RockCoCougars

I guess that Beane wanted the money to give to Cookie Crisp....2 years/$14 million (I checked a few sources to make sure that I wasn't reading it wrong). What am I missing here?

I think that the Bucks games are more kid friendly than Brewers games- especially for the under 10 set. The games are shorter, and all the noise, etc., seems to hold their interest better. Kick in the promotions that the Bucks have ran for the past several years, and it's cheaper as well.

Is it me, or does Beane make trades for the sake of making them? He seems to be in a constant state of rebuilding, but then he will swing a deal giving up prospects for a veteran.

What will this seating section be known as in a few years when Southwest is absorbed by another airline?

I think that you have to give Gamel at least half a season of playing everyday before you look elsewhere. I just hope that he comes to camp in shape and motivated to prove the doubters wrong. The way things have gone for him, he will probably get injured again.

Packers season tickets have always been viewed as a status symbol in a way, and rightly so considering the decades-long waiting list. Now days they are also considered an investment. Based on the huge seat licensing costs ticket holders had to kick in a few years ago, there is no way that many of these folks will give them up. Most of the Packers tickets that I know of are 2nd or 3rd generation 'family' tickets, in which most are split up game by game, with many listed on Stub Hub.

I think that the #2 thing that has fueled the resurgence in Badger sports popularity (beside the winning) is the fact that most games are televised. Back in the 'dark era', maybe 2 or 3 Badger football games were televised per year. I remember even Badger basketball on local TV more than football for sure. In order to be a die hard fan of either, you had to go to the games or listen to the radio. The only way to see the football games on TV was usually via tape delay on WPT (back in the 80's at least). Now days people complain when a Badger pre-conference game is only available on streaming. For better or worse, the Packers have always been on TV. I do credit the fans for selling out the games forever, but it's always been a status thing to have Packers tickets for whatever reason. Lambeau was much smaller back then too. Another thing to consider is that sports in general are much more popular with the masses then they were 30 years ago, especially with women.

I'd agree with the guess that this has something to do with the sausage race sponsorship.

Wisconsin is a huge bandwagon state. Not as bad as Minnesota, but close. The prime example is Badger sports, during my childhood Badger football was but a blip on the radar. There was a small bump in popularity during the McClain era, but outside of the student section, Camp Randall was absolutely dead during the 80's. I remember going to games in which the stadium was half full from then all the way into the early 90's. Not a soul cared about Badger basketball either. That popularity started with the success of the football team and with the Finley/Griffith team. Hockey was probably the most popular Badger sport during the 70's and 80's. The Packers were a joke through most of the same time period. There was always interest in the team, but maybe a fourth of what there is now. Casual fans didn't have 'Packer rooms', etc. When I was going to school, it was well known who the big Packer fans were. Not too many, there were probably as many Cowboy, Steeler and Viking fans (the annoying Bear fans didn't really proliferate until the Super Bowl season). The Bucks were successful and more popular then today, but never huge. Based on the sheer volume of 50-ish former 'huge Bucks fans' that I've met, my guess is that their popularity peaked a tad before my time during the Kareem era. As for the Brewers, they got huge during the late 70's, and after '82, they owned the state until probably '84 or so. They got a little spike again in '87 and that carried over losing a bit of steam until the strike in '94. Then they were pretty much the redheaded step brother of the 80's Packers until MP opened. That honeymoon lasted until Taylor and Lopes imploded. Interest didn't start to pick up again until Rickie and Fielder came up, now I'd say that it's pretty close to '82, though it will probably never get to that level again due to the popularity of the Badgers/Packers (lots more people these days like to advertise the fact that they find baseball boring as well). To answer your question, I would say that Milwaukee and Wisconsin in general is more of a party town than a baseball town. As long as the team is winning, games will be 'fun' to go to. If they start losing 90 games again, they can probably milk another two years out of things, but they better work to get things turned around.

You are probably just worrying too much. If they intended to fire you, they probably would have done so that day. Generally, employers want a good paper trail of 'disciplinary actions' to terminate an employee, so just mind your p's and q's until you find something more up your alley. I'd lay off the computer a bit, because that is a stone-cold, easily provable 'offense' if they wanted to go that route. Does your employer have an Internet usage policy?

edit: i thought a person couldn't collect unemployment if they got fired, or at least there was a complicated appeal process. otherwise there would be nothing stopping someone purposely getting themselves fired just to collect unemployment. but strangely, unemployment would be awesome for me to help me afford possibly not finding a job in NC for a while. Believe me, it happens all the time, at least here in Wisconsin. Things may be different in Texas, but here unless the DWD actually has the time to investigate your claim thoroughly (fairly long odds among the oodles of claims) AND your previous employer has the time/inclination to 'fight' your claim, you will most likely get it. Again, since unemployment is a state thing, things may be different in Texas.

