TooLiveBrew

In limited observation, Lucroy appears to be pretty tough to strike out, but he also appears relatively poor at drawing walks. He's so tough to strike out, however (imo), that that skill will eventually translate into more walks. I think his ability to cover the plate and foul off pitches will translate into more walks as his discipline progresses & he's able to lay off pitches well outside the strike zone.

While I think I've always tempered my expectations, I absolutely agree that Brendan deserves a shot. I think he'll get it come ST 2011, but I hope that specific ST isn't the only performance of his that's considered. An outfield of Braun--Cain--Hart--Dickerson--Katin would be just fine by me. It'd be relatively cheap, to boot.

TB closer Soriano "untucked" after tonight's win against the Red Sox. Someone needs to pass this along to Cardinals fans.

Link Peter Gammons tweet: No specifics on the deal as of yet. The MLBTradeRumors post mentioned that the Dodgers were mulling over taking the cost savings, or 3B prospect Jon Gilmore back from Chicago.

Kelly was ranked 21, 21 and 14 overall by Jim Callis, Will Lingo and John Manuel in their individual top 50 prospect lists. Odorizzi was drafted two slots lower than Kelly (signing for $2M less), and has been brought along a little more patiently, but really, what's the difference between the two? You nailed it perfectly -- the organizations they play for. If he were a Red Sox farmhand, or some other more prominent nationally recognized team, he wouldn't be classified as "borderline anything. And we'd probably hear about how reluctant the Red Sox would be to part with such a vaunted pitching prospect in numerous trade rumors. "The Red Sox really like [Player X], but can't justify giving up the #20 rated prospect in the entire league."

I keep seeing these types of comments from many posters, and I'm not sure I see any evidence of it. Who are all of the young/unproven players he hasn't played? A comment he made about Cain, prior to Cain 'proving himself' sticks out to me as an apparent part of Macha's philosophy on young/unproven players: That was from a McCalvy blog post back on July 22d. Hat tip to logan for posting it in the "Mr Cain goes to Milwaukee" thread (post #217), because that was the first correct search result via Google. Macha's instinct was that Cain wouldn't be able to handle MLB pitching, and that it would even go as far as to set back his development. For me, it's not any one specific case, but just an overall opinion that Macha doesn't handle prospects/unproven players well. Maybe he didn't play Gamel for reasons other than he is young and unproven. It's a good point, as is the fact that McGehee was unproven. Perhaps what Macha is more about is 'Are you giving me results right now?', as opposed to, 'Those darn kids!'. That's fine as a managerial philosophy when the goal is to "Just win, baby!", but the Brewers are almost always going to need to be winning as many games as possible while still allowing young players to develop. My concern is a prospect has to be allowed to both succeed & fail, without fearing that his performance tomorrow might cost him his job. My guesses on Escobar are that either Melvin gave an order that Alcides would play fulltime, or that Alcides had already proven himself to Macha last September. With Gamel, no one in the F.O. has seemed concerned about how Gamel was or has been handled, so I think Mat's assumed attitude problem/sense of entitlement is in the mix there. The 'Lucroy called up' thread includes some frustrated posts that he was called up & wasn't getting enough playing time. Once Kottaras slumped, that changed. Lucroy started 4 of his first 12 MLB games; it seemed to take Kottaras going into a mini-slump (1-for-17 from 7.4 - 7.9) for Lucroy to get regular playing time. From 7.10 through the end of July, Lucroy started 15 of 19 games -- right in line with what's regarded as being a regular starter behind the plate. Obviously Lucroy has been the regular catcher since. Imo since Lucroy is a better defender, he's giving Macha good production, hence Jonathan keeping his job despite hitting poorly. Perhaps it was entirely coincidental, and Kottaras just happened to go into a mini-slump right at the moment Macha started to believe Lucroy had soaked in enough of MLB and was ready for more full-time duty. I really have no way of being certain; my thoughts on Macha are just me trying to interpret events. It seemed like Edmonds played ahead of Gomez nearly any time Macha got the chance (feelings on Gomez aside, he needed all the everyday playing time he could get to see how he could develop). Hoffman had to really disprove himself before Axford took over the #1 job in the bullpen. I recall feeling like Braddock wasn't trusted right away after being called up, either (but that could easily just be confirmation bias on my part).

If you were playing FIFA 07, I'd say go with Santos. I tore up the Brazilian league with Mascherano, Tevez, and Nilmar! I can't believe I'm not the only one that still plays '07. I love that game.

