TheOtherDean

Must have been an incredible play by Hardy to be both "6" and "5" http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif

I think he's mixing two cliches. A "Baltimore chop" is as described above, a ball hit down into dirt in front of plate that bounces high to an infielder. A "Texas Leaguer" is a bloop hit.

Not sure if this was mentioned in the Brewer game thread (I refuse to scan through 29 pages to find out!), but in about the 10th or 11th inning last night Jim Powell discussed the sources he went to for information on the 2004 draft, including mlb.com and baseball america. He said something to the effect that "I'm not so sure brewerfan.net wasn't the most thorough and best coverage" then described the wealth of info, links to articles, etc that you all dug up.

...and Casey Kotchman is so good that he is both #11 and "in the team photo".

I also attended the Sunday Beloit game. Observations: 1) previous posters did not overstate the way Fielder teed up the catcher on the play at the plate. I did not know about the potential bad blood from earlier in the series; to me it looked simply like a good, hard-nosed play. Believe me, there was little chance of injury to Prince, although the same cannot be said about the catcher. As a former college catcher (small school) I was cognizant of the upcoming collision and saw Prince focus in on the guy about half-way down the line and went after him even when the throw pulled the catcher a foot or two to the first base side. It was the tying run, so to me fits the "play hard" mentality that we all want. 2) I saw Fielder a couple of times last year and to me he was noticably more solid and trim; he seemed quicker than I remember both on the play at the plate (which by the way was hit pretty hard so it was the kind of play where you would typically hold up a slow runner) and in his first AB where he hustled a routine 6-3 into a bang-bang play. 3) Gwynn looks solid; quick bat is very evident. Looks smooth in CF, quicker than his dad was even early in Sr's career. 4) Based on Fielder and Gwynn, I'm wondering if Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, JR Richard, or a few others have kids. 5) Not particularly impressed with the pitchers that threw today. Henderson got a lot of hard-hit outs, so could have had a much tougher day. Alliston threw pretty well, but was all arm; hardly drove with his legs, stiff back. Looks like an injury waiting to happen; and seems to me he could add several mph simply by improving basic mechanics. 6) Snappy still needs a good dry cleaner.

Did you notice that 5 of the 8 Helena errors were by SS August Septimo? Ouch.