RockCoCougars

He traded him for a starter who was just as good as Davis the previous year, was cheaper, had more years of service time left and who has had better peripherals since the trade than Davis has. One who was outpitching Davis in 2007 before struggling through some injury issues. Not to mention Estrada was a decent hitter for a C, before he got hurt he was sitting at a .770 OPS. That trade seems to go down as bad because of injuries more than anything else. Both of the main guys we traded for got hurt and played through it, Davis didn't. First, I'll place the disclaimer that I was initially in favor of the Davis/Estrada deal, however... I guess if you call Estrada basically walking to first base on ground balls 'playing through it', but I digress. He was out of shape and lazy. There is a reason that he was traded three times in three years and was out of baseball a year after leaving the Brewers. The starter that was also included in the deal (Vargas) was adequate to OK. Then he was inexplicably cut the next spring after pitching fairly well down in Arizona, in what was an obvious cost-cutting move. Why the need for this cost-cutting? Soup's salary. Also probably the same reason that the Brewers basically did squat at the trading deadline last year. I've come to the conclusion that if the signing was solely Melvin's decison, he needs to go. On the same note, if Macha is making the decision to keep Suppan in the rotation, he needs to go. However, my guess is that neither of those are the case. I'd bet that this is a mandate from Attanasio, which is a little scary. Attanasio has seemed pretty responsive to fan requests in the past, therefore, I urge the fans to make their displeasure known loud and clear if/when Suppan takes the mound again at Miller Park.

If middle of the rotation guys had such value at that time. why then did Melvin decide to trade away a serviceable starter in Davis, who likely would have came much cheaper than Suppan (and was arguably better anyway) for a fat, lazy catcher? Let's face it, Jeff Suppan is the Larry Brown of baseball. He was fortunate enough to pitch two of the games of his life on the national stage in the NLCS. This caused Mark A. and/or Melvin to fall in love with him. Further complicating the problem is that unlike the NFL, MLB contracts are guaranteed.

Do I personally hate the guy? No. Do I hate him as a player? Yes. I'm solely posing the question- why do people 'feel bad' for Suppan when he's booed, or claim that 'it isn't his fault' that he's not living up to his conract. He's stunk up the joint much worse than guys like Hammonds, Helms, Hall, etc., and they were booed unmercifully and eventually ran out of town, even though they only made a fraction of Suppan's salary. It really ticks me off to think that he's tremendously hindered this team during their small window to contend. Going further, it also bugs the heck out of me that he keep getting chances when others do not. This tells me that someone in management is in his corner. Suppan apologists cannot use the 'no better options' excuse this year because there most certainly are, but for whatever stupid reason, those options are not even given a chance. I think we've all worked with an incompetent who makes more money than us soley because they have 'the connections' with management. I think that's a perfect analogy here.

I don't know about that. Professional athletes are typically not the most humble folk; it wouldn't at all surprise me if Suppan believes he is still a #3/4 starter who has been hampered by injuries.That's another thing that bothers me about Suppan. To the best of my knowledge, he's never come out and said anything to the effect of, 'I'm letting the team down', 'I really stunk it up tonight', 'I deserved the boos", etc. Wolf did so after his first start. Who's to say that he's keeping himself in good baseball shape either? I've said it before here, his rear end has seemed to get bigger every year. There is such a double standard in place with player moves, Hall and Hardy were run out of town on a rail, and Suppan gets chance after chance even though he is completely brutal. This tells me that he is a 'favorite' of someone, likely Mark A. He needs to 'get hurt', and go on the D.L. again...now, before he costs the team too many games.

Give me specific examples of what he's done outside of donate $100,000 per year to the club charities. That's one percent of his contract, and after the tax writeoff, about $250 grand total. Don't get my wrong it's a kind effort, and above and beyond what a lot of guys would do. That said, it shouldn't make him immune to booing or above criticism. If you guys want to lay the blame on Melvin for being 100% on this move, that's fine, but it's a fireable offense. In my opinion, it wasn't 100% Melvin, Soup is Mark's pet.

