MJLiverock

It reminds me of my recent experiences in trying to buy a new house. We looked at a number and finally were ready to make an offer but the house had sold. We found another house 3 doors down over looking the same park and with the same sq. footage, upgrades, etc. and made an offer. The second seller would not come down on price even when confronted with the the neighbor's house selling for 5% lower than seller #2's price, so we walked we'll find another house. They are the ones who have to sell, we don't have to buy. What does this have to do with Vargas? I think it points out that we as fans tend to overvalue our home team's players. I am sure there is a market for Vargas but apparently the price is somewhere less than $3.6MM/year and/or whatever the Brewers thought they could get for him.

Yeah, I edited my post above thanks to brewjihad. Posts are flying out so fast with a Brewer transaction I guess we can all see how much pent up angst there is waiting for the season to start.

But is it any better to pay him $3MM to sit at home? Seriously, I am asking because it hasn't really been answered that I have seen here. Aren't the Brewers still responsible for paying his salary? If so it doesn't do much for the salary dump unless they are praying someone else will sign him and if so are the Brewers still responsible for his salary above the league minimum up to the the $3MM+ he is owed. I just don't get it, why dump a mediocre bottom of the rotation guy you still have to pay? Especially since he had a decent spring, Cappy is done, and YoGa is hurt. Since he cleared waivers can't you just send him to AAA? If he doesn't report then is it a matter of being able to not pay him? It just seems silly to pay a guy to sit at home if he has some ability to produce average to slightly below average numbers. I guess I agree with the earlier poster who questioned the wisdom of waiting and holding out for more on any combination of talked about trading chips of Bush, Vargas, Cappy, thrown around in the offseason. I kept hearing patience, patience, patience a deal can be made later but later is here and now the Brewers have nothing to show except Cappy is done and Vargas is gone but still getting paid. Seems like a lose lose proposition versus getting a bag of balls. Or does this simply point out we all overvalued what any of these guys could bring in a trade? In the end I hope it works out that the pitching was so deep it made sense to just waive him. Edit: Thanks for posting the link Jihad, it makes a little more sense now that I see they are only on the hook for the $900,000 of the $3.6MM.

I don't want to burst your bubble of weather person integrity but a large portion of the weather readers you see on the news are really just models who can read a teleprompter. Hiring a hot weather girl is an old TV news gimmick. How do you think Jillina Barberie ended up doing the weather? Seriously, even the local news channels try to hire a pretty woman with absolutely no weather or meteorlogical background to just read the teleprompter. It is also becoming the thing to do for news readers as well. Check out the morning news shows on CNN or just about any channel and they will have good looking former models and beauty queens reading the news not necessarily journalists or hard hitting reporters.

Why would Patterson look at the logjam of bottom of the rotation guys in Milwaukee and sign here? Especially if he is going to go to AAA. Some team will come calling and give him a slot in the majors unless he has nothing left in which case why would Milwaukee want him? Teams like Texas, KC, maybe St. Louis, etc. all could be a better option for him.

Sorry, JoePepsi, I didn't meant to duplicate your post. I guess we were typing at the same time, great minds and such.

Kapler was signed on 12/20/07 and Cameron wasn't added until 01/11/08. Melvin may have know he was close on Cameron and needed a guy for 25 games or he could have just been throwing a chance to a former player of his. I will admit I wasn't very excited about Kapler's prospects when he was signed, as others have mentioned he wasn't very good before he sat out year, but was glad it was a non guarnteed invite. My biggest fear with him was the chance he will be labled a gritty verteran presence and kept around for longer than he his needed or gets more playing time than his ability warrants.

Yesterday on Homer's radio show he compared it to two high shool team letting their special needs managers get into a game and shooting 3 pointers. I couldn't disagree more that it isn't the same. Two kids who probably worked their butt of as managers of a high school team, traveled with the team and were peers/classmates of the players were given a moment of thanks and gratitude by being able to play in the game. Billy Crystal is just a famous celeb who likes the Yankees. Is this going to be the next cool thing for rich celebs to do? Is Jack Nicholson going to shoot free throws for the Lakers in a preseaon game? How about Jeff Foxworthy taking a lap in the practice runs at Daytona. Maybe Jessica Simpson can throw a pass to TO in a preseason game. How about the biggest donor to the Badger Fund gets to run down the field on opening Kickoff of the Cardinal and White game. It does cheapen the game and spring training when any famous celeb who whines or kisses the owner's butt enough gets trotted out there just because they are famous and a fan. What would have happened if the pitcher plunked him in the back? I would have laughed if the pitcher said, "Hey I wasn't going to famous for giving up a hit to this guy. Welcome to the show. Now you know what it feels like to try and show up a pitcher."

I just make sure to send the occasional email to DirecTV asking for FSN WI full time and reminding them that cable has it full time. (not that I would ever go back to Charter, but I won't tell them that.) I know DirecTV has another satellite going up this spring so there should be plenty of capacity. I am psyched about at least being able to get all the games in HD this year. I guess all I really miss is the shows like Brewers Str8ght Up and some of the classic games so it is not entirely bad getting the channel part time. I gladly sacrifice those shows for the HD games.

