MJLiverock

I agree Monty. Everytime I see the accusation of RR's using a small sample followed by Lucroy has to hit high in the line up or Green has to play 100% of the time I think an angel gets their wings ripped off. Lucroy is a career .314 OBP guy who is hitting well right now, with his .373 BABIP I have no problem with the manager keeping Weeks, Morgan, at the top for longer period. Lucroy started hot last year and ended up with a .313 OBP. And everything about Green in the major's is small sample at this point.

Is there some large sample that says he should? Everything about Green is a small sample at the major league level. I actually would like to see the young guys play to see if there is anything there but it isn't like Green is Bryce Harper or anything or that Green never plays, he started the game today.

Any info on what Rob Wooten has in his bag? I know they have been using him as a closer in the minors but could he help the bullpen as a middle reliever?

If you think Basketball is easier than baseball, I suggest you officiate a high level varsity boys game or a men's college game. Then tell me how easy you think it is. I've been doing it for years and there's nothing easy about it. No kidding. I refed a few freshman basketball games and it was way harder than any umping I've ever done. I'd never want to do basketball again. Basically there are fouls being committed all over the court and you have to decide which to call and which to just ignore or the game stops every 10 seconds all the while being complained to by the players, coaches and fans. Umping was a cakewalk in comparison.

Well there goes my prediction from that early season thread. I had the Brewer releasing Parra and going with Braddock as a lefty in pen. I assumed the money saved and Braddock getting off the season the right foot after a winter to get himself in order would pay off. I didn't know some of the issues being alluded to here but it makes sense that he has more problems than just sleep apnea. Salome and Braddock both showed great talent in the minors but didn't pan out at the ML level. Sorry to see something other than talent hold guys back.

Logan hit my beef with them on the nose. A bad call will happen but the umps now are all too happy to escalate arguments or even initiate them. More umps are looking like Earl Weaver with mask rip and chest out running to get in the face of players and managers or heading right for the dugout. A few of them have reminded me of a movie drill Sargent screaming and spitting at a guy just standing there who he knows better not touch him or react.

well he did hit .293 with a .356 OBP as a pinch hitter, not too bad when in most situations you are just looking for a hit or walk to keep the inning alive not necessarily a HR.

The image I can't shake from last night's game is of Gamel jogging to the dugout after the end of the 1st inning on a severely injured knee (or an injured knee that jogging to the dugout turned into a severely injured knee). With just one more day to review his situation, Gamel's knee has been put in an immobilizing brace -- and the team didn't exercise enough caution last night to just help him off the field immediately after the injury? But if you are going to be that conservative then people shouldn't complain about Gamel sitting a game after admitting his shoulder was bothering him or RR getting him an extra day off knowing he wasn't 100%. At some level you have to trust the player a little bit to know if he is seriously injured. Walking off the field or moving around a bit wasn't going to take it from being minor to catastrophic. It isn't football or basketball where they can have him sit out play or two and see how it feels before putting him back in or not. He felt well enough to finish the inning then realized it wasn't feeling better. I've had many an injury to knees, ankles, and feet that felt very serious but when checked out later or walked off turned out fine. Gamel probably thought he just hyperextended it or something. I'd put zero blame on the staff or manager.

Hurts to lose him and set back his career further. I don't get the venom for the trainers. He tore his knew or twisted playing the game said he was OK and gave it few minutes of trying to shake it off, the damage was done. Trainers aren't going to start bringing out the cart and not allowing a player who says he is OK to put a speck of weight on his leg or walk off the field. Some of the same posters complain about RR sitting Gamel for a game after he said his shoulder was still bothering him, now complain the team didn't med flight him out as soon as he hurt it but said he was fine.

