danzig6767

I wasn't fond of seeing Seth come out for a third inning either, especially after a shaky 8th. Why not start the 9th with a fresh arm like Stetter? My guess is he hoped to save the rest of the bullpen while stretching Seth out a little in preparation for being the 5th starter.Seth got bailed out even in the 8th i thought by guys swinging at balls, he wasn't exactly sharp and was on his third inning. Yea it's hindsight, but i was nervous when i saw him back out there even with a 4 run lead.

I wasn't fond of seeing Seth come out for a third inning either, especially after a shaky 8th. Why not start the 9th with a fresh arm like Stetter?

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=1141#more-1141

Wisconsin is a just miserable place to live when it comes to the weather, i hate almost everything about the weather here. When i'm watching Brewer road games in cities with an actually decent climate, i get so envious. We generally get three decent months of weather a year, June through August and the clock is already ticking away on June with it feeling more like April. I'm so craving a stretch of hot weather and some blazing hot sun without tons of clouds/rain, but it feels like it's never going to happen which is driving me crazy.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/mad.gif

I haven't been much of a fan of the late night shows for awhile now, i generally would only tune in when i knew a certain guest would be on that interested me. Of all the host, Conan was the guy i've liked the least, he rarely ever made me laugh. Then again, none were that funny so i'd usually skip over most of the show and only turn it on when the guest i wanted to see came out. I did watch though the whole first night of Conan and i didn't laugh once, but oh well, it's no big loss because Leno wasn't exactly a bucket of laughs either, but i did like his interviews of guests.

Yea he had some bad luck, but this is who Julio is, bad command issues. He started this jam by a hit batter and walk to the bottom of the order. He's just not a good pitcher and i don't get why he's still on the roster.

Why the hell did Macha get Coffey ready and then wait so long to put him in

I can't see any chance the Wiz would include Butler in any trade given that he's younger and better than both Redd/RJ. It's been reported that they are open to trading the 5th pick for a veteran, but i doubt they'd want Redd since they already have enough soft scorers, they need some toughness and defense. Who knows though, maybe they'd try to build a team that just is a scoring machine with Arenas/Redd/Buter/Jamison.

First of all, my issues with the team and the general direction/plan is over many years now, not just this year and this upcoming draft. As for this draft though, i'd agree that it looks to be a weaker draft than usual. That said, many thought last year was going to be a weak draft after the top 2 picks, yet guys like Westbrook, Mayo, Love, Gordon, and Lopez all had impressive rookie seasons. Odds are a couple of players taken in the lottery this year will turn out to become better than expected and thus become a young building block for their teams, something the Bucks badly need. No question that the Bucks for many years have been lighting millions on fire with both their socalled stars like Redd/RJ, they've also done it with Gadzuric, Simmons, Bell, etc etc like you mentioned. As i brought up before, IMO it's not just the wasted millions by overpaying Redd that's hurt the franchise. Once they gave Redd that contract, they were making a decision that they were going to a more win now mode because they viewed Redd as their franchise player being in place. When a team feels they have their needed franchise player in place, they generally make moves to build around that guy. Thus i think after paying Redd, it contributed to them making some other poor decisions. They after paying him went into win now mode, so i think that made the team fear losing Gadzuric more and played a big role in going after Simmons. Even with a smaller contract like Bell got, the Bucks have been chasing late playoff seeds so they overvalued the need to have a bench player like Bell. I'm not blaming Redd himself for other poor decisions, but i do believe his signing set forth the direction the Bucks perceived they were going to take and it lead to a negative snowball effect. They've been trying to build a contender around Redd since the day they gave him that bad contract and he's simply not good enough to be considered a franchise player that you'd want to build a team around unless your goals are only just making the playoffs regardless if you'd be first round fodder. A lot of the blame falls on Kohl. He means well and has spent money even though we play in a small market. I think he badly wants to win and thus it's interfered with him to objectively decide where the team has been at, so he just refused to strip down and build properly like small market NBA teams need to do. He'd rather not go through that process which no doubt can lead to some ugly seasons and instead he's spent many years overrating his players and chasing 40ish win seasons that might include a playoff berth. No move has been a better example of that mentality than signing Redd to a max contract. In the end though, the team has still endured multiple ugly seasons since that signing anyways.

