pete

Except the 2nd part is because you've done the first part. I'd guess 3/4 of all teams would have a .470 record by taking out their hot stretches, maybe more, including a bunch of playoff teams.

For all we know, they could have asked Weeks to shag flies before the season for years. The whole story line of it being proposed mid season seems like a rationalization for the people who love the guy. Maybe I'm wrong, but so far the only thing that I've seen or heard are fans saying other fans say that he was a victim of sorts. Over the years, there were about a half dozen things he refused to do and I've forgotten most of them. I don't really care and the people who love him will love him regardless and those who don't, won't. At least last season Rock stopped with the "nobody work's harder than Rickie" which was usually accompanied by "Rickie knows he should have made that play." Time and time again he would say that, yet most aspects of his fielding never changed. He got better at routine grounders hit right at him. His turn at 2nd went from a wild whip of the ball that you don't really want to see in rookie ball to, I don't know - less scary? But it doesn't seem like much given the hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice and no, he was never "decent" as a prominent Brewers blogger claimed or average as is frequently stated.

It'd be interesting to take out the best 6th of a season for all teams and see what their records were. Its kind of the modus operandi of the Cards to be mediocre for long stretches. Have the Giants had a dominating season in a WS year? The powerhouses in the NL last season were the Nats and Dodgers. I wouldn't call it the same team either.

It sounds like you're talking about the water lines. If the company you're using doesn't use PEX, they'll say its difficult, expensive, unproven, whatever. If they have used it, they'll say its fantastic, saves money and has been used for X years (a really long time) in Europe and elsewhere. Wherever you are, I think I might use a search engine or a directory and look for someone who does PEX and say hey, I was thinking of upgrading the water lines from here to there, what's the cost on something like that?

Is there a written source that supports the idea that he was never asked to do any OF work till mid-season?

More reading Mariners blogs, I forgot that Billy Hall was traded there, so Z tries Hart, Hall and Weeks. Seems incomplete without Prince.

Karabell of ESPN and Phillies fan pointed out Brown had 49 career HRs and 11 of them came in a 15 game stretch. Maybe that should be discounted too because 3 of them came in a series versus Milwaukee. That was the series where he had a ball hit him in the glove and his elbow hit the wall and it flipped out and over for a HR. Which Brewer was that? So you're getting a corner OF who might hit double digit HRs without any other shiny stat like OBP? He's the classic looks like Tarzan hits like Jane. If Amaro doesn't move anybody before the season, I don't think its guaranteed that it gets ugly in the clubhouse, but it'll be combustible.

Yeah, Giants have signed some stinky contracts and if I were to say that near Bochy or Sabean they'd probably use their World Series rings to reflect sunlight into my eyes.

The Philly paper reported on Jungmann or Lopez as possibilities. I wonder if that was Melvin willing to give them up or Amaro asking for one as a 2nd piece in a trade. I just wish some of the milquetoast media would actually ask Melvin some tough questions and hey, go crazy, ask a follow up.

Reading a Mariners blog discussion of the signing, there's a lot of venom for Dustin Ackley, a former #2 pick in the draft and Baseball America #11 prospect. This could be Twilight Zone, Shakespeare or Disney.

They gave a boatload of money to Nelson Cruz. I'd guess he was the DH. I didn't follow the link but at MLBTR they talked about him playing OF corners.

I no doubt let my preference that they have nothing to do with him and belief that he'll be between about as good as the alternatives to bad influence what I think, but I've posted the various snippets as I find them. The latest from the Philly beat writer said they were "keen" on trading him. I think parts of the situation are pretty certain. The 2 sides want to trade and Amaro wants more than Melvin is willing to pay. Other teams want to trade for other Phillies players and the stories that come out of those efforts are always the same: Amaro is asking really high prices. If you ask me the deal has disaster written all over it. If they pay something like 14 million for 2 years and it will almost certainly be 2 years and they give up 2 guys with a really good shot of being major league regulars, how bad would he have to be before you think Melvin should just write off that money and the players and go with others? Seriously, he was incredibly lucky last season. He's having to do it with declining skills. What he does isn't super mystical and magical. If his WHIP degrades to about 1.4 and he blows 4 out of 10 saves early in the season and maybe a couple of them are real kicks in the jimmy johns, what should Melvin do? You know what he'll do, he'll say what he said before because he really doesn't have a choice at that point. Maybe if they have the hologram tech worked out they can make one of him saying stay the course like with Gagne or whoever. What was the name of the Reds back up catcher who walked off early in the Gagne season? If the closer is Perez, Henderson, Broxton, Smith, Thornburg, Hall, Hellweg, whoever and they don't do well, they're coming out and either moving down the pecking order, going on the DL real or phony or being DFAd.

There's not a lot at the MLB At the Ballpark app webpage that seems all that enticing to me. Are the special offers generally a buck or 2 off of a drink or food item? Are there ever seat upgrades?

