pete

You're also swapping out Presley, a ton of at bats by the LH OF I can't remember his name and the rule V guy I can't remember his name (dang, I wish he had hit some). There are other things that didn't go well and there were a bunch of young guys getting their first regular playing time in the majors. I think they'll be surprisingly competitive. But don't get me wrong. I hope they trade about 8 players between now and the trade deadline and get a top 5 pick. I'm still really excited to see the team this season. Edit: and oh yeah, Thames! The potential for entertainment is big.

I don't give Braun a free pass. All I need to do is see the video of his press conference and I end up talking to the TV again. So foolish. And of course he took a cocktail that included testosterone as a stimulant. Part of the problem is he incredibly foolishly took on the head of a legal monopoly of billionaires. If he won his hearing and ducked his head and said nothing, they might not have gone after him with the political destruction machine. Instead he poked them in the eye. Nobody cares that MLB almost certainly engaged in illegal behavior to do it. Nobody cares that they unleashed the dirty tricks machine with anonymous leaks through management sources, many which have never been supported by later reporting. Nobody cares that guys like Buster Olney couldn't care less whether what they did is good journalism much less ethical. He actually giggled during some of his "reporting." Nobody cares that the Olympic testing labs are loaded with controversy for decades. Nobody cares that there are almost certainly healthy MLB players using prescriptions for ADHD drugs so they can use amphetamines as stimulants. What they care about is what they heard on talk radio. Yeah maybe Braun is iffy to some teams at this time. If the Giants, Dodgers, Nats, Red Sox and who knows who else are struggling offensively at the deadline, maybe they'll fall off their high horses.

I don't think that's a low price for a "buy low" candidate. He's a small guy, 5'10-5'11 who drags his arm through his delivery. He had two DL stints last season for his trapezius and extensor muscle soreness. When he was supposedly healthy, he was still getting hit hard. There's a pretty good chance his days of producing a 3 ERA are over and an unsurprising injury could make him a middle reliever or broadcaster. I don't know if Nelson produced the numbers he did in the minors with the location problems that plagued him last season or what Ponce's future is, but considering the team keeps Ponce and 2 other really nice prospects, I'd say the chance of them helping the team more than Gray ever would is pretty high. The team needs another starter like it could use another middle infielder. There are so many quality pitchers performing well in the system. Personally, I hope the long term plan is to avoid the big prospect trade and the expensive FA signing. I'm hard pressed to think of a premium pitcher on a FA contract that is desirable if you could take it over. Price? Verlander? How about Lester going forward? What's he going to be in 2 years. Strassburg? I could see an argument for Scherzer, but man that's a big number.

Has Shaw talked about his terrible 2nd half in any of the interviews? I know I heard an earlier one but can't recall.

Well, Manfred's behavior has disappointed me several times including having his mealy mouthed lawyer do the standard criminal dodge when asked about buying stolen property. I could add a lot more but it would veer into politics. Regarding WAR: the above conclusion that it certainly played a part in the Eaton trade is not supported by the premises. He had a high WAR and the price was high do not mean that they are joined. I'd say the chance that the Nationals use UZR or DRS as significant factors is pretty small. And I'd be shocked if they used a single number that baked in everything at all. Think of outside of baseball. Life is filled with issues and decisions that have massive amounts of data, are evaluated by experts - people with PHDs in statistics - and the debate is over sets of data and their interpretation. Over time the conclusions often change.

Maybe Bauer's season long average results were better than Peralta's, but man that guy can be painful to watch. If he were a Brewer, I'd probably end up yelling "throw strikes" at the tv. The SO would say "maybe you shouldn't watch if you get so upset." Then I point at her and tell her to get the clubhouse on the phone.

