LouisEly

Let's not forget that Cespedes put up a .737 OPS and a .298 OBP last year. Drop in OBP was driven by drop in batting average, but also dropped in SLG.

You don't see trades for expiring contracts much anymore now that the league slots rookie salaries and has limits on max offer contracts. I could be wrong - if so, I'd like to see examples of trades in the last year or two that are basically for expiring contracts. It also depends on the free agent class; teams were trading for expiring contracts the year LeBron and Bosh hit free agency, but if it isn't a big FA class then the value of an expiring contracts is going to be smaller. In order to get anything for an expiring contract you usually have to take on a smaller but longer contract(s) in return. I don't know if Charlotte is willing to take on an Ilyasova-like contract ($8M/year for 2/3 more years) if they can't get immediate help, especially if they are looking to add a player for a playoff push which is the trade rumor to begin with. Jefferson and Henderson have player options after next season and Kemba Walker is only under control for two more seasons so I don't think Charlotte wants to take on salary beyond this year or next. Actually Butler and Neal make a lot of sense for Charlotte; remember, Butler is an expiring contract too, and Neal is the backup SG they don't have right now with Gordon injured (Neal is actually a better shooter, especially from 3, than Gordon too) and is only guaranteed $3.25M next year. If Charlotte doesn't plan on resigning McRoberts then Ilyasova might make sense for them. And if a team is looking to shed salary the the Bucks pick at #31 will have a lot of value because it is the first pick that doesn't carry a guaranteed salary, thus the Bucks could easily move up from #31 to the late first round if a team such as the Clippers, Bulls, Wizards, or Grizzlies need to get under the luxury tax threshold.

Charlotte's FG% ranks 27th in the league and their offensive rebounding ranks 27th in the league (29th on a shot % basis). Charlotte also only has four players on the roster 6-9 or taller. They also don't have anything behind MK-G at SF, and MK-G has only attempted 9 3-point shots on the year (and has only made 60% of his FTs). I don't know if McRoberts' game is too similar to Ilyasova's, but I think a guy who has some height and can offensive rebound like Ilyasova might have some value to Charlotte and could get a mid-1st round pick. Caron Butler won't get a 1st round pick, but would make a nice addition to come off the bench for MK-G and a veteran for MK-G to learn from (plus Butler's 85% FT wouldn't be a liability in the 4th quarter like MK-G's 60% FT). Butler + the Bucks 2nd round pick (#31 overall) for Charlotte's 1st round pick (right now #15)?

I didn't know that Sophia Minnaert was the granddaughter of Harry Caray.

Of the 200 game minutes, UW's starters played 171. Of the 29 bench minutes, Hayes played 23. Kaminsky was the only starter who didn't play at least 35 minutes. In the Purdue game four of the five starters played at least 34 minutes. Tired legs don't shoot well, especially from 3.

2009 will forever be remembered as the year the Brewers got screwed out of Trout because the Yankees signed Texeira and Sabathia and somehow Texeira was "ranked" ahead of Sabathia. You mentioned the 2010 draft. The two picks after Covey haven't made it past A-ball yet and one is out of baseball (a Cubs draft pick for those who think the Cubs have been doing a great job identifying young talent). Only two of the eight picks after Covey ever cracked the Top 100 prospect list but one was suspended the entire 2013 season and the other is now off the list after a .580 OPS in AA this past year. Wimmers blew out his arm right away and has yet to recover. The Angels had five picks in the first round after Milwaukee and drafted all HS players; one hasn't made it out of rookie ball, two haven't made it past A ball, a fourth profiles like Gennett (2B, numbers are driven by batting average, rarely walks, average numbers in hitters leagues), and the only one who cracked the Top 100 as mentioned above put up a .580 OPS in AA this past year. The Rays had three picks in the first round after the Brewers, all HS players, and none have made it past A-ball yet much less the Top 100. Yes, Biddle and Lee are nice pitching prospects but 12 teams passed on them after the Brewers did. At least 23 players were picked before Snydergaard, Ranaudo, Walker, and Castellanos after the Brewers passed on them. The Rays passed on Snydergaard twice and Walker and Castellanos three times, the Angels passed on Snydergaard four times and Walker/Castellanos five times. If the Brewers missed on those guys, what were the Angels and Rays doing? All in perspective.