Overall, Macha really isn't that bad. He doesn't make the glaring matchup mistakes a guy like Yost did (repeatedly, no less). Macha's only real downfall to me is that he isn't comfortable playing guys that haven't 'proven themselves' to him. Playing young players full-time is an important part of managing a smaller-market team like the Brewers. Not sure how I feel about him overall, but I'm 100% positive the Brewers could be a lot worse at manager.

Not sure about the '10 rosters, but Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Stuttgart, & Hamburg (HSV) rounded out the top 7 finishers in the real-world Bundesliga last season (Bayern Munich & Schalke finished 1-2). Whatever you do, imo you definitely want a team that's talented enough to hang with B.Munich, Liverpool, & FC Barça -- three of the best club teams in the world. EDIT: I'd also say consider what kind of style (4-4-2, 4-3-3, etc.) you work with best, and see which teams have players to match your style.

"9th inning: McClendon walked Andrew McCutchen to start the inning and Young singled with one out, causing Macha to bring in Trevor Hoffman. He got the next two outs without trouble to earn his 599th save." Yeah. Unless you call that mammoth shot off the bat of Garrett Jones, in a 2-0 count... which narrowly missed being a 3-run HR... "trouble".

"We don't like calling up players unless they're going to play," added Melvin. Put your money where your mouth is, Melvin, and don't let Gamel rot on the bench.

Another top pick that struggled out of the gates as a pro, only to rebound just fine, was a guy that turned in a .254/.339/.333/.673 line in the Sally League right out of college... that'd be the #8 overall pick in 1995, Todd Helton.

...small sample disclaimer... Jim Edmonds since joining Reds: 49 OPS+ Chris Dickerson since joining Brewers: 105 OPS+ I'm still not really sure why Jocketty thought this would be a good idea.

My guess is Bush gone, Josh Butler to take his place in the rotation. Butler started on Tuesday for Nashville, and would be on regular rest to go on Sunday. Don't ask me to explain anything beyond that, though... really not sure why the Bush move took place when it did.

Stevie Ray Vaughn is awesome. I'm sorry you didn't get to see him play http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif (btw, didn't mean that I did see him play)

I think it's that the claiming team that has priority can: 1) Work out a trade for the claimed player, 2) Take on the player without sending another player in return, 3) Pass I might not be right about all three of those, but I'm pretty sure the first two are correct.

Just as listing a resource on this stuff, I usually enjoy reading the stuff at Driveline Mechanics. Looks like the site is down for now, to be rebooted soon (or so it says). Agree on the Chris O'Leary's The Pitching Mechanic, good stuff there.

For Lawrie, physically I'd say Dan Uggla... with the caveat that I've never seen either guy in person. http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:uVeWCBPKviiDvM:http://www.hollywoodcollectibles.com/catalog/images/autographed/memorabilia/sports/collectibles/authentic/Baseball/8x10%20Photos/Dan_Uggla_Batting_8x10.jpg&t=1 http://www.portersprospects.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/brett-lawrie.jpg Sorry, couldn't find two pictures all that close in size, but I like the similar angles in these. And wow did I just get excited thinking about adding a Dan Uggla-caliber bat in another season or two http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I thought I read that the move to the bullpen was Jeffress's idea, not the Brewers'. I really, really want to see him in Milwaukee come September.

To be fair, his injury is technically what pushed him over a year of service time.

trwi7, your dog looks like he starred in Men In Black thanks to his human-like pose there http://images.usatoday.com/life/_photos/2002/06-28-frank-inside.jpg

Will Rogers need another season in the minors to build up his workload? He only threw 64.2 IP in '09, and is at 110 so far this season. I guess he could just throw his 150-ish IP next season at the big-league level, so maybe having him in the #5 role would allow the Brewers to skip some of his starts to make sure he can pitch later in the season.

I once saw Tom Trebelhorn sitting in my allergist's waiting room while I was waiting there, too. Even though my dad encouraged me to go talk to him, I was too much of a wuss to do so (I was like 9 or 10, and totally intimidated).

Steve Wendt mentioned that Thornburg has been throwing in the mid-90s this summer (no radar gun available tonight) while tossing a spike curveball and what he called a 'bugs bunny' changeup. Even if that's a bit overstated, or homer-ized, that sounds like a pretty darn impressive arsenal for Tyler.

I don't think so. He showed no real decrease in velocity until the Hanley Ramirez line drive. That's what I think led to the decrease in his velocity.