danzig6767

These are prime examples of why i just don't get the frustration so many Brewers fans have with K-Rod. Yea, he gives up to many home runs, but plenty of other fans have to deal with closers regularly in trouble compared to how often K-Rod is.

Don't forget either that the Reds still owe Votto 200 plus million through age 40. They are going to regret that extension big time.

In the minors he had 1,042 plate appearances vs. righties and 477 vs. lefties. So a little over 2-1 ratio of R vs. L. In the majors he has had 502 plate appearances vs. righties and 79 vs. lefties. So a little over a 6-1 ratio of R vs. L. The reason his major league numbers are better is precisely because of how heavily he has been platooned. His overall minor league numbers were dragged down by a higher ratio of PA's against lefties. This It's not hating on Scooter to simply state the facts about how he's fared against lefthanded pitchers both through his minor league career and so far in the majors. The numbers are bad on both fronts, but he's been great vs righties. FWIW, he's far from alone in this. Plenty of major league hitters over the years for whatever reason have struggled a lot when facing righties or lefties and thus for the betterment of their team, using a platoon was a smarter option than having that player go out there and make a ton of outs.

I'd almost always play the infield in with a runner on third and one out early in a tie game or if losing. The chance to prevent a run on a ground ball to me would trump the chance playing in allows for a grounder to sneak through for a single. To many games are decided by a single run for me to worry more about a single getting through vs potentially keeping a run off the board by playing the infield in. Now if there are no outs in that situation, then i'd keep the infield back unless the 8th hitter is up with the pitcher to follow.

Verlander very well could end up bouncing back after this season so long as he doesn't have a serious injury. To early to know right now. That said, teams across baseball the last few years have gone on a massive spending binge handing out huge long term deals to both starting pitchers and position players. It's only a matter of when, not if many to most of these contracts become big albatrosses as these players get more years under their belts. You have guys like Verlander, Sabathia, and Cain who have to worry their teams. As for position players, Prince looks to be in real decline and owed 24 million per until 2020. The Reds owe Votto a staggering 200 plus million through 2024. Pujols has been better this year, but still only has an .800 OPS and is owed 190 million through 2021. Josh Hamilton is owed another 90 million? Ryan Howard still owed 85 million. Cabrera could have trouble simply just walking from the on deck circle to the the plate on the back end of his contract when he'll be making 30 million per Why do so many teams keep doing this? I get that baseball overall is swimming in money like never before, but man, most 5-6 year big money deals for veteran starting pitchers around age 30 and 7-10 year deals for veteran position players are very likely to become dead money years before the contracts are up. Just imagine the contract which Boras will get for Max Scherzer come this offseason. I'd bet at minimum he'll get 6 years and quite possibly 7, at i'd assume 30 million per or more. Scherzer is really good and will certainly help whoever signs him, but he'll be in his 30's for each year of that deal. That team should hope to get at least three years worth the money he'll be paid before the likely decline and/or injuries set in.

The extremely baffling aspect is who does the hiring and firing at FSN? To not only hire Davey, but to then listen to him years later still struggling badly to formulate full sentences without stuttering and stammering in an occupation where speaking is his main job. Seriously, how does that happen? Then to add Augustine to the mix. A guy who says nothing except the clearly obvious or cliches he finds fitting, in an accent which is straight Cudahy dive bar/Fargo sounding.

Do you really believe that? Believe that if say Hoyer want to sign or trade for X player, but Theo disagreed, that Hoyer would have the final say? I don't. I really have no idea. I do think it bears mentioning that just because Theo is associated with the team doesn't mean he'll do all the same types of things he did in Boston. FWIW, i'm by no means a Theo basher even though i made a post above about him being very lucky that his hard push to land A-Rod fell through and he was fortunate that nobody claimed Manny as he hoped for. During his tenure at Boston i do think that he got praised by some to highly as if he was the best GM in the game even though he made a number of poor to really poor moves, along with being very lucky with A-Rod and Manny. He did make some very nice moves also which helped contribute to end the Red Sox title drought, especially stealing Ortiz. Overall i think he has a sharp baseball mind and i do wish the Cubs had hired someone else instead. Time will tell on just how many of these Cubs prospects end up panning out and to what degrees. That stuff can often be hard to predict. Some highly ranked prospects end up living to the hype and do so quickly. Some struggle for awhile in the majors before becoming a quality big leaguer. Some never become a good MLB player, while lesser ranked ones do. This will play a huge factor on just how good the Cubs become over the next few years and longer.

