DuWayne Steurer

You make up your own definition of a word, tell everyone else that their definition, based on the widely held and accepted use of the word, in the context we're all using it is wrong, and then proclaim yourself the 'winner'. I can't even begin to express how utterly ridiculous this is.

Go Brewers. http://lollercoaster.me/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/1253047376982586.jpeg

The Brewers are going to need pitching depth at some point this season. There's just not a lot of seasons (like 2011 for example) where you go through almost an entire season where your 1-2-3-4-5 guys barely miss a beat. (Our rotation missed a grand total of SEVEN starts that year!) That kind of rotational health is simply unheard of. Take into account the fact that we have Matt "glass man" Garza, and other injuries are just inevitable when it comes to pitching. Being 7 deep right now is a great thing to have, and I'd just as soon see them stay that way at the moment.

You're narrowly defining things by your view, and throwing everything else out the window. Everyone else says "this guy with X amount of MLB service time" (including the guys you call 'so called experts' with snarky sarcasm) is still a prospect. When Segura came up in 2012, he was still a prospect. Just because you want to stick your head in the sand and disagree with EVERYONE ELSE doesn't make you right. It just means you're disagreeable.

I guess I'm just going to reiterate my stance that there's a lot of at bats getting eaten up by bench guys (Herrera, Bianchi, Schafer, Overbay, and Gindl have accounted for 235 PA's), and as I've pointed out, if you're expecting anything even close to league average out of bench guys, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. We have had injuries, and when you have injuries, you replace your starters with not-starters. Not-starters are not-starters for a reason, almost always because they're not as good as the starters. And as Doug Melvin has been more than happy to show us in the past, if you can hit, he usually doesn't care if you can field all that well, he'll find a spot for you, so it's not lack of fielding acumen that separates the good from the bad in Brew-town.

You can browse around the league. Atlanta has 3 guys on their entire roster with an OPS over .700. They have only ONE guy on their bench with an OPS over .500!!!! The Dodgers have 4 starters with OPS over .800. On their bench, aside from Van Slyke, they have nobody OPS-ing .680 The Giants, with a resurgent offense, are in the same boat. 4 good hitters, with OPS over .800, and one guy on the bench with an OPS over .500. Washington has 3 guys on their entire ROSTER with an OPS over .800, and 2 of them are on the DL. Johnny Peralta leads the Cards in OPS at .818, and he's the only guy over .800. Their bench is pretty awful at the moment. These are all teams with records of .500 or better. I don't know what people EXPECT, but I know what the reality is. Offense is at an absolute premium right now. The only outlier is Colorado, and they quite literally, do not count, with that ballpark and hitting environment.

Yes, offense is down throughout the league this season, so a relative stat will show that even though some guys are performing poorly, relative to other guys performing poorly they aren't that bad. Here's the OPS: the good (398 AB) Braun .938 - about what's expected for a star player. Unfortunately only 90 AB on the season. I don't think the HGH helped his numbers, it just helped keep him on the field. Gomez .924 - excellent all-around play Lucroy .827 - one of the best catchers in the game Maldonado 1.008 - been great in the 24 AB he's been given this season the okay (272 AB) Reynolds .782 - he's doing pretty well, and has been bouncing between the high .700 to mid-.800 OPS all season Weeks .766 - better than many would've expected in his limited role (45 AB) Gennett .730 - not good, but probably around what we should expect from him, and enough to keep him in the majors while he's inexpensive the bad (600 AB) Ramirez .699 - annual slow start, or old age catching up? Davis .646 - a trip to AAA would probably help him get things straightened out Segura .631- I really hope the start to last year wasn't a mirage Schafer .618 - only 50 AB. I've liked Schafer for a long time, but he's looking more and more like his best role will be as the 5th OF used mainly for defense Overbay .588 - why is he taking PAs away from Reynolds? Herrera .576 - I know he's a bench guy, but he's got 1/3 as many ABs as Braun so far. Gindl .462 - I wanted so badly for him to hit the ground running... he didn't Bianchi .371 - yes, that's his OPS, not his OBP So I'll stand by my statement of "putrid offense from a lot of players." Note, I didn't say everyone, as we have a few guys who have carried the load quite well. I'm not surprised Ramirez's numbers are down, but I've said for a while that an injury to him would really hurt the team, as it means Overbay will play every day. Braun missing a lot of time also isn't surprising, but disappointing nonetheless, as it means Schafer plays nearly everyday, and we were forced to watch Herrera and Reynolds in the OF. Hopefully Gomez's back doesn't become an issue, because he and Lucroy are the only healthy, reliable guys we have. Out of the "lot of players", almost all of the guys you mention are bench guys. Schafer is a 4th/5th OF with no power who doesn't take walks. Bianchi is a guy who doesn't take walks, and has no power. Gindl has had only a handful of plate appearances, and so....the only full time performers who are REALLY sucking, are Segura and Davis. I give A-Ram an */disclaimer because we all know he's a slow starter, and he's 37. I just don't know how much longer we can expect him to be an .800 OPS guy. That being said, despite the "a lot of guys are hitting putrid", the offense is still in the upper half in the league. If you cruise around the league, when you see managers that are forced to play bench guys, they're not plugging in above average guys too often. They're bench players because they're not good players.

