danzig6767

has anyone else noticed that his slider is absolutely terrible. if he can get it to be a strike its just crushed, otherwise its just thrown in the dirt. now if your a hitter i'm pretty sure your going to sit and wait for a fastball. Actually,that's rarely the case As i posted in the vent thread,i've noticed a trend in nearly everytime he gives up runs,it's almost always on the slider.He throws 94-97 and even with that,he seems almost afraid to use his fastball alot regardless if he's showing no command of the slider. He usually gets ahead of batters and it's with fastballs,how often do you see hitters drive his fastballs?Then he gets 2 strikes on a guy and it's one slider after another even if he's hanging them or throwing them in the dirt. Every once in awhile he'll throw a suprise 2 strike fastball,but it's fairly rare.I was yelling at the TV to Pujols/Rolen,please throw your fastball when he had two strikes,Cordero hadn't thrown a good slider all inning.He just seems scared to do it even throw his fastball rarely gets hit hard,but hanging sliders kill him all the time.

I've noticed something with Cordero in nearly every blown save,he gets hurt on the slider and he refuses to use his fastball more even though he has no command of the slider. The thing that baffles me is he throws 95,not 90.I've never seen a closer that throws as hard as he does,seem so afraid of using his fastball when he has 2 strikes on a hitter.He'll get ahead with the fastball and the batter not get any good swings on it,then it's 90 percent sliders after that even if he's obviously not commanding them. I was yelling at the TV to both Pujols and Rolen,please throw the fastball and each time he got burned hanging sliders.Cordero must have thrown 10 sliders that inning and maybe one was a quality pitch,yet he kept pumping them in there and instead of using the fastball that was the pitch he was getting strikes on. Happens nearly every blown save.The guy throws 94-97 and pitches in fear of using it quite often.

http://aureliosoft.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/scream-thumbs-up-lg.gif

I hope Mrs. danzig, daughter danzig, and Tyson danzig aren't reading this thread Yea well,unfortunately while i'm no old man,i'm now getting very close to being the older vet who gets to only sub in for the young guys when they need a day off.Not far from being old enough where the perfect looking coed girls view me as being creepy for looking at them instead of wanting me as a play toy.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif I might not be all the way there yet,but reality faces me in the mirror when i go to shave my head every morning and there is less and less hair to shave.

The Brewers don't lack fire,they lack enough hitters who will make pitchers work hard to get them out vs helping them do it so often.

2. Rickey Henderson How can anyone hate Rickey? That's like hating Manny and this is coming from someone that can't stand the Red Sox.The game of baseball needs more personalities like Rickey and Manny.

I hate cats

Tom Glavine Estrada Jack Wilson Curt Schilling

Right now things seem dark. I know this year has been a gift, but it almost seems like a tease to get this far and then watch it falter. Would kinda remind me of some years back i met this extremely hot girl,one of those types you feel is just to good looking to get and way out of your league.To my very pleasant and semi-shocked suprise,she agreed to go out on a date after we talked for awhile the night i met her.We went out for roughly a month,did some fun messing around stuff,but she wasn't the type to put out quickly which was quite frustrating on the nads. Anyways i was close to reaching the promised land it seemed to me,had been to third base a few times,only to have the third base coach throw up the stop sign while rounding third.Wanted to keep heading for the plate,but the coach is the boss even if i tried convincing that going for home was the right thing to do.Just when i have my hopes up that my patience was going to pay off,out of nowhere in pops Mr. long term ex bf and i'm stuck stranded on third base,never able to cross home plate. While it was enjoyable parading around with a girl for awhile that made all my friends jelous and who had hit the gene pool lottery looks wise,i couldn't help for awhile afterwards thinking to myself,damn i should have done a better job seizing the opportunity while it was there. On the bright side for the Brewers even if they don't make it,they should have many other chances.I on the other hand have met other attractive girls,but never again a World Series trophy.

