TooLiveBrew

Then why drop by?

Nope, that would be baseball. Well the way baseball was originally created, the players didn't wear gloves -- is that taking away from the integrity of the game? I'd prefer the DH too -- we'd have been able to keep Overbay & Fielder.

Yes, but my point is that declaring Weeks 'done'/'never will reach his potential', and then basing it off these first two months is not a reliable way to analyze. If you want to use an injured Weeks as your basis for his true talent, that's equally misguided... imo. Why utilize only the data that supports your argument? There's just as much data of Weeks healthy that completely contradicts this perception.

Will he ever live up to that potential in Milwaukee. I fear he will not but I hope he does. So if it's not his wrist, etc... how do you explain his Aug. & Sept. 2007? That was tied (in terms of timetable) exactly to when the docs originally said his wrist injury would be fully healed. If you're here to announce that based on 1.5 months of a healthy Weeks at MLB (yes, he's only been fully healthy for 4 MLB months) tells us that he's never going to reach his potential in Milwaukee, how do you analyze his 2 months from the end of 2007?

And if you think a blogger's anonymous source is even in the same universe of reliability as a newspaper writer's, I fear for the way you gather information. A blogger can hear one thing from whomever he deems a 'source close to the team' and fire off his report without thinking twice. Heck, he can make the source up altogether if he wants. Yeah, it's pretty strange for a reporter to act like newspaper journalists don't make up sources either... or at least have equal opportunity as bloggers to do so.

So, that flipant reply "irritated" me even more. I wrote an email to the JS publisher and president asking her if this is the way she expects writers to respond to long time Journal/Sentinel subscribers. I'd be pissed too. Haudricourt really comes across as very arrogant & glib, when I feel he has little reason to justifiably feel that way. I don't think he does all too knock-out of a job, instead merely adequate. He appears to have the sense of entitlement to his job, and not that he necessarily needs to be professional in his endeavors. I certainly don't claim to have read your email, Patrick, but to hear it dismissed so arrogantly is extremely concerning imo. It displays an air of 'holier than thou' -- I'd hope you got back to Tom telling him where to stuff his attitude. Respect for his readers is not something a journalist should sacrifice for the sake of feeling snarky & sarcastic. Very unprofessional, but iirc not the first kind of display from him like this. EDIT: I also want to point out that Haudricourt set himself up to play both sides of this, so for him to now talk about how he only reports 'factual' stuff is a load of bull-crap. He arranged it so he could claim a scoop, even when it would've been someone else, yet he was vague enough that now he can act like he's sitting up in an ivory tower of truthiness next to Greg, er, Gabe Gross.

Agreed with Buc. Cameron is a fantastic defender, Braun has made a few diving and/or running catches already, and Hart has turned into a good defensive OF (imho). I think the OF is our defensive strong-suit.

Are you saying Weeks is Spivey, or are you reminding who we had prior to Weeks?

No, CNN (?) called Florida for Gore, and then had to recant. It was not called first for Bush. But I digress. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Villy was lumped together with Parra & Gallardo by many fans, imo largely due to his age. I think Carlos is in the same 'class' of pitcher as Bush/Cappy/Suppan, as many others have pointed out before me. His BBs from last season always baffled me (even as a RP), since it always appeared he was a more talented pitcher than those numbers showed. Unfortunately, it looks like the difference btw. '07 & '08 was simply luck.

1) Easier access to tickets. 2) Easier access to walking down to better tickets. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif 7) ??? 8) Profit. South Park will always help you through hard times. http://membres.lycos.fr/Spsty/Persos/Saison2/217/Imag/Gnomes.jpg

An 'official' denial is exactly the kind of thing that makes me think MadtownBomber's friend has good information. It would be horrifically unprofessional for Melvin to announce that they're scouting out new ST sites, but it would also be horrifically unprofessional for the Brewers to not investigate any way to improve their organization.

"We were competing; I know everybody tried hard. But it's not about trying hard. You've got to expect to win. I almost feel like we never really expected to win any of these games. I just kind of had that feeling. "It's just a feeling. Every time we were winning, I just didn't feel we expected to win. It was like we were just content to be there and compete. I don't think we necessarily expected to win. "Obviously, they're a great team. It's a good gauge of where we're at when we can go out and compete with those guys. For us, as a team, our goal can't be to compete. Our goal has to be to win. "Obviously, to come in here and win the series would have been extremely difficult but it's a real disappointment to come in here and get swept. That's from Braun's comments. I love to see the way that he not only said what everyone's been thinking, but he said it in a way that didn't 'call' anyone out. He credited effort & commitment, yet commented that the focus of the club needs to sharpen. If Braun is as special as he appears, I won't think the 'retire his #8, HoF' comments are as premature as I've thought. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Didn't you talk about how batting Kendall 9th is crap? I think batting Hardy 2nd is not a good idea, and especially right now. I love Hart 5th, otherwise 2nd. With the way this team is structured, we're couting on Weeks & Cameron coming around. I'm not ready to cut ties there, so moving them around doesn't matter to much to me. I could see batting Cam 6th, but no one that I'd want hitting 2nd, since Hart behind Fielder makes too much sense imo.

