MJLiverock

If you want to do Diamond Head, you can take a city bus up to about a quarter mile or less from the park entrance. The hike isn't too bad up the inside of the crater, the stairs near the top are the hardest part. You can take the bus back down to zoo which is kinda cool and cheap and walk back to your hotel from there if it isn Waikiki.

hawing I feel for you having to deal with that annoying fan during the game. For some reason I always get an obnoxious fan from the opposing team next to me at the football games. I don't understand how the seat next to me in section DD is always occupied by the visiting fans. Oh yeah, it is owned by the UW Alumni association and somebody always takes the tickets and sells them on EBay. I noticed in one shot during the game when the Badgers hit a three down the stretch there were two clearly in blue Duke fans sitting in the student section who immediately jumped up cheering and clapping. It made me think they were WI fans who love front run and root for Duke (believe me I have a friend just like that) and when it was apparent WI might actually win they switched sides and started cheering for WI. I had to back up the DVR 2x just to see them and it made me want to puke.

When I was kid I remember ESPN used to show CFL games. My dad used to watch them and i would always watch for college guys I remembered. I guess ESPN's Poker coverage and listen to me shout shows get better ratings.

We own a timeshare at the Westin Ka'anapali (sp?) just up the road from Lahaina. We haven't rented it out in the past but may next year as we may not be able to make it. We can use any 2 weeks except Christmas to New Year's or break it into chunks or transfer to any other Starwood Property in the world so we are going to Atlantis in the Bahamas this winter for a shorter flight.

The bar area and restaurant at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach Hotel in Waikiki is a favorite of my wife and I. It is right on the beach, open concept and not too expensive given the location. Live music and great sunsets. Edit: I just looked up the name of the bar - - it is the Shorebird Restaurant and Bar. http://www.outrigger.com/hotels-resorts/hawaiian-islands/oahu-waikiki/outrigger-reef-on-the-beach/restaurants There is a more formal dining place right next to the bar & grill of the hotel called the Ocean House - - fantastic food and is very intimate. It is also right on the beach so you hear the waves crash and catch the ocean breeze while eating as it too is open to the air. I would suggest reservations as the place isn't very big. You won't get much better beach front dining for the money on Waikiki. We found the place by asking our bartender at the Westin on Waikiki where he would go for drinks. If you want to spend a little more another place right down the street but not on the beach is Roy's. The food and service here are fantastic. http://www.roysrestaurant.com/aboutroys.asp It is a chain started in Hawaii with locations as close as Chicago but still very good. If you like sushi there is a little mom and pop type place directly across from Waikiki beach. Not very big but not real fancy or expensive but great sushi. You may be the only non Japanese customer there (assuming you aren't Japanese). The first time I ate there about 7 years ago the waitress didn't speak English, only Japanese. Last year I was there as well and it was still in business. There is another Sushi place on the third floor of the mall in Waikiki that is also very good but a much more upscale and pricey place but the food was excellent. Overall I don't really like Waikiki that much in comparison to Maui but coming from WI it will seem great and fun. Very vibrant night life. We have a place on Maui so we get there annually but if in Waikiki I would probably just hang out at the Shorebird I first mentioned.

This was a microcosm of my expectations for the team. Leuer is legit, Hughes has flashes of offense but still jacks up a lot of bad shots, when he is on he hits some but his shooting percentage won't be good. After that it will be hit or miss for offense. Nankivil can hit open shots within 10 feet or so but Bohannon just keeps getting worse. His shooting percentage has declined each year and he can't guard anyone with quickness. He got blown by a number of times tonight. When Jarmusz or Bruiser on the court the other team may as well not guard them and WI's offense becomes a 4 on 5. Wilson and Evans still look lost and out of control out there. But overall I don't think they can generate consistant offense especially against a zone and they have a hard time guarding athletic quick guys who put the ball on the floor. Nankivil, Jarmusz, and Bohannon were a step slow on D all night. I saw AZ had to go to overtime with CO, one of the worst teams in D1 last year going like 1-16 against their conference foes.

The Pac10 is expected to be pretty weak this year after losing a lot of players to graduation, certainly much weaker than the Big10. AZ has name recognition but really isn't that great of a team, I've seen them picked to finish anywhere from 4th to 7th in the Pac 10, which probably compares to 6th to 9th in the Big 10. I still don't see the Badgers finishing in the top half of the Big 10.

