danzig6767

No kidding, all he had to do was stand there and not swing, a four pitch walk, especially with that ump's wallet sized strike zone. If Hayes doesn't swing at that eye high 1-0 fastball, the count is 2-0 and he's taking almost for sure. Guaranteed walk and i have a hard time envisioned Ax getting out of there tied.

Braddock and Saito are the big wildcards for me. If both can return and be effective, are pen could end up being a strength. As for Hawkins, it's hard to know whether he should be trusted in high leverage situations since Roenicke rarely uses him at all. I don't buy though that he has a history of pitching poorly in pressure situations. Hawkins has spent the last decade pitching largely as a closer and setup guy, with plenty of success over that decade.

I don't think he does. Thome is purely a guy you use when a long ball is needed. Matt Stairs(though he may be done finally) has extended his career well beyond what could be expected being just such a threat. Giambi is another one. Everyones favorite on here, Branyan falls into that category too, though he's not my favorite. Those are guys with no defensive value at all. But in a pennant race, they can win you a game or two with one swing. Kotsay provides some defensive flexibility and generally a quality AB. I don't think a Thome would replace him on the roster either. Rather they'd go back to one utility infielder. Willingham makes quite a lot to just add as a pinch hitter. Like Kubel, he'd make sense only if Braun or Hart went down for an extended period. Bottom line though is this team seems more committed to speed as a weapon from it's complimentary players. Having both Morgan and Gomez gives them quite a weapon. Other than Kotsay's ability to draw some walks, i don't see the positives in him that you do at the plate. He's hitting .240 with a Jason Kendall slugging percentage. With Morgan back, we really have no reason for him to play in the field anymore. As for speed being something the team prefers from the complimentary players, only one of Morgan/Gomez who will be on the bench most days has good speed. Guys like Wilson, Counsell, and Kotsay aren't slow, but they certainly aren't fast either. Doug really needs to add a bench bat with at least some pop. I understand that in general bench hitters won't be anything special since they are on the bench for a reason, but it's pretty amazing how weak hitting this group of bench guys are that Melvin has put together. Another GM would almost have to try hard to put together a weaker hitting bench.

Wow, totally forgot about Pena and am more surprised that both he's still playing and under 30 than i am that he's raking. As for acquiring any power bat for off the bench, it sure doesn't seem like Doug is interested in that, he loves him some Mark Kotsay and Josh Wilson. Brendan Katin isn't raking like Pena is, but he certainly has way more power than anyone on our bench to pinch hit and bats righthanded as Melvin said he wanted when bringing in Wilson. Unfortunately, i get the feeling that our bench all this year will be comprised with a group of bad hitters that have absolutely no power to potentially tie/win a game or two late with a home run.

Yea, i have a feeling that Lawrie is going to eventually hit like a Braun lite type of player. A consistently high batting average. Take a somewhat ok amount of walks, but not be a high walk guy, at least early on. Not as much home run power as Braun, but a pretty good amount of homers to go along with lots of gapper line drives resulting in high amounts of doubles/triples. Hard to have any complaints about Marcum, but if his two years here don't contribute to any playoff berths, losing Lawrie will sting if the kid develops into the hitter i fear he might. That's why i can't cheer for him to do really well. I'm fine with wishing him to have a solid career, but i just can't wish for Lawrie to be really good because i'll end up being bummed that the Brewers traded him. Unless of course we do something special the next two years while Marcum is a big contributor.

The Packers used to do a lot of past / future consideration trades, which were just basically 'here's a freebie now, you'll give us one later if we need it'. JSOnline is reporting it as cash considerations, so the Twins may have given the Brewers a bag of balls. A bag of balls might be more pricey than Reed is worth. Hell, Melvin made have made this trade where we send the Twins a small amount of cash on the slim chance that when we play the Twins in interleague play, Reed ends up in the lineup for the Twins.

No he doesn't, even if you consider 47 at bats this year to be more important than what Votto has done over a much larger sample. A full season last year and career splits. 2010-- vs RH-- .347/.442/.673/1.115 OPS LH-- .283/.393/.470/.863 OPS Career RH-- .998 OPS LH-- .888 OPS Plus, for as great as he's hit this year vs lefties in those 47 at bats, only six hits were extra bases hits and none of them home runs. All 7 of his home runs this season have been off a righthander.

