DuWayne Steurer

Until they fix the starting rotation, I'm not going to get too excited. Lohse and Peralta are the only ones pitching really well. Estrada always shows glimmers of breaking out, but I'm never going to hold my breath for him to become a top of the rotation type guy. The bullpen is a bunch of cast-offs and never has-beens that may or may not continue to perform solidly. And........we really just don't know what we have in guys like Gindl, Davis, and Gennett. Even if they all get 200 - 250 PA's this year, that's not enough to say "yeah, they're .800 OPS players." I'm glad to see they're not overmatched (though Logan Schafer has been a big disappointment), and are producing when they get opportunities to play, but the stats they're putting up is such a small sample, I just don't think it's fair to use these numbers as predictive at this point. I don't think the Brewers are anything close to contenders for 2014, but there are things to look forward to. Gomez is a legitimate star. I know just about everyone and their grandma wants him traded for multiple pieces, but if anything, this tepid trade market has shown that teams just aren't dealing. Gomez is 27, and signed to a team friendly deal. He's finally 'getting it', and hopefully the Brewers can be competitive again while he's still in his able-bodied years. Segura is every bit the real deal. . He's a .300 hitter and a 15-20 homer guy, with big time speed and a gold glove caliber defender. Lucroy is an all star. 'Nuff said. And .....Braun. With those 4, you have a very capable core of a solid, if not spectacular offense. Even with Hart missing the entire year, A-Ram being out most of the year, and Braun playing in less than 60 games, and Weeks flat out sucking, the Brewers are right in the middle of the NL in runs scored. That's a testament to Lucroy, Gomez, and Segura, mostly. Peralta looked like a bust at the beginning of the year, and RRR just kept throwing him out there, and sure enough, he's been pretty dang solid for the last few months. he might not be an ace, but he's certainly a capable middle of the rotation guy. I'd feel more optimistic if we had some prospects that were viewed as more than bench filler/platoon type guys. There isn't a prospect in the system right now that says 'future all star'.

Despite his small-ish (ok, he's a tiny little dude), he's always had a little bit of power. He's not Tony Gwynn Jr, who could never even keep defenses honest. That being said, I don't ever expect him to be more than an 8 to 12 homer guy (but that's ok). I just wish he'd work the count more, and take more walks. He's going to have to hit .300 to ever have a good OBP, and if he ever dips below .280, he's going to be a liability in the lineup. Granted, plate discipline is something that can be learned, but his walk rate has been pretty consistent through four years in the minors. I'm not worried about the lack of power. If he can play defense and get on base, things which can be trained and learned, he can provide value. It's just that he doesn't seem to be acquiring that skill.

Would love to get tickets to one of the games in Boston. Have never been to Fenway but that's on my short-list of must see parks.

I post on a multi-team board, and the same Cardinals fans that vehemently denied their Golden God would ever do something as heinous as use PEDS are now all basically saying "Yup...not surprised" Jackals.

About 6 years ago I went to a low sodium diet. The USDA recommended daily allowance is 2000 mg, but any dietician will tell you in reality you should stay below 1500 mg. The USDA value is at 2000, because if you buy boxed or canned food and eat 3 meals a day, it's almost impossible to stay below 2000 mg. Sad. Casey, it sounds like you know most of the basics already. Most processed foods are a no-go. Canned food, for the most part, is simply off limits. Even stuff that is labelled as "low sodium" is still outrageously high in actual sodium content. Bread, as you've found out, can be high. Most store bought breads will have 150 mg or more of sodium, per single slice. If you have a person who needs to eat low sodium, and REALLY wants to eat bread, make home made bread. There's TONS of good recipes online for low or no-sodium bread. And, yeah, just get used to finding different ways to season your food. Stay away from salt substitutes. I will say this though, in time, if the person in question really sticks to the low/no sodium diet, eventually extra salty/too salty food will start to have a distaste to it, to the point where it will be undesirable. One thing that really works for me is I love spicy/hot foods. I have a great selection in my house of seasonings that don't have salt in them, or have very low sodium content. Also, even things you wouldn't associate salt with, read labels. A 20 ounce bottle of mountain dew, for example, has 140 mg of sodium in it, and that's fairly low sodium for a soda. Restaurants is a tough one. You simply can't control how much salt goes in what you cook. If there are restaurants this person frequents, you may want to ask the management (if they're available) if they can provide some reasonable estimate of salt content, or, simply limit how often they eat out. For recipes..........google really is your friend. I could sit here and list a bunch of things, but you know what you like more than I do. If you want to make, for example, lasagna, just google low-sodium lasagna, and you'll find plenty of examples of what you want, and plenty of varieties.

That tends to be how these things go. My sister-in-law and her husband have been putting up my brother in law (my wife's other sibling) for the past couple months. He graduated in May and is trying to find a job. It makes sense for him to live with them, since they're in the southern part of the state where he's more likely to find a job. His parents (my in-laws) live way up in the north woods where there is probably zero chance of him getting a job. Well, they're already tired of him, so he's going to be moving back with mom and dad "temporarily". We'll see if they take him back later. I think it was Ben Franklin who said, "House guests are like dead fish...after three days they stink." My house guest slept with my 18 year old son's girlfriend. I have to keep telling myself that assault and battery will only result in jail time, and it's not worth it.

