TooLiveBrew

I want to point out that there certainly isn't no value in most of what Bush brings to the table. Yes, he doesn't appear capable of working much more than 5 or 6 innings in any given start. However, he still provides the Brewers with quite a few good innings, and that should not be overlooked. He's not what a playoff team would desire as a rotation member, but the Brewers could certainly do worse. The problem imo is that he has (seemingly) unique usage requirements -- Yost at this point hasn't seemed particularly aware of this, which in turn has led to many Bush 'implosion innings' that so frustrate Brewers fans. As disheartening as that can be, Dave Bush has the talent to turn in 4-6 innings of better than league-avg. innings each time he takes the hill. That can tax a bullpen to be sure, but the focus this season was on building a more durable 'pen. With McClung, DiFelice, Villy, etc. available to work multiple innings, I don't see how we should just give up on Bush. It would be great to have 5 SP that go out & turn in 6 IP or more each time (or most times) out, but that really isn't the way SP work much anymore. Instead of making blanket statements about Bush (who clearly has struggled so far), I think it might be better to acknowledge his strong suits as well as his flaws. Imho he obviously can produce good innings, but perhaps it's time to start evaluating what he is, as opposed to what we all hope/wish he could be. Perhaps I'm in the vast minority here, but I'd love to hear some others' thoughts. EDIT: I started typing this post as the top of the 5th started tonight, not in reaction to Bush going 6 strong innings.

Which is funny since the only time he talked about it was in the context of being asked a direct question about it. His response really wasn't all that 'scandalous'.

It's very odd to see how much local sentiment has turned against Prince Fielder...though I suspect that a patented Prince hot streak will put a sock in that one of these days Agreed -- fans are jumping to conclusions based on what, imho, is simple variance. If Fielder had started the season on a power binge, a stretch like this would go largely unnoticed. Good to see Matt get some more well-deserved recognition. I'm really looking forward to getting a look at him in the coming seasons.

So it's basically treated as a foul ball... but doesn't count as a strike?

The NBA story is not really a conspiracy theory as much of an individual breaking the rules. One individual breaking the rules in a fashion that many fans had wondered about occuring for many years, and generally this notion was greeted as a 'conspiracy theory.' I'm just saying that you might not agree that there's a conspiracy or agenda by the league (I personally don't think there is one), but to dismiss it as stupid doesn't seem just. Unlikely, sure -- implausible? Not really. The whole question in this particular instance imo is just random variation. Once again the events at the beginning of the season are magnified because they show up readily visible in the stats & standings every day. If this stretch were in mid-July, I doubt many people would even take notice, since the overall record would likely 'mask' its impact.

welcome uwmbrewers... Go Brewers! Love the matching pitcher pictures, Woogie.

I think what likely factors in here is what AndThat mentioned in the Tavarez thread -- he's a cheap alternative that we wouldn't need to worry about burning up waivers, etc. The impression I get is that Tavarez might just be a stop-gap until Riske & Gagne are back, and could very well get released at that point for minimal cost. AT's quote: "According to my arithmetic, the Brewers will be paying Tavarez $267,150. That's the prorated amount of the $390,000 minimum MLB salary he'll receive."

You called his idea stupid... one that isn't all that crazy considering another major sport has lent validity to long-enduring questions about its referee integrity. As I stated, I don't think it's true, but I certainly don't dismiss it as "stupid" -- improbable, perhaps, but not stupid.

Madison has had a similar problem with a sense of entitlement when it comes to pedestrians, too. I have always been surprised (pleasantly so) that there aren't more serious collisions. The bikers in Mad-town seem to want to have it both ways -- the privileges of being a road 'vehicle', yet some form of absolutist right-of-way at all times, like they're pedestrians with a semi-permanent 'Walk' signal. I know exactly what you're talking about, and have seen some potentially disastrous situations avoided by drivers being really heads-up... where the bikers were being idiots.

On a related note, I frequently see that the baserunners aren't always updated in a timely fashion, either. That problem is pretty common to broadcasts around the league (from my limited Extra Innings experience), and not just FSN stuff either. It's really a bad gaffe imo, though, since it looks so comical to have the wrong base highlighted when the viewer at home can clearly see the guy standing on a different base.

there's really no need to call people "stupid" EDIT: I think the NBA ref (Donaghy?) gambling on games is proof enough that the possibility of conspiracies is very much real.

The 'conspiracy' notion is to play to the bigger markets, though. I don't personally believe it, but that's the contention in seemingly every major sport.

