danzig6767

Here are a few more ugly more stats 1. Jason Rogers in his one at bat has more extra base hits than Braun has so far. 2. Rogers and Hector Gomez have more extra base hits in only 9 at bats than Lucroy/Braun/Ramirez do combined. 3. Maldonado in only 4 at bats has drawn as many walks as Braun and Ramirez have combined. 4. Our 9 million dollar reliever Broxton has given up only one less home run than the whole offense has hit combined.

Nearly impossible for this team to score runs when the projected 2-3-4 hitters in Luc/Braun/Ramirez are sporting .457/.545/.400 OPS numbers at this point. Hell, Hector Gomez in only 7 at bats has as many extra bases hits as those three above have combined in nearly 100 at bats. Not only that, Braun and Ramirez have combined for a whopping one walk. There clearly are other factors in the poor start like the bullpen struggles, but so long as those three guys are being out machines with zero power production, the offense will remain stuck in mud. Even worse with Gomez being on the DL.

I get the whole small sample size deal, but nine games in and Braun doesn't a a single extra-base hit. Not only that, it's not as if he's hitting balls hard, but they are just finding gloves.

This season could get ugly quick. The only bright side to that if it were to happen is that maybe Attanasio would clean house and let a new GM next year act without the owner playing quasi-GM.

I'm far more worried about Braun having a good year than Ramirez. Braun is still owed a lot of money, Ramirez is gone after the season.

Because he shouldn't tell Carlos that he should never try to steal third with two outs. While a player needs to try that on a limited basis, if a really good opportunity is there, a baserunner can score multiple ways from third compared to second, like say a wild pitch, infield hit, or infield error. There is a reason defenses try holding a quick baserunner close to second base, even with two outs. They understand that a baserunner has less opportunities to score from second base compared to third. No manager in baseball would tell Gomez what you asked for.

Managers should be judged by process, players should be judged by results. If you think this was a smart move it doesn't matter if it fails, sometimes the 75% right choice is the wrong result, like 25% of the time. The worst thing you can be is results oriented with a manager. Gomez has a low baseball IQ, it stinks but it is what it is. 3 different organizations have tried to fix this and all failed. It isn't the managers fault, it is just how the guy is. I don't know why some just can't grasp this. There are great talents in all sports who are also lower IQ players. Instincts and smarts for the game a player plays is as much of a skill which certain players possess in abundance, while others lack them. Pick the sport and there will be players which drive fans crazy because that player or players will regularly make the same mistakes over again, regardless if new coaches/managers are in charge. For example, Brandon Knight when he was with the Bucks. This was a guy with great physical gifts for a point guard. He was also very book smart. On the court though, while he did many things well, he just never could figure out how to consistently run a pick and roll properly. How to regularly diagnose what the defense was attempting to do even though he was a 4.0 student in the classroom. Multiple coaches tried to work with Knight on how to better run an offense. To run a pick and roll. When to deliver passes on a fast break. Knight is what he is though, a physical gifted guy and talented scorer, but simply not cerebral enough to ever be an upper tier starting point guard. For some athletes, they don't have to think hard before making the right decision most of the time. It just happens naturally. The game moves slower for them in their minds. For others, the game moves faster and in turn they make more mistakes.

I'm all for moving on from Melvin, but Attanasio is a big part of that front office, free agent signings, and direction the team chooses from year to year. Unless that changes, bringing in a new GM can only have so much impact if the owner also wants to have a quasi-GM role himself.

I hear others also complain about Gomez sometimes swinging out of his helmet and i just don't get why people care about this given his production? He always swings super hard and this leads sometimes to his helmet flying off. So what. It was that all out change in his approach at the plate which has lead to him going from being a bad hitter to one of the best at his position. There are erratic things Carlos does at times which i get why it can frustrate fans even though he's overall turned into an elite player, but i don't get being bothered by his helmet flying off on swing and misses sometimes. It's still a strike regardless if the helmet stays on and his swinging super hard at all times has played a major factor in the guy going from a near automatic out to best CF in the game not named Mike Trout.