Great job nitpicking someone's posts death guys. Seems all he was trying to do was say parts of the article weren't true which appears to the be the case. I would hope everyone knows everything they read on the internet or in newspapers isn't 100% true; facts are distorted or manipulated all the time to make a better story or through lazy writing. This is a message board with a bunch of opinions many of which are factually wrong or completely misinformed so why belabor it so much? Rumors about a player doing this or that can change like the wind so why start belittling one of the insiders who gives his take on the subject just because it doesn't match some reported rumor or someone else's story verbatum. I'd trust a player's agent over a message board or reporter any day of the week but I also understand the angle an agent or family member may have in promoting the player without a 2 page disclosure. Which doesn't even bring up why Josh would take the time to fabricate a lie to a fanboy message board. As much as we care about the Brewers when it comes down to it the opinions and newsflow on here don't amount to a hill of beans to the players development or lives. So Josh if you decide to cut out the time you took to post on here and give us some information I don't blame you, thanks for the insight.

To be fair the expenses for the big city teams run higher as well offsetting some of the higher ticket prices. Everything costs more in NY vs. Milwaukee from groundskeepers to city taxes. It is another of the things people tend to forget when comparing cities and bemoaning the prices of tickets and trying to compare apples to apples. I would bet that as a percentage of income the higher prices for tickets in NY aren't any higher than in Milwaukee. Just using a simple cost of living calculator at bankrate.com yields an equivalent wage of $50,000 in Milwaukee to $88,000 in Brooklyn, $78,000 in Queens, and $107,000 in Manhattan. At the same time the utilities are about 25% higher in NY vs. Milwaukee so just keeping the stadium lights on cost them substantially more. On a side note on why owners own a team if they dont' make a lot of money. I always think about it like owning a highly coveted piece of real estate like say on a lake. There is a very limited number of teams available so the owners may not make a lot of cash flow in any one year but over time as the value of the team increases due to scarcity of the resource and the sell the team down the road for 2x or 3x what they paid for it, that is where the money is made and why some of these small market teams are good buys.

Because TV money is what drives payroll differences more than attendance. I'll look for the link but I just read something yesterday talking about the inaugral season in Miller Park with 2.8MM in attendance and what the revs were. I was looking for info on merchandisng revenue because I figured it probably isn't that much and I remember in that year the Brewers made $14MM on merchandising. Even with the team being more popular today what do you think things like merchandising bring in? I don't know for sure but I doubt it is as significant as many think, maybe $20MM? People tend to think of a $50 sweatshirt as all going to the Brewers when they probably only get a few dollars of that amount. If the average ticket is $30 x 3MM fans is $90MM of revs from tickets. Parking and concessions are run by third parties IIRC. So in the Brewrs case if that $90MM covers payroll then the roughly $30MM from TV and say $20MM from merchandising plus sponsorships have to cover the overhead like travel, Miller Park Expenses, Minor League operations, scouting, taxes, debt service,etc. They probably get some revenue sharing from the luxury tax and national TV rights but I doubt there is the big profit of money flowing throught to the bottom line. They are 17th in payroll because that $30MM the Brewers get from local TV is dwarfed by the local TV contracts of the big market teams ahead of them on the payroll list. There is probably some wiggle room up or down for the Brewers but they could lead the league in attendance every year and still have no where near the money to spend as the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers, etc. It is just a simple population function and there just aren't enough people in WI or Milwaukee in general to compare to megaplexes like NY, Chicago, LA even with 2 teams in those markets. I do find it comendable that Milwaukee can draw 3MM fans. Anyone who says it isn't a baseball town because of the revenues just isn't thinking through the revenue factors. There is roughly 5.6MM people in the whole state and 3MM walked through the turnstiles at MP. The whole Milwaukee area is about 2MM people to draw from without it being a 1.5 hour drive. Compared to NY with about 19MM people. The Yankees ought to be able to fill a 100,000 seat stadium every day given that huge poplation base and supposed great baseball fans when compared to the Brewers.

He had a bit of a power surge in AAA for Pawtucket from 07 to 08 seeing his HR total jump from 9 to 22 in 462 PA's vs. 334 the year before. He also doubled his walks in that year from 32 to 64. Looks like he rode the pine a lot for the Red Sox last year and ended up with not a whole lot of PAs in either AAA or MLB. He does K a lot more than Kendall but also has more power, I could see an OPS north of .700 out of him maybe a .240/.300/.400 without expecting too much improvement or luck. If he could keep his walk rate around 12%, sort of between his AAA and MLB numbers he could get that OBP up to .330 while hitting .240 and probably get that OPS near .750 if all went well for him. Certainly more upside offensively than Kendall. Now the matter of Kotteras being able to play defense is another question.

