Bucky370

The Phillies would be absolutely nutz to only get Vazquez in return for Werth. But my bet the yankees would win the world series just got a bit better. Baseball will be my 3rd favorite sport until their is a salary cap....and that's sad since I love the game itself.

I'm not upset about Stern being cut, he was a nothing, but I'm still terribly upset that Suppan is on this roster. It's a waste of a roster spot especially when they have no righty on the bench. Give him his walking papers or very soon I'm going to consider boycotting the brewers period. I thought he should have been cut last year!!!

Would you rather have Hoffman back? Have to try something, and at least this kid throws some heat!!

My choice is Axford, I don't care if he doesn't have much big league experience.

Hopefully it's not Axford, I say it now, this guy looks like the future closer for Milwaukee. Am I nutz?

I guess I'm not stating the obvious, but I have to remind you that we have another full year of fielder under control and it seems like ownership at least wants to attempt to resign him for 2012. Even though the team is in suck mode, that doesn't mean they have to sell now. Technically most argue they would get the best value trading him in the offseason. I also remind you that trading for prospects is never a sure thing. Just look at the Indians and what they received for CC, LaPorta has really done nothing for them and were 2 years later. If you trade Fielder you have to get at least 1 MLB expierienced player.

Not to jump on the bandwagon, but Davis's WHIP is absolutely horrible. If he continues his "Suppan Estique" #'s, I can't imagine him staying in the rotation much longer.

Williams / Willy st / Williamson...My apologies, I clearly had a shortened name on the first post. I understood it will now go thru those tracks according to the reports on 2 different radio shows Friday. I can't say anymore than that, except that it's the most direct set of tracks to downtown.

Willy St. and Williamson are one in the same, it's an area only 8 blocks or so wide between Lake Mendota and Menona. Their is an annual bike race run in that area so I know it very well and it's proximety to the tracks. The train tracks are literally in the backyard of the homes in this area. Obviously the people that live in these homes knew they were buying a house next to train tracks so I wouldn't feel bad for them at all. This is probably going to delay the project a bit as it's going to take time to buy some land and get approvals etc. But maybe their is some arm twisting as the Doyle admin wants this started sooner than later so if a repub wins the gov seat that person probably can't just shut it down.

The RTA was not voted on Thursday, but doesn't stop the train project. The RTA vote was merely to create a state tax increase to support the project. http://www.transitnow.org/RTAVote110208.htm Madison's city council are endorsing the station in Madision to be downtown. Going to be very interesting how many homes are destroyed and how many homeowners will be against a fast train running essentially thru their back yard. I know it's planned to run on the tracks parallel to Williams street. Williams street area is manufacturing on one side and a dense neighborhood on the other with in some sections the tracks right in the middle. It will naturally (needfully) increase the costs because of the higher expenses to buy the land for the train station and houses that would have to be demolished. Suggestion an increase of 100m or more is not out of the question, and I don't believe this will be funded by the federal grant. http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt_and_politics/article_17b9e7fa-4c1a-11df-bf79-001cc4c002e0.html

I just can't believe this organization is commited to winning until they either bench Suppan or release him. He throws nothing but meatballs and is at best a BP guy. Have the guts, commit to winning and move on with a pitchers that has some upside.

No question Escobar needs to be put in the #2 spot and left alone. He has speed, appears to hit for average etc. I'm sick and tired of the arguement that you can't put all the bad guys at the bottom, but your wasted run production in front of the 2 big bats going back and forth at #2. Escobar has more than produced in the #8 hole, a spot guys are sent to die usually. Don't you want your best hitters to get the most AB's? Batting 8th will reduce his ab's by about 100 a year.

