TooLiveBrew

He certainly was lethal from the outside. Once again, though I loved him & hated him. He just isn't a presence down low, and that's really frustrating imo because he's the one guy with the physique to step into a low-post, physical role. I thought I couldn't love/hate him any more than after last game, but apparently it's possible. Every once in a while, Nankivil decides to assert himself down low, & he usually really is effective when he does. I was super-excited when he took that baby hook shot in the first half, since too often he gets the ball down low, dribbles once or twice, & then kicks it out. I wonder if he'd hit that shot if it would've ignited his confidence in his low-post game. Don't get me wrong -- there's no way Bucky is in that game tonight without him, but his maddening lack of assertiveness down low was on full display once again imo. The thing I really took away from this game, though, is Purdue's perimeter defense. It was absolutely superb from the opening tip to the final whistle (no-call on Hummel fouling Hughes notwithstanding). On the other hand, you had the Badgers' perimeter defense, which seemed content to just fall back off the constant pick-&-roll action Painter was calling. E'Twaun Moore absolutely killed us off of those sets, and it was maddening to see Ryan do absolutely nothing -- strategy-wise -- about it. The only one of the Badgers' losses this year that bugs me is the loss at UWGB, and even that one isn't all that bad. But tonight we had a chance to set ourselves apart as MSU's only real threat in the conference race... but instead dropped back into a clear second tier of UW/OSU/Purdue. No, Illinois, you do not get invited to that party http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Frustrating loss, but a big hat tip to Purdue for playing their butts off.

Juan Pierre does not gain the same value from Coors that Matt Holliday did. I recall reading something that found the biggest impact Coors has on offense is the extra singles since the outfield is big & the OFs have to play deeper. If I'm remembering that correctly, then I would guess Pierre benefits pretty well from getting extra singles.

I think Badger hockey would be a great idea. As long as it was promoted correctly, I could see that selling a lot of tickets. Maybe make it a double-feature featuring both the prolific women's program along with the men's.

I admit to not knowing a lot about the guy, but perhaps his isolation wasn't as unhappy as we assume it was.

Dave Cameron wrote a piece for FanGraphs just earlier today, entitled "The New Inefficiency?". Here's an excerpt:

So if he put up an .820 OPS, how did "his bat stnk"?

Awesome -- thanks for sharing that zurch http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Hah -- I saw a great quote from a poster on another fan forum regarding Law: "Law has always, always, always marched to the beat of a different drummer when it came to rankings. Mid-year a few seasons ago he was talking about [Jose] Tabata as the potential #1 prospect in all of baseball. He gets drunk on hype and then smokes a bag of tools before making his lists."

Even though his bat stunk in '08, he was still able to put up an OPS over .820 in 400 plate appearances. This comment confuses me. Can you clarify? Did you mean '07?

Now that I feel confident Edmonds doesn't come at the possible expense of Gerut, I like the addition. In 349 PAs in 2008, Edmonds hit RHP to the tune of .250/.362/.521/.883, with a BABIP of .258 -- compared to a career .324. Basically, he was horrible with the Padres (esp. at PetCo Park), and then he was great with the Cubs. I'm not expecting him to mash righties to that extent, but I think Melvin just added another OF bat capable of OPSing in the .800s against righties. As long as Edmonds primarily backs up the corner spots (I agree with Jason that it's inevitable that Macha will play him in CF too), I think it's a nice pickup. With Braun, Fielder, Hart, Gomez, Escobar, McGehee, & Weeks all figuring to see significant time in 2010, there's just not a huge need for LHP-hitting bench guys. One thing that adding Edmonds to Gerut as OF depth makes me think is that Gomez & Hart are both going to sit a decent amount against RHP. Is there a chance Melvin is insuring himself in case Gomez needs some time in AAA? Heether (RH) iirc can handle the OF corners, as well as Inglett (LH). If Gomez needs time at Nashville, I wonder if CF would be covered by some combination of Hart/Gerut/Edmonds... & RF would consist of a mix of Hart/Gerut/Edmonds/Heether/Inglett. EDIT: SZBrewerFan might be onto something as well

He's way too high on Castro's bat imo. Either that, or he's the only prospect evaluator that correctly sees a 'special bat'.

The only harm I see is if the Brewers would release Gerut after 'losing' a hypothetical ST competition for the 4th OF job with Edmonds. I'm not sure how likely that is, but my worry is that Melvin has nabbed another veteran bench guy to possibly supplant a guy in Gerut that may not know how to 'do the little things' & 'play the game the right way'. Gerut's a better defender, & in all likelihood a better hitter. I would hate to see him jettisoned because Edmonds is scrappier & experienced-er. I'm mainly thinking of monty57's post in the Inglett thread: EDIT: However, the optimist in me sees this as a sign that Gerut is going to get plenty of starts v. RHP this season, so there will be a legitimate need for another LH OF reserve, hence the Inglett & Edmonds acquisitions.

