TooLiveBrew

If he's 'below what he could do', though, wouldn't that just mean that he's below an 'A' grade? As in, 'what he could do' = 'production ceiling'. I don't see how being below what one could do means being below average. I would tend to agree with TWR (feeling dizzy here...), in that a 35-y-o playing at or above career norms appears better than an average performance. I realize I have reached a new level of baseball dorkiness (debating intangible, relatively meaningless letter grades), but just want to hear your thoughts FtJ.

Interesting stuff, KB -- I wanted to give this thread a bump since I think it'll be a good resource/discussion in the second half. It's compelling to me to see that, so far, the 'pen just hasn't been much mightier than it was last season. Hopefully Ned won't continue to misuse both Stetter & Shouse, and will keep the bullpen rotation primarily to Torres/Shouse/Stetter/Villy/DiFelice/McClung. That's a group imho that has the talent & potential to outperform 2007's second half bullpen.

-- Sheets (A): The Ben we've been waiting for. Absolutely stellar this season, and the main reason the Brewers are in the playoff hunt -- Sabathia (INC): Has looked good so far. Very good. -- Gallardo (INC): Still wish he hadn't tried to leap over that play at 1B. Silly, silly mistake -- & one that cost us Matt LaPorta, essentially. -- Suppan (C-): Good start to the season feels like it's been cancelled out by recent WOAHs. -- Bush (C+): Kinda took the complimenting path to Suppan. Hopefully his more recent success is a good sign & not just fluky (I'm inclined to believe it's a good sign) -- Parra (B): Nice to see Manny 'turn the corner' earlier this season. He knows his stuff is good enough to get any hitter out; now he needs to work on commanding it better. -- McClung (C+): Got some good starts in before typical control issues reappeared. I think other teams have him scouted as a SP now, and would love to see him return to the 'pen to be a patch there... just as he patched the rotation earlier in the season. Maybe I should just start calling him 'Patchy'. -- Villanueva (B): Has settled into the bullpen after really struggling to begin the season as a SP. I'd prefer to see Carlos in the rotation, but he may prove to be more valuable this season from the 'pen. -- Shouse (A): More steady production from Brian. Let's just hope he isn't overused in the second half... or misused (so far, 65 PA each v. both LHB & RHB) -- Mota (D): Actually has had some good outings, but completely overshadowed by terrible ones. -- Gagne (D): Has been hot or cold -- of 24 appearances: 1 or fewer baserunners allowed -- 12 times Allowed R/ER -- 9 times Allowed > 1 R/ER -- 6 times -- Riske (C-): Hasn't been lights-out yet, but has been much more reliable than the 'gas can duo' of Mota/Gagne -- Torres (B+): A total win for Melvin here. Torres has, however, been made to look much better via some very good luck. He's narrowly escaped trouble several times this season, so I don't want to be too quick to just heap praise on Salomon. On the whole, he's been great. -- Stetter (B): Control concerns me with Mitch (6.14 BB/9 IP), but he's been murder on lefties (.129/.289/.226/.515), and is a nice backup to Shouse as the lefty specialist. Also need to point out that he's been piling up the K's (11.45/9 IP). However, if Yost continues to misuse Stetter (52 PA v. RHB, 39 PA v. LHB), bad things will come of it. -- DiFelice (B+): Hard to assess Mark's 2008 so far, since he just hasn't gotten much of a shot. Really only had one glaringly bad game -- his first of the season at Boston (5/18). I'd love to see more of Mark in the second half. In all, what worries me most about our pitching is how Yost will employ it. Ned is convinced that Stetter & Shouse are fine options v. RHB, which is troubling to say the least. As long as our main bullpen rotation (in no particular order) can move from Torres/Shouse/Gagne/Mota/Riske -- to -- Torres/Shouse/Riske/Villy/Stetter/DiFelice/McClung, I think the depth should help the 'pen hold up ok. I'm fine with hanging onto one of Gagne/Mota, and given the salaries I think we know which one would go, but for garbage innings only. There's no need, nor at this point is there any excuse, for either one of those two guys to get important innings. Again, I fear Ned in this sense. He seems to take great pride in 'stickin' with my guy(s)!'

-- C Kendall (B+): FtJ said it best ("Unspectacular at the plate, way better than advertised behind it."). Best Brewers defensive C I've ever seen play (others have reminded me of Charlie Moore, who I remember but not vividly enough to say 'I remember his game') -- 1B Fielder (B): Horrible defense, good offense, but not up to his own high standards at the plate. Power should show even more post-ASB -- 2B Weeks (D+): Defense has improved marginally, offense appears to have taken a step back. Rickie has really appeared to struggle making good contact on the ball. Even on some of his harder-hit shots he hasn't gotten the sweet spot on the ball (relates to FTC's comments that he may be pulling the ball too much) -- SS Hardy (B+): Proving yet again that he can absolutely rake at the MLB level. More consistency would be nice, but for now I'll take the higher OBP/better approach at the plate J.J.'s shown thus far. Defense, as always, is predicatable (not spectacular, but steady) & strong, at the most premium spot. -- 3B Branyan (A): Anything less than an 'A' for Russell so far just wouldn't be accurate. He's exceeded the loftiest expectations, and was invaluable during his post-call-up binge. His defense at 3B has been a godsend over Bill 'The Matador' Hall. -- 3B Hall (D): Horrible approach at the plate will take more than a couple good series to counteract; defense has been embarassingly bad... yet still better than Braun's in 2007 http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif -- LF Braun (B/B+): The 'B+' is there if you think his defense has been valuable enough. Ryan's been surprisingly steady out there; however LF is about the least-impactful defensive spot. Braun's approach at the plate is still far too wild. If he ever figures out where the strike zone is on a consistent basis, he should notch 75 BBs/season easily. Luckily, his raw power has been able to compensate for his poor approach. I'm hoping for some strike-zone discipline from Braun down the stretch. -- CF Cameron (B): Still as good as there is, defensively. I was prepared for a second-tier caliber defensive CF, and imho Cam has exceeded those expectations. It'd be nice to see some singles fall in to help boost that OBP in the second half. Mike's been BBing just fine, and clearly the power is still there. Missing the first 25 games makes me think we're going to continue to see his best production after the break. SLG is up for Mike, just as predicted, and the OBP has been climbing steadily. Great start to July, following an underappreciated .799 OPS in June. -- RF Hart (B/B+): Good, steady defense in RF, paired with consistency at the plate. However, much of Corey's success has been due to him having a lot of runners on to drive in. Not much has been said about his .300-ish OBP from June 1 - now. Corey is going to have to exhibit better plate discipline if he wants to avoid a second-half tailspin. Even fewer BBs than Braun -- Bill Hall actually has Corey beat in that department, with much less playing time. -- Bench (Counsell, Dillon, Kapler, Rivera) (B+): I don't think these guys could be doing much better than they are. Dillon will probably get hotter, and Kapler will probably cool off. Mike Rivera will continue to collect a paycheck.

My vent is about Joe Buck and Tim McCarver Ugh-reed. Those two are simply awful. In summation, I watched the HR Derby with the sound turned off (or, as I now like to call it, 'RickReillyproofed') for ~ 75% of its duration, and the ASG with the sound off for ~ 2/3 of its run. Now, TV tells me that it cares about me the viewer, but the most important sporting events tend to get covered by the most obnoxious blowhard talking heads. That certainly doesn't seem to match up with 'caring about the viewers'. Hey, at least there won't be any more Billy Packer Final Fours... gotta start somewhere!

Complaining about the Brewers in the ASG... priceless Of course leave out Sheets's 3 K's in 2 IP. Including that might make it seem like a Brewers player did well!

