MJLiverock

Why is it so inconceivable that Parra needs to work on his mental portion of the game? It has been mentioned numerous times by himself and others that he needs to work on this area, it isn't something just made up on a message board. It isn't like it impossible for guys to lose focus or get frustrated easily and slip into bad habits, it happens and some guys deal with it better than others, unless putting on a Brewer uniform is some sort mental accuity power. Gallardo is mentioned as being mentally tough, why can't a player also fall on the other end of the spectrum? If there was no such thing as mental problems in baseball Steve Sax and Chuck Knoblauch could still throw from 2nd to 1st. Pitching is like golf, a very precise movement controlled and repeated. Nobody has issues when Tiger Woods says he wasnt' there mentally, and everyone praises his focus and mental toughness so again, why is it impossible for a pitcher to have some mental issues to deal with? No one is saying he is blathering basket case, he has a lot of talent but when things go bad they snowball for him and a manager, teammates, and Manny himself, have said he has to learn to overcome adversity and deal with it and toughen up mentally.

Off the top of my head I can come up with these fees: An appraisal is going to cost $200-$300 depending on where you live, title insurance may be $400 to $600 depending on value of the home and company used, filing fees with the county will be another $50-$75, flood plain determination is another $25 to $50, some banks charge up to $300 to waive escrow of real estate taxes (others charge nothing), credit reports can cost up to $50, bank fees for doc prep or loan application may add another $200. Some of the really low closing costs cited above sound like a refi done very shortly after the original loan was made by the same bank where they don't have to order a new appraisal or title insurance but rather do a recert of the appraisal and rely on the old title work. Sometimes they include the accured interest on your payoff or the first month of your new loan in the closing costs which can move the dollar amount up as well. Most rates are around 5 to 5.25% right now without points, you can pay points to buy the rate down but then you have to figure out the break even point for you and if it is worth it. Don't forget you can amortize the points you pay on your taxes for each year in addition to the interest expense.

Reading a post in another thread about the people who wear Cubs gear to Miller Park when the Brewers are playing other random teams is one annoying habit but it made me think of this one. People who wear their Packer jersey to Brewer games. I understand not everyone has Brewer gear or even wants to wear Brewer gear but can't you just wear regular clothes? It is like you want the world to know you are a sports fan, you most likely are from WI, but you just can't leave the house without that Reggie White or Brett Favre jersey on, you wear it to Badger Football, Basketball, and Hockey too.

Because Duffy can play CF to give Cam some days off, Nelson can only play 1B and LF, Cat can only play 1B and LF.

I chalk it up to the completely delusional mentality that the average Cub fan simply cannot understand that fans in the home ballpark (or fans anywhere for that matter) do not like the Cubs, do not root for them, and simply don't want to deal with "lets go Cubs" chants, obnoxious children wearing Cub gear and taunting home fans (it happened to me last year), or the ridiculous arguements they start because they barely know their own team and can't understand why it annoys other fans to listen to their drivel. Cub fans are like the guy who shows up at your party, maybe knows a few people there, but decides to get drunk, keeps changing the music to suit his tastes, hits on your wife, tracks mud all over the house, and then calls you a jerk when some other drunk guest knocks his teeth out for spitting chew on the floor.

I was at Saturday night's game in the 200 level and our section was at least 80% Brewer fans which was nice. It was probably the best Brewer/Cub game I have been to in the last 5 years. (other than opening day) There were really only 2 groups of Cub fans in our section and for once weren't right next to me. The group a couple rows behind me were pretty drunk and made a point of antagonizing everyone around them with yelling and putting down the Brewers but luckily after Counsell and Braun went back to back they pretty much shut up. I will admit, I hate the Cubs and have for my whole life and it is entirely because of their fans. Growing up in southern WI there were plenty of Cub fans around and all through the 80's when they absolutely stunk I couldn't stand their sanctimonius loveable losers mentality and constant in your face garbage about how good their players are despite losing games, it drove me crazy and now it has only expoded super nova style as they finally have some good teams and have really drawn in the obxoxious jerks of their fan base. Why aren't there numerous fights when the Dodgers come to town? Or the Twins or Cardinals or Tigers, or Phillies? Maybe because their fans don't act like obnoxious holes when they come into town? It reminds me of Ohio State. They play in Madison and all sorts of problems occur and they complain about their fans treatment but they don't acknowledge their groups of fans walking down State Street chanting f the Badgers and getting in the face of people sitting outside at tables. It is like they forget that being on the road means you are greatly outnumbered and people will defend their home turf, it only takes one out off the thousands of the home crowd to get crazy enought to punch your lights out or worse so why make a point of antagonizing the home crowd? Cheer for your team, clap when the score, but purposely antagonizing the home crowd is going to lead to trouble and it completely stupid and the inevitable fight is completely on the visitor who comes in and starts it up.

