RockCoCougars

I've been noticing how anemic Oakland's offense has been. Checked some stats, and found it ironic that the squad that OBP guru Billy Beane has put together has the lowest OBP in the A.L..

Yes they did, several times last night. I actually found that telling, perhaps in a passive-aggressive way. Think about it, as frustrated as fans seem to be over this, I can imagine that the team would even be more upset if this was caused by a split second lack of judgement... they have a lot more on the line. If this was caused by an accident, why use the layman's term? Why not call it a 'fracture of the 4th metacarpal' or something? If this was caused by hitting a wall, I have to think that a physician would be able to tell, because there would likely have been contusions/abrasions on the fingers and knuckles consistent with a closed fist being struck against a wall.

He's trailing Eric Chavez, Mark Ellis and Orlando Hudson in career WAR Wow. This really causes me to question the validity of WAR as a useful stat. How could Orlando Hudson have a higher 'counting' WAR than anyone with 400 homers and a career batting average over .280?

Congrats, it only took you how many days and 25 years to go back and find a player who played a DIFFERENT position and was STILL a two time all-star who didn't play the same position and wasn't nearly the defensive prospect Profar is. Your excuses are getting tiresome. It's not as impressive he's dominating after just turning 19 years old because...well...he started playing baseball earlier. Really? Bit of a stretch, don't ya think? Either way, Rangers just signed Oswalt, so we likely won't find out just how totally ridiculous it is to expect Profar to be PART of a package for 4 months of Greinke. It is worth noting on here though how when it's OUR players we value 6 premium years of cheap talent more than a short term rental, especially when we're out of it. Not only that, but you've used Cy Young in nearly everyone of YOUR posts. Tell me which is more likely, Greinke wins another Cy Young, or Profar's the impact player he's projected to be? I'd say it's less than a "coin flip," Greinke wins another Cy Young. Anyway, we'll have to wait 2 or so years to find out about Profar at which time you'll likely have no recollection of this conversation... I have a long memory. I have no problem admitting I'm wrong or second guessing when I was right. Probably a coin flip.. It didn't take me two days to think of Jeffries. He is one of the first guys that come to mind when I hear about over-hyped prospects. Baseball America definitely had some man love for him in the early days, and he was every bit the prospect that Trout, Harper, et al are today. He turned out to be an OK player. BTW he was a shortstop when he was Profar's age. As for a recent comparison to Profar, look no further than Andrus to start. To find comparisons with this age/experience match, you are pretty much limited to guys from Latin America, so you don't have too many to draw from.

I guess what I've been championing is selling for a good return as opposed to holding pat and losing all the free-agents-to-be or buying in a futile attempt to fool the fans into thinking we're "in it to win it." Profar has kind of become the symbol of the case for selling, and it would be great if we could get him, but my arguement has never been "we need to get Profar," but rather "if we sell, we need to get a good return of talented young players who can help future Brewer teams." You are probably right, however that the Oswalt move probably ends the Greinke-to-Texas discussion. If the GM needed owners' approval for the $5MM to sign Oswalt, it may not be likely that they would approve paying 1/2 of Greinke's salary and parting with prospects... unless someone gets hurt. I hear you, but there is a fine line between selling for a good return and selling for the best deal out there. Frankly, I'm not sure whether I trust Melvin to do the former. Once you put a guy on the market, it's tough to pull them back.

It might be unrealistic to even hope for a trade for Profar. If Profar is in the same class as Trout and Harper, he's not going to get traded, simple as that. Now that the Rangers signed Oswalt, this may be moot anyway.

Then I suppose there really is no difference in trading for Profar despite the spectacular #'s he's put up for his age OK, you've drawn me back in. Please show me these spectacular numbers. To me, it's not surprising that he's put up good numbers for his age, the head start that he got on his career relative to most guys who don't sign until they're at least 18 Frankly, this guy should be more advanced than some 19 year old who signed out of high school late last summer. Bottom line, I've never said that I don't think this guy is a prospect. I may even be interested in trading Greinke for a package including him, but I want to wait awhile first. All of this is moot anyway if he's this kind of talent, because no one is going to flip him for a rental. He could be the next Robin Yount or Jeter, or he could be the next Wil Cordero or Andujar Cedeno or worse. You will never convince me that he's a sure thing and that trading a Cy Young type guy for him straight up (or throwing something in) is a no brainer. BTW: If you want to see extraordinary numbers from a teenage SS in the low/mid minors, check this out: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=jeffer001gre

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I wouldn't look any different on Lucroy if he did break his hand punching an inanimate object. He's a 20 something guy, and a lot of 20 something guys are wont to do things like that. The major issue that I have is that for whatever reason he waited to tell the team knowing that Kottaras was battling a tweak as well. He should have went to them immediately if for no other reason than to get another catcher in town if necessary (and possible). What if Kottaras had been unable to go last night?

