LouisEly

Taintette McFadden Fupa DeCarlo?

Don't forget about Paul Quantrill! Here's a more thorough list: http://www.baseball-reference.com/schools/wisconsin.shtml

If system restore doesn't work, you can recover documents and files from your hard drive - just have a professional hook your hard drive up to another computer as a second hard drive (not the boot drive) and you can pull the files off.

Pena, Palmisano, Hinton, hopefully Bray and Dillard but not holding my breath on those last two. Narron and Crabbe wouldn't surprise me if they have the room.

http://images.yuku.com/image/gif/6c525879978723cc13ec2ee3ce0e7474570a4d0.gif

Broken wrist... ughhh. Takes over a year to recover from that - just ask Brad Nelson and Rickie Weeks. I have a bad feeling that 2008 will be a struggle for Errecart.

Numbers in parenthesis are those whom I think will stick from their current roster. Infield (6): Looking forward to 2008, I think the infield is pretty much set with Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, Braun. I think two reserves are set also - Counsell the backup middle infielder, and Dillon the backup corner infielder. Outfield (4): Outfield will have Hart and Hall as starters, and I think Gwynn will make it as a backup OF. Gross will be there as a starter or reserve. Not sure about Mench though, because I think the least they can offer him in arby is 80% of what he makes now, and I'm not sure they want to keep him for $2.8M. So I'm not including him so far. Dillon could very well be the RH hitter in a platoon with Gross. Catcher (2): At catcher, Miller is a free agent and old, and Estrada is arby-eligible. Sure I'd like them to upgrade here, but to do better than Estrada will cost a lot more than the $3.5M he will cost (either in free agent $$ or in prospects via trade, and I don't think they will have a lot of either at their disposal this offseason). My guess is Estrada and Rivera; I don't know that they want to keep both of them, but they may not have any other options. For those of you complaining about Estrada, Miller's OBP was just as bad and his SLG worse. I think though that the odds of aquiring a catcher in a trade again are very good. Pitchers (11): Pitchers I think will be kept in no particular order: 1) Sheets, 2) Suppan, 3) Gallardo, 4) Villanueva, 5) Parra, 6) Bush, 7) Capuano, 8) Turnbow, 9) McClung, 10) Shouse, 11) Stetter. I think #1-5 will be the starters, with Bush and Cappy as long men. I think Wise is gone (and I think Bray could do just as well as he did last year) and Vargas will be offered arby but ultimately traded. I think resigning Linebrink is 50/50 - no one else may want to sign him if his price tag is a Type-A free agent. That's 23. Two spots open, one pitcher and one OF or utility. And both are fairly easy to pinpoint what they need - either a starting-caliber corner OF, or have Dillon platoon with Gross and your last guy is a utility guy like Rottino. That leaves one position to fill via free agency or trade: their closer. The toughest one to fill. So how do they aquire one? The good thing is that they have depth at SP that they can trade from. Any of Bush, Cappy, and Vargas can be dealt, and they have plenty of major-league level players to trade. I think you'll see a multi-player trade like last year's Davis/Eveland/Krynzel trade, where they will package a starter (one of Vargas/Bush/Cappy), an OF (plenty to choose from here - Mench, Nix, even Gwynn), a reliever (Wise? Aquino?) or a prospect (plenty of AA-A level OFs not named LaPorta) to aquire a catcher or a closer. If you think that Vargas, Cappy, or Bush won't have much value, look at who the Padres had to start today - Brett Tomko who was released by LA. How much did they need a 5th starter who was better than any of the guys they trotted out there - a combined 37 starts from Tomko, David Wells, Clay Hensley, and Tim Stauffer, all of whom make Vargas, Cappy, and Bush look like an ace. So priority #1 in the offseason, perhaps the only position that even needs to be filled, is closer. Comments?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20942178/ While the Friendly's in Carmel is a nice place to eat breakfast, Gov. Pataki's house on 9D in Garrison is pretty, and Meat Loaf's old house in the woods is downright creepy, the thought that someone in Putnam County can tell me what I can and can't eat if I'm a senior citizen is repulsive if not anti-American. Are donuts the healthiest food in the world? No, but guess what? We all die eventually, and the longer we live the more likely we are to die of health-related causes than accidents. And I think there's a fairly substantial number of people like me who will get to the point where we would rather have a heart attack via pigging out on donuts, pizza, brats, ice cream, and washing it down with Leinie's Honey Weiss than be a weak, decrepit, fragile, senile old person relying on other people to survive. We all have the right to choose. And if I choose to go out with a bang enjoying the food I like instead of eating creamed vegetables so I can hang on another 3-4 years, then that is my choice and my right. Wheel me to another home, I want my donuts.