Wow, a poor mans Kyle Loshe gets 20 million per. That just shows how much money is in baseball.

I would lose most of my interest in baseball if the Brewers moved.

Redd certainly was a more talented scorer than Middleton is, but Middleton is a vastly superior defender. He's going to get offered more than 7-8 million per in restricted free agency if the Bucks don't lock him up first. Guys who defend like he does and offer spacing on offense have lots of value in today's NBA.

They are predicting he will sign for $7-8M per year but I really believe some team will offer him $9-10M per based on his post trade production. The Bucks best case with Middleton is likely in the 9-10 million per range. He's got great size for a SG, is a great defender, and is an upper tier shooter. He's going to get paid well by the Bucks or someone else.

Of course players learn over time but that comes from so many other sources than just the manager. Gomez has gotten better over time in almost every department. I don't really credit Roenicke for that and I'm certainly not going to blame him when Gomez isn't perfect either. From 2011-2014 Gomez is the 20th highest rated BsR in MLB so it isn't like his baserunning is a negative. I just think you are looking for someone to blame when there isn't one thing to point at. Gomez is not a smart baseball player and probably never will be. The Brewers organization really has nothing to do with it. He has improved since he got here and we had nothing to do with his minor league development. If you look at most players weaknesses when they first came up,they don't usually lose that as a weakness. Weeks improved defensively but it was never a strength, Gomez has a low baseball IQ and probably always will, Segura will probably always swing at too many pitches, Scooter is probably never going to be a good hitter against lefties. You can work on hiding them and make them less of a weakness but in the big picture they usually stay a weakness. That's the thing, athletes in all sports are often blessed with certain types of strengths and weaknesses. Not all athletes are naturally cerebral players compared to others, but they can still excel by sheer talent and working hard. I give Gomez a ton of credit for his work ethic and desire to improve, but some things can only be improved on to certain degrees. He'll always make some mistakes out of his aggressive nature just as that nature creates positive things. It is what it is. What annoys me big time when it comes to Gomez is if say he gets caught trying to take an extra base, a certain group of Brewers fans will scream like crazy about how undisciplined/excessively aggressive he is, but they will rarely ever credit with anything close to the same zeal when that aggressiveness leads to positive results, which happens more often that negative. That's just how some fans are. When they don't like certain players much, the negative things those players do end up sticking out to them much more than the positives. So that player could 3-4 times in a row drive in a runner from third base with less than two outs, but if in the next at bat of a situation like that the player strikes out on a ball, the fan will go crazy screaming that the player is so terrible and undisciplined "in the clutch", regardless if the stats say otherwise. Carlos is my favorite Brewers player which is crazy to think considering a few years ago i thought he was hopeless to ever be more than a 4th OF type.

The nerve wracking thing for me watching K-Rod in the 9th is just when power hitters step to the plate as the tying and/or winning run simply because when he misses over the plate with that Marco Estrada like 90mph straight fastball behind in the count, bad things tend to happen. He's done a fabulous job as he's gotten older and his velocity declined by developing that nasty change, limiting baserunners, and keeping his K rate up there. It's only the home run threat as a fan which makes things so scary. You get a power bat at the plate and say a runner on base, the count reaches 2-1 or 3-1 and i start talking to the TV saying please don't accidentally groove a 90mph fastball over the heart of the plate.

