from Mom about respecting adults on the way home. But now I have an awesome story that everyone that got burned by Gantner as a kid can feel great about. He got cold-shouldered by some punk kid he might've shut down for an autograph request. Balance in the universe restored. You're welcome.

No, & that part gave me pause as well. Honestly the only thing I can think of is that they're really high on Clark's hit tool, and then from there it's just extrapolation that he's "been compared to Ryan Braun" in part because they're in the same org. Their physiques aren't very similar, & neither is the raw power projection ... at least as far as I'd ever read on Clark.

MILB.com, from today --- Brewers Prospect Primer: Arcia ready to go Good concise writeup, with segments on Arcia, Phillips, Hader, Coulter, Clark, & several more.

Funny -- I actually went to Genoa just to watch a Sampdoria match!

She usually provides some interesting insight anytime a Brewer gets hurt because I ask her about it. She pretty much confirmed that Wil is taking the best course of action right now. Whether he opted for surgery right away or waited to try rehab and then surgery he was going to miss all of or almost all of 2016. Well any time you feel like sharing her insights... there's at least one interested reader here

Curious to know how you mean the studies don't factor in the economic impact of being a big-league city. Genuinely asking, not looking to bait you -- what you note at the end is about pride, not economics. Seattle is a perfect example of a city not losing any luster through losing a pro sports franchise. Has your opinion of Seattle actually been impacted by the Sonics leaving? It wouldn't impact my decision to travel & spend money there, nor would it impact me considering a potential job there. Thanks for doing some digging.

I admit my only knowledge of Holaday is from his stat lines, but he hasn't hit really at any level. If this means the Rangers are actually bowing out of the Lucroy chase, they're settling for a much worse player. I'd be surprised if they are actually out.

Many great jobs? How many everyday taxpayers funding hundreds of millions in tax dollars land a great job at a stadium or basketball arena? This isn't some auto or whatever plant with say 500 to 1000 people or more getting good pay and benefits on a full time job. Most people working inside a stadium or basketball arena are selling concessions, collecting money in the parking lot, scanning tickets, an usher, etc at relatively low pay. They are also even less than a typical part time job. Outside of extra playoff games, it's only 81 games in baseball, 41 in basketball, and 10 in football including two preseason games. Plus, most of the time when states or cities try to lure away a business, it's via some tax breaks, not spending 500 million dollars building them a state of the art new facility, and better jobs come with it than seasonal part time jobs pouring beer and scanning tickets. I fully get that there is also some emotional aspect to sports teams and the sports fans in those cities/states which gets factored in. It just really bothers me at the gall of so many of these very rich sports owners today and their swimming in billions leagues when they ask for new stadiums or arenas, especially given the financial times which so many citizens and cities face. So incredibly tone deaf. Even worse when they try holding a city hostage over a building which isn't falling apart, it's just not making them enough millions compared to fellow owners who more recently blackmailed the city they play in. Jealousy sets in and they think, i want my new free toy also. Out comes the blackmail gun. Rinse and repeat. I won't speak for him, but he may have meant many great jobs during construction. I agree in general though, that taxpayers should not pay for ballparks/stadiums. At least not completely. I can't cite any specific report, but whenever I've seen a stadium economic impact type of study is done (meaning, impact in the community & not just the jobs within the stadium), the finding is that stadia & pro sports franchises do not make a large -- or even positive, relative to the taxpayer expense -- economic impact. It's a bit of a smokescreen imo -- something that sounds like it's probably true, & it's used as an argument literally every time a franchise wants a new stadium. There's definitely an intangible or pride-related value to having a pro sports franchise in your city, but that too often is conflated with economic value when there's debate over a new sports stadium.