You really should have picked up on it from the High Speed Rail thread. Bruce, I sure could if you want me too. Should I take this as your poking at me to say something stupid....sorry, I won't make you happy on that one. And to still note it, no matter what you say, you won't talk me into believing the train is needed for the very few that will ride it, and the rest of us that will pay for it!! BTW, you really need to change the title "HIGH SPEED RAIL". 65ish MPH avg isn't exactly High Speed rail, look to japan for that. If you guys are driving from the Falls area, your best taking Good Hope east to 43 if the zoo creates problems for you. Good Hope is pretty much a freeway in the rush hours. I easily make it from 45 to 43 in about 10 to 12 minutes if you hit the lights correctly, and I don't drive faster than others on the road as their are plenty of radar zones on the eastern half.

1992casey, I did not regularly visit this board in 2004, let alone the off topic forum. Not making excuses, but it seemed like a few of the topics the last few months probably were not appropriate for this forum than and should have been stopped since they were purely political issues, even if they weren't talking about politicians. Others have taken particular stances that are purely going along their particular political party. No offense to this board, but well understood at this point. I am fortunate that I don't drive 45 north bound hardly at all. Years ago I did every day, but even than their were always bottlenecks. I can't imagine how bad it's going to be for those out of downtown west on 94.

Etiqutte well understoon now, but I am by far the first not to understand it in an off topic board.

"I'm glad the original post was made (as it's how I learned of the bridge closure, since I don't live in Milwaukee), but let's please leave politics out of this thread. Thanks." hawing Sorry to disagree, but since the politicians make these kind of decisions, it is a political issue. But ignoring the names at hand maybe was the better direction to make you happy. OUR LOCAL and STATE politicians whoever they may be, had the option to rebuild I94 to the south and illinois or rebuild the zoo interchange. They at this point chose incorrectly. But mainly chose incorrectly because they couldn't decide on the correct re-engineering ideas. Widening I94 between the zoo and downtown milwaukee would have been the most progresive and forward thinking idea. The hold up is their are some consequences, moving part of a cemetary, displacing some homes etc etc. These were the same concerns back when the entire interstate system was built in the 50's. I have a collection of Milwaukee Journal papers that my parents saved from the Milwaukee Brave World Series years. Last year looking thru them I came across the debate of tearing down parts of neighborhoods for the freeways, and they were very compelling but in the end they made the correct progressive decision. Nobody would argue at this point that adding I-43 was a bad idea. I still think moving I-94 to 4 lanes would be worth the displacement especially around the zoo interchange.

Better yet, Tom Barrett wrote a letter about the zoo interchange in 2005 http://www.scottwalker.org/sites/default/files/Barrett%20Zoo%20Interchange%20-%20Lack%20of%20Leadership.pdf I agree with his point in most of the letter as far as agreeing to the bigger picture plan. But Barrett really makes a mistake in the last paragraph, obviously he had bad info. But it's his responsiblity to make something happen since 2005, and nothing has. Now because of his advisors and his choices, were going to have to live with the errors of his way.

How valuable was the 38m they spent in 2005 to do the engineer plans to re-work the zoo interchange, than have Tom Barrett and Waukesha county bicker over the plans.

I see you still haven't looked at this at all objectively. Actually I have, it just doesn't agree with your point of view.

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/12/norfolk-light-rail-over-budget-opening-delayed-2011 Any chance Wisconsin will have the same problems? With Government involved, good chance.

I know a place like Mequon would never go for it, but that would be a good place for a bypass now. A lot of farmland and open space. It's too late for anything east / west on the north side. Their may be a lot of farmfields in mequon in the west, but when you get to 76th street (wauwatosa road), it's all mega mansion sub divisions. You'd have to keep going north which means something more like hwy 60. I think that would be possible as you could loop around the few towns in the area, but again, too far north and rather pointless since hwy 60 already is 55mph for most of the way. Good Hope is wide enough, and if they elevated it probably could work, but I'm sure would very cost prohibitive. Bottom line is they screwed the pooch 40 years ago. The question is, what would a north/south bypass brought more of: economic progress or exurban sprawl. What would have stopped urban sprawl would been skipping the bad idea of school bussing and de-segregration. It pretty much pushed everybody that could afford it out of Milwaukee. I still remember all the riots at some of the High Schools in the late 70's, particularly James Madision. I also remember most of my neighbors with school kids almost all moving to Menomonee Falls etc. It sucked cuz my area became mainly older or very young families. Most of my friends were gone. \At one point the entire northridge area was beautiful and technically like a subburb, but that is all changed now, and you couldn't pay me to stop at any of the stores as I pass bye. I think initially it would have helped economic progress, but would have went backwards like a good portion of the north side of Milwaukee has.

