Bernman23

I have a couple links for people to try if they are out of the market and can't watch the game tonight. However, I can't guarantee you anything. P.M. me if you're interested.

About 5-6 years ago, the Brewers were where the Bucks are today. Few outside the die hards gave a crap. How would you have liked it if at that juncture, a fan of the Bucks, who were much more relevant at the time, made the same statement, because a Brewer game was preempting a game with actual playoff implications? There is no "our" Brewers or "our" Bucks. You speak for your own interests. Ultimately, the average local sports fan will support any major sports winner (like in 00-01, when the BC was declared the loudest building in the NBA). But they won't have that opportunity w/ the Bucks if they are in Seattle or Las Vegas.

I think early in Ken Macha's tenure, he's left a lot to be desired, tactically. I don't understand the logic of not intentionally walking Hill w/ one out to set up the double play and force the Cubs to remove Marmol, there.

Rickie looks like a vastly improved defensive 2nd baseman, early in the season.

Free Mike Rivera. The only reasons Kendall is playing over him are that he's a veteran and he makes well into 7 figures.

This is the crappiest umpire I've seen in a while. It's remarkable we've held them scoreless thus far with this chump not calling any strikes.

I'd like the Brewers to re-sign him and also bring Greg Maddux out of retirement, so he can pee on Sheffield in the shower much like Gary peed on his teammates all those years ago. Give him a contract at the minimum with performance incentives based on how many games in which he appears. Then after he's on the precipice of achieving them, play lifelong Brewers' fan Craig Counsell in his place until the culmination of the season. Sign him to a long-term contract and then only utilize him as a defensive replacement so he never reaches the 500 home run mark. Unless he gets cast in a crappy movie like Mr. 3,000, for which this time we won't provide a filming location. Find out from our ol buddy Bud when the next drug test is going to be held, and spike the milk in Sheff's cornflakes with beef-roids. Which by the way, we force him to eat out of a dog bowl like Tiny in House of a Thousand Corpses.

Oh, I think we can too quite easily. A lot of our relievers are multi inning guys. And Stetter isn't solely tough against lefties. So we're built for a split where we carry more position players than pitchers.

I'm glad you're not the Brewers' GM. Nelson should be a lock to make the team. 1. He has no options left so we'll lose him if he's not on the big club's roster, 2. He showed enough promise last September to be added to the playoff roster, 3. He's raking in spring, and 4. He'd be almost an ideal 9th inning option off the bench against a right-handed closer (which constitutes a high majority of the majors). He has the power to tie the game with one swing of the bat, and if the closer doesn't give him much to swing at, plate discipline to give the Brewers a valuable base runner in that situation. You really feel comfortable calling upon Lamb of God, Duffy, and Counsell when ideally we could use a homer late? Yost calling on Counsell down 1 with 2 outs in the 9th last season was a nightmare. The only case for Green not making the team is to get him stretched for the majors like Toby mentioned. The kid has had a fantastic spring and had the ability to be named the 8th best prospect in a pretty good Angels' system and a candidate for the rotation on an excellent Angels' team at 23. He had a mediocre season in AAA, but take it with a grain of salt (no pun intended, he played in Salt Lake) because he had to battle high elevation in his home park. Before that his ERA's were pretty solid when factoring in his age. Rarely will a pitcher with great control, decent fastball, and change of speeds not be able to help a major league club.

I just studied Nick Green's profile on Baseball Cube, and he could potentially be a stimulus package for the tenuous Brewers rotation. I know my package was stimulated. And I even had to look at your nauseating avatar beforehand.