Here is a quick little article talking about GKott from last year. Basically, guy K's a ton, doesn't mind taking a walk and can't play defense worth a lick. All in all though not a bad pick up to find a LH catcher who is young. Certainly raises my hope that Kendall won't be back. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/mitts-in-boston EDIT: Activated link

The Braves are going to get rid of someone in the rotation. I remember seeing their GM on MLB Network after they picked up Hudson's option and he pretty much acknowledged they have 6 starters and would like to improve the offense. He said having an extra pitcher is a great position to be in when looking to upgrade the offense because they are easy to move.

Isn't Sandoval pretty brutal on defense? I seem to rember the Giants thinking they move him to 1B at some point after he moved from C to 3B and wasn't that great there either.

I have never gotten a flu vaccine and probably won't this year including the H1N1. I don't fall into any high risk categories so the H1N1 vaccine probably isn't even an option. I have spoken with 2 doctors, well one practicing doctor and one virologist researcher who said they wouldn't get it either. Both said similar things - - viruses are odd organisms and there is no real gurantee you still won't get sick or that your immune system won't be comprimised by the vaccine and just let something else in. Both also stated the old, getting all these vaccines, anti bacterial soaps, and such may just lead to the virus mutating into something even nastier. The virologist suggested making sure to get plenty of sleep, eat a lot of immune system boosting foods and excersing to boost the immune system. Of course I am one of the lucky people who never seem to get sick even as a kid who played in the dirt and ate food dropped on the floor. Others like one of my co workers practically bathe their kids in Purell never lets them play in the dirt and yet they are constantly sick. One little pet peeve of mine about stomach flu and the flu (influenza) - - they are not similar nor related, stomach flu is bacterial infection of the digestive tract not a virus. The Flu is dangerous because it fills lungs with fluid making breathing difficult- - vomit is usually a sympton of the stomach ailments not the Flu which is respiratory related. http://www.webmd.com/cold...tomach-flu-not-influenza edit: I don't want to make it sound like I advise anyone against getting the vaccines or think you are crazy for doing so I was more just responding the original question who wouldn't get one and why.

Great post MIIS, sums up my thoughts as well. I enjoy reading a little first hand knowledge once in a while and getting some inside feel rather than fan speculation about everything. Of course as a person with inside access not everything can be divulged or adequately explained in the short run but none of us are owed anything from sources like Agent39 or players' families or coaches. I say take the info for what it is and where it comes from and be happy it is better than nothing.

Is it just me or has Mark Rogers and Josh Butler been very disappointing thus far in AFL? Maybe they are just fatigued after the minor league season but it doesn't bode well for two guys hoped for depth or more next year.

I don't know much about Castro either but I always take the hype surrounding the prospects of the Cubs with a grain of salt. They get a lot of attention because their Cubs and the fans like to talk them up but as the post by Colby shows, they tend to be a little over hyped. I remember how guys like Bobby Hill, Ronny Cedeno, Jerome Walton, Lyle Mouton, etc. were going to be superstars in addition to the guys mentioned above. I remember arguing with a Cub fan about why I wouldn't trade Prince Fielder for Mouton when both were just breaking into the big leagues. He thought I was crazy because Fielder was fat and and Mouton was going to be a superstar. Maybe the Pittsburgh Pirates should start rethinking getting Cub prospects as well since that hasn't worked out so great for them historically either.

I think he initially started popping up in the recruit rankings because he was a 6'10" sophomore. Height at that age is very exciting and gets attention but as time went by he dropped to 3 starts and isn't even rated in the top 150 by some services anymore. The fact that a kid that tall doesn't dominate high school games in northern WI has taken a lot of luster a way. If he can't even average double digits vs. that level of competition how will he fare versus college players his own size and quicker? He could just be another tall stiff along the lines of Mader, Gavinski, Markolf, etc. Butch had the ability to step out and hit the 3, reports are Anderson is a back to the basket post player and not much of an outside threat.

That's because the other team got to face our pitchers. (I'm not even sure if that should be blue or not.)

I think by value shopping he means trying to get $5MM of production for $4MM of salary instead of getting a guy that will actually make a difference. I always fall back to the old, "you get what you pay for" adage. Just because you bought a crappy TV for a cheap price doesn't change that it is still a crappy TV or in this case -> pitcher.

