TooLiveBrew

Casey has been awful so far this year. Really frustrating. It really seems to me that all he's done since his big partial first season is get less athletic, heavier, & decline in general.

Am I the only one who hopes Boggs declines the assignment and becomes a free agent? I don't hope that, but when I saw that assignment during the broadcast last night, I thought to myself that if I were Boggs, I'd probably look to go elsewhere. I mean, when an organization has you behind Mark Kotsay & Erick Almonte, not only do you not have a great shot at playing time, but you'd have to question the overall judgment of the organization.

Hitter: Khris Davis (as noted, his production in such a pitchers' environment is very impressive) Pitcher: Amaury Rivas (put him ahead of Ross due to AAA v. A-)

I love Rickie Weeks. But when Rickie Weeks is far & away your best defender in the infield, you've got problems.

A sprain of a ligament *is* a tear. Just not a full tear.

Kotsay's staying on the roster? Almonte might, too? http://danawesome.netau.net/images/Emotions/okay%20with%20words.png

I'm surprised you think he'd be better than Gamel with the glove. Mat's problem has never been his fielding, it's his throwing. Not sure how easy it would be to transition to 1B after playing LF-only for a couple seasons.

Here's the excellent Jeff Isom scouting report on Davis from last season:

I'm trying to enact a personal ban from this topic, but that was one heckuva play he made in the first inning today. I would love to see more like it.

I'll I hear about is this lack of range. Take the play that Weeks overthrew last night. A SS with MLB-average range gets to that ball (on the SS side of the 2B bag, no less) & Weeks doesn't feel like he has to try to be Superman & try to make one of the most spectacular plays in his career. It was a pretty routine grounder to SS, not hit hard, but Betancourt didn't even try to get there before Weeks. I will admit I could be wrong about this, but I don't remember that being one of RRR's drastic shifts, either. No one is complaining that Betancourt has stone hands, or a poor arm. He has the range of a 3Bman, & the Brewers are trying to pass him off as an everyday defender at SS.

That's funny. I think I'd just gotten used to the idea of Shaggy Grienke for the whole season.

Disclaimer: The following is not intended to be dumping as much on Gennett as it will probably seem... I didn't want to start a thread that would be so negative, but I really am looking for some convincing on Scooter Gennett. I *want* to believe, I really do. He's just so small, and limited to 2B on defense. Can the believers explain why not to have doubts about his long-term projectability? I know he hit pretty well at low-A last season, and I know BC & the FSL are in a tough hitters environment. But he's listed at 5'9 & 164 lbs., and looks every bit of that in person. Does a player that small have a realistic chance to fill out enough to hit for more than just singles power at the big-league level? Before you go all Dustin Pedroia on me, I think it's wise to note how much of an exception Pedroia is. On top of that, in his age-21 season (which Gennett is in this year), Pedroia mashed at AA & held his own -- comparable slash line to Scooter's in BC so far -- at AAA. Pedroia's listed at 5'9" & 180 lbs., I suppose that's not an unrealistic top-end playing weight for Scooter. Alright, so now that I've tainted the discussion by comparing these two very directly, I'd really like to hear other reasons to believe in Gennett -- swing, defense, etc. I'm just concerned that Gennett might only wind up developing into a backup caliber 2B-only player.

WAR: 0.2 (only 7 regular-ish SSs have been worse so far) wOBA: .291 (only 9 regular-ish SSs have been worse so far) That is a bad player. He has been bad, and does not project to be good. I understand people rallying around a whipping-boy, but let's not forget facts here. I'm all for moving on, but the constant complaining about how he's not bad just isn't true.

I really should've waited longer to post, as I'm sure you were right on your way to remind everyone that after tonight's game, his OBP is back under the .300 mark. Not that it's really relevant anyway... sample size is still way too small to be drawing important conclusions... and, as brewers19 noted, a .300 OBP still really sucks. The general argument is that, over the course of the entire season, Betancourt is going to hurt the team. Not that over stretches of 15 games he might help the team. You know the overall state of the team is good, though, when the biggest BF.net argument is over whether Betancourt TOTALLY SUCKS, or is just bad.

