pete

Currently playing center field at the age of 20, he may grow beyond his current frame and actually fit just as well as a game-changing corner outfielder. He might be implying that he won't be a good fit in CF after he matures, but maybe not. That could also be read as he might bring corner OF offensive potential with the ability to play CF. I like his reviews, but the sense I get is he's generally bringing a positive spin to them.

Is he the player he was in St. Louis? I'd guess if he was, he'd still be in St. Louis and/or he wouldn't be available from Boston. He kind of faked it in the OF when he was healthy and I don't know if I'd call him injury prone, but he's had his fair share including getting a screw into his knee if I'm not mistaken and a huge, huge question mark in a recurring lisfranc injury. That is a potential career ender and even if its ok, I don't think it would be smart to having him sprinting around the OF or diving for balls at 3rd. I don't think anyone disagrees that if he was like he was during his shining couple years in St. Louis, he'd be a huge addition. But I don't think there's a lot of optimism about him. Did you read the article at Fangraphs on how bad he was against fastballs? Even if he ware good, I think it would be crazy to trade Davis.

You could be totally right Reilly, but his numbers slipped a bit in KC, there's a little bit of scariness in the way he plays defense, he's getting on in years and some of the ways he contributes don't jump off the stat sheet. I have no idea how much of a commodity he is - same with KRod.

Torts, I look at your avatar and my answer is "yes sir mr. torts." But i feel like I'm in a small minority that is pretty positive. There's a really solid rotation, six deep, with a good candidate going forward for 7 in Jungmann and a couple wild cards in AAA. Melvin won't be shopping for the next Randy Wolf or Braden Looper. The bullpen has 3 really strong candidates to start, a decent back end guy in Wooten and about a dozen maybes. I think they should have at least 2 lefties in the bullpen and I'd guess that the FO agrees by their recent acquisitions. Its a pretty complete lineup with some stars and a great BU catcher. The rest of the potential bench has guys who aren't popular in discussions like Rogers, Clark, Jimenez and Gomez but could become good backups or even every day regulars. The choices by management here could be huge. I've got my own complaints about RR, but honestly there aren't many guys I would prefer. I wish he would stop letting veterans tell him when they are going to play and would rotate in his bench guys so they wouldn't be asked to PH against some reliever they've never seen after eating sunflower seeds for a week while injured guys are taking the field. I wish he wouldn't use his relievers till they start to lose effectiveness. But Ron Washington... he's bad. Could some other guy be better, maybe. But the odds of finding him are long and one of the constants of baseball is that if a team isn't doing well, DA MANAGER IS A BUM! RR is a bum and the next manager will be too. The AAA team doesn't seem like its going to be scintillating, but AA should be fun to follow. The lower minors have a bunch of guys who could be awesome. its a terrible season if you're looking for 'respect" from predictors and writers. Repeat after me: "I don't care."

I've been doing a fair amount of Netflixing. One movie I really liked was Prisoners with Jackman and Gylenhaal. The description makes it look like a formula retread, but the acting and especially the writing are excellent. A non-fiction that I liked was Black Fish. Its not particularly cheery either, but has lots of "wow" moments. I've seen some good music on Netflix and its all been nuked with the exception of the Bob Marley special. Is that an old guy choice?

Well, I wouldn't call taking a toilet off, major plumbing. I guess its all relative. Don't get me wrong, I avoid plumbing repairs as its the one area of house stuff that I have the least experience and never seem to have the right tool. And there's also the dilemma if the solution is more complicated or difficult, then you have to call a plumber and the bill is crazy instead of just huge. We're lucky here as we have friends, one a plumber and one an electrician. If anyone knows a good HVAC person in the SE Wisconsin area, I'd love to get a recommendation. Horror stories too long to tell... But your partial success is a good thing. I'd guess hair. I've had success with a little hand snake. Hey, that reminds me. I don't think I'd use it on a toilet, but an absolutely great product are those flexible plastic strips with backwards facing teeth to stick down drains. Use that on your bathroom sink and tub before they slow down. Cost is 2 or 3 dollars. Trust me on this one.

We have Milwaukee water and its hard. Just like supercollector describes, the jets that are what causes the flushing action slowly get clogged. You can tell if your water is hard by the white residue that builds up anywhere water sits like inside a coffee maker. There isn't a vent dedicated to the toilet. So if you turn your bathroom sink on full and let in run, it would drain slowly if there was a vent problem, well unless something bizarre had happened and the short stretch between the toilet and the connection was clogged. It still isn't likely to be a vent problem, but that's one way to pretty much rule it out. It sounds like a partial obstruction. Do you have kids? Then there is a chance there's a toy or something plastic jammed somewhere. It could actually be in the toilet, but most likely you'll end up doing what whizkid describes. Its not hard, but working on plumbing is low on my list. I know if I do what whizkid describes, the old toilet isn't going back in. There are ones that are amazingly cheap and different ones that aren't too bad. Is this an old toilet?

It could be distortion, exaggeration or just false or just doesn't matter, but there's a guy who is sometimes on the Fangraphs fantasy podcast who lives in the area and follows the team pretty closely (that was my impression) and had a fairly long list of things Myers did that made him sound like a head case or prima donna. Sorry I can't remember his name.

Back at ya and thanks for everything. Its warm for Winter and wet here in 'wawkee

It'd be interesting to see a team heat map of swings outside the zone. It probably doesn't exist although I imagine someone sophisticated could create it. I think the section labeled "HC" or high cheese would be active. Its one thing for a batter to not recognize a slider, curve or change-up and swing, but hacking at eye high stuff... well, it seems as if Roenicke could very simply say "don't swing at those pitches."

