Jarjohm

I posted some photos of Trenni's new look compared to her FS-Wisconsin days over at Right Field Bleachers. I don't think it's a huge difference, but she seems to have more of a "big city" look now.

OK, I put up new links so you should be able to download the mixes again. Scroll to the bottom of THIS POST.

I guess there is a limit on the downloads through that site. I'm at work now so I can't do much, but I'll take care of it later after I get home. Sorry about that.

Zeppelin is one of my favorite bands of all-time and I have a lot of The Who too. I don't really listen to much hip hop stuff, but that style works well for the highlights both in terms of the mood it sets and with what I can use. It's easier to find instrumental versions of hip-hop songs (which I need for the verses) because a lot of artists make them available for sampling and stuff like that. There isn't much out there in terms of instrumental versions of rock songs, at least that I can find. Plus many of those songs were played at Miller Park last season as at-bat songs or before the team came out on the field. There's a connection to the team.

Thanks for the compliments everyone.

pitchleague, Yeah, the subtle differences were changes I made after I posted the original mix. There were some suggestions from posters here and I added those to the mix.

Hey guys, I put together a Brewer highlight mix from the 2005 season and posted a link to it on this board back when I finished it in early 2006 and it was really well received. So, I thought I'd mention that I put together some mixes for the 2007 and 2008 seasons too and, if you're interested, you can listen to or download all three over at this post on RightFieldBleachers.com. I'm self taught on the audio editing and everything so they're definitely not perfect, but we've had a lot of fun with them tailgating over the years. Enjoy. Let me know what you think. And hopefully you have enough time to get them on your iPods or on CD before hitting the Miller Park parking lot for Opening Day!

We did an interview with Blake Billings this evening. Just thought you guys might want to check it out. Blake Billings Interview He was really impressive in his limited time in the Rookie League last year. It'll be interesting to watch him develop this year. He's hoping to make the Timber Rattlers roster out of spring, which might be a bit of a long shot for a guy coming out of high school with as little experience as he has, but if he pitches as well as he did last summer in Spring Training this year, they might have to think about it.

I thought the Lawrie at catcher plan was suspect from the start (for the same reasons you brought up), but I thought they'd at least give him a look there since he's expressed so much interest in it and they've seemingly been more than open to the idea. I hope it is a permanent change though. Lawrie's bat would be a nice boost to the club in 2011 or 2012 when some of these guys on the current team move on. And, as you said, there's no way he could be ready to catch in the majors that quickly.

I wonder if that's a permanent switch for Lawrie or if he's just working there because that's where he could be used on Team Canada for the WBC? After all the catcher talk, it'd be a little surprising if they didn't try him there at all.

There's a new interview with Cain up on our site: Lorenzo Cain Interview He seems like a really down-to-earth guy, a little shy even. I like his confidence though. He's one of my favorite prospects in the system and I'm really looking forward to watching his game develop over the next couple of seasons.

Thanks, Mass Haas. Cory actually went out of his way to get the interview set up. We had contacted him a couple of weeks ago, but obviously he couldn't really talk with us until it was official. He was extremely nice when he did get in touch with us and I thought it was a great gesture that he'd be willing to take some time on the day his hiring was announced to chat with a fan site. I'm sure he had a lot of people trying to get in touch with him. As far as the Cubs connection goes, I'm really not that concerned with it. From all of the stuff I've read and listened to since his hiring, he sounds like he's 100 percent committed to the Brewers organization. I doubt he'd be going around telling Illinois papers "I'm a Brewer now" if he was holding onto some Cubs fan love. He's a professional anyway. They shouldn't be up there openly cheering for the team they're calling for. Just listen to a few Marquette basketball games on the radio to find out how incredibly annoying that is. A little excitement during a big moment for the Crew? Absolutely. And I have no doubts that Cory will deliver that. Most importantly, he's a good broadcaster. He has a great voice, he knows his stuff and comes with rave reviews from Cubs fan. I think it's a great hire.

I'm not saying I don't think Sanchez will be productive this year. I just don't think he'll be a #2 starter yet. He has some growing to do. If I remember right, he very rarely made it past the fifth or sixth inning last year and I think he had some problems with giving up walks. And pretty much every young starter hits some bumps in the road. That said, if he's a decent middle of the rotation starter, he'd be very valuable to the Brewers.

Hart had 20 home runs, 91 RBIs and 109 strikeouts last year and 24 home runs, 81 RBIs and 99 strikeouts the year before. That's pretty comparable to LaRoche's numbers in those categories. Yes, LaRoche is two years older and does not provide any speed numbers, but LaRoche also walks twice as much as Corey and doesn't have as good of protection around him in the line-up. I think Hart will continue to improve while LaRoche is probably what he is, but Hart's value in a trade is probably not as much higher than LaRoche's as we'd like to think... As far as a Hart/Sanchez swap, I'd do it straight up if the Brewers could sign Dunn or Abreu at a bargain rate. I think Sanchez will develop into a good #2-type pitcher (though likely not to that level this season) and Dunn or Abreu should be able to replace and exceed Hart's production (not the stolen bases in Dunn's case) while also adding another lefty bat to the line-up.

Thanks for the link, Mass Haas. It'll be interesting to watch Brent Brewer this year. Joshua is really, really high on him. I'm not saying I was necessarily down on him. It's easy to see his potential, but Joshua thinks he'll be a stud and that this is the season he'll start putting it all together.

Hey guys, We just put up an interview with Brae Wright on our site and I thought some of you might be interested: http://www.rightfieldbleachers.com/?p=3581. He seems like a really nice guy. Hopefully he'll continue climbing the organizational ladder this season. We also had an interview with Alexandre Periard last week: http://www.rightfieldbleachers.com/?p=3522 Thanks to those that check the interviews out.

