DuWayne Steurer

I've never been a fan of the shift, except in EXTREME cases, where you have data that a certain guy NEVER goes the other way with the ball. Narvy's location was off, obviously, but that shift garbage just sucks. Yeah, he looks smart when it works, but when it's an utter failure (aka, that inning) it completely over-rides any positive they get from it (which, IMO, is marginal)

Here's what it boils down to, IMO. There's not 2, but 3 camps in the Betencourt debate. 1.) There's the camp of people who despite his large body of work that suggests he sucks, thinks we should give him some time to show that he can improve. Many of these people don't think he WILL improve (though some do), but they want to give him a chance, nonetheless. The fact that he's been steady defensively the first 11 games of the season are a beacon of hope for this camp, and some (not all, some) seem to think that this points to him being better than his large body of work would indicate. There are some in this camp also who realize Betencourt sucks, and isn't likely to improve, but because he technically is the best SS on the roster, don't have a problem with him playing full time, despite the negative value he'll likely bring over a full season. 2.) There's the camp of people who despite the fact that his defense has passed the eye test for some to this point of the season, are still saying he sucks, want the guy to fail as quickly as possible so Melvin will find a replacement for him, and are not going to give him any credit for positive contributions at all. A 2 for 4 night with a few RBI is not going to impress this camp. It's a statistical outlier in what will surely be another crappy season for Betencourt, period, end of story. These people may not even be objective about a nice play, saying he was 'positioned properly', and groan if he hits a homerun, as that just means it'll be that much longer til he finally fails, and Melvin has no choice but to replace him. 3.) There's the camp of people who recognize Yuni for what he's been his whole career. A low OBP, poor range defender with very little positive value. They realize he's been serviceable in the field so far this year, according to the statistics, but that any statistical defensive data to this point is such a small sample as to be nearly meaningless. This camp expects Betencourt to put up around a .675 -ish OPS, and be about -10 to -15 defensively, and would like to see him replaced. They'll root for the guy while he wears a Brewers uniform, but he's not a 'favorite' for this camp, and they'd just as soon bring someone in via trade or waiver to see if there's a no hit-slick glove guy that can fit the bill. EVERYONE's falling into one of these 3 camps. We've been around and around and around and around on this guy, and nobody's argument is going to change. The defenders defend, the haters will hate, and nothing will change. I'm not at all suggesting that we no longer talk about it. It is a message board, after all. But maybe it'll make everyone's argument easier if they just say "I'm in group (1,2, or 3)!"

It is the only defensive metric currently available to measure how he is doing (as UZR isn't available currently as far as I can tell). And this defensive metric has always painted him as a poor defender in the past, so I think it serves as a decent measuring stick. The point is he clearly hasn't been as bad so far this season as some are claiming. I was curious how quickly someone was going to come on here to dismiss the statistic because it doesn't fit with ongoing argument...what was it, 10 minutes? Give Betancourt some credit. He currently has made 11 out of zone plays according to Fangraphs - a huge jump in where he should be at this point of the season. Essentially, all of the stats we have so far on this season suggest he has been better than we could ever have expected in the field going into the season. The problem is, no one is noticing because people are watching him under a magnifying glass, looking for any small "slip up" where they can knock him. In the game threads there have been plays where not even Escobar would have come close to making the play (because of a shift), and yet Betancourt is derided for not making the play. There is no objectivity at this point. People believe he sucks (and in his career he has), and therefore they are looking for any visible clues to confirm that belief. Precisely the reason I stay out of the in game threads. But on the flip-side, I don't expect Yuni to out-perform his career norms over the course of the season. He's a bad defender, with the huge problem being his poor range. He does look slow footed out there, and he doesn't have a good first step. And yes, I know I was dismissive of a stat that didn't back up the argument. It's entirely possible at this point of the season he HAS been a plus defender, but I don't actually believe that. Just like hitting, it's possible over a small sample size for a defender to be competent or even above average. That doesn't mean that over the whole season I'd expect, or even HOPE for Yuni to be competent. The Brewers have occaisional windows of opportunity to contend. This year is one of them. I don't believe having a negative WAR player on the field is conducive to contending. I have nothing against Betencourt personally. I would like for him to succeed. But he has over 3000 PA's and the resulting field time that to me, indicate what we're not going to have a SS that's going to suddenly improve, be a .330 OBP guy, or a fantastic defender.

