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joepepsi

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Everything posted by joepepsi

  1. joepepsi
    Leo is not the savior you think he is. Just ask the Orioles.
  2. joepepsi
    They showed her on TV gabbing away to a friend in the stands. If she's had a makeover it doesn't surprise me. Pardon my sexism, but when MLB came on the air last January she looked a little frumpy. At times her outfits in the studio segments looked sorta, I don't know, Midwestern Matronly? She looked great with her Spring Training reports though. Bottom line, I think she's great at what she does.
  3. joepepsi
    Well, they don't play the Red Sox this year. That's something to get excited about too.
  4. joepepsi
    They need to play more. The problem for them, this is a team 3 years running with a set lineup of young talented starters who don't get injured much. Yesterday would have been a perfect time to rest Prince, but with the off day today, there wasn't a need to do that. As the season goes on I hope Nelson and McGehee get some regular opportunities to play, not just pinch hit. I think it's fairly typical for teams to spend the first few weeks of the season with pretty set lineup.
  5. joepepsi
    I'm still very excited about this team. Losing Sheets and CC are big changes, but the team as a whole looks much better to me than at this point last year. Leaving aside the couple of bobbles by Hardy, the defense yesterday was nothing short of outstanding. The walks early on were really annoying, but the rotation just completed a cycle where every starting pitcher turned in a quality start. Most teams have crappy 4th/5th starters; the Brewers' rotation is capable of keeping the team in every game. 4 of the starters have been remarkably healthy their entire careers. Parra is the odd man out on this, but he's been free from pitching related injuries for 2+ years. The bullpen will get worked out and be better than last season once Hoffman is off the DL. The offense is sputtering a bit, but everyone seems to have a good hitting approach this year. We're not seeing a lot of flailing at pitches; last year most of the lineup was doing this from Opening Day on. Finally, the coaching staff is better by a long shot. It's too bad Maddux left, but overall this seems to be a well coached team with a clear calm focus. While the rotation doesn't have a CC or Sheets type veteran ace, it is capable of consistent quality starts every game. This will prevent extended losing streaks and set the possibility of for a couple 10 game winning streaks in the course of the season. That's enough to put them in contention for the playoffs.
  6. joepepsi
    Actually, he showed a lot of improvement in his 2nd year, 2006: 81 appearances, 3.58 ERA, 60K; 27 BB. 2007 he wasn't very effective, but he also spent a month in the minors mid-summer, so maybe there was an injury issue? Last season the Red sent him down in April and kept him there most of the summer, until they released him. As a minor leaguer he has a 3.14 career ERA with a 3:1 K:BB ratio. 2.6 BB/9ip; 8.4 K/9ip. Bearing in mind relievers as a group are remarkably inconsistent and unpredictable, I still feel there is ample evidence that Coffey will be a good reliever in the majors.
  7. joepepsi
    Once again, I don't think this is true. Bush, Capuano, and Overbay can all be considered long term players. I think it was hoped Moeller, then Estrada would solve the empty hole at catching. Vargas had a similar season to Davis and was two years younger. I'm sure the idea was Vargas would replace Davs' numbers in the rotation for a few years. Also, it's important to realize this team's long term players are coming up through the organization. When Doug rode into town he specifically mentioned the Twins as a model for rebuilding the Brewers. This is what the Twins do, and it's what the Brewers have been doing. So, as I wrote previously, I don't think it's Doug's goal to stock the farm system through trades. He's using trades mostly to fill holes and add depth to the 40 man roster, picking up complimentary players to go with the long term players who have been brought up through the organization.
  8. joepepsi
    That's a great story. What a thrill to sit these guys and chat about the team. It looked very non descript on TV. I was watching for the first couple innings in the neighborhood bar so I couldn't hear Bill and Brian. It didn't even occur to me it was the new Citi Field until about the 4th inning. It looked like Any Ballpark, USA. Was home by the middle innings to watch the rest of the game. After it was over I turned to MLB Network, where they were "looking in" on the Pirates game. I was struck yet again what a beautiful ballpark they have. The difference between it and Citi was striking.
