danzig6767

I'd be the world champion onion hater If i could be granted three wishes in life, i'd seriously have to consider using one to rid the world of the scourge called onions. What a wonderful world it would be if i never ever had to see/smell one of those evil things again or have some moron at a restaurant ruin my dining experience by ignoring my wish to not put any of those rancid things in my meal.

Trevor did struggle last year, but from a strictly fan and entertainment perspective, going to games at Miller Park in Hoffman's first year sure was great fun if a game was close with the Brewers leading near the 9th inning. You could see him warming up and then when the Hell's Bells music came blaring on, the excitement and energy in the ballpark really added to the game experience. I remember attending a game once that year with my daughter and her boyfriend. The game was close in the bottom of the 8th inning and Trevor was warming up, but the Brewers scored a few more runs and thus Hoffman sat down and didn't come in for the 9th inning. I could almost feel a bit of a deflating feeling in the park because it meant no Hoffman and Hell's Bells, even though the added runs increased the lead. In fact, both my daughter and boyfriend were bummed to see that Trevor and the whole entrance into the game experience wasn't going to happen.

Garza doesn't need to be extended right now anyways, the Cubs control his rights for this season and two more after that. The three years of team control is a big reason why it's hard for me to bash this trade for the Cubs. Garza isn't an ace, but he's only 27 and a nice No.2 option for their rotation and it's not like he'll be a free agent after the season. Maybe Archer or Lee becomes a really good major league player, but the odds of either one becoming as good as Garza are less than 50 percent and probably more like 20-25 percent. The main benefit if one or both panning out is that they'll spend their first four years making little money.

Oops, that should be 2012. I dont think we are favorites in our division. That still has to go to the Reds. They are young and could possibly get better with the same players. Of course all their players might have had their career year last year. We were really far behind the Reds last year and we really only added 2 players. 2 very good players replacing really bad players but still only 2 players. Well, we are also replacing for the better hopefully what happened in the back of the bullpen the for roughly the first two months last year where Hawkins and Hoffman were absolute disasters late in close games we were either leading, tied, or only down a run. Time will tell how the Brewers bullpen will end up performing this season, but there are very logical reasons to expect it to be more productive. Axford will be there from the start instead of the gas can Hoffman was to leads in April/May. Hawkins can't be worse. Saito if healthy could be an elite set-up man. Braddock hopefully builds off a good rookie season. Then maybe the best thing is we should get quite a few more innings and quality innings at that from the rotation which in turn should keep the bullpen guys fresher. A better bullpen would add wins compared to last season. For example, we had 21 blown saves last year, 10 more than the Cardinals and only 1 more than the Reds. I understand the Reds won the division instead of the Cardinals and i don't know exactly how many of those 10 games we ended up losing, but the Cardinals also could be good this coming year and it goes to show how a poor back end of the pen can result in a multi-game difference in wins between two teams.

Yea, from about 2005-2008, Sizemore was just a fabulous player. A good defensive CF who could put up the offensive stats that he did was a type of player that there aren't many of in the league from year to year. Just imagine having the 2006 Sizemore on this team even if Braun was removed. A good defensive CF who put up a .375OBP, 28HR, 53 doubles, and 11 triples. Melvin then could have gone out and tried to find some half way decent corner OF to replace Braun, stopgap corner guys generally are easier to find than a CF.

In general i agree with you when it comes to closer and the closer role. That said, while i agree with you that in general great closers are that more so by great stuff than socalled nerves of steel, i do think there will be some guys who do let the pressure of that final inning get to them, especially if after say blowing two games in a short time frame. Of course in some games across the league pretty much each night, a team with only a 1-2 run lead in the 8th will bring in their "setup" man who has to face the heart of the other team's lineup while in the 9th the closer ends up facing a lesser part of the lineup, yet the closer gets the more glamorous save stat. The stat itself is dumb, particularly that a closer still can get a save for giving up two runs in an inning, just so long as they were up by three. Why i value Axford so much is that i do believe that it's usually very hard to win a playoff berth for any team if they aren't good in the back end of their pen. Those main 3-4 guys who come into so many close games around the 7th, 8th, and 9th inning. Blowing an abnormal amount of very close games were you lead or are tied late will not only hurt your record in playoff races that often are decided by a single game or two, it has to be devastating mentally. Axford being in place not only gives the Brewers a closer with great stuff who can pitch more than just one inning, it allows all three of Braddock, Saito, and hopefully a healthy/effective Hawkins to handle the high leverage 7th/8th innings of close games. Remove Axford and i feel much less secure about the back end of the pen, especially considering Saito will be 41 next month, he had some injury issues last year, and Braddock has had injuries in the minors. Trade Axford and have any of Saito/Braddock/Hawkins get hurt, suddenly that back end up of the pen could get very thin and shaky.