Between the two losses, the puzzling trade, and the now-diminished lead, this has been one of the most aggravating 24 hour periods I've experienced as a Brewers' fan. I was so numb to it for so many years. I agree pretty much For years i've become numb to the Brewers losing,by this point in the season i usually am barely caring if they won or lost.Plus,i had something very bad happen in my life that for the most part changed my perspective about sports teams i follow. Lately i find myself swearing at the TV again quite a bit and being very pissed after bad losses.For awhile,i was just enjoying being in a pennant race and didn't understand why so many were getting all bent out of shape over a bad stretch.For whatever reason,the last few days have really raised my level of being irritated with the team.

I've been optimistic all year,through all the various struggling points in the season. I'm certainly not saying i think the Brewers are done,but for the first time,i'm getting very worried.We aren't playing good baseball on multiple fronts and the Cubs just won't stop winning.

There has to be like 3 different "why did Inman get traded?" threads right now with different subject lines. People need to relax on here. Why don't you relax Mr. Board Policeman,if a mod wants to lock the thread,he will. The point of the thread anyways isn't so much about the trade.I wanted to ask a question of those who follow minor leaguers/prospects alot more than i do.I was curious how much besides his height was a factor in Inman not being as a highly valued prospect and if studies have been done on how common is it for shorter pitchers to reach a very good prospect status,followed by what then those guys did going forward. There are alot of number crunchers and big time followers of the minors on this site,i'm not one of them.Their knowledge i would like to hear from if they are willing to offer it.

What a great meritocracy baseball is. Suppan, who even in the offseason profiled as our third starter at best and just as likely our fourth, got a massive payday because his contract came up at the right time. Now that he's killing us, the team can't remove him from the rotation because he's making such big money. Where, in those intertwined thought processes, are we supposed to fit the idea that your best pitchers get to pitch and that if somebody isn't cutting it, and you have plausible alternatives, you give them a shot? It's quite the conundrum,isn't it? If Bush was stinking up the joint this long,he's be in the pen,but he doesn't make 10 million a year.I remember when we signed Suppan,having a mix of excitement over finally signing a legit free agent and fear we were going to regret it at some point.It's early in his contract,but what we are seeing from him now,is what i feared would happen in years 3-4 of the contract.It happening in year one and him looking so bad while doing it is even more disconcerning.

I understand not many short RHP are a success in the majors.I guess the question i'm trying to get at is,how often do short guys even reach the prospect status that Inman was?In the cases where it happened say the last 10 years or so,did they bust in the bigs generally or not even make it? Since i don't follow the minors outside the Brewers or prospects outside our system,i wonder if Inman is already an exception by being short and a highly thought of pitching prospect?If that is the case,is there only a small sample of case studies simular to Inman to base a higher likelyhood of failure as he steps up in higher competition? If say only a small amount of short righthanders who ever pitched extremely well in the minors,wasn't just some junkball guy fooling overmatched kids,and actually reached a high level prospect status,is there much data out there to show Inman has the deck really stacked against him?Or am i wrong and history is full of short Inman's who were great in the minors and reached a high prospect status,but bombed from there on?

If one guy is 5'10 or 5'11 and another guy is 6'2,but their stuff is very simular,why would the 6'2 guy be expected to be a much better big leaguer? Now i'm not saying Inman has simular stuff compared to Gallardo,i've never even seen Inman throw a single pitch.I'm just curious why a pitchers height makes their stuff less effective?Does it make their curveball or slider easier to see and hit?Does it make their say 92-93 mph fastball look slower to a hitter than if they were a few inches taller? I realize most big league pitchers are 6' tall or bigger.Is this mainly because most short guys can't throw as hard as taller guys on average?Is there a history of shorter pitchers that put up stellar stats in the minors and that aren't soft tossers,then busting alot more once brought up to the majors compared to bigger guys?Or is it more that most short guys never really even excell in the higher minors,much less bust in he bigs,so there isn't alot of guys to compare this too?

Estrada is a perfect example for me at least of seeing a guy play everyday vs just seeing a guy a few times a year and it changing my opinion alot of that player.When we got him,i was pretty happy even if i didn't like that he never walks. Now after watching him all this year,i can see why Estrada doesn't stick with teams long.He really only has one positive attribute as a player,hitting for a better average than normal for a catcher.Other than that,it's hard to see anything else he does well.

