danzig6767

Yea, that stuff with Cameron and the jerseys was beyond ridiculous. Plus, i think in a lot of cases, if a certain player on a team continually goes overboard with antics, most managers will eventually reign that guy in without players/managers on other teams throwing a fit. Look at Nyger Morgan. At first his whole T-Plush persona was viewed as fun and playful by the team, but after awhile Nyger got over the top with his shtick and was told to reign in the attitude in house. As much as i'm for more personalities in baseball and that i generally don't mind flashy/cocky professional athletes, i do think a player can eventually cross a line to where his repeated behavior looks bad for the organization and thus should be spoken to by the manager and/or front office to tone things down. That's how these things should be handled IMO, not by other teams instigating brawls, running their mouths, or dangerously hitting players on purpose with a baseball.

To me, it's not just managers, it's also players. Take the Gomez situation today for example. Few things in baseball bother me more than the socalled unwritten rules about how players or teams are supposed to behave. This is professional baseball not little league. It's paid entertainment. To me, out there personalities are good for the game. It helps cause fans of opposing teams hate certain players, which i view as a positive. We need more of that, not less IMO. Never once have i gotten upset for say a hitter admiring a hard hit ball, a pitcher showing lots of emotion after a big K, a basestealer being flashy after stealing a base, etc etc. Cocky personalities like Manny, Pujols, Rickie Henderson, David Ortiz, Gomez, and many others help make the game more interesting to me. What bothers me instead is when certain players or managers feel they get to be the deciders of how much emotion a player can show after say a big hit or admiring a home run. Feel they get to decide when a team should stop trying hard to tack on more runs to a lead. Thus, they feel they are entitled to start yelling at a cocky players, yell at an opposing manager, or throw a rock hard ball at the player traveling 90 mph or faster. It's ridiculous and annoys the hell out of me. So yea Carlos acted like a hot dog after hitting that ball, admiring it for a few seconds, and didn't run right away. If anyone should have been mad it's Roenicke for Carlos failing to run hard right away, not Cole. Just take the ball, shut the hell up, and pitch to the next batter. I'd say the same if roles were reversed.

Or maybe keep the tax on and fix the countless roads in this city and country which are half potholes half roads.

Yes...this is a double-edged sword though. I think the Brewers will be too close to competing this year to make a move of one of our 1-5. While I think this would be the most beneficial to the long term, I doubt Melvin would actually do this. In fact, I would be hesitant to do it unless it brought back a prospect or player that would be close to a guaranteed producer at 1B or 3B in the long term. Ultimately, I think Estrada may have more value to us than what we could realistically receive in any trade. I don't see us acquiring anything more than a Delmonico-type prospect. I think you are underestimating Estrada's value. The White Sox got Adam Eaton for Hector Santiago and Estrada's track record is more impressive than Santiago's. Not saying Eaton is great, but he's a decent leadoff hitter with on base skills. Eaton is a good player and i thought Arizona gave up to quickly on him and/or didn't get enough for him. If we didn't have Gomez, i'd trade Estrada for Eaton without a second thought.

His command has been amazing, especially the changeup. He's been able to throw that pitch at any point for strikes and it's left hitters in a really tough spot given the fastball is in the mid-90's and often hitting the corners. Thornburg obviously isn't going to continue having a .000 ERA, but if he can consistently continue to hit his spots with that nasty changeup, there is no reason why he can't be very good the rest of the year. Hell, just look at the current version of K-Rod. He'll throw the curveball once in awhile, but he's mainly now a fastball/changeup guy and having lots of success with a 88-90mph fastball. Thornburg is in the 93-95 range.

How about a decision that Gennett will start 60-66% of the time and Weeks will start the other games, while planning ahead so that Weeks is obviously starting against lefties? Seems like that is a decision and one I would go with until one player obviously earned the position or one player obviously lost the position. Weeks is getting closer to that latter point, but is not there yet. If Weeks can't get his act together quickly, just waive him and i'd like to see Scooter platoon with Bianchi. Then call up Elian Herrera who could add depth at many positions off the bench given he can play defensively in both the infield and outfield.

