DuWayne Steurer

If you look at last year, take a few teams that scored a very similar amount of runs to the Brewers (Mets and Braves), and each of those teams had more than 50 fewer homers than the Brewers. The Brewers were right at their expected wins, the Mets were 2 over, and the Braves were 4 under. Small sample, only 3 teams, but as you look through the league, look through the years, you find that the teams that "relied" on the longball still stayed within a small variance of their expected W/L. I actually did a run distribution for the Mets and Brewers, and found that the Mets scored runs to both extremes (0 or 1 runs, 8 or more runs) more often than the Brewers, despite the fact that the Mets were a "small ball" team last year.

The 11 bypass and the addition of Ruether Street that makes it quite a bit easier for the big rigs to get from the plant out to I-90 and vicey versey.

I've been starting to wonder when it'll happen. I'm sure the Brewers are going to give Cameron a somewhat long leash, given his contract. I know contract shouldn't be the deciding factor when putting together a lineup, but in reality, it always is. That being said, if/when Kapler cools down, his OBP could get ugly, because the guy just doesn't take a lot of walks, or at least he's not this year.

Living in Janesville, I can say that this is about all people were/are talking about. Things are going to be tough here for a good long while I think. Gilman announced that they're moving, that's 160 jobs lost. Allied, Lear, and I'm sure a few other of GM's "satellite" companies have or are going to be laying off or shutting down as well. There could potentially be 3-4,000 unemployed due to this, not to mention the hit to the local economy. The city will survive, but this is a huge blow. It's hard to find a family that's been in Janesville for 10 or more years that isn't directly tied to GM in some way. This will affect just about everybody in some way.

One thing to keep in mind with Braun is that he's been in professional baseball a very short time. His trip through the minors was dang near light-speed. I'm not going to say that a .320-ish OBP isn't bad, but I definately expect his plate discipline and walk totals to improve over time.

I agree. Baseball is a continual series of 1 on 1 matchups. And I don't disagree about the leader just being a media friendly guy. Fiery clubhouse speeches don't win games, hitting, pitching, and defense do. That being said, there still can be a guy who waves the flag for the rest of the group.

Braun may or may not be the team leader, but he's quickly becoming the face of the franchise. The fact that he was giddy about a contract that could make him vastly underpaid as few as 3-4 years from now tells me a lot about him and that his main motivating factor once he's between those lines is winning. I may be taking a leap here, but if the Brewers can make a few playoff appearances (and maybe even if they don't) in Braun's next 7 years, he continues to play well.......you look at extending him again when he's got a year or 2 left on that deal, and he could become a franchise icon much like a Robin Yount. Too early? Yeah, absolutely, but if there's a guy among the current crop who's got even a 10% chance of achieving that, it's this guy.

At this point, giving Branyan 3-4 weeks of starts vs. righties at 3rd base can't possibly hurt anything. We're past the threshold where "small sample" can be the rallying cry against putting Hall on the bench for a while. He's completely lost up there, and a .272 OBP is "backup catcher" bad. While we're at it, let's mention that if JJ takes an 0-fer today, his SLG% is going to dip below .300

The difference between Homer and Peter boils down to the fact that while they're both drunken idiots, Homer at least tries to be a good dad/husband/person. He just fails miserably at it most of the time. Peter is more "laugh out loud" funny, his humor is more crude, but Homer is more consistent. Chris/Meg/Stewie vs. Bart/Lisa/Maggie. I think the Griffin kids have more depth to them than the Simpson kids. I've never found Lisa anything but annoying, and she's not even really a good punch line, ala Meg. Maggie is almost an afterthought (somewhat by design of course). Bart's a one trick pony, (bad boy with an attitude) but I guess after 17 years, there's only so much you can do. Marge vs Lois.......I give the edge to Lois, because she's really not a good person, much like her husband. She's just funnier than Marge. Marge is like Lisa......annoying. Brian has no Simpsons counterpart. But the one area that the Simpsons clearly kicks Family Guys ass is supporting cast. You can name recurring characters from Family Guy on 2 hands, while the Simpsons has literally a whole TOWN full of people that can pop in and out of every episode. I can't decide.