I'd have to ask my Physical Therapist wife but based off of some of the things she talks about when it comes to the knee it really depends on which ligament you tear. I asked her about the LCL and she didn't think it was a big deal, especially without surgery. She said he's looking at about 8 weeks. As for the not telling anybody about it, I totally feel there is more to this story but on the other hand you have to think that pro athletes bodies are sore all the time so they don't think much of it as long as that body part still works and moves. Especially is spring training when you're playing everyday after not doing so for the last 4 months. I would be genuinely interested to hear her general opinions on any injury the Brewers have -- recovery time, severity, lasting impact, etc. There was a blog I used to read, done by a physical therapist, where he'd chime in on different injuries around MLB & clarify things like typical recovery time & offering definitions of medical terminology so the lay-person can fully understand. I loved that blog & can't remember its name for the life of me, but I do recall that he shut the blog down after a couple years or so. I love getting a physician's or professional's p.o.v. on injuries & not just going off of beat writers & clubs' messaging. EDIT: I found the old blog! The Disabled List. Man that was a great read.

I think we all know how someone like Tony La Russa feels about this kind of sentimentality in baseball... http://i.imgur.com/qnLMmO7.jpg

This pic is from the JS Online spring training blog, from about a month ago (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/370019671.html). He looks the same to me. http://i.imgur.com/qAymnWS.jpg

I'm right there with you, having turned 50 myself this year... I think it is a generational thing for sure. It is somewhat of a generational issue, but i'm 45 and have zero issues with celebrations today. Same for friends my age who i attend games with. I also think this nonsense of retaliating over petty slights by throwing rock hard baseballs 90 plus mph at hitters which Gossage holds onto as a badge of honor is something i'd come down hard on if i was commissioner. A player could potentially suffer a serious injury from that and all over a petty slight. Passan on Yahoo summed up my thoughts on Gossage perfectly https://sports.yahoo.com/news/why-angry-old-man-goose-gossage-is-wrong-about-baseball-s-past--present-and-future-052208311.html "Goose Gossage, a giant bag of gas that somehow figured out how to grow a mustache, f-bombed his way through the landscape of modern baseball Thursday. In an interview with ESPN, he managed to deride the single best moment of the 2015 season, tie the actions of one man to the shame of an entire ethnicity, advocate for concussions, praise pitches intended to injure opponents, yearn for the days that left pitchers' arms in shambles because of overuse and disparage people far smarter than he'll ever be. It was a glorious festival of buffoonery" I have never been a fan of Passan. But this is glorious.

I completely forgot about Bremer and Blyleven. There's homerism, and then there is these guys. Blyleven manages to make Rock sound both intelligent and funny. Circle me Bert STOP IT. I'm glad to hear BA is working deep into the NCAA tourney, as well. I like him on basketball. Rock, to me, is like a TV baseball friend. I don't agree with everything he says, but he seems like a nice dude, & he has a good rapport with BA. Plus he goes full Jersey accent when he says fastball. I haven't watched much Extra Innings or MLB.tv in the last 5 seasons, but when I lived out of market... let's just say there are a lot of underwhelming broadcast teams. BA & Rock are pretty good.

Glad to hear it. I keep expecting he's worked his last Brewers season & will be courted away by a bigger market/job... and he keeps sticking with Milwaukee. I can only think about his emotion he was when hired, in his initial presser... he might be a bit more loyal than most since the Brewers gave him his shot.

17-yo Christian Pulisic, a USA youth player, made his full Bundesliga debut today for Borrusia Dortmund. Regardless of how he develops, this is a big deal. http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/story/pulisic-makes-first-bundesliga-start-dortmund-take-down-leverkusen-022116

Good that the better of the two defenders is in RF & the poorer is in LF. But this is a 'move' that has almost zero meaning for the result of any season, & especially one in which the W-L total isn't very important.

Knock it off.

Love the ad! Definitely hits home with any Brewers fan. When your manager has the story that Counsell does, why not use it?

Ha! That episode was just on last night. And I'm more & more in agreement on Stearns.

Interesting deal. Seems like Nottingham is a good centerpiece for a good big-leaguer that has his warts in Khrush. I especially like the way Sickels concludes his writeup on Nottingham on the A's 2016 list:

His defense was pretty poor. I know TheCrew07 posted quite a bit about Coulter as a defensive catcher in the MiLB forum Link Reports while Coulter was in Appleton (& TC07 could watch him in person). You could probably go through some of those threads & get some solid info. In short, he wasn't good at blocking pitches & in general didn't look like a natural fit at C.