I haven't watched any of this series but that sounds like Brewers hitters in pretty much my whole time of watching Brewers baseball. I can't think of the last Brewers hitter with a good eye. Aoki wasn't bad but he would swing at (and often foul off) pitches he had no business swinging at. Weeks, even in his prime as an OBP-machine, still wasn't a very disciplined hitter. Wow, really? http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EJp3Vdk-7BM/TyGdlg7o9xI/AAAAAAAAIQA/nX-ldAF7Smo/s1600/princefielder11.jpg He had three straight seasons with the Brewers where he drew 100 plus walks and had a .400 plus OBP.

In the same offseason, Melvin robbed Boras getting Gomez for a three year extension at only 8 million per. Carlos is playing like a 20 plus million per guy and not looking as if it's just some small sample fluke given the year he had last offseason. It's amazing to think that Carlos Gomez could legitimately be one of the top 10-20 position players in all of baseball.

You assume this could be done when it absolutely couldn't. If I could flip Estrada for an Archie Bradley/Taijuan Walker/Dylan Bundy type player I would do it in a heartbeat. The problem is nobody would ever make that deal with you. No kidding. Ask another GM for a top 20 prospect for Estrada and you'd hear a dial tone before the next time you blinked your eyes.

My only concern with the team so far is the lack of walks. I saw that coming given the makeup of the roster given our most patient hitter is probably Reynolds. Even Braun and Ramirez aren't high walk guys for as good of hitters as they are and Gomez/Segura are very much free swingers. Davis makes Carlos look really patient. That said, the lineup does look to have a nice mix of some high batting average hitters, power, and speed.

Because Thornburg's year of service time as a starter in his early thirties will probably have more value than he will bring out of the pen this year. I get the desire to have him in the minors as a starter, but one thing to also consider is his state of mind. If my memory is correct, Thornburg stated just how devastated he felt last year when he didn't make the big league team and maybe that contributed to his struggles in AAA? Had he been sent down to AAA again after pitching so well in the bigs last year, he may have taken it really hard and in turn caused him to struggle again if he strongly felt that he deserved to be with the big league club. Not all athletes are wired the same way and can handle the demotion if they feel they belong in the majors.

I'd worry more about Thornburg getting overused if there weren't multiple other high quality options in the pen, especially if Henderson gets back to his old self. Because of that, Thornburg won't have to get set into being one of those guys who gets thrown out there in nearly every close game. That said, it's stating the obvious that sooner than later Wang has to start being used simply to eat up bullpen innings and that's even more important if Duke gets used mainly as just a 1-2 batter lefty specialist.

Thornburg only threw 19 pitches yesterday , even though he went two innings. That's low stress on the arm pitching. Henderson threw 21 pitches in one inning yesterday and Will Smith threw 25 in his single inning tonight. It's amazing how efficient Thornburg has been. His strike to pitches thrown ratio in those 5 innings was 59/44. I hate late inning relief pitchers who walk guys, so Thornburg has been such a pleasure to watch.

I really like how the replay was handled tonight. Segura did get the tag down in time and the call came down quickly to change the play to an out. That saved at least one run.

I mostly agree. I have no problem with establishing roles, but they don't need to be rigid roles. I've already seen several examples of RR basically forcing himself to use several relievers just so they can fit into their roles. Just today against Philly they have a comfortable lead and he blows through 4 relievers. That's just stupid. I get Henderson, he needed an inning. But there's no way he needed Duke, Smith and Kintzler to all pitch in a 10-4 game. I look at it this way too. Every reliever is going to have a bad outing from time to time. If you keep trotting out 4+ relievers every game you are increasing the odds that one of them will be off and blow the game for you. Keep in mind that it was only a 7-4 game until Braun hit a 3-run homer in the top of the 8th inning and Kintzler was already warmed up to pitch the bottom of the 8th, so he may as well be used and as much as i wanted to see Wang in the 9th, i understand using Henderson. If Henderson is back to being effective as he looked last night, this bullpen has a chance to be really good. That said, clearly Wang has to fairly soon start being used both to save bullpen innings and it's simply a wasted roster spot having him sit there doing nothing. Waiting for just blowouts earlier in games to use him accomplishes little since blowouts like that don't happen often. Plus, if Thornburg can keep being effective, i really think this could end up being one of the better overall Brewers bullpens in awhile and with the rotation, it's hard not to really like the potential of the whole pitching staff.