Because he's stolen 40 some million dollars from the Brewers. He should be booed. The idea that 'we knew he sucked when he was signed' doesn't fly either. I knew he sucked, many others here knew he sucked, but for whatever reason, Melvin and Attanasio did not. ( Just think if Melvin would have succeed in bringing Dave Roberts here that same winter for $25-$30 million? ) Melvin should take some of the heat for this as well, but that's a little complicated since I'm convinced that Suppan is a 'Mark A.' guy. I don't see how anyone can feel bad about Suppan getting rightfully booed off the mound. While Suppan is taking the heat, a message is also sent to the dunderheads that keep wasting games by running him out there. I'll take people's words for it that he's a great guy, but everyone talks about what 'good that he's done for the community'. Can someone break that down for me? He doesn't even live here in the off-season,so I doubt that it's much more than a fraction of his heist from the contract.

Because he's stolen 40 some million dollars from the Brewers. He should be booed. The idea that 'we knew he sucked when he was signed' doesn't fly either. I knew he sucked, many others here knew he sucked, but for whatever reason, Melvin and Attanasio did not. ( Just think if Melvin would have succeed in bringing Dave Roberts here that same winter for $25-$30 million? ) Melvin should take some of the heat for this as well, since I'm convinced that Suppan is a 'Mark A.' guy. Guys like Jeffery Hammond didn't exactly have a great track record when they were signed either and they were run out of town. Even guys like Helms, Moeller, etc. seem to have taken more heat from the fans here, than Suppan and they made a fraction of his salary. I don't see how anyone can feel bad about Suppan getting rightfully booed off the mound. While Suppan is taking the heat, a message is also sent to the dunderheads that keep wasting games by running him out there. I'll take people's words for it that he's a great guy, but everyone talks about what 'good that he's done for the community'. Can someone break that down for me? He doesn't even live here in the off-season,so I doubt that it's much more than a fraction of his heist from the contract.

Attanasio hans't spent a lifetime if baseball. There's no doubt in my mind that Suppan getting these starts is a mandate from him- say what you want about Macha and/or Melvin, they aren't that stupid. He will get a couple of more starts, stink up the joint, and then go on the D.L. again after 'tweaking his neck', then when he comes back in June or so he will be buried in the bullpen. I've basically accepted the fact that this team doesn't have the cajones to DFA him.

That '92 Blue Jays game is definitely in my Top 10 Brewers games ever. I remember that the Jays had just completed the deal for Cone. It was a Friday night, and I was driving around aimlessly just to listen to the carnage on the radio. The next day they went out on the Game of the Week and knocked Cone around.

For sure. Many wanted to trade him for Brian Roberts. Glad that Melvin didn't bite on the Chad Cordero deal either.

Someone made a great comparison earlier that has come to my mind in the past as well- Paul Sorrento. I am also upset that they took Brantley instead of Taylor Green though.

Exactly. I think it's a generation gap type thing. Not too long ago, you had to listen to the game to follow the team. There was no web, and only about 40 games a year were televised, if you were lucky. I think that many of us older folks view baseball on the radio as hearing a familiar voice- an old friend so to speak. The story telling that Ueck does is a big part of that. For me at least, that makes the broadcast- as long as I have some idea of what's going on in the game, I'm fine with that. If I could figure out a way around the DirecTV delay, I'd still turn the sound down on the TV guys to listen to Ueck, as I did for several years. It seems the younger crowd prefer a Jim Powell type- someone who will break down the game and stats, talk about the minors, etc. That's fine, but to me, that's what the Internet is for. It will be a sad day for me when Bob is no longer doing the games. I just hope that he isn't pushed out due to sentiment like this like Ernie Harwell was in Detroit.

Well, he was definitely a waste of $10 million dollars while here. That said, at least he was forthright about the fact that he didn't play up to his contract- most aren't. He also scored some points with the gestures he made with the tickets, etc. Whether it was completely altruistic, or just P.R., the gesture did show some class on his part.

Point taken, but what was their record in Yost's last 12 games? No matter who they played, they came out of their tailspin that last last week. The players seemed to respond well to Sveum. I heard more positive comments about him from players in two weeks than I've heard about Macha in two years. This isn't exactly a young team anymore, perhaps a 'player's manager' would work better.

Absolutely. He should have never been hired in the first place, Sveum should have gotten the job. As I've said here before, I take Macha's record with Oakland with a grain of salt. That was largely a product of having a Hudson-Zito-Mulder pitching staff. I could have won 90 games managing that team. Say what you want about Sveum, but he got that team playing well under extreme pressure. I don't blame him for the Suppan start decision as I'm attributing that to 'upper management'. When Sveum was hired, I said make the playoffs, get the job. Randolph will get the job if Macha is fired mid-season though.

