DuWayne Steurer

I'll throw in here, as I guess one could say I have first hand knowledge. When I was diagnosed a while back with cluster headaches (anyone who ever has had them know that they're excruciating.....much worse than migraines), I was given vicodin, and then when that wasn't working, percocets. These headaches were starting to interfere with everyday life in a serious way. I was missing work, not able to drive, so on and so forth. I wasn't in danger of losing my job according to my boss, but I was missing a boatload of work, and we had just bought a house. I got up one morning, felt the beginnings of what I knew was not a regular headache, and took 1 perc, around 5 am. I took another at 7, just as I was getting to work. Being in construction, I'm of course around loud noises all day. About 9-ish, I took 2 more. At this point, I am going partly on my own recolletion, and what my co-workers tell me. They, of course, didn't know I had taken 2 before work, let alone 2 more at 9 am. My head was still throbbing, and between the debilitating pain, and the percocet, I had no idea when I had taken pills, so at break (10 am) I took 3 more. Shortly thereafter, my supervisor noticed I "wasn't doing so good", and sent me to the job shack, where I took 2 more. 9 percs in just over 5 hours. I had no idea what was going on. I worked with my nephew, who knew who to call for a ride, instead of letting me drive home myself. Didn't go home, but went right to the ER. Now, I'm not excusing what I did, it was wrong, and self-destructive, but when you get going, and feel terrible, and are also under the effect of a narcotic, your judgement and ability to recall is seriously impaired. I can honestly say I can see easily how someone may accidentally overdose. That being said, I'm talking pain pills, not sleeping pills, but I think some key elements match up, such as the more you dose, the less sound your judgement and reason and recall ability will become. If you suffer from insomnia (as I had in the past after a surgery), your thought process really starts to break down as you become more and more sleep deprived. Simple things like tieing your shoes can become mind bending problems in their own right. Is this what happened to Ledger? Obviously I don't know. I'm just hoping to shed a little light on anyone who questions how you can accidentally OD.

I know this one (I have 2 hardcover copies of Total Baseball), but I won't spoil your fun! There's a lot of great stuff in that book, if you're into real dry, fact based stuff. I have the 2001 and 2004 copies, and there's a pretty extensive section on this stuff you're talking about right here.

10 Triple 9 Homer 6 Double 4 Single 3 Steal 1 Walk Knowing the numerical values of each doesn't really affect being able to weigh the "excitement" factor involved in each type of event. And of course, the excitement of any event can change, contextually speaking. A steal in the 9th when you're down a run is far more exciting than a steal in the 4th of a game you're up 3 runs. Mathematically speaking of course, they mean the same, but the context is important when considering the "human" factor.

Action night for rentals. War was alright. The action sequences are about what you'd expect considering the main billed actors, but the story line was hard to follow, just about until the end when there's an "oh yeah, now it makes sense" revelation, but until that point, you really just keep scratching your head trying to figure out just what's going on. That's not "fun movie watching", in my opinion. On the other hand, Shoot 'em Up, was a very fun, inventive, well.... shoot 'em up movie that certainly seems to parody the Hollywood notion that good guys never miss what they're aiming at, and the bad guys never hit. Hard to explain, but this is certainly not a run of the mill action flick that barely holds your attention and you've forgotten about it 10 minutes afterwards. Definately give this one a go.

Being a person who's had TJ surgery, I vote yes! Seriously though, I'd lean towards yes. I know some say John "hung on" for the sake of racking up personal statistics, but if you're good enough to pitch well into your 40's, I think longevity should also be a factor (at least to me). He was 13-6 in 87, at the age of 44, with an ERA+ of 110. He was certainly contributing still at that point, and not just eating a roster spot. He as still decent at age 45, putting up a 9-8 record, with a 3.89 ERA. I'll grant that in '89, he was downright bad, but he only hung around for 10 starts. I honestly do not have a problem with guys who hang on into their 40's to pile up stats. If there's a team willing to pay you, why wouldn't you?

