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JohnBriggs12

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Everything posted by JohnBriggs12

  1. JohnBriggs12
    They don't need DiFelice. Stetter had two bad games where he lost his release point. Two. Prior to that, he might have been the most effective reliever they had. It returned as soon as he was back in Nashville. With a man on third and one out and a lefty up there, I'd rather have Stetter out there than Shouse myself.
  2. JohnBriggs12
    The first instance was Sunday I believe. Hall had one two out RBI already. It was the 7th, not the 9th, and the Brewers were leading albeit by one run. A couple batters later was the pitcher's spot where a PH was going to be needed. Branyan was used then. Weeks wasn't available because of injury making the bench shorter. I think any manager is going to show confidence in a guy there regardless of what he's done this year. You're going to need Bill Hall. A lot of guys failed with RISP in that game. Besides, you bring Branyan in to hit there with men on and Colorado will bring in a lefty as sure as I am writing this.
  3. JohnBriggs12
    It's interesting and may be indicative of past performance, but it's really just a snapshot of a third of one season. Some guys gain stamina as the season progresses. Some add speed. It's not all that predictive. Plus it totally ignores the most important factor for non-power guys, location. Bush gets burned because he leaves balls over the heart of the plate with all his pitches. Villanueva struggles when he's not locating his fastball because it sets up his out pitches. Suppan never surpasses 87 anyway so it makes almost no difference that he's able to stay at that level. He has to locate his pitches and change speeds to be effective.
  4. JohnBriggs12
    Menotti80, The 1977 Cubs were 25 games over .500 in June of 1977 and finished 81-81. Numerous Brewer teams over the years were right there as late as early July. In 2004, on July 1st the Brewers were 41-34 and finished the year 67-94. I've been around a long time. Teams that have no business contending can play very well for 2 or 3 months. But the Cardinals don't fool me. The Cardinals are where they are because of Ryan Ludwick, Skip Schumacher, Todd Wellemeyer, and Kyle Lohse having monster couple of months. Those are all journeyman major leaguers. Do you think for a minute that Ludwick, suddenly at age 30, is going to put up MVP type numbers over a full season or that Wellemeyer, who's bounced around all over, is going to be in the Cy Young discussion? As for their injured players coming back, are Mulder (who hasn't been effective since 2005) or Carpenter (coming off surgery) going to be anywhere near top form?
  5. JohnBriggs12
    superbraun, You're leaving Hardy out of the discussion. He's among, if not the worst, in the league hitting with RISP. In 51 AB's with RISP, he's "hitting" .157/.254/.157. That's right, with runners in scoring position, he has zero extra base hits. In fact Hardy has batted with a total of 69 runners in scoring position so far this season. He's stranded 61 of them.
  6. JohnBriggs12
    I don't think this is necessarily a good thing for the Brewers. I've never considered the Cardinals to be a serious playoff threat (they have many guys performing well over thier heads) and I still don't, but they are keeping the heat on the Cubs for now and causing Piniella to manage like every game is the World Series. A loss of Wainwright might cause them to fade a little too soon, and give the Cubs some breathing room to save their pen.
  7. JohnBriggs12
    Hall has more experience at 2B than he does at any position other than SS. I'm sure he'd rather be in the lineup there than not in it at all. I'm rather surprised they brought up Iribarren rather than Crabbe. Iribarren's hardly played 2B all year and hasn't exactly been raking since his return to Nashville. If they just wanted a lefthanded bat off the bench, then why not Nelson? Crabbe is the better player defensively at 2B. I can't imagine they'd want to tick off Hall more by playing a guy hitting .273/.338/.326 at AAA over him against anybody. It's one thing to be platooned with a guy with major league experience with Branyan's power in the midst of a hot streak, but with an uproven AAA player who's been struggling, it's another. Compared to Dillon, at 2b, Hall is clearly the better defender.