But Baltimore wouldn't trade Jones for Axford. Unless someone is talking about an Albert Pujols type of player, nobody is going to be untouchable, so of course the Brewers would be smart to trade Axford if the right offer came along. That said, Ax was pretty dominant last season, is cheap for awhile, and his stuff is legit good, he wasn't getting outs largely by hit balls just finding a ton of gloves. He also pitched strong for a closer by often going more than a single inning. Axford though only has last year as a track record of success in the majors for other GM's to look back on and i'm guessing that would limit the kind of offers Doug would receive. Mix in that that management has invested so much into this coming season, i think the performance of the bullpen will have a fairly significant impact as to whether team goals are reached. I'd want quite a bit in return for Axford and it's not just because he has the closer role. Regardless if Axford was closing games or was the main 8th inning guy while Saito closed games, having a strong duo/trio of late inning guys to not blow many close games with a lead or late tie games is important for any teams in tight playoff races. We saw loud and clear early last season just how devastating it is when the back end of your pen is blowing lots of games. Then the fact that Axford makes pocket change makes me hold him in higher regard than some of you seem to. After this season though, if Axford builds on last season and has another good year which should increase his value in the eyes of other GM's by being more proven in the bigs, then i'd be more receptive to seeing what he could fetch, especially after losing Prince.

Sure just because of Rogers fastball, there is possible upside of being a number 1/2 type of starter, but if you asked me to bet a nice chunk of money on whether Rodgers ended up becoming a 1/2 level starter or a 4/5 level assuming he ever reached either status, i'd have to put the money on him becoming a 4/5. Reason for that being that while here and there we'll see a starter significantly improve his command after spending quite awhile being unable to throw enough strikes, more times than not those guys are the aberration. No matter how tough any starting pitcher is to hit, if he's consistently putting on free baserunners via walks, they'll get burned for doing so, especially in the majors. Those baserunners will come around to often to score and that starter will struggle from either allowing to many runs and/or high pitch counts. Rogers had very nice BAA against numbers last year as has been common for him and the K/9 numbers were good, but not great. The 72 walks though in only 116 innings was a rate of 5.6 per nine innings, right at his career average and up from his 2009 season. Until he can beat the odds and significantly improve his command/control, he has no chance to become a top of the rotation starter and so far in his injury plagued career, Rogers hasn't shown many signs that a significant improvement in control should be expected. Obviously i hope i'm wrong though in my pessimism.

Why would you be happy if next year those 12 players would be back and the main parts of the playing rotation? Yea, injuries have certainly hurt, especially to Delfino and now Jennings being out. Even once Jennings gets back, this roster has serious offensive shortcomings. I do think some of the perimeter shooting woes can be attributed to simply bad luck thus far into the season, multiple guys shooting below career norms. That said though, the roster does really lack good perimeter shooting, doesn't have a guy at PF which you'd be very happy to start each night even though we have 5 power forwards/no backup center, and a Salmons/Moute duo as starters at the two wing positions would be very below average offensively. This team badly could use an athletic SF who can shoot from the perimeter, score some off the dribble, and run the break with Jennings. The Bucks team the last two years have been one of the better ones in the league at creating turnovers, but they rarely are able to quickly get down the court and turn those turnovers into easy points because the roster just isn't built for it athletically. It's one of the reasons they've struggled to score more points and do it efficiently, NBA defenses as a whole are to good as a whole to have to score nearly all your points in the half court.

While Tubby is a good coach I dont think he has done that great at Minnesota. He has done decent, but it is hard to get too excited about not winning a game in the tournament in his three years. They have yet to have a winning record in the Big Ten and have had a lot of issue with player conduct on the team. Now this could be the year all that changes but since their only good win is against a 9-4 North Carolina team, it is hard to know how good them are. They sure can pound the glass, but they are a poor perimeter shooting and defending team. Keep in mind though that while Tubby didn't take over a program in total shambles, he didn't inherit a bevy of talent either. A coach often needs some time to not only bring in better talent, but also talent that fits into what he wants to run. Say for example Bo Ryan had to take over the Marquette program this year or next year. MU has more talent than what Monson left for Tubby in Minnesota and Bo is such a good coach that i'm sure he could do a solid job with a Marquette roster, but it's not the type of roster he'd recruit for his system.