I'm happy for Green, but it is somewhat concerning that the minor league position player of the year is at low-A with less than 15 HRs and 90 RBI. Don't get me wrong, he had a very good year, but it says a lot about the lack of position talent at AAA and AA. We all know how great of a year Gamel had, but that park and league beats down your stats so they look worse on paper than they really are. Same with Huntsville, although if Katin had a little higher BA and a little less Ks I think he would have beaten Green for that honor easily (same applies to Nix). 24 dingers and 94 RBI in that league is pretty impressive, especially with a less-than-stellar supporting cast. The other guy that I think would have beaten Green was Lefave, but I guess you can't give it to a guy who has been traded. Anyway, congrats to Taylor, and hopefully many more similarly productive seasons to come.

Should Yovanni Gallardo, arguably the future of the franchise in the rotation, have been extended beyond his prescribed innings limit? I don't know what that limit is, or where he is at now. I'm not sure they needed him to go 8 innings yesterday when up 6-0. I think 10-15% variance is OK, but not much more than that. Should we have given up Will Inman, Steve Garrison and Joe Thatcher for Scott Linebrink? When I saw in the Minor League report transaction thread headline that those three had been traded (saw that before I found out whom they were traded for), my first reaction was that they had traded for Javier Vasquez like I had advocated. I was disappointed that it was just Linebrink, but like someone else said, when Wise fell apart they needed Linebrink. If he stays he gives them the veteran bullpen presence that they need; if he leaves and they can get a type-A free agent classification for him that will be huge. So I think either way it is not a bad thing. I think we all may have overvalued Inman; we all love him and his attitude, however the connotation I got from San Diego's GM was that he thought the key to the deal was Thatcher. I've seen too many A-ball phenoms flame out to get real excited about him yet. Next year they can pick the best of Sheets, Suppan, Gallardo, Parra, Bush, Villanueva, Capuano, and Vargas for the rotation with the other three filling out long relief roles, and considering that all but Sheets are either signed or "Beef 'n Cheddars" (Arby-eligible) through at least 2009, I think they have time to replenish the farm system with pitching prospects. That gives time for Jeffress to advance through the system and see if Jackson, Hammond, Dillard, or Miller can develop into anything, and see if Rogers, Welch, McClendon, Bryson, Seidel, and Annundsen can show anything at AA. They will need to make pitching a priority in the 2008 draft though. Were the Brewers smart to keep Ben Sheets? Yup. But I don't know that I'd want to keep him much past the age of 33. How many games has the bullpen cost them? Has Ned Yost cost this team a playoff spot with his moves? These two questions are interrelated - see below. First though, considering that outside of Sheets their other four starters at the beginning of the season now have ERAs of 4.73, 5.04, 5.21, and 5.34, I find it hard to pin it squarely on Yost and the bullpen. Certainly Maddux has some culpability here. But here's the funny thing. Let's say a good reliever has an ERA of 3.00 - that means they give up 3 ER for every 9 IP. The question is, is it worse to give up 1 ER in each of 3 innings and have 6 scoreless innings, or is it worse to give up 3 ER in one inning and have 8 scoreless innings? I'd say that it is worse to give up 3 ER in one inning and have 8 scoreless because if you are leading and you give up one ER at worst the game is tied; you still have a chance in extra innings. If you give up 3 ER chances are at best you are tied. So let's look at Turnbow for example - here are the number of runs he's given up in the games in which he has given up runs: 2, 1, 4, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 2, 4, 5, 3, 3 (59 scoreless outings out of 73, or 81%) If you look at the games in which he gave up only one run, the Brewers are 4-1; in games in which he has given up more than one run they are 2-7. That seems to support my theory above. Now let's look at the games in which Cordero has given up runs: 1, 4, 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, 1 (52 scoreless outings of 61, or 85%) The Brewers record when he gives up one run: 3-0; in games in which he gave up more than one run: 1-5. Again, theory that it is worse to give up 3 runs in one inning and 8 scoreless than one run in each of 3 innings and six scoreless is supported. So the key seems to be avoiding the big innings. So what do I think this means? I think the issues around the bullpen revolve around the manager not recognizing in time that the reliever does not have his best stuff that day and not doing anything about it. One of the best people/performance managing tips I've ever heard was from a friend of mine who said that as a manager you are going to make some bad decisions, but the biggest mistake you can make is not recognizing the bad decisions in time and not doing anything about the bad decisions you have made. This is where Yost has failed. It's not the decisions he has made; it is not recognizing the bad decisions he has made in time and not doing anything about them (keeping a reliever in when he does not have his best stuff, keeping a starter in the starting rotation too long when they are not effective, etc.). This also goes along with the other issue I've had with him - he has a plan, but he does not have a contingency plan. He has a hot middle reliever... but takes him out because he has to go with Turnbow in the 8th and Cordero in the 9th. Then if one of them blows it or is not "on" that day he has no one left to go to. They say your success in life is 20% what happens to you and 80% how you react to it; my issue with Yost is how he reacts to what happens, and I think if he had reacted better/faster and had contingency plans they would have won at least 3-4 more games. Did not bringing up Ryan Braun at the start of the season have any impact on this team? Doubtful. I don't think they could have done better than 24-10. Now putting in a defensive replacement for Braun in the 7th, only to have his spot come up in the 9th suddenly down by two runs with runners on 2nd and 3rd and having to pinch-hit Rottino... that's a different story. (Think about that - they either pitch to Braun with runners on 2nd and 3rd or they walk Braun and pitch to Fielder with the bases loaded.)

