TooLiveBrew

The gf & I bought our tickets for this one during the half-off sale the Brewers ran. Not only do we get to see Gallardo pitch, but Volquez too. I'm pumped up. Hopefully the Brewers can put on some fireworks & knock Volquez out of the game.

Wow the Rays' TV numbers have jumped big-time this season.

Gamel gave that ball a ride, off a lefty no less. Great catch by Hoffman.

Mark J. Miller didn't do a thorough job in describing the Phillies' "radar". His quote is: "As for the Phillies, other starting pitchers on the team's radar include the Pittsburgh Pirates' Paul Maholm, Milwaukee Brewers' Dave Bush and Baltimore Orioles' Jeremy Guthrie, according to the Philadelphia Daily News." The Philly Daily News didn't state that these three pitchers are on the Phillies' radar, what you find in the article Miller links to is the following: "The Phillies could also attempt to trade for one of several middle-of-the-rotation pitchers who could be available, including Pittsburgh's Paul Maholm, Milwaukee's Dave Bush and Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie." What Miller missed is that David Murphy mentioning those three names was just him speculating, not anything he'd heard from the club.

What are they waiting for? Pay the man before he gets too expensive. Too late, I think.

Charter... is... awful. Well done.

You don't? You called the Diamondbacks vapid, you said Macha isn't smart, you are constantly ripping on the Journal staff. I think the deal they made wasn't smart, I think Macha does dumb things like all managers, and add me to the long, long line that recognizes that the JS beat reporters aren't anything to write home about & chats on a message board about it. So two instances, plus me being one of many that doesn't care for much of the JS writing now = "incessant need"? Not really. Since you don't know the budgetary constraints of the Dbacks, you need to defend calling them vapid. Clearly I've hit a nerve with you not only now but along the way. Sorry you don't like reading some or many of my posts. I believe that contending teams could have beaten this offer, it's just not special, and I think accepting this offer was an unintelligent move by the Diamondbacks. If you could elaborate on the budgetary constraints of the DBacks, I'd appreciate it. The problem is that neither one of us can realistically know, since MLB clubs' books aren't open. I'd like to know how they're so cash-strapped that holding onto a guy I believe is one of the best pitchers in baseball that they couldn't afford to pay him the remainder of his pretty affordable 2010 salary. Keeping Haren until the offseason would have yeilded a better return than this one, and would have been a good investment. By my crude estimate, the DBacks owed Haren around $1.4M the rest of the way. If $1M to 2M was such a huge priority, there are plenty of other players they could have moved for the sake of clearing salary instead of settling for an underwhelming return on their most valuable pitching trade chip. The market this offseason would have potentially been huge on Haren, since there are so few top-level arms on the FA market (given that Lee is all but assured to be a Yankee).

To me, "decent three-pitch reportoire" means solid but not great -- I would personally infer that he has one, maybe two plus pitches, but not three. If he sits 91-93 as a reliever, I'd guess he'd be in the 88-91 range as a starter.

Responding to a post in the Transactions forum Fielder trade thread Obviously no, I don't. I am confident that Haren is better than his recent performance, his K/9, BB/9, and xFIP rates are all very similar to the prior two seasons, as are his LD, GB, & FB rates. The two main things that stand out are his BABIP (.350, career .304) & HR/FB rate (13.9%, career 11.1%) Clearly, given DBacks' interim GM Jerry Dipoto's comments, the move was largely driven by the fact that Saunders's W% is good -- that he's a "winner". Maybe "crap deal" was too harsh. Maybe "deal that many organizations could've beaten" would be more appropriate. I really don't know where you come up with me having an incessant need to call baseball people stupid. Frankly, the comments made by Dipoto on Saunders were stupid, and he continued in that vein on Corbin Winning percentage wasn't the only reason the DBacks accepted this offer, but it certainly played a much larger role in the decision-making process than I (& clearly many others) think it should have. Dipoto is placing a tangible value on the fact that Saunders (and to a lesser extent, Corbin) is a "winner". That's an awful criterion to use, but it seems a main component of his decision. Just in the quoted excerpts in the azcentral.com link, he mentions Saunders's "winningness" three separate times.