Sounds nice but "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." -Yogi Berra Have you watched college football lately, this takes forever I watch tons of college football and sure sometimes it takes too long, but more times than not calls are decided pretty quickly. FWIW, if baseball went to something similar to college football, i'd like a rule instituted that the replay official has a strict two minutes at most to make a decision and if at that point he still is unsure, the call on the field then stands no matter what. You can watch a lot of replay angles in two minutes and if it's still inconclusive, it's time to move on. Replay should mainly be about getting the clearly wrong calls right, not so much the ones where it has to be viewed countless times and with multiple freeze frame still images which take much longer to decide and to often can be strongly questioned if overturning the call on the field.

Managers do not even average going on the field to argue calls once a game, it would make a negligible impact. Managers going to the mound is just like a timeout in every other sport that has a clock, are you proposing to ban timeouts in football? (I would definitely favor it for basketball) At least with managers going to the mound there isn't a commercial break. No, i'm fine with baseball managers being able to go to the mound once or twice a game for strategy reasons like say asking a pitcher in a key spot would they rather face the next batter or how exactly to set the defense for a certain hitter in key spots. It's simply just when a manager is going to remove the pitcher for sure, he shouldn't have to stroll to the mound, waste more time after getting there, and then finally making the signal. It's unnecessary. I'll grant the arguing aspect generally hasn't happened consistently in every game over the years, it's just a peeve of mine and has been so for awhile, especially when managers would do so with silly over the top antics. They usually look like idiots to me when doing stuff like screaming right in an umps face, kicking dirt around, throwing their cap on the field, and any number of other nonsense which accomplishes nothing anyways. Umpires should also be sanctioned that pick fights when their job is to avoid them and be noticed as little as possible. As for being stricter on enforcing batters to stay in the box or pitchers from taking forever between pitches like say Marcum did, sign me up buddy. It was painful watching him pitch hen he was struggling.

Why even have a system putting managers in those type of very close situations where they for good reason are unsure of what exactly happened when the technology is there to instead have a replay system where the managers don't need to be involved at all? Have the replay official buzz the umpire if he sees a likely missed call and then quickly inform that lead umpire if the call should be overturned or not. Problem solved. No managers wasting time running on the field. No managers having to question when the right time for a challenge is. It's out of their hands completely and instead being decided by an official already watching replays immediately as they happen.

THIS is all I need to hear... He hates to go on the field when there is a close play? Ridiculous. What a complete and total wimp. The day this clown leaves will be one of the happiest days in my Brewer fandom career. The day MLB finally bans managers from foolishly being able to waste everyone's time by running on the field to argue or now challenge calls will make me a much happier baseball fan. Smartly, no other sport allows a manager/coach to charge on to the playing surface and often looking like a clown arguing with an official or umpire, while also wasting everyone's time when the arguing never changes the call anyways. If a manager does this, his team should be penalized in some fashion beyond an ejection as happens in all other sports. Baseball regularly talks about speeding up games and an easy start to that is keeping managers in the dugout as much as possible. Ban them from going out to argue calls and if they want to change pitchers, do it from the dugout given they have a direct line to the bullpen. Double switches being an exception. No need to see a manager slowly stroll out to the mound multiple times a games, waste time talking to the pitcher they are going to take out, and then finally signaling to the bullpen who they want to come in.

If that's how things are being handled in that Roenicke is getting an answer from the dugout after someone else saw the play and signaled back to the dugout whether to challenge or not, what else is he supposed to do, especially on plays he has no very clear view either way? I just don't understand why both the NFL and MLB don't adopt the college football model for replay? In those games each play is being monitored upstairs and if the replay official sees something questionable, he immediately sends a signal to the head official to stop play. Then usually fairly quickly that replay official sends down to the on field guy whether the play stands or is overturned. All done without coaches/managers running on the field wasting everyone's time and forcing those coaches/managers to decide on something they aren't sure about.

