Anders34

If Humber or Niemann were there when the Brewers pick, I am confident they would be Brewers. I believe the Brewers philosophy is to draft pitchers with a ceiling of either a #1 or #2. That is why I believe they passed on Sowers last year. Nothing against Rogers, but once the top college guys were gone, I was hoping for Chris Nelson, but oh well. I think both would Humber and Niemann will be worth the wait. They would have only played a month or two at the end of the summer but would have had their innings limited due to high pitch counts. My feeling is for college pitchers with high pitch counts, it does not matter that much if you sign them in August or Jan.

According to the Mexican league website, J.J. was 1-4 yesterday with an RBI and 2 more K's. Still shaking that rust off... Average now up to .136 www.ligadelpacifico.com.m...scores.asp

How about Randy Johnson, Mark Prior, Matt Clement, Carlos Zambrano, Tom Glavine, and Roy Oswalt? This team has beat good pitchers. There is no question our offense sucks, but everyones expectations have gotten too high. You cannot expect to get to the playoffs with only 1 batter over .300 and nobody with >15 HR. Personally, I am really looking forward to seeing Hart, Krynzel, and Weeks get some major league PT in Sept.

Colby, I was real disappointed to see Janish fall all the way to the 5th round and the Brewers didn't pick him up. I think he will be a heck of a player. Because he is already such a great fielder, he will be able to focus on offense and should improve significantly. He did that this year and improved his numbers greatly.

Brad Nelson is having a huge night. 3-5 with 1 HR and 2 doubles. Prince is 1-5 with a single. Stars are up 9-1. Sarfate with a very nice outing.

Brad has been on a little hot streak lately. Good to see him bounce back after a rocky year in 2003. A little worried about the strikeouts though.

My apologies to Mr. De La Rosa. Don't know what this means, but I a relieved to he it wasn't him that gave up the 8 run first. I want him to succeed very badly to make the Sexson trade go down as the best ever for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Ouch......Another rough outing for De La Rosa. Too bad.

The only 'gaping' holes are in the starting pitching. That is what will keep this team from 90 wins (not that it is some small issue). At least we don't have any huge contracts with crappy pitchers (Rusch) that we are forced to tread out there every 5 days because they make $5 mill per year. Besides Overbay and Spivey, this team has largely gotten better by Addition by Subtraction.

How on earth is Rickie Weeks supposed to get comfortable at the plate. He got hit 2 more times tonight. That guy must have bruises all over the place. I wonder if this could be what is causing him to struggle. I was pretty much against the "retaliation" strategy, but I think I have changed my mind. They are clearly throwing at him.

Oh boy. This is the same shoulder that he hurt in Spring Training. Considering the fact he has hurt it again within 2 months, I wonder if the Brewers are going to seriously look at the surgury option. Boy those 'strengthening' exercises sure sound a lot like what kept Manny in extended Spring Training. Hopefully this is not something that is going to plague J.J.'s whole career.

The Stars are up 5-0. Fielder is 2-2 (2 singles with a RBI and a run scored). Weeks is 1-3.

The Indians are having a big night tonight. They are up 15-3. J.J. hit a 3-run HR and Corey had an inside the park job.

That would be sweet if Sarfate started the second game. If the Stars don't come back, he would be the losing pitcher in Game #1 and then be the starter in Game #2. I bet it doesn't happen too often that the same starting pitcher gets a loss in both games of a doubleheader (Hopefully that does not happen, but it would likely be one for the record books).

I probably wouldn't read too much into it. They are probably just giving Weeks a partial day off. We will see.

Just tuned into the game. They said Hendrickson is starting tomorrow. Interesting that they bumped him today. No explanation why. Supposedly it is sprinkling in Louisville tonight. Maybe they didn't want him to go on a wet mound?

