LouisEly

The question isn't if Brewers pitching prospects have had injuries - they certainly have. The question is how that compares to other teams.

Kelly has a career minor league OPS and OBP significantly higher than Gennett at AAA, AA, and A+.

Then they will have to expose that prospect to waivers in spring training, right? If you add Wren, you have to take someone off.

Kimbrel, Papelbon, and Robertson are all getting >$11M/year, and Chapman will very likely join that list this offseason. Holland, Street, Miller, Uehara, Soria, Jansen, and others are getting >$7M/year. I have a hard time believing that K-Rod has zero trade value with his contract.

Right now the Brewers are at 37. For sure Lohse is gone, and I think it's a pretty good bet that Kintzler is gone too. That brings it down to 35. Then you have guys like Guilmet, Jimenez, and Schafer who are fairly replaceable, although I sense that if the Brewers don't trade Davis or move Braun to 1B they will play Santana mostly in CF but have someone come in as a defensive replacement and move Santana to LF late in the game like they have been doing, so Schafer may be kept. Herrera is 30 and could be gone, then you have possible trades of Lind, Segura, K-Rod, and anyone else. Hellweg is out of options and unlikely to make the team, so he will come off at some point. Then you have marginal prospects like Dominguez and Rivera. Add: Davies Reed Arcia Barrios Houser Lopez Magnifico Ventura? Roache? That's at least seven they'll have to add, so Guilmet is likely gone, probably Jimenez too. I guess it's the potential of losing Ventura or Roache versus the value of keeping Herrera, Schafer, Dominguez, Rivera, and/or Hellweg. Schafer isn't anything special, but if the Brewers plan on playing Santana in CF they will need a good defensive backup CF be it Schafer or someone else, so one way or another that roster spot is taken.

Kelly recently turned 27 and has never hit for much power, but he is a switch hitter who prior to this season has always had a good OBP and can play 3B, 2B, and OF. In 2014 he walked 85 times in 550 PA's: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=kelly-001tyl In 2014 and 2013 he put up OBP-heavy .800 OPS seasons. I'll take a flyer on any switch-hitter with high OBP who can play 3B. Or 2B, as I've never been real enthralled with Gennett. I'm pretty sure Kelly is out of options, but I think he's a better use of 40-man space than Guilmet or Jimenez. If Herrera isn't brought back he may have a role as that 25th man super-utility guy.

Rzepczynski is the reliever the Mets claimed.

With the sheer number of OFs in the system, the 1B of the future is likely Braun. Braun is athletic enough that he can still be a good to decent corner OF for several more years. But with the exception of possibly Santana or Roache, he's the best fit at 1B. The youth and athleticism of an OF of Phillips, Santana, Reed, Taylor, etc., would be better defensively than having Braun in the OF. As for 3B, other than one of Gatewood/Lara, I don't think that person is in the organization. I'd like to see the Brewers move some of their OF prospects for a 3B prospect. They still have Lucroy, Lind, Garza, and K-Rod as trading chips to acquire that 3B and/or C prospect.

Honestly it sounds like he was a corporate yes man so I bet the owners loved him. I got the impression it is an ownership problem. Oh, there is an ownership problem. But then there is this too: Blengino, who was working for the Milwaukee Brewers with Zduriencik at the time, said he authored virtually the entire job application package Zduriencik gave the Mariners in 2008, depicting a dual-threat candidate melding traditional scouting with advanced statistical analysis. Blengino said he prepared the package because he was versed in the hot trend of using advanced stats for team decisions. “Jack portrayed himself as a scouting/stats hybrid because that’s what he needed to get the job,” Blengino said. “But Jack never has understood one iota about statistical analysis. To this day, he evaluates hitters by homers, RBI and batting average and pitchers by wins and ERA. Statistical analysis was foreign to him. But he knew he needed it to get in the door.” And this: Blengino said Zduriencik became obsessed with power hitters, ignoring defense, baserunning and roster construction. He said the GM also dismissed the importance of evaluating players within the context of their contract values. Zduriencik then made him “look like an ass” in front of baseball operations brass in spring training 2012 after Blengino gave a presentation on possible benefits from advances in computerized hitting data. “He nitpicked about font sizes and column widths,” Blengino said. “He did what he always does and made fun of something he couldn’t understand.” Kind of helps understand how the Brewers got to where they are/were - free-swinging HR hitters with below-average defense.

There's a strategy as to when guys are put on waivers. Only a certain number of players can be put on waivers per day, so you can't do everyone at the beginning of the month. If a guy is struggling or hurt they may try to put him through at the beginning of the month and slip him through. Sometimes they put guys on the same day as a big name player to see if teams will overlook him (decoy effect). Waiting until the end of the month will reduce the salary hit a team will take by one month, making some players a little more appealing at the end of the month than at the beginning. As for K-Rod, I think the biggest thing was that a team might be more desperate at the end of the month than at the beginning. The only contending team I saw with a real hole at closer was TOR; there probably wasn't much demand for K-Rod. But at the end of the month, if a team is struggling with their bullpen, they might be more desperate. Likely the most leverage a team has is when another team really wants a player and makes a claim; then the team can threaten to pull him back and ask for more in return to give him up. When teams get emotionally involved with contending is when they give up the most for a player. I don't think the Brewers will just give away K-Rod; he may be worth more to the Brewers than any other team, but he's pitching really well so there is no need to give him away. His salary is market value for a closer at worst, a bargain compared to some others (Papelbon, Robertson, what Chapman will get on his next deal), so might as well hang on to him until you can get good value for him.