Because HcG is not a steroid. You can go online and by pure HcG right now without a prescription.

But does your friend know what every ingredient actually is? He may be looking for certain things but not realize that compound is called something completely different by that particular supplement maker or supplier to the supplement maker. It is definitely suspicious that Manny was taking HcG, which is used in connecting with steroid cycles. But he could be telling the truth given that HcG is used in diet pills, ED pills, and is marketed under at least 30 different names. I know it seems pretty stupid that an athlete doesn't use only team approved doctors and doesn't go out of their way to avoid these so called mistakes like have a buddy try the supplements and test him or something like that. But think how many people at your office or work get all bent out of shape if the company HMO changes and they have to see a different doctor or if they were told, hey this is your doctor now, we don't care who you've seen in the past. Is it in the players best interest to just go along, probably yes, but these guys have a lot of money and like to get their way so they see whomever the want or whomever gives them what they want.

HcG is also used in a lot of weight loss pills, there are numerous websites selling the HcG diet. One particular site talks about the steroid cycle of use but also lists about 30 different brand names that HcG is sold or listed in the ingredients under by different pharma companies. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/cathcg.htm

He is without a doubt my favorite Brewer player but I will admit he can be a bit cocky at times. I think it comes from the fact that he is good and backs it up. His so called cockiness isn't even really that noticiable, he doesn't do a dance, he gets along with his teammates, he doesn't show up in media reports making outlandish demands, doesn't get arrested, doesn't complain about getting paid. He does get mad at himself when he makes outs and he occasionally watches a HR a bit which I have no problem with when anyone does it. It has been a long time since the Brewers have had a player with his talent level at such a young age, Prince is the only other one I would compare him to in the last 15 years. Maybe we as fans are just so used to rooting for guys who had nothing to really be cocky about. Jenkins was the only above average player here for so long and he was just that, above average, but not a superstar or potential superstar.

Take a look at that Cubs lineup, talk about the B team team.

Actually drinking beer or smoking while playing soccer is easier than baseball because you have no use for your hands anyway. I have seen plenty of soccer and basketball players who smoked and ran the court or field just like everyone else.

I'm with you bani I prefer Bud over Miller but I can drink Miller High Life or even a Lite, but I absolutely hate MGD. MGD tastes sweet and results in instant headache. I do enjoy PBR if available.

Arod may well have been able to bench a little more than 100lbs, I mean that is pretty low for any kind of athlete. In Junior High I could do more than that as mothership said. The jump to 300 isn't a smoking gun in my eyes because we don't know where his true bench started and where it really ended, it could all just be rounded or hyperbole. And as I mentioned earlier even with a huge jump in bench it doesn't mean much because I personally have achieved similar results without steroids, I just don't think most people understand what is possible with 6 months to a year of dedicated hard work in a gym. I know I could bench at least 300 in high school because my training partner and I tried it once, and I would bet that before I started lifting I could barely do 150 if at all. I watched the interview with Roberts and Costas last night on MLB and she is pretty sure of her sources and confident in her reporting, even when confronted with named players who disagree with her unnamed sources about the pitch tipping in particular.

I am not saying Arod didn't use roids but whenever I see claims of muscle growth automatically linked to steroids I tend to scoff at it a bit. I know most people don't like to work out but I dont' think they understand how unremarkable that muscle gain is, especially for a top athlete. I went from a 150 pound football player as a junior to 175 pounds by my senior year without gaining an inch of height, 20 to 25 pounds of muscle isn't impossble, especially in high school or early 20's. I worked out 6 days a week for at most 2 hours at a time usually more like 90 minutes. I even got fat and out of shape during college and again at age 24 packed on 20+ pounds of muscle in less than a year all without steroids or a personal trainer.

Hearing talk about the classy George Brett only makes me think of the raging Hulkamania outburst he had during the pine tar game vs. the Yankees. People get upset about batters raising their arms after hitting bombs now and George Brett is called classy for having a meltdown over an umpires negating his HR.

To be fair on dismissing his limited ML opportunity, he has only pitched 38 innings of AAA ball and 16 innings of AA ball not providing any sample size to declare Swindle great, or even bad.

If you want to juice Kendall's numbers by weighting his OBP higher (basically admitting he can't outslug the pitchers) you should also penalize he and the pitchers for grounding into double plays. This will also work into the numerous putting the bat on the ball vs. striking out arguments that pop up. I'm with FTJ on this one, if you have to resort to lines like in a million iterations Kendall will out perform the pitchers but if he doesn't it is just dumb luck or if you don't want to use straight up OPS then I think the point has been made that Kendall isn't much of a hitter for an everyday player.