My understanding when I was a kid growing up on the north side of milwauke ,the original plan was for Brown Deer Road to be a freeway west/east on the north side. I don't believe this idea ever went very far, but at the time 60's, their was really nothing built in this area, it was almost all farm fields. Maybe this was one of the ideas when the planning stages of hwy 41 was selected. HWY 41 was a very poorly designed idea looking at godspeeds links. Long term it wouldn't have alleviated traffic much at all. But if your driving west / east on the north side today, both good hope and brown deer act almost like freeways. Speeds are always around 50 in rush hour traffic, and the lights can be timed really really well. Silver Spring is too congested and too busy to be a speedy route west/east.

What is I-94's profit margin? And that is the second point that I said above that the detractors seem to conveniently dismiss. The report says this will save money overall through estimated models and formulas based off of scientific research and historic data, the detractors say it wont because they know more than the people who did the report. Our roads and freeways have always been paid for by our taxes. Almost if not the entire population uses roads. (assuming our gov't doesn't take the monies set aside for the transportation fund for general fund purposes, the transportation fund wouldn't be broke) The rail system from day 1 were of private investments. A very small portion of the population in wisconsin would every use mass transit. What % travel to madision more than 10 times a year...I'd say way under 50%. 99 to 100% of us all use the roads.

BTW, the high speed rail project is not a light rail system. This is Amtrak. It's the Chicago - Milwaukee Hiawatha line extended all the way to Madison. A train will start in Chicago and go all the way to Madison and vice versa. No train changing, no delays besides loading and unloading, one train ride. This is part of the Chicago commuter rail system, which it seems really hasn't sunk in. Yes, I do realize this, and that is part of the problem I have with it. The Hiawatha runs at a deficit. Also, I don't see private firms building roads on their own either. Or airports. Or harbors. Things where central planning prevents things like redundancy or areas getting bypassed. Great Point, it's not possible for the private sector to take on a project of milliions and trillions of miles of roads. But some train routes that may only be 90 or 300 miles is another story. Amtrak is technically a private firm subsidized by the federal government. They wouldn't exist if they weren't given a helping hand financially.

Except, it would be more like 2 or 3 people who have never watched a baseball game sitting in on a press conference with Doug Melvin after his big signing and telling him he doesn't know what he is doing. Again this is you just flat out ignoring what we are saying. Nobody is saying the engineers are wrong (except rider estimates) or that they don't know what they are doing. I've traveled on trains before while I was visiting friends in Chicago. They were much faster and more convenient than cars. We walked about 3 blocks to a station, rode the train to the other side of the city, got off, and walk another 6 or 7 blocks to our destination. The price of the tickets was probably a little more than the price of parking, but it saved a lot of time. Ok....there you go....I am admitting that the train in Chicago is a good idea (as I have before). But this isn't Chicago, and the need for a Madison-Milwaukee train is far, far less than the Chicago train. And if you really listen to people, you'll know that more there are a few people against this plan, not just the ones who bother to post on brewerfan.net about it. Again, just because one person doesn't want to use it doesn't mean it will or won't work. It is somewhat off base to base any opinion off of one's own personal view or 'poll' And couldn't this very well be turned around to say "Just because you WANT this train and WILL ride it doesn't mean everyone else will too?" GREAT POST PAUL!!!