Not to belabor the point because I think it all stems from just a mix up in using net revenue in place of net profit when referencing the Forbes article but... The reason payroll wouldn't be possible if net revenue was only $19.2MM is because that is all they money they would have to cover $90MM+ in payroll and all the expenses of running the team. Net revenue is a top line item above COGS on an income statement. The gross margin or gross profit you reference is the the amount left after taking COGS from the Net Revenue. Then all the expenses like salary, travel, etc. come out for the net profit. A few examples: http://www.wikinvest.com/metric/Revenue Revenue is the total amount of money a company takes in before any expenses. Net Revenue is the amount of a company's gross revenue plus all negative revenue items. For instance, in the retail industry, gross revenue includes all sales made by a retailer during the accounting period. Net revenue, however, will also exclude the costs associated with items like refunds on returned items, discounts and other negative sales revenue items. Often times, net revenue can refer to revenue a company receives after it pays its partners. For example, Google (GOOG) arrives at net revenue by subtracting Traffic Acquisition Costs (TACs) from its gross revenue. TACs are comprised of payments made to its Adsense network partners (Google ads displayed on third-party websites are subject to a revenue sharing program), as well as fees related to non-conventional partnerships (such as Google being the first search engine listed in the Mozilla Firefox built-in search toolbar). This is a subtle difference from Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) - in the case of TACs, these are costs directly related to generating revenue (which is then split between different partners). COGS, on the other hand, refers to overhead and "manufacturing" costs related to the production of goods sold. Analogously, Google's COGS would include expenses incurred in data center operations. Or from the SEC's website on intro to investing http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/begfinstmtguide.htm At the top of the income statement is the total amount of money brought in from sales of products or services. This top line is often referred to as gross revenues or sales. It’s called “gross” because expenses have not been deducted from it yet. So the number is “gross” or unrefined. The next line is money the company doesn’t expect to collect on certain sales. This could be due, for example, to sales discounts or merchandise returns. When you subtract the returns and allowances from the gross revenues, you arrive at the company’s net revenues. It’s called “net” because, if you can imagine a net, these revenues are left in the net after the deductions for returns and allowances have come out. Moving down the stairs from the net revenue line, there are several lines that represent various kinds of operating expenses. Although these lines can be reported in various orders, the next line after net revenues typically shows the costs of the sales. This number tells you the amount of money the company spent to produce the goods or services it sold during the accounting period. The next line subtracts the costs of sales from the net revenues to arrive at a subtotal called “gross profit” or sometimes “gross margin.” It’s considered “gross” because there are certain expenses that haven’t been deducted from it yet. ***** Back on topic again, the $19MM operating profit still doesn't include interest expenses which there are some, the question is how much? Nor does it address any principal paydowns of the debt which would also come out of that $19MM. Even $150MM in debt at 6% would require an annual interest payment of $9MM taking a bite out of that $19MM, the debt may be interest only so no principal payments required and the ownership group may just want to keep the debt and only pay it off if the team is sold at some future point, or they may have to throw some token amount at the principal each year depending on what they negotiated in their loan terms. A 20 or 30 amortization plan of the principal could cause another $5MM to $7.5MM cash need from that $19MM that wouldn't show in the operating profit because principal payments are an after tax item but could very well figure into their budget of how much they really have to spend.

"First of all, what in the world do you mean that if they "only," made 19.2 million dollars in "net," revenue they would hardly be able to pay Prince? Do you know what "net," revenue is? NET revenue is the total revenue your team has accumulated AFTER all business expenses and cost of operating. So AFTER THEY paid Prince and AFTER they paid everyone else. " Actually Net Revenue is usually used for Revenue net of any pass throughs that a company collects as part of their revenue stream but aren't really their own. Or less any direct selling expenses like sales commissions that are paid out right off the top before figuring out costs and expenses of the underlying good. Things like Parking and Concessions are probably the culprits in the Brewers example. They collect those items in the course of their business operations but they are not the Brewer's revenues and the amount they have to pass on is netted out of the gross revenues. I have never ever in all my years of analyzing company financials heard of anyone using the term net revenue as a the net profit or EBIT or EBITDA of a business which are terms related to money left after expenses are paid. I'd say Monty57 is 100% correct in his breakdown of the financials usage. 19.2MM of operating profit is not a net revenue figure and as pointed out net operating profit is also know as EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) the Brewers have a substantial amount of debt generating interest expense and there would be taxes due on any earnings left after paying that interest. I don't know the terms of their debt deal, i.e. if they are on an interest only deal or amortizing the principal over some amount of time. If they are on an interest only deal they may from time to time take money to pay down the principal which is a cash flow report item and not even necessarily on the income statement.

Not even when Gamel is hurting?

Old Chappelle's Show reference, nice touch.

Because the feel the need to "invest" nightclubs, restaurants, which are notoriously bad choices with very high fail rates or because they invest in business run by old friends who really have no clue about what they are doing but hey anyone can be a real estate developer. Often times it seems they would be better off just not being greedy and make normal, liquid, investments with a plan and a reputable firm but instead they take high risks, use shady or unqualified people and get burned.

Lots of missing information and misunderstandings in this whole situation. ESPN ran with the AaU coach's story of 25 teams submitted by Uthoss and half getting banned. The UW comes out today an says 16 schools submitted, only 4 banned and only 3 appealed. ESPN rags on Bo but in the very next blog article regarding the B10 they mention Ohio State blocked the B10 for both their transfers and Michigan's coach says he has blocked not only the conference but anyone on the schedule for 2 years. Doesn't seem to be a concern for their recruiting or anyone's since it is so common. But them again ESPN didn't decide to have a tizzy over any of the countless similar examples that exist.

No kidding, how about we wait and see if Gamel can put up oh I don't know, 1 month of good production at the ML level before trying to extend his contract or buy out free agency years. I know he is supposed to be a decent hitter but he doesn't even have 250 ML PA's yet and it's not like those sporadic AB's have put him on the the cover of magazines and inspired the naming of children.

