batman

Nedley, what are you thinking? " 'Vizcy' hadn't thrown in five days," Yost said. "I gave him an opportunity to step up but he struggled. That was pretty much it." Why hadn't he thrown in five days? Because you haven't used him in that span. So don't act like you're doing him a favor by giving him an opportunity... even the best relievers in baseball can have some rust after a five day layoff. I still believe that Luis is worth trying to save. If a DL stint or a DFA is what it takes, so be it. But when he's on, he's nearly unhittable. But thanks to Nedley, his ERA continues to climb because of a 5 day rest and a late-inning appearance at Coors. What does Al say? Setting your players up to fail? Yep. Textbook example. ~Bill

Is Bill Schroeder reading BrewerFan? As if on cue, talking about Tony Womack, he said "you hate to make outs on the bases when your team can hit home runs." Boy, Bill, a lot can change in a half inning, huh? And David: I've changed my mind about Podzilla. I think he's abusing drugs. Or perhaps he just broke up with a girlfriend. But for whatever reason, he looks completely out of it. ~Bill

I agree, Al. He looked very good. Some erratic pitches, but his strike to ball ratio was excellent. He should get at least three or four more starts and I'd have to think he'll earn a permanent spot in the rotation. On a different note, how much do you want to be that Yost et. al. will use this game to justify Royce Clayton's placement in the lineup? "He's breaking out of it", "his luck is changing", "the balls are starting to drop", etc. will all be uttered after tonight's game, I'm sure. Fact is, he hit one solid fly-ball that would have been caught anywhere else, a weak roller up the middle, and then he got jammed on a first pitch pop-up. And how 'bout Schroeder quoting Butch Wynegar as saying that Royce has been hitting the ball hard but right at people? I hope that is Schroeder talking and not Wynegar 'cause that couldn't be further from the truth. Rant over. Back to your regularly scheduled programming. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif EDIT: I lied, another rant. Bill Schroeder just said, when asked whether the Brewers should have Eric Young attempt a steal, "You can't just wait around out there for a couple of hits and a homer." This game is at Coors Field. The middle of the order, Jenkins and Sexson, is coming up next. You are down a run. It's the seventh inning. Hello?!?! In this situation, you can wait for a couple of hits and a homer. And you don't even need a couple of hits, just a long ball from Jenkins, Sexson, or Vander Wal. Stealing could result in the third out and would take the bat out of Jenkins' hands. He doesn't do any research, he makes unwarranted assertions more often than talk radio hosts, he is utterly inconsistent in his beliefs, and he has no grasp of baseball strategy. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif Ok, now the rant is over. I promise. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif ~Bill

Welcome to the big leagues, Chin-Hui Tsao. Ouch. ~Bill

Lindskog called it last night. Too bad for Ryan... he wasn't exactly tearing it up, though. He hit .242/.286/.303/.589 in only 33 at-bats at Indy... small sample, but not that much worse than his .664 OPS in 289 at-bats this year in Huntsville. Ever since the spectacular numbers he put up in High Desert in 2001 and 2002, he just hasn't been able to get the bat going. Only 26, though, so he'll get another shot, I'm sure. ~Bill

I'll say it again: Reid Nichols, People Person. Somebody needs to put a moratorium on him talking to the media... it seems like every time he's interviewed, he says something that isn't exactly tactful. I love Brad Nelson, but I really hope that D.J. is lights out at High Desert and makes a fool of the organization for demoting him. There are enough other guys who are older and less talented that Daryl should not have to be an organizational soldier at this point in his career. Oh well. Not really a big deal but it is disappointing that Nichols can't control his latent (or not so latent) disgust for the High Desert organization. It's not their fault! ~Bill

San Jose (Giants) 8, High Desert 3 Brian Foster hit his third home run in three games in the eighth and Daryl Clark came back in style with a two-run bomb in the ninth. Clark was 2-for-4 and both outs were made on excellent defensive plays. Chad Petty struggled again and an Independent League pickup named Chris Begg took a two-hitter into the eighth for San Jose. It was his second appearance, both starts, and the win improves his record to 2-0. He came in with a 0.82 ERA... more evidence that the Independent Leagues are home to some very good players. The Mavs are in Rancho tomorrow night for the first of a three-game series. Despite the loss, they did split the series against San Jose, the California League's second-worst team (record-wise). More details in the morning, I'm sure. ~Bill

