TooLiveBrew

http://brewersfandemonium...Salome.html#reply-614415 http://brewersfandemonium...Salome.html#reply-614898 At this point, it seems like an indefinite leave of absence for Angel. Hopefully we can get some more up-to-date info soon.

Figured an update would be appropriate. Prior to play today, his line is .375/.434/.500/.934 in 53 plate appearances. With a .405 BABIP, I think it's safe to say he'll cool off, but he's been great in his limited time so far.

Just wanted to post a feel-good note about Braddock. He's struck out 28 batters in 16 AAA innings (15.8 K/9) this season, and 281 in 214 career MiLB innings (11.8 K/9). This guy is absolutely filthy.

This thread made me check out the Cubs' stats for the first time this season. Lee & Ramirez have been brutal, Soriano has been outstanding (along with the rest of the starting OF in Byrd & Fukudome). Soto is off to a great start as well. Carlos Marmol's ERA+ right now is 348. Their pitching as a whole has been strong. I don't see why they don't just call Samardzija back up instead of signing Howry.

[saunders is] amongst the top 30 prospects in the game. I don't know how much higher up that prospect list we're going to get in a return for Fielder. Saunders also bats lefty, which would be nice, and he could allow us to move Hart if he's still hot. That's what worries me. Saunders is clearly a talented player, no doubt. But he doesn't address a real need within the organization. Gamel could fill in at RF, or Cain, or a FA signing. You can't sign high-upside power arms unless you overpay in dollars & years, something the Brewers literally & figuratively can't afford to do. I have to admit I know nothing about Pineda & Hensley, fwiw The other thing I'd say here is that nothing should preclude the Brewers from moving Hart if they find a solid deal.

Well, I feel better today. Do I think this team can be a legit playoff contender this year? I do not. But at least they're finally making moves based on talent rather than money and "respecting veterans." Yeah, I agree completely. It feels good today, and honestly that has nothing to do with the win last night. I also liked how LouisEly put it in "Anyone else seeing big changes ahead?" discussion: Wasn't this kind of what many people were advocating - send down the higher ceiling guys with options and keep the guys with no options, and if the guys with no options fail or get hurt they have a backup plan. Well, it's time for the backup plan. It's definitely nice to have the higher upside guys to turn to. I'll watch with interest to see how Ken Macha handles having all this youth on his team. I kinda suspect he's wriggling a bit on the inside, having to trust these whippersnappers to get the job done. It's going to be great to watch a team comprised of Axford, Narveson, Parra, Estrada, Lucroy, Braddock, Yo, Braun, Fielder, Weeks, Escobar, McGehee, Gomez, etc. I'm not as down on Davis as some/many, but there's certainly no need to rush him back. Given his situation, I'd say that's a very nice luxury to have.

Is there anyone to be excited about in that deal? Fister only looks to be another guy that throws in the upper 80s, Saunders & Ackley are corner OF or 1B bats, and Casey Kotchman? That's exactly the kind of deal for Fielder I'm worried Melvin would make. Forgive me if I've overlooked anything, but I just don't see why that deal would make sense from the Brewers' perspective.

OH MY GOODNESS Scooter Gennett just thrown out at the plate trying to score from second on a Chris Dennis single to RF. Wow.

Villy makes sense since he can get lefties & righties out, but that's precisely why I'd like him to be free to work at any point in the game, not locked in at Closer. I guess I'd vote Villy. I'd really love to see Macha stick with playing the matchups, but I doubt that will happen.

Aren't they just the Fighers? I thought Nippon Ham is the company name (in lieu of a city name, the team is in Sapporo), and then Fighters is the nickname.