Nothing. My post was in reference to MLB saying the system and the testing was working. My post said that if most of the guys currently suspended were not popping positive, wouldn't that be indicative that the testing is in fact, NOT working? That guys that are cheating are finding ways to circumvent the testing? What's so hard to understand about THAT?

[sarcasm]They did focus on the dealer. Didn't you hear that Conte and Bosch received lifetime bans? Both of their major league careers are over and we'll never see them put on a jersey again.[/sarcasm] Since the worst punishment MLB can hand out is suspensions, it would make sense that they only go after people they can suspend. I completely get that. There's nothing MLB can do to guys like Conte and Bosch. It's like you said, they can't 'suspend' them. That doesn't mean I like it, or ever will, that MLB is basically cutting deals with the dealers to get at the users.

Boy that's getting sticky. I applaud you for being a good friend, but at some point he has to figure it out. Is there tension in the house or is pretty chill? The first few months were more or less ok, but since then it's been.......eh. I'm trying really hard to be diplomatic, but I think my wife may end up losing it soon. When he gets home from work, more often than not, he jokes "CATHY!!!! Why isn't dinner on the table!!!!!!!?!?!?!?" You know, it really wasn't even funny the first time. After 30+ iterations of the joke, it's completely lost its steam. I get the sense that he's somewhat bitter because of his divorce right now, and it's starting to show in his interactions with my wife, and I'm not going to allow that to escalate too much further, honestly. Well.........we told him last night that he has to leave. Things reached a boiling point yesterday, and it's just not going to work any longer.

Well, we do know that MLB used some form of coercion against Bosch and Biogenesis (that's blackmail) We also do know that the majority (by far) of the players that got suspended did not fail a drug test. I don't have a problem with baseball trying to "clean up the sport". I have a problem with the powers that be making up the rules (and using shady tactics at that) as they go. I have, and always will have a problem with the focus being not on the dealer, but the user, but..........that's the way it is. MLB doesn't care about the Victor Conte or Tony Bosch's of the world, as long as they find out who they're selling to. And.......is there a reason you're being snarky at me? I'm not attacking a post or a poster, so do me a courtesy and don't do it to me either. If you want to break down what I said and say "this is wrong", cool, but the whole "do you work for the Union?" Really? You can debate stuff better than that.

I find it interesting that Selig said that this shows that testing and investigative work are working to clean up the sport. Um......isn't this almost absolute proof that testing almost certainly ISN'T working? Most of these guys that got suspended never popped a positive, yet were obviously using. And by "investigative work" Bud, you mean "paying the dealers and threatening ex-employees", right? I mean, let's not gild the lily here. Let's call it what it is. It's called blackmail, and selective information leaks to the media.

OBP is quantitatively, measurably more important than slugging. Continually bringing up Yuni's dozen homeruns as his standout feature (which actually is not all that impressive) doesn't really bolster the case for why he should be kept on the roster. I don't care that Doug and Mark "know more about baseball". Anyone carrying a .238 On Base Percentage doesn't belong on a major league roster. Period. End of Story. Fin. Not as a starter, a bench player, or even as a 25th man. He's making scads of outs, to go along with one homer every 22-23 at bats or so, the vast majority of which were hit 4 months ago. He can play 3 defensive positions! Great! He provides negative value at all of those positions! Melvin may think that Yuni can help the Brewers win more games in 2013 than Sean Halton or whoever. He may think that, and he might be right (but chances are, he's actually wrong). My question is, to what end? What is the point of winning 68 games instead of 66? The one thing it fails to do is show us what we MIGHT have in Sean Halton or some other fringe player. Is Sean Halton a future answer? Most likely not. But I am 100% CERTAIN that the Yuni-Bomber is not a solution in ANY way shape or form to what ails this Brewers team. So why are we still seeing at bats given to a guy who's clearly on the downslide of his career, and is 100% guaranteed to not be a meaningful piece of the future?

When they were talking about this on MLB Tonight they said it was because he would be suspended under the "integrity of the game" clause or something like that and you cannot appeal that kind of suspension. It still stinks of "we're going to do what we want to do", and despite the fact that A-Rod might be one of my five least favorite players ever, I think it's complete crap.

Is it completely crazy of me to think that MLB trying so hard to get a lifetime ban on A-Rod is just Selig and the good ol' boys club trying to help the Yankees get out from under that terrible contract? I'm not defending A-Rod here........this just reeks of more "make up the rules as we go" nonsense. Latest word is that if A-Rod appeals, he won't be able to play during the appeal process. What kind of garbage is that???