Besides the obvious of needing both Braun and Ramirez to play at least 140ish very productive games, the biggest wild card to me is Segura. Gomez will never walk enough for my tastes, but i'm convinced that he's turned that corner as a hitter. Segura though really needs to get on base at a decent clip for our 3-4-5 batters to have guys on base to drive in. Given he's also no fan of taking walks either, he needs to keep his batting average at least in that .280-.290 range so as the OBP numbers aren't poor because if he's hitting in the .250-.260 range instead, he'll be posting a sub-.300 OBP.

The biggest part of the Brewer's problem developing pitching is correctly identifying impact talent from the start. If amatuer scouts like me can see that a guy doesn't have much upside then what exactly are the Brewer's looking at? I think their pro player scouting department is pretty good, but the amateur scouting both for the draft and internationally has left a ton to be desired over the years. I won't argue that Brewers aren't good at developing pitchers but I think that's a moot point if there aren't pitchers worth developing. It's not like they can turn a Mike Fiers into a Justin Verlander, you're just hoping they can get the most of each guy. The Brewers have a history of drafting players who's velocity actually decreases, that's the most telling sign I can think of, you'd actually expect the reverse to be true. It's not just missing on so-called impact arms, how often have they ever hit on under the radar guys who end up developing into really good pitchers? A Matt Moore type who went in the 8th round or Kris Medlen 10th round. On just the Cardinals last year, Rosenthal was taken in round 21. Kelly 3rd round. Garcia 22nd round. Kevin Siegrist 41st round. That's just the pitching staff. Matt Carpenter went in the 13th round and Craig the 8th round. Molina the 4th round. The Brewers over the years have drafted in say the first 2-3 rounds a fair mix of both hard throwing high school pitchers and college arms, yet no matter who they end picking, those pitchers either get hurt, don't develop, or can't stop smoking weed. Same with rarely ever hitting the jackpot on arms taken in rounds say 5-25. It truly has been an amazing run of futility over a long stretch of time when it comes to drafting and developing pitching. Simple odds would say they should have developed more pitching. Have Seid and Zduriencik simply had a bad eye for pitching talent? Is it that basic? Hell, even with all of that futility, if they just drafted Jose Fernandez in 2011, it would have made up for so many past mistakes. That's a HOF pitcher if he can stay healthy. Then again, it's makes me wonder how the hell he lasted until the 14th pick. How do Shelby Miller and Trout last until the 19th and 25th picks? I don't follow amateur baseball at all, but on the surface, it seems like baseball in general more than any pro sport is volatile when it comes to evaluating amateur talent. Wonder why that is? There is a fair amount of of that in football also, but not quite to the same degree. I'm trying to figure out how 24 amateur scouting directors all watched Trout play and thought, i'll take someone else instead or 13 passed on Fernandez, but then again Aaron Rodgers lasted to the 24th pick and Brady went in the 6th round. This stuff baffles me sometimes, but it's not like i've scouted high school and college players to say i would have known Trout and Fernandez were HOF talents.

Segura needs to start getting on base. He rarely takes walks, so unless his batting average is high, he's an out machine batting second in the order.

In general, i'd rather see Gomez hitting somewhere around 5th or 6th in a batting order with Lucroy hitting 2nd, but looking at the roster, there really is no obvious leadoff hitter option at all. So i guess for now, it may as well be Carlos because who else is there to replace him and instead let Gomez be in an RBI spot in the order? I fully supported the Aoki trade at the time and still do, especially in watching Smith pitch and seeing Davis starting to get hot at the plate. That said, the trade did remove the only obvious leadoff candidate on the team and someone has to bat there.

The difference between the two is Henderson is more reliant on his velocity to succeed. K-Rod can be really good only throwing 90-91 because he generally has very nice command of a nasty changeup at any point in the count, thus hitters can't ever just sit on a fastball coming. Henderson is mostly a fastball pitcher with some sliders sprinkled in. When he can't just rear back and blow a 95-96mph fastball past a hitter when even or behind in the count, it causes him to be pinpoint with his command by only throwing in the 90-93 range, as is the case right now. Those missing 3-6mph are a huge difference for a pitcher like Henderson.