So if/when one of our five projected starters suffers an injury of some sort and needs to miss anywhere from one start to multiple starts, who is the likely guy to fill in? Parra? It's very rare for a starting rotation to pretty much go a whole season injury free and thus a team's 6th and even 7th starter can factor in to how well that team ends up doing, especially if one of the top five starters has to miss quite a few starts. Besides Parra, i'm not sure who else Melvin would turn to? Plus, if Parra is in the pen as mainly the long reliever and an injury struck at some point, he likely wouldn't be stretched out enough to throw more than 4-5 innings at best.

What weird timing. Here i was reading/posting in this thread yesterday and of the guys the OP listed as free agents, Saito was the guy who stuck out most to me if Doug could sign him cheap with some incentives. Never though did i think Melvin would actually try to acquire Saito and then bam, the next day i come on here and see Doug not only was talking to Saito, he signed him. If Hawkins can have a rebound season, Braddock builds off the success he had last year, and Saito stays healthy, the back end up the pen could be outstanding. Plus, with the improved rotation being able to eat more innings, an older guy like Saito shouldn't have to pitch that often in garbage situations because a starter couldn't go more than 4-5 innings.

Wow, this signing just gets better

It's up. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/112513899.html EDIT: It appears they were out of town, that's what took so long. One thing i like about the signing is this I have a call into GM Doug Melvin to get some more particulars and what reasoning went into the signing. The guaranteed money of the deal is not known, but according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, Saito could earn around $3.2 million through roster and appearance bonuses. So it sounds like if Saito has an injury plagued season, he won't get the full 3.2 million.

Juan Cruz is a guy that i believe is now healthy and if so, i'd love if Doug could bring him in on some low salary contract with incentives. He struggled in 2009 and mabe having his shoulder cleaned out for a cyst has hurt his velocity quite a bit, but in 2007 and 2008, he was a very hard to hit relief pitcher for Arizona with a great BAA and K/9 ratio. Takashi Saito had great numbers for the Braves last year in 54 innings. A 2.83ERA/1.07WHIP/.203BAA/69K's, but he is 41 and was bothered by shoulder tendinitis towards the end of the year. If he signed for cheap, that might add a very reliable set-up guy. Both guys may be forced to take either a non-guaranteed offer like a spring training invite or a low salary incentive laden one year deal, but if their health held up, could prove to be a very effective bargain.

I'm with you on CF so long as Gomez and Dickerson are platooned pretty strictly. While i'd like a better full time SS option to be brought in, it looks like that won't happen. Hopefully then Betancourt gets very limited numbers of starts vs righthanders and Counsell won't wear down if asked to start at least 70-80 games when a righty is on the mound. The only redeeming quality that Betancourt possesses is that he hits lefties pretty well, a career .318OBP and .753OPS when facing them. If in a platoon, Betancourt hit somewhere near his norm vs lefties and the same for Counsell vs righties, the offensive production at least would be quite a bit better than what we got last year from Escobar. Plus, around half of the games would have the defense of Counsell at shortstop.

Or something like the NBA or NFL has In the NBA, free agents are limited to getting 5yr deals at most, but the team that a coming free agent plays on can offer a 6th year and a slightly higher yearly salary. This can help teams keep players that they draft and develop, unless a player is willing to take less to play elsewhere and either way, the player can become very wealthy. The NFL has the franchise tag for one player each year. If that tag is exercised on a player without him agreeing to a multi-year deal or being traded, that player gets a one year contract with a salary amount which is calculated as the average salary of the top 3 or 5 players at his position, i forget if it's 3 or 5. Bonuses are also included in the calculations so if say we tagged Prince after this season, he either would have to sign a long term deal with us or get a one year deal at around 20-22 million. He'd then be unrestricted after that year.

Melvin has pretty much ruled out adding a salary like Cameron makes. I heard Doug on the D-List and when asked about Cameron, he said there really wasn't room in the budget to add the 7 million Cameron makes.

Saying that Podsednik would be a drop off defensively in CF is being very kind, it would be a massive drop off. He would be an improvement offensively, but I don't know how many more bad defensive players we can handle. No kidding. Put Podsednik in CF with Betancourt at SS and the Brewers would have nothing but mediocre to bad defensive players at every single position on the diamond. An outfield trio of Podsednik in CF, Braun in LF, and Hart in RF would be either the worst or close to the worst defensive trio in all of baseball and it's not like our infield defense would be stellar either.