Free Ginter. That's all, ~Bill

They will probably wait to demote somone from Milwaukee until after tonight's game so they don't have to work with a short-handed bullpen. I'd guess that by the end of the night, Obermueller will be in Milwaukee and Nance and Paz will be in Indy. And as far as we know, Huntsville is down a player and High Desert is down two, right? Any word on who is going to fill those slots? ~Bill

I agree, Patrick: it looks like he's getting some very bad advice. And it is indeed the same Tommy Tanzer - check out this gem from Baseball America that discusses the Harrington situation. I'm kind of surprised with the sentiment expressed in the NY Post article that the Mets "would gladly take the sandwich pick they would get in next June's draft for failing to sign Milledge." They probably should have drafted somebody else if they were worried he wouldn't be affordable. And who does Tommy Tanzer think he is? Scott Boras? Jeez. EDIT: Oh, and coincidentally, that's who Harrington went to after he fired Tanzer. You know you're doing things wrong when a client fires you in favor of Boras because your demands are too high. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif ~Bill

"Crunch time" - Tom Haudricourt, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel The Brewers are accelerating talks with the agent of second baseman Rickie Weeks, the second pick in the June draft, in an effort to get him on the field this summer. General manager Doug Melvin said if no deal is reached by Aug. 1, he'll probably forget about this year and focus on a deal for 2004. "We're still working on it," Melvin said. None of the top four picks has signed and they all appear to be playing a game of chicken, to see who goes first. Tampa Bay is not close to signing No. 1 pick Delmon Young, a high school outfielder. The Devil Rays are thought to have offered $3.75 million, more than the $3.6 million suggested by Major League Baseball. Whether the contract begins this year or in 2004, the Brewers probably will give a major-league deal to Weeks, spreading out the payments. The Brewers never have given a major-league contract to a draft pick. ~Bill

If Paz and Martinez moved up to Indy, why the need to demote D.J.? Was there another roster move? ~Bill

It's hard for me to believe that Rusch will be able to net us any prospects, at least until he puts together 2-to-3 more solid starts in a row. He might be a candidate for an August trade because he'd probably pass through waivers given his salary... and if he didn't, oh well - not a big loss, to be honest. I still can't believe how bad he's been. He's never been a "good" pitcher, but he's always been decent. He's about as far from decent as it gets this year. ~Bill