Do you really believe that? Believe that if say Hoyer want to sign or trade for X player, but Theo disagreed, that Hoyer would have the final say? I don't.

To me, the two most important things which big time helped Theo in Boston weren't moves he made, but instead moves he tried hard to make, but fell through. 1. The biggest was when Theo was so close to acquiring A-Rod, only to have the players union squash the deal over the restructuring of Rodriguez's contract. ESPN recently did a pretty fascinating 30 for 30 piece on that whole A-Rod situation between the Red Sox and Yankees, interviewing many of the parties involved. Theo and the Red Sox were nearly certain they had A-Rod, only to be devastated as not only the trade fell through, but then Rodriguez went to the Yankees. 2. Theo waived Manny Ramirez hoping any team would take on his contract, only to see Manny be a huge factor in ending the Red Sox title drought. Fairly often in pro sports, the moves a GM tries to make, but fall through for whatever reason can end up being as big or bigger saviors than good moves made. Ron Wolf mentioned something similar in his book about his tenure as Packers GM.

To me, it wasn't just the two playoff appearances, it was also the great fun of the journey getting there in both years. Given i'm old enough to remember many of those dark days of about 20 years of bad teams who often were out of the playoff chase by June 1st, to actually see the Brewers playing games in August and September which i could be heavily invested in was such a refreshing change. Usually by July i was used to barely watching games unless a prospect of interest was called up. Football is my favorite sport, but there is something unique about following a baseball team who competes for a playoff berth all year. Watching so many games in a long 162 game season makes you get so invested into the team vs football which is only played once a week. Night after night each game can feel important even though there are 162 games.

Sandoval is highly overrated by who exactly? I think most people grasp that he's an above average overall player at his position, but nowhere near a special player like he looked to have a chance to be after that great season in 2009. I wouldn't target him as a free agent if hypothetically i was the Brewers GM, but he is a good and consistent enough player to be worth a sizable contract which the Giants or another team will end up paying him.

That statement is only half true... Our legitimate power armed relief prospects like Goforth are stuck repeating AA because the Brewers loaded up the AAA team with a bunch 28+ year old "veteran" relievers. I admit that i was focusing on the AAA level, but do you think Goforth could come up to the big league roster and be effective? His stats on the AA level are ok, but don't exactly jump off the screen either. I get that you could say the same for a guy like Wooten who keeps getting chances, but Goforth has a pretty high walk rate and mediocre K rate for that level.

Estrada is broken this year, he should be the long man not the 8th inning guy. He (used) to be a competent starter, but I don't think he has the overpowering stuff to fill that role very well. It should be Jeffress and Duke, imo. I agree on those two for now, but i really question how long Jeffress can get by throwing almost entirely just fastballs, especially given he doesn't get a lot of swing and misses on them. Unless he can get more consistent with his slider, i fear that it's only a matter of time before he starts getting hit hard. Look at what happened to Axford once he lost command of his curveball, hitters just sat on his fastball and started hitting it hard. As for Estrada, obviously his proclivity for serving up home runs makes using him late in close games very dangerous. A leadoff batter hits a single with the Brewers up only a run and it's nail chewing time fearing Marco will give up a two run jack.

Coming into the year Kintzler was behind Thornburg & Henderson on the righty reliever depth chart. They are both hurt. Recently Jeffress has been the go to righty in high leverage situations. They've been using him as carefully as realistically possible given the circumstances and options at hand. What could the organization do to demonstrate to you that they are holding people accountable? Fire someone? Come out and blast them in the media? The injuries to both Thornburg & Henderson have been such killers and exasperated by not having any quality power righthanded arms in the minors for relief work. Even with the decent success of Jeffress so far, he worries me when out there given he has such shaky command of his secondary pitches and for as hard as he throws his fastball, for whatever reason he doesn't get a lot of swing and misses on it. I get that hitters are sitting on his fastball since he throws it so much, but other flame throwing relievers who rely mostly on fastballs tend to get more swing and misses when throwing say 95-98mph. Early in the year the pen was such a strength and now there is literally nobody that i feel super confident about when brought in during a close game.

Detroit also gets Price for at least next year which is huge for them since Scherzer likely will be gone.

Tyrone Taylor is only 20 years old, that's why he's yet to play above A+ ball where he currently has a .766 OPS. Hey time will tell on Haniger. You are free to like his prospects going forward more than others. Arizona wasn't going to just give us Parra for nothing. So you obviously feel the Brewers overpaid, while other don't. We'll see how the team does the rest of the year, if Parra helps, if he's on the team next year, and how well Haniger develops for Arizona. A lot of variables will determine how this trade is viewed in the future.

