LouisEly

Beat me to it. Pujols, Holliday, Ludwick, Derek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Soriano, Carlos Lee, Pence, Philips, Rolen... very RH-heavy division with an unbalanced schedule. I'd rather have Piniero than Wolf simply because he is a righty. One year deal for Davis? Can't argue with that. Wolf + Davis >>>>> Suppan + Looper. We could be talking about 50-60 fewer earned runs given up in their starts.

Some of the brightest prospects in the Brewers' farm system have been invited to the team's spring training in Phoenix. Here is the list: RHP Eric Arnett LHP Zach Braddock RHP Kyle Heckathorn C Jonathan Lucroy C Martin Maldonado CF Logan Schafer http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/81880532.html#comments Arnett and Heckathorn's invites were a part of their contract, and Maldonado is going because of the need for extra catchers. Lucroy and Braddock are two of the team's most advanced prospects, and judging by this apparently they think the same of Schafer.

I hate to say it, but UW's post play is just a complete achilles heel without Leuer (who isn't much on the defensive end, either). I sure hope Bo can get Nankivil in particular to be more assertive, especially on offense. I wonder if those guys are so locked into Ryan's system and/or are afraid to assert themselves beyond their role in the system for fear of being benched. It wasn't just Nankivil, it also was Berggren - he had a layup/dunk opportunity early that would have been contested/potentially blocked or fouled, but pulled back. They ended up getting a layup by Hughes in that posession, but it seems like their big men in general are not assertive, and maybe that's a function of Ryan. Who knows. Ohio State's once again got a player who looks like he's in his 30s. I wonder how old Greg Oden looks now. The big guy with the bald spot? That dude, Greg Oden, Lebron James... I seriously think it is something in the water in Ohio. In some of those industrial cities I'm sure the soil and groundwater is plenty polluted.

So here is why you rent from a non-airport location: Rented a car from Enterprise at the Tucson airport - got a full-size car (Honda Accord) for 3 days at $21.59/day - $64.77. Pretty good deal, huh? Well... add to that: Consolidated facilities charge - $4.50 Cactus League charge - $3.50 (it's January - spring training hasn't even started yet!) Tucson airport access fee - 11.10% - $7.19 Vehicle license tax - 5.00% - $3.82 Transaction privilege tax - 6.10% - $4.67 (what, it's a privilege to do business with them???) Total fees and taxes above the rental rate - $23.68, or roughly an additional 35% in fees. Now, the total of $88.45 isn't that bad for three days, but if the rental was $49/day for five days for spring training... that's a lot in fees.

Keep in mind that Gamel and Green both enjoyed huge seasons at Brevard County a couple of years younger than Schafer. It was only a one-year difference - Gamel and Green were 21, Schafer was 22. Not a significant difference.

Overrated: Logan Schafer - Yes, he was the Brewers' Minor League Hitter of the Year, but at present, he profiles as a fringe starting OF. First, a correction: he was not the Minor League Hitter of the Year, it's Minor League Player of the Year. And no, he doesn't profile as a fringe starting OF - he plays CF, which does not have the power expectations of the corner OF positions and where defense is more valuable. Second, he spent the season in Brevard which is notorious for suppressing hitters numbers; for reference, Schafer posted a .815 OPS there this year, Taylor Green posted a .825 OPS there, and Mat Gamel posted a .850 OPS. It was also better than the OPS that Cain posted at Brevard at the same age. Third, he is a very good defensive CF - he posted 14 assists last year, which from CF (13 from CF, 1 from LF) is very impressive, with only one error. This last year Schafer was one of if not the last player sent back to minor league camp (among players not on the 40-man) and accompanied the team to LA for their two exhibition games there and was the first substitution off the bench in Game 1. I think the Brewers think very highly of Schafer, and he is my pick for underrated. Overrated? Well... Escobar is a fantastic defensive SS and he can hit for average, however his walk rate at AAA was lower than Brendan Katin. He's very good, but if he is going to be even average offensively for a SS he will either need to develop a lot more power or walk a lot more. I sure want Odorizzi to succeed, but so far the ranking is based purely on potential.