These arguments are so tired and pointless. I apologize for getting into another one.

Link

I disagree. If players were all the same type of robots, or part of a computer virtual reality game, sabermetrics may be as important as you believe. The problem with this is that "sabermetrics", which you seem to be dismissing as a type of belief, is merely objective facts. When you are comparing two guys 50 years later, how do sabermetrics take into account the fact that one guy played through a nagging injury all season? No, and that's not what they're there for. If sabermetrics are the end all be all, why hasn't Bill James been hired as more than a consultant, and why hasn't Billy Beane been able to achieve at least one winning season in the past several? I honestly don't think you really understand "sabermetrics". It's not a religion, it's a term derived from the acronym for the Society of American Baseball Research. Statistics in baseball have evolved so that we don't need to rely as much on our flawed & biased memory (Mike Cameron, anybody?). Furthermore, teams have hired statistical consultants. I don't think there's a team out there that doesn't employ at least one. The notion that Bill James is the *only* advanced statistician out there is just strange to me. It never ceases to amaze me how bitter some people become about advanced statistics, which every organization uses in concert with good scouting to evaluate players -- the way it should be.

I guess he doesn't want to be a reliever. That seems odd to me, since that would appear to be the perfect role for him. He'd likely have his pick of contending teams, too, I'd guess.

Frankly, I'm starting to get really annoyed with how sabermetrics are being used as the end all be all for player analysis. Especially when this analysis is done retroactively, sometimes on players that the 'analyzer' was not even old enough to watch. I remember Listach. However, I'm also able to look at his performance. I don't see what you're getting at here. Listach's performances, independent of biases, are recorded & freely available to any baseball fan willing to take the time to look at them. But somehow your (obviously flawed) human memory trumps that? Listach had a good season for a young SS in '92, and did so largely via a ridiculous .366 BABIP. It doesn't take an expert to recognize that as unsustainable, and that's basically exactly what happened with the rest of Pat's career -- without any threat of power, he couldn't hit MLB pitching. He excelled in the fan-pleasing SB category, so surely that's skewing your perception of him as well. Lofton's '92 really wasn't much better than Listach's, so given that Pat was a SS, I think his selection as RoY was probably the right one. They don't remember how Listach had big hit after big hit for a Brewers team that would have probably never been in contention without him. This is just condescending, like your scattered memories of him coming up with "big hit after big hit" somehow is superior to objective data. That's what really bugs me -- when people write off objectivity in favor of their own imperfect human memory.

Law also has the Red Sox as the #2 system in all of MLB, which as best I can tell is a gross overstatement. Baseball America has them in the "#6-#15" range.

Nicely forecasted, NievesNoNO

Is the lack of spacing btw. the total numbers a formatting issue that can't be changed?

I think it's funny enough that I'd like to see it included on Coffey's row, but I agree with Patrick that the bottom/total row is hard to read, and you could probably just round at the thousandths place.

Stunk to see MSU survive a second consecutive game where the home team missed a decent shot at the buzzer that would've beaten Sparty. But man, is MSU the real deal this season. Leuer can't get back soon enough. I'm looking forward to Bucky's game in West Lafayette tomorrow, but I definitely don't have my hopes too high.

Prior to the emergency appendectomy in August 2009, Hart had turned in two good months, one so-so month, & one bad month. He came out of the gates very strong in April, struggled in May, turned in a roughly average June, and hit well again in July. I don't think it's a stretch to think that without the fluky injury/ailment he'd have turned in a season OPS over .800. He was in the high .700s before the appendectomy, and all it really would have taken was another average month plus another good month, which really isn't that unrealistic given his other performance in 2009. Fans just tend to get way too down on players (Bush, Parra, Gamel, Hart, etc.) way too easily imo -- heck, even Fielder at times. Can anyone really honestly say that they wouldn't want to get another couple hundred thousand dollars tacked onto their salary when it's within reason as much as it is in Corey's case? 'He thinks he's the next Willy Mays'? Come on.

His performance at Yankee Stadium last season (.915 OPS) skews things. Taking overall value into account, I don't see a fit with the Brewers. Offensively I do, but an OF of Damon//Gomez//Braun just wouldn't be good.

I think not expecting progress from Manny this season is playing the wrong odds. I definitely expect him to be more aggressive/trust his stuff more this season, & imo we're going to be looking at a league-avg. guy, if not better.