LouisEly

Where is there any appreciation of any value of anything in this economy?

Why can't that be? My dad bats right and throws left.

So I've installed iTunes on my (company) laptop and downloaded some TV shows. Unfortunately my laptop completely locks up when I try to play them. And I can't play them on my personal desktop either - I downloaded a free TV show and when I go to play it nothing happens. Anyone know why this might be happening? Edit: I've done some searching and apparently this is a problem. Any other solutions? Any other places I can download movies/TV shows from (and not slower than death - I have FiOS for a reason)?

Interview a bunch of independent realtors and say the deal is they get 1% or 1.5% to be the listing agent. Someone will take you up on it. It isn't a law that they have to take 3%. My buddy is a developer and just completed a 20-unit project and his agent is taking 1%; of course, that's based on volume of 20 units. But some young agent who just got their license is looking for a start in the business and will take you up on it; perhaps find a licensing school and have them advertise it to their class - here's a listing opportunity right out of the gate. The money realtors make on the transaction is secondary to the connections they try to make on open houses. So say they get 1% or 1.5% but can do as many open houses as they want. You get an agent to do the paperwork and can save a couple grand on the transaction. Edit: Is it an option to rent the condo, or does it have to be owner-occupied? If the value has dropped significantly it might be better to rent it for a couple of years than sell it.

To me the test of a great album is that I can listen to every track all the way through. There's only four albums that I can do that: Beastie Boys - License to Ill REM - Document & Reckoning Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures I know that compilation albums don't count, but I give special recognition to Bo Dean's live album "Joe Dirt Car".

That's what I thought prior to purchasing the Evo. But when I actually physically compared the Evo and put it on top of my old phone it was barely bigger in total size, but the screen is immensely bigger. I thought typing would be a problem with an on-screen keyboard, but when you hold the phone horizontally the keyboard expands the horizontal length of the phone and the letters are plenty big enough if not larger than on a real keyboard. Can't say enough good things about the Evo. No problem at all with dropped calls, and the GPS system is fantastic. Battery life can be an issue - just make sure you don't have things running in the background (WiFi, 4G, Navigation,etc.) that don't need to be. I don't think you could go wrong with either.

People get excited about Capuano because he's someone else, but other than five innings against PIT he hasn't gone more than 3.2 innings all year. I'm sure Parra would look really good if we just looked at his first 3-4 innings in each appearance. And if Capuano had to face a lineup for the 3rd time in a game I don't think he would look any better.

I look at it the opposite way - not how many extra wins he will give you, but how many wins would it have cost the team to keep going with the current players they had. Setup men don't win games so much as they keep you from losing them. Turnbow, Spurling, Dessens, Wise, Aquino, Capellan, Villanueva, and Balfour (before he learned how to throw strikes) were their other options. And Balfour was 29 at the time, so despite hindsight being 20/20 I don't think many people would have advocated keeping a 29-year-old who couldn't throw strikes at the time, especially in a playoff chase.

I wasn't referring to two months off like Salome, I was referring to two years off. And I wasn't referring to not playing baseball ever again, I was referring to taking 2-3 years off and then resuming playing when the diabetes was under control.

1) IIRC, the University of San Diego has one of the top medical schools in the country. If not USD, there is something in San Diego that is regarded as one of the top medical centers in the nation (other than Scripps, pretty sure it's USD). He's going to get better treatment there than with the Brewers. B) He won't be driving two hours back and forth each day - that comment was that if his parents needed to see him or if there was a medical emergency they could drive to be with him fairly quickly. 3) While he has a scholarship offer from USD, if something goes wrong he can take a leave of absence from baseball (or not play for a while) easier than if he was in the pros. It may be an academic scholarship and he doesn't have to play baseball at all. 4) The last first round pick the Brewers didn't sign was Kenny Henderson. They didn't lose anything there. You never know - they may have dodged a bullet and might not be losing anything here. Look at Arnett (so far). 5) Maybe it takes him 2-3 years to adjust to this. If so, the Brewers have wasted 2-3 years of that portion of his bonus and his service time (the time before they have to put him on the 40 and start using options). Not the end of the world. Two high picks next year in a deeper draft.