I thought it was funny also I know that i'll be in the extreme minority here, but i like Zambrano and that he plays with an edge and some personality. This whole mentality that so many baseball fans have that players should act like boring robots on the field so as to not "disrespect the game" is something i flat out reject. Guys like Manny, Zambrano, or Braun who play with a swagger, passion, and flair add fun to the game for me. All this constant whining about players looking at homers to long, untucking shirts, or supposedly celebrating the wrong way for old school believers to handle gets on my nerves. Only professional baseball seems to believe that it's players aren't allowed to play with any flair or else get a 95mph pitch thrown at them for the gall to show some personality.

I don't care. Constantly thinking short term has for the most part left the Bucks wallowing in mediocrity at best or garbage teams for the majority of two decades. It reminds me somewhat of the Brewers under Selig mentality for many years. Instead of just fully stripping down and going into full blown rebuild mode, the Brewers would waste money and time trying to patch together teams to be "competitive". They'd waste money on nothing special vets and then go cheap in the draft. The Bucks on the other hand have kept trying to patch together 40-45 win teams if everything went perfectly and IMO during the last few years they've done this based on a false belief that they already had a franchise player in place with Redd that you can build a contender around. The problem in that thinking is Redd isn't good enough for that. Worry to much about next year vs the next 3-4 years has lead to to many of the Bucks mistakes in team building. You focus mostly on next year when you have the pieces in place to realistically contend, not when you can hope to win 42 games. No plan is ever guaranteed to work. That said, i've never seen a contender built around their best player being a soft one dimensional scorer at SG with no leadership skills. So yea, even though i know that multiple trips into the lottery is by no means a lock to work, it has worked may times vs never working by building around a player like Redd. I'd have gone the young route awhile ago along with keeping cap room. Then hope one of the years you get lucky and draft a special or very close to special player. Then with the extra cap room, use that space say to trade for a quality second option from a team looking to clear room under the cap. As it stands now there is a pretty good chance that once the contracts of Redd/RJ expire, they'll have to rebuild anyways. But they'll have wasted more years yet again delaying the process all in their desire to be mediocre enough to get a late playoff seed in the bad Eastern Conference besides for the top 3 teams. The only times in the history of the Bucks franchise that they've been really good is via high draft picks. Jabbar was the 1st pick in the draft Moncrief 5th overall/Marques Johnson 3rd overall Big Dog 1st overall/Ray Allen 5th overall Granted, the Bucks have blown many other lottery picks and the Big Dog/Allen team only had one great season. That said, the Bucks haven't been good a single time without high picks leading the way. Plus, the Bucks did pass on Chris Paul not long ago who is a clear franchise player. There at least was the chance there for a true franchise changing player, management just made a bad evaluation. There is almost no other chance for the Bucks to land a Chris Paul, Melo, Dirk, Dwight Howard, Wade, etc etc type of talent that makes a contender than via the lottery. I'd rather take the route of at least having a chance at landing a stud player, even if it can have the odds against it vs wasting years and money trying to build around way overpaid nothing special veteran wings like Redd/RJ that have zero chance to be a legit contender.

Why didn't Macha do a double switch last inning so Seth didn't have to hit, makes no sense