High Desert 10, San Jose (Giants) 4 The Mavericks pick up their second win in a row for the first time in a long time (more than 2 months!). Newly-acquired Danny Stout got the win in his High Desert/Brewers debut. Jason Belcher and Joel Alvarado were each injured: Belcher hurt his wrist on a diving play in right and Alvarado was involved in a play-at-the-plate and had a knee or leg injury. The Mavs scored 4 runs in the 8th to secure the win. Chris Morris hit his first home run of the year and third as a professional. Stout went 4.2 and gave up only 1 run on 3 hits. Bobby Bystrowski finished it off in a non-save situation. High Desert Site Game Summary ADELANTO, CA ? The High Desert Mavericks picked up their second straight win on Tuesday night, rallying from a 3-0 deficit and defeating the San Jose Giants by a score of 10-4 at Mavericks Stadium. The Mavs won two in a row for the first time since May 15th and 16th, and have now won three of their last five overall. With the win, the Mavs are now 7-24 in the second half and 32-69 overall. The win was not without a very costly price, as right-fielder Jason Belcher, the team?s leading hitter and run-producer left the game with what was later confirmed to be a broken left wrist. Belcher injured the wrist on a diving attempt on a shallow pop-up hit to right field in the first inning. Belcher will miss 6-8 weeks, which means the remainder of the 2003 season. San Jose scored the game?s first three runs, getting one in each of the first three innings off starter Tommy Marx. Jeremy Frost?s solo home run to lead off the fifth pulled the Mavs to within a run at 3-2. Joel Alvarado?s two-out, three-run double down the left field line turned out to be the game-winning hit, giving the Mavs a 5-3 lead in the sixth off of Giants reliever James Garcia (4-4). In the seventh, the Giants picked up a run off Mavs reliever Danny Stout. Stout (1-0) allowed just one run on three hits in 4.1 innings in his Mavericks debut. Trailing 5-4, San Jose?s Tyler Von Schell?s blooper to right field got down for a base hit. Angel Chavez tried to score from second base but was thrown out at the plate by Ozzie Chavez. On the play Mavs catcher Joel Alvarado rolled his right ankle and left the game after making the tag. The Mavs broke it open in the eighth with a pair of two-run homers. Brian Foster?s team-leading 13th of the year made it 8-4. Chris Morris connected for his first as a Maverick two batters later for a 10-4 lead. Bobby Bystrowski worked a scoreless ninth, following Jeff Hundley's scoreless eighth, to preserve the win. The Mavs try to make it three straight on Wednesday, sending Danny Kolb (3-7) to the hill against Brion Treadway (7-4). Game time for game three of the four-game series begins at 7:05 (9:05 Central) at Mavericks Stadium. Terrible news for Jason and the Mavs. Best of luck to him in his recovery... hopefully he can take his time getting his strength back and he'll be able to start 2004 at 100%. ~Bill High Desert Box Score: How about Dan Stout's debut? A starting assignment next time out, perhaps? - MassBrew GAME DATE: 7/22/03 SAN JOSE 4 AT HIGH DESERT 10 YTD YTD SAN JOSE AB R H BI AVG HIGH DESERT AB R H BI AVG B.Carter CF 4 2 1 1 .255 C.Morris CF 5 2 2 2 .267 A.Chavez SS 4 0 2 1 .281 T.West 2B 5 0 0 0 .259 M.Holst RF 4 0 1 0 .276 B.Nelson LF 4 1 2 0 .315 B.Florence DH 5 1 1 0 .291 S.Candelaria 3B 5 0 1 0 .299 T.Von schell 1B 4 0 1 0 .255 J.Belcher RF 0 0 0 0 .320 J.Cordido 2B 4 0 1 1 .258 J.Raburn RF 2 1 0 0 .274 J.Knoedler CAT 2 1 0 0 .235 F.Villanueva DH 3 1 1 0 .296 Z.Strong 3B 3 0 1 0 .218 J.Frost 1B 2 3 1 1 .315 D.Trumble LF 4 0 1 0 .182 J.Alvarado CAT 2 0 1 3 .128 J.Pavon PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 B.Foster CAT 1 1 1 2 .181 J.Garcia PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 O.Chavez SS 3 1 1 0 .231 B.Burres PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 T.Marx PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 D.Stout PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 J.Hundley PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 B.Bystrowski PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 TOTALS 34 4 9 3 TOTALS 32 10 10 8 SAN JOSE 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0- 4 9 0 HIGH DESERT 0 0 0 1 1 3 1 4 X-10 10 0 DP--SAN JOSE 1, HIGH DESERT 1. LOB--SAN JOSE 9, HIGH DESERT 6. 2B--B.Carter (20), B.Florence (22), B.Nelson (9), J.Alvarado (5). 3B--O.Chavez (5). HR--C.Morris (1), J.Frost (4), B.Foster (13). SB--C.Morris (53), B.Nelson (2). CS--J.Raburn. HBP--F.Villanueva. YTD IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA SAN JOSE J.Pavon 5.0 5 2 2 2 4 1 4.11 J.Garcia (L,4-4) 1.2 3 4 3 2 2 0 4.10 B.Burres 1.1 2 4 4 3 1 2 4.28 HIGH DESERT T.Marx 2.2 5 3 3 4 1 0 20.06 D.Stout (W,1-0) 4.1 3 1 1 1 1 0 2.08 J.Hundley 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4.45 B.Bystrowski 1.0 0 0 0 1 0 0 5.97 HB--J.Garcia. WP--J.Pavon 2, J.Garcia, B.Burres. PB--J.Knoedler. SO--T.Von schell, D.Trumble, C.Morris 3, B.Nelson, S.Candelaria 2, F.Villanueva. BB--B.Carter, A.Chavez, M.Holst, J.Knoedler 2, Z.Strong, B.Nelson, J.Raburn 2, J.Frost 2, J.Alvarado, O.Chavez. T--2:53. A--1307

The Mavs are down 3-0 in the bottom of the third. Tommy Marx struggled mightily again and Danny Stout is now making his debut. Jason Belcher left the game with a wrist injury... he was playing right field, came in on a popup, and dove. Lindskog said that he left immediately and was in obvious pain. Here's hoping that it's just a jam and nothing serious! This is the last thing HD needs. Johnny Raburn took his place and the Mavs now have only two position players on the bench, one of whom (Foster) is probably not available after being clocked in the head a few days ago. Yikes. Lindskog makes it interesting, though... tune in if you're up! ~Bill