Huh? 2006: Reliever- 4.43 Starter- 6.81 2007: Reliever- 3.75 2008: Reliever- 3.67 Starter- 4.24

19 vs. 12 the previous year. And the Cardinals pitching staff has been worse than the Brewers', while their hitters have been better; which is going to skew those #'s in the favor of New Busch being a hitter's park in comparison to Miller. Away the Cardinals have had a 4.755 ERA the last two seasons, and scored 4.72 runs per game. In contrast the Brewers had a 4.535 ERA away and scored 4.625 runs. We're talking about a .315 runs per game total difference, or 57 runs per year less at New Busch. Which would add .16 runs to Looper's ERA, all things equal projecting to a 4.71 in Milwaukee. Also, in a small sample Looper himself has struggled transferring his success to Miller. He had a 10.80 ERA in 2 starts in '07 and a 6.00 in 1 start this season. Like I said, a small sample, but more evidence in the direction of him not being who he was in St. Louie. Those past struggles in that particular environment my be in his head a little, at least in the interim. I'm going to say his ERA is around 5.00 as a starter for the Crew.

Looper's ERA away from pitcher friendly "New Busch" the last 2 seasons has been 6.81 and 4.52, or a raw average of 5.67. I think as fans a little ways into the season we're going to be figuring out who could possibly replace him to upgrade his spot rotation, be that a player on our own roster or from the outside. But he was a pretty good reliever before he became a starter out of his former team's necessity, so he'll be an asset to the team. The one thing I will say I like about him as a starter is his above average hitting ability. .254/.632 could be worth a couple extra wins as opposed to what a bad hitting pitcher does at the plate. Although he wasn't quite as good the previous season, when in all fairness he was transitioning to starter from reliever where he probably hadn't swung the bat for real in a while. Still, in spite of his hitting, his win/loss record didn't make it above .500 last season, or in 2007. Cappy has proven multiple times he can pitch with pain. He didn't do it well, but that was more likely because there was structurally wrong with his arm all along. If his arm is structurally better he should return more quickly than most pitchers would. He's not a Sheets who nurses injuries.

He may start in the rotation, but he'll probably end up in the pen after looking at his lackluster split away from Busch. Don't count out the bulldog Capuano to take his spot when he eventually regains some semblance of arm health. And I think the Brewers are positioning themselves to make a move for front of the rotation starting pitcher before the trade deadline again, if they're in striking distance of a playoff spot. They had to like the results last season, teams will be more willing to deal because everyone has hope BEFORE a season, and most importantly Attanasio will only have to pay 1/3-2/5 of the guy's probably substantial salary instead of the full amount in rough economic times. All that matters is a team gets into the playoffs, and it's a new season from there. We witnessed that with the Marlins winning the WS from the Wild Card spot twice, BoSox, Cardinals with 83 wins, etc. It's not how you start, it's how you finish.

Anybody who saw A-Rod on Letterman a couple years ago getting his ample man bosom rubbed down by Biff Henderson, knew he was juiced.

#1. Like FTJ stated, both could be true. He could have just been even more abysmal before.#2. What gives you the impression that Ennder's opinion on anything baseball related couldn't be heavily influenced by a statistic? He's one of the biggest, if not the biggest stathead on this board. It's also a fallacy that two different observations cancel each other out. Why can't one persons observations be ignored because they regularly prove to be biased and disproportionately inaccurate (I'm not implying anyone specific), while the others is given credence because the reverse is true? It's illogical to say because Corky doesn't know what he's talking about we shouldn't pay any mind to Thomas Jefferson. Quantitative analysis is more consistent and "safe" because it negates human error but qualitative analysis has way more potential because humans can customize, be more flexible, fill gaps in the system, etc.

