RockCoCougars

Royce White intrigues me, but I'd worry how his game will translate to the NBA as he seems to be the classic tweener. Depending on who is on the board, I may take a flyer on him.

It does seem like there have been a ton of no-hitters and perfect games over the past 15-20 years or so. I'll admit that the curmudgeon in me doesn't approve... "In my day, Catfish Hunter had the last perfect game in '68, and we liked it that way".

Thank God. Hopefully Axford and Gallardo are next.

Well, if Sveum got Rickie back to a semblance what he was over the past three seasons, that'd be more than enough for me. I think that you can clearly see that Sveum helped Weeks in a big way.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/assets_c/2010/06/suppanthumbs-thumb-225x168.jpg The Hardy debacle is clearly number two though. I'd actually make the argument that sending him to Nashville and forcing his own hand was a bigger mistake than the actual trade though.

Where was everyone expecting us to be offensively this year? We've lost Gonzalez, Gamel, and Lucroy -- all opening day starters, for some or all of the season. Yeah, Weeks is troubling, but I don't think we know enough of the situation to be able to speak to why. I'd be pretty shocked if he isn't doing everything in his power to try to correct it. I expected the offense to take a ding from the beginning, because I didn't buy into the whole Ramirez+Gonzalez+Gamel> McGehee+Betancourt+Fielder equation that was being tossed about all Winter long. Simply put, Fielder himself is greater than all of those guys. The injuries play some role, but not a huge one in my view. The major issue is that two guys counted on for the middle of the order in a big way have not come through. No explanation necessary for Weeks, and though you say Ramirez is 'revving' it up, I expected more than 5 homers by mid June.... we are roughly 3 weeks from the All-Star break. This doesn't mention that yet again, this team has problems getting clutch hits and scoring without homering. We are 7th in OPS and runs scored in the NL. All that I can say about this is there are some horrible offenses in baseball this year. Does that absolve the Brewers ineptitude? I did a quick check and the Brewer RPG output to this point is the lowest they've had since '04 and I believe the third lowest that they've had since joining the NL. You also have to consider that the explosion a few Sundays back against the Twins bumped the RPG total up a quarter of a point or so. They have failed to score 4 runs in half their games, not good. In the end, I'm not saying that firing Narron now would do any good, but I will say that the hitters have seemed to regress with the loss of Sveum. I won't shed any tears if he is gone at the end of the year though.... I hate nepotism at any rate.

If Soup could make it back to the bigs, I'd bet that barring a injury setback, Sheeter will as well.

Weeks hasn't eclipsed Gumby yet, and I would have said that even before this year's debacle. If Rickie remembers how to hit for the rest of his contract, he's going to catch him, but to this point, he's really only had 2.5 good seasons. As for Vuke, he really only pitched for the Brewers for about 2 seasons and change. Those two were very good seasons, especially considering W/L, but they were not great enough to propel him into the Top 5 in franchise history.

K-Rod isn't fooling anybody anymore. I have a bad feeling about this Yuni AB.

Here we go.

And that is why I don't miss Escobar one bit.

Gillick did a ton more for the Jays then Epstein did for the Red Sox. If Gillick was 100% responsible for the Phillies success, the same could be said about Dan Duquette in Boston. Melvin is an OK GM, but doesn't get a fraction of the ink that Epstein gets... same with most of the other GM's of currently successful teams....For example, why is Freidman with Tampa not as 'cool' as Beane or Epstein? You certainly don't hear about him as much. I'll even admit that it may be somewhat unhealthy, but the manlove for Epstein and Beane irks me to no end. Seriously, what is the difference between Esptein and Brian Cashman? Outside of the fact that one is younger, hired Bill James and has an Ivy League pedigree, I see none. I think that you could make the argument that Cashman actually has a better track record.

I expect a big offensive output tonight. It seems like the situation with Sanchez is one that the Brewers historically exploit (guy off injury). I'm going to say at least 6 runs.... hopefully the Royals don't score even more off Wolfie.

Bosio was good for sure. In his best seasons, he was overshadowed by guys like Higuera and later Eldred. I seem to remember one long losing streak (88 I think) that likely dinged some of his stats somewhat. All that said, I have to go with Caldwell as #3 behind Higuera and Sheeter, who I see as 1a and 1b. Caldwell was definitely the stopper on those Bambi's Bombers teams, and he would have won the Cy Young in '78 had Guidry not pitched out of his mind. Caldwell was the king of the 9 or 10 hit shutout type games, likely hurting his stats, but he was an absolute warrior on the mound. The problem with him is that he lost it almost as quickly as he found it. I'm still a tad partial to Moose Haas as my number 4 over Bosio, but it's pretty much a toss up. As for OF, I was a big Jenkins guy. If we are taking just three outfielders as it appears with having both Braun and Oglivie, than I keep things as they are. On the other hand if we need a RF, Burnitz is probably the guy.