I don't know why that series of events is hard to believe. 1) Suffer injury Sunday night. 2) It hurts, but hope/think it's just a bruise that can be managed. Likely ice it that night/next morning. 3) Test out the hand during an early batting practice, but can't grip the bat properly. 4) Tell manager, see doctor. Sounds pretty normal to me. So you break your primary throwing/writing/eating hand and you would wait nearly 24 hours to get treatment? Not me.

That may have been fun for the Internet GM types, but watching the big league team during that era was not fun, as evidenced by the attendance (outside of the MP honeymoon period). As someone who endured the down period from '93-'02, I don't want to endure another rebuilding period again. Personally, I'm against blowing everything up because Melvin neglected to build depth on the team and because Weeks and Ramirez forgot how to hit for 7 weeks. Bottom line, both Greinke and Gallardo are top 20 MLB starting pitchers, with Braun and the rest of the offensive core, there is no excuse for a rebuild. Get Greinke's agent back to the table and make an offer that reflects market value. How does Profar make this team better in '13 or '14? Without Greinke, the pitching will likely be substandard, so we will be right back to 2010 with a bad pitching staff and a hotshot SS prospect that will have growing pains, best case, flameout worst case. I don't care how good this guy is, you cannot expect a 20 or 21 year old to step in and start leading a team right away. This doesn't even mention that the organization has basically no infield or catching prospects who will be ready the next couple of years. As far as I know, they have a couple of fringe outfield prospects and that's about it for guys who will realistically be able to contribute in the next 2-3 years. There are some decent pitching prospects who hopefully will be able to fill in the back end of the rotation if necessary though. Bottom line, this team needs to step up to the plate and make a good faith effort to retain Greinke. If not, considering the state of the minor league system, they may as well do a full scale rebuild, trading marketable guys for multiple prospects. If Greinke can be retained, I think this team can be salvaged. Otherwise, I see a long dry spell ahead. I've mentioned this before, but to me, there are lots of parallels between this squad and the '93-era Brewers. They are in a bit better shape because the '93 team had nothing like Braun, but otherwise basically you have a few good players, a few position players that show potential, some overpaid bad players and a farm system that has been milked pretty much dry from bringing guys to the majors over the past 5-7 years.

Molitor didn't break his finger by trying on a glove. He was horsing around with a teammate (Dave Engle?) and got his finger caught up in their cleats. Maybe the trying on the glove story was the first one that they used...

That's for post '85 junk. You can get decent prices for big 70's lots, especially if they include stars and HOF. 1975 Topps cards are definitely worth something if in passable condition.

It's almost comical that prospects are viewed by some as bigger risks than veteran players who flame out at a similar rate with much larger monetary commitments at stake. If you are referring to my post, it was taken out of context. I never once said that I wanted to trade Greinke for 'proven players'. I was replying to the statement that there is not currently 'ONE' shortstop in the major leagues that projects to be as good as 'HIM' (Profar). This was basically a ridiculous assertion that Profar is currently the best thing going in organized baseball at SS. I said that I'd take Starlin Castro over him because he's proven that he can hit MLB pitching over 3 seasons at age 22. I never said that I wanted to trade Greinke for anybody, let alone Castro or a 'proven' player. I really don't want to trade him at all, and I certainly don't think that trading him straight up for a AA player would be a 'steal', no matter how high guys like Keith Law have him rated on one of their lists.

Why speculate at all when there is no smoke let alone fire? If a suitcase fell on his hand, hurting him enough to break a bone, I question why he waited until BP to consult with the team medical staff. If this was an innocent accident, why suffer with the pain when the team has a trainer available to help you? I'm sure that he didn't go to them because he didn't want the team to worry about yet another injury.

