TooLiveBrew

It may be idiotic to you, but the employer has every right to enforce it's idea of image, whether you like it or not. If you don't like it, you're welcome to go find another job. Unless, say, you're under salary control & have no way to 'quit' your team & go to another. At rate, this isn't about being treated like children like it's continually spun, it's about uniformity in appearance, conveying an image, and becoming part of a whole. And I think your arguments about how it's about being 'part of a whole' are empty rhetoric that don't actually address the question. I believe the primary goal here is to promote an image and a certain level proffesionalism as is a common business practice in this country. Everyone dressing the same /= professionalism. My employer, too, has a dress code, but I don't have to look just like my coworkers... just meet minimum or basic standards (just like what every other MLB team has). I never said they should all wear their pants at the knees. I said it should be the same. Fair enough, Patrick. I'm just not sure about the image of belonging to a team that's being sent when different players are concerned about there own individual fashions. I understand some people don't like me harping on this, but I feel it's important -- what about players not dressing precisely alike has anything to do with being part of a team? Rickie Weeks wears as baggy a uniform as you'll find, and by all accounts is as good a teammate as there is on the Crew. I thought why is this person doing this other than to say "hey everyone, look at me" I don't roll the same way as my team mates While I think the cocked hat look is stupid, I see no way that it disrespects the game or the concept of team. These guys are just going to look stupid when we look back at their pictures in ~20 years or so, just like the tighty-short shorts of the NBA/basketball. God knows we wouldn't want to mess with the selfish fragile ego of today's pampered players. And there it is -- this, to me, is what it all comes down to. Fans think players should act/appear the way they want them to. You don't think it's important for an employer to be sure he/she is treating his/her employees like adults? I know it's important to me. If a player wants to dress differently from whatever you dub the 'correct' way, as long as it isn't affecting his ability to perform, imo there just isn't a tangible problem. I mean, I can see where Crew07 is coming with the kids trying to adapt to a new culture, but even that's a stretch to me. It's not like wearing your pants all the same way helps with a language barrier, different customs, etc. Coach Wooden, who's generally regarded as one of the greatest coaches in any sport, would start the first practice every year by making his players take off their shoes and socks. Then he'd sit down and show them the proper way to wear a sock and lace a shoe, so as to prevent blisters from forming. His players thought he was a crazy old man, but he knew exactly what he was doing... Just because you don't see or understand the reasoning, doesn't mean there isn't a method to the madness. So there was a point to it... unlike arbitrarily having players wear their pants a certain way because, 'Hey, we're the Pirates, and we're crafting an image because we need to be taken seriously!'

Part of the attendance problem was also due to the stadium's location relative to Miami proper, iirc. That location should help quite a bit. Also, "Miami Marlins" sounds a lot better than their current name imho

Brilliant quasi-rant about the old guard of baseball statistical analysis/knowledge from The Book blog (entry link):

I don't think the Pirates (or any baseball team) is being outrageous in their uniform rules. And I do. They simply want the team to look like a team And imo they already do, with matching colors, caps, pants, & shirts. I think there should be uniformity to it. Why? What tangible element of forging a team does every player wearing his pants at the knees provide? What about the players that hate wearing their pants at their knees? Won't this piss them off & make them feel like their employer is treating them like children? As I mentioned earlier, where do you draw the line? What if the Center fielder decides he wants to wear the road uniform at home and the second baseman wants to wear a retro uniform and the catcher wants to wear different color socks? Should this be allowed Nope, and it's not, per MLB rules. Though I suppose the socks thing could be snuck around if the player wears long pants over his shoes. In which case, the exterior uniform would look exactly the same as his teammates'. However, when each player is wearing their uniform differently, it just doesn't look like much of a team to me. I honestly don't believe an image could be provided of teammates wearing their uniforms differently enough that there would be confusion as to whether or not they were, in fact, teammates.

