RockCoCougars

. Any sport I've ever played, confidence was huge. The yips exist in every sport. Nobody can really explain them, but they happen all the time. When I played in high school and JUCO, if I was on a hot streak, the ball looked huge, if i was on a cold streak, it was in the catchers mitt before I even saw it. I'm not a sabermetric stat guy, never will be. I just like watching a game and enjoying it for the entertainment value. But, just because something like confidence, or clutch, or body language can't be put in a graph, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There is no reason that stat guys and non-stat guys have to constantly be arguing about this crap. Because neither side is ever going to change the other sides view and both sides will always say that they are right. I understand that arguing and debating are all part of the forum, but the bottom line is, a stat guy will never view this great game through the eyes of a non-stat guy, and vice versa. Everyone is watching the same game, but everyone is seeing it differently. Agreed. Way back in the day, I used to pitch, I had a tendency to get flustered/angry if things went wrong (error, bad call, walk, etc.), this would cause a lapse of concentration and quite often a bad inning. Now I'm not saying that I was a very good pitcher or pitched at a very high level, but I would assume some MLB guys have this issue as well, even though they are world class athletes. These days, I do the same thing on the golf course if I lose control of my emotions or start over thinking things. One bad shot can totally turn things.

I'm not sure about that. In 2008-2009, there was talk of moving Hardy of SS to 3B to make room for the 'next Ozzie Smith' down in Huntsville.

'Shee ya', 1250.

Hardy did not 'have it coming'. I'd be willing to bet that he did something to tick Macha off, and Melvin ended up realizing that he could mess with his service time. If Hardy had it coming, how can you say with a straight face that Counsell deserves to be in a major league uni? Because he can draw a walk? Seriously, the guy is hitting under .200, has 3 extra base hits in 119 plate appearances and an OPS of .496, yet people are bagging on McGehee, Yuni and even Kotsay. I at least have some hope that these guys will hit the ball hard, with Counsell, I'm just hoping that he walks. Why is he immune to criticism?

Hart has been showing signs of life again as well. Maybe he and McGehee will get hot at the same time.

It actually did cost them the playoffs, as that was 2007 and they finished 2 games out of winning the division.Linebrink was a gas can that September, so he played a large part in the team missing the playoffs. I was glad to see him gone, unfortunately he was replaced by Riske, who did his best to cost the team the playoffs the next season. Now Kammy Loe is doing a great job in outdoing both of them. He actually is on pace to threaten the MLB record for losses in a season for a reliever. Not a good thing for an '8th inning' set up guy.

I'd start by selling Loe's contract back to the Japanese league, so Roenecke can't use him in the 8th inning anymore...

The Mike Adams deal has to go down as one of Melvin's underrated blunders. It seems like he went from closer of the future to being traded for Geremi Gonzalez overnight. This is not to bag on Melvin because his bullpen roster decisions have been a net gain in getting success from scrap heap guys like Kolb, Turnbow and now Axford.