Ackley is actually not that comparable to Weeks. The Brewers sunk cost in Weeks is $11M this year, possibly $11.5M next year, and the 2nd overall pick in the 2004 draft. Ackley's sunk cost for the Mariners is $1.7M for 2014 and the 2nd overall pick in the 2009 draft with no financial obligation (arbitration-eligible) beyond this year. Did they still use the old bats in college in 2009? I thought they changed before that. Quite a power dropoff for Ackley in pro baseball compared to college.

If you look at the moves the Cardinals have made the last 15 years you can separate them into two distinct buckets: the last five years and the previous ten years. The last five years - get lucky with pitching in the draft and trade young talent for veterans. The ten years prior to that - draft decent bats and mediocre pitching and trade young talent for veterans. The Cardinals might not have gone to the World Series last year if they didn't trade 2010 first round draft pick Zach Cox for Edward Mujica in 2012. The Cardinals don't win the 2011 WS if they don't trade a 24-year-old former first round draft pick CF who put up a .850 OPS in the majors as a 23-year-old the year before for 1/3rd of a season of Edwin Jackson and 37-year-old Octavio Dotel (the comp pick they got for Jackson has a .613 OPS in two years of rookie ball). The next year they signed 35-year-old FA Carlos Beltran. In 2009 the Cardinals trade 23-year-old closer Chris Perez for 1/2 season of 34-year-old Mark DeRosa (and the comp pick they got for losing DeRosa has a career minor league WHIP of 1.615). In the 15 years prior to 2008 the best starting pitcher the Cardinals drafted was Dan Haren in 2001, but traded him for Mark Mulder before the 2005 season. (Mark Mulder should be given special recognition for doing his best to try to keep the Cardinals out of the 2006 postseason and washing out after one good season in STL.) After Haren, the next best pitcher was probably Jaime Garcia (career WAR 4.8), but you'd have to go back to Matt Morris in 1995 to find a Cardinals pitcher drafted (and signed) with a career WAR >10. The Cardinals success was built on drafting bats (Pujols, Molina, Drew whom they traded for Wainwright, but they got lucky with Pujols because other teams had 401 chances to draft him). In case you can't tell, I'm kind of tired of hearing about copying the Cardinals. Yes, they've gotten lucky with drafting pitching the last five years, but prior to that they made a lot of bad moves and moves that most people here would vehemently disagree with if not cause them to abandon the Brewers altogether. If you want to see some bad drafts, look at the Cardinals 2002 and 2004 drafts. In the 2005 talent-rich draft the Cardinals had four top-50 picks and six picks in the first two rounds and only came away with Colby Rasmus (as mentioned earlier, traded for 1/3rd of a season of Edwin Jackson and Octavio Dotel and what looks to be a wasted comp pick). This whole Cardinals drafting/pitching development thing is a very recent phenomena, not something that has been consistent in the organization for 15 years. Their WS title in 2006 was one of the biggest flukes in all of sports history. Model the last five years, yes, but not the last 15.

I have about 15 years of sales and sales management experience - same as Invader, PM me as well with specifics and I may be able to give you some advice.

I still want to know how he can be that good if two different coaches refused to play him here. I know Kohl is likely calling the shots with the GM, but is Kohl influencing the coaches too?

