danzig6767

If you give credit to his subordinates, DM should get just as much credit for assigning them that job. I can agree to a point, but i can only give so much credit for making what was a no brainer move to keep Zduriencik. I guess it's possible that Melvin could have come in and fired Zduriencik, but it wasn't exactly a brilliant move to keep in place a guy that had been doing a great job at fixing what had been a broken down farm system. If Melvin had hired Jack Z himself from another team or Zduriencik had done a very mediocre job before Doug arrived, but Melvin still had faith in him, then i'd give Doug more credit for keeping him in charge of the draft. If anything, the thing i'd give the most credit to Melvin for in regards to all the young talent in the bigs and currently in the minors is that Doug really wasn't that involved in those guys getting drafted. He's said that he's in draft meetings and listens, but he doesn't butt in much and instead let's Zduriencik pick the players. Being able to check his ego at the door and let Jack handle the drafts is something i'm not sure all GM's would be willing to do.

No question the team has to keep a close eye on McClung and not have to long a leash if he starts giving up to many runs, but on the flip side to your comment above, it's also a positive that Seth was still able to make some quality pitches after getting behind in the count as evidenced by not many hard hit balls even though he was behind in the count often. The Tampa Seth would have totally imploded in those situations, but so far this year for the most part, he's been able to avoid being terrible even in games where his command was off. In that 5th inning, if we weren't in defensive shifts twice on the infield, the two routine grounders are outs and the Twins don't score a run. That happens sometimes to all pitchers. It was one of those weird games where a pitcher had command issues, but also didn't have much luck either.

My view on Melvin is he's done a solid job in his time here, nothing more nothing less. I do think though that after the poor job that Bando and Taylor did, it's left some fans to overrate the performance by Doug. I have no doubt that Attanasio will bring Melvin back next year and i would also even if we miss the playoffs, but i wonder if that's the case if we missed the playoffs again next year?

Even though he gave up five runs, i only remembered 3 hard hit balls, the two homers and a double in the gap. There were the two bunt hits, a hit batter that grazed maybe two threads of the guys jersey, a flair or two that fell, and two seeing eye singles that found a hole because we were in a shift that backfired. I understand the concern given the poor track record of McClung in his past, but i'd be more worried if Seth was walking tons of batters and/or given up lots of hard hit balls. He obviously wasn't very sharp tonight, but at least half the hits off him tonight were bunts, flares, and not hard hit grounders that found a hole.

I love a good discussion. Feel free to actually engage my points. I very clearly did so I think it would be an absolutely terrible move to badly alienate the city of Milwaukee and all the fans filling Miller Park, along with sticking a dagger in the hearts of the other 24 guys on the roster who have clawed back to the third best record in the NL and who are a tiny two games behind the Cardinals, all just to get a couple of prospects for Sheets instead playing out the season and taking the draft picks. The backlash from the fans and players would be enormous and justified. At some point a franchise needs to stop always just thinking about tomorrow, especially a team that's only two games back, that's playing well, has a pretty stocked farm system, and besides the Cubs, the NL not looking like another other team is good enough to run away with the Wild Card from the Brewers. Thankfully though, i don't think Melvin or Attanasio would at all share your line of thinking on this, so long as the team is close or leading the Wild Card come late July. They know the ugly ramifications that could follow by selling out the season on the fans and players, along with not wanting to damage the positive reputation the Brewers franchise has finally started to build up among many players around the league that not long ago looked at Milwaukee as a place you only wanted to play for as a last resort. This i agree with. While i do think it would be insanity to consider trading Sheets for prospects at any point this year if the team stays in close contention for a playoff berth, i wouldn't sell out much of the future to only get 10-12 starts from a guy like Sabathia if Cleveland asked for a package including say Laporta and two other pretty good prospects. That's the great thing about right now. The franchise has quite a few high quality young players on the big league roster that has the third best record in the NL, plus the farm system has multiple other high level prospects that either are ready now or close to being ready for the bigs. Keeping Sheets and seeing if he can help finally getting this team to the playoffs after decades of missing them, it wouldn't be crippling if he left after this year and we only got picks back because Zduriencik has done such a fabulous job restocking the farm system.

If you look at the moves KC has made the last year or two, they seem to be trying to win sooner than later. My guess is if if they even considered trading Greinke, it wouldn't be for prospects, but would instead want something done with say a Fielder or Hart involved.

I wasn't being sarcastic at all though, i was 100% serious with everything i said and didn't find anything about it being irrational.

Wow, utterly amazing to me that any Brewers fan would be willing to punt away this year even though we are a measly 2 games back from leading the race for a playoff berth. This franchise hasn't made the playoffs since 1982 and fans are filling the stadium in droves, yet you'd be willing to kick all those fans in the teeth and piss off all the players who are busting their ass to get in the playoffs, all just to acquire a few more prospects that may not even pan out vs just keeping Sheets and taking the draft picks after the season. Just look at Cleveland this year, many thought they'd be back in the playoffs, but they are yet another example of how being in a solid position for a playoff berth from year to year is far from a given and it's important to make it while you have the chance. Plus, we have young players that the team wants to lock up. Nice message that you'd be sending them or other players around the league who finally are warming up to playing/staying in Milwaukee. Only 2 games back and owners of the third best record in the NL, yet your idea would be to trade arguably the most important player on the team and kill the hopes of all the players in that dugout. Yea, that i'm sure would go over really well in the clubhouse and in this city among the fans filling Miller Park.

Sheets is gone If the Brewers want a chance at acquiring a front of the rotation starter for next season, it's going to have to com via trade and cost us a player like Prince in return.

Thanks for the effort by everyone who responded, i figured there probably wasn't an exact stat for this.