Boy that's getting sticky. I applaud you for being a good friend, but at some point he has to figure it out. Is there tension in the house or is pretty chill? The first few months were more or less ok, but since then it's been.......eh. I'm trying really hard to be diplomatic, but I think my wife may end up losing it soon. When he gets home from work, more often than not, he jokes "CATHY!!!! Why isn't dinner on the table!!!!!!!?!?!?!?" You know, it really wasn't even funny the first time. After 30+ iterations of the joke, it's completely lost its steam. I get the sense that he's somewhat bitter because of his divorce right now, and it's starting to show in his interactions with my wife, and I'm not going to allow that to escalate too much further, honestly.

The Brewers will continue to sell Braun merchandise in the stadium. "We just feel it's up to the fans to decide whether they want to buy things associated with Ryan," Schlesinger said. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9518562/milwaukee-brewers-distribute-10-vouchers-august-games So..........I think we all knew that the jersey trade-in was never actually going to happen, but they're still going to keep the Braun merch on the shelves. Good for them. He's still a Brewer.

Back in February, a good friend got separated from his wife, and needed a place to stay "for a little while". I was thinking......a few weeks, maybe a couple months, tops. Now it's the end of July, and here we are. There's a laundry list of things, but for sake of brevity........I won't go into it. The absolute kicker came a few weeks ago when he brought his 9 year old daughter over to our house, and my wife was cooking, and burned her thumb on a hot pan, and used a curse word that rhymes with duck. "Um........yeah. Don't use language like that in front of my daughter". Not "could you please not swear in front of her" or "I don't want to expose her to that yet" or something a little more along those lines. Just "Don't use language like that in front of my daughter" Wait a sec? Who's house is this..........anyways?

A $10.00 food voucher? So........like half a pepsi and a hot dog! In all seriousness, not a bad first move from the PR guys. It's not just the cost of the food for the team/vending though, think of the fans that normally buy that food that will now be getting it for free. It's not just the food cost, it's the money that won't be being spent on it. Granted, there will be people buying food that normally wouldn't (and let's be honest, 10 bucks just doesn't go that far at the ballpark, so maybe this could come out as a dollar-neutral move in the long run.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/9512043/whistle-blower-documents-show-high-school-players-received-peds-tony-bosch-biogenesis-clinic-sources-say Bosch supplying PEDS to 16 and 17 year old high school kids. Stand up guy.

The jersey trade in idea is ridiculous. If teams are going to operate under the premise that they may have to trade in jerseys for players suspended for drug violations, whoever outfits the NFL would go bankrupt.

Actually, he is allowed to work out with the team on off days and before games. On the radio the other day Lucroy said he was not allowed to have any contact with the team until next spring. Maybe he was mistaken.

Free beer Friday is a terrible, terrible idea. Braun in a dunk tank........well, he can't be at the stadium or have any contact with the team til spring training next year so.....that's out the window. I know some of these are tongue in cheek, but anything that lets the public vent anger or even hate on Braun in a physical way isn't going to start any kind of healing process. It's fun (for some) to think about, I'm sure, but just in the realm of silliness. Having him donate every game check for a year? Why? he's already serving his punishment.......a 65 game suspension.

If Braun was facing a full season ban, or maybe even, as has been suggested, a 500 game ban or lifetime ban, would he want to risk that, vs a 65 game ban, no matter how much money he has, or how good his legal representation is? We don't know what MLB threatened him with, and we also KNOW that the last time an arbitrator sided with a player (Braun), the arbitrator got fired. It's entirely plausible that if baseball threatened him with a 500 game ban or gave him a plea deal of 65 games, Braun would decide to say "heck with it" and take the 65 games. So I would have to disagree that it's completely inconceivable. ***I'm not saying Braun is innocent. Not at all. I'm simply disagreeing with the notion that an innocent player wouldn't take a 65 game suspension based on certain circumstances that we aren't privy to ***

Agreed. However, I read a few tweets today (trying to go through my timeline to remember who it was) that stated that Weeks and Lucroy still wanted to know "the truth" and McCalvy tweeted that RR said "if the Union, MLB, legal ramifications allow, Braun should come forward with an explanation." Weeks and Lucroy don't sound like guys who were told anything of substance. I will say that RR's is a little more ambiguous. Again, we don't know what Braun is even allowed to say. Also, as far as Braun "sneaking away"...........he's not allowed any contact with the club while he's suspended. What's he supposed to do, stand across I-94 from the stadium and try to look in the windows with binoculars? I get it. People want answers, but we don't know what he is and isn't allowed to say, per whatever back-room agreement he came to with MLB.

Invader...No dig intended here but I am just curious how any Brewer fan can be a huge Braun fan given how he has handled this entire situation to date? Sure, he can remedy some of this by future actions as you mentioned. However, given that he has lied constantly since November 2011, thrown the franchise into turmoil by being a $20m/year PED user with a 65 game suspension and left his teammates, coaches and front office to answer questions while he runs off without apparently giving them a full explanation as to why he was suspended, I struggle to understand remaining a huge Braun fan today. We don't know what he told the owner, the GM, the manager, and his teammates, and we probably never will.