  9. joepepsi
    Dave Bush was acquired by trade. So was Overbay. So was Capuano. They have been good players. Zach Jackson was a 1st round draft pick. So was Gross. Cordero only stayed a year and half because he too was in major demand. So, both players sorta contradict your position that Doug never acquires good players in a trade. It's a legitimate argument that Lee could have been traded for higher ceiling prospects instead of role players or lower ceiling but major league ready talent. But the Brewers are trying to win now, with the core of good young talent on the 25 man roster. It makes sense Doug is using any trades to mainly fill holes on the existing team. If the team were two years from seriously competing I'd be on board with dumping players for high ceiling AA prospects. But they're seriously competing, so I think he's done the right thing more often than not.
  10. joepepsi
    The Davis trade only looks bad in retrospect. He'd just come off a season where his ERA jumped up by more than a run, 3.84 in 2005 to 4.91 in 06. In '04 it was 3.39. So over the course of 3 seasons his ERA had jumped 1.5 runs.. His walks increase each season too, from 79 to 93 to 102. That's scary for a soft tosser who has to hit his spots to be effective. His K rate decreased and hit his rate increased from '05 to '06. He had all the signs of a pitcher who was about to drop off the table. Plus he was going to be arbitration eligible. So, here was a guy who was about double his salary while at the same time he looked ready to fall off a cliff. Doug Davis in 2006 looked like Jeff Suppan in 2008. Lots of folks are willing to trade Suppan right now for a warm 6 pack Meister Brau. Trading Davis in 2006 looked like the right thing to do. In exchange they got a hard throwing useful reliever in Aquino, a much needed starting catcher who'd posted a .772 OPS in 2008, and Vargas, who was 2 years younger than Davis and had a similar season in 2006. Eveland looked like a fat, lazy, failing prospect, while Krynzel was a failed prospect. So far Eveland has turned in one good half season, benefitting tremendously from apitcher friendly home park. The trade didn't turn out great for the Brewers, but that's not Melvin's fault. It looked good at the time and it was the right thing to do. Even now, looking at the numbers it doesn't look as lopsided as you might think.
  11. joepepsi
    Where did you come up with those career norms for Weeks? He has a career OBP around .350.OOPs, sorry, that was a typo.
  12. joepepsi
    I agree Rickie looks great, and it's not just the new 'do. But his average (.257) and obp (.333), aren't much different from his career norms: .243/.333. His slugging is high at .486, thanks to 2 homers in only 35 at bats.
  13. joepepsi
    Julio and McClung have pretty high career walk rates. Add in that Sheets, who basically never walked anybody, is gone, and you have to figure the staff's walks will go up this year. Last year they allowed 5th lowest walks in the league. The Cubs allowed 30 more and were 7th. Replace Sheets' (and CC's) innings with an average pitcher and you can figure the staff will allow at least 30 more walks this year. Don't really know what my point is......other than, we can expect the walk rate to be higher this year without it being Castro's fault. That said, some of these guys had better stop walking so many batters!
  14. joepepsi
    Not to veer too far off course, but here are my favorite/most hated phrases: 3. "when you have a Ryan Braun batting 3rd, a Prince Fielder batting 4th....." (how about we just drop the "a", OK?) 2. "I just have to play within myself" (ew....) 1. "he plays the game the right way." (almost always applied to a mediocre player, as in David Eckstein plays the game the right way, insinuating, I don't know... JJ Hardy doesn't?)
  15. joepepsi
    This was ridiculous! I was livid. Last year the WMLW games were available on the alternate sports channels. What I don't understand is who was able to watch this game on 652? To make matters worse, they also blacked out the Twins games last night. I've had DirecTV for 5-1/2 years and always got both the Twins and Brewers games. Also, the Cubs game on MLB alternate channel, 214, was blacked out. This isn't just a major leage baseball black out thing; it's DirecTV making it up as they go along too. And the worst part of it, there's no one to complain to. DirecTV customer service don't understand what you are talking about, and there is no way to contact MLB, not that they care anyway.