The only issue I take with that is that baseball-reference uses Range Factor as one of the determinations in their calculations, and that's an absolutely terrible stat to judge range. UZR (or just about any other measurement) is far superior to range factor. RF is basically chances per game, and then compared to league average. EDIT: Fangraphs currently has him at -0.1 WAR, which would statistically tell us he shouldn't even be on a major league bench right now, let alone starting for a team hoping to contend for the playoffs.

Is there anything he's done to suggest the next 150 or so at bats are going to be any different than the last 3000? At what point has a guy had enough at bats to prove that he completely sucks offensively? I keep reading about the power he'll provide, but he's had exactly ONE season with double digit homeruns, and there's no indicator that he'll do it again.

Yeah today at work I tried calling 2 different 262 area code numbers and got "Due to network congestion your call can not be completed at this time". I then tried my cell phone and got through. I saw on JS online that TW was having phone issues today. So then I tried calling my house (we have TW phone service) from my work LAN line and got the same message (call can not be completed). I tried it from my cell phone and got through. Does it make any sense that you can call a TW phone from your cell phone but not a LAN line?? Actually, yes. Depending on where a call is originating from will make a difference on how it's routed, and subsequently, might not be going through the circuit or circuits that's having the problem.

That's sort of what I was thinking as well.

SMALL SAMPLE ALERT! Fielder's normally been a guy who strikes out a fair amount, and yes, we know that strikeouts statistically have very little to no negative impact as compared to other outs. However, I can't help but notice that Fielder has whiffed only 2 times in 41 plate appearances to this point. Yet, he's still raking the doubles and singles, and he does have 2 homeruns. I know he's said he'd like to hit .300. Has he made a major change to his approach here, or is the sample size to small to even begin to draw any conclusions from?

What happened? I missed it.Narrowing of the spinal cord. Doctors will no longer clear him to get in the ring, and said he has to retire.

I watched mid to late 90's. When Mae Young gave birth to Mark Henry's baby rubber hand, I turned it off, and have never looked back. I still follow the guys in the news that I used to enjoy watching, but that's it.

http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/8238/dougquaid.jpgThat should say "Give da people da air!"

Interesting. As I reread that I can see where you are coming from. I still question what his "We will see how it plays out" comment means but I can see where you are coming from. What's REALLY interesting is that while Quade says the nature of an unwritten rule is that it's open to interpretation, his very comments themselves are likewise, open to interpretation. Hard to judge exactly what he's saying here.

I'm not sure what comparing Lucroy to a guy who was an .800 OPS catcher in his prime, who's now clearly over the hill and not really fit for everyday play proves.

WHat I saw was Quade disagreeing with Roenicke that there are or aren't unwritten rules. Quade then said that because they're unwritten, that they're open to everyone's own interpretation, and I didn't get the impression that he had a problem with Gomez running there.

With all due respect to our resident weather man, OWBC..... I HATE weathermen that act ECSTATIC when they're reporting on weather disasters. The guy in Merrill WI from the Weather Channel is darn near orgasmic as he's explaining the damage to homes and businesses. He literally has a great big grin on his face as he's talking. Hey, jackpipe. People's lives have been shattered. People's livelyhoods have either been destroyed or put on hold. This isn't exciting in any way, shape or form.

Yeah, we were listening to the game outside while working in the yard, and I said to my neighbor and wife at the time yesterday "That's one of the more animated calls I've heard from Ueck in recent memories.:"

.270./330 would make him far more valuable than Gomez. Morgan just shouldn't attempt to steal if there's a lefty on the mound. The guy is what he is, I don't think anyone's expecting him to be a world beater, but he has brought a spark to the team since he's been playing, and he is exciting to watch. I completely understand that exciting players aren't always good players. I believe Carl Crawford is vastly overrated, as he's very 'exciting' (hits lots of triples and steals lots of bases) but at the same time, if he's one of the 8 best guys on a given day, and he's a guy the fans enjoy watching, I'm all for him being in the lineup.