Agreed K-Rod is not very good anymore. Not among the top 20 relief pitchers in Baseball. This speaks to the failure of the Brewers in developing pitching talent and the failure of the front office in understanding advanced analytics and saber-metrics. K-Rod had a 125 ERA+ last year. His ERA+ over the last 3 years is 115 with a 1.173 WHIP. In an era that is featuring many of the greatest closers of All-Time and where teams often have 2-3 elite relief pitchers on their staff, those numbers are truly horrid. Best we can do is hope for a repeat of 2013 where he is very good for half a year and we can deal him at the trade deadline. I literally cannot wait for Melvin to retire and the Brewers to bring in a new GM who understands the modern game as it is evolving. Nightmare scenario is it is Gord Ash who replaces Melvin and we get the same old same old approach Getting a new GM may not matter all that much so long as Arranasio is the owner and especially his direct line with Boras. From the K-Rod transaction thread. Melvin wouldn't comment on the state of possible talks with the Phillies, but acknowledged the lines of communication have remained open with "K-Rod." "I don’t know if it’s active, but we still have conversations," Melvin said. "Mark deals more with that. (Agent) Scott (Boras) keeps calling Mark." It's hard to know exactly to what degree Attanasio takes the lead on signing free agents, but it seems very clear that he isn't the type of owner who just gives his GM a budget and sits back allowing the GM to then build the roster as he sees fit, kinda like as happens in Green Bay with Ted Thompson. Pretty much every free agent signing of note seems to have Attanasio's involvement to some degree.

Yeah, I don't want anything to do with a 'shot clock' or anything for batters or pitchers. If re-adjusting his batting gloves puts Braun's mind/body at ease in the batter's box, so be it. Same goes for anyone else, honestly. I know I always used to fidget & pull up the sleeve on my back arm as I was getting set in the box. The sleeve wouldn't prevent me from hitting the ball (my lack of talent took care of that), but it was something that just made me feel comfortable once I got the sleeve positioned in a way that felt like it wasn't impeding my swing. It's habit, probably something similar to what free throw shooters go through before taking the foul shot.

That's why i DVR most Brewers games. Say the game starts at seven o'clock. I'll record the game and watch something else i've recorded for about an hour or do something i needed to get done. This then allows me to fast forward through nearly all of the commercials during the Brewers game, which is especially nice during those awful stretches later in most games where there are numerous pitching changes I do the same for Packers games except when i have friends over for some 3PM or night games. There are soooooooo many commercials during an NFL game, but if i simply start watching it about an hour later, i get to skip past nearly all commercials. Such a better viewing experience. It's weird sometimes if i watch a game live, i'll find myself grabbing for the remote here and there to fast forward through a set of commercials out of habit, but then realize oh that's right, i actually have to watch commercials this time. Can't imagine life anymore without a DVR.

That 95 Indians team had Burnitz and Brian Giles on the bench unable to get playing time. Thinking about it now, Giles in his prime was one of if not the most underrated players of his time, but he just happened to play on bad Pirates teams so he didn't get much attention. He was a Votto like hitter who also had pretty good speed. Really good power, hit for a high average, took a ton of walks, and didn't strike out a lot.

I consider the Giants the Eli Manning of baseball. They got hot at the right time and had some better teams play poorly to help them out. Those Giants teams (in both sports) were not one of the 5 best teams in their sport when they won their championships. I think it is idiotic to judge a QB by his Super Bowl wins but it is just as bad to judge a GM by World Series wins. It is rare in today's game that the best team wins it all. There is some truth in that, but a few thoughts 1. Bottom line is the number one objective in pro sports is to win a championship and the SF Giants have three in the last five years. So regardless of the randomness factor which can take place in the MLB playoffs, you have to be doing something right to accomplish that. Poorly run MLB teams won't win three rings in five years. 2. A team has to first make the playoffs to have a chance at that ring and in the long 162 game season which baseball has, good fortune won't allow a very mediocre team to keep making the playoffs as the Giants have under Sabean. That said, what those Giants teams, the Cardinals in 2011, and other title winners of the last decade or so have shown is that simply making the playoffs is enough to give pretty much any team in those playoffs a realistic shot to make the World Series. You don't have to have a certain type of roster, just get hot at that time and maybe have a few more breaks fall your way than against you. So while i totally get why a number of Brewers fans get frustrated over Attanasio/Melvin's desire to go with a win now approach each year, history for awhile now has shown that just getting into the playoffs can be enough to have a legit shot to win it all, even if during the regular season they weren't one of the best few teams. BTW, when it comes to Eli Manning, i've yet to hear many if any people who follow the NFL closely say that he's one of the top QB's in the game just because he has two rings. He does deserve plenty of credit though in those two seasons when NY won it all because for all of his faults overall in his career, he did play great in the playoffs during both title winning seasons. He wasn't one of those quarterbacks who was very mediocre in the playoffs, but yet was still lucky enough to get a single ring, much less two. Kinda like Flacco who also hasn't been great in most regular seasons, but has been outstanding in the playoffs the last few trips. That can't be just brushed aside as no big deal.

