MJLiverock

I saw this blurb on my Fantasy Team notes from Sunday: 2B Rickie Weeks was allowed to take ground balls Sunday for the first time since suffering a badly sprained left ankle July 27. Manager Ron Roenicke said he was surprised by the amount of progress Weeks has made in the early weeks of his recovery and expressed hope that he might return toward the lower end of the three- to six-week projection. (Yahoo! Sports)

I would hope Lopez is gone when Weeks comes back. I know they could dump Dillard but how many middle infielders does a team need? Especially ones that aren't really good at anything besides being a veteran switch hitter.

I've only been able to catch bits and pieces of the game because of family visiting but everytime I walk back in room to catch the game I hear Mitch Williams say something idiotic. I can't imagine how much comedic gold I am missing unless I have just been "lucky" to catch his insights. Casey must have heard Mitch's 96% of outs are on balls the way he sat back and watched that pitch down Main Street.

LaRussa petitioned baseball to force Milwaukee to do the classy thing and sit Braun since Holiday can't play. I mean c'mon Milwaukee where is you sense of honor and playing baseball the right way.

I have never seen De la Cruz pitch and really don't know anything about him beyond just looking at his stats but man those are some ugly walk rates and WHIP numbers. Looks like the classic big arm/no control guy.

The comments section brings up a lot of the points of how hard it would be to keep doing this for years and of course some venom thrown at ESPN for the article.

ESPN article on question of Toronto stealing signs in Rogers Center. http://espn.go.com/espn/o...ling-signs-rogers-centre

Yup........that's what I was thinking. I was also thinking that my wife is due that day. Could be a pretty busy one. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Of course this is the night my high school class decided to have our 20 year reunion, and me with potentially tickets to both sporting events. I skipped our 15 year reunion for a Badger night game but I knew for some reason they would pick 10/01/11 for this year once I saw the football schedule. All because it is homecoming weekend at the high school as if we really need to have the reunion then, don't organizers ever look at Badger football schedules when setting things like this up in the Madison area?