It was a very shallow fly ball. Fatse shouldn't have been tagging imo. Just got home, and it was a lot of fun (had to leave before it ended... game went into extras). The Marseco ball looked like it got out in RC, and then bounced back onto the field of play. For those not familiar with Time Warner Field, there's picnic table deck seating in RC that's raised up roughly 10 feet from field level, and it really looked from my vantage point (3B line behind the dugout) that the ball bounced off something much higher than the ground. It really looked like it got out, but the 2B ump was definitely closer than me. It was too bad -- Marseco is such a twig of a guy, I actually joked that there was no way Slappy McGee was going to hit one hard when he came up. It was really cool to see him score the tying run on the wild pitch, too. Odorizzi looked pretty good tonight, but his command wasn't just great, especially of his offspeed stuff. He was working his fastball in the 89-92 range, primarily north of or at 90. Looked like he had a changeup operating around 84-85, and a curve or slider at 78 or so. There looked to be about a half dozen scouts in attendance tonight. Nieves pitched after Odorizzi & was solid. 89-90 with his fastball, change around 84, and breaking pitch around 78. Really similar to Odorizzi, but obv. from the left side The Peoria (Cubs affiliate) starter Kenneth McNutt (RH) was pretty impressive, aside from the two errors he threw over the 1Bman when fielding bunts early in the game. Maintained a FB velocity of 94 seemingly every time he threw it, including into the 5th inning. He has a funky hitch in his delivery, where he pauses up on his back leg right before he unloads his body toward home plate. I thought that was pretty odd to see (I thought that kind of hitch would be coached out of a delivery)... think what Doug Davis will sometimes do, sort of freezing for a split-second before delivering. Gomez had a so-so game, but one thing stuck out. He chased down a flyball in the LC gap early in the game that included, yes, running into the outfield wall with his left shoulder. I mean, you're in low-A ball to rehab an injured left shoulder, what on earth are you doing running into a wall? No one would have blamed the guy for just letting up. Plus, D'Vontrey Richardson (LF) was right there & deferred at the last minute to Gomez (CF). Just an absolute head-scratcher to me. Thankfully he seemed ok, but he looked a bit shaken up for the rest of that inning out in the field. He also fouled a ball pretty hard off his left foot in his last PA, and it looked like he took himself out of the game after he was retired that inning (bottom of the 9th). I don't think it's serious or anything, but man -- for a rehab start, he sure was getting dinged up. He seemed to be enjoying himself, though, flashing a smile frequently between innings. I was struck with how big he is (hadn't seen him in person before). He really looks like a power hitter. I took a bunch of pictures, so this weekend I'll sort through them & post the better ones here. Oh, one last thing on Gomez. Some guy was wearing a #27 Gomez jersey tee, and chanting "Carlos Go-mez [clap, clap, clap-clap-clap]" every time Carlos came back into the dugout. In the middle of the game, Gomez finally waved to the guy, and then handed him one of his bats once he got back in the dugout. Pretty cool.

Well this should be interesting. I sure hope the Gamel-eque concerns don't prove relevant. Exciting day for the Brewers organization today

I'll do my best on scouting info, and I'll definitely note velocities for Odorizzi. The seats are behind the Rattlers' dugout, and I'm sure the scouts will be behind HP. I'd say I'll just move, but since the weather is so nice (& Gomez is in town), those seats might actually be occupied. I'll probably move around to take some photos.

At first when I watched the Backbreaker trailer I thought it didn't look that interesting... and then I saw it's going to be an online game, with fully customizable logos, unis, etc. It's got a chance to be huge imo, WoW for football

Hey, he wasn't asleep! He was just resting his HoF eyes so he could see the ball better in the weeks to come.

I do remember hearing about some kind of flap regarding this last year. I do too, iirc it was in the Major League forum. Couldn't find anything searching though

Kind of funny... part of the article says, "[t]hough there is often speculation that works have been 'stolen to order' for dishonest collectors, experts in the field say that in reality this is very unusual." I would have guessed so-called 'stolen-to-order' jobs would be more common. Why risk getting caught if you don't know you have a buyer?

Heh. If I were cool, I'd be able to say I'm taking a Stalker gun. But alas...

Ok, really good suggestion. Not much of a camera though, so I can't promise great image quality.

I know some are concerned with the notion of letting DM be the one to determine what (pitching) return the Brewers would get on Prince. I think I'm starting to feel that way, but if he is the one to deal Prince, I hope he proves that concern wrong.

The broadcast last night played a clip of an interview with Macha in the dugout during batting practice earlier in the day. He mentioned they'd go by matchups (L/R), which made me really happy... but then I remembered the only way MLB managers seem to try to arrange the most favorable matchups in the 8th & 9th innings is when their 8th & 9th inning "guys" are injured/unavailable, so the happiness quickly faded.

Excellent, I'm headed to my first Timber Rattlers game tonight. I was really hoping I'd get to see Odorizzi.

I thought of The Pink Panther. I love that movie's opening scene (don't mean the cartoon lead-in).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/10130840.stm Pretty incredible burglary. I hope the pieces can be recovered.

I'm wondering if a pitching stat exists that incorporates batted ball data like flyballs, line drives, etc. I tend to prefer to look at xFIP & K/BB rates when evaluating pitchers, but lately I've been thinking that it would seem useful to incorporate at least a guy's LD% allowed. Basically, my vague idea of a stat would include just about everything from FanGraphs' "Batted Ball" segment of a player page -- GB/FB, LD%, GB%, FB%, IFFB%, HR/FB, IFH%, BUH%. Is there a way for rates like those to be included with something like xFIP to make a more informative descriptive stat?