Just gave one up in the 19th, but the Mets had to play some small ball. He did give up only one hit in two innings and though he hit a guy and walked three, two were intentional.

The Sexson trade pretty much made Melvin bulletproof for a while. He cemented that by pulling guys like Pods, Davis, and Kolb from the scrap heep. More recently, I'm racking my brain for any shrewd moves that he's made outside of the McGahee claim, and the Sabathia deal, but that was kind of a no-brainer at the time, although if Brantley and LaPorta ever do anything, that may turn into a debatable wash as well. The Lee and Davis trades were brutal as were the signings of Suppan, Riske and Hall. If Wolf is bad this season and Hardy makes the Gomez deal look bad, Doug could be in a little bit of trouble. That said, I have a difficult time criticizing Melvin after enduring a few seasons of Dean Taylor.

Just tossed a scoreless inning in relief- something that most Brewer relievers seem incapable of this season. Plus, he was hitting 81 on the gun, probably only a few notches below Soup. Just saying...

Just tossed a scoreless inning in relief- something that most Brewer relievers seem incapable of this season. Plus, he was hitting 81 on the gun, probably only a few notches below Soup. Just saying...

The comment 'maybe less in fact' actually does a good job at pinpointing why Melvin is at fault here. Say what you want about Sheets, but he was probably the best pitcher this franchise ever developed. After he signed his last extension, he had a few fluky injuries that were just bad luck. Because of these injuries, he got the undeserved reputation as unreliable and/or injury prone. In the meantime Melvin threw $40 some million at a guy who has about 1/10 the talent of Sheets, while refusing to negotiate a contract extension with Sheets because he was 'unreliable'. Sheets then went out and started the All-Star game, hurt his arm a month or so later, tried to pitch through it, likely hurting it more, and then tried to come back again to help the team the final weekend of the season and was booed off the mound by stupid fans. For some reason, Sheets was lazy and out of shape, but Suppan gets a free pass (he's not missing any meals). If Sheets didn't want to come back, I can't blame him, but Melvin made absolutely no effort to retain him, apparently because he's a health risk- instead pursuing guys like Randy Wolf (who has a TJ surgery on his resume), and Doug Davis (cancer survivor).

Well, I don't consider myself a casual fan, and I think Melvin really blew it not resigning Sheets. The money used to sign Suppan should have been used to extend Sheets for 3 years. It's easy to Monday morning QB the injury Sheets had, but even with the injury and missing a full year, he would have been much more productive than Suppan. I still think that Sheets will go down as 'this generation's Molitor', in that he had bad luck with injuries here and then achieved tons of success- injury free elsewhere.

I will admit that he pitched much better than I expected. The key to that was that he walked only one guy in five innings. I did get a good laugh out of the 'Suppan's Strong Start', or whatever the graphic was on the post-game show, that seemed like a little spin to me. Have we really set the bar that low for him? Going further, I don't know how E.R.A. is a horrible stat (at least for a starter) to gauge how well a pitcher performed- the objective of a pitcher is to keep the opponent from scoring. Like I said, Soup pitched better than I thought he would, but giving up four runs in 5 innings is not acceptable over the long run because it puts a ton of stress on the bullpen and pressure on the offense- they are not going to score 8 runs a game. Not sure if it's a good thing that he pitches just well enough to stick in the rotation for an extended period of time.

FYI.... the wind is blowing out at Wrigley! There is still 15 minutes to parlay the over 11.5 with the Cubs. $100 will get you $178.

If that's all you can get for Fielder, then you just let him play out the next two years and walk. I'm not arguing that you could get more, because I wouldn't be surprised if that was all they could get. The Brewers always seem to have bad timing with these sorts of things, while other teams make out like bandits.

I don't get the fascination with Jacoby Elllsbury. Trading Prince with Ellsbury as the main part coming back would be akin to the Gorman Thomas/Rick Manning trade in '83 (albeit with both Prince and Ellsbury both being much better than Thomas and Manning). I want no part of trading elite power for a slick fielding singles hitter. If Prince must be traded, it had better be for multiple pitchers who are ready to pitch in the majors now, not single A guys,, plus they better be able to break 92-93 on the radar guns, and not be junkballers- as Melvin seems to favor.