danzig6767

Tonight was the possible deciding game in the World Series and i intended to check it out, but simply forgot it was on while watching the Bucks game. It got me to thinking just how much my viewership of baseball has nosedived besides the Brewers or some Cubs games. I watched or went to all Brewers games where i was in position to view them and here and there i'd watch part of Cubs games on WGN. As a youngster i watched pretty much any playoff games that were on TV and even in my earlier adult years, i'd tune in to a fair number of playoff/World Series games. The last five years or so i've pretty much watched zero non-Brewers regular season games from start to finish and this years playoffs after the Brewers were eliminated, i didn't watch a single game start to finish, only watched the endings of a few close games. Outside of the 50 dollar bet i made with my buddy on the World Series, i had the Phillies, i had very little interest in watching. I'm not really sure when exactly or why my interest in watching baseball outside of the Brewers dropped as much at it has because i watch lots of non-Packers NFL games, lots of non-Badgers college football, a fair amount of non-Marquette/WI college basketball, and i enjoy watching the NBA playoffs. The somewhat odd aspect is besides my huge love for the NFL/college football, i'm a bigger fan of the Brewers than Marquette/WI college BB and the Milwaukee Bucks. Yet, i don't get nearly as bored watching non-local team games in the other sports. I do though enjoy reading baseball forums like this and following all the possible offseason moves in baseball each year. How much interest do others here have in watching non-Brewers baseball games given from what i remember hearing tonight that ratings were bad again for the World Series?

I forgot the game was even on BTW, has anyone heard what the ratings were for the world series?

Yea Weeks has improved defensively from when he was brought up. IMO though, he gone from being a miserable defensive player to a still a pretty poor one. That's improvement, but he's still a liability in the field and because of that, he really needs to be productive at the plate to not drag down the team overall. I wish i felt that there was a fairly significant level of improvement still out there for Rickie to yet reach in the field, but i just don't feel there is. Maybe he can improve a little more, but generally, really poor defenders have a ceiling that isn't very high on just how much better they can get regardless if the guy works really hard at it in the same fashion poor hitters do. Defense is a skill like hitting is, some players are born better at it. Even if say Hardy only had half the work ethic of Weeks, JJ would still be better in the field simply because he's more naturally gifted in that facet of the game. I really like Weeks, he seems to be a very hard worker and is team first. I also still hold out a bit of hope that Rickie can put it together at the plate much better than he's shown since being called up to the big leagues, don't feel that way about second base though.

I'm at a loss also to see the appeal of Jackson. He allows a ton of baserunners and doesn't strike out hitters at a good rate, what am i missing? Yea draft picks are decent, but in baseball, the success rate of non-top 10 picks aren't that high. At least if you trade for a kid/kids who have shown something in the bigs or excelled in AAA/AA, you increase your odds of getting someone who will play in the majors for you and hopefully well. You're getting a free peek of that kid as he's already played and had success in both the low and high minors, unlike a kid you draft from high school or college that has yet to prove himself at any level in the minors. Plus, as an added benefit, you don't have to pay the first and second round bonus money since that was already paid by the team who drafted that player/players who is now in AAA or AA.

That's right around what my eyes see when watching those two

I thought Ridnour played a miserable game Overall, they looked like past Bucks teams. Terrible defense, inconsistent offense, not athletic enough, and a weak bench. Granted, it was only the first game and Skiles can't work miracles.

I'm a big Norton fan myself http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/flickr/01/81/002475740181.jpg http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/8323/jackiebrown1997dvdripx2gn2.jpg Samuel Jackson has been in some bad movies, but the above two characters he played are among my faves of all time and both remind me of a friend i used to hang with that kinda looked a bit like a young Samuel Jackson and was equally as cocky as the characters in Pulp Fiction/Jackie Brown.

Yep Zero flow to games, just one power play after another with random short stretches of 5 on 5 hockey EDIT-- I'd like to see less of Connelly. He's not the only reason for the poor start, but IMO he just allows to many kinda weak goals.

