TooLiveBrew

- Outs be with you - And also with you

Impossible, he doesn't have enough range. It's simple -- he's drastically increased his PITETZ* since 2011 * Plays In The Eastern Time Zone

The writeups are well worth the time to read. From the writeup on Carlos: In 2013, Gomez robbed five home runs as they were going over the fence, the highest single-season total since Baseball Info Solutions began tracking this ten years ago. No one else had more than two in 2013. Those home run robberies accounted for eight Defensive Runs Saved.

Iirc, the plan this season with Coulter was to get him to Wisconsin so he'd play a full season, & then drop him back to Helena once that season started. Seems like the main goal was to get him more coaching & also let him experience a full season of pro ball.

Congrats & definitely don't feel like it was the easy way out or whatever. Well done so far!

This thread encompasses both AFL and Caribbean Winter league action. I am not a smart man.

Mobile was awarded the 2015 Southern League All-Star Game today. Their inclusion in this conversation was very peripheral at best. With this announcement, Mobile is staying put. So is that... that? Aside from contract-related items, what keeps Huntsville from moving to Biloxi at this point?

That Eugenio Velez is representing the Brewers in the AFL makes me sad. Not that I dislike the guy or anything.

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Here's a response I posted in the '13 postseason IGT thread that seems relevant here: Keep in mind that the difference in [Fielder's] counting stats between 2012 & 2013 is just 5 HRs, 8 H, & 10 BB (& 22 PA). Honestly, you have to factor in going from 17 HBP to 9 this season as well. Over his last 40 games this regular season, he OPS'd .957 & only went hitless 8 times. In short, I think it's a little early to declare that [his power is leaving him]. A drop in HRs should have been expected, moving from Miller Park to Comerica, and I think this is most likely simply a case of a not-as-good season combined with bad luck. Fielder looks like (in terms of 'the eye test') he's in as good of shape as he ever was with the Brewers, so it's pretty hard for me to think he's all of a sudden physically declining at 29. He probably won't age well, but I think this is more an aberration than beginning of a trend.

I hear you (& djoctagone). And ultimately, I don't think Prince will get picked. But I can certainly see a rebuilding or rebuilding-ish club taking the chance, after anyone with future upside is gone, of getting a utilityman on the cheap for the next 3-6 seasons.

Great move & recovery by Fox. I'm excited, because I'd love to watch more of the Bundesliga (I don't (yet) pay extra to get beIN Sport).

Keep in mind that the difference in counting stats between 2012 & 2013 is just 5 HRs, 8 H, & 10 BB (& 22 PA). Honestly, you have to factor in going from 17 HBP to 9 this season as well. Over his last 40 games this regular season, he OPS'd .957 & only went hitless 8 times. In short, I think it's a little early to declare that bolded part. A drop in HRs should have been expected, moving from Miller Park to Comerica, and I think this is most likely simply a case of a not-as-good season combined with bad luck. Fielder looks like (in terms of 'the eye test') he's in as good of shape as he ever was with the Brewers, so it's pretty hard for me to think he's all of a sudden physically declining at 29. He probably won't age well, but I think this is more an aberration than beginning of a trend.

I'd actually think that a player as versatile as Prince is precisely the kind of guy that could get nabbed in the Rule 5 Draft. Not that he's going to catch any eyes with his bat, but he's fast & can play multiple (premium) positions. If you know you have to keep the guy on the 25-man all season after taking him in the Rule 5, might as well be someone who covers multiple positions & can be a pinch-runner.

Link (Boston Globe/Nick Cafardo)... scroll to the "Apropos of Nothing" section, & then it's item #8

There is no way I can root for the Dodger$. I have really come around on the Cardinals in terms of respecting the organization. They are about as impressive a franchise as exists in MLB. And yes, I do still hate them, but that was largely tied to TLR, & is fading away the longer he's gone. Although I guess Crapenter will be back to hate next season, & Molina isn't exactly charisma personified.

Neither club is in the top echelon of England, but of those two I lean Southampton at this point in time. Newcastle has the more storied history, though. Trwi7 hits the nail on the head that these are two clubs realistically chasing the Europa League, & for whom qualification there should be counted as a success.

