LouisEly

Burgos struck out eight in five innings, and that was only the third best pitching performance in the minors today. Josh Hader and Cy Sneed... dealing.

Broke it by accidentally getting kicked by a teammate while horsing around during pre-game warmup jogging.

The questions to ask yourself are: 1) Will you be able to connect to WiFi at work? Assuming you have WiFi at home, if you can connect at work then you will probably not need a big data plan. If you can't, or have an outside job (such as outside sales), and you frequently need to download big files/audio/video then you might need a bigger data plan. 2) How much do you intend to stream music/video to your phone? If you are on WiFi it does not count against your data plan, but if you aren't on WiFi you can use up a lot of data quickly this way. 3) How much do you intend to use your phone for navigation? Navigation uses a ton of data. But if you have navigation in your vehicles, or have a TomTom/etc., then this isn't an issue. Generally speaking, semi-aware grown adults usually only need 1-2 GB of data per month (unless they have a job requiring downloading/streaming when not on WiFi or need to use the phone for navigation). Typically those that use a ton of data are teens who HAVE to have that song/video/download RIGHT NOW (or their lives will be ruined FOREVER). If you know not to download/stream when not on WiFi you should rarely if ever exceed 1GB. I'd say try 1 GB at first (or share 3-5 GB between the two of you) and monitor usage - you can do this on your phone at any time. If you go over, cell providers will always allow you to change to a more expensive plan. They don't like it when you try to go to a cheaper plan.

Another great reason a GM cant base everything off what a stat sheet tells you. On paper he looks like he's a solid contributor. But watch him play. If there are no better options then this teams in worse shape than I thought. Spend a good amount of time watching other teams play and you will come to the same conclusion for at least 1/3rd of the LF's in the league. They could be trotting out 40-year-old Ichiro Suzuki and his .619 OPS like Miami is.

You can't trade anyone on the 40-man in August without exposing them to waivers first, so anyone received in return for Garza in August will need to be recent draft picks not eligible for the 40-man yet. While there may be some high-upside guys, it isn't the Brewers M.O. to trade for A-ball players. So I agree, I doubt he will be moved this season. But like I've said before, I don't think he made it very far in waivers (if he has even been put on waivers yet) without being claimed. Aside from teams taking a flyer on him, I would be extremely surprised if he made it past the Giants with Leake, Hudson, Lincecum, and Vogelsong as free agents after the season, Leake on the DL and Cain pitching poorly after coming back from the DL, and not much in the upper minors for starting pitching prospects.

But the return in trading Greinke was still 3 young players who might've panned out but haven't There are a few around here that very vocally (writtenly?) pine for the cycling of talent and trading away players once they near free agency/cross the 30-year-old threshold/etc. The Brewers did exactly this with Grienke... and the prospects didn't work out. That happens. Look at what the A's got when they traded Holliday to the Cardinals - two recent first round picks (Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortensen) and a recent 2nd round pick (Shane Peterson), and not one of them worked out for the A's. Yes, even Billy Beane fails on trades. This is why I don't believe in the "continually cycle talent" theory - a certain % of prospects will not pan out, and eventually the well will run dry. People point to the Rays, but much of their success and talent was due to top-3 overall picks (Price, Longoria, and Delmon Young who was traded for Garza who was traded for Archer). You have to have money to re-sign your top players and take on contracts. Look at St. Louis - would they have won all those World Series if they weren't paying Wainwright, Carpenter, Holliday, and Molina well into their 30's? Would they have been to those World Series if they weren't able to take on the contracts of Carlos Beltran, Rafael Furcal, Lance Berkman, and others? Would they have made it without paying over-30 pitchers in Jake Westbrook and - gasp! - Kyle Lohse? They didn't win those World Series with a team full of under-30 players (and some who were under 30, such as Molina, had already signed big long-term contracts). I think one of the things that hurt Melvin was how poor the overall talent level was in the 2003 and 2004 drafts, the two years that the Brewers had top-5 picks. There was no Kris Bryant or Mark Prior there in 2003, no Buster Posey, Mark Teixeira, or Zach Grienke there in 2004, and they also had to balance signability because there was no protection for unsigned picks until 2010. Once MLB implemented protection for unsigned picks in 2010, the drafts got much better: 2010 - Nelson and Thornburg are among the top 4-5 players drafted in those rounds, and Covey was a well-documented systemic (not Brewers) failure; 2011 - Jungmann, Lopez (the Bradley pick was not protected as it was the Covey pick from the prior year), 2012 - Coulter, Taylor, Roache is still only 23 (and Wagner in the 4th); 2013 - Devin Williams, went upside with Neuhouse (and Taylor Williams in the 4th). The 2009 draft was a failure at the top, but that year they had two things going against them - lots of people in new positions (their amateur scouting team had been raided), and no protection for unsigned picks. If there was a mistake, it was to give McFarland extra $ to sign in 2011 but not a couple hundred thousand more to Rodon instead. No one is saying Melvin was perfect. But let's acknowledge that he didn't have the advantages that a lot of those "top-10 organizations" have.