  16. joepepsi
    They finished 86-75 last year, but their Pythagorean W/L was 77-84. It's unusual to see that big a difference between the two stats. When a team outplays it's Pythagorean estimate by 9 games it's a safe bet they were very lucky. I think Baseball Prospectus predicted the bottom would fall out for the Astros in 2009. Except for Hunter Pence they have no good young players and little help in the minors. Coop will probably take the fall by the All Star break if they stay bad.
  17. joepepsi
    Johnny Lungs is right. It took me half a season of WMLW Saturdays before I realized DirecTV often does provide these games on alternate channels. I found it home at lunch today by searching for programs. I used keyword: Brewers, then selected Sports>Baseball, and it appeared. The game is also listed on 661, but that's Cincy's regional sports network, so it will be blacked out. Tuesday's game is listed on 652, 661, and 669 (FSN-WI). Will be interested to see if Tuesday's game is actually on 652. Cable subscribers outside of Milwaukee probably won't be able to see tonight's game. Our local Charter cable would carry WMLW games on FSN last year, but with the Bucks game scheduled tonight, I'm guessing they won't preempt that.
  18. joepepsi
    I just checked Directv's online guide. The game is listed for tonight on channel 652, RSNa
  19. joepepsi
    No one outside of Milwaukee cares about the Bucks.
  20. joepepsi
    He's really disappointing, but it's too early to tell if he's lost it or just struggling with control right now. It's true last year his K rate decreased and his BB rate increased slightly, but it's hard to know if that's a trend either, or just the result of a nagging injury. If he continues to walk 6 a game, they'll have to find a different option. My guess is he'll pitch a little better his next start.
  21. joepepsi
    I think they look pretty good so far. The only game they were never in was Parra's 7-1 loss. The team played well in Suppan's two starts and might have won both those games were it not for his shoddy pitching. Last night's game was the first instance where the other team scored first. Even then the Brewers tied the scored in their first at bat. That 2-4 record is all on Suppan.
  22. joepepsi
    I should take back "greedy". I'm usually not on that side of the argument. Players are entertainers, essentially freelance entrepreneurs who enter into agreements with teams to play for them for a set number of years. They have every right to go with the best deal, just like some actor can negotiate the best movie deal. The problem in this case is the Orioles "pretended" to be going after him, like they so often do. Only this time, they kinda enjoyed getting the fan base all excited about the possibility. Then, like they did with Konerko and AJ Burnett (before he signed with Toronto), they bid just under the highest bidder. The other problem has to do with Teixeira himself. To Orioles fans he did come across as disingenious when he basically just went to the highest bidder. It's also true Boras used the Red Sox to get the Yankees to up their bid. So this is what fans are booing, I think. The sleazy way top free agents get their big contracts. They say they don't care about the money, it's more about the best fit for their family. But in the end, it's always about the money. Tex had said in the past his dream was to be an Oriole. When he had the chance, he didn't even seriously consider it. Which suggests to me Gonzalez may be the better hitter, if only he played his home games in a hitter friendly ballpark like Teixeira has.
  23. joepepsi
    I think he deserves to be booed. Teixeira grew up in Severna Park and proclaimed his lifelong dream is to play for the Orioles. Yeah they lowballed him like they always do; and yeah, they had no business going after him in the first place, but in the end Teixeira followed the money. That's his right, to be greedy, just as it is with anyone. But the fans have the right to boo him for his hypocrisy. By the way, he isn't the great player everyone thinks he is. He is a very good, All Star caliber player, but he's not an elite player. His career home OPS is 100 points higher than on the road; the benefit of playing much of his home career in hitter's parks. He's more Adrian Gonzalez than Albert Pujols. The Yankees overpaid and expect him to replace both Giambi and Abreu. Not gonna work that well.
  24. joepepsi
    I don't worry too much about Hardy. He seems to go into funks from time to time, then bursts out with a vengeance. Hacker Hart is more worrisome. I am still hopeful Macha does not tolerate shabby play like Ned did. If Hart can't hit righties anymore, he doesn't deserve to play against them.
  25. joepepsi
    It's too easy to look at Big Ben's career as a failure. Truth is, he had a couple good major league seasons, and that's more than most any of us can say. Count me as one of those who believes his college coach ruined his arm.
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