nice at bat there Billy

Hart almost always has terrible accuracy on his throws to the plate

I just don't get why Hart is in the lineup today over Gerut

With Hall in the lineup, i'd have played Gerut in RF

Exactly. If the Bucks hadn't been stupid enough to pay a one dimensional scorer at SG that provides zero leadership to a max contract, they may not have wasted multiple seasons chasing an 7th/8th seed at best and then first round playoffs beatdown by not accepting you can't ever be a legit contender with a Michael Redd like player as your alpha dog. Now maybe if the Bucks would have done the smart thing by letting Redd walk and trying to rebuild properly, they could still have struggled to build a contender. History has shown that rebuilding via the lottery won't always work, but history has also shown that teams trying to become a legit contender with a one dimensional scorer at SG as your best player is nearly a futile exersise. The year prior the Bucks were 2-14 with Mo Williams out injured, does that make him a star also. Obviously when a team as poorly talented overall as the Bucks have been for awhile, when the only quality players like Redd, Mo, and/or Bogut miss games via injury, the team will struggle badly. That said, it doesn't automatically make any of those three guys a sprecial player or a star because none of them are. Until the Bucks can actually acquire a real star somehow, they'll just be spinning their wheels as a franchise with a limited ceiling of late seed playoff team that the true contenders with real stars dispose of easily in the playoffs. It's that line of thinking that allowed the Bucks to talk themselves into giving Redd his franchise crippling contract. Believing that a great scorer equals a great player when that's just not the case. Kevin Martin of the Kings is a very similar player to Redd besides the fact he's not ridiculously overpaid like Redd is. While both guys aren't responsible for the fact that their management hasn't built better teams around them, both are a great example of how limited an impact that soft one dimensional scorers with no leadership skills can have on their teams when they are the best player. Both are quality NBA players who can score a lot of points, but aren't close to being stars either. Put them though next to a real star like say what happened with Mo in Cleveland or a Rashard Lewis next to D. Howard, then yea they can be valuable pieces on a team with asperations beyond hoping to win about 40-45 games if things go perfectly. Giving Redd that huge contract not only has handcuffed the team some over the years, it gave the team the false belief that they already had their franchise player to build the team around. The Bucks made the mistake with Redd that many other teams in the NBA have done, especially non-glamour franchises. They have a quality, but non-special player who is becoming a free agent. They don't want to lose the guy for nothing so they often overpay by quite a bit in a long term deal and then a year or two later they realize their mistake, but by then that players contract becomes an albatross that's hard to move or they are afraid of fan backlash to trade the guy for expiring contracts if it's offered by a contender needing a quality 2nd/3rd option to their team. That though is where teams with good management separate themselves from teams with lesser quality management. Those with a smart GM would know that regardless if Redd was your best player at the time, he was nowhere near good enough to be worth paying a long term max contract to and making him your franchise player. Having the backbone to take the PR hit in letting Redd walk because you know Redd is only a quality second banana, not a star so don't saddle the franchise long term by paying him like a real star. Paying Redd was the easy way out at the time, but it came with bad long term concequences as we've seen and now we're still stuck with Redd eating up way to much financial flexibility and to make matters worse, the team added a second overpaid non-special wing player in Jefferson to further eat up financial flexibility. I just hope that when Redd is FINALLY off the Bucks cap, along with Jeffersons bad contract, whoever is running the Bucks will have learned the lesson about players like those two. You don't sign non-special wings to huge money contracts or trade for them unless you have a star in place to then have a legit shot to contend. They simply aren't skilled enough to lead a team anywhere if they are your best player/players.

Because Garnett is a great player, Redd is a great scorer and nothing more. That's why when Garnett was traded, the Wolves got in return one of the best young big men in the game, multiple first round picks, and dumped off bad money. If the Bucks had asked for anything remotely close to that for Redd, the next thing heard on the line would be a dial tone. Do you ever watch the Bucks? Redd should wear a choke collar in the 4th quarter of games unless it's a blowout because the guy consistently plays like crap when games are close in the 4th quarter. I wasn't saying the Radd and Jefferson make the Bucks worse with them than without them. The huge problem is that next year they'll make a combined 32 million dollars and they don't produce anywhere near that level. They are paid like superstars when in reality they aren't close to being superstars and that is a killer for the franchise. Teams with guys like Redd as your best and high paid player will always have very limited ceilings. Oh well, the Bucks have waited to long to dump Redd because Kohl was never willing to just bottom out and rebuild properly, hoping to squeak into the playoffs as a 7th/8th seed has been to important to him. Maybe next year Kohl will get his wish if the team stays healthy.

I no question could see Gerut getting a few starts vs righties if Hart goes in funks at the plate, especially if Gerut produces when given at bats.