Yeah, I know I'd have a hard time having fun if I was paid millions to play baseball and my boss enforced some uniform codes for the sake of keeping some semblance of the team concept. Enforcing a uniform code is having players wear the same jerseys imo. Telling grown men... professionals... how to wear their pants & socks is idiotic. You're telling me you'd have no problem if your boss suddenly, out of nowhere, mandated that all employees must wear bow ties, knickers & penny loafers? Or honestly, [insert any quirky, stupid rule here] When I watch a game now and some players have their socks up and some have their pants down around the back of their shoes, some have their hats on crooked, some have the bills of their hats straight, others are curved. It doesn't really convey the image of a team to me. It conveys a "hey look at me" concept. What happened to letting your bat and glove do the talking and not the way you dress? Why do you care how a player dresses? Did Prince's baggy pants lead to the run-in with Parra? I just don't understand the relevance to the team concept, aside from you not liking the way certain players dress. The last thing I think when I see a baseball player is what his hat or pants look like. I mean, good lord, those super-short, super-tight John Stockton-era NBA shorts couldn't have done much for the team concept. If players want to be comfortable (in whatever form/fashion) when they play, why not facilitate it? The only reason to not do so is because it's something someone doesn't like, and what flies more in the face of the team concept than closed-minded stuff like, 'Hey, those pants are too baggy'? -- Patrick please note I'm pointing at the Pirates with the closed-minded point, not you... since they're actually the people enforcing some strange, arbitrary dress code, and you're someone having a discussion about what makes sense & doesn't regarding said dress code.

If he ends the year with .235/.320 OB, 20HR, 65RBI, and 150K's, and a slight decline in his defense, is that worth 10M to you? The question has to also include how easy/difficult it would be to replace Cameron's O & D production via trade or free agency. This is where the 'replace Cam, he's not worth it' discussions have usually stopped this offseason. If you are of the belief that trading Cameron away for Melky Cabrera would have provided equal overall value in terms of production on the field at CF, then clearly Melvin missed the boat. However, I don't think that Cabrera will match Cameron in 2009. So, to answer your question... if we could realistically add someone to step in & give at least what Cameron should be expected to contribute for less than $10M, then no the line you describe is not worth $10M. However, this mystery CF just isn't out there. Melvin seemed to get pretty far along into trade discussions with Cashman, and I think that if a suitable CF replacement were out there & 'get-able', Cam would have been sent packing to NYY. Now to refine my own point there, I think it's important to note that your hypothetical line for Cameron is more pessimistic than any of the main projection systems, which forsee a line around .240/.330/.450/.780 or so. Taking into consideration that Cameron is still in great physical condition & has a reputation for being so, I think expecting anything more than a marginal downgrade in defense is being incredibly & unneccisarily pessimistic. Basically, if everything works out as poorly as is plausible for Mike this season will he not be worth the $10M? Sure. But how realistic do you really think it is to think he'll decline even more than any projection system expects? (also, I could care less about his strikeouts/RBI) Cameron Fangraphs page -- for reference on the 2009 projections. And fwiw, on the "Value" tab for Cameron, you can see Fangraphs has him worth $18.5M in 2008. Interesting, huh.

Very fair, colby. Just tried to think of a recently-drafted player... Ellsbury popped into my head. Clearly I didn't research that at all, and you're probably spot-on about the rep as to why I thought of him. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I agree completely that the answer is (always) BPA. If I could craft this player, he bats LH, throws RH, can handle the MIF, & has a strong power/eye combo. Now, since that's completely vague & pretend... I'd like to see the Brewers focus on position players with strong OBP skills. That's vague too, but for a tangible example I personally would trade some of a guy like Hart's gap & HR power for stronger BB skill. Clearly when you have the chance to draft a power bat with the ceiling of a Fielder or Braun, you just go for it. But throughout the non-elite draft picks, I'd really like to see perhaps some upside sacrificed for organizational OBP strength. Lawrie, for another example, imo was a great pick. Fielder is one where the braintrust kinda said 'damn the torpedoes' & just went with his huge upside (no pun intended). While I won't refine my point to say I'd like to see a 'leadoff hitter of the future' drafted, I think that making OBP a huge organizational priority makes divining that future leadoff hitter so much simpler. Guys like Jacoby Ellsbury, while clearly not as valuable as a Braun or Fielder, are huge keys to building teams that are a step above the competition. I hope that makes at least a tiny bit of sense... I swear all these thoughts were clear in my head...

I don't understand why people think we should fold for some teams' #1 SP & run out our poorer SP. It's really weird to read about how SF is pitching Lincecum, but poor Brewers. If only we had a comparable pitcher, like Yovani Gallardo. Our offense is far superior to SF's; imo they should be the ones worried about us, not vice-versa. Suppan starting the opening game doesn't make any sense to me (in case that wasn't obvious http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif), and is probably just more Managerlogic, not some grand design from Macha. If it is in fact a strategical move that isn't yet clear, I guess tip of the cap to Macha.