Without too much searching color:black">June 10th [/b] "I think Yuni, [based] on what he did last year, deserves his chance to try to see if he can get back that offense" reply Hopefully he was just sticking up for one of his players. I don't mind seeing Counsell getting the better end of a platoon. He still seems to be in pretty good shape and plays well in the field, so I imagine he can handle it physically. Again, Counsell won't be a world beater, but he will almost certainly play above replacement level, while Yuni most likely will not. color:black">June 11 [/b] Really shortstop should be a Counsell/Wilson platoon at this point. Betancourt should be sent down to AAA if he has any options left, or just DFAed. He doesn't show any signs of being competent at the plate while at least Counsell and Wilson seem to be having quality ABs. color:black">June 13 [/b] mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;color:black">Betancourt has been about as bad as the worst expectations. I don't think anyone can honestly say, at this point, that the concern over him prior to the season was just sensationalism. color:black"> I'm a pretty patient guy. It takes months to show real capabilities in baseball not weeks. Even I think he has had enough time to show he is capable. I thought he should be given a shot since I believe he was forced on us but that time has come and gone. color:black">June 14 [/b] Betancourt wasn't this bad last year; he had a very respectable OPS for a SS and had a lifetime OPS approaching .700. I don't think anyone was anticipating YUni to fall off the cliff like the has. He is having his worst season as a pro. color:black"> That being said; just dump the guy and get it over with; I am ready to move on. color:black">June 21 [/b] I get what you're saying. At some point though, some players are just so bad they deserve to not start anymore. I would say Betancourt is definitely at that point. Roenicke should be benching him as an example of what happens to players who don't improve, and go with a Counsell/Wilson platoon until Melvin gives him a real shortstop. color:black">June 2 [/b] color:black">1 What power does Yuni offer? 2010's power was a fluke, his ISO is going to be about what it is right now, .110 (it was .113 in 2008 and .106 in 2009). Wilson will give you an ISO of about .100 with actual play that isn't embarrassing at short stop. Neither are good players but the sooner the Brewers cut ties with Betancourt the sooner things are better. color:black">June 30 [/b] It's almost like he should have been expected to continue to be terrible... mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;color:black">Don't judge [betancourt] entirely on what you've seen so far. color:blue">Yeah, that stance coming in from the offseason really proved accurate. He's totally going to turn into a competent hitter & fielder, we just have to wait for it. color:blue">July 16 [/b] I think its more like that I'll marry Mila Kunis than Betancourt ever having an OBP above .300 again color:black">July 22 [/b] Even if Betancourt plays well over the rest of this season there is no way he makes up for the pile of suck he has been so far. color:black">July 23 [/b] Since the break, Yuni's posted a 1.175 OPS, raising his season mark by 45 points. He's a strong contender for NL player of the week, yet the bashing in relentless. Objectivity is thrown out the window when it comes to this guy. Reply I can't tell, should this be in blue? The guy has been objectively awful the last several years, and he's been terrible this year save for a few games. color:black">2nd reply In the last 28 days (22 games) Betancourt is batting .315 with a .777 OPS ...unfortunately he is still terrible at taking walks, as his OBP is only 10 points higher than his BA Do I think he's "turned the corner"? No . Do I think he should still be replaced? Yes, please. ____________________ The implication has pretty much been that YB would not be better than the .220 hitter he was early in the year. JohnBriggs was pretty much spot on when he started touting him getting back to career norms but was met with derision. As far as the rest of your post, show me where I have ever said YB was a good defender? I've never said he was good, only that he is bad but that measurement of badness is not nearly as accurate as the numbers are used. A player with negative defensive ratings like YB is a bad defender but I am not going to keep hammering away that a guy with a -9.5 rating is significantly different than a guy with a -4.5 rating or even a -2.5 rating because the numbers jump around so much and because of the way they are calculated I fully realize the UZR stats are limited in a partial season but that doesn't stop people from using WAR during partial seasons to justify that player X is such an upgrade over player Y when the main difference is based on one being beyond awful offensively which can be measured very accurately and one being awful defensively vs. an average to below average defender which can't be measured with the precision of the offensive stats. The only reason Craig Counsell isn't buried on a WAR basis is because of that ridiculous defensive rating, yet looking around on here there are people who think he should have been playing everyday and WAR is used as one justification. Or in the thread before the season began about how a bunch of old washed up players would be an immediate upgrade based on WAR in the past despite the differences being negligible. If the Brewers had signed/traded for any of those guys (Punto, Renteria, Izturis, Jack Wilson) the team would be no better off than they are with YB and maybe worse off.. Filling SS right now is just that hard. I don't want to defend YB, he isn't a good player but most of the alternatives that have been offered all season haven't been any better, just change to make change. If YB puts up those ZIPS projections for the rest of the season I'd be very happy because there aren't many .700-.720 OPS SS around and available.

Yuni is seriously hated on this board. He started poorly and some very smart stats oriented people jumped all over it and acted like he was never going to improve. The latest hot streak really isn't that surprising if you believe in mean reversion for him. Counsell who started awful, but is a favorite had many of the same Yuni haters, had people defending him and acting like he would automatically improve despite his age. Yuni is not good, no one disputes that. I think the dispute comes in the degree of badness. The early season clamoring for guys like Punto, Izturis, Renteria, Wilson as great improvements have quieted down as they are all just bad players who have proven to be nothing better and probably worse than Yuni. The level of certainty put of defensive stats and WAR to decimal places leads some down that path of declaring there is a noticable difference between a bunch of bad players. I have no problem saying Yuni is below average defensively, now whether or not he is -11.5 or -7.0 or -2.0, I question how accurate defensive metrics are when combined with very accurate stats like the hitting ones. When a defensive stat like UZR 150 comes up with Craig Counsell is the best fielding SS in baseball this year, over 2x better than Tulo, I tend to question how anyone can use it to the decimal place level for accuracy, or that defensive ability jumps all over the place for a player in his prime. JJ Hardy has negative defensive stats for the year, and he is revered here as some sort of defensive whiz.