The guy that "used to be good" would be Matt Stairs. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif I know most make fun of him for being fat and old, but I'd love to have him and his .850-ish OPS batting 300 times vs. righties on our bench.

I'd rather have Gwynn than Rottino. Rottino's role is filled by Gross and Dillon, and Gwynn brings an aspect (speed) that none of the other guys on there have, aside from maybe Counsell. Granted, Rottino is the "emergency catcher", but that's more of a luxury, not a necessity.

Honestly, as I think about this, I think people really underestimate our bench. I think people expect their team to carry "starter quality" guys to have on the bench "just in case", and it really doesn't work that way. Look for example at the Red Sox. Now I understand their rotation and starting lineup is high quality, but if you look at their bench, the three guys that had the most at bats besides their starting nine..... Alex Cora -- .684 OPS Eric Hinske -- .715 OPS Wily Mo Pena -- 676 OPS and the backup catch Doug Mirabelli -- .638 OPS Now, one might argue in the NL, you need better bench guys, as you'll use them more, so I'll take an NL playoff team, the Phillies Abraham Nunez -- .600 OPS Wes Helms -- .665 OPS Jayson Werth -- .863 OPS (that's nice from a bench guy, yup) Chris Coste -- .730 OPS In Colorado, they didn't have but one bench player (Ryan Spillborghs) have an OPS over .730, and most were well under .700. The Cubs bench, aside from Daryle Ward, was more or less awful. Arizona had 2 decent bench performers, Tony Clark and Chad Tracy, but nobody else from the bench approached a .720 OPS. I realize that OPS isn't the be all end all, as I think OBP is probably a bit more important for a pinch hitter, but I'm going for quick and dirty. I'm not saying that the Brewers shouldn't be looking to upgrade a few of these guys, I just think that a lot of people think playoff caliber teams have benches full of guys like Bill Hall and Matt Stairs, who would be expected to put up .800+ OPS. I really don't think a bench of Munson, Gross, Dillon, Gwynn, and Counsell is nearly as bad as people think it will be.

Craig Counsell, if he's not getting 300 at bats. He does usually carry at least a decent OBP, even if he doesn't hit for average or power. He also plays solid defense wherever he's at. I don't think Dillon is going to come out and hit like he did last year, but I also don't think it's out of line to think he could put up a .750-.800-ish OPS, and he's versatile as far as where you can play him. Obviously I don't care for either Rivera or Munson, but most teams struggle to find one good catcher, let alone 2.

Well, I think in the case of Cirillo, people are remembering how down the stretch when he last played for the crew, he was unable to play consecutive days, and even told Yost that he was really only able to play about 3 days a week. If someone gets hurt, you're going to need to know that you have a guy who can step right in and play everday for a week or 2, even if he's not going to give you the same production as your starter. I really don't think it's going to be Dillon AND Rottino, but Dillon OR Rottino. Gabe Gross, Craig Counsell, Tony Gwynn, and a catcher. I'm not certain that guy will be Mike Rivera.

That's a whole lot of trades to be made in one offseason. Certainly creative, but I'd guess there's about a .1% chance that anything close to that could actually go down. I also find it highly unlikely that a team is going to trade a guy, no matter how bad defensively, that put up over a 1.000 OPS as a rookie. That just doesn't happen.

We tried the "spraying the cat with a water bottle" trick a few years back, and she decided to get even by pissing on the tree skirt. Cats can be extraordinarily spiteful when they want to be. My suggestion (probably not a good one) is to not have a cat.

I hate going to Wal-Mart and being bombarded by people outside the doors either selling crap or asking me to support such and such girl's softball team, or the best one, "Would you like to give money today to fight child abuse"? The way they ask, if you say "no", you're a jerk. I don't carry cash on me hardly ever. It wouldn't be a big deal, but every time I go there, there's a squad stationed at each door, selling or asking for something.

Nothing too crazy, one way or the other there. I think Weeks will have more than 65 walks given 500 plate appearances. I certainly hope JJ won't regress to a sub .740 OPS. A projection of .810 OPS for Hall, with 20 homeruns seems fair. Almost an .800 OPS projected for Joe Dillon. I don't see it, but I wouldn't say it's not possible. (The projection has him at close to 400 PA's)

For what it's worth, Scott had a higher OPS than Carl Crawford last year, and we wouldn't have to give up Sheets to get him. Now obviously going forward, I don't think Scott (who's 4 years older than Crawford) will be the better player, but he's certainly a good fall back option. I've heard Vargas for Scott, but I have to believe the Brewers would have to throw in a little more to make it happen. I know some people wouldn't like Scott, as he hits lefty, and wouldn't be an ideal platoon mate with say, Gabe Gross, but his splits last year are remarkably similar, with an .856 OPS vs. righties, and .850 vs lefties. Bear in mind of course that he had only 67 PA's vs. left handed pitchers. Still, that's enough of a sample (IMO) to say that he wouldn't be a total liability vs. left handed pitching. I think I'd favor this deal if we could get him for Vargas plus a mid/low level prospect. I'd probably be ok even with sending them Parra, as there's definately still going to be a numbers crunch in the rotation unless something big happens.

It also doesn't help that he has admitted that he has no idea how a book will end when he starts it, Nowhere was that more evident than the Dark Tower series. He had built up the Tower and it's contents to such an extent that just about ANYTHING was going to be a letdown, and to me, it felt like once he got there, he had no idea what to do with it.

Sorry about the spoiler, guess I should have mentioned in the thread title. Well anyways, Wolves of Calla is not a bad book, it's just that you have to get past the fact that it's almost an exact retelling of the 7 samurai.

Not that I disagree with much of this, but he didn't kill off Oy during the vehicular mishap recreation. I'm only half joking when I suggest that Oy is the most fleshed out, emotionally invested character in the series. I'm actually fine with King's conclusion to Roland's quest. Makes sense to me. The fate of Susannah made me genuinely angry though. That was a cop out and a half. RobertRobert, I might actually agree with you that Oy was the character that probably had the most emotional attachment, now that I think about it. As far as the conclusion, I can live with it, that's fine, (although an explanation of how he came by Cuthbert's horn would have been nice) but the climax, which should have felt so.........epic, really didn't. Coming to the tower felt like driving 500 miles to go to your 2nd cousin's house. Well, we're here....now what? And you're absolutely right about Susannah. Her "wrap" really cheesed me. I didn't really like her character to begin with, and then he copped out with the way he finished her story. Sorry, Eddie died. You can't go back and make the reader feel better about it because she gets to be with "fake Eddie".