I don't care who it is, as long as he: 1) Stands up for his players B) Punishes/doesn't reward negative behavior 3) Makes adjustments when things aren't working (i.e. isn't stubborn trying to prove himself right)

MLB.com

Yes, there are stats that back this up, and back this up very well. ERA with:- Bases empty: 1.65 - Runner on 1B: 2.37 - Runner on 2B: 1.23 - Runner on 3B: 13.50 - Runner 1B, 2B: 12.38 - Runner on 1B, 3B: 23.40 - Runner on 2B, 3B: 22.50 - Bases loaded: 21.60 Small samples, yes. But the trend is pretty obvious. The stats that I would like to see are OPS-A based on inning and #of pitches - i.e. what is his OPS-A in the first inning, 2nd inning, 3rd inning, etc; I'd be willing to bet that it is very good in innings 1-4 or 5 and then skyrockets in innings 6/7. Same with # of pitches - I'd bet it is very good for pitches #1-75, but skyrockets after pitch #75. If in fact the issue is in the stretch vs windup, then it would not be good to put him in the bullpen.

Uh... four good years for Crim. 1991 - not so much. Good call on CV though - very interesting that he wasn't brought back up. From what I understand McClendon is a sinkerball pitcher - get a lot of ground ball outs. 1.81 GO/AO this year, consistently above 1.50 each year with the worst year being 1.41. I wonder what the corresponding 40-man move was? Hawkins, Zaun, or Estrada to the 60?

Yep. It's tougher to get to balls when the batters are hitting screaming ropes off of your pitchers, which impacts UZR. I've felt that UZR is biased against leftfielders. The reason is because a majority of hitters are right-handed, and when they pull the ball it is usually hit much harder than if they hit it to center or RF. The harder it is hit, the less time you have to get to it; the less time you have to get to it the less balls you get to, which impacts UZR. I don't think that all LFs are outstanding defenders, but I don't think they negatively impact the outcome of games as much as some think. When I saw last year that Fangraphs had a higher value on Nyjer Morgan than Ryan Braun... well, that's all I needed to know about their valuation system. I too think that fielding % is underrated and range is overrated. Don't get me wrong, I think UZR has value, but the point the original poster was trying to make was that fielding % is underrated. If you have range and get to a ball but can't make a play on it, it usually doesn't have any difference in outcome than if you can't get to the ball. The SS and 2B are positioned between the LF and CF and CF and RF respectively; if they can't get to a ball it usually goes straight to the LF, CF, or RF, and the batter is held to a single - unless the ball is hit really slow and the batter is really fast.

I do remember Jason Belcher. He had a .816 OPS in High Desert with only 5 HRs. Can you provide me a link to said Dave Clark? There is only one Dave Clark with minors stats on baseball-reference.com and three "David Clark"s, and none of them played for the Brewers. If you are referring to Daryl Clark, he had an OPS over 1.000 at High Desert but that was only for 50 games as a 23-year-old; his only full season there as a 22-year-old he had a .829 OPS. And IIRC the Brewers played in High Desert before PED testing. So not good comparisons to a 21-year-old with a .955 OPS and 27 HRs there now during the period of PED testing. Bill Hall as a 21-year-old had a .876 OPS in High Desert with 15 HRs. Your best comparator might be Corey Hart, who had a .928 OPS with 22 HRs there as a 20-year-old. Otherwise I can't find any Brewers prospects who had >.900 OPS with at least 350 PAs in a season there under the age of 25. So methinks you are undervalueing this prospect.

4th OF who should save the Brewers about $1.5M over Gerut next year. Not bad for a month and a half of Edmonds. I wonder if Cincy got wind of the Cardinals snooping around for Edmonds - since they just traded Ludwick - and decided to head that one off at the pass. In 400ish major league at bats he has a .274/.367/.421/.788 line while playing very good defense at all three outfield spots. He's hardly a AAAA player. Remember, 122 IP is too small of a sample to make any judgments about a pitcher, so we shouldn't make any judgments about a hitter after 400 ABs.

