TooLiveBrew

I responded here, since that's what we're discussing.

It could be considered young or even average. No, not really. It's just a bad system, compared to the rest of the league. It's a stretch to try & call it average, because it isn't. When you start praising a MiLB system for being young, you know there's not really much else good to say. Sort of like 'She's got a great personality'. Our MiLB system has a great personality right now. That's not to say there aren't talented young players in the system. Just that when you compare the Brewers' around the league, it's not good.

On the 2011 pitching staff -- He gave a great interview, for sure. Thanks for linking that, Mass Haas. EDIT: I lose so much weight over the season. If you look at the beginning -- the Spring Training picture -- to the end of the season, I mean, it's pretty ridiculous. My metabolism is just off the charts for some reason. I'm not a big guy, you guys know that; I'm not one of the bigger catchers in the big leagues, so I've gotta work my butt off to gain as much weight as I can, you know, to give myself some leeway -- something to work with during the season, you know? 'Cause I'm gonna burn it off -- I don't know how, man, 'cause I eat so much; I eat my butt off with all the food we get over there. So, it still don't matter -- it's ridiculous. So, for me, I try to gain as much weight as I can [in the offseason]. And, the best... And for the fans, our fans... I come to the field jacked up, pumped up, ready to rumble. And bring it, 'cause we're gonna need everybody we can get. I just found my new signature.

We support both these trades for top of the line starting pitching. You know, I have to admit that I keep forgetting the Brewers traded for Marcum, too. Sorry Shaun!

Wow. What an excellent story, almost as good as Trevor is a person.

That's a good read. If I haven't said so already, Josh, please send my best wishes to Lo & JJ. I'll definitely be rooting for them even as Royals.

there is a very good chance that i would end up as the Pittsburgh Pirates of your league. Never! (I'm actually the Pirates)... and yeah, I know what you meant http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Sounds like fun. How time consuming is this? Like Sam said, you get out of it what you put in. I'm basically addicted to it at this point; I love it.

The only films of those that I've seen & recommend are Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood, & The Natural. I've heard good things about Zodiac & American Psycho but haven't seen them.

The sim league I'm in currently has two vacancies. The league runs on OOTP 6.5. While that's obviously not the newest version, the league itself is great. It's run by a standalone commissioner (meaning he doesn't run a team... not sure how common or uncommon that is) who runs sims every day. The league is in its 89th live season (1989) & has a good roster of active GMs. We don't use financial settings, so there's no such thing as big & small market teams. Plus no annoying contracts to deal with. Baseball players the way they were in the good ol' days -- indentured servants! Here are the online reports (standings, rosters, stats, etc.). The vacant teams are Boston & Cincy. OOTP 6.5 has a total cost of $30.00 ($20 for OOTP 6, $10 for the 6.5 patch), and it's PC-only, if that matters for anyone. Sam (sbrylski06) can vouch for how sweet this league is, as a former longtime GM. You definitely have to want to be an active participant for the league to be fun, since it moves along so (relatively) quickly & has a lot of good GMs. But if that's something that sounds appealing, we'd love to have you. I'd be happy to answer questions or address concerns anyone might have.

Overbay's a pretty good comparison, DHonks. Imo the main difference is that Mat has more raw power in his swing than Lyle did.

I admit I haven't seen much of Milledge play, but he doesn't look like a good defensive outfielder in my small viewing sample. I would bet on him not being able to play centerfield well enough to be useful there, but that's just me.

All of the Yuku links in this thread seem to no longer exist, casey. They all re-direct to the main Yuku help page.

I think Schafer will spend at least half of the year in Nashville, but he's probably got a decent shot at the CF job in Milwaukee come mid-season. Even though I'm a pretty big believer in Chris Dickerson, & think a Dickerson/Gomez platoon would be effective, there's certainly no guarantee the Brewers will be getting good production from CF this season. Really good to hear how confident Nichols is in Schafer.