Saying Raines was 'ordinary' after 87 is more less just plain false. He played every day til he was 35, and continued after that to be a valuable role player. From 88 to 98 (11 years), his OPS+ was over 100 for every year but one, (in which his OPS+ was 98). That statement is more or less just plain false also. Let's look at games played for Raines: 1988 - 109 (age 28) 1989 - 145 1990 - 130 (age 30) 1991 - 155 1992 - 144 1993 - 115 (age 33) Only once after age 27 did he play in as many as 150 games in a season and his OPS+ that year was 98. Only three times after age 27 did he play in as many as 140 games in a season. So "played every day" - not when you only rack up 109, 115, and 130 games in a year. That's a lot of games missed, lots of time to rest. And the OPS+ compares OPS to all positions. So as I mentioned, if you isolate him compared to OFs and throw out the catchers, shortstops, and second basemen, those OPS+ numbers are even less impressive. In fact, Raines was a LF (they tried him in CF in 1984 but he was so bad they moved him back to left) so if you compare him only to LFs in his career the OPS+ would be even more unimpressive. And as far as defense goes... there was a reason that Raines played LF and Dawson played RF when they were in the same OF in Montreal.

Dawson hit 400 homers and stole 300 bases during a time when 400 homers meant something. He won one MVP and finished 2nd twice while playing in Montreal. He won a rookie of the year. Before his knees totally went to pot, he also was one of the best defensive outfielders of his time, with one of the best arms ever. Yes, his power numbers were aided somewhat by 1987 and playing several years in Wrigley, but that's negated somewhat by him playing over half his career for the Expos in cavernous Olympic Stadium. +1. While 1987 was an aberration for all hitters, Dawson still was arguably the best player that year - he was the MVP. If you read the press release today where they interviewed him, he said that going from turf in Montreal to grass in Chicago - "It gave me new life, playing on a natural surface after playing in Montreal on artificial surface for 10 years,'' he said. I can only wonder how much better his numbers would have been had he not played in Montreal. Only three players in history have over 400 HRs and over 300 SBs - Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Andre Dawson. Kirby Puckett to me is a lot like Dawson. Great years when healthy, and without injuries, could have been in the HOF. Sadly, injuries got in the way. Don't know if they're HOF worthy. Injuries made Dawson average to mediocre for the latter half of his career, but they didn't force him out at a young age. Sounds a lot like what you could say about Raines. Raines was fairly mediocre after the age of 27, ironically the year 1987, so we should throw out Raines' 1987 season too if we are to throw out Dawson's 1987 season. Basically Raines had one good full season after the age of 27 which was 1989 (OPS+ of 131); in 1993 he had a statistically good season but only played in 115 games. His next best OPS+ season was 1997 where he only played 74 games. The only season after 1987 where he played over 150 games was 1991 where he had a .703 OPS and an OPS+ of 98. Those OPS+ numbers are for all positions, so if you just isolated him against just OFs (and excluded pitchers, catchers, 2nd basemen, shortstops) they would be even more average. BTW - Dawson played through 12 knee operations. That in itself is almost HOF worthy. Raines was a great player from 1981 to 1987. I just don't know that is long enough to be HOF worthy. Edgar finished with 309 HR/1261 RBI/2247 H/1219 R That line doesn't do it for me, especially for basically a full-time DH.

I'm sure that during the Packer game at least half of the cars parked at the mall will be doing the same thing as you. The mall won't be busy during the Packer game, that's for sure. And if you need to, walk in and buy a soda or something cheap so that you have a receipt that shows you shopped there.

Ennder and Russ, I think we can simplify your argument in about five sentences: Jeff Suppan is crappy and 35. Each of the last four years he has gotten worse, thus there is no reason to expect him to improve on his crappiness. Meanwhile, Jason Marquis is 31 and has gotten better each of the last three years. It would seem to make sense that one could expect from him what Suppan did when he was 31, which was Suppan's 2006 season of 4.12 ERA, considering that Suppan also peaked at the age of 30. The thought of a 35-year-old Suppan pitching roughly the same as a 31-year-old Marquis is laughable. Debate over.

Just curious - what was Edwin Jackson's career BABIP, WHIP, and ERA prior to the 2009 season and based on that what were his projections for the 2009 season? Prior to the 2009 season, I see numbers that look a lot like Manny Parra's the last two years.

I look at it the other way - what are the odds that Capuano would accept a AA assignment? If you look at Jones, his numbers at AA weren't really that great to warrant a AAA assignment (4.59 ERA, 1.35 WHIP). I think we want to see more than there really is for Jones because of his draft status and everything he's been through. If I were a betting man I'd put Cappy at AAA. Not poking holes at this at all - just commenting on the above post. Awesome job - thanks for taking the time to do this. Huntsville is going to be a fun team to watch this year.