He had an ERA of 5.18 in 15 starts with the Cards down the stretch. He had a few nice starts in the postseason, but that's nothing to hang a hat on 2 years after the fact.

Didn't the Cardinals win the World Series 2 years ago? Just because they won with him on the roster doesn't make him a good pitcher.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure throwing a baseball game on the agenda will induce some pretty severe marital stress, so I think that's out of the question. I still go to a fair number of Snappers games, and a few Brewers games a year, so I know the rebuttal would be "we can go to Snappers games whenever we want all summer".... If I was going to be down there for more than 3 days, I'd for sure make it a point to get there, but as it is, I'm sure we're (we.......haha) are going to be looking at doing stuff we can't do around here.

Yeah, with my schedule(s), I get about 4 1/2, 5 hours a night, so I don't think cutting into that any further would be the best idea!

I won a 3 day trip for 2 to Orlando through my work, and I need to maximize my experience. I'll be flying in thursday morning, and flying out Sunday morning. Don't tell me to go to Disney world (or land, whatever)...that's not happening. I know there's no way to cram Orlando into a 3 day "vacation", but I want to do as much as possible while we're there. I also want to stay away from any activities that are going to be an "all day" event (like Disney)......I really want to get into as much trouble as I can.

Yes, it only took me 15 years after high school to decide to quit putzing around and go get an education. I feel like I'm doing pretty good, but between work and family, there's not a lot of time for homework and study. I'm going to be getting into a few of the first exams fairly soon now. So let me ask the "adult learners" here........what are some good study tips and habits when you're working 40+ hours a week, taking care of family and home, and just basically don't have a lot of time to spare? I don't feel like the material is "above" my ability or anything, I'm just having a little bit of a rough go at memorizing things that I know are going to be on exams.

They race them at that age because they're at their physical peak, as far as musculature goes. I work with a lady who raises and breeds horses, and today was a really bad day for her. She hates racing with a passion, and the situation today made it even moreso. And the reason they "can't" survive these injuries is actually a two fold answer. First of all, a thoroughbred racer doesn't want to pay for the upkeep of a horse that's never going to be able to race again. Secondly, when a horse breaks his front leg(s), he's probably going to have a miserable life. Most of their weight is supported by their front legs, and they spend 23 1/2 hours a day standing. Their bodies are not really designed to "lay down" much if ever. The real fact is their bone structure really isn't right for racing at all, but that doesn't stop people from doing it.

That doesn't even make sense clancy. A guy gets hurt, so the answer (to which there is "no alternative") is to offer a crap load of money to a guy who gets hurt MORE often?

Raising your own kids can be very difficult at times. Raising a step child is a whole 'nother set of issues that needs to be addressed. Raising other people's kids can at times be very trying and extraordinarily difficult. You have to take into account that you're not a 2 person parenting team, but a 3 person (or even 4) setup. Getting around the whole "you're not my real dad" thing, you still have to deal with different rules at different parent's houses, not to mention the fact that the kid's "real" father may try to undermine your authority and parenting abilities as well. I think it's great when people take the time to really decide if they want to have children. There's all too much evidence of kids out there with parents who don't/didn't want them to begin with. Choosing to raise someone else's kid is an even more complicated choice, and you have to be CERTAIN you want to take that on before you make a final decision. If this woman does care about you, she should actually be grateful that this concern of yours is something you want to be thoughtful with, and take your time and make (hopefully) a right decision.

After spending most of the last year or so not working, I now find myself in the position of having 2 jobs, with somewhat odd hours occasionally. One of the jobs requires a lot of "here and there" type stuff with meetings, appointments, and generally lots of running around. I'm also going to finally quit screwing around and go back to school. So for one thing, my current cell phone (I have a "minute" phone, I usually never use it) is woefully inadequate, and I'm usually pretty good at remembering where and when I'm supposed to be, but my schedule is now extraordinarily busy, and I need a better system of knowing where I'm supposed to be than staring blankly while I try to pull the info out of thin air. What I'm looking for is any advice/suggestions/recommendations for any PDA/cell phone type devices that can handle these chores. Sorry, the day planner that you actually have to write in sucks. I'm not completely tech-stupid, and I know you can go into a store and ask the people that work there what they think, but I find it's always better to get some firsthand knowledge from people who actually USE products when thinking about buying. So hit me, help me out here people.

