nate82

As long as the Instant Replay isn't implemented like the NFL's I will be OK with it. I would prefer something like what they have in college football over anything else. Having it decide fair/foul or home run or not a home run will be fine by me. You still have the human element in the calling of strikes and everything else. This will just help the umpires out a lot with making these judgmental calls that they may not even had seen.

Gamel wouldn't get enough AB's to justify bringing him up. I would rather have him in AA where he is playing everyday. Same goes with Escobar he belongs in AA right now. If Hardy goes onto the DL Crabbe probably gets the call up especially if Hardy has to be on the DL for a longer than expected time and if Weeks needs more time or needs some time in the minors to rehab a bit it would make sense to have Crabbe up to be a back up for SS or 2B.

Anyone got any more information on Hardy? Looks like he was grabbing his left shoulder after a play in the bottom of the 5th. (Note: as it makes sense to have this discussion here, the thread title has been changed to be more general than just addressing one game --1992)

They sent him down just last week I believe. He was batting poorly I believe and there was no spot for him to play everyday also. Since Pujols was at first and the outfield is a big log jam right now.

Pujols to miss 3 weeks St. Louis Post-Dispatch says that Pujols is going to miss 3 weeks. Pujols has been placed on the DL and Chris Duncan has been recalled from AAA.

He is just one of the greats I wouldn't put him up there with Molitor or Gwynn but he was a good to great hitter. He did get 3,000 hits which isn't an easy task to do. The 90's were definitely probably one of the best era's for hitters in a long time. I'm not talking about the quality of the hitters but the quantity of how many good to great hitters there were in the 90's there were so many in the 90's it is hard to pick out who exactly was the best hitter in the 90's. You have Puckett, Yount, Molitor, Gwynn, Thomas, Griffey, Bonds, Brett, and the list goes on and on and on in the 90's. That decade will have a lot of players who deserve to be in the Hall of Fame but won't get there because of the steroid era allegations. Players like Griffey and Thomas though shouldn't even be a second thought if they should or shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. There is only one answer and it is they should be in it.

FRYS

Frank Thomas is not only a slugger but he was also able to hit for average. In Frank Thomas's prime he only had one year where he struck out more than 100 times. You have to consider Frank Thomas as one of the legends in the 90's along with McGwire, Henderson, Yount, Molitor, Brett, and Griffey along the lines for hitting. Thomas was one of the best hitters in the 90's giving you 30+ HR's a year 100 RBI's and a .340 average. Thomas was not just another power hitter he was at about the same level as Molitor, Yount, and Gwynn were for hitting.

Pujols is likely to be put on the DL with this injury. St. Louis Post-Dispatch article. St. Louis Cardinals homepage

Rickie would have been out of a starting job if Graffanino didn't get hurt last year the way he was playing when Rickie was sent down to the minors (which should have been earlier in the year it was obvious that his wrist was bothering him).

Mota is better than what we gave away to the Mets for him and the same can be said about Torres. Torres is probably the best acquisition this off season for Melvin. We gambled and got the 2004 and 2005 version of Torres.

Hernan can play more spots than Nelson can that is why he was called up. Right now it is only Kapler who can play all of the OF spots with Dillon being able to take a corner spot. Nelson would be a PH only compared to Hernan.

For Willis to come back and be at least productive in the majors he needs to change his mechanics. I was watching the Tigers game last night on ESPN. The announcers last night were talking about how he wasn't griping the ball correctly. I believe he needs to change his delivery to become effective once again as a starting pitcher. Maybe Willis will get the clue this time from him being sent down to A ball.

You have to take into account inflation and rising player salaries. So every year your 80 million budget will increase. Attanasio isn't an idiot and understands this. You have to put some of the money that you gain from the season into either the ball park or into the team. So far they have been doing both increasing the payroll and keeping Miller Park up to date. So far Attanasio has hinted at a higher payroll for the players. This goes along with Melvin's and the rest of the front office's plans. You can't expect to keep all the players cheaply. You can replace one or two players on your roster from your minor league team but you are going to have pay for most to stay competitive. Sheets can be resigned with the current payroll it just depends how much Mark is going to increase the budget. If we have a successful year expect a higher budget for the next 4 years. You have to put money into an investment to get something from it. Trust me not a single owner in the MLB will go bankrupt because of their teams. There are a lot of loop holes that MLB owners can use to make it look like they are losing money when in reality they are making a lot.

