bjkrautk

He and JJ can make Alphabet Soup - although it would taste a little heavy on the consonants. J.J. does use periods, though....so it would just get all confusing.

It makes some sense, as Suppan hasn't been pitching up to his standard of late; he didn't have his usual velocity and command. (It's funny, after my post defending the guy in the Trade Forum, Suppan has put together a streak of non-quality starts.) I don't think that the Brewers would be pitching him if he had a serious injury....but at the same time, he probably would benefit from a few weeks off at this point. As an added bonus, it gives the team more time to decide on Bush / McClung question for the 5th spot in the rotation.

Stetter has been called up twice already this season; he appears to be the 'last man in' for purposes of evaluating the bullpen. My guess is that McClung goes to the 'pen, Bush stays in the rotation, he's been the better of the two as a starter, especially since McClung has failed to go 6 complete in both of his last starts. I'm not a big Dave Bush fan, but you have to hand it to him that he's been pitching much better this past month. Plus, out of his 18 starts, he's managed to at least go 6 innings in all but 5 of them. As someone who was at the game Saturday night, it was encouraging to see him pitch so well when he didn't have his best fastball (I never saw him touch 90mph on the day) to complement the offspeed pitches.

According to Shapiro, the PTBNL will be named by the end of the season (and has the potential to be an everyday ML player).

Just to add, the press conference is set for 11 am.

Back in '98 Jeff Shaw was traded from the Reds to the Dodgers during the All-Star break....he put on the new cap and pitched for his new team in the ASG before pitching for them in a regular season game (but that was a from NL to NL trade). My guess is that the player would make the trip to the game, and then be added to the new league's roster when one of the named players backs out.

"My Humps" was Fergie's band (the Black-Eyed Peas), if memory serves.'Um-bur-el-la' was Rhianna, and equally annoying. When the Katy Perry song is on, all I hear is Auto-tone. (That modulation you hear just about every time she says words like 'my' or 'try' ....that's because she can't sing.) Horrible song.

That would depend on the updated FA tier rankings (which will be released in November). In last year's rankings.... Orlando Hudson was a Class A free agent (behind only Utley in the NL at the position) Sabathia was a Class A free agent as well (trailing only Santana in the AL). If one team were to sign both players, Sabathia has (had) the higher score within the Class A rankings, so he would garner the higher picks.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i144/bjkrautk/cartman.jpg "...You are breaking my balls, man." (This is one of those injuries that makes a man double over just hearing about it. You just hope the surgery goes well, especially if he still hopes to have little backstops of his own.)

So, which would you rather have?- 2 yrs, $24 million, or - 4 yrs, $30+ million ...with the poor FA crop on the market, I'd be awfully willing to take my chances. On the other hand, a few bad years with the Blue Jays may make him willing to stick with a team that looks like it's going to be a winner for the next 2 years. Also, it needs be said that there is an injury concern with Burnett, who has missed 10+ starts in each of the previous 2 seasons with injuries to his pitching arm. He's only made 30+ starts once. A.J. would be an even easier player to pick up if Ricciardi were to get fired before the deadline. A new GM - even an interim one - would be more willing to blow things up and move mediocre/bad contracts for prospects.

I want to know who will replace Mark A. as team owner....as long as the team has a "sell high" mentality....the franchise's value is likely to peak at the same time as our current set of young players are on the cusp of free agency.

bad luck bloopers compounded by a big mental mistake from the pitcher (not backing up the plate). ...This is the kind of Dave Bush outing that the near no-hitter covers up.

Hating us is OK but that is a pretty lame reason to tack on. Why exactly are we to blame for that? Wasn't it your franchise that volunteered to move to the NL? When the 'natural rivalry' system was set up, before they started rotating the divisions, the Brewers essentially swapped their CWS series with the Cubs for their MIN series. Thus, the Cubs kept us from playing against the Sox. It's relatively low on reasons to hate the Cubs (Reed Johnson taking out Gallardo is much, much higher, as is my one Cubs friend doing his best to Jinx Dave Bush's no-hitter a few weeks back), but it's out there.

...and here my idea of getting robbed on the golf course is having a putt rim-out.

I chuckled when I read that one as well....but how would you answer that question in his predicament? The money invested in the player - and the history which produced that kind of investment, dictates he be given another chance to prove himself an effective reliever. If he can put up the kind of numbers he did in April of this year (.227 OBA, 3.98 ERA, 5bb:11k's) in a setup role, it won't justify the contract, but it'll certainly justify keeping him on the roster.

For the record, the Brewers 'natural' rivalry - to me anyway - is the one team in the AL Central they don't get to play against: the Chicago White Sox. Not only are the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee in closer proximity, but back when the Brewers were in the AL....it was the White Sox which drew most of the animus from Brewer fans. Never, as a kid growing up, did I go into a Brewers-Twins series thinking "the benches are going to clear at some point this weekend." During the Torborg/Lamont era in Chicago (OSI's managerial term with the Brewers), it could happen twice in a 3-game series...or twice in just one game. Mind you, this argument is not meant to condone violence between baseball teams....but that was a rivalry. Even when the Twins were winning World Series, I never felt the same antipathy for them as a Brewer fan. For Twins fans, I get it: our "blind trust" -owner tried to shut down their franchise (even if their owner was complicit in the process). I don't like the Twins, I just don't hate them the way I do the Gophers or Vikings. Stealing our natural AL rival is just another reason for Brewers fans to hate the Cubs.

