RockCoCougars

I say that the MVP is still Prince at this point. Kemp has slightly better stats, but I don't see him getting it. I still say if the vote was held today it'd be something like Fielder, Braun, Kemp, Reyes, Pujols. Boy, the 'modern stats' people sure hate on Dawson. First they were attacking his HOF credentials, now the MVP season. Being from the 80's, in my view, Dawson was a top 5 MLB player (non-pitcher) for a few years in the early 80's with Murray, Schmidt, Murphy, etc. Despite what the stats say, he was definitely better than Jim Rice- so was Dave Parker, but that's an argument for another day. He was an absolute beast in '87. Jack Clark was right there too, and would have been a legit selection. Tim Raines, based mostly on OBP? No. He didn't even play the first month of the season, because he couldn't resign with the Expos until May 1.

I never wanted to lay out $200 for an authentic one, but this is going to be too tough to resist....OK come clean, which of you guys on here have bought one of these? They must have sold a few.http://www.pick-jerseys.com/pic/20115251355017164.jpg

I strongly disagree. The only thing that he's got Yuni in is defense (but he can't play everyday) and walks (even though he hasn't drawn one to my knowledge for a month and a half). Counsell is just a popular guy for whatever reason with fans. He's got some sort of Rudy mojo going on, because I think a lot of people can relate to him. I didn't hear a soul booing him at the last homestand, any other guy would have gotten booed out of the stadium. The same fans who hated on guys like Royce Clayton, Jason Kendall and Wes Helms dig Counsell. I can't figure it out.

Not sure what I'm missing on the Kansas City deal. From a distance, it looks like every one of those guys is flopping over there outside of Cain, who will probably be a Darryl Hamilton type.

He's been hitting well since the break: .323 BA. He started to get a pulse down in Arizona.But again, it really hasn't been since the break. It has been for 8 games. In his first 11 games after the break he had a line of .250/.263/250. McGehee has now hit really well in the last 9 games with the solid game tonight. Right- but in my view, you have to give him the .323 second half average. Saying that you don't would be akin to saying Molitor didn't truly hit ..350 ish in 1987 because he hit like .420 during the hitting streak. I also remember quite a few hard hit atom ball outs during that first road trip.

I am not saying Betancourt is good, he is not. Just trying to limit the exaggeration.His point to begin with was that McGehee hasn't been hitting better for 28 days. He's been hitting better for 8. It is misleading to say he's hit better over a 28 game stretch when the first 20 games of that stretch wasn't any better than what he had done on the season. He's been hitting well since the break: .323 BA. He started to get a pulse down in Arizona.

I just can't believe that Melvin doesn't have the guts to DFA Counsell. He didn't seem to have any problems making 'business decisions' with Hardy, Yost, Cirillo, etc. I can't imagine that bobble head day has anything to do with it- it would be ridiculous if it did. Heck, even Dean Taylor traded Wickman a few days before 'All-Star poster' day. The only thing that I can figure out is that Counsell is a favorite of Attanasio's a la Soup (who hung around about a year longer than he should have).

I think we'd still be on top of the division if we replaced Marcum with an average pitcher via trade. Lawrie is a douche, sure, but he's a douche who can crush the ball. 25 years ago, Glenn Braggs was a stud future HOFer as well. Ironically enough, he was putting up huge numbers in the PCL. I'm not saying that he'll be a flop, but this is Lawrie's first really good offensive year in the minors, so perhaps they should wait a few years before they cast his plaque in Cooperstown.

Not sure why the Giants keep talking about releasing Burrell when they have no team power, and Tejada is wasting a roster spot. Beltran hasn't really done anything for them yet either.

BTW, I understand Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson are available. If I were to guess, I think both are capable of matching Counsell's last 45 ABs, but I'd hate to sell Reggie short, as he'd probably still have a hit or two. I want Whitey Ford has the vet presence/LOOGY. World Series? Been there, done that.

I'm glad this guy wrote this. This seems to have lit a fire under McGehee and Yuni- most likely they never even saw it, but whatever works.

McGehee has been smoking the ball for the past week plus. Lots of line drive outs to the outfielders mixed in with the hits. There have been some bad at bats, but not many.... certainly better than Wilson Betemit or someone of that ilk would have been. The bottom of the lineup has definitely been pulling it's share during the hot streak.

I remember Stairs starting out badly for the Brewers. He heated up as the season went on and put up pretty good numbers. I thought he was done for a while when he was with the Brewers, but he went on playing another ten years. He had a pretty nice career all in all.

As I've said before, 7 RH relievers is a ton of overkill- especially when you have a solid starting rotation 1-5. I'd rather even have a 'professional bat' guy that can't play the field a la Jim Thome, than a guy who will pitch mop up maybe once or twice a week.

