TooLiveBrew

I am saying every time he goes to the DL then essentially your #6 starter is in the rotation. Right, but this happens to every team. No pitcher is immune from injuries. This is similar to the way people complain that the Brewers MUST make the most outs on the bases of any team in MLB. Pitchers get hurt. It's reality. Ben is really no more or less injury-prone than any hurler... which is why I agree with your sentiment that signing any SP to a pricey, long-term deal is a risk a smaller market like Milwaukee should be wary of. It's not that "Sheets (specifically) is way too big a risk" -- it's that that kind of contract, esp. for a SP, is a huge risk for us. This idea that Sheets is so much more injury-prone than any other pitcher is really odd to me. Before people leap out with the "But look at these IP totals!", take a look around the league at other top SP. For every Oswalt, there's at least a few Carpenters/Burnetts/Martinezes. P get hurt. Ben is not any different, except that to this point his shoulder & elbow have stayed injury-free. Sheets can't prove he's clutch unless he stays healthy. Oh man. The dude is as 'clutch' as a P can be. Will it only be until he pitches game 7 of a playoff series & does well that it'll be 'ok' to recognize that? It's only June and some are acting like Sheets has already nailed the Cy Young award. Nowhere have I said this. He's a top-tier SP, healthy, and pitching to his talents. He most certainly is a serious contender for the 2008 Cy Young award. If Sheets isn't on the Brewers, they could plan appropriately and not suffer the big blow of Sheets getting hurt. What about Gallardo? Any time you lose a valuable player (P or not), the dropoff is frustrating. But that's the way it works. Any player can get hurt, and SP especially tend to get hurt more frequently. Nothing anyone can do about that.

106 innings would be a lot more valuable down the stretch in a playoff run and that's simply something Sheets hasn't provided. Why, because in the first season in his career that the Brewers were close to the playoffs he happened to get hurt? That's strange to use as some form of measuring stick on him. If only he would have gotten hurt earlier in the season! You may or may not notice that we're in the thick of a playoff race right now, and Ben is a (if not the) main reason for that. Let's keep the 'he's not clutch!' stuff out of this, because it's just not accurate or fair to Ben. "I didn't pitch a lot of innings, but it ain't like I pitched five." -- Ben Sheets

"If there's any regret, I just wish they had just let me alone. I wish they had left me alone," he told the Chronicle." Always good when the guy that got choked was to blame. Makes it a lot less stressful!

His BABIP since joining CHN has been ridiculously unsustainable, fwiw. Something in the .400 neighborhood, iirc. Yet, of course, he hits another HR tonight. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif

TLB I pretty much concede your point about Shouse. You've made your arguement well and I'm man enough to admit it's better than mine. Hey, I'm not out to 'win' or anything -- just discuss & hope I can learn from doing so. Your objectivity is a welcome change from much of the discussion lately. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif We're fortunate to have Shouse, so I'll do my best to leave the complaining out of it. Yost overuses a lefty specialist... just like many other managers. Imo it's just frustrating to have to wait for it to become 'ok' or 'accepted baseball truthiness' for a manager to think beyond, 'Gotta get my middle relievers, my 8th-inning guy, and my Closer!' Someday, hopefully soon, we will find a manager that isn't anchored down to the old baseball 'truthxioms'

Har har har! Sheets has been injured, just like other MLB pitchers. I can't think of one injury he's had that *most* other SP wouldn't have missed time with. This reminds me of this thread. I'm not normally one to call people out, but initial post was so snarky that the thread immediately popped into my head. That's funny -- I thought of that thread too, right away. Guess Melvin just might have a clue about pitching after all.

So we pack MP with close to 3 million people spending money every game, and yet we still can't keep our own guys? The decision isn't can/can't. It's should/shouldn't. Which would you rather have: 3 months of rolling the dice and hoping this team makes it, or 6 future years of near major league ready prospects? Wait... which one is sooner? MUST HAPPEN NOW! This is the kind of thing that I think is best approached with 'wait & see'. I agree with Stevo -- just ride him out & gun for the playoffs. If he leaves, he leaves. There's not much the Brewers can do now aside from wait. The chance that a team will try to trade for Sheets & hope that he re-signs before testing FA is probably very, very slim.