I'm in the same league and I'm fairly certain we still have an opening. Well, I know our 'for sure' vacancy was filled, and the other one is probably not going to be open just yet. Getpaddled -- check out the forum sbryski linked (the second address he posted) & get in touch with him or me. Like I said, not sure if there's a vacancy left or not (league member had his cpu stolen, but he wants to get back involved once he gets a cpu again)

Strikeout phobia confuses me. Pointing to Counsell's defense does not. The funny part to me is that for all the struggles Weeks has had so far in 2008, he's still our best leadoff option. I can't wait until Rickie goes on a little hot streak... of course, I've been waiting for that since Opening Day, so maybe I *can* wait. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Awful. Never before has someone made me think, 'Can we get back to Steve Phillips?'

Wherever one falls on the 'status' of Prez of MLBPA, to take that on at age 25... impressive. I remember reading about Mauer as a blue-chip QB recruit & thinking, 'Why would he choose baseball?' (had a full ride offer to FSU, among others) Well, now I know it was silly for me to think Mauer would choose anything aside from baseball.

Joe Mauer was credited during his HR Derby interview w/Erin Andrews as "President, MLB Players Association" I can't find anything in a quick search... is this something where he's one of several Presidents, or is the president of the entire MLBPA really 25 years old?

In honor of Josh Hamilton's 1st Rd. HR Derby exhibition, my PS2 turned itself on, loaded up, and then froze. 'Video game numbers' don't even do justice to that display. Holy cow!

Well Weeks has had hunderds of ABs to prove he can't do the job. Counsell has had more than a handful. Believe me, I hope there's a better choice than that, all I'm saying is Counsell is at least an average leaf-off hitter against Righties. Weeks is below average against anybody. Rickie Weeks career (1,440 AB): .242/.349/.401 Craig Counsell career (3,861 AB): .257/.343/.346 If there's one guy who should get more time, it's the younger & prime-aged player whose career line is already superior. Counsell should only lead off when the bases are loaded! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

By the way TLB, my son watched the Star Wars movies in story order. Wow! I've had the debate (no kids yet for me) on 'IV-III'/'I-VI', but am always interested to hear some real-world feedback. Interesting... and that he saw them in that order & still prefers IV-VI. Makes me want to lean toward 'IV-III'. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

There is no reason for the horrible hitting against the guy. The entire discussion in this thread has been to address this kind of absolutism. Should it be expected that fewer teams will struggle against someone like Rusch? Yes. Is there "no reason" or 'no excuse' for struggling against him? No.

Nobody's mentioned the De Le Rosa start this past Thursday. Over the course of his career De La Rosa's worse than Fogg, worse the Rusch, likely worse than Homer Bailey will turn out to be. And we got him, 7 runs in 3 and two thirds. The problem is that peope's expectations are too high. They think the Brewers should do that to De La Rosa as an average or hit those guys that way most of the time. That's unrealistic. Thursday was De La Rosa's second worst start of his 11 this year, so really the Brewers had an excellent day against him even given how bad he is. De La Rosa does have some good starts this year too - a one hitter through 5 innings against the White Sox, followed by a 10 strikeout day against the Indians. Excellent post. It's all expectations. Especially when it comes to Glendon Rusch, many Brewers fans are convinced that a high ERA on the scoreboard means that only crappy teams would struggle against said pitcher. I agree with FtJ -- when I saw Homer Bailey labeled a 'crappy pitcher' in another discussion, I just about blew a gasket. He's as highly-touted a SP prospect as there is, but since there's no cute line ('Well, he's just a product of the NY hype-machine') to tag on it, apparently he just gets called 'sucky' based on a handful of innings' ERA... then when he goes out & puts his great talent on display, it's not 'Wow, that Bailey guy has a great arm', it's 'Wow, the Brewers get owned again by some scrub!'