Next time Brandon Phillips comes to town I would love to see Milwaukee fans give him a standing ovation. You guys (and girls) who live within a two hour drive - this is your responsibility. For me it's a two hour flight through the end of the season, after that a four hour flight.

If we go by that argument, then Fielder and Hart have no value either because there was little interest in them at the deadline too. It was a buyers market. And unless DM got a good offer for Bush, if they traded him who would start? Chase Wright? Sam Narron? Marty McLeary? Chuck Lofgren? That would put even more stress on the bullpen, and we don't need to overwork Braddock, Axford, and Loe and risk blowing their arms out on a lost season. Bush has value being kept. And I did reference last year prior to him getting hurt on the arm, so the sample size is bigger than 122 innings. You can expand it to 2008 and outside of a half-dozen or so starts after he got hit on the arm last year he has had a pretty good 3-year stretch. I don't think you are appreciating how good his 3-year stretch has been. There really is no reason to pay a premium for what is available for shrewd waiver claim (whatever happened to Estrada anyway?) Oh, there is definitely a premium to pay over Estrada - small sample, but a pretty awful one. (And then the stunt he pulled after being told he was being sent down - is that someone who is good for team chemistry?) Take a look at what the Brewers AAAA-level replacement starters have done over the last few years - Estrada, Mike Burns... yeah, there's a premium to be paid over that. If you read the post closely you would have recognized that twice I said that the top priority was to find a #2-level starter - this is in the event that they are not able acquire one in a reasonable deal. For those of you who think they should acquire two good starters... how do you think they are going to do that? Who are they going to trade? Look at the Power 50 - four of the top 7 are now in the majors. Don't you think other teams have scouted Gamel and realize he is a defensive liability at 3B and might have to switch positions? If they trade Fielder they have to keep Gamel because they don't have any other LH hitters. I could see parting with Lawrie, but only if they sign Weeks to an extension. Would you trade Odorizzi, Peralta, or Heckathorn for someone who is closer to the majors? Rivas could be ready by the middle of next year, and could even make the jump - he could be up to 175 innings next year since he did 133 in 2008 - do you trade him? What other value do they have to trade that would bring value back? What the Brewers need to stay away from are the deals like they gave to Suppan and Wolf, or to relievers like Riske and Gagne. If you look at Bush's body of evidence over the last three years, save for about a half-dozen starts after he got hit on the arm, you might be surprised at how good it has been. What's not working isn't Bush - it's Suppan, Davis, Hoffman, Riske, Hawkins, Estrada, Vargas, Villanueva, to an extent Wolf, and flip-flopping Parra and Narveson back and forth from the pen. Bush is among the least of their problems. You mean like Brandon Morrow? He was dealt last offseason for Brandon League. And a 21-year-old Venezuelan who is putting up a .955 OPS in high-A ball this year. Do the Brewers have anyone outside of Lawrie at any level of the minors putting up the equivalent of that production? Gamel and Cain are doing it at a higher level but are both 24, and Katin is 27 - those are the only others who are close.

You know, because the human statue POO-holes is allowed to stand at home plate and watch his home runs because he's won a couple of MVPs, but anyone else who does that is showing up the Cardinal's pitchers. And looking at the comments under the article, sounds like Philips can extend those comments to the Cardinals fans. Didn't know there were so many of them in Dayton.

With 70% of the season done and 122 IP, what we have in Dave Bush is a guy without great peripherals but just gets the job done. Among NL pitchers with at least 100 innings, Bush is 20th in the NL in Quality Start %. When he get hit he gets shelled, but almost 2/3rds of the time he gives you a QS. If you look at 2009 before he got hit on the arm he was pitching very similarly if not better. Ideally the Brewers would like to get a pitcher with a higher upside. Realistically... what would it cost them via prospects to trade for that, and how much would they have to pay that pitcher? There isn't the quality in free agency, and we know what free agent pitching costs - look at how much they are paying for Wolf. A not-too-different pitcher in Piniero signed a 2yr/$16M deal with the Angels last year. Reality check - no one is giving up cost-controlled high upside ML starting pitching. So the options are to trade prospects for a better starter AND pay the subsequent salary of that type of starter ... but if it costs you a couple of good prospects and $12M/year in salary would bringing back Dave Bush be so bad? The Brewers have a good enough offense that if they get a QS from their pitcher they should win most of those games. If they can't get a reasonable deal for a #2 starter, which I agree is priority #1, but they can bring Bush back for a reasonable salary - say, 2-year/$12M deal ($6M/year) - would you do that? I know what some are going to say. Lack of Ks, WHIP, etc.; but what you need out of your starting pitcher is a quality start. As a golf pro once told me, "You don't draw pictures on the scorecard." The bottom line is the result, regardless of how pretty it is. Bush is keeping the Brewers in the games that he pitches better than a majority of pitchers in the NL. (edit: made specific topic title more specific --1992)