I was thinking a little about the Braun / Fielder 3 or 4 spot yesterday. It may or may not play into Yost's thought process but if Fielder bats 3rd and the opposing manager brings in a lefty to face him then the other manager pretty much has to pull the lefty pitcher after Fielder given how Braun destroys LH pitching. This may burn up the LHers in the bullpen or make a manager decide to gamble with the RH vs. Fielder since Fielder isn't terrible against LH pitchers and Braun is on deck and is known to crush LHers. With Fielder at 4 and Hart at 5 the team may leave the lefty in versus Hart and the bottom of the order (could be good or bad given all the RH's down there). I was just trying to figure out a reason for the switch and this was the best I could come up with.

Fantastic! I can't wait to see all the games in HD finally. I know last year I was kinda bummed that the few time they were on Fox and in HD were games I ended up seeing in person so I rarely got to see the Crew in HD since ESPN rarely showed them.

People that stand in a long line at Panera reading the menu then taking 10 minutes to order when they finally reach the register. Seriously, it isn't really that hard to pick two of a three choices; soup, salad or sandwich. It is lunch, not a life or death decision, so no need for detailed descriptions beyond what is written on the menu. Why on earth would you ask the order taker to describe a sandwich called the Asiago Roast Beef only to declare after wasting everyone's time that you don't want to order that because you don't like roast beef.

I wasn't surprised he hit poor when behind 0-2 or 1-2 as you stated almost everyone hits worse in that situation. So is it really a good idea for Kendall to dig himself a hole like that when he isn't much of a threat to begin with? Of course that is his style so I wouldn't expect him to change it but it really doesn't produce much more than Estrada's style of swinging at strikes. The added pitches only abount to 1-3 per game for a pitcher. If Kendall rebounds to a .260 BA and a .320 OPB that is only 10 more walks/hits versus a .300 OBP over a 500 AB season. I guess I agree with Geno that Kendall isn't really much of an upgrade if at all over Estrada despite the near lovefest Kendall receives here. His defense isn't really any better, his great plate discipline only means 1-3 extra pitches per game, he is just as likely as not to hit for a worse average and have more walks but end up with the same OBP as Estrada. Maybe his extra salary is worth a better attitude and or better game calling, the team probably thinks so and that has to count for something positive. I just don't expect him to provide much more than Estrada in the hitting or defense departments.

If Estrada averaged 3 pitches/plate appearance and Kendall is at 4 does it really make much of a difference? That is only 3-4 pitches per game and may be spread over 2 or more pitchers. I get the idea of wearing a guy out but is this one extra pitch really going to matter, especially if Kendall has absolutely no power and is in front of the pitcher. Nobody ever seems to mention what a benefit having the pitcher bat and just stand there taking pitches is for the lineup. Yet having a catcher who hits marginally better than pitcher do it is supposed boon to the offense? I also found an old ESPN article from 2005 talking about Kendall's patience and how he takes more strikes than just about anyone since watches about 65% of the pitches thrown. Pitchers don't really have to worry about gettiing hurt by his bat so why not groove him? He will probably just watch it anyway. Not surprisingly, when his behind 0-2 or 1-2 his career OPS is sub .600 and last year was sub .500. It seems Kendall's best attribute is the ability to stand in the box with his bat on his shoulder and pray for the walk. He may force an extra 2-3 pitches on average from a pitcher during the game vs. Estrada but I don't see that as a big contribution. As has been mentioned, if the Brewers just wanted a bat stand for the eight hole a defensive guy may have been a much better option. Maybe they couldn't get it done however or there is always the hope of trading a pitcher for a guy during spring training. FWIW; Kendall allowed 12 passed balls in 1146 innings and Estrada allowed 5 in 961. Could be a reflection of pitchers willing to throw in dirt with Kendall versus nobody trusting Estrada to block it, but still it is a reflection of a guy who may not move as well as he used to.

Watch a Diamondbacks game on the split screen and see who gets through the inning quicker (if this word even applies to these two), Vargas or Doug Davis.

I have seen this pinning of hopes on Kendall's resurgance with the Cubs a few times and need to mention what I found with a little digging into his number with the Cubs. I don't hate Kendall and he may very well be better at blocking balls, he can at least move, but I really don't expect much out of his bat. Catching takes a toll on the body and he has caught a lot of games and just seems old and nearly done at this point of his career. If Ned keeps him in the 8 hole fine but I hope he hasn't deterioated so far that opposing pitchers look at him as an automatic out like the pitcher. He really has no power to fear and if he has declined as much as last year showed team may just not intentially walk him with the pitcher on deck and we back to the days of the Chad Moeller/pitcher combo dead weight at the bottom of the order. From an earlier post of mine: I noticed something about the Kendall surge in the second half of 2007. It really was only 83 AB's in August where his OBP was .438 otherwise he was still around .275 for an OBP in the second half. During that August surge he drew 12 walks and it looks like 9 of them were with him batting in front of the pitcher and 2 of them were with him batting in front of Pie. That doesn't bode well for his OBP if they were mostly intentional and the Brewers are hoping to bat him up in the order. I hope the lasik helps. But as one Cub fan teased me, Kendall might be the only catcher in baseball that Estrada could steal second on.