With 2 HR in those 6 AB. He used the pen last night like it was a playoff game with a 5 run lead. Even with that small sample, why not show that same urgency in a 1 run game tonight?I'd blame Melvin more for not having a lefty that Roenicke could have put in after Loe hit Phillips. For all the talk of how well Votto has hit lefties this year over 47 at bats, none of his homers have come vs a lefty. I have a hard time believing that Dillard serves a better role in the pen than a lefty would.

I don't blame Roenicke there We should have a lefty in the pen so that after Loe hit Phillips, a lefty was ready to come in

He is this year. That's 50+ odd PAs. He's still good against a typical LHer but much better vs RHers (about 100 points for OPS). The bigger issues is that Loe shouldn't pitch to LHers. Yep, 47 at bats vs lefties this year, but over his career he's hit righthanders much better and none of his homers this year came against a lefty.

I understand what your saying. But bringing in a loogy against Votto is basically pointless. He kills lefty's as well. So far this year he has, but he also has no home runs vs lefties this year and over his career Votto has always hit righthanders better, especially for power. I'll take that sample over 47 at bats this year vs lefties.

Did you not see the location of that pitch to Votto? Belt high right down the middle of the plate

I know Votto hits lefties well, but i'd still rather have a loogy in vs him anytime over a guy like Loe.

Thanks for putting in the research on that Baldkin. When it comes to Gomez, i simply have no big issues with Roenicke having Gomez sac bunt in most cases except when we are down by multiple runs given he gets on base so poorly and if he gets a good bunt down, it can result in a hit since he's so fast. Gomez will make an out over 70% of the time swinging away, so he's a near automatic out either way. I don't like ever using Weeks or Hart to bunt, but it was only one each in 54 games. Morgan in most cases i'd prefer he not be asked to bunt, but he at least is a skilled bunter and very fast, so some sac bunts can potentially become a hit like with Gomez. Looking at the five you listed involving Morgan, i'm reasonably ok with the first two given who was coming up next, don't like the third one at all, don't like the 4th one either, the last one i could go either way on. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this topic because i only see about 5 bunts over 54 games that i have a big issue with. One every 13 games or so.

That's what i was getting at. Not that Braun has turned into an above average leftfielder, just that to me he is misjudging less balls off the bat so poorly that it ends up falling in for a hit. It also seems to me that he's run down a few more balls hit to the left or right of him which were quality plays that he likely wouldn't have turned into outs in previous years. He does often look so awkward out there though when making catches that it might make him look worse than he actually is production wise. Between him usually using two hands to catch any balls which is uncommon in baseball and his herky/jerky movements even on a lot of balls he catches, it makes him seem like a terrible outfielder, but i no longer feel like he is this year. In years past, he'd regularly misjudge balls badly enough that he couldn't recover and make the out, especially on balls hit right over his head. This year he seems to me to misjudge balls less badly and thus he's been able to recover more often and get the out, even though it can make me nervous because he's far from graceful looking out there.

I don't recall Hart bunting since. I don't get the small ball lover label being put on Roenicke, at least from the bunting aspect. Some people were predicting that we'd be bunting all the time when he got hired and i just don't see it happening. My issues have been his seeming to be ok with the often incredibly reckless baserunning, hm keeping Gomez in the two hole to long, he loves Kotsay to much for my liking, and that stretch where he used Loe nearly everyday. His amount of calling for bunts hasn't struck me as excessive at all. They have 14 sac bunts not including the #9 spot in the order. 14. That's 14 outs they have given away. That's more than half a games worth of outs. Personally, I find that to be excessive. So 14 sac bunts in 54 games by non-pitchers, that's one every four games roughly. I have a few questions/thoughts relating to that. 1. How many of those sac bunts were from Gomez who gets on base at a terrible clip and who has the speed to potentially beat out any bunt along with advancing the runner, even if a team expects it, so long as the bunt is in the right place? 2. How many times has one of those 14 sac bunts by a non-pitcher turned into a run or two runs as the next batter or two hit a single/sac fly? I know it has happened at least a few times because i recall reading game threads where some posters complained about the sac bunt, but then a single drove in a run or two. 3. Is there a place where can i find the stats which list the number of sac bunts by non-pitchers for every other team in the NL, to see if our number of 14 is out of whack compared to most other NL teams? 4. You say that Roenicke has given up 14 outs by calling for 14 bunts by non-pitchers so far. Well, aren't you being disingenuous there given the average OBP for all players is likely around .320 or so? That means Roenicke has roughly given up an extra 5 outs or so by calling for those 14 bunts since about 68% of the time an average player would make an out swinging away vs sac bunting. If though it was say Gomez and other poor OBP hitters on the Brewers which account for the vast majority of those 14 sac bunts, then it's more like only around 4 extra outs Roenicke has used up by those bunts over 54 games vs swinging away each time instead. One out every 13 games or so, pretty hard for me to get worked up over that. Plus, the next batter can also hit into a double play without the sac bunt and we have scored some runs after a sac bunt advanced a runner to 2nd or 2nd and 3rd, then one of the next two batter hit a single or sac fly. So in the end, i don't want a manager going bunt crazy either, but i think Roenicke has been far from the bunt fiend that many feared and analyzing those numbers in context makes me reasonably comfortable with how often Roenicke has called for bunts so far.