Billy Hall, welcome back to Milwaukee! Wow. I'm sold, ~Bill

Ginter and Hall are both starting tonight... that's cool, I must say. And Jose Guillen is amazing. Just wanted to share that. ~Bill

The Race To The Bottom Team W L PCT ------------------------------ NY (Mets) 42 57 .424 Texas 40 59 .404 [b]Milwaukee 39 59 .398[/b] San Diego 38 63 .376 Tampa Bay 35 63 .357 Detroit 26 71 .268 ------------------------------ Yikes. ~Bill

"Top pick unlikely to play this season" - St. Petersburg Times (07/22/03) The Devil Rays still expect to get top draft pick Delmon Young on the field playing for one of their minor-league teams. Just not any time soon. With negotiations dragging this deep into the summer, the Rays have decided there isn't enough time left in the minor-league season to make it worth using one of Young's option years. Instead they will seek to sign him to a 2004 contract, which means the earliest he can join them will be for the fall instructional league. "I don't think there's any question we'll be working to sign him to a 2004 contract," general manager Chuck LaMar said Monday. "We did everything we thought was important from our standpoint to try to get it done quickly, and not all the blame falls on Delmon and his family. It's just the system that we're in right now. There's a lot of money involved with picks that high; the top four have not signed as of yet and it's not unique to this year." LaMar said he remained confident Young, who has a scholarship offer to Arizona, eventually will sign. "Nothing has happened from the day we drafted him that says we're not going to get this done," LaMar said. "I think negotiations have been not only cordial but very professional, and I don't think there's any question Delmon wants to be a Devil Ray. There's no question in our mind that not only do we want him to be but we're going to get this done." ~Bill

I dunno. Particularly for "winning" teams with late-first round selections, I can understand why you would want to grab a very polished reliever who can contribute at the big league level right away. You can always draft starting pitchers in later rounds... by the end of round one, there's not much difference between the pitchers selected then and those selected a round or two later. And because relievers aren't considered first round material by most clubs, you can probably grab the "best" or one of the best available. I'm not completely sold, but it does make some sense. Rather than take a long-term gamble, settle for solid contributions in the short term. You can still build a quality farm system without selecting the high-profile starting pitchers, or at least I would think you could. It's interesting to think about and watching Wagner over the next few months will be very unique. ~Bill

He actually threw on Saturday, retiring all five hitters he faced. Crazy. Hard-throwing Wagner throws well in debut - ESPN.com Kinda makes you wonder how many college pitchers could fare well at the big league level, no? ~Bill

Boy, just what we need one of our top prospects doing... needlessly taking out a catcher. I'd be the last person to criticize good, hard baseball but sometimes you gotta think about the big picture. What if the big fella would have broken his arm or torn a ligament? Yikes. This and J.J.'s encounter with a piranha (or whatever kind of fish it was) are about enough close calls for one season . ~Bill PS: I wonder if it was the same catcher he elbowed last night. Maybe he just really hates that guy .

However, if I have to choose between the major league deal or no deal at all, I'm all for the MLB deal. I agree. It's not ideal, but it's better than letting him go... I don't see how he has this much bargaining power, though. Would he really be willing to head back to Southern? ~Bill

Good call, I didn't even think of that. You're on your game today! EDIT: I was perusing the Frontier League stats while looking for info about Shelley and came across a guy named Chris Carter. He plays outfield and is a coach for Kalamazoo but he's only 24. He is second in the league in batting average, first in hits, third in doubles, second in triples, first in on-base percentage, first in slugging percentage, and first in extra-base hits. That is amazing. He is 6'1, 200 and was born on 2/13/1979. He lives in Myrtle Beach, SC. I don't know anything else about him but he seems like a guy worth signing to a minor league contract. ~Bill

I believe that Shelley was drafted in 1998 by the Toronto Blue Jays out of high school. Round 29: 861. Toronto, Jason Shelley, rhp, Northeastern Planifield, IL I don't know if he ever signed or played any pro ball... still trying to find some info about that. Other tidbits of interest that I was able to trackdown: - He was an All-Star for the West Division in 2003. - He threw a no-hitter in 2002. - He was 9-5 with a 3.53 ERA including 3 shutouts in 2002. - He led the Frontier League (and set a record) with 156 strikeouts in 2002. - He played for the Cook County Cheetahs of the Frontier League in 2001. - He was traded to Rockford for shortstop Garet Luebbert. Still not much, but better than nothing. ~Bill