Remember when Jeff Kent got hurt washing his truck? The cynic in me draws some parallels, mostly due to the fact that Lucroy kept quiet until he couldn't go.

And you can defend the HOF comment all you want, it's pretty obvious it was based on nothing I said. I mean, it's cute you're trying to defend it, but you brought up HOF to be condescending. There's a 20 year career and a long way from being an elite prospect and "as close" to can't miss as you can get and HOF, so the only reason for that comment was to be a....I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Of course I was being sarcastic. Over the years, we've seen better and more hyped prospects than this bust time and time again. It's probably a coin flip that he's going to be a star player. At any rate, I'm not sure that I want to trade a Cy Young caliber pitcher and essentially start a rebuild based on that coin flip. You say a Greinke/Profar deal would be a 'steal for the Brewers, and I think that's hyperbole. I'm not going to get into a personal war over this. Obviously, you are aroused over this Profar guy, and I'll leave it at that.

Looking at the stats, I was pretty surprised that he's been as good as he has. That said, I think he falls short. Not a bad career for a guy who was traded twice early on. I had forgotten that the White Sox got him for Cameron.

The asinine HOF comment though was spot on. Truly furthered the conversation...... Edit-By the way, I just took a look at his updated stats. REALLY Rock? Were you just waiting for his average to drop a tick below .300 in AA as a 19 year old so you could come on here and say, "he's not even a .300 hitter?" You are the one who referred to him as a 'once in a generation type' and 'as close to a can't miss future superstar at SS as you can get', hence the HOF comment. I have not been waiting for anything on his average to fall- honestly I don't know much about him, but his stats at AA are not jaw dropping by any means. name ONE other current big league SS who projects to be similar to Profar? Call me crazy... but I'd take Starlin Castro in a heartbeat. He's only a few years older and already proven that he can hit big league pitching. You do have a point about Texas trading Profar. If he's half as good as you think that he is, there is no way.

Lots of hype about this Profar. Shall we cast his HOF plaque now or shall we wait and see if the Rangers trade him so we know what hat to use? Looking at his stats, he's hardly dominating AA ball.... he's not even hitting .300. I get that he's 19 years old, but some guys peak early. He doesn't exactly have the frame of a power hitter either. Has anyone here even seen him play much? I don't think that a straight up deal for Greinke would be a steal for the Brewers by any stretch. Bottom line, I'm not going to get crazy over a guy who's never played a major league game just because people like Keith Law have him ranked high on one of their lists, because they've probably never watched him play much either.

I faced a similar issue a few years back with cards from the same era (personally, I decided to keep mine, much to my wife's chagrin). I wouldn't necessarily say that these are worthless. You definitely won't get rich on these, but depending on condition and whether you have some stars among your duplicates, there is probably some value in the 75-79 cards. Probably not so much in the 80's stuff except for Rickey Henderson and Cal Ripken rookies.

From watching the broadcasts, it's quite obvious that the company line is going to revolve around the injuries. At the same time, the reason that these injuries have had this effect is that there was a glaring lack of depth going into the season. The Brewers got extremely lucky with injuries last season, and it looks like that is catching up to them now. That said, I'm not going to be sold the bill of goods that the injuries are the sole reason for the way the team is playing now. It's not like they've lost anyone that would be considered a key player for an extended stretch.

The effect on 'paid attendance' would be negligible this season, though I'd be willing to bet that there would be a bunch of unoccupied seats late in the season. The major issue for the Brewers would be an erosion in the season ticket base and suites that they'd run into this off season. Those sales will take a big hit.

To me, Adam Dunn is basically a modern day Dave Kingman with a much better walk rate. I don't see him getting much support for the HOF, just as Kingman didn't even though he hit over 400 homers when that actually meant something. He's been a very good player, but I don't think that he will get serious consideration now that the all-time homer list has been watered down big time. I don't think that the writers would vote in a modern player with a .240ish career batting average either.

I wonder if Pete even cares that he's not in the HOF. Whenever I heard him lament his ban, he always spoke about wanting to get back into a managerial role. Personally, my opinion on this has changed a bit in recent years. I'm going with a 'No', if for no other reason than to not give the steroid (cheaters like Bonds, Clemens, etc.) supporters another argument.

As much as I'd like to think that was intentional, the reaction by the Brewers shows that it wasn't. These guys are way too nice.