Yes, it is policy for MLB to test those who have failed a test more often. I'm trying to find specific reference to Braun, but my understanding is that he was the only one of the Biogenesis group to actually fail a test - the rest were caught in the records. If the others didn't fail a test, then they probably cannot be tested more often, and thus Braun was tested more than they were. Bottom of the article confirms, generically, that if a player fails a test they are tested more often (a good read by the way): http://www.jsonline.com/news/health/up-to-20-major-league-players-to-be-suspended-but-not-because-of-stringent-tests-b9939132z1-215413631.html

How was Garza's second run earned? Gennett dropped the ball. It was in foul territory, but he dropped the ball - it hit his glove.

In 2012 Braun was tested for PEDs more than any other player in baseball. And yet he put up perhaps the best year of his career. Testing technology isn't going to regress from 2011 to 2012.

How many sliders out of the zone did Davis, Gennett, and Segura just swing and miss at? How come we can see that coming from a mile away, but the coaches can't tell them to not swing until they throw at least two strikes? I know that is much easier said than done, but the coaches have to know that they are going to try to get those guys to swing and miss with runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out.

Says domain name has expired.

This has kind of been my experience as well. I've had both (iPhone for work, Android for personal) and found the iPhone to be not intuitive when it came to finding settings I want to change and other things I'm trying to find. And it bloody well took Apple long enough to get a decent size screen - I had the HTC Evo (awesome phone, until the battery and RAM became outdated) with a 5" screen for two years before Apple finally figured out a bigger screen. I have a Moto X and, aside from all the bloatware that Google put on it since they owned Motorola at the time, it has worked great. Takes phenomenal HD video and really good pics. One of the biggest things that impacts battery life is how good of a phone signal you have. When your phone doesn't have a good signal, or it is on the border of 3G and 4G signals and keeps switching between them, you'll burn through your battery regardless of what phone you have. If you go cheap, make sure that your phone has at least 2GB of RAM. Apps are becoming obnoxiously large RAM hogs (Facebook is 140MB when running in the background), and I don't envision the apps becoming smaller.

I think that's why Ray's good for the role he has. You really can't use analytics much to evaluate amateur players; it's hard to translate college, and almost impossible to translate HS analytics if they are even available, to the pros. Analytics are most relevant for players that have been in pro ball, and have had professional-level coaching, for at least three years.

Thinking back to the interviews with MA that I've seen on the telecasts, he almost always references in some way their "analytics meetings". The Brewers aren't novices when it comes to analytics, and I think MA is the one leading the charge to incorporate them. My guess is that DM isn't so well versed with advanced analytics, but he sounds well-versed in the basics, so like others have mentioned perhaps this move is to find the yin and the yang: Melvin handles/teaches the traditional baseball side of the role, the relationships with other GMs, evaluating what is a good return on a trade, and perhaps his greatest skill which is identifying minor league free agents and waiver wire guys who have some major league potential to fill holes on the team. The new GM handles advanced analytics and learns the ropes from Melvin. Who could forget his first move as a GM - selecting Scott Podsednik off waivers from Seattle. His next? Signing Brooks Kieschnick. Selecting Brady Clark off of waivers. Signing Danny Kolb as a free agent. Signing Alcides Escobar as an international free agent. Signing Doug Davis. Signing 3TO. He made the Brewers respectable very quickly. While the Amateur Scouting Director is primarily responsible for the draft, back before the days of a bonus pool and comp picks for unsigned players the GM was consulted on tough-to-sign picks. Outside of wanting to play chicken with Boras and Jered Weaver/Stephen Drew in 2004, the first two drafts of his tenure are generally considered two of the if not the two least talented drafts in recent history. Hard to build a winner with lean drafts like those. (While they struck out with Rogers in 2004, maybe they came out ahead with not picking Bailey, considering Cincy is paying him $10M to sit out this year with TJ surgery and $18M to recover from it next year.) Like others have said, I'd give him a solid B. Not perfect, but came out on the better end of player decisions more often than not. He was the right person in 2002 and it is the right time for him to leave.

Interesting that Magnifico was brought in during the 7th inning and Barrios closed.