I find this comment from McCalvy's latest article pretty interesting: Sabathia had to know New York's offer was going to be similar to what Johan Santana signed last year (that was the speculation well before free agency started) and that other teams would get into the running and likely outbid the Brewers. If CC was really considering the Brewers initial offer as "good enough" or if he was even close to that mindset, the Brewers might have a better shot at resigning him than I thought. (edited to fix formatting)

I e-mailed the author. He said it should read the Twins and Dodgers, not the Brewers and Dodgers.

Mariners Name Zduriencik GM…Milwaukee Fans Weep Seattle Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln and President Chuck Armstrong announced today that Jack Zduriencik (zur-EN-sik) has been named the Mariners new Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations. More from the press release… "Today is a very exciting day for the Mariners," Armstrong said. "We have spent the past several months looking at a very complete list of potential candidates to become our new General Manager. The individuals we interviewed for the position were excellent. We believe Jack is the best person to provide a new approach and to lead our baseball operations. He has a proven track record of recognizing talent, both on the field and in the front office." "Jack is extremely well-respected throughout baseball," Lincoln said. "His track record in recognizing and developing young talent in Milwaukee was instrumental in the Brewers steady improvement over the past several seasons. I am very excited about the passion and leadership he will bring to our organization. Zduriencik, 57 (born January 11, 1951), becomes the eighth full time General Manager in Mariners history. He spent the past nine seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. He was promoted to VicePresident - Special Assistant to the G.M. for Player Personnel on Jan. 15, 2008. He spent the previous two years (2006-2007) as Special Assistant to the G.M./Director of Amateur Scouting after being hired by the Brewers as Director of Scouting on Oct. 25, 1999. Following the 2007 season, Zduriencik was named Executive of the Year by Baseball America, becoming the first non-GM to ever win the award. "I am very excited by this opportunity," Zduriencik said. "Seattle is an outstanding organization with great fans, a great ballpark and an ownership group committed to the goal of bringing a World Series to the Northwest. I believe that working together, we can make the Mariners a model franchise. I am looking forward to getting to work immediately, and developing a plan to reach our goal." A 25-year veteran in Major League Baseball, Zduriencik worked with four MLB organizations prior to joining the Mariners. In addition to the Brewers, Zduriencik was Director of International Scouting & Special Assistant to the GM for the LA Dodgers in 1999. Zduriencik spent two stints with the New York Mets, beginning his career in New York as an area scout (1983-89), scouting crosschecker (1990, 1994-95), Minor League Operations Director (1996-97) and Special Assistant to the GM (1998). He also worked as the Mets Advance Scout during its playoff runs in 1986 and 1988. Between stints in New York, Zduriencik was Director of Scouting for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1991-93.

There is another side to the whole Macha story that isn't really represented in what has been posted here so far. The issue appears to have been as much a problem surrounding the relationship between Macha and Billy Beane as it was between Macha and his players. I covered it in great detail in a post on Right Field Bleachers. You can check it out here if you're interested: Mark Me Down for Macha. Obviously, I'm sold on the guy so you can take that into account when reading the post, but I think there is a lot of valuable information in there no matter what you think of Macha. I also thought I'd share a quote Macha made in a 2007 interview concerning his possible future as a manager. It's especially interesting now:

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he's asking for fans to help him with Rants for the FSN postgame show following tomorrow's game. You can leave comments on the post if you'd like to participate.

Hey guys, I read the site all the time and comment from time to time. It's an incredible resource for any Brewer fan. While I try to shy away from shameless self-promotion, I wanted to take a second to point out that Jeff Cirillo has been kind enough to blog on our site over the last month. His latest post is about the Brewers finally breaking through into the playoffs. You can check it out HERE. And if you want to look at all of his posts on RFB, you can go HERE. It's nice to get a little insight from a player that has played with most of the guys in the Brewers clubhouse and still loves Milwaukee and the Brewers very much. I hope you enjoy. Have a good one and GO CREW! -- Jared

My personal record is 13-2 this season. It's been an awesome year for me so far. My girlfriend is 7-0.

Yeah, I expect quite a few boos just because it's the nature of most fans, especially casual ones ("what have you done for me lately?"), but hopefully it's quite a bit better than 50/50 cheering.

Geoff Jenkins will be coming back to Miller Park with the Phillies on Wednesday, April 23. I know he was kind of a lightning rod for controversy over the years due to his propensity for being streaky, his lefty/righty splits and at times his injuries, but he was a Brewer for 10 years, played hard every day and is among the Brewer career leaders in a ton of offensive categories. Most importantly though, he wanted to be in Milwaukee and loved the Brewers and us fans. That ad he took out in the Journal-Sentinel after the Brewers declined his option is one of the classiest things I've ever seen a player do. Over the past few years guys like Brady Clark and Jeromy Burnitz have returned to Milwaukee to boos. I'm hoping Jenks doesn't receive the same treatment. Me and the other four guys that run Right Field Bleachers are organizing a blog campaign of sorts to try to get a few more people at the game to cheer for Jenkins. We call it "See Off Ge-Off". We kicked it off with a post about what he meant to the Brewers and Milwaukee and will be posting some of our favorite Jenkins moments over the next couple weeks leading up to the game. Maybe we'll even grab a few posts off of here and post them up on our site if this takes off at all here. We also made a poster that people can print and bring along to the game if they want. Anyway, what are some of your favorite Geoff Jenkins moments? And how do you think he should be received by the Miller Park crowd?