These are the same idiots who claimed that the Twins were 'turning on the blowers' in the 1987 World Series.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BYRHuMEwOb0/TEZa00tcaCI/AAAAAAAAAg0/P9APgtUUauQ/s1600/MillerParkSausageHausDSC04861w6.jpg

He's got to be older than Ray King. He's been around forever. I wouldn't mind taking a chance on him. Couldn't be worse than Danny Lee. ....EDIT Danny 'Ray'.

This is nothing new. Another Cardinal icon, Whitey Herzog, accused the Brewers of this back in the 70's. Apparently, he decided that the person in the chalet wore white gloves and would clap once for a fastball, twice for a curve, or something like that. The fact of the matter is that I think that I could have gotten a hit off of Carpenter's 70 MPH meatballs last night.

Thome makes sense, but there are a few issues. First the Twins have been pushing the 600 homer angle like the Brewers did with Hoffman's saves last season. No way they trade him until he gets there, and if/when that happens, I'd say that the odds are fairly long that he gets traded immediately after- unless he wants to finish with a contender. Not only that, but due to his low salary, I'd be surprised if he didn't get claimed on waivers before he gets to the Brewers (I don't see him getting past Cleveland). I'd be on board with Giambi as well, but no way he doesn't get claimed, since he's only making a few hundred thousand the rest of the way. Matsui might slip through waivers, so he may be the most likely target.

In lieu of the Brewers having a Suppan-esque stiff (thankfully) to send to the South side, I see no way the Dunn deal could happen. I'd require at least half of his salary going forward, and there's pretty much no way that the White Sox would bail this soon into his contract. I'm also not a fan of taking an albatross-type contract to get a 'good' player to sweeten the pot. At any rate, I'm holding out hope that the 1% chance Prince resigns gets bumped up to maybe 10% if the club makes the World Series, so I'd refrain from frying next year's payroll- just in case.

I hear you, but what is the major indicator of 'defense' that we are using? I quoted the term defense, because I would take it mostly to be runs scored against as opposed to fielding metrics. From this reasoning, I would say that good pitching would not only reduce the runs scored against per game, but it would also serve as a type of equalizer by overcoming poor defense. To me, unearned runs would be a good measure of this (yes, I'm old school). To my surprise, the Brewers are actually 11th/15, while arguably the two best teams in the N.L. are 1/2 (Phi, Atl) so the poor defense arguments seem to have merit. At the same time, I would argue that every team makes errors, so things would tend to even out over the course of a season for the most part unless the team is exceedingly brutal at fielding. Even though the unearned runs are high, it seems that this season the Brewers have benefited more than not by crucial errors and/or misplays.I usually use the term "defense" to describe the combination of pitching and fielding, so we are in agreement there. And yes, good pitching can somewhat negate bad fielding, especially if it is in the form of a high strikeout rotation (limit number of balls in play). I really wouldn't use unearned runs, as it actually rewards teams who employ defenders with terrible range. If we are not concerned about uncoupling fielding from pitching, "defensive efficiency" is a good metric to look at it. It is simply the percentage of balls in play that are converted into outs: TmDefEff ? .694 CIN.709 PHI.705 ATL.704 SFG.704 ARI.701 SDP.698 FLA.695 LAD.694 NYM.694 WSN.694 LgAvg.694 COL.693 PIT.693 STL.693 MIL.689 HOU.675 CHC.669 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original TableGenerated 8/1/2011. Everything equal, things do even themselves out over a season but the Brewers are not "equal". Melvin has a lot of batters in the everyday lineup who projected to be below average defenders before the season even started (Hart, Braun, McHehee, Fielder, Betancourt, in rough order of increased defensive ineptitude). I haven't seen anything this year that suggests those projections were wrong. The Brewers offense has been above average but the positional players have not been above average after you consider their fielding. The Brewers have the opportunity to improve their fielding with the additions of Lopez and Hairston but I don't believe they realize how bad their fielding has been. Interesting, thanks. Looks like I have some rainy day reading to do. Some day I will have to read the 'other' part of my Historical Baseball Abstract.

Heck, I'd rather use Jerry Narron as the first lefty off the bench, and I'm not joking. He hasn't played in 24 years, so he should be 'due'.

I'd much rather face Philly in the 5 game series. Heck, I'd rather face them in a sudden death. I really don't fear the Giants or the Braves as much.

I would guess that we'll see 6 or7 guys tops. For whatever reason, the Brewers seem to be pretty tight about bringing these guys up the past few years. I'm not sure if it's because of the cost, or more likely that they don't want the distraction of having a clubhouse with like 40 guys in it (counting the injureds). I think Gamel/Fariss/ Boggs/Rivera, perhaps another 'speed guy', McClendon and perhaps another arm.

Sweep the Cardinals here and things are looking very good, but I'll be happy with two out of three. I think that if they win all the home divisional series and avoid getting swept on the road, they'll coast. I know, easier said than done, but they are off to a good start.