Stearns is more opaque than Melvin was, but my sense is that they are supercharging the farm so they don't have to buy expensive FAs. Goodness knows there is a lot of data analysis going on. Are they innovating? Pretty hard to judge. Thinking back on Melvin. I remember him remarking when fans wanted to ditch Hardy because his defense was bad according to zone ratings that they had there own proprietary defensive metrics. That's a while back and it no doubt evolved over time. I also remember when there was a game that had a pregame show feature on the biometric analysis of pitchers. I'm not sure what its called where they use the dots on joints and use a computer to measure movements. IIRC Dr James Andrews and the pitching coach who had a mechanics rep (he used to touch the pitcher's shoulder all the time) took part in the development and Yovani had excellent mechanics. I assume that all teams are somewhere between knee deep and neck deep into "statcast" and other measurements. Lots of people are crunching data and hopefully they're working hard to get good people in scouting and development. Those are hard to judge. Well, its all hard to judge. One thing I thought would be a benefit and they probably have something like it, is to show hitters a video with a tracer route of a pitcher's various pitches. I'm a toddler when it comes to computing, but in the past I've made and worked on some simple Filemaker databases and I know you could set it up so that you could show whatever the hitter wanted or the pitching coach wanted to show: first pitch 2 strike pitches, etc.

I love great defense. Every player and position is a balance. You want great defenders who hit well, so does every team and fan. I think the Cubs "best " defense was a result of their pitching. Zobrist has fall down range. Fowler is mediocre at best. Bryant and Zobrist in the OF are decent. Bryant played well at 3rd but nowhere near the best. I think I saw double digit plays by Rizzo where he misplayed a ball or didn't come off the base to corral a throw. If a Brewer had done that, there'd be torches and pitchforks. Russell won't make most throws deep in the hole, doesn't have great range to his left and makes a lot of inaccurate throws. Javy Baez is great, perhaps a future star or maybe just a premium utility guy. Heyward is great. Nothing can touch the Chicago hype machine though.

I used to go to Bucks games before there was a 3 point shot. I'm ahead of you.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if anyone is upset. No doubt there are a lot of deals that progress to a degree that nobody hears about. The flip side of the limited market is they were bad against LH pitching. Maybe Friedman can snag Martinez from Detroit or the Dozier deal gets done or they roll with what they have, but what if they get bounced early.again. The Kershaw clock is ticking too. Braun would be a great fit. SF would be pretty entertaining as well.

I assumed McCarthy was to lower the Dodgers payroll and offset some of Braun's contract. I think at the time they wanted to get rid of Puig and get some return for him and who knows what Stearns was thinking of doing. I hope to flip him. I don't follow LA that closely, but I think he was less of a head case and performed better so maybe they want to keep him now or trade him in a separate deal.

Regarding the thumb are you going off of comments soon after the procedure? When was the last time his thumb being a problem occurred in a story or interview? Back problems resolve. Its not unusual to have back issues that are chronic. I do. He had a surgical procedure on a disc. That's not all back problems. I recall a comment by him that the doctors told him it would take a full year following the procedure for the scar tissue to break up and to return to full health. That would mean that his performance last season was negatively affected by recovery which is now complete.

Its solid, but if the Twins want a lot, I could see the trade not happening. They aren't going to use the defensive side of the WAR formula and the hitting is solid to just all right prior to last season. Given his ability to hit LH, that's a nice fit and a smart trade for both sides, but not some great get for the Dodgers. I'd put Bellinger alone at no chance and if he's 1 of 2 or 3, fuhget about it. Who knows what the discussion is, but I noticed in the hometown paper, the Twins beat writer had a story where he went through prospective team's top prospects as if they were on the table. I think he might have even listed Alex Reyes. That's crazy talk.

I don't think the division is in such great shape. It would be interesting to do a thread where you look at things that could tick up or down on teams. I hope the Brewers are working and planning for one last big trade deadline sale, but I'm with Brew4U, let 'em play.

Well, Stearns controls the roster and CC, the playing time. Given those and general comments, they both seem to like him as a player. He is LH which seems to carry weight with DS. If he hit like he did at Miller last season, he'd have some value. Off the top of my head 3 possibilities for the weird splits A) an extreme outlier of randomness b) he sees the ball really well there C) loves the night life I'd like to see other guys get a shot to build value, forget the handedness.