I have not been able to sign into my primary Hotmail email address (the one connected to BF.net and LL.net) since Wednesday. Everytime I try I get the white error page that says "Cannot find server or DNS error". I can sign into my alternate (anonymous) Hotmail email address though with no problem. I cannot for the life of me find any way to contact Microsoft regarding this problem other than filling out a form on Hotmail's login page via the "help" link. I filled out the form yesterday, gave them an alternate email contact, but no response. Has anyone else had this problem? Any solutions? Anyone know of any way to contact Microsoft regarding this?

Saw Interpol and the White Stripes mentioned earlier... if you're into that genre, then check out The Editors - "An End Has a Start". I like them much better than either of those two.

Brian, it's funny you posted that because one of the songs running through my head has been a cover of that by Placebo. Yes, that Placebo. Heard it on BBC Radio One on Sirius earlier this week (channel 11, but IIRC you went with XM). Other ones I highly recommend: - The Editors - "An End Has a Start" (also heard on BBC Radio One) - Dogzilla - "Frozen" - Matt Darey - "Beautiful Day" (one of my favorite tracks in years) - Filo & Peri - "Anthem"

Everybody gripes about how bad Estrada is, but if you can find a catcher with above-average offensive and defensive capabilities that can be signed as a free agent for cheap or traded for TGJ I'll personally hand-deliver Sasquatch to your front door. The Braves got Texiera for Saltolamacchia (apologies for spelling on both of them), and he hasn't even proven himself in the majors yet. Reality check - the list of catchers that are at least average both offensively and defensively is a very short list. As bad as Moeller was, he has been up in the majors with two teams this year. As maligned as Hank White was, he's still in the bigs. Just about every catcher they've had the last five years is still in the majors. All but a handful of catchers are mediocre at best, and the few that aren't will cost you a lot.