I've been wondering this for awhile. Take Votto. When he was healthy and at his best, i think he is the last hitter in the NL i'd want at the plate vs the Brewers in say the 9th inning of a close game with the bases loaded. What a fabulous hitter when healthy, but that contract he got was ridiculous given the length and dollar amount. My guess as to why GM's do these mega long term deals is they want to win in the present and think odds are they won't be around when the very ugly side of the contracts fully hit on the back end, so then it will be the problem for a different GM to deal with.

I wonder if or how extreme defensive shifts have contributed to the lower BB rates & higher K rates -- in that pitchers feel more comfortable pitching to specific 'weak spots' of batters knowing that they have an edge defensively. My guess as to one sizable reason for the increase in strikeouts is the specialization of bullpens today. Teams across the league have gone about turning failed starters with good arms into highly productive one inning relief pitchers. Find multiple guys who have roughly 93-98mph fastballs and one quality secondary pitch, then let them air it out for one inning stints at a time vs keeping them as starters where their results were more mediocre. Just look at the WHIP, K/9, K/BB ratios of so many relief pitchers in baseball today compared to a lot of starting pitchers. It used to be that teams tried taking a lot of pitches to get starters out of the game and then get to the weaker bullpens, but now in today's baseball, it can often be the case that getting to an opponents bullpen is a worse situation than a starter staying in the game. Out in the bullpen sits numerous guys who throw gas and either a nasty slider, curve, or changeup for one inning stints at a time.

That was my first thought. How could this be implemented? Draw boxes on the infield which defenders would have to play in, almost like a batters box? Would this also include what depth an infielder had to play? What about middle infielders trying to hold on a baserunner at 2nd base? Would that be an exception to leave their designated areas? Could corner infielders move around to either guard the line or play way off the line depending on various situations? There are so many different scenarios and situations which infielders move around even when not in a typical shift that i can fathom how a rule could be implemented which wasn't so convoluted and stupid that it wouldn't be universally mocked both by players/managers in baseball and among most fans.

Well, considering most posters here wouldn't be happy to see the Brewers sign Shields to a big money four year contract, along with giving up the draft pick, i don't understand why you are acting like you'd be standing along with some small minority of those against signing Shields?

I get why people would be concerned about his drop in velocity, but good command of secondary pitches can help a lot in making up for the decreased velocity. Look at K-Rod for example. He posted the best WHIP of his career last season, his K rate remained strong, and his K/BB rate was outstanding even while throwing an 88-90mph fastball. It was just all of the home runs which killed him when his fastball command was off. Now i certainly would bet against Papelbon being able to only allow 2 homers as he did last year, but if he can keep that number pretty low along with the walk rate via great command, plenty of pitchers are effective every year who don't throw gas. I mainly don't want to see any prospects of value going back to Philly more than stressing much if Attanasio wants to spend say another 9 million of his cash this year on Papelbon. I just wish there wasn't the 2016 option even though lots of cash will be coming off the books after this season. Like any potential trade, the devil is in the exact details when trying to comment clearly. How much cash Philly sends and who we send back their way. Those details if a trade does happen will make a lot of Brewers fan either think this is a pretty solid trade or what the hell are Melvin/Attanasio thinking with this trade.