Is your argument that future contract years (ie Soup, Hall) are figured in & therefore static, yet Ben's contract coming off the books isn't static and is free money? A budget's a budget. You can talk about it however you want, but realistically the Brewers aren't going to see their budget increase by more than a few million next year (just my guess). Adding in that any deal with Sheets extends beyond one season, as do arbitration/pay increases, and you have to plan deeper than, 'Hey -- we've got the money next year!' No not at all. The Brewers have enough room in the budget to resign Sheets not just for next year but for the next 4 years and to be able to sign Weeks and Hart to a long term contract. You also figured out why any contract signed at all doesn't have any bearing on a new contract since you are already committed to paying that contract anyways. No one here is arguing they don't. In fact, people have repeated to you that it's not a question of "can", but instead "should". Your argument appears to be that, for 2009, they can afford Sheets's salary, so he should be signed for 4-ish seasons. I get that but I'm not arguing we should I'm saying we can. I actually believe we should resign Sheets if that happens or not that will be determined by Sheets his agent and the Brewers. They also can afford Sheets for the next 4 years and they can afford Hart and Weeks. If Weeks tanks after his final year of his contract there are other options like Iribarren and any other future draft pick who would be cheaper than Weeks. That also gives you some flexibility to sign Gallardo long term since by the time Gallardo will be coming out of arbitration Sheets will be nearing the last 2 years of his contract and Suppan will be off the books. I was also trying to do this really fast and put in some examples why the Brewers are able to keep the salaries they have and yet increase the budget for the next couple of years. Since the budget is going to increase in the next couple of years regardless if we resign Sheets or not. The increase in cost of Sheets to the Brewers is only about $5 million which is very affordable for the Brewers. Should they do this maybe and maybe not. It all depends on where the Brewers see themselves in the next couple of years. All I'm arguing about is that they can and the current contracts on the team have no bearing on whether Sheets is signed or not. It will be Sheets health considerations and any other options that may become available to the Brewers.

Actually you can. Because this has already been figured into the budget. Prince, Hart, Hardy, and Weeks salary increases have already been figured in. These increases are going to be paid with or without Sheets being resigned. These numbers are static it has no bearing what so ever on the resigning of Sheets. Now lets look at not just the cuts from Cameron and Gagne. We can look at the owner increasing payroll. What is included in that is Prince, Hardy, Hart, and Weeks salary increases. Now take that out and you are left with Gagne's and Cameron's salaries. Now subtract those two contracts from the current salary and you get the extra money that will be available to increase payroll. Every contract currently on the Brewers has been forecast to go along with any future salaries. Ben Sheets contract this year ends and that is $12 million worth that is coming off the books. Now the Brewers have $12 million from Sheets $10 million from Gagne and I'm not sure what the option is for Cameron. Now since all of the other players salaries have been figured into the next budget and it increases with what they will be making. You still have extra money coming off the books with those 3 players and that is enough to either resign 1 player and 1 type C free agent or just 1 type A free agent. The Brewers have room to resign Sheets or go after a type A free agent. It isn't as dire as some people make it out to be. The Brewers are not the Yankees or Red Sox but they are not poor either. The Brewers have a lot of room to resign Sheets and resign Hart and Weeks to a long term deal. Prince is not an option to sign long term. If you give Sheets a 4 year contract near the end of the contract Gallardo will be coming out of his final year of arbitration I believe. Suppan will also be off the books. I don't see why everyone is worried about the financials for the Brewers. The Brewers are fine financially and have the money to be able to resign Sheets. The Brewers and about every single team in MLB can support a team financially with a payroll around or above $100 million. There is no reason what so ever why any team in MLB can not support a $100 million team salary. If everyone only knew how much every owner in MLB can write off and depreciate the team and stadium for.

No they don't. Here is why. Sheets is making $12,125,000 this year. That is this year now if Sheets is to sign another contract an increase of $6 million would be needed to keep Sheets around. Now lets see who we are losing and then who we will be gaining. With Sheets resigning for lets say $60 million for 4 years for the Brewers. Now lets assume it is a straight line contract that is 15 million a year an increase in salary of 2.875 Million dollars that is how much the salary will increase from last year with Sheets resigning with the Brewers. Now lets take into account we do not renew Gagne's contract we are losing $10 million in salary. Now we are at -$7.125 salary from last years salary. This is including Suppan's and Hall's contract. This does not include Braun's contract currently. I have to get back to work so I'll explain this more later when I have more time to look up the current team salary with Braun's new contract included and if we don't take Cameron's option.