Acting the idiot on the field vs umpires is not in the same category as reporters asking questions Sorry, I wasn't trying to draw a parallel there. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Corey Patterson is FAST! Hatteberg just clogs up the bases by getting on so much.

Why shouldn't Villy be expected to be better than Bush? Because they have been & continue to be very similar pitchers. He's not basing that off this season. Why you continue to use ERA & W-L to try & define pitchers boggles my mind.

I appreciate the people on here that are experts in regards to statistics and the projections that follow, but let's stop pretending it always works out that way. Remember, we're still dealing with humans. I don't think anyone here realistically believes that things always work out the way the numbers might suggest... just that it tends to be a more reliable method of predicting what little we can of what's likely to happen in the future. I'm very sure that the long road trips have had a cumulative effect of some kind on the team to this point, but I personally don't have any idea how that could be quantified (not suggesting that it 'needs' to be or 'should' be).

Worst case scenario is he is as bad as Bush which we are putting up with anyway. Worst case, is that he could actually be worse. I understand the point is that it'd make little difference, but I think Weaver is clearly worse than even Bush has been.

Yeah, I've really gotten the impression from late last season on into 2008 that umpires have a hard time even taking Ned seriously most times. It's almost like everyone knows (including Ned) that Ned's going to storm out, get angry for a bit, and then just walk unceremoniously back to the dugout.

Not sure -- the situation that dictates the IF fly call is in effect with 'at least runners on 1st & 2nd with less than 2 outs' I know even Rock explained this incorrectly, or at least incompletely, during a recent in-game 'email the booth' segment on FSN. He neglected to mention that the IF fly is in effect with the bases loaded & < 2 outs, only noting that it's called with runners on 1st & 2nd. Is it because it's assumed that the defense can't gain an out because they'd likely not be able to turn two as long as the batter runs to first? It confuses me. That's a good question. Really, the double-play at 1B aspect of the IF fly rule boils down to the batter-runner hustling to or not, imo. There really isn't a 'turning the DP at 1B' scenario that couldn't be avoided by hustle (as long as the batter-runner is healthy enough, of course). Not quite sure why it isn't called with just a runner on 1B... it's probably that, with runners at 1B & 3B, there's the chance for getting two outs if you throw ahead of the runners (going to 3B, then 2B after letting the ball drop), whereas with just one runner at 1B, you'd likely only get the one out, not changing the game situation at all (just the runner at 1B)

Interesting. Biffing the IF fly call there makes it tricky. I think the proper move by the ump there would be to just rule the batter out, and not allow the 2Bman to try & force out the runner at 2B. However, if the umpire were convinced he'd made the right call, then yes, he should have allowed the defense to force out the runner at 2B/turn the DP if they attempted to do so. Did the ump acknowledge his mistake right away, or was he insisting that his call was correct?

My guess is that it's not a task they delegate to one person as his/her lone duty. If it is just one person's sole task, that's just sad. I can definitely understand how a count here & there would get lost in the shuffle if you had to keep track of it in addition to other real-time duties.

Branyan is a favorable matchup only against some righthanded pitching. Many good righthanders have him for lunch. Please provide some support here. This just sounds made-up.

The Padres could call up Headley soon too. I also like Bruce. He should be pretty fun to watch. This is true, but I don't think Headley is really the caliber of hitter that Bruce appears to be. Honestly, for the Pads, they might as well just keep Chase in Triple-A since the MLB club looks to be going nowhere fast. Chase hadn't hit LHP very well prior to this most recent road trip. They're back in town for an 8-game homestand starting tonight, so I can see some more of him. EDIT: On the season, the switch-hitting Headley has only been able to muster a .250/.286/.350/.636 line v. LHP. If I could decide, I'd want to keep him in Triple-A until he displayed that he could be useful beyond a platoon. Headley does have very real pop against both LHP & RHP, but he needs to be more consistent against lefties.

Branyan has not been a long term solution for anyone recently. All we need him to be is a 'solution' for the remainder of this season, though. Imho the only thing that matters in this example is that Branyan is a superior choice to Hall v. RHP. You're stats still don't impress me Brian. Branyan only played when he had favorable matchups. Hall's been in there against all the top righthanders in the league. Brian used Hall's stats v. RHP. What would you like him to use? Branyan only played the easy RHP, huh?

Really...You are happy with .265? No, I am happy with .395 + .450. That would make me very happy this season.