jjfanec

NBA related but not specifically Milwaukee. The NBA has to be dreading some the of the possible match ups in the Finals ratings-wise. I think the two teams who are far and away the best in the West made the championship game but neither are big markets at all. San Antonio and OKC are two of the smallest markets and Indiana is in there as well. Miami and Boston are the big boys left standing. Could you imagine how much the nba is fearing a OKC vs SA and Indiana vs Philly conf championship

There is probably some truth to that but I dont think some of the big market teams worry quite as much about the first round pick they could get back. Also a team could trade for Greinke hoping to sign him to an extension. Of course we are not going to get what we gave up for Greinke. We were getting him for 2 years not 3 months. I dont think anyone should expect that type of return, but the possibility of a young impact arm or bat is definitely there

Agreed! I am a huge Lucroy fan. I saw him as a guy who would bat .280 and have an OPS over .800. This year he is blowing that out of the water but like Briggs said he started this way last year (maybe not this hot though). It is a tough year to make the All-Star game as a catcher. Molina or Ruiz seem tough to beat with their fanbases and team recognition. Lucroy and Braun are carrying this team

The thing with the Cards is that two of the biggest injury concerns havent even been to the DL yet. I would be very surprised if Beltran and Furcal are not on the DL some time this season. They had a lot of injury prone guys coming into this year and it is showing up now. I think the Reds are the favorite right now to win the division. St. Louis is really coming back to earth. Again as bad as the Brewers have played they are only 5 games out. If Gallardo gets back to himself, the bullpen can stabilize some and Weeks remembers how to hit this team will compete for the division. If not this team could compete for a top 5 draft pick

Cards are starting to have some serious injury problems. Berkman back on the DL. Jay is on the DL. Craig is on the DL. Beltran is back in the lineup but missed a few games with knee soreness. On the pitching side sounds like Carp is out until July or Aug. Wainwright has struggled to regain his form. McClellen just went on the DL. They have really come back to earth after their hot start. 4 games over and still leading the division but the Reds are just 1 back as of right now. As bad as the Brewers have been they could be only 5 out if the Cards lose again tonight

Jason Marquis is the cure to what ails any offense

I agree but wonder who else we could have pitch. KRod is painful to watch but so is the rest of the bullpen apart from Ax (who has even struggled lately)

Well we have any inning before either Braun or Lucroy comes up so I doubt we see any runs this inning

Well that was surprisingly clutch performance from Veras

This team is frustrating to follow. Living in Minnesota makes this series even worse

Going into today not a single team in the AL Central had a positive run differential and the AL East didnt have a single team with a negative run differential. That is crazy

6 2/3 with 9 hits, a walk, 3 ER and 4 K's isnt really solid in my mind. Now Odorizzi has been very good after some rocky starts in AA so I think he is a very good prospect. Just thought the headline the article had was a little misleading. Maybe just semantics though. I would call that a decent start

I read this here a lot but then watch very successful managers like LaRussa do it all the time. So did he hurt St. Louis with bunts and stuff like that? This is not meant to sound sarcastic but I have read this a lot and I just want to know the statistics

Lawrie killed the lineup? Look at his numbers right now. I dont think not having his .708 OPS is killing us. It may hurt long term but his OPS is just slightly better than Ramirez's right now. Gonzalez didnt need to be a great offensive player. If you look at his numbers before he got hurt he was one of the top 10 SS in baseball offensively. He was looking a lot like the 2007 version of himself. He was a big loss Gamel wasnt a huge loss especially since Ishy has had a few nice games but I think long term is where that hurt.

Look at the lineup to see how people have under-performed Weeks - His issues have been like replacing an All-Star caliber player with someone worse than Bentacourt. Morgan - He wasnt going to replicate last year but he has been awful Hart - He is under-performing. He is coming around a little but not much Ramirez - Even worse than his usual slow start Then you add in season ending injuries to Gonzalez (who was providing some nice pop for a SS) and Gamel Then look at the rotation Gallardo has under-performed Narveson is out for the year Wolf was not going to repeat last year but he has been rough The bullpen has a couple guys who have been much worse although I think the struggles of KRod are not super surprising Simply put this team only has a couple guys performing better than expect - out two catchers. A couple of our All-Stars are performing like they should - Braun and Greinke. I guess Marcum could be considered a guy who is out performing expectations somewhat. Losing Gamel and Gonzalez from our positions of least depth (and you can blame Melvin for that) really killed our lineup. Having those two as our 6 and 7 hitters instead of Ishy and Ceaser is a huge blow

I think from the video it is obvious he threw his helmet at the ground. If he wanted to throw his helmet at the umpire I think he has a good enough arm to hit him directly with it. Once it bounces on the ground no one knows where it is going. He was mad because the ump obviously called him out for "showing him up" on the previous horrible call and Lawrie knew it. Yes he threw it at the ground. I said that in my post. Here is my quote "He didnt throw it at his chest but he definitely threw it in his direction. I dont know if the intent was to scare, hit, whatever, but he threw the helmet at the umpire. That clip makes that obvious." He definitely chose to throw it right at the ground in front of the ump. Yeah you dont know where it is going to go when it bounce but if you throw it directly at his feet while you are charging toward him probability is high it will hit him. I just dont see the need to rationalize either person in this incident. The ump made a bad call that seemed to have a vindictive quality to it and Lawrie acted like a tool and chucked his helmet at the ground right in front of the ump. Two professionals not acting professional at all. It just is funny the me how comments here and on articles are trying to act like what Lawrie did wasnt a big deal because the call was bad. Deal with it kid. I lost a sporting event on what others told me was one of the worst calls they had ever scene and at 17 I was able to handle my emotions even though I was ticked and it cost me a chance to go to state in a sport. I can be a little hot-headed some times but I knew better than to take a piece of equipment and throw it in the vicinity of the ref. Obviously, there are different takes on the incident and I have probably spent too much time trying to convince others to agree with my position - usually a fruitless and pointless thing to do.

