LouisEly

The Brewers lead the majors in bullpen losses with 20, seven by Loe alone, and Yuni is what, -1 WAR? Are you sure SS is the most pressing need?

I don't agree with the Luis Gonzalez comp, since Gonzalez's frame is/was so much bigger than Caleb's. The original question was this: "I'm trying to come up with a comp for Gindl, good OBP guy, reasonable power, and average to above average corner D. Any ideas? I was kind of thinking Brady Clark, who had a pretty good run, but Clark was about 2 years older than Gindl at every level." Height/weight/frame was not part of the question. When people think of Luis Gonzalez they think of his highly likely power surge after the age of 30. But if you look at his stats from ages 23 through 29 his power numbers weren't tremendously impressive; just a quick glance says an average SLG in the .425-.430 range with a couple sub-.400 and a high of .470+. Decent OBP (.350-.370), reasonable power. However, Gindl was a 5th round pick, Similar to Luis Gonzalez, who was a 4th round pick. And Gonzalez, unlike Brady Clark, hits lefty like Gindl. (Throws righty though, unlike Gindl.) Age comp is right on though, as Gonzo debuted in the majors at age 22, which is possible for Gindl.

Luis Gonzalez?

Thornburg didn't look nearly as small as my impression of him was. The first change he threw the batter just about screwed himself into the ground. Just made him look silly. He left one change up in the zone, but overall I thought it looked good. Has to be Arnett's best outing yet - 7IP, 5H, 9K, 9:3 GO/FO. The GO/FO ratio is pretty consistent with his last three starts. He did say earlier this year that his shoulder felt better than ever. "I'm not dead yet!!" Salami for Green, plus a single and a walk... How the heck did Matt Moore last until the 8th round of the 2007 draft?

Like others have said, it depends on the nature of the ball. If it's one of my favorite players/a Brewer I treat it differently than someone else. Like the Bonds home run - not one of my favorite players, not a Brewer, so that ball goes to the auction house. Likely the same with Jeter, but I think I'd give him a chance to buy it first. A milestone HR for a Brewer - I give it back to the player and hope they/the team takes care of me. In general, memorabilia doesn't mean much to me unless it is personalized. It would be hard to sell an autographed bat/ball for much because it would be hard to prove they signed it. But if I couldn't or didn't sell the ball, I would want something that has future value or reduces my future costs like tickets. In general, if it were a Brewers player I would want a jersey signed and personalized to me ("Thanks for catching my ________, blah, blah...") and some photos. Then I'd give my name/number/email to the player and the team representatives and say, "It would be great if there were tickets waiting for me for any game I wanted to attend", and leave it up to them. I assume baseball is like football where the team/players are allocated tickets for every game, and thus the player could leave me tickets to any game and it would cost the player little if anything. Then I wouldn't have to pay for tickets in the future, which is like receiving indirect compensation (and hard for the IRS to track).

Just one big poopy day for the organization. Lone bright spot - Fiers through five picking up for the most part where he left off in AA save for a few more walks than usual. I realize I just jinxed him to get totally lit up in the 6th as well as his next start. I'll go cain myself presently.

Like JJ Hardy and Nelson Cruz, some guys need to get dumped once or twice before they get their head out of their read end and realize they are not prima donnas and make adjustments and listen to coaching.

Hopefully Dennis to BC means Davis to AA which means Schafer to AAA which means Boggs to MIL which means Kotsay to the unemployment line. Funny, I think I figured out why they are keeping Kotsay. When I typed Kotsay into my smartphone it wasn't in the dictionary and suggested "lordship". No, I am not joking.

Just a reminder that Here Come the Mummies is on tonight on the Miller Lite Oasis stage. They put on an amazing performance and I can't recommend them enough - they are a must-see. Their website has some videos of live performances to give you an idea of their music, particularly their performances on The Green and from their DVD: http://www.herecomethemummies.com/media/videos

If you ignore Nelson's draft position to remove some bias, and then just evaluate him on his scouting reports, checked his college career on baseball cube, and then looked at his pro career... Would you be inspired? Looking at his last five starts I'm inspired - 8.72 K/9, 3.1 K/BB, 1.19 WHIP, 2.81 ERA. I don't think it really matters what they did in college (pitching against aluminum bats that greatly advantage the hitter until this past season) or even what they did last year - what matters to me is whether they are improving and making the adjustments at each level. For the most part, in rookie ball and even low-A pitchers are working on specific things. Given his results in the last five starts, it appears that he is getting better and making the adjustments. I don't know that anyone ever said he threw mid-90's; I seem to recall from the scouting reports that he sat consistently at 91-92 and maybe he could crank it up to 94 every once in a while. When most people around here think of Jeff Suppan they think of the 34/35 year old version. They don't think of the Jeff Suppan that made it to the majors at the age of 20 and was a regular starter at the age of 22. I dare say that the 22-year-old Suppan threw harder than the 34/35 year old Suppan. And if Nelson, a second round pick like Suppan, can replicate Suppan's age 24-32 seasons in the majors I'll be happy as that is a well above average career for a second round pick.