This is where Brewers management loses me a bit. I don't know why they need to go so hard line here, it seems penny wise pound foolish to me. I'm not talking about huge money, I'm talking maybe a few hundred grand extra instead of just renewing his contract. I thought that it was a little bush league that they renewed both Prince and Yo after great years. Maybe they were trying to goad them into an extension (if that's the case they were 50/50). They also run the risk of alienating the player though, as I remember Prince was upset when he was renewed (and also facing financial troubles). I wouldn't even want to give Axford an extension at this point, but would it really kill them to give him $700K instead of $400K? Yes, I know, it's not my money- but how much money did they pay that stiff David Riske to go away last year?

In my view, Schafer needs to be at AAA in 2012. His upside basically seems about the same as what they are getting from Morgan right now, but with not even a full year of AAA under his belt, that's far from a given. At the same time, it's not like Morgan is breaking the bank or anything. As for Gomez, he is an ideal 5th outfielder if anything else. You won't find a better defensive replacement/pinch runner than him. Obviously, if Aoki joins the team, it seems on paper at least that you will have some duplicitous skill sets.... I want to see him play first before I hand him anything though.

What if Marcum in the season channeled 'playoff/pitching against Brewers Suppan', and during the playoffs he channeled 'non-playoff/pitching against anyone but the Brewers Suppan'? Is there a correlation? Mind blowing, I know.

but i would then also have to check that "Have you ever been terminated" box on standard application forms. it's hard enough to land interviews as it is, and does checking that box mean the application pretty much goes right into the garbage? because of this, there's a small part of me that almost wants to quit before i get fired. Most likely, you will be asked to 'resign' if worse comes to worse. Does anyone actually get fired anymore in our litigious society? If it comes down to it, firing may actually be beneficial to you if you want to collect unemployment....many more hoops to jump through with a forced resignation (another reason that employers tend to go this route). As stated above, you can always check 'No' on the termination box...getting fired isn't the end of the world. Even if a prospective employer does the due diligence to check your employment history, most previous employers will only confirm your dates of employment... again for legal reasons (they may disclose a termination if prodded, but it's far from a slam dunk).

All that I know is that at the end of the season, there is no one is the league that I would have preferred over Axford as closer. I wouldn't throw him an extension just yet, but I would certainly give him a nice 2012 contract for a guy with less than two years of service time. He deserves a little extra if you ask me, even though the Brewers don't have to do it.

Morgan was only worth Cutter Dykstra nine months ago. I seriously doubt that he would bring that much more now. I'm not sure why you would mess with a platoon that seemed to work pretty well last year just to add a B-level prospect.

I concur that Bogut looked very good last night. Unfortunately, the team seemed to continue their M.O. from last season by disappearing for a huge chunk of the game.

I'm all for doing an extension with Greinke right now. As for Marcum, I'd wait until I get a chance to see how he's pitching once the season starts.

Exactly. The talk of trading either of these guys makes little sense to me. It's not like they are going to bring a blue chip prospect, any 'prospect' that you get will have plenty of warts. Sounds like a Dean Taylor move to me. If Morgan becomes a problem, you just DFA him. I don't think that this team should trade anyone for prospects until they show that they won't be competitive again in 2012. That's what rebuilding teams do.

I think after 3 plus years the Sabathia deal was a clear win. LaPorta has been a flop in Cleveland, and Brantley would be interchangeable with Gomez/Morgan at this point -best case, 5th outfielder fodder more likely. The Greinke deal is looking good as well at this point, I still think that Cain is the key player in that deal, so time will tell. The only one that's looking like it may blow up is the Marcum deal, which I won't second guess. If given the opportunity, I would undo that one, but I never saw Lawrie making the jump that he did last year coming either.

Cool. I've seem similar cards before, but not this particular one. Based on the logo, it has to be '77 or before.

I'd say that the Brewers look to be a mid 80 win team as it stands (assuming Braun suspension, etc.). Right now, I think the Reds are the team to beat, with the Brewers a tick behind. Maybe it's just me, but I'm pretty underwhelmed by the Beltran to S.L. stuff. Wainwright may be back, but guys in their first year back from TJ don't generally set the world on fire. The rest of that staff doesn't look that great to me and their lineup is getting pretty long in the tooth.

As far as I'm concerned, the Hardy fiasco is right behind the Suppan signing as the biggest blunder of the Melvin regime. As we've seen, young all-star caliber SS do not grow on trees. In scapegoating Hardy/Hall for the disaster of '09, Melvin killed any trade value that Hardy had while handing the job to someone that hadn't earned it. Melvin redeemed himself a bit by moving Escobar while he still had value, but now there is a fairly tenuous situation (overpaid, aging veteran) at SS with no help from the minors in the foreseeable future.

George Karl set the franchise back years.- he has a bad habit of leaving places in steaming ruin. They flipped the ECF roster for mostly garbage (Joe Smith, Peeler, Kukoc, Mason, 30 games of Payton and a first used for T.J. Ford). To me, this season is shaping up a lot like the last shortened season 98-99(?) where the team looks to be pretty decent coming off a disappointing season (remember Terrell Brandon's ankle?). This has to be the year that Jennings starts building on his first month. Hopefully Bogut can get back close to pre-injury form and Jackson can be a consistent scorer. I honestly could see this team getting a 5 seed in the East if things shake out good. Based on how horrible they looked last year, they could miss the playoffs entirely as well.