  8. JohnBriggs12
    Many of the people who "became" Cub fans, were Cub fans prior the Braves coming to Milwaukee. But to me, they were all duped because I firmly believe it was Cub owner P.K. Wrigley who engineered the entire move of the Braves to Atlanta for the purpose of recapturing the Milwaukee market by recruiting the Chicago businessmen (Bartholomay, Reynolds, Searle, etc) to buy the Braves two years prior to the move. I hope Selig survives long enough to finally retire and reveal this in the book he's promised to write. I know it's hard to believe, but the Cubs couldn't draw flies in the 1950's and early 60's. I'm certain that old Mr. Wrigley couldn't stand the fact that 90 miles north was a team filling up the ballpark with a lot of people who were once Cub fans. While there are teams I dislike strongly like the Yankees, Dodgers and a few others, there are two teams I reserve the term hate for, the Cubs and the Braves.
  9. JohnBriggs12
    I hope one or both can contribute fairly soon. While it might appear the bullpen has it going okay those things can change overnight, and if Riske and/or Gagne contribute, it would allow them to move Mota out of the 8th inning if he continues to struggle. It might also allow them to return Villanueva to the rotation when and if a need develops there which is more likely than not given it's makeup. Keep in mind that coming into the year, Villanueva had a 3.01 ERA as a starter. I don't think his status as a starter should be permanently affected by a 6 week stretch that included 4 or 5 bad starts.
  10. JohnBriggs12
    I think it all depends on what part of the state you are from. Frankly, growing up in eastern Wisconsin, I grew up being able to hear Cub broadcasts, and my family never ventured anywhere near Minnesota, while trips to Chicago were fairly common. The only dislike I had of the Twins were because the move of the Senators to Minnesota was a factor in declining attendence for my beloved Braves as those people in far off places (to me) like Eau Claire and LaCrosse apparently switched allegiances. Since a significant majority of Wisconsin's population is centered in the corredor from Green Bay to Kenosha (far from Minnesota), I don' t think the Twins/Brewers rivalry will ever match a Milwaukee/Chicago rivalry.
  11. JohnBriggs12
    They also thought enough of him to take him back when offered. They could easily add him to the roster by moving one of several guys from the 15 to the 60 day DL.
  12. JohnBriggs12
    There was a very lively discussion of a Roberts for Weeks deal in spring training started by JoePepsi. I said it then and it holds today that it's certainly worth considering. Roberts is a premier leadoff hitter while Weeks is still unfulfilled potential and you have to ask as he approaches 26, are we ever going to see it in a Brewer uniform. What I like about it, is that it appears the Brewers have correctly identified one of the key problems plaguing this offense. They need more baserunners for Braun and Fielder.
  13. JohnBriggs12
    Cameron is clearly not a number 2 hitter. Neither is Hardy. The old Jason Kendall was, but I'm not sure about now. It would be interesting to see what Hart could do in front of Braun and Fielder, but who then bats 5th? Cameron? Kapler seems to be the best option now because he at least takes advantage of seeing a lot of fastballs.
  14. JohnBriggs12
    The Brewers could get immediate bullpen help by just bringing back Stetter. He had 2 games where he was wild but the Brewers, who'll show extreme patience with some veterans, show none with younger guys.
  15. JohnBriggs12
    Absolutely. Not easy plays by any means, but Cameron has a shot to make both. Coors OF is expansive. Hot or no, I think you have to play Cameron there.
  16. JohnBriggs12
    Backupcatchers, Villanueva gets hitters out because of his ability to change speeds, and command what is an average (89-90) fastball, not a soft toss. The bane of Coors field is lack of movement on pitches. Though Villanueva normally has a solid curve ball and a decent slider in his arsenal, his big weapon is location and change of speed. You also say "his confidence was not high"? What have you been watching? He'd been lights out in 4 straight (5 if you count last night) relief appearences where he had fanned 12 and walked zero in 7 innings. His confidence has never been higher. In fact he still believes (as I do) he should be starting. No, there was no reason to remove Villanueva last night. His spot in the batting order didn't come up in the top of the inning and he had thrown just 10 pitches. It was strictlty push button by the book managing that Yost invariably falls into every year. Furthermore of the 3 guys in that lineup that can hurt you, 2 are lefthanded where Villanueva's changeup is the superior out pitch to Mota's slider or fastball. In fact, lefties are hitting just .216 off Villanueva. The other thing a manager should have on his mind is that in Coors Field the margin for error is reduced. Every time you make a pitching change you add risk because you don't know if the reliever coming in has it that day. Villanueva had already shown he had command in the 7th and had plenty in the tank. (pared back long quote --1992)
  17. JohnBriggs12
    Oh I think it does TLB. First better fielders make fewer errors. If (as I do), you read the daily play by play recap of Huntsville's games, you would notice very few "so and so singled to third baseman Matt Gamel", meaning the ball didn't get to the OF. Also if the official scorer was being easy on him, then how would a good fielder like Escobar already have 12 errors too? The other indicator is that the pitching staff is doing well which would be hard to do if the 3rd baseman was that brutal. Gamel had a .826 FP last season. You don't improve 100 points just because of favorable scoring decisions. Also minor league fields tend not to be quite as well manicured as major league fields. If anything a guy should benefit from that coming from the minors to the majors. Here's something else for everyone to chew on: Chase Utley started as a 3B, and in 2002 made 28 errors (.918 FP) at AAA, then was switched to 2B the following season. Not only was he a better fielder at 2B, he became a much better hitter. Maybe the answer is moving Gamel to 2B.
