kramnoj

No, he doesnt, he is a horrible hitter, currently he has an 80 wRC+, which is WORST in all MLB for qualifying SS http://www.fangraphs.com/...nth=0&season1=2011&ind=0 I think this is the kind of thing that can happen with hysteria. There is so much talk about how Yuni is the worst SS in baseball that it's just expected that he is going to be the WORST and it has to be CAPITALIZED to show how important this is. Of course, as pointed out, Betancourt isn't the worst in this category, at least not currently. Career UZR/150 as SS: Betancourt: -9.4 Hairston: 2.3 I think it's somewhat important to note that Hairston has only played in 145 games in his career at SS, and his total innings there equal about 114 games. He's a 35 year old whose career high games started at SS was last year with 53 games. I do think that he should be getting time at SS, but I don't think he should be expected to be decent defensively over a large number of games. As a point of comparison, Hairston has a -8/150 UZR at 3B in 767 innings played.

He's hot now, so all the awfulness of the first half apparently doesn't count? Who is making a genuine argument supporting this? Now he's hot, undoing some of that damage, but even with the hot streak, we're still looking at a guy who is sub-replacement level. What stat are you looking at this shows him to be below replacement level? B-ref and fangraphs have him at 0 or .1 There are others...the boxscores are out there if your memory has faded. There are also games where he has had nice defensive plays and his bat has contributed to wins.

Only on the planet that the sabermetric zealots live is Betancourt "about replacement level". It's not his bat that is replacement level. In fact, it's his bat that is bringing him up to replacement level.

I do think it's possible that Betancourt has changed his approach. He is playing for a contract for the first time in years. Maybe he realized that a SS with bad defensive skills isn't going to get a good job next year if he has an OPS around .600 and decided to listen to the advice Sveum was giving him.

It is a pointless discussion because all there is to defend him is a ridiculously small sample that in no way should be used to predict future performance. I have seen a couple of posts like this. The point seems to be that with the current hot streak, Yun's now season numbers are out of line with his career. ZiPs projected him to hit .266/.292/.392 with an OPS+ of 83. Yuni is now hitting .268/.286/.391. His OPS+ from yesterday was 80, I'm guessing it will bump up a point or 2 tomorrow. Nobody should expect him to hit as he has for the past month +, but there wasn't much reason to think that his batting struggles earlier in the season represented his true ability. His defense of course, is bad, but it's been about what was expected.

Then have Gomez pinch-run in the last inning of the season. Problem solved. Well, the question I responded to asked if a player can be in the playoffs if they can't be back by September. Given that the season ends in September, your scenario doesn't fit the question.

That's not quite right. Gallardo did pitch a game in September.

I think they are, but it would be unusual to appear in the playoffs without having game experience for a few months.

Princess Bride reference.

I think looking forward to the playoffs looks happy, excited and hopeful. And if other fans don't like it, that's no skin off my nose. Why should their reactions have any impact on us?

Melvin said that Alderson called him to make the deal. That doesn't mean that Melvin was walking along the street and a winning lottery ticket blew into his hand. I'm sure Melvin made the rounds, letting teams know that he was looking for bullpen help. Turns out that Melvin didn't spend all his budget before the season and had money left for a smart pickup.

I fervently hope that this season will have a majestic ending that will make the Morgan trade even more impressive than it is now, but I think Melvin trading 2 minor leaguers for Solomon Torres was great.

Hell, he said that getting KRod filled their greatest need. It's very frustrating. Since making that trade, the Brewers are 11 and 4. It is quite possible that shoring up the bullpen really was the most immediate need.

In order to be eligible for the postseason, you have to be on the 25-man roster as of 8/31 or on the DL. Since Weeks and Gomez should still be on the DL at that time, we really have 27 men who could be considered. As I said, part of it depends on when Weeks returns. I don't like to think that weeks "should" be on the DL until September, I think it's possible he will be back before then.

It's an interesting idea. One possible problem is that while your idea works in September and could work in the playoffs, it also has to work in August, for at least some period of time. Now, that may be doable. With Hairston being a Swiss Army Knife, there may not be as much of a need for both Counsell and Wilson on the bench. I haven't thought this fully through, but if Wilson were to be DFA'ed for Giambi, and then Weeks would hopefully be back before September, the Brewers face another decision. I suppose at that time, the Brewers could cut Kotsay loose, if needed.

Not a significant point, but I think Wilson would have to be cut if Weeks comes back before September (or Counsell, but I'm guessing the team would cut Wilson first).

yeah; but betancourt hasn't broken 90 since 2007 and sat in the 60's for two seasons before hitting 88 last year. He was only in the 60's once, in 2009.