Nice nightt Mat! How anyone can doubtt whetther or nott he'll hitt att tthe big-league level is justt beyond me. Mat the Batt This is such an awesome nickname

It's funny, you can tell he'd rather be doing absolutely anything else, but he still gives straightforward, honest answers. He doesn't just give the stock baseball cliche answers, he gets in depth with his responses. Yeah, Zack is definitely a good interview, which is really cool considering that this kind of thing is probably really frustrating or annoying to him. He seems to be very fair about interviews, and I actually like his approach to them -- only doing them on the days he pitches, but giving really thoughtful & insightful responses when it *is* time to give the interviews. "Have to talk to the bosses... we'll see." -- that response made me chuckle (about whether he could pitch next Weds.)

He may not have even reached his offensive peak yet. This is a recurring comment that I should have considered a bit more carefully in creating this topic. I tend to agree, and can't fault anyone for disagreeing with me that he's fully reached his potential... which is scary-awesome.

Chris notes Post-Crescent beat writer Mike Woods's tweets on the Garfield injury: - Catcher Cameron Garfield, 2nd-round pick of Brewers in 09, looks to have suffered knee injury. Had to be helped off field after play at plate. - There was no collision, looks to have caught a cleat. Scream was pretty loud. Tough break for Garfield. Good thing, he’s just 19. That doesn't sound very good. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

"I proceeded to go to Macy’s and exchange them on my own instead of talking to the clerk. I set the six shirts down and got the correct sizes myself, walked out and they stopped me." Even an idiot would know you can't just do this... right? "Exchange them on my own"? Seriously?

Many scouts will think this is too low for the Vanderbilt star, but that’s a reflection of the overall talent level in this draft, not a negative reflection on Gray. This draft is exciting.

Saw Jimmy Nelson was pretty excited to pick up some of the free posters the T-Rats were giving out as an all-fan giveaway tonight. The featured player? None other than Jimmy Nelson http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Whoa... when I read "Rogers: ... getting ready for my surgery", my heart skipped a beat

I'm concerned about the velocity drop (didn't watch the last game but supposedly the fastball topped at 91) If he's indeed having trouble repeating his release point and/or delivery, I could see a velocity drop accompanying that. I'm not worried... yet http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

One has to presume his left hamstring strain bothered him again although Saito was cleared to pitch after two simulated sessions. That's the direct quote... I assume you're correct, but all TH provided was speculation.

Tired of the Betancourt discussions. I'd like to talk about something awesome. Rickie Weeks was a polarizing figure for many seasons on BF.net. But I'm not sure I've ever seen a player go so far to fulfill extremely lofty expectations like I've seen with Weeks. One thing he was criticized for was having "potential", but not being close to realizing it... and that he probably never would. He has realized his potential on both offense & defense -- he's an asset in the field, not just better than awful. And his offense... I'm not sure that anyone on the Brewers hits the ball harder, consistently, than Weeks. The Rickie Weeks Experience has been an awesome ride. He's grown so far, both on offense & defense; it's just a joy to watch him play every day for me. Not only is he an outstanding talent, but he hustles his butt off. Hard not to like a guy like that. Just for some perspective, here are some comments about Weeks from years past (no usernames, to protect the innocent): - Weeks' chance is slipping away quickly. If he does not develop into an adequate defensive and offensive player by the end of this year, it will probably force the Brewers' hand into making some type of move. - Rickie Weeks cannot hit. I'm sorry. Hopefully, I'll be proven very wrong, and soon. But there are only so many excuses you can tolerate. ... He hasn't shown that he can "hit" since AAA.- it's time to stop the hand holding. Rickie needs to prove he belongs or get used to sitting on the bench.- While Rickie Weeks may not be a career .225 hitter, I don't think he is a .457 hitter either, so I prefer to stop going back to this fallacy argument about his "potential" as a reason to have him as our 2nd baseman for the next 10 years.- He's still very raw and may very well develop into a solid baseball player, but right now he's not even close...I'd call him a toolsy guy that hasn't learned how to play the game yet. It's tough to consider giving up on him, but it's also tough watching him repeatedly make the same rookie mistakes that he's made before.