danzig6767

That's it in a nutshell. This is Yuni Betancourt, a very undisciplined hacker with very little range defensively. His terrible play this year isn't some aberration. Greinke having an ERA over 5 is an aberration. Even McGehee is having a year so bad that it is surprising to some degree. Nothing about Betancourt's miserable play has surprised me at all.

If that is the case, i think it would be better to say have each team take 5 corner kicks each instead of penalty kicks, at least that removes so much of the luck factor involved with penalty kicks. I understand that more is involved than whether the goalie makes the correct 50/50 guess as to whether to dive right or left, and sometimes a goalie can probably read whether the kicker will kick it in a certain direction, but in most cases, it sure looks to me that they are mostly just guessing. So it just strikes me as a lame way to decide the premier event of the most popular sport in the world.

Before the year i had hopeS that this would be the season where Gallardo really put it together and became one of the better pitchers in the NL. He's been solid this year and it is only his 4th year in the majors if you discount 2008, so he certainly has room/time to get among the better pitchers, but i'm now starting to lose hope that it actually happens. Yovani is frustrating in that even though he throws pretty hard, but not regularly in that 95 plus range, he uses good command of his fastball and curve to get a lot of strikeouts. On the the flip side, his command leaves him enough that he just generally can't avoid walking to many batters to be a top tier starter. That said, every starter on the team is also harmed by our terrible defense, and his ERA would likely be under 4 if he pitched on a better team, as it has been the last two years. I just watch him pitch sometimes and when he's on his game that night, Gallardo has that look of a guy who could be a legit quality No.1 starter, but making that leap from good starter to ace is a hard leap to make as evidenced by how rare and in demand the great starters are in MLB.

It's not just a bad road record that is so perplexing, it's the massive difference between their home/road records. Before today's game, they had the worst road record in the NL and were only one game off the best home record. The difference between their overall play at home and on the road has been so vast, it's going to make many people wonder what the hell is going on. Play like the Phillies at home and the miserable Astros on the road. The Brewers having a hypothetical Pythagorean record of 46-49 i don't see as being relevant, that's just based on runs scored and given up totals as a whole. Anyone watching this team so far this year has seen that they've simply played much worse overall on the road than at home, not mainly just a matter of some bad breaks. Why that is the case is something people can only randomly guess on, and guesses like that are nearly impossible to prove or disprove either ways.

Two questions for the soccer fans out there Why do they decide the Wold Cup in such a lame fashion as penalty kicks? I almost never watch soccer, but watched a few of these US women's games, including the loss to Japan. They play this super exciting game, time runs out and it's tied 2-2. Instead of continuing on, the World Cup is basically decided on how often a goalie can guess correctly. Guess before the shot as to whether the person kicking the ball will kick left or right, then just dive in the direction of the guess. Obviously there is a little more to it than that, but basically the goalie is just guessing and if they guess right, they have a good chance at a save. Why not just keep playing instead until someone scores a real goal vs deciding the most important event in soccer on something so gimmicky? Yea, those playing must be exhausted after 120 minutes, but tired athletes in sports generally leads to mistakes and someone eventually would score the winning goal. It would be like the Stanley Cup being decided in the 7th game on penalty shots instead of a real goal because the players are tired or the game is going on to long. That would be ridiculous. My other question is, once the original 90 minutes ended up tied 1-1, why the hell isn't it then sudden death, next goal wins? It seems beyond silly to play 30 more minutes, have one team score to just take the lead, not win, but keep going which lead to the other team tying the game yet again. Then the game gets decided on the gimmicky penalty kicks scenario vs having the excitement robbed of a team scoring a winning goal in sudden death OT. Just bizarre rules IMO. FWIW, before anyone may say, well the US should have simply held on for 3 more minutes and it's a moot point, i get that. That doesn't change that the rules still strike me as stupid.

Roenicke has often been dumb about using Loe against good lefthanded batters, but some of the blame falls on Melvin. We have no lefty in the pen for Roenicke to use in spots where a tough lefthanded batter is up. We really could use a loogy.

The frustrating thing is McGehee was a rookie when he posted a very unexpected .859 OPS as a rookie in 2009. I just don't get why Melvin has been so incredibly stubborn with the McGehee/Green situation in a year he's mortgaged so much to make the playoffs? It would be one thing if Casey had been hitting into a lot of hard luck outs and/or playing good defense, that then Doug would be more willing to hold off on making a move to platoon McGehee and Green. It's been 2 1/2 months though of Casey being one of the worst overall everyday players in all of baseball, and along the way showing little to no signs that things should get better. It would take some some serious odds for Green to come up in a platoon situation, and while playing vs righthanders, for him to hit worse and field worse than McGehee has for roughly the last 70 games. Not some 15-20 game common slump, 70 games of worse than Yuni Betancourt production. How can Doug just keep stubbornly keep sitting on his hands with McGehee for this long with a plan of nothing more than hope/pray that Casey turns things around at some point before the season ends and the Brewers miss out on the playoffs by say 1-3 games? I just don't understand his stubbornness on McGehee, it's gone past perplexing to me. These games count and are over after a loss, we don't get to go back and have a do over. Please stop the madness Doug, Green wouldn't even have to play all that well to be an upgrade over McGehee.