I don't think I would mind selling off the team and suffering though a couple bad years if the payoff was a World Series title every 7 or 8 years. Watching the current crop of Brewers develop and make it to the playoffs was pretty exciting but I don't want to wait another 20+ years for it. The Marlins model is pretty interesting for a small market type team because they actually spent money to fill in the holes they needed and went for it occassionally. For me, if the Brewers win 75 games or 82 games or 85 games it doesn't really matter if they are still sitting at home for the playoffs, the overall season doesn't feel much different with 5 or 6 more wins and a being behind 4 other teams for the playoffs. The Twins and A's have tried to basically sell of their teams and build through the draft but have never really opened up the purse string and went all out for it when they felt they a good team, they tried to ride out what they had and made the playoffs but never got over the top. The Marlins talent evaluators have done a great job to keep it going thus far. Whether or not they were the best team on paper or in a model doesn't matter much when compared to the only thing that really matters, the actual results. Cub fans have been deluding themselves for years that this is the year and still have no rings to show for it.

Any good Kraut recommendations? As a kid I hated kraut but made myself add some to a brat last year and found as an adult I like the taste but all I have really had is Franks Kraut but I am open to trying any others if I can find them.

The problem with saying everyone walks people in April still doesn't account for how bad the Brewers staff has been. Even though "everyone" (well except the 22 teams walking at least 1 batter less than the Brewers) walks batters in April the Brewers are still dead last in all of baseball for BB/9 at 5.2 and dead last in all of baseball at K/BB at 1.31. For the entire 2008 season the MLB average was 3.4 BB/9 and 17 teams met or had lower than that average number. So far in 2009 the average for all of MLB is 3.9 BB/9 with 17 teams at 3.9 or better. So basically this everyone is walking guys has resulted in .5 BBs per 9 over last year's full season total. The Brewers are walking 1.3 BB/9 more than average so they are significantly worse. MLB pitchers have faced 15,620 batters and walked 1,536 (not including intentional) or about 9.8% of batters. The Brewers have faced 515 batters and walked 65 or 12.6%, again the Brewers are much worse than average. I can't just chalk it up to bad luck or April jitters, the team is just not picthing well right now and there is no guarantee they will improve there is hope or wishes but not guarantees just because fans want them to be better than the worst control in the league.

This isn't the first time Parra's mental toughness has been called out. Yost mentioned it a few times last year and even Parra talked about one of his weaknesses being mental. He has been called out for pouting in the clubhouse after poor performances as well. Braun's comments seem spot on, we don't have to baby and coddle everyone all the time sometimes a little criticism is needed and appropriate. I don't have any problem with him saying any of the things he said or when he said them. For all we know he has been ripping himself everyday but it just doesn't get printed or maybe this was the first time a reporter actually asked him about it after another loss. Not everyone is so thin skinned they can't handle someone pointing out struggling or bad play. I'm glad when a player doesn't like losing and doesn't walk around saying its along season, or its a small sample, or we'll get 'em next time.

I would imagine it is some combination of they don't want to do it after years of travelling as a team member and not needing the pressure of going through all of a season. They probably don't need the money that bad and want to relax after 20+ years of road trips. The other factor is as you said the more common player tends to make a better coach or manager in most sports. I think it has to do with talent. The superstars have an ability that just flat out can't be taught and it makes it hard for them to teach other players and or put up with the inferior players. Sveum talked about how hard he had to work at hitting but compared to someone like Manny Ramirez, who probably can't explain why he can hit so well. Ted Williams tried to teach people but so much of his ability was just inate it is hard to pass along.

Here is a short article from back in November talking about the suite pricing and difficulty in selling the last of the suites after the economy went south. http://www.wcbs880.com/Yankees-Having-Trouble-Selling-Suites-at-New-Stadi/3305094

Are the seats unsold or unoccupied? The reason I ask is I am assuming many of the good, expensive seats are probably owned by corporate accounts as part of season ticket packages. I had a friend at the good old Lehman Brothers in Chicago and he told me I could have their seats at Wrigley in the front row anytime vs. the Brewers on a weekday because they usually went unused for non "Marquee" teams (this was 3 or 4 years ago). I also remember buying a ticket for the WI Basketball NCAA tourney game in Oklahoma City a few years ago and ending up sitting in the Hartford's seats. Their guy had at least 40 tickets and we used maybe 10 of them, the other 30 seats were empty but sold. I used to work at a bank at got sweet seats to a lot of Badger events because as a young single guy the Bank President's assistant knew I could take the tickets at the last minute if no one wanted them and it happened surprisingly often that I was sitting courtside at basketball or in the front row of the second deck at Friday hockey games. I dont' know what the old Yankee stadium seats sold for at face value as a comparison. I wonder if when school gets out and the weather is nicer those empty seats will be fewer and far between or sold at less than face on stub hub or ebay. But I agree, some of those seats are definately not cheap. I think my tickets at Miller Park have a face value of $36, the same seats in Yankee stadium would be $95 according to the guide.