Funny, I was just looking at A.J. Reed. He was drafted the pick after Jake Gatewood. No pressure there. Speaking of A.J. Reed, Houston is 6th in the majors in blown saves this season. Gregerson is tied for the lowest save % and has the 3rd highest ERA of any of the 25 pitchers with at least 19 saves. And Houston is loaded with 3B and 1B prospects (I know that their minor league teams play in hitter-friendly parks/leagues). K-Rod to Houston makes too much sense. I'm going to say that K-Rod won't bring back A.J. Reed, but would Houston move whichever of Colin Moran or J.D. Davis they like the least for him? If not, what would the Brewers need to kick in? Houston also has Singleton, A.J. Reed, and Chase McDonald coming up at 1B. Singleton has a very good walk rate at AAA this year and is still only 23.

6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER (a solo HR, of course), 1 BB, 5 K yesterday. Bullpen blew it though (you know, there's this K-Rod guy we can trade you too...)

PHI and MIA play each other 10 more times this year, so that's at least 10 guaranteed wins between them. However, the Brewers play MIA and PHI a combined nine more times this year, with six of those being at home. The Brewers also play CIN nine more times, also with six of those being at home. The Brewers play STL, CHI, PIT, and WAS a combined 26 more times this year, with 17 of those being on the road. CIN plays STL, CHI, PIT, LAD, SFG, KCR, WAS, and NYM a combined 36 more times, but 19 of those are at home. I wish I was as confident that the Brewers will end up with a top-5 pick. It's going to be close.

I don't know if Davis should be traded, but someone needs to be traded. If you go by the list on Miller Park Prospects, of the Brewers top 21 prospects, nine are pitchers and 12 are position players. Of the 12 position players, nine are OF. That is on top of Davis, Peterson, and Braun, and it's unlikely that Braun is going anywhere. As for moving someone to 1B, Davis has the much worse arm between he and Braun, but at 5'10" he won't have the reach to get slightly errant throws. Add this to Braun's thumb/contract and being four years older than Davis, and it's likely Braun is the one ending up at 1B. In a couple of years you are potentially looking at an OF of Phillips/Santana/Reed/Taylor/Roache. With Davis being 28 next season, I think the best thing is for him to go on (continue) a hot streak through the end of the year and then move him. Santana has little left to prove in the minors; set him up for success by occasionally starting Schafer or Wren against tough RHP. That being said, if someone wants to overpay for Santana and give us stud upper-level LH 3B, C, or 1B prospects, I'd be fine with that too. And while I believe in BPA to an extent, given the number of young OF in the system, if the Brewers draft an OF with their #1 pick next year he better be the next Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, or Barry Bonds. They need to invest in a #1 starter or the next Buster Posey.

I wonder if - after U.S. mail has been used to send anthrax, the Unabomber, etc. - only select mail facilities have the systems/equipment to scan for mail threats, and thus it's policy for mail to go through those facilities first before delivery in order to protect postal workers.

I'm wondering if it is possible to make the OF panels glass/safety glass/plexiglass. That way when the panels are closed, it still feels more open-air. Tailgating is kind of a Catch-22. It is a huge draw and fairly unique experience, but it cuts down on concession sales (and can be a source of alcohol-related incidents). How much do you promote something like that?

You've been banned from attending games. Brandon Moss wears MC Hammer pants.

Waivers goes by league first, and the A's snapped him up right away. Never had a chance at him. But I agree with the principle. The next step is to start to purge the guys that have no plate discipline while they are young and still have some value, and that starts with Segura and Gennett. I'm torn on Gennett; I want to believe because he provides some LH balance, but he's never had plate discipline and I griped about that when he was in the minors. I'll take Peterson and his .370 OBP at just about any position.

I tell you what, I was at the very first game at Miller Park (not opening day, but the first exhibition game against the White Sox). I was absolutely WOWED when I walked in. I've been to a number of parks; not a ton, but about a dozen or so. None of them were better than Miller Park. I've been to Fenway and Wrigley, and while ivy and tall green walls are pretty they are not good places to watch a game. As far as newer stadiums, I've been to Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Citizens Bank Ballpark, Bank One Ballpark, Petco, and AT&T Stadium. AT&T has the bay, and Petco has an AWESOME neighborhood around the stadium, but as far as within the stadium I wouldn't put any of them ahead of Miller Park. Bank One is similar to Miller Park, but MP is far superior - you are far away from the field in the upper deck at Bank One as they only have two levels. I think a lot of those ratings have to do with tradition (Fenway/Wrigley) or the area around the ballpark. But most if not all of those stadiums don't allow tailgating in the parking lot, which makes for a much better experience with the exception of San Diego. The Gaslamp district is a fun, fun place to hang out before and after the game. I highly recommend spending a weekend in San Diego in the Gaslamp district and catching a couple of Brewers/Padres games.

What's even crazier is Lohse's home/road splits this year. Home: 283 PAs, 8.16 ERA, 1.747 WHIP, .368 BABIP, .986 OPS-A Away: 262 PAs, 4.55 ERA, 1.200 WHIP, .273 BABIP, .721 OPS-A On the road he's been mediocre/somewhat OK. Home... nightmare.