There's definitely a lot of potential there. I think they needed Shields and I'd still expect them to hope Wisler or whoever does well if needed or they trade for another pitcher eventually. Cashner is a talent but seems to be a guaranteed DL stint or two and I have a hard time believing in Kennedy. Maybe I'm wrong. When I was ranting about prospect evaluators, I was looking at 2nd base prospects and Spangenberg looked pretty good. Maybe move Gyorko back to 3rd? They also have Solarte who isn't bad. If the old cliche about defense up the middle being important is true, they seem weak at C, SS and CF and 2B defensively if Gyorko stays there. I'm more worried about the Pirates than the other teams in the division.

The thing is there isn't consistency in age versus competition level or whether they reached AA or AAA.

Maybe Amaro is bluffing, but he's talked about teams having injuries during ST and the early season as a reason to wait and that he would go till the trade deadline if he has to. Amaro hasn't folded on any other trades as far as I know. I'd guess that if the Brewers aren't willing to give him Harrison, Coulter or Arcia, he wants 2 or 3 prospects like Jungmann. How do you think that sorts out?

Beyond the myriad factors that could influence the staff ERAs, how about just changes in personnel? Were there any? Whatever value you assign to pitch framing, one guy is bad and the other good. If you don't personally believe its significant, there are other aspects of defense and one is good and the other bad. The only way to make an argument about their offensive ability is to use total slash lines and ignore playing time considerations. If Maldonado has similar numbers as a starter and better numbers as a substitute, I can't think of an argument for Navarro other than he's older.

I know its one of those well worn debates, but Maldonado did pretty well as a starter. I'm not going to go figure out the numbers but I believe he OPS'd in the mid 700s. If you take out Lucroy, that would probably be about 7th or 8th highest in baseball and he brings premium defense unlike guys like Gattis. They're already in a roster spot crunch.

They did say they wanted a veteran as a swingman or some such comment. I agree with the minor league invite only.

That's when it happens! But hey, to sidetrack for amusement purposes only I came across this comment at a Phillies blog discussing trading Papelbon: The Brewers have RHP Miguel Diaz, OF Monte Harrison, P Michael Reed, and C. Clint Coulter as prospects swap for Papy and Brown. These prospects would add more credibility to the Phils’ farm system. Phils ought to offer to pay only half of the vesting option to either team. Yes, that's right. Someone imagines that throwing Dom Brown in as a sweetener yields those prospects AND he didn't think the Phils should pay more that half of Papelbon's salary.

Put 'wrigleyville' and 'rats' in a search engine for some amusement. Made me think of Ozzie Guillen and his comments about "rats as big as pigs" at Wrigley.

Somewhere, maybe an MLB video, he talked about having trouble with bone spurs in his ankle and maybe something with mechanics as well during the middle of last season. I guess rest is the response to bone spurs because I think the surgery is pretty heavy duty. There's probably a good self medication joke possible here. Maybe health, challenge, Lee Tunnell tweaking and/or whatever he could do well.

Miscellaneous, unrelated thoughts: Callis in an interview after Seid's death commented on how Seid would call him and challenge his rankings. Khris Davis once referred to them as "politics." I wonder what he would say if he expanded on that. The season that Davis and Gennett were rookies, Fangraphs had an article measuring contributions by rookies and the Brewers were highest. Its skewed obviously by them playing so many rookies but it could be expanded. Over the offseason I was listening to an interview by Melvin while doing something and he made a comment that made me go "what" but I think it was that the Brewers had the 3rd most productive farm system and then he cited a time period. Of course the interviewer didn't follow up but if I heard right, it tells me that orgs track that along with other things that doesn't make it out to the public. WAR is the obvious measure to use but in my opinion its poisoned by the defensive component. There's not really an alternative in broad evaluations. Even a broad measure of accuracy likely wouldn't discern factors that skew individual systems. For instance the fever around the Cubs is torrid. If someone is doing a list and others have all rated not only the obvious choices, but included the Billy McKinneys and Duane Underwoods, you're going to start with the question of whether they should be left off rather than put on. It takes a little fortitude to rate someone like Schwarber lower because he's likely to be a pretty bad left fielder.

What's nice about the presentation of that list is that you can click the "LINK" and get either the player card or the team's top 10 where you can click on the player's link and get his "card." At the top of some is a drop down menu with scouting reports. Looking through the list: Dalton Pompey at 42 and the scouting report from last July sees him as a 4th OF? Cards' Reyes P in A ball at 55 seems to be purely projection Brandon Nimmo, OF, at 69, don't get it Amed Rosario, SS, at 78 in high A looks like if everything breaks right he still won't be Orlando Arcia Kyle Crick at 88? Lawdy It's interesting that they have Miguel Diaz as the Brewers #10 prospect. I don't know much about him. Jorge Lopez is a reliever because his 3rd pitch didn't look good yet the list has lots of 2 pitch pitchers who are rated based on the expectation that they will develop one. This was a remark about Coulter in the comments: He's not an aesthetically pleasing player, so it's tough to find ardent support from the pro scouting ranks.

I agree with Jackaillus that RR should give everybody in the starting 9 a day off every 10 days or so. Cycle in the bench guys. Don't play starters when they're injured. And don't grind your relievers down till they lose effectiveness.