Or me - I have mentioned several times that if there is a 2010 Edwin Jackson out there Parra fits the profile as much as everyone. Remember - he was pitching with some type of shoulder/arm discomfort this year that he had minor surgery on after the year was over. I was at the game in LA and he dominated - the key was the first time through the order was fastball/curve, then the 2nd time through he added the change, then the third time through added the splitter, which kept the hitters off-balance each time up. If Zaun/whomever calls the game like that I think he can have a very good year.

1) Gamel 2) Lawrie 3) Lucroy 4) Escobar (had a lower walk rate - 7.44% to 7.62% - than Brendan Katin in AAA last year) 5) Braddock 6) Schafer - plus offense, plus defense, lefty - there's a reason why they brought him to LA for the final spring training games and why he was the first OF sub brought in during those games 7) Kentrail Davis - wouldn't be surprised if a year and a half from now he's battling Lawrie for #1 8) Arnett 9) Salome 10) Rogers - don't let a couple of AFL innings after his first full season in several years fool you 11) Green 12) Odorizzi 13) Cain 14) Rivas 15) Gindl 16) Peralta 17) Scarpetta 18) Axford 19) Jeffress 20) Welch - what?? Just missed - Butler, Anundsen, w00ten, Aguilar, Merklinger

If there is even one Misty May-Treanor sighting at Miller Park this signing will be totally worth it. I see her and Walsh around here occasionally (after the AVP Hermosa final two years ago I turned around and Walsh was standing right next to me with ice wrapped around her shoulder - she is a legit 6'3"). Misty May I liken to Mia Hamm, who I have also met (sat next to her and Nomar at the bar of a popular local restaurant). Reasonably cute, but nothing special in person. Then again, this is LA - a West LA "5" is about a Milwaukee "9", so maybe it is a good reason for you guys to get excited. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I tried skimming through this thread but I didn't see the answer to this - my apologies if I missed it. Is Wolf a Type A or Type B free agent? I thought someone said a Type B but I have a hard time believing that he isn't an A.

he claims that Maymon was pissed about having to be in the post during most of their sets. If this is in fact true, it is another problem of a lack of height with recruiting. Maymon was forced to play in the forward spot almost by default due to being one of the bigger players on the team; Cubillan, Acker, J-O, and Buycks have to play the guard spots. I doubt it was playing time - he was averaging over 16 minutes a game, seventh best on the team. That's pretty good for a true freshman. The timing of it, right when the firsat semester ends, seems too coincidental. We'll find that out soon enough. Someone will leak his grades. If he goes to Tennessee or a juco program will tell the reason too.

How long until the guys in wolf masks doing the Thriller dance in the upper deck when he strikes a guy out show up?

There are times to look at stats as a whole when the big picture is more relevant, and there are times to inspect them more carefully. The last sentence is not true at all - prior to being thrust into the starting role by need on June 27th his numbers were very good. Also, as many pitchers do, they try to gut out an injury and have a couple of bad outings before ultimately going on the DL; this happened during his last four appearances in July prior to going on the DL - 4 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 2 HR, 6 BB, 3 K. No surprise he went on the DL after that. Similar with Bush after he took a liner off the arm - his next five outings were awful before going on the DL, as were his first two coming back from the DL. Those stretches for both of them were not consistent with their performance the rest of the season. If there performance was consistent with their stats for the whole season then I would agree with you (see: Kendall, Suppan, Hall, etc.). However both had certain stretches of games that were a significant deviation from their performance the rest of the season subsequently resulting in a DL stint, and that's when I question the stats as a whole. I think we've hashed this to death and it's obvious that he has his fans and detractors of his performance. I wouldn't be surprised to see him resurface in Texas with Maddux as his coach again.

so I'm sorry but talking about 17 IP here & 10 there while neglecting to talk about how things like strand rate & BABIP jump all around just doesn't tell you much about a reliever. As far as strand rate goes, for their MIL careers CV has inherited 47 runners and 14 have scored - 30%. McClung has inherited 35 and 8 have scored - 22.9%. Last year Villanueva was only given 8 runners to inherit and two scored, whereas McClung was given 22 inherited runners and only four scored. Villanueva had more appearances too because of the time McClung spent on the DL, so that tells me that Macha felt McClung would do a better job of stranding runners than Villanueva because he put McClung in that situation a lot more. I respect the stats you post, however my biggest concern is the eyeball test - McClung has gotten better each year (look what he had done before being forced to start) where Villanueva seems to be getting worse, a la Hart. Perhaps now that the "book" is out on Villanueva it is getting easier to hit him, where McClung's stuff is good enough to get guys out even if they know what's coming. Who knows. Like others have said, I just don't trust Villanueva.