Mulder better not be penciled in as a counted on member of the rotation going into this season. I don't understand why people think he is just going magically return to his hey day form with the A's. He is an aging soft tosser who may never pitch in the big leagues again, counting on him to take the ball every 5th day from the beginning of the season is a disaster waiting to happen in my mind. It reminds me of last year when people were talking about the juice to the rotation when Cappy comes back in mid season. He still hasn't pitched above instructional league and likely won't be in the majors as a starter again either, and if he is I would bet against him jumping right back to form again. As bad as the Brewers staff is, I dont' think they can afford to let Bush walk. Out of Davis Washburn Lopper and Mulder he is the only one I would bet on the improve in 2010 vs. 2009 or play to a level near his pay. I am far from infatuated with Bush but his ups and downs at least have some ups.

This is one of my biggest fears - - Melvin will take his "saved" money from letting Cameron go as part of the JJ/CarGo swap and invest it in aging mediocre pitchers. The team can't keep wasting money on these types of guys if they truly want to get over the hump. Just admit 2010 is a rebuilding year and focus on getting good talent that can help in 2011 or wait until the free agency class of 2011 is available and put some of the cash today along with Suppan/Hall money into that group. No more mediocre players signed to mulit year deals that drag down the ability to add good players in year 2 or 3 of the deal.

I think this stems from the surprise Melvin pulled the trigger so quickly. It was only 2 days after the WS ended so it wasn't like as some said Hardy was shopped to every team and no one wanted him or no one was interested in a package of Hardy with Gamel/McGehee, or Salome/LuCroy, etc. Melvin even admits he didn't even talk to teams who needed a shortstop. People tend to forget in negotiations that the other side has pressure to make a deal as well. Plenty of people have pointed out that since everyone knew Melvin "had" to trade Hardy they weren't going to offer much. That is a poor idea if your team needs a SS. If you are just trying to acquire an extra part cheap, sure throw low ball offers out, but if you are looking to improve your SS position you have to try and get the best player you can before someone else takes your targeted player. I dont' know offhand what other SS are out there but by trying to go as cheap as possible means a team lets someone else get the player they want instead of you, and the next thing you know you are stuck in the same spot or worse. Finally, GMs make bad trades all the time, they aren't infallable so arguing that he's a GM so he made the best deal or this was the only option may or not be the whole reality. (not trying to pick on you here, I saw this a few times in the thread, i.e. GMs know what is best) Especially if he admits he didn't talk to every team and it was only 2 days into the 4 month window of deal making.

As more time has passed and I have let the rants flow against this trade I am willing to give it a shot but I am still very skeptical. Gomez is a young cheap toolsy player but I fear he is just that, toolsy with no actual on the field results. His only hope is to get that OBP north of .350 so he can bat lead off and become what Juan Pierre was early in his Marlins career. It may take a few years for him to reach it at which time LoCain may be the exact same player so maybe one can go in another trade. The hit this team is taking on OBP will have to be made by hoping Weeks, coming off an injury can match Lopez's remarkable Brewer stats at 2B which will still only be a wash there. Catching will have to improve and RF will need improvement. Third base production was decent and I can't expect big improvements there from what McGehee did or what a full basically rookie season of Gamel would be. So I guess I see catching and RF as keys to next year's offense. The team can't afford to become Braun/Fielder and a bunch of slap hitting no OBP guys who fail to get on base, turn the line up over for the 2 big gues to get AB's or drive people in. I still fear what Melvin is going to do with the money for pitching. Trading for pitching seemed the only route since there isn't much on the free agent market but maybe he can take on some team's bad contract or overpaid pitcher for a couple years with this money freed up for 2010 and Suppan's money in 2011. They have just given up one of their trade chips that could have been packaged for more than a faster Tony Gwynn, Jr. The idea that they needed this money to sign Mulder or Davis or Washburn seems pretty weak to me. Mulder is going to sign for next to nothing on a minor league deal somewhere if he plays again at all, I don't know why they need to free up space for someone like him. I have seen Mulder's name on the thread a few times and really don't get the idea he will be much of help. Cheap enough he is worth a risk on a minor league deal but any production would be gravy and not something I would want to count on. I saw the same thing last year; posts about how Capuano was going to come back in mid season and be just old Cappy. It just doesn't work out that way, aging pitchers coming off major are surgery rarely if ever return to their peak performance let alone only 12-18 months after surgery. Davis and Washburn better not be the 2 pitching "gets" that come from this as the team already has enough aging back of the rotation sof tossers. I'll root for Gomez like any one but I really hope he improves his OBP and Macha somehow changes his tune about young players and the running game if he wants to fully utilize Gomez and Escobar. I think the team may as well admit 2010 is a rebuilding year or at least fans should expect that is what it is with all the potential youth in the field, especially if LuCroy or Salome are catching with Escobar, Gomez, Gamel, and a recovering Weeks are in the lineup daily.