Besides the comment by Gamel that he really didn't enjoy the OF, has anyone talked about how he did at the corner spots? I have not seen anything on that. The only comment from Mat about new positions I remember is this one:

Iirc he didn't 'pull a stunt' in ST 2010, he just got hurt. I think Gamel will be on the MLB bench this season. Since the 40-man is full, I don't think DM is going to go out & sign a 1B/3B backup. I hope I'm wrong, though, as I think Mat would benefit from regular playing time at 1B in AAA.

Haha, good point. Not sure why I felt the need to create a different hypothetical than just using Yo like two seasons ago.

I wouldn't put The Hurt Locker on a war movies list. I was very underwhelmed by it. Way too much 'cowboy' element to the lead character; completely ruined any sense of realism imo. I had really high expectations for the movie, and it just isn't as good as it's hyped to be.

On a basic level, I completely agree with TheCrew07's approach to team-building. I like his mention of Ted Thompson as being more representative of his p.o.v. than Melvin, because I think that's a useful way to depict his philosophy here in Packerland. Where I feel there's the disconnect is (like others have already mentioned) the realism angle. I get that TheCrew07 isn't inherently bashing Marcum or Greinke, but instead the trading for (relatively) expensive pitchers that aren't in their early 20s, & aren't far off from free agency. I also think that I would prefer to have seen Melvin make a trade for a young, cost-controlled pitcher that fits into TheCrew07's top tier, in terms of stuff. The problem goes beyond how hard it's become to pry away young, cost-controlled pitching in trades. It's also that the subset of pitchers that would qualify on TheCrew07's checklist is approaching minute. TheCrew07 & I have discussed this topic many times, and I probably came across as more argumentative in my response post in this thread than I intended to be. I think if I could trim my reaction down, it would be: What pitchers *are* enough to satisfy your criteria? What's the going rate to acquire such talent, & is that a feasible long-term team-building plan? Where's the evidence that enough of these types of trades can be orchestrated to be a successful strategy, long-term? Those are the issues I'd want to hear him address the most. And I'd genuinely like to read his responses to them, & not just dismiss them automatically. I was a bit incredulous that anyone felt like knocking Greinke's stuff, age, & impact. I understand that TC07's main beef is that Greinke is only two seasons away from free agency. However, short of trading for Tommy Hanson, I just don't see how any single pitcher that is realistically available via trade fits his criteria any better than Greinke. That was part of why I was incredulous, too -- if Greinke doesn't fit the bill for you, TC07, honestly, I'm not sure satisfaction is out there for you. Knowing TC07's approach, I feel pretty confident saying his target would be someone like Tommy Hanson. But I don't feel confident that the Braves would have entertained the idea of dealing away probably the most valuable pitcher in baseball, going by his own criteria. I mean, if Hanson were already on the Brewers, I certainly wouldn't view him as anything but untouchable. Why would I want Brett Lawrie+Alcides Escobar+Jeremy Jeffress+ Lorenzo Cain when I already have Tommy Hanson?

He got Hernandez extended, and like you guys have mentioned has only had 2 seasons. I'd be really surprised if he's actually on the hot seat (as opposed to just talking head speculation).

The dancing is a peripheral part of the story, basically. It's there, but you don't have to have any kind of appreciation for ballet to enjoy the movie imo. I've never even seen Swan Lake performed, as ashamed as I am to admit that. TL;DR -- Black Swan contains Swan Lake spoilers! Omg! Last year I agreed to watch "Slumdog Millionaire" in exchange for having a friend watch "Star Wars." She thought it was the stupidest movie she's ever seen. Yeah!? Well your friend is stupid!