1) Escobar outperformed Hardy in 2009, there should be no debate over this. He may have, but what was the point? The team was already tanking, and hopelessly out of it, so why burn service time for this 'phenom'? He hit .300, but was nothing special. 2) Escobar already has a WAR over 1 by every measure, baseball-ref WAR has him at 1.6. Simple math puts him at 2 to 2.5 WAR for a full season, a WAR of 2 is exactly the definition of average unless something has changed in the last couple of years. I've argued in the past that 'WAR' overvalues shortstops and center fielders. Escobar has been largely a black hole at the plate, and has barely outperformed Yuni at this point with less power and almost as many errors at shortstop. 3) Escobar has been hot for over month and has pushed every slash in his line up 40 points or so and is still ascending early in July, he's not anywhere near as bad as you paint him to be. You may not like him, but he's not garbage, he's still young, and still very talented. I'm sorry his learning curve has not met your expectations, but I would qualify your hatred of him as "absurd". The reason for my 'hatred' of Escobar was that he was brutal in pretty much every aspect of the game last year. How many games did he cost the team with crucial errors or mistakes on the basepaths, not even mentioning his anemic bat? He's not that young either, this is his 24 year old season. Hardy was an all star at that point with roughly the same or less MLB experience. 4) Yes a certain percentage of prospects will fail, pitchers failing more often than hitters, which is why you need more of them, not less of them. Once again using the idea that prospects are prone to fail doesn't prove that veteran players will provide better value. How many hits has Melvin had in free agency? Furthermore every single established MLB player was once a prospect, and I've been around long enough that I remember people who wanted to trade Braun, Weeks, Fielder, and Gallardo for established MLB talent. How would those deals have looked with the benefit of historical perspective? The simple truth is that a yearly influx of cheap/cost controlled talent is the only way to keep the Brewers competitive year in and year out. Prospects are the Brewer's lifeline, in the same way that they are the Packer's lifeline. Many of you have the logic completely backwards, wanting to avoid prospects all together, when the evidence from every angle actually suggests we need more of them. I would have thought that more people would have had their eyes opened to this concept given what happened with the super bowl champs, but I was mistaken, because it's mostly the same "buy, buy, buy" banter around this site. Not much to say here, but I'd rather have people complaining about a former Cy Young striking out over 11.5 per 9 than watching guys like Braden Looper, Doug Davis and Mike Burns starting games. But hey, with some guys pitching lights out in the Southern League. i 5) Defensively with McGehee at 3B we needed a SS with Escobar's range in the same way that having Weeks helps lessen the impact of Fielder at 1B. It's never as simple as a player for player swap, there are always larger team and organizational issues to consider, which in my opinion tend to get overlooked unless the issues become completely obvious watching the games, and even then people will still argue in favor of players like Betancourt and McGehee for fear of the unknown. I'd guess that shortstops who make 'rangy' plays to their right are mostly turning singles into infield hits. That will save you a few runs here and there but like I said, Escobar was largely an automatic out last season. By looking at the stats, he has a much higher rate of assists per game than Yuni, so no doubt he is getting to more balls. That has to be tempered mostly by the fact that Brewer pitchers are letting fewer balls hit into play. They have about 150 more strikeouts as a staff than K.C. 6) Sure it would be nice to have Hardy in 2011... but did you want him as the every day SS in 2009 when Escobar outplayed him? What about in 2010 when he only played in 101 games and went .320/.394/.714 while not doing anything until July, slumping again in August, only to finish strong in Sept while earning $5.1 mil? Agreed in hindsight keeping Hardy was the move. Interesting enough, Hardy outperformed both Escobar and Yuni in OPS during his 'horrible' 2009 which supposedly was bad enough to demote him to Nashville. Last year he was hurt a good chunk of the season, but still nearly outdid Escobar in extra base hits, runs and RBI with Escobar playing nearly every game. I agree that it was Busch league to send Hardy down for the minimum amount of time required to get another year of service out of him. It wasn't JJ's fault the organization called him up immediately following his shoulder surgery and it certainly wasn't his fault he suffered that horrible ankle injury. Agreed.

It would be tough for me to be privy to specific info on that, but I know that a lot of guys have reportedly vetoed trades to Milwaukee in the past few years. As for demoting Hardy, I think that another problem was that it forced Melvin's hand. Instead of letting him play out the string, and possibly go on a hitting tear, by demoting him, Melvin made it 100% clear that he would have to move Hardy in a trade. I actually think that despite the 'extra year' angle, this hurt Hardy's trade value.

I have no problem with that. I'm actually encouraged to see him used in the 8th inning.

They just added that exact player a couple days ago and RRR chose not to use him.That's going to be the issue. You know they will put Saito on the 'kid glove regimen' for the rest of the season. You can't have a setup guy who can't pitch on back to back days, or even 2 of 3.

Everyone complains about Kotsay, Yuni, Nieves, etc., but Loe has done more damage this season than all of them combined. And yes, Roenicke is Yost-esque in his handling of the bullpen. This team needs to acquire an established set-up guy in the worst way, preferably one who has closer experience.

