Eddiehitsthefoulpole

Felipe Lopez, part 3!

Putting on the contact play with the infield playing in is just stupid in my opinion. With the contact play on, a ground ball hit at an infield ends in an out at the plate and a ground ball not hit at an infielder scores a run. With the contact play off, a ground ball hit at infielder ends up in an out at first and a ground not hit at an infielder still scores a run. So in one case you still have a runner in scoring position and in one case you don't. It just doesn't make sense to me to engage in a play which is unlikely to benefit you, but will probably end your chances of scoring in that inning.

Escobar has outplayed Hardy this year. That is the guy we will really regret losing.

Sullinger reminds me of Tractor Traylor, he plays blow the rim. I don't know if he can get his shot off inside in the NBA.

I think we should try and resign Marcum. No more than 3 years though, maybe a club option on a 4th. I also think that signing Zach is a pipe dream. I think that he felt that KC burned him in his last contract with their perpetual rebuilding. I don't think he will risk that in Milwaukee. He is going to go big market.

I think that you have to go back to the early 70s to find a Brewer line-up weaker than this. Even in 2002 we had Sexson in the line-up every day.

Our split between day and night game this year is ridiculous. I looked up the numbers for past seasons a week ago (and can't remember them) and it seems to be a barometer to our seasons. In our last two play-off seasons our day and night records were similar. In our other seasons (starting in 2007) our day records were much worse than our night records. It is almost as if day/night has become our home/away split. If we do well in day games, we have a good season. When we have a bad season our day game record is terrible. Provided it is a small sample, but we are off to a terrible start this year. I was wondering if anyone had some ideas as to why we struggle so much in day games? Something has to change.

This is my annual post about how we are once again starting the season with hitters who, for the most part, seem incapable of major league at bats on a regular basis. We are fooled a lot and we consistantly swing at pitchers pitches. Usually we improve as the season goes along but this trend is maddening. What do we do during spring training?

I think that Ishikawa is essentually useless to us because he is just not going to play, and we have a lot of left-handed pinch-hitters ahead of him. Which brings me to another roster construction problem. We have three centerfielders. Two of them are left-handed. All three of them deserve to play. I think we have to move either Morgan or Aoki in order to get some roster balance.

I think he has a great radio voice. I also think that he would be better with a color man. He isn't the story teller that Cory was. Cory did a great job of painting a word picture. I think that as he becomes more comfortable with the format, Joe will be fine.

He has hit at every level. He will hit at the major league level.

Jim's career is rightfully linked to the outstanding job he did with the Packers. But I know him better as the voice of the Bucks. Few Bucks games were televised in Green Bay in the late 1970s and early 80s, including the play-offs. Jim was my link to the team. Was he a homer? Yes, but he was our homer. Jim painted a great mental picture of what was happening in the game. He didn't have the entertainment value the Eddie Doucette had TV side, but he was able to get me to listen from the opening tip to the final second without interruption. He was terrific.

I read these responses and feel bad for the any Bucks fan under the age of 30. Before Herb Kohl took bought the team this team was one of the best organizations in the NBA. We were usually near 60 wins, seeded highly, and played an exciting brand of basketball. I don't feel that Herb is the sole reason for this long period of mediocrity. I think it has a lot more to do with the economics of the NBA. I just blame Herb for letting Don Nelson go, he should have been named coach-for-life. Right now we are caught in that trap of swapping bad contracts for bad contracts, hoping to get lucky and a find a mix that works. We have been unfortunate in that it seems that when we seem to get a higher draft pick, it seems to be during a weaker draft. I think that the era of the big 3 was destined to come to an end at that point. I doubt that the selfishness of Big Dog and Cassell would have been able to co-exist much longer. Ray Allen was traded by George to spite Herb. I think that Ray would have re-signed to play here, and then have been dealt at a later time. Hopefully it would have been for a lot better return than what we got (We essentually traded Ray Allen, Flip Murray, Nick Collison, and I think someone else for Desmond Mason). For this organization to return to glory of the first 20 years it will need more capital to work with and it will need to get the draft right more often. I am not sure what to think of the current team. It has depth but I don't think it will be a good rebounding team. It also seems that we can either put a team on the floor that defends, or one that can shoot, but not one that can do both. We are probably an 8th seed at best. I like Scott Skiles, I wish we would build a team for him instead of what we seem to be doing, which is assembling players and telling him to make the best of things.

I am worried that Prince is inadvertantly holding us hostage. While we wait to see if the market for Prince comes back to us, we are budgetarily prevented from serious negotations with other free agents.

I agree with a previous post. Kotsay was a good role player for us. Roenicke was the problem by asking Kotsay to things he can't do any more.

I believe in 1982 Uke went down to the locker room to do post game interviews during the 9th inning of game 5 of the LCS. I will miss Cory. I thought that he had grown into a top flight play by play man. He did a good job of painting word pictures. He described the weather, the light level, the team's jerseys, the defensive alignment, and other things that Uke would neglect to talk about.

I remember Uecker working TV on WTMJ with Ray Scott in the 70s. It seems to me that the current arrangement with the two pbp guys was in place before Merle Harmon left. Years ago I read the book 9 innings ago and I seem to remember reading in the book that Uke did little to help his partners during broadcasts much the same way Merle did little to help Uke during their time together. It has been a long time since I read that book so if I am wrong I hope that someone corrects me.

I am OK with Zach as an innings eater. We always seem to need those. If we move Hart to 1b he becomes a relatively unproductive player for his position. I am not for that move.

My worry about re-signing Prince is that we may become the Rangers of about 10 years ago, with Arod. We may not be able to get enough pitching, or get the shortstop necessary to win big. If we re-signed Prince I think that Corey and/or Rickie would have to be moved in order to balance out our roster.

It was great watching my team being discussed in the national media as one of the best in baseball. This season I will remember like 1982

I think that one of our long-term contract guys gets moved. Either Weeks or Hart. Prince, Krod, and Counsell are gone. I think we will re-sign either Saito or Hawkins. We may re-sign Kotsay. I hope Yuni is gone. Nyjer could get moved, he will never have this much value again. Casey could get moved. If Geinke or Marcum appear headed to free agency they could get moved. Marcum may get traded just because the fans may not let him return. Kind of like when the Phillies traded Mitch Williams.

This season was a fun ride to be on, until now. My impression is that this is about all that we can be. We may be like the 2001 Bucks in that sense. We need to become more defensive minded and be more disciplined offensively. We need to make some changes, the trick is making the right ones. The 2001 Bucks could not do that.

We should have gone to Narvy. He needs to get ready to start game 6. RR is managing this game too much like a regular season game. Lets hope he learns by game 3.

Unless Casey can pitch, I don't think a hot hitting version of him would have made a big difference.

I suspect that we will Casey at 3rd and JHJ in center tonight. I would like to see Carlos in center because of the amount of ground you have to cover in AZ.