Just glad Price didn't go to the Cardinals or Pirates

Pushed for playing time where next year on the big league club? Certainly not in CF or RF. That leaves only LF and the odds of Haniger pushing Davis for playing time would have been microscopic. Haniger was one of those prospects who is solid in a number of areas, but great or exciting at nothing. Those type of players tend to become backups in the majors, if they even get to the bigs. He has a career .776 OPS in the minors and not as some underaged kid during those stops at each level. He struggled in A+ ball last year as a 22 year old and this year he has a .732 OPS in AA ball as a 23 year old. Sure it's possible that Haniger has a breakout season next year in AA or AAA, but so far there isn't much evidence to support that belief.

I like this trade for Oakland. Cespedes is a bigger name than great hitter and he's a free agent after next year. The A's will figure out a platoon in LF to get at least close to what Cespedes provided offensively and they add Lester to an already very good rotation. Besides all of that, Beane was able to avoid giving up prospects which he needs in that market. Interesting that Boston traded Lester and Lackey for just veterans instead prospects. They clearly expect to be much better next year.

Yeah, I'm glad to see some Davis supporters chiming in. He's being seriously underrated in here today. Nobody is saying Parra will become the primary LF. Much more likely Parra starts at most 2-3 times a week vs a righthanded starter who is especially tough on RH batters, but Davis starts the rest of the games. Then Parra could also come in as a defensive replacement in games the Brewers lead late. Davis will still get plenty of at bats. Parra is also depth at CF/RF in case either Braun/Gomez suffer a minor injury and/or need a day off.

Why is Haniger a substantial price to pay? He's 23 and sporting a .723 OPS in AA ball. Odds are he'll be lucky to have a career as a backup OF in the majors.

Over his career though, this is Parra vs righties .286 .335 .425 .760 Probably won't be a strict platoon in LF, but more of playing Parra vs righthanded starterS who are especially tough vs RH batters. Plus , he's a top notch defender as a corner OF. Not a major trade of any kind, but i don't care much about losing Haniger.

One thing about Masterson is he has some pretty dramatic splits between righthanded/lefthanded batters. Over his career, these are the splits RHB-- .217 .303 .293 .596 LHB-- .288 .366 .427 .793 Given the Brewers all righthanded lineup, he might have a chance to give us trouble if pitching well on that day.

He has a really nice OBP-heavy OPS, & has his whole career. He hits lefties & righties. There is nothing overrated about him, & he would absolutely be a difference-maker in our lineup. Swapping his .279/.395/.456/.851 2014 line in for the .220/.300/.364/.664 line the Brewers have gotten so far from 1B would be a massive improvement. Saying anything otherwise is just not being objective -- seriously... a nearly 100-point jump in OBP isn't a difference maker? Let's be honest here. As a throw-in, he's been stronger in the 2nd halves of seasons, & sports an OPS north of 1.000 for the month of September on his career. No kidding Of all of the guys mentioned over the last few weeks that posters would like to see the Brewers at least consider trying to trade for, Napoli would top that list for me if the cost in prospects wasn't to extravagant. He'd be a great fit in the lineup. Hits for a solid average, takes a lot of walks, and has pretty good power. Gomez Lucroy Braun Ramirez Napoli Davis or Gennett Davis or Gennett Segura That's a damn good lineup, especially the top five and only Segura is a below average hitter. Then hopefully get Henderson healthy in the pen and maybe even Jeffress becomes a reliable late inning guy, the Brewers would have a really good shot to win the division.

So what were the signs from the dugout about then? He wasn't being told there was a hit and run, because Weeks wasn't moving on either pitch. And Weeks wasn't stealing, though he did with Ramirez up. So what other signs might the dugout have been relaying to Braun? They give signs every single pitch. Most of the time it is nothing at all. Yep I'd assume that Roenicke did give a take or swing at your discretion sign though on the 3-0 pitch to Braun, managers often make that call and if i had to put money on his decision, i'd go on the side that Roenicke gave the swing away sign to Braun there, but he simply chose to take. While i'm not a big fan of Rock as a color analyst, i do think that he made a good point about Braun rarely choosing to swing on 3-0 counts. Once he brought that up, it made me think about the situation and off the top of my head at the time, Ryan doesn't seem to swing often on 3-0 for whatever reason.