I swear I was going to make almost an identical post yesterday based on my observations about, for one thing, how many double plays he typically blows. The harm would be tantamount to an error because he's allowing a base runner to reach who wouldn't otherwise w/ average fielders being involved. But it's not counted as an error because double plays can't be assumed (even though realistically they should much of the time in the major league). It's also factored nowhere in zone rating if he wasn't the one fielding the baseball, and at least recorded an out with a throw to 2nd. Even if he pulled JJ off the bag enough to make a double play virtually impossible. Then when it was Rickie's turn to make the throw, he often just lost the ball in the exchange, made a slow transition, or errant throw to Prince, pulling him off the bag. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be for pitchers to be forced to continually believe they have to record 4 outs in an inning because a fielder botches plays? They've already mentally believed they overcame the hurdle of completing an inning. Errors and misplays are more damaging to a team than a fielder, especially infielder, simply not reaching a baseball. Because if it's a ball hit at normal speed through a hole they'd just assume it was their fault. Also, throwing errors gives the opponent an extra base most often. That aggravates the harm an infielder is causing, especially middle infielder. It's not like Rickie ever saves extra bases on balls hit low up the middle, but he sure gives them up by frequently spiking balls in the dirt to Prince, which thankfully is often remedied by Prince's underrated ability to dig balls out. But he can't always be expected to save Rickie's behind. And just like with hitting, there are worse times than others to not execute. He had numerous costly misplays late in close games last season. Thankfully Baseball Info Solutions had diligently confirmed some of these observations statistically, otherwise many on this site would have refuted the assertion, because if somebody doesn't track it somewhere and record it as a statistic, it doesn't exist. Even though everyone here presumably being die hard Brewer fans watched 150+ ballgames this past season and saw Rickie continually let the team down in a myriad of ways. If a statistic dramatically conflicts with a fairly impartial and extensive observation.....then there's probably something flawed about the statistic. Stats in their incomplete forms are supplements to what one sees, or a tool to compensate for lack of observation. They don't define players, unless maybe they're dramatic in one direction or another. If Rickie remains on the team he should be moved to centerfield.

How is that a negative sign, exactly? Unless he wrote into his contract that the team would fly to Petco every time he got called up in the 9th inning for a save opportunity, it's actually a positive sign. One should be more concerned if he was artificially benefiting off the friendly environment for pitchers in San Diego. Actually, the reverse happened. He pitched much better in road parks, like Miller. Where he will ply his trade for about half his appearances in 2009. A fact which I'm very excited about, especially because he won't be phased by pressure ala a Mota or Gagne (when his confidence was fleeting post PED's). That's what makes pitching in the 9th different than any other situation, on average (I realize that's not ALWAYS the most important inning/situation of a game though). To wit who cares about the current nastiness of his stuff, or any closer for that matter. Just as long as they are able to retire batters. I agree though, a top flite starter will be more impactful to the team (especially with how inconsistent the offense projects to be again, we need a slump buster), and I hope this move doesn't preclude it like Doug had seemed to imply in previous interviews. Maybe he was just being coy though for bargaining leverage.

Mota Version 2.0 was my first reaction as well. How do you manage to blow 7 saves in a season successfully save a single one. Clearly that's a pitcher who handles the pressure well and projects to having success in the postseason. He better not be our closer, or we're one step closer to the edge of falling out of the playoff race. http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/blahdocs/uploads/copy_of_db_beavis_cornholio1_7144.gif Cornjulio

Nobody can say Dave Bush has been unlucky in this balgame. He's getting a lot of the plate and Phlly batters are hammering balls, but fortunately they are directly at fielders. I'd give him the early hook in favor of Villanueva, regardless if he can keep a clean sheet.

There was another ball which looked low and away clearly to Fielder. It altered the entire at bat because instead of forcing Moyer to come in the zone, 3-1, he can throw off the plate 2-2 and Fielder has to swing at anything close. Edit: Screw Hart

The home plate umpire has been slanting his calls toward the Phillies in every game of the series. K zone is proving the injustices.....yet I'm sure it will be ignored by pundits and dismissed by fans who are socialized into thinking it's unmanly whining to point it out.

I bet it felt good for you to say that.Why? I'm one of the people who asserted it was just a small sample and not necessarily indicative of the truth. But now it's 2 different postseason implosions. I guess it felt good for YOU to displace your frustration.

We got screwed so badly in that 1st inning....Phillies knew they should have been a bigger hole.....it invigorated their batters and you see the result.

He is a playoff choker I guess.