Man i wish we had a lefty that could be called up who could fairly consistently get at least lefthanded batters out. It's frustrating to see other teams have 2-3 lefties in their pen that are at least a decent LOOGY, but the Brewers have absolutely nobody right now from the left side in the pen, be it the big league roster or AAA.

It's true that Melvin's terrible decision to allow Yuni Betancourt to be his everyday shortstop has been the disaster that tons of people tried warning Doug it would be, but for some baffling reason, he ignored all of the warnings. Doug also put together this terrible bench. Doug did sign Nieves and allow him to infect the roster before being finally released. That said, even for those who questioned if McGehee could continue being an .800-.850 OPS hitter, i don't think anyone could have envisioned Casey going 2 1/2 months with an OPS around .500-.525 during that long stretch of games. I don't think anyone could have envisioned Greinke having a 5.45 ERA, especially while having a 99/16 K/BB ratio. Hart has a quality .823 OPS, but he's really hurting chances to score more runs with his .218 BA and .699 OPS with RISP. So without question some poor decisions by Melvin have come back to haunt him this year, especially Betancourt. I still can't believe Doug allowed Yuni to be the Brewers everyday shortstop. Melvin has also been hurt by some things out of his control, particularly the struggles of McGehee and Greinke. Then again, Doug also deserves blame with Casey by stubbornly sitting on his hands for 2 1/2 months now as McGehee has been in this epically bad slump at the plate along with terrible defense, while just refusing to give Green a chance at least in a platoon situation.

I totally agree with you about between the guys on the roster who have been total liabilities, the terrible bench, bad defense, Greinke having a season so baffling that one like it to this point may not have happened before in baseball, and Gallardo just being unable to make that jump to consistently really good, it's combined to make the team be very inconsistent. That said, it doesn't explain having the second best home record in the NL and the worst road record, worse even than the miserable Houston Astros.

My best friend is a big Brewers fan like i am and for awhile now he's been going crazy over how terrible the team plays on the road this year, but i kept telling him to not get so worked up over it because by simple odds things will have to turn around for the better to at least some degree. Well, i'm officially no longer convinced of that. I have absolutely no clue why this team is Houston Astros caliber on the road and Philadelphia Phillies caliber at home, but i now just have a much harder time believing the it's a fluke belief for the deep road woes. At some point a team plays enough games to where bad luck or fluke starts feeling more like wishful thinking given just how woeful we are on the road. We have the worst road record in the NL. That's really hard for me to fathom for a team that has on it Weeks, Fielder, Braun, Greinke, Marcum, Gallardo, and Axford.

Yuni is capable of 70 games of .270/.300/.380. He hit .260/.295/.421 in the 2nd half last year. They could do worse. Don't judge him entirely on what you've seen so far. Remember too, he's now had a half season in a new league, and he should benefit from having seen guys the 2nd and 3rd time around. Betancourt hit .314/.321/.431 in interleague play and did a number on the Twins staff that he was very familiar with. Why should seeing pitchers a second time matter to Yuni? It's not like he's a savvy hitter with a good baseball IQ to where he can learn things from previous at bats. All he does is step into the box and hack at almost any pitch a pitcher throws him. He doesn't strikeout a lot though, so he'll have stretches where more or less balls find holes, but it won't change that he's an absolutely atrocious hitter and always will be. Mix in his statue like range, it would be hard for Melvin to acquire someone who is worse.

That's the key, with his dreadful defense to go along with his anemic hitting, it's like having two Yuni Betancourt's playing everyday. Unacceptable on a team trying to make the playoffs.

This is off topic from the WAR discussion and i don't know enough War to comment on it, but Pedro in his prime years with Boston easily was the best pitcher i've ever seen pitch and i'd have to think those years were among the greatest ever when you factor in the roids factor. He was ridiculously dominant, those 1999 and 2000 seasons were incredible. What a joy it much have been to be a Boston fan during those years, every Pedro start being near must see viewing.

Yep Moving K-Rod for the Mets wasn't a matter of if for them, only a matter of when they would trade him, how much money they'd have to include, and if they could get a halfway decent prospect or two. The one thing that wasn't an option for them was allowing Rodriguez to reach his finished games total, thus locking him in at 17.5 million next year. Then you also mix in that Rodriguez switched agents to Boras 2-3 days ago and right away Boras goes to the media saying "Francisco Rodriguez is a historic closer. He's not going anywhere to be a setup man. "Closers don't make good setup men. Does anyone want an unhappy setup man in their clubhouse?" That wasn't exactly going to help in trading K-Rod to teams that would only want him as a set-up man. So i think that Alderson simply just decided to cut his losses ASAP to any team willing to take Rodriguez and pay basically for the 3.5 million dollar buyout. Just getting Rodriguez and his vesting option off the team was vastly more important than what he got in return.