Statistically speaking, one should never "expect" a sweep, even over a bad team. Of course when you get to 2-0, you hope, but if you don't get it, you're still up 1 for that 3 game stretch. I will say that given the state of this Giants team, anything less than a sweep would have been a disapointment, but it's the first week of the season. I'm sure we're going to be seeing posts about "must sweep" series before the end of May.

I don't care where the teams are ranked. However, when the "East Coast Influence" has gotten so deep that a capsule on the Brewers is mainly about the half season that one guy spent on the Red Sox, that tells me all I need to know about the writers' bias. We'll go through this all season again this year. We'll have a good record, nobody in the national media will notice, and Brewer fans will get up in arms over the "lack of respect". I honestly couldn't care less about what people who aren't Brewer fans think about the Brewers.

It's one thing to say that the stuff Dusty says gets taken out of context, but when he bats a guy like Corey Patterson leadoff, he doesn't have to say anything at all. He's proving right there that the game has passed him by.

I had phone service through charter. I paid my cable, internet, and phone all with one check in their drop box, must have been about 3 years ago. I dropped off the check about a week before the due date. 4 days after due date, for some inexplicable reason, my phone is not working. I go to my mom's call Charter. I get a rep who can *barely* speak English. I had to say "what?" after EVERY sentence. He managed top explain that my phone was shut off for non-payment. I ask him to look up my account and see if my cable/internet are current. Yes, they've been paid. That doesn't make any sense, I paid all 3 with one check. He says the computer shows no record of the phone being paid. I said "that's ridiculous". Important note that I did NOT swear at this point, and he hung up. I called back, got a different rep, and this guy could also barely speak OR understand English. After 3 fruitless minutes of the 2 of us failing to break the language barrier, I said "LET ME SPEAK TO YOUR SUPERVISOR". To my utter disbelief, this guy could ALSO barely speak English. Trying to communicate my problem to him was almost impossible. Getting frustrated, I asked if there was any way I could speak to someone who could speak and understand English. He hung up on me. (Funny how he understood that) I called again. I got a rep who could understand me, and I him. I told him my problem. He put me through to the tech department, to schedule an app't to hook my phone back up. I got a tech, we scheduled the app't. He said, however, that the app't had to be approved by billing, so he put me through to billing. The person in billing said that there was a $60 hook up fee that had to be assessed before the tech dep't could be approved for the app't. I asked to speak to a supervisor. At this point, I spent 27 minutes on hold. Yes, I checked. I got a supervisor, told him my tale of woe. I said I have been on the phone with your people for over an hour. 2 of them hung up on me. I did not swear at them, or call them names. He looked up my account, found my bill and payment, and said that there had been an error in accounting, because they were changing their system over to have everything billed at the same time. I said no problem. He said, however, that there was a 60 dollar hook up fee to get my phone back on. What? Why? He said "I have to charge the fee or I can't send a tech out to hook your phone back up." I said no you don't, it wasn't my mistake, you already said it was a mistake in accounting on your end, and my bill is current. "I understand that sir, but I can't make the appointment if I don't charge the hook up fee" I'm sorry, but I've worked in enough places to know in a situation like this that common sense dictates that you waive the fee or mark it "paid" on the invoice you give to the tech before he comes to my house, when it is obviously YOUR mistake that caused my phone to be shut off. He said "I'm sorry sir, I'm not able to do that" And I said "I'm sorry I'm not able to continue using Charter then", and hung up. Now THAT.........is crappy customer service.

Wow. .820 career OPS and a .365 career OBP in over 900 plate appearances, and they can't find a use for him. I realize he's no great shakes on defense, but I'm sure there's got to be a handful of teams that can use the offense he provides.

The 08 return that we'll get back in 09