One, they are essentially the same player right now in some ways. They both have home run potential every time they go up there. They both strike out a lot (Hall is striking out over 25% of the time). So, it isn't like we would be losing anything starting Braynan, actually he would walk a ton more than Hall. Second, Hall has crazy bad splits against RHP compared to LHP. His OBP and OPS vs LHP are almost double what they are vs RHP. Couldn't agree more. Right now, imo the Brewers need to focus on how to put the most competitive team on the field, and stop worrying about being 'committed' to certain players and/or scenarios. It's far too early in the season for me to worry that 'it's over', but we've gotten to the point where the player production has started to clarify itself a bit more. Clearly Braun, Hart, Fielder, & Kendall have played at least up to expectations this early. Beyond that, it's time (imo) to start assessing how to improve. The pitching sort of 'is what it is' to this point -- barring a trade, there's really no more to be done. I still vote patience with Weeks, Cameron, & Hardy... largely due to their BB rates. For Hall, I think he's clearly useful to this team. His defense has been a joy to have at 3B, and he certainly is ready to play every game. But I think there's been enough time to see that he clearly (as with most RH batters) is more dangerous against lefties, and Branyan seems to compliment him well. Russ BBs well, and has the power our bench lacks. Even in games where lefties start, there will be many chances to face RHP late in the game. I also don't think it would hurt to start Hall v. RHP from time to time. Why the organizational response has been about 'We don't want to burn his option' is beyond me. There's a space on the 25-man rotting away, but that's not a dig at Gwynn -- he just doesn't offer anything the team doesn't already have for 2008, and keeping him limits the effectiveness of the 25-man unit. Calling up Branyan is a way to improve this team without weakening it, and I don't see why the discussion goes any further than that.

Then we can get rid of this Pitcher batting 8th crap. Why don't you do a little research on this? Everything I've seen so far shows that it's a beneficial strategy for the 2008 Brewers

"Small Ball" is an offensive strategy

Managers routinely receive praise for having a team full of top players, and blame when their roster looks like the 2008 Pirates. Piniella is the perfect example. Imo it's more random chance & timing than 'figuring' anything out.

The love-affair with Gwynn is probably the biggest mystery to me so far of the 2008 season.

Vegas CF (Paul?) as well. As a matter of fact didn't the Vegas CF get a bad break on a Nelson double? Yes, Xavier Paul is Vegas's CF. He badly misplayed a sinking liner in CF at PGE Park (Portland) last night. It was hit hard, so it wasn't an easy play, but he took one or two steps back, then came in... but was too late, and it was ugly. The ball skipped all the way out the the wall, resulting in a 'triple'. I haven't seen Nelson play at all, let alone the OF. It sounds like, at worst, he could be a 2nd/3rd-string LF, & a competent DH or backup 1B. With Fielder here, he doesn't make as much sense as the backup 1B -- but once/if the starting 1B becomes LaPorta, having a lefty to back him up would seem to fit. In the meantime, it doesn't hurt at all to try Brad out in the OF as much as possible in Triple-A, since if he can be a competent corner OF backup he'd fit in Milwaukee whether Prince is there or not.

But a #4 SP is quite different from a long man/spot SP

We have a rather extensive body of major league work that tells us that the league he belongs in is the league he is in In what league does a MLB career .800 OPS belong? I understand that strikeouts frustrate many fans, but if you want to talk about 'what we know', then you need to acknowledge that Branyan's career output so far has been, at worst, above-average. And to echo rulz, our other LH bats on the bench are, at best, below-avg.

But you also have to credit Melvin for being unwilling to part with any more than he did. Just like this most recent offseason, Melvin did not want to pay the higher cost (of prospects) to go down those other routes you mention. The Linebrink deal imo has been an aberration from Doug's norm of not parting with the better prospects in the system just to get a guy that's MLB ready. You're right that he rolled the dice with Estrada, but I think Johnny was clearly worse than the FO thought he would be. If Estrada meant keeping Gamel, Parra, etc., then I'm happy that's the path Doug chose.

I'd be curious to know which pitchers have contributed to that, though. If we're talking "power pitchers" meaning, Schilling & Johnson & Martinez in their primes, Clemens, & other high profile power pitchers, then I don't think the logic of 'power pitchers win in Oct.' holds much water. To me, that'd be just more 'Good pitchers win in Oct.' Plus, high K pitchers aren't necessarily power pitchers -- I'd argue that teams in general fare better with high-K pitchers. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif If the complimentary data sample is guys like Glavine, Maddux, etc. -- meaning, pitchers of equal talent that happen to throw slower, then I think it'd be pretty interesting. One inherent problem with the postseason, though, is that you can't escape small samples. Plus, if we're talking W-L record, we all know the old BF.net debate on W-L in terms of evaluating pitchers. Thanks for adding to the disucssion, rotoherb.

I agree with Stevo. That kind of logic baffles me. Yes, in revisionist's terms, if Inman never pans out at MLB, then the trade wasn't a huge deal. But to think he won't someday rather soon be a decent MLB P is to play the long odds, imo. Marginal players don't tend to shred bats in AA like Will has been doing this season. I'm sure I'll get a look at him sometime this summer in Portland (Triple-A). That should be fun.