In defense of Roeincke there, guys like Morgan and Gomez have a decent chance at any time to turn a sac bunt into a hit given their speed, especially Morgan since he seems to be a pretty skilled bunter. When pretty much anyone else in the lineup puts a bunt down, it's only to advance the runner a base. If Morgan gets a quality bunt down there, he can not only move Weeks to second, he can end up with a hit. I don't really ever watch American League games, so i was expecting mass amounts of bunting from the way some of you guys here talk about the Angels. So far this year though, i haven't seen any excessive amounts of bunting and i don't count Morgan/Gomez the same as other players because of their fabulous speed. Strikes me as a very reasonable decision and with Gomez having such terrible on base skills, a bunt by him at least advances the runner and as i said before, if he gets the bunt in a good spot, it's gravy with a hit. Hart was sac bunting in the first inning in one of his first games back.I don't recall Hart bunting since. I don't get the small ball lover label being put on Roenicke, at least from the bunting aspect. Some people were predicting that we'd be bunting all the time when he got hired and i just don't see it happening. My issues have been his seeming to be ok with the often incredibly reckless baserunning, hm keeping Gomez in the two hole to long, he loves Kotsay to much for my liking, and that stretch where he used Loe nearly everyday. His amount of calling for bunts hasn't struck me as excessive at all.

In defense of Roeincke there, guys like Morgan and Gomez have a decent chance at any time to turn a sac bunt into a hit given their speed, especially Morgan since he seems to be a pretty skilled bunter. When pretty much anyone else in the lineup puts a bunt down, it's only to advance the runner a base. If Morgan gets a quality bunt down there, he can not only move Weeks to second, he can end up with a hit. I don't really ever watch American League games, so i was expecting mass amounts of bunting from the way some of you guys here talk about the Angels. So far this year though, i haven't seen any excessive amounts of bunting and i don't count Morgan/Gomez the same as other players because of their fabulous speed. Strikes me as a very reasonable decision and with Gomez having such terrible on base skills, a bunt by him at least advances the runner and as i said before, if he gets the bunt in a good spot, it's gravy with a hit.

I'm not really that interested in sabermetrics even though i understand they have significant value in an individual sport like baseball, so i don't really know where to go for the myriad of defensive stats out there. Plus, from my limited reading up on defensive stats, they seem far from being as consistently reliable as offensive stats which don't seem to be as clouded by variables which can influence the numbers. Especially in smaller samples. Watching Braun in leftfield the two years prior to this year though, in my eyes he has looked to be a below average defensive leftfielder at best, probably more in the bad range. Here and there he'd make some really nice catches, but to often to me it looked like he'd misjudge balls off the bat, take poor angles, and make dumb thumb throws in attempts to get baserunners out instead of just hitting the cutoff man. This lead to guys advancing an extra base. He's also would just look awkward out there quite a bit, like an infielder recently switched to outfield. Well, this year to my eyes at least, Braun looks better in leftfield. In fact, quite a bit better. Granted, he does still often look kinda awkward when going after baseballs, unlike how fluid most quality outfielders look when tracking balls, and few guys catch the ball with two hands as he generally does. That said, Braun doesn't seem to be badly misjudging near as many balls as he did in prior years and even if he can still look awkward, he ends up catching the ball in most cases. With his speed, he's also run down a number of balls and turned them into outs. Yea, he still can at times make poor judgments about trying to throw runners out at the plate when there is no chance, but of late he has stopped doing it. So i had two questions. Do others watching feel like i do that Braun looks noticeably better/more productive in left this year? For the stats guys, were his stats bad in left the last two years to match up with what i was seeing in believing Braun was a below average to really bad leftfielder , but this year the numbers better even though in samples this small, the numbers can't really be counted on that much, especially defensive stats?