Most times when it comes to a pinch hit situation, you just need to get a guy on base. Gwynn minor league career line: .273/.345/.342/.687 Nelson minor league career line: .269/.345/.439/.786 Gwynn 2008 (AAA): .275/.328/.331/.659 Nelson 2008 (AAA): .286/.380/.480/.860 One of these two hitters can hit for power & keep his BB rate up in MLB, and the other is TGJ. EDIT: Major League Equivalencies, based on 2008 Nashville stats (via minorleaguesplits.com's MLE calculator) Gwynn: .240/.284/.283/.567 Nelson: .246/.322/.393/.715 -- of course that's just analyzing the small sample of 2008, but there really isn't a good reason imo to keep Gwynn over Nelson. When people say things like, 'Keep TGJ because we need guys to get on base', I just scratch my head.

Hmm, I didn't know Lasik surgery allows you to see into the future too! Very well-played. Interesting, though, that Hall felt comfortable saying something about this. To me that's not a comment a dude would just randomly make out of the blue, unless it's all just some elaborate bidding-war scheme cooked up by Doug Melvin!

Research aside, 10M is too risky for a 36 y/o center-fielder Without doing research, any point could be argued to be true. The reality is that Cameron at $10M is a very sound buy for the Brewers this season. There have been numerous discussions about this over the offseason -- all start on some form of, 'Man, Cameron isn't worth $10M. We can do better than that.' All those discussions ended with that hypothetical statement being proven completely wrong. If the Brewers can dump his contract and get some prospects, they should do it. And do what about CF? Braun can't handle it, and Hart would be hurting you overall there on defense, too.

The Brewers should skip some of Gallardo's starts so they don't pile the innings on a young guy that didn't get the IP he needed under his belt last season. Soup should be skipped when the top of the rotation is rested & ready to go since he's the lesser of our 5 SP. Parra, Bush, & Looper should all be fine without needing to be skipped more than once or twice (of course assuming no injuries with that statement).

If Ned Yost and Tom Hardicourt started a public relations firm, it would probably fail. That's the nicest thing you've ever said about Ned Yost... I mean, 'it would probably fail' -- you're giving him a chance! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Of course everyone knows that A-ball isn't really baseball. No good players ever play in A-ball.

Macha seems to like DiFelice, so I can see him being kept over Julio I might like this Macha fellow yet. What are you basing this comment on, PrinceEatMeat?

Awesome blog name. That's one for the ages

I don't know who this hardicourt fellow is He's covered the Brewers for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel since 1985 (Brewers fans, please excuse the technicalities there with the MJS merger...), with a brief interlude where he went to NJ to cover the Yankees for a local paper there (iirc). He is a total jerk when interacting with his readers, and makes glaring mistakes regularly enough to warrant the feelings of disgust many Brewers fans have for him. Glad I didn't get banned or something! Your input is welcome, and as you can tell, you've been able to supply better information than our beat writer. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif Thanks for sharing.

Hopefullly Palsmo can 'catch' on eltsewhere LOL In all seriousness I do hope Cap'n Lou gets a shot somewhere

Thanks Brawndo... awesome as usual

Yeah, I mean did you actually expect the Brewers beat writer to report on a Brewers transaction? Clearly you're an idiot. I really don't see how a player can be told he's been traded and have zero news on any move come out in four days. Well, now we know the answer. TH is not good. TH, you're a jag

http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00234/Barry_Bonds_234178c.jpg

Is this really the only way to ensure Rivera gets more playing time? I don't know what info any statistical analysis would provide that's actually reliable here. Thankfully Adam McCalvy has his head on straight: If this 'statistical analysis' broke down how Kendall & Rivera handle receiving Looper's & Bush's pitches, I guess I could let it go. But seriously, all Soup had to do to get out of consideration was to supply the 'I like pitching to Kendall' line, and YoGa/Parra just pitch to the grittier veteran by default for some unknown reason... not much objective statistical analysis there

Them some calf muscles, Brett! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I really don't understand what this arbitrary rule about pants & socks is intended to accomplish. If there were a point to it, I guess I wouldn't think it was idiotic. 'Cuz I said so!' is an awful reason unless you're a parent.