Biggest game of the year on Saturday for Marquette. Best chance to knock off a top-10 team. Maybe Creighton exposed something with Villanova. Speaking of Creighton, how in the heck to you even allow Wragge to attempt 14 3-point shots??? Or in Marquette's case, 9 3-point shots. Yeah, McDermott is their #1, but Wragge is a one-trick pony; he's attempted 154 shots this year and 148 of them have been 3-pointers; Wragge only attempted 12 non-3-point shots all last season. Rule #1 - put a guy on Wragge and tell him to stay no more than 5 feet from Wragge; if he gets the ball, make him dribble towards the hoop. Rule #2 - see rule #1. Rule #3 - double McDermott with someone not guarding Wragge.

Not exactly - if you play for Miami, Orlando, San Antonio, Dallas, or Houston you don't have to pay state income taxes, which can be an extra 10% available to spend compared to LA or NY. But in LA and NY you have much more entertainment and nightlife options to spend it on. Can't exactly hobnob with supermodels in clubs in Milwaukee (or Cleveland, or Utah, or Sacramento, or New Orleans). I'd be ok with a SG this year like Exum, Smart, or LaVine. Chances are they'll be in the lottery next year and have a shot at Embiid, Parker, or whomever. Saw a mock that had the Bucks taking Washington senior SG C.J. Wilcox with their 2nd - like that pick. Then with their other two 2nd round picks grab GA's younger brother (I assume) TA from Greece and Colorado PF Josh Scott. Two SGs to replace Neal and Mayo/Ridnour (hopefully trade Mayo), a SF to replace Butler, and a PF to replace Udoh.

$2M if added to the ML roster by March 24th with performance bonuses up to $600K ($125K each for 200/300/400/500 PA's). So less than your $3M threshold. Would much rather this than trade any legitimate pitching prospect for Ike Davis. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10309967/mark-reynolds-agrees-minor-league-deal-milwaukee-brewers

Yes, I mentioned Newcomb, but I also mentioned Forbes as well. Colby, what about the third guy I mentioned, Luke Weaver of Florida State. Kind of smaller (6'2", 170), but reports last summer had him touching 97 and can definitely add to that frame. In 98.1 innings struck out 119 and walked only 19. Second team pre-season All-American.

Screen swipe works; I've just never seen that method before. On my Evo (which I had for four years) it was arrows. Based on user forums, the K-9 email app was recommended. I've tried it and it works really well. Can do IMAP and not delete email from the server.

I just switched to the Moto X from a HTC Evo 4G; didn't want to, but the Evo is four years old and has a small amount of RAM. I literally was out of RAM and as apps get bigger and bigger I could only have a handful of apps on my phone, plus the apps use more battery and battery life was getting short. But I loved my Evo and it worked perfectly. I put my school email on my new Moto X using the native email app and I set it up exactly the same as on my old phone. I want to be able to delete email on my phone but not on the server - there are emails that I want to keep but I don't need to keep on my phone. My understanding is that IMAP auto syncs and automatically deletes email on the server, so I set up my email exactly the same as I did on my Evo - manual setup, POP3, and there is a "Delete email on server" setting which I set to "Never". But when I delete email on my phone it deletes email on the server. Anyone know how to get this to work right? I know there are other email apps, but I don't trust an email app written by some random person. The #1 and best rated email app is written by someone with a Russian/Eastern European name. Don't need my email hacked. Edit: Nevermind, just got through to level 2 tech support. This is a known issue with their OS and the developers are working to resolve this. Be aware of this if you purchase the Moto X. Anyone know of a better email app they feel safe with? The native email app doesn't have arrows to skip to the next email - you have to go back to the inbox. Annoying.

Typically universities will have some type of guidance on minimum requirements for a laptop, as well as guidance on what software they may need and what software/applications will work and what won't work with their systems. UW-Madison had this in their info when I enrolled in grad school last year. I would recommend contacting the IT department of the school and asking them if they have any guidance. See my post from earlier today on the other laptop thread - great deals on seller refurbs on eBay with Windows 7 and Office 2010.