Because of Rodriguez vesting option, my guess is the Mets were in the mood to get rid of him sooner than later, just being rid of him being priority number 1, 2, and 3. Plus, he had a 10 team no trade list. Lastly, we have a proven closer on the roster, so Boras can't potentially file a grievance over using Rodriguez in a setup role to avoid vesting the option. Other teams looking for a relief pitcher may not have had that kind of situation with an entrenched closer, thus they'd want no part of acquiring him.

https://twitter.com/#!/JimBowdenESPNxm/status/90998030320414721 @JimBowdenESPNxm JIM BOWDEN Players to be named later must be announced within 6 months, K-Rod performance with Brewers will affect final player selection

Depends on how the rest of the league views Rodriguez given his decreased velocity. Maybe if he's lights out with us the rest of the way it could change things, but i just can't envision someone giving Rodriguez say a 3 year deal at pretty significant money, i sure wouldn't. Granted, it only takes one team though and i guess i could see a team giving him something like a 3/yr 19-21ish million dollar deal assuming he does well the rest of the season.

Offering Rodriguez arbitration would strike me as way to risky because i'd assume that Boras would argue that Rodriguez should get paid closer money because he had 23/3 save to blown save ratio with the Mets, and was only removed from the closer role because he was traded. So if he pitched well with the Brewers, i'd guess that Boras would ask for a salary around the 10 million range in arbitration if we offered arbitration and he accepted it.

What you need to factor in also is that Rodriguez will get a 3.5 million dollar check next year to buy out his option. So even if the Mets pay the vast majority of his salary for this year, they'd save the 3.5 million by the Brewers instead having to pay the buyout. Lastly and likely more important to the Mets, this saves them from having K-Rod's 17.5 million dollar option for next year vesting because had he not been traded, the Mets would have had to keep allowing Rodriguez to close games. Demoting him to a setup role simply to prevent his option from vesting would have assuredly resulted in the union filing a grievance. So in totality, this trade would save them about 20-21 million, even if they had to throw in 5 million to get a deal done.

I think it was way more than needed to dump, i think the Mets were desperate to dump K-Rod at some point before the trade deadline. With his option for next year vesting at 17.5 million if he finished only 20 more games, they had to very badly want him off the team because unlike the Brewers, the Mets likely couldn't get away with putting Rodriguez into a setup role without the union filing a grievance. Since the Brewers already have an established closer, they wouldn't be demoting Rodriguez by putting him in a setup role that almost assuredly will result in his big option not vesting. Thus, i think the Mets were going to trade K-Rod no matter what, it was only a matter of when, to what team, and what they got in return, not at all if.

My thoughts exactly. Nicely played by Melvin, getting solid talent on the (prospect) cheap. IF the Mets actually are even going to get any players (MLB rules allow for deals like this to be converted into just a cash return instead of players, iirc), my guess is they'd be picking from guys like Farris, McClendon, Amaury Rivas, Zelous Wheeler, etc.If we ended up giving up not much in terms of prospects to get K-Rod, i'd credit Attanasio and Brewers fans as much or more than Melvin. We don't know yet the exact amount of money that the Mets are sending back to the Brewers, but if say they are only paying his 3.5 million dollar buyout for next season, that would mean that Attanasio had to give Melvin the green light to add over 5 million in salary before Doug could make the trade. Hell, even if the Mets covered half of the roughly 8.5 million owed to K-Rod, Attanasio had to agree to pickup about 4.25 million to pay a setup guy to throw maybe 25-30 innings. He's been a great owner to have, but none of this would be possible either if not for Brewers fans showing up to the ballpark at a ratio which might just be the best in all of baseball when market size is factored in.

Between what he's owed the rest of the season and his 3.5 million dollar buyout for next year, that's around 8 to 8.5 million dollars to pitch maybe 25 innings the rest of the way. We know the Mets included some cash, so if people were to guess, what would be that guess? I'd guess the Mets cover at least his 3.5 million dollar his buyout.

As few others have said, if say it was some milestone to a Brewers players that wouldn't fetch a significant amount of money, i'd be nice and just give the ball back few a few signed items. If though we are talking about a ball worth 100-250 grand, i'm selling it and putting about 80% of that money in an account for my daughter's future, assuming she does something of good use of the money. There isn't anything selfish at all about a person getting significant money for his/her family, instead of just giving the ball back for a package of signed items. Opportunities like that don't come around often.

Source If Baltimore does give Hardy an extension, i'll be very curious to see the size and length of the contract. Off the top of my head, i can't really even guess at numbers which i'd be confident were close to what he ends up getting.