Does anyone else consider that a lot, or considering Sabathia's clean health history do you feel that he could do this every start. 125-ish for Sabathia (as others have mentioned) in any given start is not concerning to me. Now, averaging 125 or so pitches each start would concern me. It's all relative -- if pitch #125 gets through inning #9, it's a heckuva lot different from #125 getting you your 2nd out in the 6th or 7th inning. I agree that Sheets & Sabathia are different animals from the rest of our SP. They should be treated that way, but not allowed to throw high pitch-counts just for the sake of throwing a lot of pitches. If pushing one of them to 120 or so pitches gets the team through the 8th or 9th inning (without getting Ben or CC shelled), I'm all for it.

'Rillo was stellar in his prime with us. Not only the offense/on-base, but he played a slick 3B. I always felt he got jobbed in never getting a GG.

This was the best thread I could find... hard to search for something called "Extra Innings" in a baseball forum! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Anyway, for anyone that's in the TOR or NYY markets, or anyone with Extra Innings: The Blue Jays are wearing their killer powder blue throwback unis tonight! I'd forgotten how sweet they look. It's basically the uni from our great ball & glove logo era. Tune in for a peek!

Agreed, and it was the main reason for me, too, craig -- however since then I've heard nothing but A+++ reviews. I've heard (I have a lot of 'movie snob/buff' friends) everything from 'It's the best Pixar movie, hands down', to 'It's this generation's E.T.' I can't wait to go see it now! Johnny 5 is alive http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Prior to that he hated Star Wars. Not sure why..just did. Clearly you have saved him from heading down the path to the dark side, wise Patrick-wan. The Jedi Council commends your courage & valor. He likes the older ones better than the newer episodes. The Force is strong with this one. ** I have to know -- in what order did he watch the films? EDIT: Heh, brewtown, I'm listening to Matthews & Warren Haynes perform "Cortez the Killer" from The Central Park Concert... actually, I'll admit I'm listening to it for the second time in a row. LOVE this rendition -- Haynes on the guitar is just amazing.

If I understand it correctly, if Gamel were placed on the major league roster on Aug 31, that may use an option, but it really wouldn't affect Gamel's future FA status, because a player needs 6 full years of service time to earn FA. It would presumable affect future Super 2 status. I think you're right here. I just want to that it's not that a player burns 'an option', but that players have 'option years'. In other words, they can be shuttled back & forth as much as necessary (I think) in any given option year. I think the option years don't kick in until after 3 years of pro service, so calling a guy up to MLB or not doesn't necessarily burn an option that wouldn't have already been 'burned'. For example, Player A is in his 3rd minor-league season, and is a fringe prospect. If I understand correctly, his next season would be his first "option season", even though he wasn't called up at any point. With Gamel, since he's going to have to be added to the 40-man this offseason, I don't think it'd matter much if he's called up or not. As you mention, it appears it'd only affect his MLB service time. One month or just more really won't be too awful to add. He can always just get held down in the minors in 2009 to guarantee Super Two status.

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Nice. Probably won't 'get' anyone due to MH's post, but still.

This was a trade rather than a signing. The players given up weren't a big deal, but the Brewers inherited Marquis' entire 5 year/$25 million extension. Thanks Casey. Got my details wrong, but the parameters weren't bad. I remember being excited that we got him. That soon faded.

I must say I'm pleasantly surprised by all the constructive discussion in this thread. I admit when I first saw the thread I thought it wouldn't last long, and also thought it'd turn into NedVent2.0. This is the sound, objective discussion of Yost many have been hoping to get for some time now. Glad to see its legs have stood up. Kudos ozzybourne, and the many who've contributed their takes without venom or extreme bias! If that's the case, Ned deserves credit for bringing Simba in. If you want to credit Melvin with bringing Simba in, then Ned deserves credit for being one of the few guys in the league that Simmons would've worked for in this capacity. Any way you look at it, Ned should come out of it OK. Iirc, Yost was the one that went after Simba. If anyone remembers or can show that wasn't the case, please do correct me. I agree with logan that it seems the 'credit' in some cases is going to Ted, so it's fair to give Ned a thumbs-up for having the foresight to get Simmons on board. In any event, the managing this season certainly appears to be better than last season's. That's really all that matters, even though we micro-scrutinize (nearly) every decision that's made.