A year ago I bought this HP 6730b laptop (15" screen) that I am typing this on off of eBay, seller refurbished, with Windows 7 and full MS Office Professional 2010 for $160 plus I paid an additional $25 to upgrade the RAM to 4GB. The only thing I am dissatisfied with is that it only has VGA and S-video ports (no HDMI or DVI) and the screen is LCD (hard to read in a bright room). But Office 2010 Professional alone costs as much as I paid for the laptop. If you only use it for work you should check eBay refurbs. I know there are a couple of guys on Craigslist in the Milwaukee area that do laptop refurbs with a MS Office license.

Sanders and especially Henson are too skinny to be true PFs - they get pushed around down low, a big reason why the Bucks give up so many offensive rebounds. The Bucks are second to last in the league in opponent offensive rebounds (Lakers are last) this season and last season were tied for last in the league. Part of it is that Sanders and Henson go for blocks all the time, which puts them out of position for a defensive rebound, but they need some muscle down low. I would have no issue with Randle (6'9", 250) or Embiid (7'0", 250) as they both have the size to keep opponents off of the offensive glass. Of course, you don't pass on Michael Jordan because you have Clyde Drexler, but I don't know if Parker is MJ. (If he is, he can play SG.) The Bucks do think that GA is athletic enough to play SG; that would make for a very interesting defensive presence as his length will give SGs fits when shooting from the outside. If they beat him off the dribble, it forces the SGs to drive to the basket to a waiting Sanders and Henson ready to swat them. Offensively GA can post up down low and take advantage of his height. If GA is in fact athletic enough to play SG it could be quite a matchup problem for opponents.

Derek Wilson is a great defender and a pass-first PG; the problem is that he has no offensive game. In what I've seen of Johnson so far this year he has made some bad decisions about when to shoot and when to drive to the rim. He's also a SG, whereas Wilson is a PG, so you can't sub Johnson for Wilson. The other, other Wilson (Duane) unfortunately is hurt, but he was a four star top 100 recruit. Buzz has been tinkering with resurrecting Paul Pressey and having Jamil Wilson play point-forward. That can't happen when Wilson has six turnovers like he did against DePaul.

Of all the nights this year for my little space heater that I keep in the bathroom to crap out, it picks last night to do it. And my refrigerator is up against an outside wall of my townhouse, and apparently this afternoon it got so cold along that wall that the water line to the fridge froze as no water is coming through the dispenser. My microwave is along the same wall, right next to an exterior vent, and it is COLD inside my microwave. The food steams when it is being heated.

Colby, #1-4 may be a lot of ifs, but they are things that have all happened recently. They are not asking something to happen that hasn't happened with those players before. Basically, they are asking the pitching staff to duplicate the 2nd half of 2013, Segura to duplicate 2013, and for Braun and Ramirez to revert to 2012 form.

Fischer would be a great get for Marquette; if he sits out a year he would be able to join the team when Marquette starts conference play next season. Marquette needs all the height they can get next year; reports were that Marquette was looking to sign one more big man as a part of their recruiting class for next year (even though that puts them one over the scholarship limit), but a slightly more experienced Fischer would be better. And just like UW with Marshall, someone could leave Marquette first semester next year and then Marquette would not be over the scholly limit. I could also see Marquette rescinding their scholarship offer to Malek Harris, who was suspended for his entire senior season, and offering it to Fischer if he transfers to Marquette.

No mention of another Milwaukee product, Gene Wilder (80). More known for movies, but he and Mel Brooks I think are the only ones still left from the cast of Blazing Saddles.

Agreed - the upside is if Weeks reverts to his 2011 form then he is worth his salary and/or increases his trade value. Gennett's minor league numbers suggest that he overperformed and will likely regress from his 2013 numbers. If Weeks still stinks, then they bench him and he can't file a grievance over being benched for monetary reasons and the difference over six weeks of performance will cost the Brewers at most 1-2 wins.