I think that Sullinger is going to drop like a rock. I also think that Austin Rivers, who I've targeted for awhile is going to go in the Top 10. I see Perry Jones associated with the Bucks a lot... he reminds me a lot of Tim Thomas, and I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. I don't think that Jones is going to last until the Bucks pick anyway. My gut is telling me Tyler Zeller right now unless someone like Lamb (who I think will either be very good or terrible, can't figure him out) drops. It wouldn't shock me if Zeller was taken before the Bucks either. There is some upside with Zeller, and I don't think that barring injury he will ever be a complete bust. That said, the upside is pretty limited... if he could bulk up and get a little toughness, I could see him being a Brad Miller type. He's not going to be a star but he could be someone who could pull down close to a double/double average in time. I shudder to think about Meyers Leonard, but I can't see Hammond making yet another risky pick.... unless he wants to get fired (which actually may not be a stretch).

so he's put his players "up for sale" early in hopes of maximizing the return How did he maximize his return for Zambrano? Trading a very serviceable pitcher along with $15 million for a guy with a rag arm doesn't seem like max return to me. We don't hear much about that deal now, do we. I guarantee that we would have if Zambrano had become Crazy Z, melted down in Spring Training and/or if Chris Volstad would have somehow not pitched like Chris Volstad, guys would have been putting down their Baseball Prospectuses and spray painting 'Theo is God' in alleys outside of Barnes and Nobles everywhere.

I think that arrogance is a bit warranted to counter reading post after post talking about how we should 'fear the Cubs' in a period of time solely because of two front office personnel. No GM is going to build a team into a powerhouse without a ton of luck. Over the years there have been a lot of hotshot GM's who've made a name for themselves, but most do not do nearly as well at their second job. The only one that I can think of that eclipsed his success was Schuerholtz in Atlanta. Pat Gillick put some good seasons together after Toronto, but no rings. Other boy wonders like Dombrowski and Alderson have mixed results but no rings since leaving the jobs where they built their cred. How did John Hart do in Texas? Randy Smith in Detroit? These guys were the Theos of the nineties. As I said, I can only go by what I can see now. What did Hoyer do to make San Diego better, or even position them better for the future? Everybody talks about the horrible contracts that Theo inherited with the Cubs, but there are a few probably worse that he left in Boston. I have no idea why his lackeys (pun intended) absolve him from those contracts and the problems that he left behind in Boston. Like I said, all three teams are in last place. If these guys are so good, what gives? I'll stand by my assertion that they are media darlings mostly because 'they' broke the Curse of the Bambino, and interviews with them and Bill James are good fodder for shows like '60 Minutes'.

I'd definitely look into extending Hart if he was amenable. I believe that he's been one of the better bargains in baseball for someone with his production/service time mix. I also think that he's always been a tad underrated on this board for whatever reason. Look at the lineup as we stand. Without Hart, you'd basically have Braun and crap- with very little power. What did the Twins get Willingham for- 3/$25? If that's the case I could see the Brewers being able to get Hart for maybe a tad more.

I think most of us would agree that Jed Hoyer is a pretty damn good GM What are his accomplishments as a GM? San Diego looks to be in horrible shape. They have been trading places with (you guessed it) the Cubs for worst record in baseball. A quick glance reveals that the biggest move that he made with San Diego was giving Gonzalez to the Red Sox... that is unless you believe (as Theo and Jed obviously do) that Anthony Rizzo is the second coming of Albert Pujols or something. We shall see. All that I know is that the three teams these guys have been primarily associated with are all currently in last place. I'll give them the rebuilding excuse for a few years, but I don't fear them in the least based on their past track record.

Yeah, sports franchises are very good at crying poor when they're making money. Hasn't the value of the franchise also pretty much doubled in the past 8 seasons as well? Ah yes, the unrealized gains. People often forget that the franchise value is likely much more important to the ownership than year to year financial gains/losses (unless the franchise is absolutely hemorrhaging money or the ownership group is shoestring, don't think that is the case here). This is not a comic book store or a lemonade stand, and a small loss is not going to sink the ship. I'm sure that the Attanasio ownership group assumed a ton of debt, but I'd also be willing to bet that their debt burden is not high when compared to other major league franchises- I'm sure that they took advantage of low rates during the past several years and refinanced a lot of that debt under more favorable terms as well. Sports franchises generally make for a great medium to long term investment vehicle. As with most businesses, with sports franchises, it seems that the price tag is driven more by assets and revenues than it is profitability. Bottom line, I'd be willing to bet that very few people have actually sold a franchise at a loss. More often then not, when a franchise is sold, the gains are over 100 percent, sometimes several times that. That makes for a nice ROI doesn't it?

I think good coaching helps more than poor coaching hurts, if that makes any sense. I'll use Weeks as an example of a guy who may need to be 'coached up'. When he got to the bigs, he was pretty atrocious in the field, I give Randolph a ton of credit for rectifying that. Offensively, he was struggling quite a bit as well, I'm not sure that it's a coincidence that his best seasons were with Sveum as hitting coach. Now for someone like Braun, I don't think that coaching matters in the least. That's probably the case with many guys who either don't need or don't accept much advice from the coaches.

I HIGHLY doubt that the Brewers are losing money, or even that close to breakeven on a 'non paper/real basis' for that matter. Mark A is a smart guy... just look at how much money they have been spending on stadium improvements over the past several years. Depending on how it is distributed, depreciation expenses can significantly reduce net income and in turn, reduce taxes. I guarantee that Attanasio has a group of accountants that can move things around to pretty much show a small profit or loss every year.

I'd have no problem showing Narron the door. Won't happen though.

Don't want to derail this thread, but since there are so many people here as we speak, I was wondering if anyone in the Madison area with Directv could check Channel 27. I'm unable to get 3 and 27 but can get all other locals. Not happy about missing the NBA game, but wanted to check if the issue was on my end before going through the tech flowchart with customer service. Thanks. To keep this fairly game related, Greinke's performance this evening is why Mark A. needs to open his wallet in a big way.

Somehow, I forgot Prince also. I'd still put Coop ahead of him at first, but Prince is the DH for sure.