Nice small trade Gerut is better than Duffy. A playoff berth could end up being decided by only a game or two and i'd rather have Gerut pinch hitting than Duffy or playing when Cameron/Hart gets a day off.

1. Cleveland was going to take Jefferson. They offered the expiring contract of Wally Szczerbiak for RJ and in an absolute brainfart of a decision, Hammond said no. Hammond said he didn't want to help a division rival and the thought of handing the Cavs RJ made his stomach turn. Only an idiot would care that the Cavs are in the Bucks division given that the divisions in the NBA are nearly irrelavent. All that matters is finishing with a top 8 record in your conference. Plus, the Bucks would have ZERO chance to compete with the Cavs next year regardless if Cleveland had RJ or not. It's beyond baffling that Hammond actually passed on the chance to dump the bad contract of Jefferson and give the team some financial flexibility for next year and the following year. Non-special highly paid wings like Redd/RJ are a big waste of money to any teams lacking a true superstar to pair with the overpaid wings. 2. I go on a certain Bucks forum and there is a guy on there that has provided inside info multiple times that proved to end up being correct. He said that he heard the Bucks could have moved Redd prior to last season, but just like with Jefferson, Hammond said no because all he'd get in return was an expiring contract. To that all i'd say is earth to Hammond, being able to dump the anchor to the franchise that is Michael Redd was plenty in return and not the garbage offers that Hammond considered it. I'll rejoice the day Michael Redd and his ridiculous contract are gone from the Bucks, giving him that max contract was a massive mistake and has haunted the franchise. The huge mistake of not trading RJat the deadline was how the CBA works. If say RJ had been traded or Wally at the deadline, Hammond would have shaved about 15 million off the cap for this offseason. If though Hammond were to trade Jefferson during this offseason, he has to take pretty much matching money back which whipes away having financial flexibility this year. Not only could that decision possibly end up costing the Bucks Sessions or our lottery pick for tax reasons, it removes any chance of maybe getting a quality player on the cheap from a team looking to dump salary. I also like Holiday, but don't think he'll end up being there at the 10th pick. As for Bogut though, i don't think the Bucks offense will ever run mainly through Andrew simply because i don't think he's skilled enough offensively. Bogut has become a high quality defensive player and good rebounder, but offensively, he skills are to lacking IMO to be a No.1 option. He has no midrange jumper or post up jumper at all. In the post, his only consistent move is that little lefty flip hook shot. On days he's missing that flip hook or a good defender is blocking that shot, Andrew doesn't have much else to turn to. He's also a poor free throw shooter and turns it over to much when double teamed in the post. Until Bogut can develop a midrange jumper/post up jumper and/or more varied post moves, i think he'll continue be what he's always been, an inconsistent offensive threat and thus can't be counted on as a big man to run the offense through.

I am still mad that the Bucks didn't trade RJ away during the deadline. The Bucks would be in a perfect position this offseason to keep their players and have a good PG. Remember Redd is going to be starting the year hurt yet. So the Bucks are going to have to find someone to fill in for Redd. Yep The contracts for both Redd and Jefferson are both major anchors holding the franchise hostage, yet when Hammond was given a get out of jail free card for one of them he threw it away. Incredibly stupid decision.

When it comes to any of these issues of other fans complaining about something the Brewers do as a team or certain players do, i try and keep it to one simple standard. What would those same fans do/say if things were reversed and their team or player did the same thing? I have no doubt that the same complaining Cardinal/Cubs fans would love Braun if he played for them and love the bravado he plays with along with defending the untucking of the shirts after a win. So given that, i let out a big yawn when they complain about these things with the Brewers.

What i really like about our main three late innings guys (Hoffman/DeFelice/Coffey) is that they all throw strikes. Few things seem to trigger late inning rallies like walks do and all three of those guys don't get themselves in trouble by giving up free baserunners.

Because most fans are simply hypocrites If Braun was on their team, nearly all the fans who talk crap about him now, would instead love him and be mocking those that rip on him.