NYChez

A key indicator will be whether he gets to 17 pitches the first inning. 17 per inning, and he'll be over 100 by the 6th ... and then we can go to work on the bullpen.

It's too early to adjust any rankings. If this was football, we'd be in the 2nd quarter of the first game of the season. If the Patriots are down 10-3 in the 2nd quarter of their first game next season, are you going to change your thoughts from "Super Bowl favorite" to "will be lucky to make the playoffs"? Once we get to Memorial Day, the predictions can be adjusted.

It seems like we have the same discussion every year. The Brewers are pretty consistent. Before May 15, the roof's going to be closed unless the weather is phenominal. After May 15, the roof's going to be open unless the weather is terrible. The average number of roof open games has trended up from 44-48 the first few years of Miller Park to 48-55 in recent years. This means that about 35% of the games will be played under the roof. You can figure that between April 1 and October 1, 50 degrees is going to be in the worst 35% and not in the best 65%.

Couldn't be any worse than our current left fielder. (Just kidding, Ryan!)

We've got to deal with Thhom and Brantley next week on Extra Innings for one of the Reds/Brewers games. Definitely one to turn the volume down to.

Next weekend, the Brewers were looking at facing Santana and Pedro to start off their series with the Mets. Now, they'll likely face a guy not as good as Pedro.

Is this one of those karma things where nobody posts anything? Suppan with a solid outing (by his standards). Weeks with a 3-run homer in the 7th inning. 5-4 Brewers in the 9th.

Didn't Hart hit .190 over the first two months one year in the minors and then hit like .390 the last two months to win league MVP? Maybe he's just getting his bad start out of the way in spring training.

Do they mean the 4th best or the 4th most expensive?

It would be nice if Vargas pitched this way until Yo came back, all while a contender in the AL lost a starter or two.

The player has got to be smart enough to realize this.

Agents look at their players like an investor looks at their risky stock portfolio. You hope that one or two stocks hit it big and those gains offset those performing substandardly. If an agent only had one player to look out for, they would have similar views as the player - risk averse. For agents that have a lot of players, if 60% lose out by not "striking while the iron's hot" and waiting for the mega deal, it doesn't matter because of the money they make on the 40%. From the players' perspective, though, those 60% get really hurt. Guys like Fielder need to realize this. Take 5 years, $35 million now and you're set for life, and then some. You might end up losing out on $10 million or so at the end of the deal, but you're also not going to end up with 2% of that money if, God forbid, something happened to jeopardize your career. The agent can't think in risk averse terms because in the long run, their diversified portfolio is going to pay off if they always hold out for the huge deal. When you're dealing with people, and not stocks, however, you're not doing your clients a favor by taking this approach. (added tag --1992)

Tomorrow on Jeopardy: The Answer is: Scott Boras, Joe Torre, and Brewer Fans.

There is a book called Fenway Pole Finder that's available on amazon for about $10. It shows charts of every seat in every section of Fenway that is affected by poles. A problem still might be that Stub Hub only lists the section and row # and not seat #. What I found on Stub Hub is that just about every seat below $200 was in a row that had pole obstructions. The only exception is the bleachers.

It's definitely Melvin's decision. If Melvin thinks the Brewers should sign Sheets, is there anyone out there that doubts that Mark A will sign him? I tend to think that Mark A is tempted to think short-term but he realizes that Melvin is the voice of reason, and he will totally defer to Melvin.

Actually, it's even better than I thought. This was on mlb.com: KANSAS CITY -- Mike Sweeney is not the only player who could be playing his final game with the Royals on Sunday. Several players, most notably David Riske, are not currently under contract for 2008. Riske, one of the key pieces of the Royals' rebuilding process this season, has a 2.45 ERA in 65 games, the best mark by a KC pitcher. He has also served as a mentor for the young staff, especially Zack Greinke. "He has been a wonderful guy this year," general manager Dayton Moore said. "He has impacted our bullpen in a very positive way with his approach and his success on the mound. We want to have a good baseball team, and in order to have a good baseball team, you have to have people like him on it." Riske, who has a $2.9 million player option for 2008, is examining all options before making a choice. "I am enjoying myself here tremendously and all of the guys on the team and the front office," he said. "I know that I have had a pretty good year. I know that it is business. It is kind of nice that you had a good year and you are a free agent and you want to see what other teams think about you and what's it's like." Riske's help to Greinke has proven especially beneficial. Greinke was moved to the bullpen after a rocky six weeks in the rotation at the beginning of the season. Riske became Greinke's daily card-playing partner in the clubhouse and helped him improve his craft. Under Riske's help, Greinke posted a 3.54 ERA as a reliever. Moved back to the rotation in late August, Greinke had a 1.81 ERA in six starts to finish the season. "Riske was the first one who has taught me anything about pitching," Greinke said. "I have learned the simple things from some people like keep the ball down, but he is the first person to actually help me out. ... He is not the only reason, but without him, I don't think I would have pitched as good as I did this year. He had by far the most impact on me."

I read in one of the baseball pre-season mag's than Riske served as a mentor and essentially an extra coach to members of the Royals' pitching staff. He is credited with Zach Greinke's turnaround. Is this something that's well-known, or did this magazine somehow come up with a scoop? It would be nice if, in addition to putting together some quality innings in the back of the bullpen, he could get Turnbow's and Gagne's heads on straight.

This won't be the case because the teams interested in Vargas or Bush are different than the teams that were interested in Santana.

The good news is that we play the Twins 6 times a year and the Mets 6 times a year, so from a regular season standpoint, this move will have little effect on the Brewers. We'll face Santana once and maybe twice. The bad news is that we face the Mets the 2nd weekend of the year, and whether Santana starts the season opener or the home opener, he'll be definitely be in line to start one of the games against the Brewers.

Just a warning for those lucky enough to get tickets: Hotel rooms for that weekend in the city of Boston are going for $350 to $800 per night. The less expensive places to stay are by the airport and outside the city 20+ miles from Fenway. It's a little disappointing because if you're able to find a place in the city, you can pretty much walk from one end of the city to the other and enjoy all the city has to offer with little hassle - and not have to worry about driving following the games and postgame nightlife. As such, if you have tickets but must stay on the outskirts, and you have never been to Boston, make a point to spend a good part of the trip experiencing the city.

Tip: There is a book called "Fenway Pole Finder". It's available online. Buy this book for $15 before dropping $300 for 2 seats, only to find out on game day that your only view is of a metal beam.

Good information, but it seems like "how big of a name the starting pitcher is" is about #10 on the list of the items that affect whether the 2007 Brewers win or not (behind: how rested the bullpen is, how well the defense plays, how many runs the offense tacks on after knocking out the starting pitcher, etc.).

Wow. Our 1 through 5 hitters make a grand total of 1.9 million dollars.

Just heard that the Mets and Nationals have the same record since May 11. Interesting.

1 1/2 game lead and an extremely rested back end of the bullpen. I'm grasping here. Somebody help me out!