Suppan's, Gagne's, and Hall's contract have no bearing what so ever on the Brewers resigning Sheets. The money that they are costing the Brewers just doesn't automatically comes back and regrows on the money tree. If the Brewers are going to resign Sheets they are going to resign him. It has nothing to do with any of the contracts currently on the team. But if you really believe that these contracts actually mean something. This year Sheets is making $12,125,000. Now if Sheets is going to resign with the Brewers it will be at about 12.5 million to 15 million a year. Now if Sheets signs at the higher rate which would be about 15 million to 17 million dollars. The Brewers would only have to increase payroll by about 5 million on the high side. Again Suppan's, Gagne's, and Hall's contract and even Braun's contract does not have any bearing on if Sheets is going to be resigned or not.

XM has Baseball, NHL, and Indy I believe. The XM radio site is down so I can't confirm that. For Baseball I love XM and I have it in my car and I listen to one of the MLB channels. Both XM and Sirius has ESPN radio. Sirius has the NFL, NBA, Soccer, and NASCAR. My grandfather has Sirius in his car and they are about the same with quality. Prices are about the same also. It is also nice to be able to listen to most of the radio stations with none or limited commercials.

XM has Baseball, NHL, and Indy I believe. The XM radio site is down so I can't confirm that. For Baseball I love XM and I have it in my car and I listen to one of the MLB channels. Both XM and Sirius has ESPN radio. Sirius has the NFL, NBA, Soccer, and NASCAR. My grandfather has Sirius in his car and they are about the same with quality. Prices are about the same also. It is also nice to be able to listen to most of the radio stations with none or limited commercials.

No I'm not talking about Hall getting more walks than Hardy. Hall and Hardy walk about the same amount. Hardy is only walking 2.9% more that is about the same. Not much of a difference between the two. They both have about the same plate discipline. Not exactly the same but the key word here is about the same. Meaning they are very close in their plate discipline. It is a wash between Hall and Hardy when talking about their plate discipline.

This is not true. Hitting in front of the pitcher is not going to give you more walks. Actually I believe someone on here found out that the opposite is actually true.

Hardy SEASON TEAM G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS 2007 Mil 151 592 89 164 30 1 26 80 40 73 2 3 .277 .323 .463 .786 Hall SEASON TEAM G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS 2007 Mil 136 452 59 115 35 0 14 63 40 128 4 5 .254 .315 .425 .740 Last year was Hardy's best year as a Brewer. Now take that into account that this was one of Hall's worst year as a starter. Both walked 40 times each. OBP for both are almost the same. Now if you go back to 2004 for Hardy. You will see he has a line of .247/.327/.384/.711 which is what I believe is what Hardy will do for you almost every year. Now looking at Hall his 2007 numbers which were .254/.315/.425/.740 is what I believe Hall will you give you every year. Of course Hall is going to strike out more he is more of a power hitter than Hardy is. Take this for example since Hardy was injured in 2006 we can't really compare 2005 and 2006. So lets compare 2005 and 2007 for Hardy. Hardy walked less by (4) from 2005 to 2007 but he also strike out more an increase of 25 more strike outs but Hardy also hit more Home Runs and doubles. Increase in HR's by 17 and an increase in doubles by 8. Hall is actually increasing his walks from last year. I believe he is on pace to be about where he was walking in 2006 where he had 63 walks. Hall won't walk 60 times but 45-50 is possible by the end of the season. Hall does strike out a lot more than Hardy and Hardy does put the ball into play more but in terms of walking both are at about the same level.

Those are the great hitters who can do that. Hardy and Hall are not great hitters. They are both about equal in terms of seeing pitches and hitting them. Now check this out if you don't believe me Hall tracks the ball as well as Hardy does and is able to make adjustments. Look at his hitting zones. Pay close attention to his averages on the pitches away from Hall compared to Hardy. They are about the same with Hall hitting pitches better that are low and away and Hardy is hitting pitches better that are up and away. Both are having hard times against pitches that are being thrown inside on them. Hall is having a little bit better success than Hardy is with pitches on the inside. J.J. Hardy and Bill Hall hitting charts based on where the pitchers are located.

after a 9-1 home stand the Brewers head out to Colorado and Houston and then come back home to face the Twins and another long home stand. If the Brewers continue to play like this by the end of the following weekend will the Brewers be able to tie or be ahead of the Cardinals for 2nd in the division?