His remark about a "class act" like Houston could very well have meant "instead of a non-class act like Kansas City or Tampa Bay".

If he had a prescription, and it wasn't against MLB rules, what is the big deal? You can still go to a doctor and get a prescription for steroids under the right circumstances, you know. I don't, and never will, buy the "low testosterone" argument. Show me data that this diagnosis is as common in accountants as baseball players and maybe I'll come around. I could write pages on this, but I'll try the abridged version. I have some knowledge in this area because I work for a company involved in hormone replacement (albeit women's hormone replacement, but it has a lot of parallels and basically all hormones have similar effects on the body). Hormones, particularly testosterone, have an impact on strength, recovery, alertness, body fat, and other functions essential to playing sports (body fat makes you heavier, and thus not as fast/quick). Why do players skills decline somewhere in their 30's? It's because testosterone levels start declining during your 30's, therefore they are not as strong, fast, alert, and cannot recover as fast from physical activities and injuries. It's called "getting older". Conditioning is important, but if it was the only factor, then why do even the most supremely conditioned athletes eventually decline? It's because their testosterone levels are declining. Why do we get fatter as we get older, all other things being equal? One reason is because our hormone levels are dropping, and fatty tissue is another producer of hormones, thus our body reacts by putting on fat to make more hormones to support bodily functions. Hormones have a lot of receptors in the body, and the human body reacts to its needs; if it needs more hormones, it reacts by finding a way to produce it (increase appetite to put on fat, burns muscle to preserve fat to make hormones). Think about it - why do some guys who lift a lot of weights get fat and some don't (like guys in the "World's Strongest Man" competitions)? It's because those with high testosterone levels don't need the extra hormones to build muscle, while guys with lower testosterone levels need more testosterone to do it, so their bodies react by putting on body fat. Look at the other end of the spectrum - do you know of anybody who spends a lot of time at the gym and works out rigorously but is still a little pudgy and never has been "ripped"? It's not effort, it's natural hormone levels, specifically naturally low. HGH is essentially the same thing - Human Growth Hormone - a hormone similar to testosterone that affects the body the same way - improves strength, speed, decreases body fat, increases alertness. The reality is that most players, if given supplemental testosterone or HGH, would play longer and have better careers. Some guys are freaks of nature though - there are a couple of different scales used to measure testosterone levels and on some of them some guys can have testosterone levels 3x higher or more than another guy and both be considered "normal levels". That's nature and genetics. So not everyone who has a great physique and plays for a long time takes supplemental hormones - that's probably why they play professionally to begin with, because they have naturally high testosterone levels and thus are more naturally physically gifted than most. But comment #2 above is dead on - it is much less prevalent in athletes than accountants because in most sports you have to have high testosterone levels to be physically able to compete, and the reality is that testosterone levels decline when guys hit their 30's. And the thought that "low testosterone" levels even exist in professional sports, given how important testosterone is to physical ability, is almost a joke. The other issue is that synthetic testosterone and HGH are very difficult to test for. They are catching up to synthetic testosterone and might be able to detect that now, as we found out with Floyd Landis and the Tour de France, however it is very difficult if not impossible to test for HGH. That is why the only reason you hear about it is if somebody gets busted for buying/selling/prescribing/dispensing illegally (Grimsley, the pharmacy in Florida linked to dozens of athletes and wrestlers). I think Harrison and Merriman are just the tip of the iceberg; you'd find a lot of it in football if suddenly they found a way to test for it. Steroids as a whole are easy to detect because they are not natural to the human body; testosterone and HGH are structurally identical to testosterone and HGH that occurs naturally in the body, thus making it very difficult to test for. But the point is that if someone is taking supplemental hormones it is cheating nature; people have played baseball, football, whatever for 100 years, and who knows how many guys who played 30, 60, or 90 years ago would hold records or be in the Hall of Fame had they been given the same advantages that these players today have who are taking testosterone and HGH. How many players whose careers tailed off in their mid 30's would have played an additional 5 to 10 years if they had taken these "supplements"? The "legal/illegal" argument holds no water with me - the issue is that it creates a competitve advantage that not all players have or have had in the history of the game. I think people don't have as much issue with it in football as in baseball because football is far less traditional than baseball. Football is about being new and innovative and we KNOW in football that guys today are much, much bigger than guys even 25 years ago; baseball is much more traditional and many more comparisons are made across genres than football. There is a much greater comparison of statistics in baseball than football; in football I can probably count on both hands the number of stats that are kept (rushing yards, passing yards, receiving yards, TDs are pretty much the only stats anybody gives a crap about... hell, sacks weren't even a statistic 30 years ago). Baseball has many, many more stats and the plethora of stats makes it easy to compare players across generations... thus more scrutiny to make sure that players across generations aren't taking competitive advantages. Wow, I'm pooped after that. Time to grab the Nyquil and go to bed.

