Ennder

Like 2007 and 2008? 3.95 and 3.91 ERA with good defensive teams behind him. FIPs of 4.58 and 4.23. xFIPs of 4.65 and 4.68. If you want to get technical his peripherals haven't been ace level since 2005, he just had a bit of luck in 2006 so his ERA stayed lower than it should have.

Vlad has terrible plate discipline and is a high AVG hitter.

Zambrano hasn't been an ace pitcher for quite some time now so I'd take decent #2 pitchers having shaky early season performances.

Show me a scientific study about weight loss and its effect on power in baseball, oh yeah you can't because you don't have one. I'm sure according to you linemen should drop 100 pounds in football and they could block better and fighters should drop weight because they would hit harder. Fielder needs to lose weight for his long term health, not because it caused short term production losses. If he stays this heavy he will have health issues at a young age and his career will go south prematurely. Fielders K rate and BB rate did not significantly change last year, his BABIP was acutally higher than the previous year. His fielding was statistically right in line with 2007 as well. The biggest difference between his 2007 and 2008 seasons was a large drop in ISO. So he gained weight and lost power but it didn't affect anything else is what you are saying and it only really hurt his ISO for the first 2 months and then magically it stopped bothering him? I'm the one being unscientific here? Yeah whatever. It isn't worth arguing because you've already made up your mind and I'm sure if Fielder goes out and hits 45 HRs we'll get a bunch of I told you so the weight loss helped him type statements even though it most likely was just fluctuations you see every single year in baseball. Weeks ISO dropped a lot too, did he put on a bunch weight last year and I missed it? Oh yeah btw, in 2007 Fielder had 12 just enough HRs and 11 no doubters. In 2008 he had 6 just enoughs and 11 no doubters. In 2007 he had 2 insanely hot streaks, in 2008 he really had none. Those are your scientific reasons for the HR drop most likely, just how baseball is and why players don't put up the same stats every single season.

Of course in many cases a loss in weight doesn't help a baseball player at all. http://www.rotoauthority..../01/follow-up-sprin.html The majority of players who lost weight going into last season actually lowered their production. The guys at BPro also haven't found any proof that weight loss actually helps and have noticed many times it hurts a player. In the short term you take a hit to your power which drops your OPS. It is much more important in the long term. I know it is easier to blame his weight or his diet for a dip in production but the fact is player stats jump all over the place every single year and most of the time it is just random hot and cold streaks and there isn't something to blame. Fielder should be expected to hit around 40 HRs a year probably and last year a slow start and no really big hot streak made him fall short, I really don't think the weight had anything to do with it. Its possible that it did but it is nowhere near a given.

So what you are saying is your statement that "Prince was too fat last year. He must have even thought so himself, because he worked all off-season to slim down." could be wrong? I'd love to see Fielder lower his weight to a more normal level but there is absolutely no proof at all that it hurt him last year and that was my point. I will agree that it most certainly could but people talking about it like it is fact are just trying to place blame with no proof to back it up. I would be much more willing to believe it if he had a fast start and wore down to finish the season instead of the other way around. To be honest I don't think he lost much more than 15 pounds this year, it is pretty hard to tell because his uniform is so baggy but while can notice he lost weight it isn't extreme at all.

This is a straw man argument. Do you honestly think that going from 280 to 290 is going to completely destroy a players production? The fact that he had a poor start and a strong finish suggests that the weight wasn't the issue, it is as simple as that. If the weight were the problem he'd either just suck all year or he'd have extra problems as the season went on and he wore out faster than he should. But no 2 of his 3 worst months were straight out of the gate while he was quite obviosuly pulling everything which has nothing to do with the weight. This is a case of a player having an off year and fans trying to assign blame based on absolutely no proof.

You don't have to record an out to have a fielders choice, you just have to try to get an out at another base and the scorer has to decide you would have been out had they gone for your base.

Fielder had a .998 OPS in the final month so no any comment about Fielders weight being the reason for his slow start were just foolishness. He quite obviously was trying to pull everything for a HR to start the season if you watched the games, he admits he was trying to hit 50 HR in april, everything about the rest of his season suggests he was having his biggest issues early but a few people still have to cling to the false idea that it was his weight or his meat preference that caused the issue for some reason. I'm sorry but Fielders weight is a huge straw hat at this time, it will cause him problems in the future but the biggest issue with his production last year was unrealistic expectations and him pressing early in the season.

The official scorer ruled he would have been out had they not tried to get the out at the plate and had just thrown to first thus it is a fielders choice.

It almost looked like he thought about going back to 3rd at first and then decided to go for home.

4 games, 22 runs now or 5.5 runs against a game. Certainly not great but also not anything I'm going to worry about considering 10 of the runs were opening day.

I hope so, that team is worse with Marmol locked into the 9th inning and Gregg getting the higher leverage secondary spots.

I'm liking Villaneuva here. I don't think an IBB is ever a slam dunk decision, especially when you are IBB a marginal hitter.

Yeah it was, if it were a little bit more to the right he would have had a single. It wasn't a smash or anything, but it was hit hard. If nothing else we got Marmol's pitch count up there a bit making his job tougher next inning. Still hope we plate some runs here.

This is why I wish Marmol were the closer, I'd rather face Gregg here than Marmol.

Well Lou went to a lefty so will we bring in a righty? I hate the move of leaving Counsell in to face a lefty. You burned the out with a bunt, you can't burn another out with a hopeless matchup. You have to be willing to blow that extra player now to get a good matchup. Yost would have left Counsell in probably for his 'grit'. Looks like Macha wants the grit too, too bad.

I almost wouldn't mind a bunt here since Kendall grounds into so many double plays. I say that as someone who normally hates bunts!

I really hate the high fastball call against a hitter with good discipline. Against Soriano sure but when you have a guy 2-2 you don't waste a pitch and make it 3-2 unless he is the type that goes out of the strike zone a lot. I still think Week's defense has improved the last couple years, I swear this is a 5-2 game with his defense of 3 years ago~.

It is also a team who has faced four guys in a row that strike out somewhere near 1 per IP. To be fair I can see the case for IBB for Hill. Either they hit Harden or he leaves the game, both good results. I would have pitched to hill as well though since he is a bad hitter.

Probably be the only HR he hits all year too.

Hart just swung at a ball that bounced in front of the plate, to give you an idea how he is doing with plate discipline.

His control hasn't been great, nice movement on his pitches though. He looks like a guy who didn't get to throw enough in spring training http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif.

Or you are freaking out over 3 starts one of which was a good start. I mean seriously every single team in baseball is probably going to have a worse 3 game series pitching wise than we had this week. It is very unlikely that it is the worst 3 game series we have pitching wise this season. We gave up all of 19 runs over a 3 run series and it was the first series of the year so I worry even less about it. Last year we tied for the 2nd best ERA in the NL and we gave up 18 runs in a series vs the Reds, 29 runs in a series vs the Cubs, 21 runs in a series vs the Astros, 23 runs in a series vs the Red Sox, 18 runs in a series vs the Astros, 18 runs i na series vs the Astros (they sure did hit us last year!), 19 runs in a series vs the Mets, 26 runs in a 4 game series vs the Phillies.

The injury http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif. I don't worry much about the April games so some sloppy play generally doesn't bug me that much. Better teams than the Brewers are playing poorly right now too~.