I finally found the link to the MLB predictions for the ESPN staff. I was trying to remember who picked the Astros to win the division, Steve Berthiaume was the guy. I remember thinking he was crazy at the time but wow, talk about being off. The Reds were the overwhelming choice but the Cubs managed to get at least 2 picks, Gene Wojciechowski and Jon Sciambi. http://sports.espn.go.com...story?page=11expertpicks

Even if McGehee is entrenched as the starting 3B, the team has to realize that Green is better than Counsell. I don't like prospects "rotting on the bench," but we're in August, so I don't think Green would be hurt by being the primary LH bat off the bench / part-time 2B/3B. Yuni is bad, McGehee is bad, but Counsell is so bad at this point, it's laughable that he's on the team. Well they need to keep roster flexibility so if they didn't have Counsell and instead had Green they would only have Betancourt, Wilson, Hairston, Lopez available to fill in at SS. A team can't be expected to have less than 5 guys who can play SS on a team.edit: correction 5 guys not 4 four who can play SS if needed.

Not only did he state it as fact, he stated that there is NO OTHER EXPLANATION for the Brewers home/road splits.Right. The guy is nuttier than squirrel poo.Did you not see how pwned you were by their statistical wizard who clearly demonstrated that any explanation other than cheating was impossible or at the very least outside of a single standard deviation. At least that was giving him benefit of the doubt on the thorough study and stack of evidence he used to show how silly you or the MGD guy was to deny it was anything but cheating. I think my junior high debates had better reasoning than that thread offers.

Clearly the Brewers advance team of sign stealers must have dislodged the plate while setting up shop in Busch stadium prior to the Brewer's next swing through town. When will baseball finally crack down on these obvious cheaters who are ruining the game with their obscene post game interviews, shirt untucking, and now sabotage? Chris Carpenter's son is looking for an explanation.

Or tell them to come into town, walk down Regent Street and buy them on the street they really aren't all that hard to find and except for huge games like Nebraska, Ohio State, and sometimes Iowa you can buy them for face or less. Just walking from my parking spot to the stadium on gameday is veritable gauntlet of guys trying to buy and sell tickets.

I remember seeing a lot of Fukudome shirts and signs when he first came over but lately I could see him being disliked. I don't watch many Cub games but isn't one of the criticisms of him is that he is terrible defensively?

Saw this article pop up on Fangraphs http://www.fangraphs.com/...nals-did-not-get-jobbed/ It made me think of my Cardinal fan friends talk of needing LH guy in the pen making Rzepczynski more of the target than Dotel. Reading some of the comments in the article also brought up the Cards getting 2 picks if Jackson and Dotel are both Type B and walk.

You aren't saying anything I don't agree with. I just don't think the declaration that many have made that the Cardinals are making a he mistake or that Rasmus is a future superstar is set in stone. The Cardinals risk that he achieves his potential and they may have given up too early, and I got a post back insinuating there is no risk to Rasmus achieving the upside. I am pointing out that this deal only seems lopsided or dumb if one assumes Rasmus fulfills his potential which is not a given with his attitude and results this year which are as significant as his good year last year. I think potential gets counted as a sure thing too often when analyzing trades of young players or the max upside of their ability is assumed as destined.

I realize people like golf, it's not my thing, but I understand some people like it. But why do golfers feel the need to tell me or anyone who will listen about the incredibly boring details of their golf round. I get it you chased the ball all over the course, sometimes it was in long grass, sometimes it was in sand, sometimes it rolled further than you wanted and others not enough and once in a while you hit it straight about 250 yards. It just isn't an interesting story. I don't go around telling everyone, "Oh you should have seen my softball game last night, they played a rover on me in left field but I hit it over his head on a line into the gap. I must have hit it 200 feet and the grass was pretty dry so the ball rolled all the way to the wall. I was pulling into second when the centerfielder missed the cutoff man and the ball just scooted past the third baseman so I ended up with a triple on a ball hit into left center. Can you believe it? Then two inning later I batted again but the pitcher really skyed one on me and I popped it up to the shortstop." I would feel like a total tool going on like that to coworkers or business associates yet if it is a story about a golf ball I am supposed to be interested and not think the tale is a total bore? I think I may start telling stories about my dart game in the basement to follow up on people's golf stories just to see the reaction. I'll regale the great details of, "Well I really needed that triple 20 but instead I hit a double one and you know that isn't worth anything...