1) Leuer had a 3-4 inch height advantage over anyone that guarded him; Hayward gave up 2-4 inches to anyone guarding him. Leuer is 6"10", and Hayward is 6'6". Leuer could work his height advantage down low - only one of his 12 shots was a 3-pointer where 8 of Haywards 21 were 3's. B) I'm factoring offense and defense. And Hayward is a better free throw shooter. Leuer had a great game, but for a guy 6'6" to get 12 rebounds and two blocks when guarding guys who are 6'8 - 6'10" is pretty impressive.

Blown saves are only relevant for players who are closers all year. He was the closer for the first four weeks until Hoffman was healthy. During that time he blew two of his three save opportunities. Villanueva is just a better pitcher than McClung and he's going to be cheaper. Villanueva had seven losses as a relief pitcher last year. That means that seven times he was handed the ball with the score tied or the Brewers leading and he gave up the winning run. The guy cracks under pressure. Last year as a reliever with RISP he had an ERA of 14.02; in 17.1 IP with RISP he gave up 28 runs/27 earned, and walked 14 while striking out 13 with a WHIP of 1.62 and an OPS-A of 0.769 (according to MLB.com). While McClung's ERA with RISP wasn't great at 8.50 (not sure I entirely trust how they calculate that) and had a slightly better 10BB to 12K ratio, his WHIP was 1.22 and OPS-A was 0.655 which was far better than CV. Yeah, Villanueva might be a better pitcher with the bases empty; yeah, McClung might walk more batters, but McClung did a much better job of getting out of the inning without damage than Villanueva. So to say that Villanueva is just a better pitcher is very debatable, especially considering that one of the main jobs of relievers is to come in after the starter or other pitcher lets a couple of guys on base.

While Leuer had a great game, I think Lazar Hayward might have been the best player on the floor. Some of the plays he made both offensively and defensively, while consistently guarding and being guarded by bigger players, were pretty impressive. He's more of a SF but is forced to play PF because of Marquette's lack of height; as a SF he might have a shot at making the NBA. He certainly can hold his own against bigger players. Marquette has some talent coming in, but they will be really lean on experience next year and will have no proven scorers. Not to mention as of now no height coming in either.

They non-tender McClung but keep Carlos "Boom Boom" Villanueva? ::shakes head:: Sorry, but if you throw out the 3-4 appearances before he went on the DL McClung was a better relief pitcher than Villanueva. I know for the most part that for starters "Losses" are an irrelevant statistic, but I think that they have a fair amount of relevance for relievers. Villanueva as a reliever had more blown saves (5) than saves (3 - two of which were against Pittsburgh), and almost as many losses (7) as holds (9). The guy folds under pressure. I'm not saying that McClung is great, but he's better than CV.

No one loved being a Brewer or a major leaguer more than McClung. Myself and the Rev. Series Finale attended a game in SF and got to go down under the stadium near the clubhouse where the Brewers walked through to get to/from the dugout. There were only a couple of us there, but Big Seth stopped and talked to a couple who had a small child for a minute or two. I thought they might have been related, but it seems like that is Seth's M.O. Class acts like you Seth will always have a place in our hearts. You know, for all us grunts out there in the middle class working 40 hour weeks, guys like this are a whole helluva lot easier to follow than some players Big Seth is just carrying the torch started by Gorman Thomas, passed on to Rob Deer, handed off to John Jaha, picked up by Jeromy Burnitz, snatched by Brooks Kieschnick, and owned by Russell Branyan. Now we need another working class hero carry it on. Ennder hit the nail on the head. But lots of guys with better numbers than him are being non-tendered; in fact, it seems like no one is being offered arby at all. I think the economy is hitting teams really hard and they are looking to cut costs any way they can, and if that means saving a million by non-tendering someone to find a replacement that isn't quite as good they will do just that.