With less than two outs? I ask because during the Brewers game tonight a friend stopped by and twice the team didn't get the run in from third with less than two outs. My buddy was getting all pissed off each time it happened and he generally gets all flustered anytime this happens and i'm around him. It obviously gets on my nerves also, but my guess is others teams do it at least near as often as the Brewers do, some teams maybe even more often. I tried telling my friend that it probably only seems like we strand that player at third at a much higher percentage than other teams because fans get so angry when their team own does it, but don't notice it nearly as much when our pitchers strand that guy at third. I bet my friend whoever is wrong has to buy pizza next time he stops by to watch a game that the Brewers wouldn't be in the top 5 of worst teams at this situation, of course only if i can find the info and i wasn't able to. Anyone here know if there is data on this?

Depending on when his last start ends up happening, i'd like to see him pitching one inning if he makes the All-Star game. Sheets isn't some 23 year old kid, i think he's plenty mature enough that if he pitched, Ben wouldn't do something dumb and try to throw some 100mph fastballs. Outside of i believe it being Pedro that one All-Star game where he got crazy, i don't remember things happening where pitchers suffered for throwing an inning. If i'm mistaken about that, fill me in

I don't buy that has much to do with it. Branyan has been batting 6th in the order, not third with Prince up next. Pitchers/teams aren't just grooving Branyan fastballs right down the middle out of fear he'll walk and Kapler or Cameron is due up next. Russell to me is simply locked in and seeing the ball well and it also looks like the new stance is helping, when pitchers do make a mistake though, Branyan is crushing them. The amazing thing to me is how effortless his swing looks, yet he hits these absolute bombs that go way over the fence. I watch Prince swing and it's much more violent and hard, Branyan looks like he's slicing a single and the ball goes 450 feet.

Keep dreaming

I doubt we'd be able to resign Sabbathia If not, i'm not up for trading say Laporta or Gamel and another good prospect just to get 10-12 starts from CC.

To rich for me considering we'd only be getting Sabathia for a few months

He's been mediocre? Except for his smoke and mirrors 3.88 ERA so far this year, these are his numbers at all his stops since 2003 ERA/WHIP/BAA 5.30/1.55/.305 6.21/1.73/.331 10.47/2.02/.351 5.24/1.62/.308 6.93/1.88/.335 That's not mediocre in my book, that's pretty damn crappy. I'd rather take my chances any day of the week with some unproven kid in the minors before wasting time picking up this stiff. That doesn't even taken into account that the guy seems like an idiot on top of being a crappy pitcher.

His OBP is .358

What are we missing so much by having Kapler compared to Gross? Kapler is the much superior defensive player, better baserunner, and he's hit better than Gross pretty much all year. On top of that, Kapler has hit both righties and lefties, while Gross can only face righties because he's worse than Jenkins vs lefties. As for Kapler "finally coming back to earth", he's hitting nearly .400 in June with an OPS over 1.000. Granted we are only talking about 30 at bats, but that's hardly some very struggling play like you're implying. It's very unlikely that Kapler can hit this well all season, but i'm certainly not seeing anything that makes me wish for Kapler to be gone and be bummed Gross isn't still here. BTW, this comes from someone who like Gross as a good backup OF.

Ramirez gets lots of RBI's because he bats 4th and he's a really good hitter. It's still hard to believe the Pirates traded him for Bobby Hill.

But the fact that there are additional choices means there is a noticeable difference in strategy. Strategy, any strategy (as evidenced on this board) adds to the thrill of the game. Yes, many times a pitcher may make an out, but he may also be called upon to bunt (another strategic move eliminated with the DH). Every once in a while the pitcher gets that crucial hit that he got a chance to get because he was shutting down the other team. How many times have we seen a pitcher do something like that and the crowd goes nuts. Having the pitcher hit adds a lot to the game. A DH dumbs it down IMO. Baseball is a game of strategy not just which team can hit the most home runs. The second guessing of a manager that happens so often here loses something--a lot or a little depending on your viewpoint--but it loses something none-the-less. I hate the DH and am glad the Brewers are no longer in the AL, but there is little point in trying to debate this issue. For the most part, people either like the DH a lot or they hate it, minds rarely get changed on this issue. Fans of AL teams for the most part want to keep the DH and i have no doubt if fans of NL teams were polled, the vast majority don't want the DH. I don't see the DH rule in either league changing anytime soon.

I was glad to see Branyan brought up since Gwynn really served no purpose, but no way did i think he'd perform like this. Hopefully the change in batting stance is playing a real role in his hitting and it's not just some hot streak with a huge slump right around the corner. One thing i'm curious about is say Branyan hits very well the whole rest of the season, would the team look at him in their plans for next year?

I'm jeleous of those temps

It would be nice for summer to start in Wisconsin sometime soon before it's 40-50 degrees and grey outside everyday.

Ummmm, they just look like womens shoes to me. If you were to ask why, i'd put it this way. When i shop for shoes, even though the mens and womens area are labeled, that's not really needed. By my eyeballs, i can easily spot the area were i see the shoes men wear and the area with shoes i see women wear. Except in the case of a few pairs of tennis shoes that i could see both sexes wearing, boxes don't need to be labeled mens or womens. So the first time i saw a guy wearing Crocs, my initial thought that came to mind was, damn, why is that guy wearing womens shoes? Then some time after that, i was with a friend at Best Buy and i saw another guy wearing them and i pointed him out to my buddy. He said right away, are those womens clogs with holes in it? To others, obviously some folks out there don't share that opinion since more and more guys are wearing them, not just women wearing them. I just know i won't be joining those men, regardless if they are very comfortable or not.