My logic is that I don't declare a trade of potential as automatically stupid because I don't assume potential is always achieved.

Of course they are risking his future production, he may turn out rather pedestrian or maybe you know for a fact that he is going to be a star. He was great last year, not so much this year though, he's been out produced by Jon Jay. So no I don't say it is a "lock" that Rasmus is some sort of superstar or irreplaceable piece, especially given that he was already replaced by Jay. Rasmus may be good, the key is may be, but given his attitude, and failure to live up to hype surrounding his defense he may end up as a platoon player or moved to one of the corners where his bat is nothing special, especially if he remains a .250/.330/.420 hitter with bad defense. I don't see why it is so hard to admit he may not be as good as hoped, it happens all the time with young players. His attitude is a big flag, relying on his father for hitting advice instead of the ML coaches, and being lazy on defense as some have bandied about for why he has been so bad don't scream for automatic improvement in the coming years. He burst onto the scene with a great year in AA, then had a rather pedestrian AAA stint and rookie year with the bat. Last year was great and now he is back down again on top of his poor defense. If you think last year is the baseline and he will produce at that level going forward then he will be a very good player(although even last year's numbers were helped with a .354 BABIP). But if this year is how he is going to perform going forward then it isn't nearly the travesty it is painted as. I know how some like WAR as the uber stat, well Rasmus ranks 22nd for CF'ers in that stat for the season, at this pace he is a below average CF. So he's had one great year and one below average year, I don't see either of those as being automatic evidence which way his career forward will pan out.

Sure it does, people thought Wallace would be a stud, he isn't. Holliday may or may not have signed with STL as a free agent had he not played there first, they also didn't have to give up draft picks to sign him. But the main point is that just because a young player has potential or promise it doesn't mean it is a given those expectations will be met. The Cardinals are risking the future production of Rasmus (which may be good or he may be average) against the improved bullpen(they needed a LOOGY, and moved McClellan back to the pen, plus got Dotel who I view as a throw in) and rotation (Jackson in place of McClellan) for this year's run, potentially, Pujols' last year there. I don't see it as some awful deal that damages the organization for years like it is portrayed by some posts, just like giving up Wallace for Holliday didn't hurt STL in the long run either despite claims of future WAR and Holliday being on the side after his "poor" showing in Oakland. Risk is a two way street and I think people sometimes get caught up in potential as being automatic.

This reminds me of this thread http://brewersfandemonium...allace-RHP-Clayto?page=1 Where the Cardinals were stupid to trade a stud like Wallace for Holliday. Holliday is still are Cardinal and produding very well and Wallace has been nothing special.

Or the Cardinals traded a guy who is destined to be platooned or moved to a corner position because his defense is terrible and where is bat really isn't all the special. He has upside but last year's great production with his .354 BABIP could be his peak. Supposedly he swings for the fences, doesn't adjust, and won't listen. Sounds like another young talented CF that everyone was waiting to break out, Carlos Gomez but with worse defense and better bat.

Rasmus was really in the doghouse with the Cardinals with his attitude and lack of production. My Cardinal fan friend is more than happy to see him gone because his defense has never lived up the billing and his refusal to listen to anyone but his Dad has soured his welcome. He views it as a great deal to get rid of a cancer who is destined to be a platoon player with average at best defense for a decent starting pitcher who pushes McClellan back to his set up role, adds a lefty reliever they needed plus Dotel for the pen and a lefty platoon guy in Patterson who can play defense as well or better than Rasmus and the junk they gave up in relievers.