The Brewers bullpen has been making a lot of appearances lately. Not a lot of innings, but at lot of appearances. They need to make sure that Braddock and Loe don't get burnt out from getting up so often. I agree you'll see Villanueva, Stetter, Butler, and quite possibly Jeffress. Interesting stat - in the last month, only once has a Brewers starter gone 7 innings or more (and it was exactly 7 innings). Only once in the last month has a Brewers starter gone less than 5 innings (you'd be surprised who that was). As for roster space, they could easily put Zaun and Estrada on the 60-day to clear up two spots. As for needing spots before the Rule 5 draft in December, by my estimates they will clear at least five spots in Zaun, Riske, Hoffman, Edmonds, and Davis and possibly five more in Bush, Capuano, Counsell, Estrada, and Gerut. 2011 will be Periard's last option year so they may remove him from the 40-man as well. Finding space on the 40-man will not be a problem.

I mentioned Kazmir in a post a while back; a good buy-low candidate but with the same thought as others - only if the Brewers are on the hook for no more than $6M next year. Or if the Angels take Wolf in return. A good risk, but not worth $12+M. As I posted in the other thread, the Angels are committed to $45M plus whatever raise Weaver gets in arbitration just to starting pitching alone next year. They would love to move Kazmir, but if they can't they might have to move Piniero or even Santana. The Angels are on the hook for at least one possibly two years with Abreu at $9M. Scot Shields and Hideki Matsui will be free agents, and Fuentes is unlikely to get to 55 GF for his 2011 option to vest, so they can clear $20M in payroll there. But the may need to clear more depending on what Weaver gets in arbitration. Wolf for Kazmir might be an interesting deal. Brewers get higher upside and shorter deal, Angels get a more consistent and healthier pitcher and save $2.5M next year. The Brewers will likely have Rivas, Rogers, Butler, and possibly Fiers and Lamontagne as potential AAA starters next year to call up if Kazmir goes down, so depth shouldn't be an issue.

This is a really, really important point that could very well be one of the most important moves in the history of the franchise.

Whenever I'm gone or too busy to get on-line something big happens with the Brewers. Never fails. Some random observations: 1) It is an extension with a relatively low amount for 2011. The Brewers will probably clear at least $30M off the books this offseason, if they trade Fielder over $40M. They still have plenty of flexibility with signing Hart. B) There isn't a good free agent SP crop, and I think the Brewers are done with bidding against every other team and having to overpay to get free agents to come here. 3) I think Fielder is more valuable to the Brewers simply because he is left-handed and psychologically more intimidating on opponents. That's it. Stats be damned. But I think this definitely hurts Fielder's value in the FA market... or at least lets Boras know that his $100M+ contract is looking less and less like reality. 4) The conspiracy theorist in me - with this contract extension no one will claim him on waivers and they can pass him through, allowing them to trade him in August. Now teams know that he is under contract and what he will get so they will make better offers. 5) As long as this has become a future position thread... no one else thinks Braun to 1B and Gamel to LF (or Hart to LF and Gamel to RF)? 6) He may not be worth that 2013 amount, but the pitching prospects will be here by then so they will have cheap young pitching and can allocate their money elsewhere. Really, the key to this deal is how much salary they are clearing off the books this offseason and the arrival of pitching prospects in 2012 and 2013. A risk - as all contracts are - but a very calculated one.