thebruce44

Like Doug Davis, Dave Bush, and Randy Wolf? It's thinking like you expressed in your post that resulted in them passing over Garland and Pineiro and instead going for "bat missers" Davis and Wolf. Pitching to contact = lower pitch counts and less stress on the bullpen. As for supposed deficiency in Brewer defense, it's not bothering Kameron Loe is it? Carmona profiles similar to Loe. Is the part in bold supposed to be in blue? And I really don't think Loe is the best pitcher to model our staff after right now. Sure his ERA looks great, but it is smoke and mirrors based on his BABIP of .219 (think that will last all year!?) and his LOB% of 80.9%. I am happy we have gotten 30 great innings out of him, but to expect him to keep this up is setting yourself up to be extreamly disapointed. He looks to be the exact same pitcher he has always been and his results in 30 innings wont change that.

Not to mention, the new TV deal doesn't kick in until the following year. They seem to break even or make a slight profit at 3mil in attendance and a starting payroll of about $82 and an ending payroll in the high $80s. If they don't play well then they don't have to add pieces and can stick right around $80 mil, not loosing their shirts if attendance takes a hit to say 2.5 mil.

Thanks Nate, that sounds a lot more realistic. FVBrewerFan's post just seemed so far out from what I was thinking and it looks like he is pretty out of line from the rest of baseball as well. I thought I was missing something for a second.

That's true, but when did that deal get done? Price keeps going up, and teams put a premium on power. So while Weeks isn't considered in the same class as Utley, if he keeps this up he will. But heck, even if the number is $12MM it's a lot more than the $8MM discussed above. And I believe he'll be able to get that $8MM unless something really disastrous happens to him between now and the time he becomes a FA. What are you basing this stance on? Similar 2Bs? Utley? I would say a decent comparison is Brandon Phillips who signed for 4/27 coming off a contract year in which he posted a WAR of 5.2. Yea, Weeks is later on in the Arby process, but factor in injuries and I think they are similar. Can you think of a better player?

To give you guys an idea of the elements that go into stormwater design, you build storm sewers that are capable of handling the 10 year storm (not a storm that happens once every 10 years but a storm that has a 1/10 statistical probability of happening in a given year). From there you grade a parking lot/roadway/field so that there are overflows for anything above the 10 year. These all flow to basins (or in a city directly into the city system) that are designed to hold the 100 year storm (1/100th of a chance of happening). Parking lots and roadways are supposed to be designed so that flooding only goes up to 9 inches deep and is well below any structure's elevation. On ground, you can let ponding depths go to 1.5 feet. Your basins are suposed fill and release at a designed rate, but when the storm reaches the 100 year level, the basins fail and overtop a 100 year overflow. This is something some people never see in their lifetime. You always design for it, but figure its not going to happen. Its too early to tell, but I think this last storm may have actually exceeded the 100 year level. Pretty crazy. I saw an article where a resident was understandably upset that his taxes weren't going towards a design that could handle something like this. People have to understand that a storm like this one just doesn't happen enough to design for it. You have to pick a point where going beyond to increasing factors of safety just isn't worth it cost wise. This is that point, and unfortunately people are going to have to deal with systems failing.

Cot's doesn't have all the info for options with specific players. When I have askled for clarification in the past on specific players, the writers over at JSOnline have actually been helpful over email. I don't know if they can contact the league office where all that info is on file like GMs can.

I was really hoping to see Braun's abs at some point, but oh well. I wished they would have focused less on the game and more on the behind the scenes stuff. The best parts for me were probably when Peterson addressed the pitchers and when Koterass made a mound visit to basically give the pitcher a rest.

Don't forget King Kong. Thats probably where most people saw him, though I thought that movie was trash. He really sounds exactly like his dad when Tom was younger.

I assume Nolan was trying to show the muddled nature of dreams/reality. The cutting of the action during the snow scene was extremely hard to follow for me, especially with the skiing/snowmobiles and them all being split up wearing similar clothing. Then as someone else mentioned, the over the top gun fighting around the hospital. It could have been poor editing or directing on Nolan's part, but I am inclined to think it was on purpose similar to the muddled lines. I know I have had dreams where it seems like you are fighting or moving past endless waves of people/bad guys/objects. It struck me as very dream-like. The only reason I don't know for sure if it was intentional is that Nolan uses a similar style in most of his other movies. It works for Batman movies because he is essentially a ninja, moving in and out of shadows with gorilla tactics to take out superior numbers. You see the action sequences from a similar vantage point as the baddies, wondering how exactly how the rest of the group is being taken out one by one. And while it works very well here, its less effective in a movie like the Prestige. It will be very interesting to see what happens to Nolan after Batman 3. I think he is a great story teller and a very creative writer. He does an excelent job of bringing advanced themes to the masses and running consistently through a film with an important big picture idea. I don't think he is really meant to create blockbuster after blockbuster though despite how fantastic he has been at it recently. Those particular movies fit him very well but I don't know if he can do that forever.

interesting about the audio issues, as I thought it was very clear and easy to understand the entire time. Neither my girlfriend nor I ever asked what was said. There was a line by Ken Watanabe I couldn't make out where my friend turned to me to ask what he said and I shruged. Then I noticed nearly everyone in the theater was asking the person next to them what was just said. I could see it being intentional. I think Nolan did a lot of little things during the movie to make it seem more like a dream, and confusion could be one of them. His directing style really fits well with what he was trying to acomplish here.