It means they're significantly bad at baseball. Unless a guy has a TON of power, which Wilson has none of. Same for Nieves and Counsell. Betancourt and Gomez have a small amount of power, but nowhere near enough to overcome such miserable on base abilities.

No kidding, wasn't even that close

As others have said, if a catcher is sitting there completely blocking the plate, a baserunner has really no other option to try and score except to go through the catcher and hope the ball is dropped. So if they want to make a rule that catchers can't be run over, then another rule should be that catchers can't block the plate. I was a catcher also for a number of years and the reason catchers are willing to stick their whole leg in front of the plate to block a slide in a way that other infielders won't do the same thing to block a base is obvious, the catcher has on gear that protects them from getting spiked in most cases. It's a big advantage for the catcher. The runner can even beat the throw sometimes, but still ends up being out because his sliding foot never gets to the plate as the catchers leg and hard plastic leg guard block access to the plate. So if the throw beats the runner to the plate and he can see the catcher is down or getting down in position with his leg/leg guard likely in position block any sliding foot from being able to get at the plate, you're pretty much preventing that runner from having any chance to score if the option is also removed to at least try and dislodge the ball.

If teams have no reason to pitch to Prince, how is he leading the NL in RBI's along with having 11 home runs? Last year with McGehee hitting much better, Prince at the end of May had only 19 RBI and 7 home runs, this year he has 11/41. Last year at the end of May, Prince had been walked 33 times and so far this year he has been walked only 23 times. So even though last year up through May Casey was hitting much better than he has this year, Prince still has higher production this year and is being walked at a slightly lesser rate. Hell, a prime example was the 14 inning game vs Colorado. They were winning by a run in the 14th inning and didn't "pitch around" Fielder, even though struggling McGehee was on deck. Just because he leads the league in RBI's doesn't mean he isn't being pitched around. I'm not saying they're going to do it every time, but if McGehee's struggles become more prolonged, you bet you'll see Fielder's IBB's increase. (he's already 2nd in the NL). The Colorado game isn't really what I'm talking about at all. Braun was on 1st at the time, of course they're not going to intentionally walk the tying run into scoring position with 1 out in a 1 run game in extra innings, that would be insane. All I'm saying is that if McGehee continues to put up pedestrian numbers, Fielder will be pitched around whenever the scenario allows. Whereas with Hart or Lucroy batting 5, they may have to think twice about it, or at least we'd have a better shot at making them pay. First of all, in select instances where teams will choose to pitch around Prince, they'll do this because he's a better hitter than all of McGehee, Lucroy, and Hart. He also tends to get intentionally walked later in games where there is a guy on second with firstbase open, two outs, and a righthander on the mound. So instead of hassling with bringing in a lefty, they just walk Prince and leave the righthander in to face McGehee and my guess is they'd do the same if Lucroy was batting fifth instead. It's quite rare to see teams intentionally walk Prince with nobody on base or if someone is already on firstbase. Almost always his intentional walks seem to come from the 6th inning on, with a guy on secondbase, and firstbase open. I'd also guess in most of those cases a righthanded pitcher is in the game also. No question that the team needs more production from McGehee. The 5th hole hitter is generally going to come up with more baserunners on than in other spots given that Prince/Braun bat in front of that 5th hole spot. Braun is carrying a .398 OBP, .380 for Prince. Casey's ability to drive in runs is a vastly vastly bigger job than any very minor impact he'll have in how pitchers go after Fielder. In 2007, Prince managed to hit 50 homers and drive in 120 runs even though for a sizable part of the year he had a reveolving door of guys batting after him like Johnny Estrada, Bill Hall, Geoff Jenkins, and Kevin Mench. The reason why isn't complicated. Prince has always been a patient hitter and walks cause problems for pitchers, so in the vast majority of Fielder at bats, the pitcher is going to be trying hard to get him out, not waste time "pitching around" because he's not a free swinger.

If teams have no reason to pitch to Prince, how is he leading the NL in RBI's along with having 11 home runs? Last year with McGehee hitting much better, Prince at the end of May had only 19 RBI and 7 home runs, this year he has 11/41. Last year at the end of May, Prince had been walked 33 times and so far this year he has been walked only 23 times. So even though last year up through May Casey was hitting much better than he has this year, Prince still has higher production this year and is being walked at a slightly lesser rate. Hell, a prime example was the 14 inning game vs Colorado. They were winning by a run in the 14th inning and didn't "pitch around" Fielder, even though struggling McGehee was on deck.

That's awesome, thanks for posting the link.