I see people saying that we're getting 'bad offense' or 'the offense is slumping' or (to quote monty) 'putrid offense from a lot of players' Lucroy OPS+ 128 Reynolds OPS+ 111 Gennett OPS+ 100 Gomez OPS+ 151 Braun OPS + 154 Ramirez OPS+ 92 That's 6 guys who are either above, at, or just below average. Maldonado and Weeks, when they play, have been above average. Bianchi has sucked, and Schafer is sub-par, but they are not on the team for their bats. Overbay has been disappointing, but I don't think anyone expected him to bring the thunder at age 37. The only guys that are REALLY slumping and hurting the team are Segura and Davis. And mostly due to the fact that neither of them will take a walk The team OPS is .710. The NL OPS is .702. People keep saying "the offense sucks, we're not getting offense, we need to get guys out of slumps." The offense is just a hair above average, and most of the guys are doing what they would be expected to do......and honestly, I'm not surprised given Ramirez's age and penchant for slow starts that he's hitting the way he is. I just hope we don't see another season of him on the sidelines for 60 - 70 - 80 games, because Mark Reynolds playing 3B while another Clown Car full of terrible first basemen will ruin the hopes of this promising season.

I believe Yount was on the cover during the 82 series.

Alright, that's the one of him running the bases. I thought that was Svuem from the Easter Sunday day, but I think you're right. I knew I was 100% correct on this one (because I have it), so I'll post this....... http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mHv9kBpSUWjC7RsNr_2f8HQ.jpg

I know for sure Rob Deer was one of them.

But what we're not agreeing on is that a vesting option is NOT a guaranteed contract. I get what you're arguing, I just disagree with it. I also understand what you're asking me. Put myself in Rickie Weeks' shoes. Would I feel like I'm getting screwed over? Sure, I can agree to that. But I'm not Rickie Weeks. I'm looking at this from 2 different angles. Rickie Weeks the person, and Rickie the player. The player shouldn't be on the field full time. He just shouldn't. His last 4-5 games of infield hits notwithstanding, he's a negative WAR player for the last 300 games or so. That's more than enough sample size for me to say "he's not coming back." When it comes to sports, I don't really get sentimental. I just don't. I don't like holding onto players longer than we should, and I abhor the idea of bringing back ex-Brewers just because we liked them 10 years ago. What is ABSOLUTELY best for the Brewers is that the vesting option money that Rickie could be making next year is freed up and spent elsewhere in areas of need for this team. (And I ABSOLUTELY suspect that you agree with that notion, yes?) I want what is best for the Brewers as a team, not Rickie Weeks. So....yes, I understand why Rickie feels cheated out of his money, but what he needs to do is suck it up, and go out and perform to the best of his capabilities for the other 24 guys that are counting on him still. IF that includes playing outfield.....then so be it. If the option is (or was?) Rickie starting in the OF, or Logan Schafer starting vs. a LH starter, I don't think the question was out of line. Heck, we've already seen Mark Reynolds play RF this year, and he has four, yes, four entire games in his big league career in the outfield, for a total of 12 innings played out there. If Reynolds can do it, even poorly, then so can Rickie.

Ask and ye shall receive. Nice to see something as simple as contact with a man on third lately. Cashing in these runners is nice. Get a bit of breathing room for the bullpen. Nice to make our 8th and 9th inning guys not have to be perfect.

Nice start from Marco. Lot of pitches for 6 innings though.

Surprisingly, for the season, the man on, less than 2 outs numbers are pretty gaudy. I can't find a breakdown for the last week.

This team has been brutal with men at 3rd and less than two outs as of late. I don't know where they stand for the season, but for the last week or so it's been rough.

Interesting that the sub .500 Cardinals are still 4/1 and 8/1 to win the NL, and the WS, respectively.

I'm only watching on gamecast, did the Gomez HBP look at all intentional, or did one just get away from Cole?

In his last 140 games, Segura is hitting .266 with an OBP south of .300. That's not a slump, it's an indicator.

Amazing. 6th in runs scored with the starter slumping problems/injury's we have had this year. This should tell everybody that we are for real and are one of the best teams. Who is slumping? Braun, Gomez, Lucroy, Reynolds and Gennett are hitting like I'd expect them to. Aram is 37 years old. Him regressing is not unexpected. Overbay is old and regression is not unexpected either. Davis and Segura are struggling, and I suspect in large part due to horrible plate discipline. I'm not all that surprised by Davis' struggles. A lot of young guys tear through the league like he did the first time through last year. Pitchers adjust. Now we'll see if he does, or if he's a flame out. You're making it sound like suddenly a bunch of guys are going to start ripping the cover off the ball, when in fact over half the lineup is producing right about as their career numbers and trajectories indicate they should be.

The offense isn't slumping that bad, it's 6th in the league in runs scored. Runs are down all across the board this year. The league OPS is below .700. League ERA is right around 3.5 It's a different game this year.

I don't think anyone is arguing (here) that they're not 'good'...... I'm seeing a few people (myself included) say that they're not top 3 talent.

I want to see something totally new and fresh, but not outrageous. I want to see the Bucks moving forward, not backward. I guess in the overall scheme of things, the uniform doesn't matter, but for me personally, seeing my sports teams live in the past just doesn't do anything for me.

Why should any player, especially an underperforming, aging player, ever assume that he will be guaranteed playing time if he's healthy? He can make it up in his own mind that he's being 'screwed', but no player in any professional team sport should ever make an assumption of playing time given. Especially a guy who's put up the numbers (and defense) that Rickie has the past few years. A guy pushing into his 30's, sporting negative WAR 2 years running, with significant playing time, doesn't get more playing time, he gets less.

I don't know that I've ever seen any explicit language that states that plate-appearance based vesting options are specifically to safe guard against health issues. I can't imagine any team would be interested in paying Weeks 11 million dollars next year, based on his production from the last few years. A .700 OPS 2nd baseman, with middling-to-poor defense is not a guy you want to be paying top - 5 at his position money. A team making sure that option doesn't vest is doing smart business (IMO)