Just say no to Loe for the 8th, please.

I can't believe people are still defending how the Brewers handled Hardy. First, no way Hardy would have even went to the minors had his service time not been on the fringe. It was a bush league move, that I can't imagine helped the Brewers rep in the eyes of the player's union- not to mention how word spreads amongst other players and agents. This also demonstrates why you don't put all your eggs in one basket with a prospect. Bando did the same thing by dumping Vina for nothing to clear a space for Ronnie Belliard. Escobar was pretty much steaming garbage here, and he's not looking any better this season. I will give Melvin credit for moving him before his value bottomed out. Wouldn't it be nice to have Hardy right now? He probably could have been extended last season for a decent rate.

I think that it's simple as this....Greinke's slider is his out pitch, perhaps regarded as the best in baseball, but this season he hasn't had consistent command of it. He's struck out tons of guys with it, but has had problems locating it earlier in the count. Then he either falls behind guys or hangs one and gets hit hard. I think the big innings are somewhat a mental thing with him getting upset and flustered and/or trying to be too fine. I really don't think that he's collapsing under the pressure of pitching in Milwaukee in June. I say we give him a few more starts before we declare the trade to be the worst in Brewer's history.

Brian Wilson has been brutal this season. The Ryan Vogelsong selection is a joke as well.

What have the 4 players given up for him done? Escobar has picked up right where he left off last year at the plate- pretty much brutal, and the other 3 guys have been in the minors. Greinke is striking out 11.5 guys per 9 with almost 7 k's per walk, and with a better WHIP than Gallardo and Wolf (before today). Like Gallardo and to a lesser extent Marcum and Wolf, he seems to be a victim of 'one bad pitch' that results in a crooked number.

Has he given up a solo home run this year? Obviously he has- Thome drilled one today, but it seems like every homer is a three run shot.

Blackburn looks like a skinny Soup out there in one of his 'quality starts'. Balls getting smoked right at people.

I was just saying this to my wife. I know the All-Star Game is just an exhibition and not all the players are really deserving, but I still love seeing Brewers in it. When I was a kid, we'd almost always just get one player in the All-Star Game and it would usually be some pitcher like Ricky Bones. The highlight of the game for me was usually just seeing the Brewer player in the pre-game introductions. I just loved seeing the uniform of my favorite team on national TV. I'd then stay up all night just waiting for the reserve player to maybe get one AB or pitch to one batter. Half the time, that never happened. It's really great seeing three starters and maybe another one or two players (about to find out). Makes me feel like a kid again. Yeah. I'm still upset 19 years later that LaRussa refused to get the Cobra an at bat. Probably sour grapes from him leaving via free agency. Very unclassy move.

This team desperately needs a power bat off the bench. Who would have thought that not giving Hinske the extra year would be such a big miss? Once again, I am looking at a Baltimore guy in Luke Scott. I wonder what it would take to get him.

You can also be the MVP if your stats aren't quite as good the other guy(s). Watching Prince play all year, I'd have to say that he's almost single-handedly won over 5 games. I doubt if Kemp or Reyes have had that impact.

Why couldn't Gamel play 1st and 3rd at the same time? Back in the day, guys used to do it all the time. It's not like he switched from quarterback to cornerback or something. I wouldn't mind seeing Green get a look-see, I'd certainly rather see him at third than Wilson. That said, if you think that McGehee is going to Nashville, I think that you are deluding yourself. His knee might 'act up' again, and he may go there on a rehab, but I don't think that this team will flat out send him down. The demotions of Hall and Hardy in '09 were because they were both in Macha's doghouse, and for Hardy mainly to mess with his service time.

Does the team have control over Green past this season? I'm assuming he can be a minor league free agent after next year, but not sure. I'd be inclined to give McGehee another month (but I think that I'm more patient, OK stubborn than average), he has shown a few signs of life over the past few weeks. Even if he is benched, I'd be shocked if he was sent to Nashville. Hardy was sent down, but that wasn't due to his play, it mostly related to his service time.