  18. JohnBriggs12
    I don't know who Gamel compares to, but I do know this guy can hit and he's beyond the "good start" stage. The minor league season is nearing the half way point and his numbers are better than the numbers either Braun or Fielder put up at Huntsville. Of course he does benefit hitting in front of LaPorta, but those are slow pitch softball stats he is putting up. Braun had an .895 FP last year, and Gamel is hovering around .925 this season. Working with Don Money is paying off it seems. If he can post a .925-.930 FP, with his bat, he can play 3B in my lineup.
  19. JohnBriggs12
    Look Kendall handles pitchers fine, but so does the veteran Rivera (I didn't hear complaints from Bush after his performance on Sunday). Rivera is a respectable 4 for 14 throwing out runners. Kendall was a 145-150 game guy when: a. He was a .300+ hitter on Pittsburgh teams where he arguably was their best hitter. b. He was in his 20s. He certainly appears to be far from a .300 hitter playing virtually every day now and what power he had is almost completely gone. Rivera is certainly not going to hit .340, but he's got more pop in his bat. It makes no sense for Kendall to play 90% of the time if he can't hit better than .250 with very little power. That's not to diminish Kendall's contribution, especially throwing. But let's be real. He has to really be outstanding defensively hitting .244/.327/.322 and maybe more rest will mean more offense from him.
  20. JohnBriggs12
    I think Kapler has done enough take some playing time away from Cameron. Cameron at 35 was going to need some days off anyway, so as long as Kapler is hot, why not make it twice a week instead of once?
  21. JohnBriggs12
    Not to nitpick, but why is Kendall still in this game?
  22. JohnBriggs12
    What is impressive is how the numbers compare to the numbers Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, Hart, and even Braun put up in Huntsville. They are pretty much across the board better. LaPorta and Salome are off the charts overall and LaPorta's HR rate is slightly better than Braun and Fielder's.
  23. JohnBriggs12
    Look, the team has won 5 in a row and 11 of 15. I can understand booing when fans are frustrated at poor play and losing, but let's enjoy this while it lasts. Hall is 14 for his last 36 (.389) since May 17th and has raised his average 33 points (.195 to .228). He wants to play and feels he deserves to play and he's got a case but did he make a mistake going public? I think so. Nevertheless it's not like he's not trying nor has not been a contributor. It's key for this team to stay hot as long as possible. Let the Hall thing go for now. It's very likely at some point Branyan is going to go 2 for 25 with 15 K's and Hall will be back in there against most righthanders and this whole issue will be gone.
  24. JohnBriggs12
    Remember, he's still only 21. Last year he made 16 errors in 60 games for Brevard but settled down and made just 5 in 61 for Huntsville. 21 errors in a season for a 20 year old minor league SS is really pretty good. His gold glove potential is based more on his range which is off the charts.
  25. JohnBriggs12
    I'd much prefer to keep Hardy and trade Hall. Hardy is cheaper, more reliable defensively and has better plate discipline. Hall has poor plate discipline, routinely gets killed by the outside pitch and is a relatively easy prey for Ks. Hardy's plate discipline? He takes pitches right down the middle and swings at one's up in his eyes.
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