For Serie A games, you'd need to either find streams online (try Wiziwig.tv) or get the channel beIN Sport (who also carries La Liga (Spain), the Bundesliga (Germany) & Ligue 1 (France)). For the UEFA Champions League, each of the leagues in Europe/qualifying geographic area are ranked based on lots of factors. From those rankings, each league is allocated X number of spots in the Champions League. Like trwi7 said, the BPL in England gets 4 spots (this is the highest of any of the leagues), with the 4th-best team from the previous season having to win a play-in home-&-home matchup against a club from another league in Europe. This season, that club was Arsenal, who defeated Galatasaray (Turkish Süper Lig) & advanced to the group stages of the Champions League. Once the playoff/play-in round is finished, the Champions League field is at 32 clubs. UEFA then hosts the draw for the eight 4-club groups. Clubs are again ranked in this process, so you don't wind up with a group of 4 of the world's elite clubs. Typically speaking, a group has one big-time power, one club that's equal to or not far behind the big dog, and then two lower-caliber clubs. However, nearly every season, there winds up being one group that somehow has 3 really good clubs, which always gets the nickname "group of death" (anecdotal point, but you'll encounter that phrase at some point & now you know what it means ) Ok, so groups have been set. For this year's competition, the groups can be viewed here (scroll to the bottom of the page). In the group stage, each club plays the other three clubs in its group once home & once away. After all group stage matches have been played, the top two clubs from each group advance to the knockout stages. If clubs are tied on overall points at the end of the group stage, goal differential is used as the first tiebreaker. Once you're in the knockout stages, it proceeds like a regular tournament. The only exception is that each round is again a home-&-home matchup. The final is the only round that is a single game. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/index.html I realize that's a lot to read from me, and I'm only in my second full season myself of following club soccer. Keep asking questions, & just watch games until you find a club that draws your interest based on style of play.

This is very much overselling Thornburg's upside. Especially in the AL & AL East, he does not project to be a #3. I'm hoping for pre-elbow-destroying-liner Dave Bush 2.0 as a best-case for Thornburg.

Did you (or others) actually expect him to call every single iteration of season ticketholder? I assumed he would only be calling full-season ticketholders or the bigger spenders out of full-season ticketholders.

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Monty took time to respond with plenty of detail as to his thought process. It'd have been nice to see a reply in kind, & without the condescension. "Lots of maybes" is the point that was being made -- there are almost countless ways that saved money can be utilized beyond player salaries.

I think you can pretty safely read between the lines that Corey Hart is Doug Melvin's plan at 1B next season.

So was it a joke what the Pirates were doing 2 or 3 or 4 years ago? What about the Athletics 2-6 years ago? Sometimes a team has to recognize that the best plan is to build a foundation, & not simply try to paper over the cracks from one year to the next & hope everything breaks in their favor. It doesn't impress me or make me feel grateful that a club will "put the best product on the field", if that product is a .500-ish club like the Brewers were, objectively, heading into 2013. It was totally worth Pittsburgh wasting a few years of McCuthen's prime to get top Pittsburgh prospects like Russell Martin, AJ Burnett, and Francisco Liariano ready for the big leagues. I don't follow what your point is. What other options in their farm system did the Pirates have to contend more quickly? Or how would not having made those acquisitions have resulted in putting some of McCutchen's prime seasons to better use?

So was it a joke what the Pirates were doing 2 or 3 or 4 years ago? What about the Athletics 2-6 years ago? Sometimes a team has to recognize that the best plan is to build a foundation, & not simply try to paper over the cracks from one year to the next & hope everything breaks in their favor. It doesn't impress me or make me feel grateful that a club will "put the best product on the field", if that product is a .500-ish club like the Brewers were, objectively, heading into 2013. I get what you are saying, but i don't think the Pirates are a good example. In their run of futility, they often made puzzling moves acquiring veterans in hopes of winning just 80 games, but failed miserably at even doing that. Then they also would draft poorly more often than not given how high they consistently were picking. It's only been recently that they've finally started hitting with all of their high draft picks. It took them finally hitting on some high picks and acquiring three veteran starters in Burnett, Liriano, and Wandy Rodriguez. I'd say Oakland is a much better example of what you're trying to point out than Pittsburgh. Beane has consistently followed a certain strategy of trying to mostly keep an influx of cheap young talent given his financial constraints and sprinkle in veterans when he feels he has a team that can compete for the playoffs in any given year. The bolded part is why I specified the past 3-4 seasons (or so). Basically, when Neal Huntington took the reins at GM, imo they started building intelligently for the future.