I too was a little surprised that Pie is expected to SLG for more than Weeks.

I too was a little surprised that Pie is expected to SLG for more than Weeks.

I too was a little surprised that Pie is expected to SLG for more than Weeks.

I too was a little surprised that Pie is expected to SLG for more than Weeks.

What about the infamous Billy Jo Robidoux? I remember hearing about how he mashed in the minors and I couldn't wait for him to reach the bigs. I remember looking up his stats in the Sporting News as a kid and getting his future star cards from Donruss. I always like Daryl Hamilton and I can't quite place what he has been up to. Some part of my brain thinks he was on TV as an announcer of some sorts in the past few years but I can't remember.

I am on the opposite side of the sidewalk shoveling. I shovel mine but I hate the people who think it necessary to be out tramping down the snow or dragging their kid on a sled so they can pack down the snow on the sidewalk by 7 AM. I feel like screaming, "It is Wisconsin. It snows here. Put you boots on and walk through it." It is less slippery than the thin layer of ice or slush that is left. Besides I live in a neighborhood of a sea of houses. Anyone out wallking around is doing just that, out walking around for no purpose. They aren't walking to work, or school, or the grocery store. I envy my brother in Fitchburg, he has no sidewalks in his neighborhood.

I agree 100% with this take. Pujols was most likely going to be walked anyway. The loss in this game is on the offense and Turnbow. The Brewers needed to score more than 3 runs in this game, especially given the way the Cardinals started. Turnbow has to be able to throw a strike. Putting the Cardinals best hitter on first base with 1 out did not hand the Cardinals 4 runs the inability to throw strikes hurt much more.

At that point in the 10th inning there was Wise/King/Capuano/Aquino/Cordero available in the bullpen,Capuano likely only in case he was last resort and had to go multiple innings.So you actually think using Wise there made sense over 1.Using Cordero to face the heart of the Astros order in the 10th.If he gets them out,the Brewers bat in the 11th and keep in mind the Astros had already used both Qualls/Lidge,their two best relief pitchers. 2.So lets say we score in the 11th,Cordero gets to close out the game in the 11th vs the bottom of their order. 3.Lets say we scored in the 11th,but in an unlikely case Cordero threw to many pitches in the 10th,he shouldn't go another inning.Now any of those other three guys get to come in with some cushion of a lead,not a tie along with not having to face Berkman/Lee/Pence. 4.Let's say Cordero pitched the 10th and we didn't score in the 11th inning,but he still can go one more inning.If he gets out of the 11th and we score in the 12th,one of the three left relief pitchers comes in for the save with a lead for a cushion,not a tie game where one run ends it. If it reaches a 13th inning,then i couldn't find a single fault with anyone Yost would use,likely it's Capuano until a team wins.At that point he would have given the team it's best chance to win,the offense blew it and now the game is almost completely out of his hands.I just have a hard time seeing how using Wise to start the 10th inning vs the heart of their order makes more common sense than the above,screw manager handbooks,they aren't official and only exist in their own minds. BTW,i also don't agree with you that every manager would have sat on Cordero.No doubt some out there would also have allowed their dumb unwritten rules to not be bent by the common sense of the situation,but i do think a fair amount would have wisely used Cordero. Danzig I think you sum it up perfectly here. Why not go down using your best rather than saving your best for a hypothetical situation that may or may not occur. I would much rather see Wise go into a game with a cusion of a run and facing the bottom of the lineup rather than pitch in a game against Houstons' best hitters with zero margin for error. This was horrible bullpen use and I can't find anyway to defend it. I thought about in another context as well. It is like sending your pitcher to the plate with 2 outs and a runner on third knowing you need a run to win or continue with Prince on the bench available to pinch hit and hoping the pitcher squeaks out a hit so that you can use Prince in extra innings to win the game later. No sane manager would do it, so why send out anything less than your best option when the game is on the line and you absolutely have to hold the oposing team? The more I think about it the more confused / mad I become. How can a manager not trust a guy (Wise or any other option in the bullpen)to hold a one or more run lead later in the game (claims he has no one to close the game if uses CoCo early and they get a lead) but trusts the same guy (Wise) to shut down a team in a tie game? It doesn't make sense.

I just noticed on the Who's Not Hot section of my fantasy league a certain Mr. Balfour has really been roughed up in Tampa lately. He has made 4 appearances since 09/08 and recorded 2 innings worth of outs while giving up 10 earned runs. In 19 innings with Tampa he as walked 14 batters so control seems to still be a problem. Against Boston he had a similar game to one of his Milwaukee games. He didn't record an out but gave up 3 hits and a walk.