Uggg, another blown multiple goal lead and penalty fest game

That's because Alexander can't dribble anywhere near traffic without getting stripped. He also seems to struggle pretty badly right now with recognition on defense, he mainly just runs around with no real plan or purpose.The odds look high to me that Luc Richard will see more minutes even though he was only a second round pick because his overall game is more NBA ready except for scoring.

My dad has been getting drunk or buzzed every night since i was a little kid. That's roughly 30 straight years of it, thankfully his liver has held up and somehow his overall health isn't to bad from all that abuse. The weird thing is i've been places with him where he's drinking and after only a few beers, i can start hearing a bit of slurring in his voice. You could inject 3-4 beers right into my blood stream and i wouldn't feel anything even though i only drink a couple times a month. I would have thought he'd have built up a high tolerance.

I know there aren't a lot of NBA fans here, but there are a few. Looking around the net, most national folks are picking the Bucks to finish in the 10th-12th in the East this year. ESPN had 10 of their staff make predictions of the Eastern Conference, only Ric Bucher tabbed the Bucks to make the playoffs, 7th seed was his choice. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-MilwaukeePreview0809http://sports.espn.go.com...dime-milwaukeepreview0809/http://sports.espn.go.com...dime-MilwaukeePreview0809 My thoughts/concerns 1. Starting five is somewhat decent, but PF is a big problem because i don't think Skiles will be able to handle Villanueva's miserable defense. The problem there though is there is pure garbage behind him. 2. The bench looks to be flat out terrible 3. While the Bucks obviously need massive improvement to last years second worst defense in the NBA, there looks to be little scoring on the team besides Redd/Jefferson/Bogut/Villanueva. 4. The Skiles effect. For the first time in awhile the Bucks have a proven head coach, last season Larry Krystkowiak seemed way in over his head and the players didn't respect him. The last few Bucks coaches claimed that they'd take minutes from players who lacked effort on defense, even high profile guys like Redd or Bogut, it never happened. Skiles in past coaching gigs wasn't afraid to hold any players accountable for lazy play. A culture change is badly needed. I loved the Skiles hiring, but the upgrade in overall talent from last year i don't see as enough to make the playoffs. The team still lacks a true impact star player. Skiles should help improve the defense some, but the roster lacks defensive talent. Lack of scoring off the bench will likely be a big problem. If any starter gets hurt, the lack of depth will be glaring. Around 37-45 is my guess if the team stays relatively healthy among the starters (edited since the season is no longer "about a week" away - hawing)

Yea i agree that title winners is probably a to strident criteria, but i still think NFL teams are on a more equal footing than baseball teams are overall when it comes to money. If anything, the NFL has a quarterback imbalance because it's not just Super Bowl winners who need them. If you were to look every year at the teams who make the NFL playoffs and who don't, the majority but not all of the teams who make the playoffs will have at least a solid to very good QB and those that miss out will more times than not have subpar QB play. Obviously, having a quality defense factors in quite a bit also. In baseball though, more than the NFL or NBA, one great player can't have the same profound impact over 162 games. Legit MVP winners in baseball can come from teams who barely finish above .500, in the other sports, dominant players almost always lead their teams to the playoffs. Tampa won 97 games without a single hitter with a .900 OPS or higher or without a dominant starting pitcher. You generally need to build a pretty good all around team to win in baseball and having more money can really help in that cause. Of course it's not required as evidenced by Tampa and the Brewers to a lesser degree, but baseball more than the other sports makes it much harder for a sizable group of teams to not be able to resign their top players and also blocks those teams from competing for top players in free agency. It's certainly better though now than in the past, but all it's done is lessened the imbalance some. That said, the sports are different. Baseball will never get a massive national TV contract like football has, which makes it easier to split that money. At least now teams like Milwaukee have a fair shot given the revenue sharing in place.