And the apparent vapidity of the Arizona front office

He was just asleep at the wheel while Dan Haren was given away. Yeah, fire Melvin and those 15-20 or so other non-cellar-dweller GMs that missed on Haren I really hate that kind of knee-jerk, reactionary stuff. The DBacks gave Haren away for a crap deal. You have zero way of knowing whether or not Melvin even had the chance to beat the Angels' offer, and zero way of knowing whether or not he actually did but the DBacks were stupid enough that they liked LAA's offer better.

It has seemed that all year long that whenever the team picks up some momentum, Wolf 'Soups it up', and turns in a stinker start putting them in a hole early. I'm curious if this statement is actually true. Randy Wolf is hardly going to key a push as massive as the one the Brewers would require to get back into the playoff race.

Except that Sheets didn't want to come back to Milwaukee. I would have preferred it too, but there was zero chance of it happening.

I don't see any necessary connection between Gerut making a rehab start & Hart being traded.

These comments are coming from people that have watched both players play in almost every game over the last 2-3 years. I respect that, but that doesn't mean I agree with the fans' decision. Logan summed up my thoughts neatly. Fans are not professional talent evaluators, and I hope you don't take offense that I'll take the talent evaluators' opinions over yours. I would take a talent evaluator's opinion over mine, fwiw. Even if Gamel makes a mistake at 1B that mistake really isn't going to hurt the team all that much. I agree, we see frequent mistakes/miscues/misplays on defense with Fielder.

he's not nearly as bad as manny ramirez in the of but no one was screaming for him to play 1b. Manny is over ten years older than Braun & is one of the worst defensive OFs in the history of the game. Being better than him really isn't a compliment. Not to mention that Braun hasn't hit anywhere close to a Manny Ramirez level. While Manny clearly sucks in the field, he was an elite bat for a stretch of at least 12 seasons. Braun has been a very bad defender wherever he's played in the bigs, and lacks any kind of instincts, even at LF. Body type or not, his best defensive position is easily 1B. I think he'll be a LF for some time to come, though.

Lefty Zach Braddock -- who threw a bullpen session Sunday morning -- was unavailable as he has been for the past few days to get some extra rest. Braddock's velocity was done in his last outing on Monday in Pittsburgh, but after a good bullpen session Sunday, he is expected to be available again on Monday. Link

The D-Backs did a terrible job of finding a return for Haren. 'We will only move him for two very good pitching prospects' turned into this deal? I really like the move by the Angels. I don't think it was for this year as much as it was to have Haren beyond '10.

Yes, but marijuana wouldn't get him banned anymore. Since he's on the 40-man roster, he'd have to violate MLB's drug policy.

I've had the talk with the fans around me. We would all take Adam Heether over Mat Gamel. This is one example of why I'm glad fans aren't allowed to run franchises EDIT: And thanks, battlekow, for not only giving me info on Money's quotes, but doing so verbatim. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I don't have Windows Media Player, and really don't want to have to get it (not a fan of it). Would someone be kind enough to summarize Money's general points on Gamel's defense?

Link In essence, Jim Edmonds just begged to be traded to a contender. Flip him for just about anything you can get in terms of youth at this point. This line cracked me up from Edmonds: “I still have the same instincts I’ve always had and I really haven’t lost a step because I never had a step to begin with. I’m going to play until I can’t play anymore, and that will be it.”

Yes, definitely positive. Not surprisingly, the comment was not from professional Manny Parra hater AW.

Wasn't basing it off of what he said just stating that when you have something being said like that for a player it usually means they stink and you just want to find something nice to say about them. My point was that I took it as 804Sox's own insight, not him regurgitating it from scouting reports.

I think that has a lot to do with the listed 11.1% LD rate. If that's accurate, then yes. But I find it basically impossible to believe, and wonder if whoever's categorizing LD rate for Huntsville is listing too many as FBs. If you adjust Lawrie's stats for just park factors, his OPS is actually higher than his actual rate. It's all about whether or not he's been "lucky", and as has been noted elsewhere, you're absolutely lucky if you OPS north of .800 with a ~10% LD rate. Cain also has an anemic (13.2%) LD rate, and of course just like Lawrie, if you adjust his line for park, it increases. Adjust it for luck, and it crashes below .700. Something's likely off in how the batted balls are being categorized imo.