There's the risk you take with Santana in CF. With someone like Gomez or Schafer, that ball by Votto is caught and it's a 1-2-3 inning. Prolly 50/50 that Peterson gets to it (he at ). Santana is far superior to Peterson and Schafer offensively, but what impact will having him in CF have on the pitching?

I was thinking the same thing as brewcrewdue80 - despite their recent struggles, I'll take Nelson, Jungmann, Garza, Peralta, and a random 5th starter from the minors over Cincy's five. And even if they don't, Cincy has a brutal schedule.

It's not even so much cultural as it is sport-dependent. Basketball and football show a lot of emotion, and it is accepted/embraced to a certain point, much more so than baseball. For the most part, people don't have a problem with throwing up the "3-goggles" after making a 3-point shot or a sack dance after sacking the QB. But heaven forbid you slam your bat after popping up or watch a home run ball for 2-3 seconds at the plate. Or untuck your shirt after winning a game.

And they'll help the Brewers get a hopefully top-5, very likely top-7 draft pick instead of another 12-18th overall pick, as well as more international signing bonus money. I think most of us agree that this season is preferable than a season of 78-83 wins.

I do have some evidence that certain women throw their phones at each other and stick their phones in their bra because their pants have no pockets. If you have trouble with signal strength, they do make devices that act like a mini-cell phone tower that you can connect to the internet at home. With Sprint, if you tell them that you have poor signal strength at home they will send you one of these for free (they'd rather do that than lose your business). I've had one for four years, works pretty well. The other thing that I've discovered is that a 4G signal is not necessary at home. If your phone is connected to your WiFi, you just need a 3G signal for calls - all of your data will come through WiFi. I switched down to a 3G signal and now have no issues with signal strength at home - five full bars. 4G is only necessary for data transfer when not connected to WiFi.

Mark Reynolds has a -0.3 WAR this season and 0.0 WAR over the last four seasons, Pete Kozma has a -0.6 WAR this season and career 0.4 WAR (buoyed by a ridiculous small sample in 2012), John Jay has a -0.4 oWAR this year (I'm not buying the dWAR and overall 0.1 WAR)... every team has backups that are replacement level or worse. Schafer is one of them. What matters is what a team's starters are, not their backups.

Yes, but the Cubs haven't even been to the World Series in my 67-year-old father's lifetime, and that makes me smile. Hell, the Cubs couldn't make it to the WS for decades when there were 10 or fewer teams in the NL. Unfortunately I think that lack of revenue sharing & a salary cap have made it a very un-level playing field. In the 19 years since the 1994 strike that canceled the WS, only nine different teams have won the WS. Many of the "most franchises" that have won a WS did it more than 20 years ago. Only twice in the last 19 years has the winner of the WS not been among the top 13 teams in payroll, and only five of the last 19 winners have not been in the top 10 in payroll. Only FLA in 2003 and LAA in 2002 had a payroll that wasn't in the top 13 (and LAA was 16th). When ARI and the first time that FLA won the WS, they each were 8th in payroll. Having the highest payroll doesn't correlate with winning, but having a top 10 payroll sure as heck does.

Tucker Neuhaus and Ariel Pena with one big collective, "I'm not dead yet!!" Pena's last two starts - 11.1 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 18 K. In fact, he's only given up 2 ER in his last five starts. Maybe he gets a chance this September to see what he can do. If you thought the Brewers were frustrating tonight, the Sky Sox had 10 hits and 3 walks and scored one run on a solo HR.

If you've watched Peralta and Garza pitch lately, you would not be surprised if either landed on the DL before 9/1.

Because he puts the ball in play? Only guy who actually came through with RISP tonight.

Love it. Yankees can take their payroll and stick it where the sun don't shine. It's your fault you're down 9-0. This is why Gomez has gotten better - he refuses to allow himself to be mediocre under any circumstances.

[sarcasm]No platoon, same guy.[/sarcasm] (Only those >40 years old will get that joke.)

You live in/around Madison? I live downtown. Been to Hop Cat yet? They have 30 local brews on tap, during happy hour (M-Th, 2-6pm) all local taps are $3 and burgers are 1/2 price. I've only been once, and it seems to be an older crowd during happy hour (not sure now since the kids are back in school). I hate to say this, but I think Great Dane's beers are terrible. They are always skunky. Can't say I've ever liked anything they've made except for maybe one of their porters. I know the guys at MobCraft, I did a consulting project for them in the MBA program. They make some really interesting and unique stuff. You can buy it at their warehouse (off Stoughton Rd.), Trixie's Liquor (East Wash), and some stuff at Riley's and Metcalf's Market.

Been having some issues with my laptop freezing up for 3-4 seconds at a time. This seems to have been occurring more frequently the last 3 weeks or so. Happens when I'm navigating through folders (will click on a folder and it will take 3-4 seconds to open) or when on-line (trying to scroll down on a page, and will freeze for 3-4 seconds). Been backing it up just in case, ran Malwarebytes and no infections. Does anyone have any ideas on what could be going on (and how to fix it)?

Pulled after only 84 pitches. While less than 50 were for strikes, 84 pitches through 5 innings with no hits given up is an odd time to pull a guy. With the Brewers starters struggling and Biloxi in the playoffs, I'm wondering if the Brewers called down and said to shorten his start, they may need him before Sept. 1.