I'll post this again: http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1069299/Lawrie-Smash.gif He turns around, takes 4 steps towards the ump, rips off his helmet and throws it right at the ump's feet. He didn't just spike it in the heat of the moment. Blanking out and acting like a 4 year old who doesn't get his way is not a valid excuse for doing anything like that. Thank you! It was obviously a blown call and probably vindictive on the umps part, so MLB can fine him or whatever. However, I just dont see how anyone can say he didnt throw his helmet at the umpire. He didnt throw it at his chest but he definitely threw it in his direction. I dont know if the intent was to scare, hit, whatever, but he threw the helmet at the umpire. That clip makes that obvious. What I really dislike about the discussion surrounding this incident is that people (not saying anyone here but people I have read or to whom I have talked) are trying to act like Lawrie's actions are somewhat justified because the call was bad. There a lot of bad calls each year and we see incidents like this only a small proportion of the time. Lawrie looked like a tool and if that is what it looks like to have passion I hope none of our guys have passion like that

There is a side angle to the called third strike, and it is clearly above the letters. Not only that, it was outside. It wasn't close to a strike. View this video at about the 1 minute mark. http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21468797&topic_id=8878984&c_id=tor&tcid=vpp_copy_21468797&v=3 Is it a strike if it is at the letters when the batter is in his crouch or where the letters would be if he is standing straight up? It is just above (actually crosses at the top of the letters in the video you gave). I dont know how specific the letters are to being the top of the strike zone but it did cross at the top of the letters - the way top mind you but the top nonetheless. Now I am not sure if it was well off the plate. Was it a bad call - sure, but was it one of the worst 3rd strikes I have ever seen called or not called - nope.

To be fair I think MLB views Hamels' suspension as a one game suspension since he really only missed one start. That said I agree he got off easy

I am sorry but there is NO WAY Hart for Bumgarner was ever on the table. Bumgarner was a top 10 prospect in the game. SF wasnt trading him for a good not great corner OF. I was all for trading Hart for a pitching prospect but some of the names tossed around on this board have been ridiculous - Cain and Bumgarner. Now we may have been able to get one of the Atlanta guys and that would have been very nice. Lawrie could be a player that haunts us but his start to this year is looking much similar to his minor league numbers outside of last year. He has a solid average but not nearly the power he displayed last year. Also if we didnt have Marcum we werent getting Greinke. It sounds like Prince was on the market for a while but no good offers came so we decided to make a run for it. Not sure if that is true. However, does Greinke come here without Prince? I doubt it. I understand that we need to build through the draft and trading guys away before their prime years but the problem has been a completely bare cupboard for minor league pitching and no impact bats to replace the big names we could trade. Lawrie was the one impact bat in our system and I guess La Porta but he hasnt amounted to anything

So Torre knows his intent? I am sorry from the video it looks he threw his helmet right at the feet of the ump. Sure he did throw it directly at him but to act like he didnt mean to throw it in the vicinity of the ump is crazy. The intent (at least to intimidate) is obvious. The fact that the call was bad should not matter at all. If it did what you are telling the players is that it is ok to flip out over a bad call. I thought he deserved 7 games which would get cut to 5 with the appeal. If he only gets 2 out of it that is a joke.

He did not just throw his helmet into the ground. He threw his helmet into the ground right in front of the umpire. If he would have thrown it and it would have taken a crazy hop and went toward the ump that would be one thing, however that isnt what happened. It was thrown directly at the umpires feet. If a Brewer would have done this I would have thought it was classless as well.

Lawrie gives off a vibe that he thinks he deserves star treatment after a good couple months last year and some over the top publicity to start this year. Last year I questioned if his power was legitimate because he had a huge spike in power numbers last year. People said his power jump was expected because of his young age. It made sense. Yet, this year his power has fallen way off. His BA is his only impressive hitting stat and it is just .289. He isnt hitting for power, he isnt walking, and he isnt a threat on the base paths since he makes too many dumb decisions there. He could still be a stud but he looked like a spoiled kid throwing a tantrum in the video. Sure the ump made a bad call but there have been a lot worse calls already this year. Spiking your helmet AT an umpire is going to cost him and it should. This attitude issue does not seem like an isolated incident if you read past threads on him and how the Brewers were rubbed-wrong by his attitude. He has talent for sure, but I am less and less disappointed about the trade each day

What is the suspension for making contact with an ump? I would assume throwing your helmet at him would rank close to that.

I am guessing there is some frustration right now for Mr. Lawrie. He had instant success and a ton of love from analysts. He isnt have a bad season by any means but he isnt mashing like he did last year. His BA is solid but the rest of his numbers are pretty pedestrian. His OPS is .23 points ahead of Ramirez and is 13th of 17 qualified 3b. He has the second most errors for 3B in MLB. Not the numbers most were expecting