Yes it's my fault for having those expectations, but can anyone honestly say they only expected 85 or 86 wins out of this team? Expected? Sure. Projections aren't near perfect, but the RLYW Diamond Mind projections had the Brewers at 83 Wins. I personally thought that might be short a few wins, but there wasn't any real reason to expect 95 Wins. I was hoping for 87-88 Wins and hoped that would be enough for a playoff spot. You want to know what my position is? If you are going to start a thread, then yes, your position should be clear. People are going back 24 years to find a team with comparable pitching and road rankings that won the Series. I"m curious, what do you find to be an acceptable timeframe, and how can you justify that limitation? It's very easy for me to see them fall off significantly over the next few years as key members of the team leave and we have nobody to replace them with other than free agents. Do you think you are on an island with the belief that they will fall off significantly? I'm going to guess that the vast majority of people expect the Brewers to fall off with Fielder gone. And I'm going to guess that many would expect more of a drop off if Marcum and Greinke leave. For all those people who are against this all, if you were offered Julio Teheran for Greinke right now, would you accept it? I wouldn't. This team has a decent shot at making the playoffs, and they have a shot at the World Series. By the time Teheran is ready to be a major contributor on a World Series team, I don't think I could say with confidence who his teammates would be, except for Braun and probably Lucroy. Is it possible for them to win the World Series? Of course it is. It's possible that Pittsburgh will win the World Series. I don't think it's possible for the Pirates to win the world series this year. Do you really think the Brewers shot at winning the World series is closer to Pittsburgh, than say Atlanta?

I'm not saying a team like the Brewers CAN'T win the World Series, I'm saying that it's not very likely to happen. At this point, I'm wondering if you actually know what your position is. In your first post in this thread you wrote "I am convinced that even if they sneak into the playoffs they'll be a one a done because they can't win on the road. " ******** I never said winning the lottery, I said significant money, which to me is >=$100 on a $1 investment, then again maybe you don't play the lottery and didn't realize there were different payouts. I'm going to guess this is a response to me. I didn't write "winning". I said "two mid 80s teams wining the World Series in the past quarter century is much better odds than some silly comparison to the lottery. Talk about way off the mark." but to point to the Twins as proof it's possible is playing pretend as far as I'm concerned, Miller Park doesn't give the Brewers a Metrodome type advantage. Yet, somehow, the Brewers currently have a winning percentage at home that is better than what the 87 Twins had. It's unlikely that they will continue that pace, but that is where the team currently is.

Yes, we can both agree that Melvin is too conservative. Melvin has admitted that he can be too conservative. But I think it's helpful to understand Melvin's frame of mind. Melvin will eventually sit Casey and bring up either Green or Gamel if Casey continues this level of play. While some believe that Melvin can't admit his mistakes, there is plenty of history to show that he will eventually improve a position if he has the resources to do so, and it makes sense. It may happen too late this time, and if it does, there is a decent chance that it will cost Melvin his job.

Yes, we can both agree that Melvin is too conservative. Melvin has admitted that he can be too conservative. But I think it's helpful to understand Melvin's frame of mind. Melvin will eventually sit Casey and bring up either Green or Gamel if Casey continues this level of play. While some believe that Melvin can't admit his mistakes, there is plenty of history to show that he will eventually improve a position if he has the resources to do so, and it makes sense. It may happen too late this time, and if it does, there is a decent chance that it will cost Melvin his job.

Yes, we can both agree that Melvin is too conservative. Melvin has admitted that he can be too conservative. But I think it's helpful to understand Melvin's frame of mind. Melvin will eventually sit Casey and bring up either Green or Gamel if Casey continues this level of play. While some believe that Melvin can't admit his mistakes, there is plenty of history to show that he will eventually improve a position if he has the resources to do so, and it makes sense. It may happen too late this time, and if it does, there is a decent chance that it will cost Melvin his job.

Yes, we can both agree that Melvin is too conservative. Melvin has admitted that he can be too conservative. But I think it's helpful to understand Melvin's frame of mind. Melvin will eventually sit Casey and bring up either Green or Gamel if Casey continues this level of play. While some believe that Melvin can't admit his mistakes, there is plenty of history to show that he will eventually improve a position if he has the resources to do so, and it makes sense. It may happen too late this time, and if it does, there is a decent chance that it will cost Melvin his job.

Yes, we can both agree that Melvin is too conservative. Melvin has admitted that he can be too conservative. But I think it's helpful to understand Melvin's frame of mind. Melvin will eventually sit Casey and bring up either Green or Gamel if Casey continues this level of play. While some believe that Melvin can't admit his mistakes, there is plenty of history to show that he will eventually improve a position if he has the resources to do so, and it makes sense. It may happen too late this time, and if it does, there is a decent chance that it will cost Melvin his job.

Yes, we can both agree that Melvin is too conservative. Melvin has admitted that he can be too conservative. But I think it's helpful to understand Melvin's frame of mind. Melvin will eventually sit Casey and bring up either Green or Gamel if Casey continues this level of play. While some believe that Melvin can't admit his mistakes, there is plenty of history to show that he will eventually improve a position if he has the resources to do so, and it makes sense. It may happen too late this time, and if it does, there is a decent chance that it will cost Melvin his job.