Repsonded in the Greinke thread, TheCrew07

Responding here to a post from the MiLB forum's "Brewers have worst MiLB system in baseball" This time 2 years from now Greinke will be turning 29 and physically on the downside of his career, quickly approaching the injury apex in the average pitcher's career cycle. His stuff is better than Gallardo now, but they'll be pretty similar in 2 years, and overall his stuff isn't in that top tier, he's in that next group down. I'd appreciate if you'd lay out which pitchers are in your top tier. I think that's pretty arbitrary to hold against Melvin, since the King Felixes & Freaks of the world aren't available for trade. I really don't think anything realistic will satisfy you at this point. It's one thing to demand excellence from an organization, it's another thing entirely to demand a constant stream of pre-arby players that are all-star caliber. No one does that. Not even the Rays, who I agree are a model franchise. An interesting side note is that Yo's average velocity actually climbed last season... at any rate Greinke had 1 season he pitched like an Ace, I think he's comfortably a very good #2 and if he gets in an extended groove he can pitch like Ace, but statistically he's not an Ace, the stats for his career just don't bear that out. And Greinke's increased in '07, decreased in '08, increased in '09, & decreased in '10. For pete's sake, the guy is entering his age-27 season, and even in a down season he still qualified statistically as an ace by xFIP, FIP, & tERA. ERA is where he didn't, but his strand rate was so far out of norms that I can't bring myself to be concerned. At this point, I think you need to clarify how you mean he isn't an ace, statistically, because even in what for him was a poor season, he was. This time 2 years from now Greinke will be turning 29 and physically on the downside of his career, quickly approaching the injury apex in the average pitcher's career cycle. So who do you trade for? Which pre-arby ace caliber guy are you able to pry away from a team with the talent the Brewers had available this offseason? We know for a fact that Melvin chased after Clay Buchholz in '09, so from an outsider's p.o.v. I believe it's more fair to assume he's pursuing ideas like that, as opposed to claiming that's probably the one isolated incident. With that, it's fair to argue that Melvin *is* out there trying to make deals for pre-arby impact arms happen. But this is where your strategy is always brought to a halt -- teams aren't trading guys like that now as a general rule. And that's not based on Brewers examples, there were plenty of 'hot stove' rumors this offseason that mentioned some variation of 'teams just aren't trading pre-arby arms'. For as much as you criticize Melvin for not making the types of trades, and saying there's one or no examples of him trying to do so, you yourself can only point to a small collection of trades that have happened over the past four or so seasons across the entire league. You can't build a system when your best-case scenario is making one type of trade (that fits your standards) every three seasons or so. Not to mention that the price is so high to get these guys now that there's a chance you're cutting off your nose to spite your face in terms of prospects. I'd also appreciate seeing a list of trades that would meet your standard, just so we have a frame of reference as to what types of deals you're talking about making. Iirc you like the Jair Jurrgens deal for Atlanta, so there's one. I'd really appreciate seeing several more, especially if one team has been responsible for multiple deals like this in a short timespan.

Christian Guzman's a guy I hadn't considered previously, not a bad idea. If he does use a guy like Punto instead and Punto doesn't hit and doesn't make spectacular looking plays in the field, the fans are going to be complaining that he never gave Betancourt a shot. It might be crazy, but it certainly could be the case. Some fans wanted Rickie Weeks DFA'd not too long ago. I'm very glad Melvin doesn't worry about what fans think over what he knows to be best. I don't really expect Melvin to make a move for anyone else at this point. I think a Counsell/Betancourt platoon would be ok, as long as Craig would hold up to a relatively significant bump in playing time. I suppose a Furcal trade once the season gets going is possible.

The Rays have done a magnificent job of building talent. They haven't done a good job of building a baseball franchise that their fans want to come out to see If Tampa hasn't done a good job building a *franchise* their fans want to come out to see, then their fans either don't understand what a good product on the field is, or don't (& will not) care about the Rays. I know there are transportation issues, but a team that wants to bring fans to the park would find ways, with creative ticket packages, buses to the park, whatever it takes ESPN ranked the Rays as the most affordable team of the 4 major pro sports in America in 2009, and last year they finished 3rd. For 2011, they're offering seven different versions of season ticket packages. They offer family ticket discounts on Sundays. Even with unique challenges like transportation, you can really only expect an organization to do so much. The Rays run a quality organization & offer some of the most affordable prices in the country. When you put a good product on the field, don't charge much, & your attendance is weak, I'm sorry but the finger has to be pointed more at the fans.

I could easily see it. Prince has commented how he thinks he's a better defensive player than he gets credit for. Plus the 1B types that are destined for DH-dom often state they want to sign with a team that will let them play defense (Adam Dunn for a recent example -- Nats contract, not ChiSox). Lance Berkman's another just off the top of my head.