So maybe 'Mark said he'd sign him!' wasn't more than posturing? "At this point, even if the Brewers came calling with a new offer, Sheets admitted he probably wouldn't listen. 'In all honesty, that would be pretty tough (not to test the market),' he said. 'We're getting pretty deep (into the season). It would be hard not to (test the market), especially when you start putting together a (big) year.'" I can't say I blame Ben. This is the one payday he's been working for his entire career. It's just very unlikely (imo) that the Brewers are better-off locking up $75-100M in one pitcher. Even if Ben is ridiculously good.

I'd be surprised if Hurdle didn't pick Prince for his bench anyway.

It would seem that we have been a little lucky in having such a strong record in 1 run games and we should expect to regress closer to .500 in these close games. Helps explain our actual record v. our pythag. I'll take it. Hopefully we can pile up some wins before the team tires out as could happen during the upcoming stretch of consecutive games.

Even if you remove the obnoxious numbers he put up in the BAL/TOR series http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif I like that you call them "obnoxious" -- that's great. I also want to say that when I first read your posting of his line from the last week (.364/.440/1.091), I initially read the "1.091" as his OPS, since I was under the impression that the only baseball player allowed to SLG that much is Branyan.

The third kind, of course, is hawing.

It's certainly been more than just a hot week. Prince has been knocking the stuffing out of the ball for roughly a month now. .315/.392/.696/1.090 over his last 28 days (thank you, baseball-reference)

If only Prince would eat some meat... maybe he'd start hitting HR again! OMG! Sorry, that was not directed at obobo55. It's just relaxing to me to see Prince hitting like all... well, most of us knew he would. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Unless they keep 13 pitchers again... especially when this time it would seem to make sense to do so.

Hammer do you play on PS3 or PS2? I have a PS2, and haven't had that much of a problem with freezing. *knocks on wood*

He didn't die, did he? Didn't he 'pass on'? Or did he 'pass away'? Or was it that he 'went to a better place?' Maybe he 'expired.' Of course, he might have always just 'kicked the bucket.' Maybe he just 'transformed into the Force,' or 'perished.' Then again, perhaps he just 'bit the dust', 'cashed in', 'gave up the ghost', 'deceased', or 'turned up his toes.' But I'm willing to bet that, to him, he just plain 'croaked!' That was my pitiful attempt at a tribute to a revolutionary comic & commentator. You will be missed, George. And don't worry, every time I see someone's blinker flashing as they drive along straight, I'll have my heart warmed by your razor wit. RIP George. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

Oh, dangit -- I was wondering if there was something standing in the way of that. Thanks BtA

Agreed -- best of luck to Tony G. Hopefully he can get all the way back from those dang knee WOAHs.

Wow, that's comedic gold on so many levels. No, I meant "we" -- TLB & yount19. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif I wish I were cool enough/of royal bloodline-iness enough to use the royal "we"... but we just don't think that's the case. We are certain our quality is not high enough.

Kapler to AAA over Dillon? Really? Even if Cameron is perfectly healthy, Kapler is much more valuable, and productive, than Dillon. I won't hijack any more than to say that we strongly disagree. Especially with the 'productive' part. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I really think going with 13 P for the 17 games in 17 days stretch might be a decent idea, even if it means Dillon is optioned to Triple-A. It's too bad Cameron has been dinged up lately, otherwise sending Kapler to Nashville probably makes more sense than sending Dillon down. [insert Bill Hall to Triple-A joke here]

Well, there's verfification of the whole "I'm no stat expert" thing. Luck is a decent-sized chunk of a hitter's BABIP, but it is important to remember that a hitter has a great deal more control over his BABIP than a pitcher has on his BABIP allowed. That's because the ability to hit line drives consistently is a fairly stable skill, and over 70% of line drives drop in somewhere for a hit. That's a very good explanation, thanks.

Also TLB, for whatever reason I call Clint Hurdle "Bootspur." No idea why. I just started calling him Bootspur Clint last year. It seemed to fit. I don't know why either, but I love it. There is now at least one other person in this world that will think "Bootspur!" each & every time he sees Clint Hurdle.

Dude, if you can't stand the heat, don't start teh FLAEMWARZ! Also, Sam, nice post with #24. Well-crafted. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif