DuWayne Steurer

Well, considering that Jaque Jones, Felix Pie, and Matt Murton all struggle to put up a .700 OPS, Nady is an upgrade over what they've got out there right now.

I really hope Melvin exhausts all possibilities of getting a veteran bullpen arm or 2 that could help before bringing up more rookies to get baptized by fire in the middle of a heated pennant chase. This team is really, really young, and I'm not saying you need a "veteran presence" or have some old farts around to teach the young guys "how to win", I just think if you have some guys who've been around a while, you get a known quantity, and someone you can rely on. Bringing up the kids from Nashville, it's going to be hit and miss, you could get a guy come up and put up a sub-2 ERA for the last 2 months of the season, or he could get knocked around, it's just that all these young guys are not quantifiable yet. I realize at some point you have to see what you have, but up 3 games in a pennant race when you're rounding the corner for the home stretch isn't where I'd like to be testing guys out.

Part of it is that the Brewers didn't have the courtesy to lose in 9 innings, extending my agony a few more innings. At least it was a 6 o'clock start. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

I'm just curious as to what anyone would think Melvin could trade Braun for that would help win more games than having the best hitter in MLB over the last 2 months. Granted, I'm also going to assume that Braun doesn't end the season with an OPS approaching 1.100, but I can't fathom a scenario where 6 years of pre-free agency Braun is worth only 2 months of Adam Dunn.

I just have to say (as I fill up the vent thread) that this is probably the 2nd most pissed I've been after a game this year, the worst being the Ramirez walk off.

Gotcha, I apologize for the misunderstanding. ----- Pretty sure you and I are on the same page here Brian. I was replying to the poster who wondered why people are excited about the Hall return.

Why are people so amped up about Bill Hall coming back? He's better then TGJ, and he's much better than Mench against RHP (at least I'm assuming). I didn't say he was THE answer, hopefully just part of it.

Here's a statement, and then a question. Generally speaking, I'm not one of those guys that needs to see the manager in the dugout yelling and screaming on camera to know that he's a guy who will get in a player's ear when they're not getting the job done...... but that being said, Ned clearly does not have a problem in the middle of a game (at bat even) going out to the mound and giving a pitcher an earful when he's picking at the corners, putting men on, and being generally ineffective. Why then, is it that we never see him going after a guy like Estrada (I'm assuming that if there's a dugout "incident", even one that's just a head-bobbing manager chewing out a player, that a camera will find it) when he totally dogs it down the line on a crucial play? I'm not saying it matters, I'm not saying it will lead to more wins, I'm just curious why we never see it.

I don't know if a callup or trade is the answer, Hopefully Billy Hall will be at least part of the answer.....

It's easy to look at things with hindsight, and say "I told you so", and I'm still not displeased with the DD for Estrada and Vargas trade...... but that being said, Estrada really isn't worth what his stats show. He refuses to take pitches, he's slower than Eddie Perez, he's awful on defense, and he can't throw out a base stealer to save a life. His .285 batting average is ridiculously hollow, and he hits for only marginal power. A catcher who puts up a .675 OPS with average defense would be an upgrade over this guy.

2) once the shoulder is fully recovered medically, there's no reason for it to break down again except poor mechanics or bad luck. One thing about these types of injuries, is that quite often, they don't ever *fully recover*. Especially as you age a little bit and get closer to 30 rather than 20. I know that we see major league ballplayers (and athletes in all sports) get surgeries for this type of stuff, and then come back, and since we see it so much, it seems commonplace, but shoulder and elbow injuries really are not easy to come back from, especially guys like Neugy, Mike Jones, J.M Gold and the like who haven't just had one injury, but an entire series of them. I'm not saying that what you're suggesting is impossible, probably just very improbable.

I cannot believe people wanted to hand Balfour next year's closing job. You read my mind Brian. There's a big difference between dominating AAA (when you're 29 years old) and dominating big league hitters.

When you miss the playoffs by a game, this is the kind of game you look back at and say, "holy crap, we really laid a friggin' egg there". Bases loaded, nobody out, and get no runs. Then Ball-four walks the first 2 batters. I'm sorry, but for as much as some people raved about Balfour, (leading some to say he could even be our closer next year) I sure haven't seen a thing out of him that suggests there's not a really good reason he's 29 and still struggling to get out of the minor leagues.

I realize Johnny Estrada is never going to be mistaken for "fast", but when you hit a solid one hopper to the first baseman with the bases loaded and nobody out, you can't jog to first base. Especially in the 11th inning, tie game. Johnny dogs it on the baselines way too much for my tastes, and he seems to get a pass on it.

It will be interesting to watch in the coming years who will be the first player not named Yount, Molitor, or Cooper to make the top 5 in some of the single season records. It's almost rather pathetic that a team with a 37 year history has most of it's "Top 5 single season batting" records that fall in the early 80's. Sure, there's a Cirillo here, a Vaughn there, but most of the top 5's are indeed held by those guys from way back when. Jenkins has a few spots here and there, but generally speaking, the last 15 years hasn't had much to show for it. I'm more than certain that Prince is going to make his mark on some of those lists, starting this year.

I seem to recall a few interviews (and Ned stating it as well) that Rickie prefers not to hit leadoff. If today (small, SMALL sample!) is any indication, I think he can get over it. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif Seriously though, I think if he's going to play everyday, he's much more suited to the leadoff role than Hart, if he can even get his average back up to .250, he'll be an asset in that role. He's shown over his first few years that an OBP .100 pts higher than his batting average is something we should count on. Hart did not do poorly in the leadoff role, but his power is definately more of an asset down in the order a bit.

Just something to yack about hopefully. I seem to recall a fair amount of discussion a few years back when Kolb (and then Turnbow) were chasing the saves record, and Overbay was chasing the team doubles standard. 45 Homeruns. (Sexson twice, Gorman Thomas once) Fielder stands at 30, with 64 games left. He's on a statistical projection to hit exactly 50, but players always slow down as the season wears on. I'd put the odds on this at about 60/40 in favor. 126 RBI (Cecil Cooper in '83) Fielder stands at 72, with a statistical pace to reach 120. Since Braun has been driving in a ton of runs in front of Prince, his pace has slowed down. I'd call this a bit of a longshot at this point, maybe about a 25% chance, or slightly better. .588 SLG%, set by Jenkins in 2000. Prince stands at .603, while Braun is at a staggering .657. Of course, this is assuming Braun gets enough plate appearances (501 necessary) to qualify. Of the 2, I suspect Prince has a slightly better chance of maintaining that pace, but I won't put anything past Braun at this point. I think at least one of these 2 guys will set a new club standard. 1.004 OPS, set by Paul Molitor in 1987. Prince stands at .975, while Braun is at 1.044. I think Prince has an outside shot, but he definately needs to get his homerun swing going again. For the record, ESPN has Braun projected to get 495 plate appearances, appearing in 114 games. He's at 50, and there's 64 games left, so they're assuming no days off, which might be a slight stretch. 39 saves, by Kolb and Turnbow. Cordero stands at 31, so he has an excellent shot of not just passing, but shattering this club mark. His current pace puts him at 51, which would be one of the best saves seasons ever. I don't think that's an unrealistic number, as long as the club wins at a .550 clip or so for the rest of the season.

Dye has been terrible this year, and I wouldn't want to bank my playoff hopes on him bouncing back to form in the last 2 months. Jenks/Mench has been better than Dye for the most part, and I see no reason to give up even marginal prospects for a guy like Dye at this point.

I am guessing that they only allow Gallardo to go six innings because of the limit. I bet in future years he goes more than six, Absolutely. I've read and heard (I know someone will have a link to an article or some such) that you don't want to increase a young pitcher's work load by anymore than 25 or so innings per year until you get him where you want him. Given that Yo threw 154 innings last year, that would mean that to keep him under his limit, they want no more than 180 innings. In order to be able to use him in late September (and possibly the playoffs) they really need to keep a super sharp eye on his pitch counts and innings pitched. If that means pulling him after 6 brilliantly pitched innings in which he probably still has a decent amount of gas in the tank, so be it.

When I was roughly 10 years old, we went to an autograph signing at the Janesville Mall, at which the guy signing was one Earnest Riles. Not a lot of kids there, maybe 30-40 or so. My dad told him that we were going on a trip to Niagara Falls later in the summer, and that we'd be swinging through Detroit when the crew was in town. This had to be 3 months later, and as my little brother and I are down by the dugout seeking autographs, Ernie pops out, sees us both, and says "Hey! The Janesville kids! I didn't think I'd see you guys here!" I thought that was so damn cool that he remembered that we said we were coming. So now I have 3 Ernie Riles autographed pieces.

On our "pre-wedding" honeymoon, the soon to be wife and I went to some nice restaurant in Green Bay (the name escapes me) and we were at a table next to Ron Wolf and his (presumably) wife. I partied with Green Day (yes, they're incredible dorks) way way back in their indy days (90 or 91) when the band I was in opened for them in a show at a place called TT's HotSpot. (Otherwise known to frequent visitors as Skid City) Went out to dinner with Sean "The Muscleshark" Sherk (UFC lightweight champion) and Nick "The Goat" Thompson (BodogFight middleweight champion) after a house show in Racine about 8 months back with a bunch of friends. (I worked and hung out with a guy they both had trained with in the past).

Water buffalo (heck, ANY buffalo) are incredibly tough animals. Plus, like the last poster (and the guide) said, those were young lions. The juvie buffalo was the same size as most of the lions, and they were having a hard time keeping him down, let alone being able to kill him. I'm sure, unbothered by a herd of 40 buffalo and a pair of hungry crocs, they would have managed the feat, but the odds were seriously stacked against them.

That's actually a pretty good way to put it igor. I don't know if "One inning" is equivalent to warming up, but for lack of scientific research, I'll definately go with it.

I think Wise going 3 innings today was just a combination of factors. 1.) Yo is probably going to be strictly a 6 inning pitcher from here on out in order to limit his innings. 2.) Turnbow and Cordero have been used a lot in this homestand, as evidenced by the 4 straight one run games that the Crew managed to eke out. Balfour threw last night, and they don't want to use Parra unless really necessary, and Villy threw 2 innings the night before last. All that really sets up a situation where if the opportunity was there (which it was) for Wise to go a few innings and not be in a pressure sitauation, there was no reason to not take it. Really, I think the thing that is harder on relievers than pitch count, is appearances. Most often, a one inning reliever spends far more time stretching, warming up, and throwing in the bullpen than he actually does throwing in the game. I imagine once a guy is up and ready to go, going a few innings usually isn't that big of a deal, unless it were to happen quite often. I think a lot of the stress and tiredness a reliever goes through is because of the ordeal involved in getting ready to come into a game. That's why it really, REALLY irks me to see CoCo warming up every time a team has a "chance" to make a game into a save situation with 2 outs in the ninth and the tying run "in the hole".

If this rumor is true, a lot of people don't realize that Dunn can spot Fielder at 1B when Prince needs a day off. Considering Prince doesn't take but maybe a day a month off, I don't think from our standpoint that this fact makes the deal any more attractive. If Prince were to get hurt, then yeah, it makes a lot of sense, but as is, I think Dunn's 1st base ability is a non factor in this deal.