DuWayne Steurer

It's not hard to imagine how this scenario goes down a slippery slope. As Nottso said, he was rumored at one point to be 400K or more in the hole to bookies with mob ties. It's not hard to see a situation where these guys ask Rose to influence the outcome of a game the other way to relieve some of that debt.

I think we, as Brewers fans, can appreciate this. Brauny getting snagged for roids wasn't the big deal. His bold faced claiming that "the truth" would come out is why he's such a villain now.

I don't think too many people really had a problem with claiming Dominguez on the off chance he develops his power and other parts of his game into a positive value, especially considering 3rd base is an organizational black hole right now. I think a lot of people viewed it as a *possible* trade off of Wang's potential for Dominguez, and nobody was happy with that. True, Wang has not performed as of yet, but you don't just go tossing young lefties who work low 90's to the scrap heap. They got lucky (of a sort) that nobody claimed him. Of course the 300K was a factor, and they likely knew that would play a role. So they got Dominguez for nothing, and that's fine. People just weren't looking at it as a straight pick up of Dominguez, which it never was.

Pete had a 12 year run where he posted no less than a 4 WAR in any season. He was a great player in his prime. I think his final rate stats look a bit tarnished because he obviously hung on a bit longer than he should have to chase some of the personal records. In his prime he was a very good, maybe even great hitter who lead the league in doubles five times, was an OBP machine, and was an adequate defender at whatever position he played. Is he an all time greatest player? No, I wouldn't say that. He was good at what he did, and he did it for a VERY long time. That being said, I have no problem keeping him out of the hall. He agreed to the ban. Live with it.

What???

Salary relief shouldn't be the primary focus of a rebuild. Getting good, cost controllable young talent back should be. By all means, get rid of Lohse, Garza, and Ramirez if you can, but Lohse and Ramirez are off the books at the end of the year anyways. Lucroy, Gomez, and Segura are the optimal trade chips, and if Melvin thinks the Brewers are going to be competitive within the window while those guys are still here, he's absolutely delusional.

Fair point. it was his ability to take a walk that made him different. But that is something that can be learned to some extent. Power can't. One ironic thing about stat gurus is they say K's don't matter for hitters but do for pitchers. I know they are measuring different things but if you don't care about one the other is going to be effected. For a pitcher, they largely have little effect on BABIP. Some guys who have pinpoint control and can work the corners like magic, maybe, but largely, pitchers have little to do with the effect of a ball in play (other than flyball/groundball). If the pitcher can keep the ball from being put in play, that's always a plus. For a batter, if you have a .900 OPS guy who strikes out 150 times, and a .900 OPS guy who strikes out 70 times, the difference is negligible at best. I've read that 100 strikeouts cost a team one run. (statistical research will absolutely bear this out) If you go up there with the mindset to "put the ball in play", you are changing your approach, and aren't as aggressive a hitter. You have a guy who hits 30 homeruns and hits .270 and strikes out 150 times, suddenly decide to be a 'contact' hitter, it's going to completely change his game and and most likely have a negative overall effect on his offensive numbers. Weakly grounding out to 2nd base 9 times out of 10 has zero value for the offense.

I think you're quite wrong on that. This story has legs, and is all over the place.

Nelson Cruz was a beast all through the minors. In his age 23 season, he had a .951 OPS with 81 XBH. He had OPS over .900 each of the following seasons as well. The Brewers just didn't give him a chance because STRIKEOUTS! Comparing him and Dominguez isnt even close. Dominguez can't hit worth a lick. Cruz didn't hit much his first full season in the minors, and has destroyed the ball ever since.

It doesn't matter if it's guessing the password. "hacking" still falls within the scope of illicitly gaining access to someone else's private data files, even if they (for lack of a better term) 'left the door open'.

I worked outside (constrction) for 15 years. Getting a yearly skin check is now a routine for me. I'll simply say this. If you aren't sure........get it checked. It's that simple.

Even laying aside the fact that 1) Braun said he would never play 3rd again 2) He was horrible at it. Like historically bad 3) There's more to positional defense than just errors committed This season is a total loss. Next season will likely be a loss as well. Shuffling the guy around to a position he hasn't played for 7-8 years to do what? win 70 games instead of 68 accomplishes what, exactly?

Braun's defense was so bad it almost totally negated his offensive value. In a word. No.

i agree, this screams Tim Thomas, Bobby Simmons to me. i would like Middleton back, but I agree that at this salary it could get ugly quick. haha, Tim Thomas is exactly who I was thinking of. I like Middleton, I just don't think he's a 15 million dollar a year man (Yet), and he may never be that guy in Milwaukee.