One thing to consider last year.........the Brewers had a leadoff man that hit 29 homeruns. He hit 8 homeruns leading off an inning. He had almost 500 plate appearances with the bases empty, and he had 21 of his 29 homeruns with no one on base. Given that most teams don't have a power hitter in the leadoff spot, it would make perfect sense that Rickie might skew the numbers a few percentage points.

They're slightly below league average in % of homers with men on base, but not so much so that it should be looked at as anything more than a normal outlier.

I was thinking the same thing. That team was probably drinking in the dugout.Why not, Gorman Thomas would smoke out in the outfield in between pitches.

I wouldn't have a problem with Gomez over Morgan if there were some justification for it. I wouldn't have a problem with Nieves over Kottaras, if the decision makers felt his defense was necessary. I wouldn't have a problem with Betencourt, in and of itself. But when you have FOUR guys in your everyday lineup who are likely to OBP less than .300, you have to make some better decisions about trading off offense for defense. I know it's only 4 games, but it's clear as a bell for anyone to see that this team is scuffling to score other than hitting homeruns right now. I know that roughly 65% of all homers are solo shots, I won't bring that old, tired argument up. But we're seeing even a lesser chance of having men on base for the big flys when Gomez, Betencourt, Kotsay, and Nieves are all making outs at a staggering pace. Something needs to change. Gomez has had WAY too many chances to prove he can turn it around. He hasn't. He won't. He can't. I swear to God, if I see one more person say "THIS is the year he finally makes use of all that athletic ability and busts out!" I'm gonna scream. He's had almost 1,500 PA's to prove his approach at the plate doesn't work at the big league level. Maybe he was rushed, and that's too bad, but there's no turning back the clock. He's not going to 'get it', and suddenly start showing better discipline and taking walks and not swinging for the fences. It's time for this joke of an experiment to end. You don't go 'all in' by getting a couple of stud pitchers and then surround them with a half a lineup worth of absolute crap.

Anyone here ever built a MAME? This spring (ha, "spring") I rededicated myself to finally finishing the basement remodel, and I'm down to the finishing touches. The last thing I wanted to add was an arcade cabinet, but I had pretty strict standards.. 1.) It'd have to be a game that would get played. 2.) It'd have to be a game within a day's drive and back 3.) It'd have to be within my price range (roughly $1,000 budget for buying, and travelling to get) I can find PLENTY that meet 2 of the three criteria, but none that meet all three. So in my infinite wisdom, I decided I'd just build one instead, and get all the classic games that I'd want. Now, there's plenty of websites out there with 'how to's', and I reckon I'm halfway handy, and might be able to barge my way through this kind of project. The cabinet building, no problem. Been doing woodwork for the better part of 20 years. Basically, I'm just wondering if anyone's had any experience with MAMEs, any good websites/downloads, any pitfalls you ran into, etc, etc, etc.

Betencourt will have to hit .275 just to make it to a .300 OBP. Like others have said, it's not about the .000 batting average right now. It's the fact that his approach at the plate is awful. If it's anywhere CLOSE to the strike zone, he's hacking, and he's even said as much. I don't have the link, but I know there was an interview snippet with him posted here where he said that most Latin ballplayers are free swingers, don't worry about working the count, etc, etc, etc because you don't get noticed by scouts that way. Betencourt, Gomez, Nieves, Kotsay.........this is awful. Not even watchable baseball we're playing right now.

I was working as a bricklayer some years back, and we had just moved to a new house. My daughter's cat...........wasn't fond of the move, and started pissing on, well, everything. I got up for work one morning, and my wife had stacked my work t-shirts on the floor next to my dresser. They would still be somewhat nasty, being full of mortar and mud and whatnot' so we didn't put them in the dresser. I grabbed the one off the top, and out the door I went. Now this is in July. Got up on the lift, we started laying bricks, and once the sun hit us, about 9 am, I started noticing........a strange smell. A few guys working near me started saying "what the hell, did a cat get up here and piss on the lift over night?" I walk down to the end of the lift, and yes, I can smell it there as well. Hmm......wherever I go, it smells like cat piss. I take off my shirt, and smell the back. Yes. There we go. I was fine til the sun hit us, and I started sweating a bit. I was known as "Cat Piss" at work for about the next month.

Ramon Hernandez has always been a good offensive catcher, with plenty of pop. He's got 150 career dingers. Now if Paul Janish hits the walkoff, that's something else altogether more disgusting.