Look at that list of teams and the biggest key among them IMO isn't money, it's having a very high quality quarterback. There are a few exceptions, but exceptions are just that, exceptions. Once a NFL team gets a franchise QB, all they need to do is put together a good defense and they are a contender each year that the QB stays healthy. The Patriots are a prime example, they pretty much stunk for about 20 years. Then they found Brady in the 6th round and have been great since he became the starting QB. They put together a good defense to surround Brady, a dynasty followed. He gets hurt this year, bam, their Super Bowl hopes likely vanished with the injury. The Colts get Manning, won a ring and they've been a contender every year since. Denver went to five Super Bowls and won two rings with Elway, haven't been back since. The 49ers were great for over a decade, largely because they had Montana and Young. Cowboys great years were when they had Staubach and Aikman at quarterback. The Packers rise to being good again happed after getting Farve. The 49ers and Cowboys haven't won a playoff game since Young and Aikman retired, much less a title. Nothing in the NFL comes close in importance to winning all the time than a franchise QB does.

One thing i've wondered about with Weeks is his throwing mechanics. I'm not scout who has studied middle infielders for a decade or longer, but i do wonder if guys who throw side armed like Weeks are more prone to throwing errors? I could be way off base on this, but it seems like guys with more "traditional" throwing mechanics like Hardy/Counsell are able to repeat that motion better and thus not spike as many in the dirt like Rickie does? Weeks has a strong arm and quick release when turning the double play, but to often the guy just makes terrible off target throws. Rickie no longer is the miserable defensive player he once was, but i'm still skeptical of some defensive metrics that say he's now average or only slightly below average. One caveat i should add though is i don't know exactly just how much Fielder hurts Weeks and all the infielders with Prince being so short and how much he struggles at scooping throws in the dirt. Put say Lee at first instead of Prince, he'd save all the infielders a fair amount of errors.

No way would i take a one year deal if i was Sheets unless that's all he was offered. Even if Ben took one year and stayed healthy enough to pitch say 210-220 innings, GM's aren't just going to forget all his past injury problems and thus throw a huge 4-5 year deal at him. I'd take the longest offer if i was Sheets, of course that also would depend on wanting to play and live in the city making the offer. Ben is 30 years old and has had a myriad of various injuries, grabbing the most possible guaranteed right now IMO would be the wise choice. If say the best multi-year offer he gets is 3yr/45-50 million, i'd take that over a one year deal and then hope and pray that another injury doesn't pop up that really scares away future suitors. Add another 45-50 million to the 40 he made on his last contract and Ben will have made enough that he won't ever have to worry about money again, along with being able to help any family/friends he wants to. Plus, i'd assume that in any contract he signs this offseason in the 3 year range, he'll be able to add in a player/team option for another year that could vest into being guaranteed if he meets some innings requirements.

It's very hard to rate managers because far and away the biggest key to any team winning is having good players, managers with bad players aren't going to win. That said, it would be pretty hard for me to say Bobby Cox is one of the most overrated managers of all time given he presided over a team that won an unprecedented 15 straight division titles. Think about that, 15 straight, that's insane. I don't care if Atlanta had plenty of talent in that crazy stretch of excellence, Cox had to be doing something right for that to happen. All kinds of teams had talented teams during those 15 years, yet many failed to win for a variety of reasons, but the Braves under Cox just won and won and won every year.

Whether Yount would be willing to come in as a bench coach with a manager would play zero role in who i hired

Hell no Jackson still allows tons of baserunners and only truck out 108 hitters in 183 innings, along with walking 77 batters.

I'm certainly in no huge rush to trade Hardy and wouldn't consider trading JJ for a guy like Sanchez as the center piece of a trade. That said, it wouldn't be because Sanchez might get hurt, it would be because i don't think Sanchez would be good enough value. Yea he's a hard throwing young lefty, but that hasn't translated enough into getting out big league hitters. JJ is to good at what he does to trade him for a guy simply based on hoping Sanchez can stop walking guys. If though Sanchez had better production, no question i'd strongly consider a trade involving those two. The other caveat i'd add is if JJ would be willing to move to 3rd after this season and stay long term at acceptable financial terms for both him and the Brewers.