That's what the game has become? Where "fans" want utter failure to enhance draft position? That's what I hate about the NBA. You'd think that in baseball where the draft is still a big crapshoot, and summers watching complete ineptitude are so depressing that fans wouldn't be like that. The Brewers no longer have the worst record in baseball, because news flash, they aren't the worst team in baseball. The longer the season goes, the more a team's record is reflective of a team's strength. It's become fashionable around the game to say "Brewers suck". Just heard Gordon Wittenmeyer of the Chicago Tribune say that on Chicago radio this morning. He's wrong. I've seen a lot of worse Brewer teams in my day. A lot. A lot of people were saying the "Brewers suck" in 1991 too when that team was 43-60 in early August. But they still had a very good roster. They could have easily traded off a lot of talent that year but they held on to it, and finished incredibly strong, winning 40 of their last 59 games and that was followed up by an exciting 1992 season. This team's roster is still decent. Maybe not on the level of the 91 team, but for a variety of reasons, most notably a 2-13 start and a rash of injuries, they haven't played anywhere near the level they are capable of, yet. I said pretty much the same thing in another thread but it got shrugged off as "well they're still in last place so they're the worst team". Brewers have been 18 - 21 since May 1st, . 18-21 is still below .500, which is not good. I'm not saying the Brewers are the worst team in baseball, but they're at best a .500 caliber ball club as they're currently built. I'd like to see some of the younger talent get a longer look (Jungmann, Cravy, Sardinas, heck, even Arcia) and I'm excited to see some of the pieces we get back in trades for dead weight like Parra, Ramirez and Broxton, but I don't hold any illusions to what this team is. There ARE reasons to watch, and like you, I will never root to lose any individual game, but I'm just not feeling the mojo with this team.

I just see the guy as filler. .660 OPS in the minor leagues, with an ISO below .100 ..... He may be a slick fielder, but he's got to be Omar Vizquel to make up for what he can't do at the plate.

It's interesting that people say the risk of getting injured is very low at a baseball game. Individually, I'm sure that's true. (not even sure.....the numbers bear that out). However, the risk of "someone" getting injured (even a minor injury) is pretty high. didn't the article say that there were 2 injuries that required treatment of some sort out of every 3 games? Again I say, if there's something that CAN be done about that, why not do it? Something as simple and cost effective as putting up a net.... why not do it? As people have pointed out, nobody can pay attention 100% of the time. That's just not feasible. It's not. No, you can't prevent every injury. You can't build the stadiums out of nerf, or jell-o, or put 4 foot high barriers all around the upper deck, or whatever......but a net is a cheap and easy solution to preventing injuries to spectators that happen (quite literally) every single day at major league parks.

That was kind of my point. Brewer fans think it only happens to us. It happens to everyone.

Pirate fans be like "why is it only us that get shut down by some scrub making his mlb debut?"

If you can prevent injuries at a baseball game (and they do happen) why wouldn't you? By doing something as simple as putting up a net, you can prevent the injuries that occur. 1750 injuries a year? If we have the ability to prevent even half of those (we do....FWIW), why wouldn't we? Of those 1750 reported injuries, how many went to the ER? 500? 400? Isn't that tiny bit of impairment (it isn't an impairment for most people, IMO) in the view worth 400 people (a guess) not having to go to the ER, if we can make that adjustment?

I can understand saying that a net in your site-line is not the best thing to look at, but isn't saying it "ruins the experience" a bit over the top? When I go to minor league games, I ALWAYS sit right behind home plate, or in the netted area, and by the 2nd inning, I'm completely unaware I'm watching a game through a net.

Except he's not a .900 OPS guy. He hasn't been that for over the last 1000 plate appearances. Yes, I know he had a nice hot streak where he put up a 1.000 OPS. Like others have said, every hitter is capable of hot streaks. Braun is still a good hitter. Labelling him as a '.900 OPS guy' is a bit of a prop-up though, isn't it?

Bobble head day should not be a consideration for how you manage your roster.

It does seem to happen a lot, but we've certainly seen it go the other way. How do you think all those teams felt a couple of years ago when Mike "Who The Hell Is This Guy" Fiers was carving them up? I'm sure Cardinal fans were wondering how the heck they got pwned by Chris Saenz as well. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=saenzch01&t=p&year=

I remember listening to that game! It's funny. Brewerfan posters think we're the only team that gets shut down by unheralded guys making their MLB debuts. Woodard matched Clemens pitch for pitch that day, and pitched an absolute gem. Too bad he was never anything more than about a league average guy after that.