Interesting you mentioned J.P. Howell, Colby. I was flipping between that game and the Brewers debacle from the other night. Howell and Capuano bascially have the same throwing motion and appear to have the same 'stuff'. Fastball that is usually mid to high 80's. Nasty split finger or slider. Decent to good changeup. Capuano seems to be a fairly decently put together guy while J.P. is very slight of build. I wonder if J.P. added some more muscle if he could get more on his fastball. I like J.P. and think he is a good college pitcher. Not so sure how he will project. I would say second round is a likely possibility although I would figure the Brewers might go H.S. pitcher there if they don't in Round 1. As for CSTV, I was very impressed with their coverage. They had a in-game interview with a Rice assistant coach that was later ejected for arguing with the ump. They also had a journalist from the Houston Chronical talking about Rice in general, Niemann, and co. IMHO, they blew FSN college baseball coverage out of the water.

11, I am not sure what you meant when you said Street had little 'projectability'. I assume you meant that as a starter. In that case, I agree. I think he will make an excellent setup man or closer in the bigs. He has good 'stuff' and his command is excellent. When I said 'stuff' I mean the combination of velocity and movement. His fastball last night hit 91 MPH and has a lot of movement to it. He also works in good off speed pitches and has a closers mentality. I will be shocked if he lasts past pick #20. Flushing I agree, Niemann is pretty disappointing. The reports from the Rice trio hitting that high of velocity this year comes from the Reckling Park gun when I reported it (which I am now conviced is highly suspect). Last night Niemann never broke 92. Humber (in his few pitches) was right around 90 and topped at 93. Townsend has been flying a bit low on the radar this year. I have not seen him, but I assume his 95 or 96 is actually 93 or 94. From Colby's game summaries, he has been having a few walks but besides that there is not much to harp on so far this year. I haven't heard to much on Diamond so far this year.

Niemann got the start tonight against UT and lasted a whole 2 innings. He was pulled early by Graham with an unspecified injury. The radar gun CSTV only had Niemann throwing 87-92 with his fastball. In order to get it up to 92 he WAY overthrowed and was falling off to the 1st base side. The commentators said they were quite surprised and think there is something bothering Niemann. Obviously there must be something. I think his elbow may be still bothering him. I bet he is just trying to gut this season out so he is still a high draft pick. I have to say I am getting pretty scared off by the guy. Man i hope the Brewers are watching this! Edit: CSTV interviewed a Rice assistant coach during the game. The Rice coach says Niemann has a slightly pulled groin that he pulled in a warmup pitch before the 3rd inning. At least it is not an elbow issue. Anyways, I still have some concern with Niemann. His velocity is pretty low and his control has been very erratic. Tonight he threw almost as many balls as strikes. With UT up 2-0, Huston Street entered the game. Rice wound up scoring 2 (the last of which was from a balked in run). With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth and 2 runners on, Rice brought in Humber to try and save the day. He struck out 1 batter on a beautiful curveball and the next batter singled to right to score the winning run. On a seperate note, the home plate umpire caught a foul tip right in the neck and was taken off the field in a stretcher and then to an ambulance. Ouch, that must have hurt. Hope the guy is o.k.

1-0 after 1 inning in Huntsville. Prince crushed an opposite field HR in the first. Sarfate on the mound. A little shaky in the first with a walk and a hit but did pick off a guy at first AND struck out Upton on a nasty curveball.

A J.J. Hardy single just plated 2 runs. This was his first hit in AAA (0 for 12). Hopefully this will get J.J. going.

I definately believe it will be Townsend today. Sunday is TBA. It may be Niemann but I think Graham will be tempted to save him for Tuesday against Texas. This will be Rice's last chance to beat them in the regular season. A few weeks ago, he tried to save Townsend for a Tues. Texas A&M game and had to bring him in for long relief after Baker got shelled. Rice wound up losing that game (a conf. game) and I bet he regrets it. For those that have it, the UT/Rice game will be on CSTV Tuesday night.

I have heard that also. Hopefully that is the case.

Stars win 5-3!

Weeks just threw a double play relay into the dugout. The Def. is why Weeks needs to stay in the minors all year.