Long rant coming... Ok, I consider myself well read, in both fiction and non. I know a lot of people disdain anything MAINSTREAM, be it movies, books, comics, art, music, whatever. In a lot of things however, I think when a person is selling more books (or comics, or albums) than anyone else, it's generally because they are better. I understand advertising can and does create a lot of hype around a lot of things, but in the case of one Mr. King, who I'll be ranting about shortly, he has the track record to justify his book sales. Dark Tower. The first four books of this series were simply.....spectacular. Some of his best tale spinning ever. Parts one and four, being the best in my opinion. He had "the accident" where he got run over, and then much later came back to finish the series. Part 5, "The Wolves of Calla", was more or less, a complete, 100% ripoff of Seven Samurai. Not that there hasn't been tons of material taken directly from Kurosawa's work (Being a masterpiece and all), but this book was a pretty down and out blatant ripoff. Part 6, "Song of Sussanah" was the most contrived piece of crap he's ever done. Just an awful book which drags on and on, and worst of all, he injects himself into the story as "Gan" or "God" of the world the gunslinger inhabits. Part 7, the finale, was going ok, up until the halfway point, where once again, he makes himself an integral character in the storyline, kills off the best character of the story during a retelling of his vehicular mishap, and then gets to the climax (which fell utterly flat) 100 pages before the end of the book. It was obvious reading the last 3 books that getting run over fundamentally changed his thought process on writing this story. So quite a bit later, I pick up Cell. Zombie story, been done before, a million times. Plain old boring tripe. I pick up Lisey's Story. 700 pages of a woman on a treasure hunt left by her dead husband to help her find a mystical world where she may be able to find a way to defeat a guy who's threatened to beat her up if she doesn't turn over her dead husbands unpublished material. Or, you know, she could just shoot the guy, or call the police. SO, I pick up "From a Buick 8", A couple weeks back, in which the supernaturally evil Buick protagonist does nothing but sit in a shed. Presumably in a sinister fashion. The good guys know that all they have to do to avoid it's evil powers is to more or less leave it alone, which they do. Now, I understand that the story was more or less about dealing with life as it hits you, appreciating the time we have, and not forgetting the past, and not forgetting what's important, but it seems like that could have been told without a completely ridiculous and non-threatening Buick sitting in the shed out back. I understand that he had a life changing experience that made him totally rethink the very nature of his existence. I understand that his stories have always had a moral, or a message, or an underlying theme about people, our thoughts, our society, our dreams and so on, but the supernatural events were more than just a boring backdrop which did nothing more than distract from the message in the first place. He hinted at retirement after the Dark Tower, and I really wish he would have, instead of pumping out this crap. I think about that episode of the Family Guy, where he's in his publishers office pitching a book, and the publisher says "Ok, what do you have for me Steve?" and King hesitates for a sec, grabs the lamp off the publisher's desk and says "It's a story about a lamp!...........but it's a SCARY lamp!", and the publisher sighs and says "We'll go with it". Am I the only one that thinks he's just going through the motions anymore?

I agree with that. He's done an awful lot of complaining about the fans this year. I'm certain that even Yost knows more about managing than the vast majority of the fans, but that doesn't mean he should come out and be so snippy and snide about it. I don't think Milwaukee is the only city in MLB where fans question managerial moves Ned. Also, this is a minor gripe, but I want to voice it nonetheless. With today being likely Jenkins last game in a Brewers uni, and having been a fan favorite for much of his time here, why would it have hurt for Ned to hit him 4th instead of Gabe frickin' Gross in a game that didn't matter? I know Jenks has had a rough September, but Gross has been worse. Not a big deal, I just think it would have been a nice gesture. (offset quote --1992)

Can anyone tell me if there's any online video of Jenks coming out of the game? I'm really disappointed that I had to miss the last bit of the game. Anyways, Jenks had his ups and downs, he had a long run of injury problems, he was incredibly streaky, but despite all that, he put up a pretty good set of numbers in his 10 years here.

Could this be the move that is so egregiously stupid that there can be no one left to deny that this dolt should be shown the door? And he plunks a guy to put a runner on base in advance of calling on Turnbow. I think my 4-year old niece even knows how bad Turnbow is when he enters a game with men on base. I hate to make an emotion fueled post, but I hope so. I've tried to be not so critical of Yost, and realize the positive aspects of what he does, but this just absolutely takes the cake. It completely overshadows anything he does that's considered a positive for this team.

If I had to pick just one guy that hurt the team the most, I'd probably have to go with Capuano. Sheets has been hurt and missed about a dozen starts, but the guys taking his starts (Villenueva, Parra, and Gallardo for a time earlier) all pitched pretty well when called upon. Cappy has been plain brutal since May.

When retaliation is more important then a pennant race.......... Nay. ----- Continued from: viewtopic.php?p=247208#p247208 Original Lead: viewtopic.php?t=8606

The really sad thing about this season is I'm not going to be able to look at it and say things like "Well, they had a good run, finished over .500, and almost won the division", with an optimistic eye towards next year. The only thing I feel right now (concerning baseball) is absolute disappointment that this team blew an 8 1/2 game lead, leads the major leagues in come from ahead losses (when winning by 3 or more runs to boot), and has a franchise ace who can't stay off the DL for more than 2 months at a time. There's a lot to look forward to, no doubt, but right now that's little solace as the Brewers just pissed not what could have or might have been, but what should have been a playoff season, right down their legs.