If a mod wants to lock this,feel free,i just wanted to get this answered by someone better in the know thani and figured the question would likely get lost in a big multiple page trade thread. I read the minor league forum,but don't do much else in regards to prospects.The numbers for Inman at simular levels as Gallardo were quite close to each other accross the board.I know Inman struggled early in AA,but if i remember correctly he was still suffering some from the case of mono and recently has pitched much better as he felt better. Besides better size,what exactly did Gallardo have on Inman in regards to future projection?From what i read,Gallardo didn't throw any harder,both mainly sit in that 91-94 range. I can't imagine that Melvin would have traded Gallardo while he was in AA for a free agent to be relief pitcher even if we were contending last year,so for the minor league gurus,what besides size made Inman expendable compared to Gallardo even though their numbers at simular levels were so close and there was little difference in velocity?

I've been intrigued by Thatcher,with the Padres calling him up,i'm very curious to see how he does. The thing is Thatcher has a great story and i want to cheer for the guy to do well,but if he pitches great,then i'll feel even worse about this trade.

Keep in mind the Padres are 1.5 games back and they still traded Linebrink.If they thought he was the same top relief pitcher he was in the past,why would they trade him?

"Linebrink's blown save on Monday -- his sixth of the season -- was the latest in a series of missteps for the right-handed reliever, who has already allowed as many home runs this season (nine) as he did all of last season. That's my other issue,we not only gave up this much for a rental,but a rental who isn't pitching well.

Padres must believe in Thatcher more than we do because it looks like he will be joining their big league team. Wouldn't it be a kick in the face if Thatcher pitches better than Linebrink the rest of the year and they get Inman on top of it.

I'd be fine with this if Linebrink had another year on his contract,but it seems we gave up quite a bit for maybe 25-30 innings of pitching this year.

I wouldn't be surprised if we traded him and moved on. Not give him away but move him to another organization for something decent. I can't see that happening,talk about selling an asset at it's lowest value point.I'm assuming this will teach him a lesson,doing it again could be a death sentence to his career if caught. If he cleans up his act,losing 50 games is like him missing that time via injury,except for the stigma attached to taking whatever he did.

Thanks for the link backupcatchers,i'll check it out doesn't that just aggrevate you to no end? It takes forever to get them to do what you want yet seemingly in minutes they learn something to their advantage. If I didn't love dogs I'd hate them. Yep He managed to learn the word treat in about two days,but come here or stop chewing all my damn cords doesn't register.Of course if i say come here and have anything in my hand that smells like meat,he manages to come from a block away. I knew going in that dogs love food,but underestimated just how much.I barely have to vacum anymore because Tyson eats almost anything he finds and if i have actual meat/dog treats,he literally starts shaking like if you waved a vial of crack in front of a crackhead.Then you give the food and if it's not big,there is no chewing or enjoying the taste,just inhale and swallow.

On one hand, fans make comments like that all the time, where players should be expected to handle whatever situations are thrown their way. On the other, players are constantly analyzed about what roles they can handle or not (closer mentality, clutch player, etc...). While I tend to side with the "they can handle the stress" philosophy, it can't really be both, can it? Earlier in the thread i said it's probably a case of Balfour either being to amped up or nervous and that's why he's struggling with command.After a nightmare first outing after so long rehabbing,you can just imagine him starting to press after that leadoff walk tonight.Throwing a pitch with command isn't easy,get a guy talking to himself and thinking instead of simply pitching and that's what i'm guessing is happening with Balfour.He has to be thinking to himself,don't blow this don't blow this.Ned though is trying to win games and i don't have a problem with him going out there and telling Balfour to stop nibbling and throw strikes. The guy hasn't been in the majors since 2004, when he apparently blew out his shoulder and elbow. I guess I'm willing to give him a bit more slack than 3 innings, provided Melvin can't get someone clearly better. I'd maybe give him one more chance,but a playoff berth could end up being decided by a game or two.If the guy can't calm down enough to pitch to his stuff,we can't keep trotting him out there because he did well in the minors.If we were 8 games under .500 like most past years,i'd gladly let him step up here awhile and work out whatever issues are plauging him.