The use of porous pavement so that there's more infiltration in parking lots, sidewalkes, etc. is also a sound one that I expect that we'll hear more about in the coming years. This is going to be huge in the coming years in my opinion. Chicago has already started converting a lot of their alleys to permeable pavers. It really does help a lot. In terms of leaking sewers, yea it is going to be a big issue in any older city. If you check out the link I provided above, you can actually see an image from when they were televising some sewers. This really is the best way to find the leaks, but it is a slow process of course. In my opinion, the deep tunnel is the best way to deal with these issues. Chicago did the same thing. While it may seem like we dump a lot of crap into Lake Michigan, we really are doing a tremendous job dealing with this issue both in Chicago and Milwaukee. Compared to a couple of decades ago, the progress has been amazing.

I just saw Modest Mouse at Pitchfork. It was a little disapointing though since I saw them a couple months back and they played a much longer set. Looking forward to Lollapalooza in a couple weeks.

Its my understanding that MKE is actually very far ahead of the curve in terms of wastewater dumping into the lake. Here is a chart from the MMSD showing how well the Deep Tunnel is working: http://v3.mmsd.com/AssetsClient/Images/Wastewater%20Sect/OverflowChartLG.jpg Sure it would be nice to have those numbers be zero, but thats pretty unrealistic due to cost. Here is what they are doing to combat future overflows (which does include better treatment facilities): http://v3.mmsd.com/Overflowreductionplan.aspx#

Those guys are mostly brutal. I say Hart to first. That depends on if you think Hart will continue on the pace he has been on this season (I don't). Right now his bat could play at first, but if he puts up the numbers he did the last two years he would be the worst starting offensive 1B in baseball. I can't imagine his defense would make up for it having not played there for something like 5 years now.

So you replace Fielder/Hart with Beckham/Hudson/'stud prospect' pitcher for Hart/Cain, and you are probably losing 30 homers if you are lucky. If you replace 2010 Hart with 2011 Hart you are also probably going to lose 15+ HRs. If his HR/FB rate was normalized he would have 10 dongers so far, not the 22 that came out of nowhere. Sure its possible he has turned a corner and will continue to hit for more power, but not at this rate.

When Hardy, Hart, Weeks, Fielder, etc were in the minors, the Brewers publicly made a point of keeping them together "so they got used to playing and winning together." They all came up in the '03-'05 seasons. Not only did they come up spaced out, but they are every day players and not pitchers with an innings limit. Also, there were fewer concequences back then to letting them learn at the major league level. Doug has never gone out of his way to bring up a bunch of rookie starters at the same time so I am not sure where this is all coming from.

Hot Tub Time Machine is ridiculously funny if its your type of humor. A few gross out gags, lots of swearing, but just funny funny stuff all around. The premise is stupid, but its worth a rental at the very least. Rob Corddry absolutely steals the show.

Recently, I got Bioshock 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Arkham Asylum for $18 each off gamefly. Bioshock 2 was pretty good, Assassin's Creed 2 is awesome, and I hope to get to Batman in a few weeks. In my opinion, Batman is by far the best of those 3. I would pop that in sooner than later. Been playing Just Cause 2 for the last few days...There used to be an old trick on Oblivion where to max out your running skills, you would stand against a wall and put a rubber band on your thumb stick to the up position and come back in an hour. I have thought of this trick trying to get to place to place. I hated that at first too, but then I realized you are supposed to use the grappling hook and parachute together to move around the island. I hardly ever walk or drive anymore. Its either a helicopter or the hook and shoot method.

Lucroy seems to be doing quite well defensively overall. Corey Hart has been pretty good defensively. Weeks has been better defensively than in past years as well. Each of these players are at defensive career highs, so certainly above expectations. Even Fielder doesn't look so bad. Huh? This may be Weeks' worst defensive season since he first came up. He seems to have regressed a bit from the last two years but it looking a little better as of late. Hart looks like he has continued to regress from his 2007 when he was at least solid out there and had some people thinking he might be able to play CF. It is a pretty big stretch to say either of them are having defensive career highs. As for Lucroy, yes, this is his defensive career high. It is also his first year so thats not really saying much.

Wow, the celebration in Amsterdam must be in full force. I'm sure thats a good time.

I use Clear as my moble internet (for a netbook) and for at home. Sprint uses their 4G network in the Chicago area. It works pretty well. I am waiting for Verizon's new 4G network to come out, then I will cancel Clear and get a 4G phone to use at home and on the go. My 4G WiMax right now is about as fast as my cable connection was since Comcast could never get it to work correctly in my condo. I think in a couple of years everyone will just use cell coverage as their only internet connection. They will probably use it to watch TV shows too. The cable company should be worried. After years of poor customer service and raising prices we are almost to the point where phasing them out is a real possibility. I assume I am not the only person looking forward to cancelling my service with them.

Yea, thats kinda how I feel as well but I didn't want to directly call him out. I know he said its his opinion, but I don't think HiAndTight is looking at it objectively at all.

Where do you live LouisEly? Can you get 4G?

Is this around Bluemound Road? Can you look off the hwy and see any work being done in the surrounding areas? There is nothing on the DOT website indicating a project actually on 41 (that I could find).

He isn't a character being killed off a sitcom. A real man died. This extends well outside of the show and the stories they are telling on the actual program. Its real life. The news came out so that everyone knows and of course they are going to tell you. They aren't trying to build suspense, they are trying to show how much he will be missed. If you are looking for suspense or a reason to tune in next week you are looking in the wrong direction.