The biggest difference i see is that in football, teams for the most part have zero reason to use money as an excuse for not being able to win. All NFL teams can go into a draft and not have to worry about a Boras manipulating where players go. In the NFL, there are no Yankees or Red Sox that can sign nearly anyone they please. Low revenue teams like say the Vikings can resign all their top players and also compete for the elite free agents, unlike MLB. The ability of all NFL teams to compete financially is just more equal than it is in baseball, it's not even debatable IMO. That said, just like in baseball, smart management is what's most important. One other thing to consider in why some NFL teams stay good for long stretches and others can stink for long stretches is the quarterback position is by far the most important in all of pro sports. Teams in the NFL who have an elite QB generally are pretty good to great year after year, while teams who struggle badly to find a good QB over a long stretch of years also tend to struggle to consistently win because it's so hard to win without a quality QB. Kinda like how teams in the NBA who land a true franchise player generally at least make the playoffs each year. In baseball, one single great player can't have the same impact.

I don't know how much more Bud can do Between the big market owners and the players union, there will never be any sort of revenue sharing and fairly hard cap like we see in the NFL. The only very very slight chance to reach something even close to the NFL would IMO take a long strike and that's not a given to work. Baseball is to prosperous right now for a long protracted strike to mess things up. If smaller market teams have a smart GM in place and fans show up, revenue sharing money added gives teams a reasonably fair chance to compete.

Why do you bring up the so and so pitcher "is one pitch away from being out for 1.5 years" in nearly anything involving the Brewers signing or acquiring a pitcher somehow? Obviously pitchers can get hurt at anytime, but so what, good luck trying to win without quality pitching. By that line of thinking, Tampa should have paralyzed themselves in fear that Garza was one pitch from blowing out his elbow or shoulder, so they shouldn't have traded a top hitting prospect in D.Young to get Garza. Pitchers are a bigger injury risk than position players, that's a sizable reason they are such valuable commodity. If a GM spends all his time unable to pull the trigger on moves to acquire quality pitching because he can't get over his fear they are one pitch from serious injury, that GM will face a big uphill battle trying to win because quality pitching is a necessity.

I hate that i used to do this, but around ages 20-21 i used to drink and drive a lot, thankfully i never hurt anyone. Then one night i was heading to a birthday party at a bar and had a bad cold, so i took two allergy pills that this girl i was with gave me. Well, between drinking a ton and not knowing the pills were effecting me, i decided to leave. By incredible luck, an old friend of that girl showed up about 20 minutes before i left and she decided to stay. On my way home, i fell asleep at the wheel and crossed a lane of traffic, my car by pure chance went into an empty parking lot and i hit a pole. It was around 1 am and nobody saw or heard the accident, the parking lot was very dark. The allergy pills and all the booze had me so knocked out that i never woke up even through my face smashed into the rearview mirror, slashing both of my lips to shreds. I woke up about an hour later with blood everywhere and spitting little pieces of glass out on my mouth. When the cops spoke to me later, they told me if i had hit the pole a few inches over, i may have been dead. Even scarier, they said if someone had been in the passenger seat without a bet on, they'd likely have gone through the windshield. Julie, the girl who would have been riding with me, she rarely buckled up. Besides almost assuredly having to jail, i can't fathom how it would have been trying to live with killing her had she left with me. She was a good friend and i liked and knew her family. That was it for me with drunk driving. I kept this fairly big hood ornament piece on my key chain afterwards to always remind myself what can happen when driving drunk. It's just so dangerous, that night it all hit me in a blink and i was out cold.

I've heard Melvin over the years so to many things that would make the statheads cringe for me to believe he's just playing dumb for the media. My impression of Doug has always been that he's roughly a 50/50 mix of stats orientated thinking and the socalled old school baseball thinking.