As far as the cost of living, you can't find a decent studio apartment in a decent neighborhood in LA for less than $1200/mo., probably closer to $1500/mo. If you find a decent person and can rent out a room in their house (with full access to kitchen/laundry), you may be able to find one for $800/mo. For a couple of months - go for it, if you can sustain the economics. Don't plan on staying if you can't make a lot of money.

Weekend of hell? I just spent a weekend in Las Vegas, 102 degrees, watching the Badgers (live), and was sick with a severe cold the whole weekend. And got a stuffy head on the plane ride home, which caused my left ear to not balance with the change in pressure on the decent, almost causing my ear drum to explode. And it was the third consecutive time I have gone to Vegas and have gotten sick just before leaving. In Vegas when it is 102 degrees and sick the whole time. Don't talk to me about a weekend of hell.

Looks like the defense forgot to show up for Brevard as well - only 3 of 8 runs earned. My poor boy Welch at the shaft end of it. While Welch is my pitching "man-crush", Steffan Wilson is my new positoin "man-crush". From Harvard - go smart guys!!

I've said it for two months now, Bray can't be any worse than 3-4 of the stiffs they have there now. My prediction was that he and Nix would be called up after Nashville's season is done, but after today with Ned almost using up his entire bench in a 9-inning game (with that genius move of taking out Braun for a defensive replacement in the 8th), Nix better be on a plane to Milwaukee first thing Tuesday morning. Rivera too - not that he's great, but with Miller hurt they need another backup C. Had Estrada gotten on base they could have used a pinch runner for him.

Let's take out our best offensive hitter for a defensive substitution before the 9th inning... yeah, I've been waiting for that one to bite Ned in the rear end. (You have no idea how much restraint it takes to type "rear end" instead of alternatives).

STL just had two huge losses - Rolen and Encarnacion. I wouldn't wish what happened to Encarnacion on anyone, even a Cub. Supposedly Rolen is done for the year also. Those are the big losses the Brewers need to avoid. Other than that, their next 15 games are against some of the league's worst - vs. HOU, at CIN, at PIT, vs CIN, at HOU. They need to show up at PITT and CIN, something they haven't done this year. They need to take at least 10 of 15 from those bottom-feeders.

I think initially it will be 5 on 9/1, with a couple more possibly coming later: CV, Gwynn, Aquino, Spurling, V-Rot on 9/1 If they go seven, I think Nix and a lefty (Pettyjohn or Stetter) added to the 40 when Nashville is done; I really think they could use one more bat, so I think Nix at some point will get the call. I don't know that they will find enough independent league guys capable of filling the AAA roster... I think it they will more than likely fill the AA or Brevard County roster, and the chain reaction will be like this: -Narron, Gulin, Thurman, Moss, and a C to Nashville to fill the gaps (perhaps the C a free agent/indy guy) -Welch, Ryan, Roberts, Cain to Huntsville to fill the gaps

Roland Orzabal

Richard Butler