You left out Kintzler and Stetter but I don't know if they count as "the same time".

People's crucifixion of Jimmy Nelson may be a bit premature. And this Mittelstaedt guy is starting to put himself on the map as a utility prospect. Again, Arnett's outing is a little deceptive. He got himself in trouble by walking and hitting the first two batters; after that two of the hits were ground ball singles plus an error on Walla. Who knows if the double steal was on Arnett or on the catcher; if they were on the catcher then they might have thrown out the runner at 3B or Arnett might have gotten a double play out of the ground ball back to the pitcher. The walk and HBP were on him, and there was a line drive single and fly ball double. But two ground ball singles, a double steal, and an error on an OF were more bad luck than anything. He went on to only give up one run in the next five innings and struck out 8 in six innings. Not a great outing, but not terrible and plenty of positives to look at.

The system would be extremely strong right now if it had all the prospects Melvin traded away this past offseason. Lawrie and Odorizzi are potential superstars.And the pitching on the major league team would be extremely weak. I'm glad you're happy with minor league success, because I'll take major league success. Maybe they'll amount to something some day, but so far they haven't. The only player traded away for Linebrink who has even played in the majors is Thatcher, and he's just a LOOGY. The comp picks they got for Linebrink turned into Nyjer Morgan. So they got a Linebrink rental (do you remember how poor the relief pitching was that year - that was what almost cost them the playoffs) and Nyjer Morgan for Joe Thatcher. How that is not a good trade is beyond me. Yes, Grienke hasn't worked out so far, but Odorizzi, Cain, and Jeffress haven't done anything for the Royals yet, and I'd be scared to think of where they would be without Marcum. but trading Hardy for Gomez stunk, plenty of people thought that was a horrible trade Hardy's last season in Milwaukee his OPS was almost exactly the same as Gomez's OPS this season (.656 vs .659) and you want to run Gomez out of town. Sorry X, but Hardy was awful. He's been dumped by two organizations now and that says something. Sometimes a guy needs to get dumped twice before he gets his head out of his rear end and realize he's not a prima donna and has to make changes and get better. Hardy and Nelson Cruz are two prime examples - after they got dumped twice they finally pulled their heads out of their rear ends and listened to coaching. Melvin ain't perfect, but don't go pinning Hardy on Melvin because Hardy forced Melvin's hand with his poor play. (And like Hardy's M.O., he's only played in 55 of Baltimore's 82 games.) Back to the question at hand, I'd have Melvin sit down and have a talk with Roenicke and explain to him that: 1) It's good to be somewhat loyal to your players, however... B) the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, and 3) when people produce poorly you can make changes and still be loyal to them because when you use facts to make decisions people understand your decisions.

Did Fielder get more votes than POO-holes, and if not, does that mean that POO-holes is the starter in the All-Star game? We can only hope that he came back too early and it wasn't completely healed, causing him to reinjure it and be out even longer. I never wish major injury on anyone, but POO-holes is kind of an exception and I'm not talking about career-ending, I'm talking about being out just the last two months of the season.

He's played RF, LF, 2B, 3B... and even pitched - he's the new Bill Hall! Oh, and FREE MICHAEL FIERS. His WHIP as a starter this year in AA is 0.818. No, that is not a misprint.

I was thinking about posting the same thing, but was worried that the 23-year-old-in-rookie ball and small sample police would deliver me a good flogging.

Not good to have the last name Pierce and be in the Brewers minor league system in rookie ball right now. Both have an ERA over 15.00 (very small sample warning).

If you look at this particular game, he for the most part did pick up his teammates but got unlucky - if you look at the bottom of the 3rd the hits allowed were a bunt single, then the error on I assume a ground ball because the error was on the SS, then single on ground ball to CF, then what I am assuming is a weak ground out to SS because Rivera went to 1B instead of 2B for the force, then single on ground ball to LF. He did get himself in trouble with a one out walk in the 4th, then the missed catch error on the 1B which should have ended the inning, then a single on a ground ball to LF. So while five runs scored in those two innings he didn't allow even one fly ball to the OF. By my calculations, he induced nine ground balls in those two innings plus one strike out and one pop out. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good outing where the numbers don't paint an accurate picture of his performance.

Free Mike Fiers

And the Yankees take advantage of their park by having six LH hitters in the lineup. The Brewers have three, and Nyjer Morgan doesn't quite count as a power threat.

Two home runs in two days off the top of the short porch in right... nice friggin' ballpark.

Priceless

He is the 7th catcher the Pirates have used this season. Sounds like the Brewers equivalent of calling up Martin Maldonado because Kottaras, Nieves, Rivera, and two free agents were hurt. Congrats to Fryer, but given that he's the 7th catcher the Pirates have used it doesn't seem like as big of a deal as it does on the surface. Looks like more of a who-else-do-we-have-left move.

LouisEly reporting, sadly, from section 109...

Section 109, row 21 tonight. You know what I'll be wearing.