I agree Crew that the team has some nice young arms coming up. I'll try not to get too much into the other thread of reload or blow up the team if Grienke and Marcum walk. I am hopeful of guys like Thornburg and the emergence of Nelson with the high draft picks and Peralta. I had never been real impressed with Nelson but he can develop into a ML starter even a back of the rotation guy he will have exceeded my expectations. I think my expectations are that if Grienke and Marcum walk I wouldn't think the team would be a playoff contender in 2013 and maybe not in 2014 if they go the young guy route with the pitching staff. Even stud guys like the Braves and Rays young pitchers have needed a year or two of seasoning before they really blossomed or could be counted on to anchor a rotation. I am not a fan of signing middling aging FA pitchers either, maybe one on a very short term deal if possible for the back end of the rotation but when Melvin starts thinking about these types being the #2 and #3 I get concerned.

While I understand your point of view, what pitcher do we have that consistently pitches into the 7th? So from that point of view does it matter what starting pitcher we put out there from a bullpen standpoint? Fiers isn't exactly young, he's 27, he's reached physical maturity. Peralta and Thornburg are right at that point where they are physically peaking, both are 23 this year. It is impossible for a minor league to season to completely prepare pitchers for the rigors of a 200+ inning season, but all 3 pitchers should be on track for an easy 185-190 innings next year. Peralta will put up his 3rd consecutive 1501P+ season, Fiers and Thornburg will reach that plateau this year. It just extremely difficult to get more than 160 innings in a minor league season. I don't disagree with the difficulties in getting to 200 innings in the minors, nor would I even expect a guy to toss that many during the build up years. I was thinking back to teams shutting down guys like Jamie Garcia, Mike Leake, Phil Hughes, etc. as the seasons wore on an the innings built up. Further tempering my expectations is the rememberance of the poo pooing that went on by some fans when the Brewers lost Sheets and Sabathia. (not saying you were one of those) It is really hard to replace above average pitching and to find guys that can pitch into the 7th or 8th. The cascade effect of having Looper, Davis, type pitchers on top of guys like Narveson, Wolf does impact the pen when 4/5 starters are lucking to get through 6 on many nights. I disagree with the opinion that pops up that losing Grienke and Marcum and replacing them with the types of guys the Brewers get in free agency for $10 MM and under per year will only result in a few games difference. The debacle pitching staffs of 2009 and 2010 are too fresh in my memory.

Young guys typically can't throw 200+ innings or even close during their first year in the big leagues. Losing guys like Grienke and Marcum and replacing them with youngsters will leave a lot of innings to cover and put strain on a bullpen.

I don't know where you bought it or if you are near an American TV but they used to be authorized to repair a lot of the models they sold and I think they sell Onkyo. I had a Denon receiver in college that lost output to one set of speakers, I took in to American and they fixed it in Madison for free for me since it was still under warranty. Over the years I had them also repair a speaker which stopped working and the charge was minimal.

I've never had an issue with my Verizon phone at Miller Park or Camp Randall, either 2G or 3G. Both places I have had friends with me using AT&T who have been unable to send or receive texts or access data. I don't know anyone who has Sprint so I can't speak to their service and U.S. Cellular and Verizon have a network sharing agreement so I would expect their service to be fairly similar. One thing that is gaining popularity at stadiums and large crowd venues is the setting up of a local network that aggregates the traffic from the cellular networks and puts them on the WiFi network and/or sends out the info from the stadium via a hard wired internet connection. Countries where bandwith is expensive and crowded like the U.S., Japan, and Nordic countries are offloading more and more traffic from the "cellular" airwaves to the Wifi and then physical routes.

I agree, I don't think there is anything wrong with the uniforms. I also kinda like the outfield piece, it is different but really no more silly than a pile of boulders, a hot tub, a big Budweiser sign, a waterfall, a kid's playground slide, or any of the other gimmicky things teams toss in the outfield and is probably more interesting to look at than any of the others.

Good point Monty, so that just makes me even less concerned about not keeping Conrad around. Hopefully they will keep an eye on Green and if he plays well in AAA they may view him as a viable bench guy as the season wears on and/or Ishikawa struggles or injuries surface.

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Gonzalez has played 157 and 149 games during the last two years. He should be expected to play 150 again. Ramirez is going to be counted on to play close to 150 as well out of sheer need for his bat. I agree Izturis is awful and should be replaced as soon as possible but I am not going to worry about getting rid of Conrad. I want no part of either of them getting regular ABs. I'd rather have Ishikawa to PH and seek out some other back up middle infielder to replace Izturis whose defense only is redundant behind a defense mostly SS. If any of Weeks, Gonzalez, Ramiirez are hurt for a significant amount of time I won't lament not having Conrad around. They will be in trouble regardless of what wet noodle bat they plug in.