Agreed. JenksFan, was your brother born with a rabbit's foot growing at the end of his leg, was it grafted on by doctors, or did his real foot mutate to fit the purpose?

I'd keep trying to find one in a store; I've actually seen them on shelves from time to time. It's largely a matter of being lucky. As to what you need for 3-player gaming, it really depends on what the game is: -For games like WarioWare, or most of Wii Sports, where the players alternate turns....you can get away with just the single controller that the Wii ships with. -For competitive multiplayer, some of the larger titles (Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii) are versatile enough to work with just the wiimote, the wiimote and nunchuck attachment, the wiimote with classic controller attachment, or a GameCube controller. (You'll need one of those options for each player, but which one is up to you.) If there are games you know that you want for the Wii, you should be able to find out what control setup the game supports by reading a professional review (1UP, Gamespot, IGN, etc.). ....couldn't help but laugh while looking at my post from last year's e3. The 3 games I listed in the last post are the 3 Wii games I've bought in the past year. 3 more weeks until the next set of e3 press conferences!

Fuentes is probably an upgrade to Stetter as the 2nd lefty / non-LOOGY in the pen (though Stetter doesn't really have enough IP to answer definitively), and I like the idea of getting 2 extra picks out of him. The Rockies made their WS run largely on having a glut of former closers in their 'pen, and Fuentes not only fits the mold, he was part of it. It's really a question of what level of player the Brewers would have to give up; guys like Gillespie and the 10+ -type guys in the Power 50 could be replaced with the draft picks, while adding a quality player in the long run (and leaving the big-name guys still in the system for a Sabathia-level acquisition). If the Rockies ask for more than that, there are other options out there.

ESPN's coverage of the 1994 NFL draft was less than eight and a half minutes in when Kiper said, "The Colts have to come out of this draft with a quarterback." Tennessee's Heath Shuler and Fresno State's Trent Dilfer were regarded as sure-fire future NFL stars, and Indianapolis' starter was Jim Harbaugh. The Colts wound up with two of the first five picks. With No. 2, they chose running back Marshall Faulk from San Diego State. With the fifth pick -- Shuler having gone to the Washington Redskins with the third pick -- the Colts were expected to take Dilfer. Instead, they chose Trev Alberts, a linebacker from Nebraska. Kiper's reaction to this was "To pass up a Trent Dilfer, when all you have is Jim Harbaugh -- give me a break. That's why the Colts are picking second every year in the draft, not battling for the Super Bowl like other clubs in the National Football League."[2][/sup] Less than 10 minutes later, at a location away from the draft site, ESPN's Chris Mortensen was interviewing Colts general manager Bill Tobin. Mortensen asked a question about the Colts' bypassing a quarterback with their top-five choices. Mortensen didn't mention Kiper in his question to Tobin. Tobin's 55-second response was "We got a guy up here ... and who in the hell is Mel Kiper, anyway? I mean, here's a guy who criticizes everybody, whoever they take. He's got the answers to who you should take, to who you shouldn't take. He tells us about your team. He tells us about the Rams. Mel Kiper is a tortoise. He tells us about Tampa and everything else. In my knowledge of him, he's never even put on a jockstrap, he's never been a player, he's never been a coach, he's never been a scout, he's never been an administrator, and all of a sudden, he's an expert. He's in our paper two days ago, telling us who we have to take. We don't have to take anybody that Mel Kiper says we have to take. Mel Kiper has no more credentials to do what he's doing than my neighbor, and my neighbor's a postman and he doesn't even have season tickets to the NFL."[3][/sup] Kiper responded to Tobin with a biting tirade that drew huge cheers from the fans in the gallery and wry smiles from Chris Berman and the other ESPN commentators "I'm secure in my position. Obviously, Bill Tobin's not very secure in his position. ... You cannot go with Jim Harbaugh and pass up Trent Dilfer. That's why the Colts are the laughingstock of the league year in and year out." [4][/sup] Trev Alberts retired after three seasons. Dilfer was moderately successful at Tampa Bay, though after being unceremoniously cut by Tampa after six years, he went on to win Super Bowl XXXV as quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens and has been a respectable mentor to young quarterbacks ever since. Source: Wikipedia

Wikipedia agrees with you, so who am I to argue. I really thought he had a foreign accent when they interviewed him, but it was 12 years ago.

The Kiper / Irsay shout-off was a draft highlight to me. The Vikings failing to make a timely pick in consecutive years was also great. I also can't help but remember the Hawks (NBA) drafting Priest Lauderdale, a 7-4(?) foreign-born center back in the 90s. He was in attendance, and slowly made his way up to the stage. Not saying the guy was slow....but I think the next team picked before he reached the podium.

Just to point it out, the Cubs went 25-11 over a stretch in June and July last year which caused the gap with the Brewers to disintegrate. We're not talking about the hype for 24-10 right now, because Chicago went 22-12 over that same stretch.

I had a friend of mine get fired from a job in politics for giving out too much information while blogging about how much he disliked his job. Ever since then, I made the decision to never say anything negative about my own job across the Internets.

Somewhat odd that the team giving Cito Gaston his second chance....also gave him his first.