Man, the Geinke trade has made me completely change how i view the Lee signing by the Phillies. When he first signed there, i took some pleasure in seeing the Yankees for once lose out when they tried flexing their financial muscle to get whatever elite free agent they chose to target. Now that we have Greinke though, i actually feel like the Brewers have a legit shot to reach the postseason and if so, the Phillies could be a team we had to face. It would be a bummer if say the Brewers reached the NLCS vs Philly and Lee played a key role in beating us.

I have nothing to back up this opinion besides a gut feeling, but i really feel like Gallardo is going to be better this coming season than his last two seasons which were pretty good in themselves. Less walks from Yovani leading to him going deeper into games and an ERA in the 3.00-3.25 range. If so, with health among our rotation, Gallardo could hit the 200 innings mark, Greinke should be over 200, Wolf has thrown 200 plus innings in back to back years, and Marcum threw 195 innings last year. Compared to our rotation last season which consistently forced Macha to ask the bullpen to cover around 4 innings or more, this should leave our bullpen much fresher through the season.

I agree that's a solid signing assuming the got Hawpe pretty cheap His numbers over his career in Colorado aren't overly Coors Field influenced, but i've read that he was a terrible defensive outfielder. How his defense will end up panning out at first base will factor in to how effective Hawpe is overall for the Padres. Only a year ago though, Hawpe did post a .903 OPS and .917 on the road, so he wasn't a Coors Field wonder.

Gotta disagree there. I've seen every episode of Seinfeld and seen most of them multiple times, but i think that overall episode is among the least funny ones. I'd probably have to sit and think about this for awhile if say i had to list my top 3-5 episodes, but very quickly off the top of my head, these these come to my mind 1. Jerry buying a car from Puddy while a starving George can feel his "stomach sucking against his spine" because Kip or Ned, short name, stole his Twix bar. 2. The contest. The four of them betting to see who can last the longest at being "master of your domain?" 3. Visiting the Hamptons where George experiences "shrinkage." As i said earlier, i might makes changes to this if i took more time to think about it, but i've long thought that the Festivuv episode was very overrated. Plus, when it comes to thinking of favorite episodes, anything with Puddy for me will rank high along with any episode centered largely on George who clearly was IMO the funniest character on the show.

That's quite the slap in the face to Ilyasova. He's everything Gooden is not. Smart, relentless motor, and underpaid. Gooden seems like a good dude, and I do like his effort more than I thought I would, but he's just not very good. Someone on another forum posted a very telling stat about Gooden. If my memory is correct on the stat, the Bucks are now 8-3 in games that Gooden played 0-15 minutes and 4-13 in games he's played more than 15 minutes. Granted, basketball is a team game and various factors besides just the play of Gooden could skew those stats a bit, but only to a degree. What lends even more credence to those stats are that for most of his career, the teams that Gooden has played on have almost always performed better in plus/minus over each season when he's not on the court. The plus/minus stat for a single player is one that generally isn't worth much in a single game because it can be influenced by the other guys on the court, but over a larger sample of games, it's more telling and teams simply have performed better when Gooden isn't on the court. This year's Bucks team being another example of that. Hammond did such a great job the previous year, how he could hand 5yrs/32 million dollars though to a guy that has been dumped by numerous teams and that has consistently posted negative plus/minus numbers regardless of the team he's played on is so incredibly baffling to me. I remember when i first heard about the Gooden signing, i honestly thought it couldn't possibly be true, that the source reporting it just had to have got wrong information. That a smart GM couldn't possibly even consider giving Drew Gooden an expensive 5yr deal, much less actually offering the deal. Yet, it really was true and i have to assume that Hammond can already see that he made a big mistake, but it won't be easy to find a taker for Gooden's contract.

Vasgersian was outstanding in his time as the Brewers announcer, his messing with Schroeder was great entertainment. To this day, i still use his you gotta be dry shaving me line when bad things happen in Brewers games. That said, Al not liking Matty V seems about as predictable as Chuckie Carr hacking on 2-0. I have no big issues with any of the current local broadcasters, but i did watch a Timber Rattlers game and Bob Brainerd was calling the game, he's so flat out brutal that i had to turn the game off and i'm generally not someone who get bothered easily by an announcer.