Last season Brewers OBP -> .311, NL average -> .312, AL average .316. Also .311, the Giants. The WS runner up Royals -> .314. Pitt at .330 and StL at .320 though. Brewers were just below the mid-point in OBP but 10th in total bases. I wonder what a more detailed analysis might find. I wouldn't be surprised if as a team they chase more stuff outside the zone, especially high stuff. Its worth noting that the idea that bullpens are getting better and working counts to get to the bullpen is at least discussed as perhaps not as valuable as it once was.

I think some of the stuff people read as over compensating is just providing an excuse to do what he wants. The defense on 1st was bad, so we'll go with some old guys at 1st and shore that up. The offense at 1st was bad so we'll juice that up with a different old guy. Maybe my bias is feeding my imagination though. If Peterson can turn into something, its a triple win though: took him for nothing from the Flubs, is a former 2nd round pick of the Cards and part of a failed trade by look at the big brain on Brad Billy Beane.

I think saying "was a Red Sox prospect" is probably the key phrase. I just listened to the Hot Stove Show and Tim Allen was upset that Middlebrooks was traded for Hanigan. He thought DM should have flipped Maldonado for him and then signed David Ross. Then 3B would be solved. Sparky also thinks DM is good for about 3 trades including shipping out a starter and a couple position players. The primary reason was that with no moves ticket sales would be weak. If the ol lady was around I'd be half ranting at them and she'd say "maybe you shouldn't listen to it."

Pirates... I wasn't expecting that.

He was a high school kid out of Puerto Rico who wasn't a starter early in his career. His last full season in the minors he slashed a little over .800. He always had a decent walk rate as well.

Is the 10 million for Aramis? If you cruise around forums for other teams, they wonder why he gave away so much money and they hope the Brewers are sellers at the deadline. I don't recall any discussions where there are others arguing that he's washed up and done other than the occasional Cubs fan deriding the team as a whole. Are you sure he's going to be bad? If its because he had hamstring problems and is old, the Cards have FOUR players in their 30s, all critical, 2 of which missed significant time, Wainwright and Molina. Reds have Votto who hasn't been healthy in a few years. Are you assuming he's going to be bad going forward because of his knee? Is Phillips in permanent decline, Jay as well? Pirates' Burnett is 38 and was bad last season. What is Locke? What is Wacha? If you assume the negative about every team, then the Brewers win the division! Every bullpen is a question mark. That's a long topic that should probably have its own thread, but personally I'm so glad that Melvin isn't shopping for expensive relievers. What I don't get is why sell those players now? Prices at the deadline are typically much higher. Any money spent will result in at least some increase in revenue and there could be huge savings from getting back young players. And if your view of the team can't realistically contend, when will it be able to? If your answer is '17 or later, then it makes no sense to keep assets that are diminishing in value like Lucroy. The question becomes who do you keep. There really aren't more than a few players.

The distinction between the 2 categories isn't necessarily lesser or more. Additionally you can have variability with similar conditions and there are no doubt other factors, typically health. You're still left with a season where he had regular playing time and was pretty good offensively and the remaining seasons where he had lesser productivity with irregular playing time. That's expected with what's known about all players. You could also look at his minor league numbers and see whether he was a backup there.

Except that that is what happened and well, virtually every player hits better when it isn't odd and irregular at bats.

Has there been a recent season with so many big overhauls of rosters? Its certainly going to be an entertaining season for predictions. I don't have a strong sense of what the Padres or Dodgers will be. I'll bet the Giants still do something significant and they're kind of the Cardinals of the West. It doesn't matter how things look on paper, they're there like a pebble in your shoe. The Rockies are the team that looks lost and out of luck. It sounds as if their GM is asking for a big prospect haul as well as dumping the salaries of CarGo and Tulo. Good luck with that.

I'd be curious what polling data would reveal about how he is viewed. He seems quite unpopular with fans who participate in forums, but that's no doubt skewed. Personally, without getting into a scorecard of pluses and minuses, the guy bugs me and I dislike seeing that statue every time I go to a game. The guy was commissioner of baseball for a really long time so maybe in the future the historical value will rise.

Maybe the odd number is because it was a round number in Korean currency. Meanwhile at MLBTR, a few teams that seemed like a fit have been reported to not have bid like the Jays, Mets and Yanks. Its probably not the Brewers, but...

Overbay hit well for more seasons. There's a significant chance that both of their careers are over. Overbay never had a lisfranc fracture, much less a lost season to the same incredibly crucial joint when it was supposedly completely healed. It might be a different situation, but it might not.

Maldonado is like virtually all MLB players with the exceptions almost always being long time veterans: he's not going to produce the same with rare and infrequent at bats. If you want valid numbers, compare how well he hits as a regular player rather than mixing in a PH after 5 days eating sunflower seeds. When Lucroy was injured and he started all the time, I'm guessing his OPS was in the mid-700s. Add in being in the conversation of among the best defenders at the position and that is a highly desirable player. The problem is that Roenicke likes to have his starters play as much as possible or maybe its that he defers to the players. Lucroy idolizes Kendall, Gomez and Braun want to play when they're injured. Its interesting that Roenicke was on the A's with Maddon and Joe likes to mix up the lineup every game and in game as well.

Personally, I want the team to use the younger players they already have. But to answer your question, there are always more ways to spin stats. "HR power" has a hypnotic effect on GMs as well as fans and media. Its easy to dream about higher numbers than lately because of his knees - lost season plus typical down year after an injury. I'm kind of with Jerichoxyz... but I see a couple dingers.

Bring back Overbay then.