bill hAll Star

Take a look at the MLB product on the field along with the farm system. And the old 'the prospects we traded didn't pan out anyway' line is one of those repeated lines I was referring to earlier. As this point has repeatedly been answered -- there was nothing limiting the Brewers to trading for stopgaps instead of identifying other young talent. TLB, you are probably the most knowledgeable guy on here, so I tread with caution. I wanted Melvin fired as soon as the ink dried on the Suppan contract. Another poster is also correct that they failed the "all in" by not going completely all in. That said, what is wrong with the argument of "none of those guys panned out"? Taking any involvement Melvin would have with drafting/developing out, he has won most of these trades handily. Given the crop of Braun/Fielder/Weeks/Hardy/Hart/Odorizzi/LaPorta/Lawrie/Cain/Escobar/Brantley/etc. etc. he has gotten full service out of the good ones and has traded away the lesser ones for better veteran players. As the earlier poster noted, Odorizzi would be nice to have and Cain/Brantley are 4th OFers. Escobar is good but we got Segura in that trading sequence. Hardy was sold low but it netted Gomez. Great organizations like the Cards focus on drafting and developing and always have an eye on younger players. So far, Melvin has not traded Fielder, Weeks, Braun, Hart, and now A-Ram (I'm sure several other vets in years that we were not in it). Assuming he traded Fielder for a pitching haul before 2011 or something or he was "patient" and didn't deal Lawrie (we probably still did lose that trade) where are we sitting right now? I'm thinking Melvin is in the same seat as Dayton Moore making a very iffy trade to save his job because the crop of prospects has netted minimal MLB success. What sort of moves should the team have made to have seen some 2008-2011 success AND be playing with plenty of cards in the deck today, assuming that the drafting/developing under Melvin were the same?

I always thought this quote from Bill Simmons (probably from some sports connection), was the saga of Braun (I am one that is skeptical that Braun and all of these guys use it). http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8904906/daring-ask-ped-question The only 3 positive tests for "high testosterone" that I know of not for NFL players are Melky, Colon, and (allegedly) Braun. Assuming that Braun is a user, I felt that this story was about him. IF you believe Simmons is well connected, then I think there's a chance this story refers to Braun.

I don't think the guys saying "we shouldn't believe everything he says" should be treated poorly either. I agree, you either have believed Braun all along or you are a skeptic and this supports it a bit. I think you just have to be careful what you say because all of the Lance Armstrong fans pointed to all of Lance's rebuttals to evidence and statements that guys like Greg LeMond came out and gave during the last decade plus. Normally where there is smoke, there is fire. So far his story mostly jives with this but we don't know if this is some unfortunate series of events for him or Braun is sitting in an office with this team of 10 legal reps putting together a huge storyboard to make sure this whole story comes together.

How much does a Miami to Milwaukee flight cost? Most of these guys were having Bosch or a trainer fly up to give them the stuff.

I'm the guy suggesting that he sandbags it a bit but I would never imagine seeing him playing bball or golf. If this was really the case (and it's just a wild theory I've thrown out and started to believe a bit), he's going to just be relaxing and hanging out with/rehabbing with the team.

I like Hart and think he has great work ethic. Just too much of a coincidence to ignore anymore.

That's not sarcasm. This is the third year in a row that an injury has occurred over Spring Training and he has been almost completely healthy otherwise. The injuries were freak or lingering before this one as well.

He had an oblique injury that never seemed to heal until April in 2011. He tweaked his knee walking on the sidewalk in 2012. Now he decides to wait until January to get surgery in 2013. The evidence is there.

He may very well have knee issues, but somebody needs to convince me that the guy doesn't sandbag injuries/surgeries to skip Spring Training.

Loe is not a good guess. The people that hated Yuni and Kotsay did it because it was obvious that their defensive metrics and most hitting statistics were horrible before the season. If you look at most stats like WAR, UZR, whatever you want to use, Kotsay and Yuni have checked out horribly the past few years and I think people would have much preferred a replacement level minor leaguer and also would have been fine if Kotsay wasn't placed in positions that if Roenicke looked at these numbers, would realize wouldn't work (CENTER FIELD). Those same people like Kameron Loe and dislike Ron Roenicke's use of him. Loe is an excellent situational pitcher with a manager that understands splits.

This is false.You're right. If we use him in the 7th to stop a rally in a 1 run game or he plays more closer games in the 8th, he's technically worth "more" than a closer.

The NFC has had, what, 10 different teams make the Super Bowl in the past decade? I realize the MLB has had an array of representatives, but it's way harder to climb up from the depths in baseball. And yeah, we've got teams like the Patriots, Steelers, Eagles that always seem to be in the mix every year. But the Yankees/Red Sox basically have the thing on lock every year to get into the playoffs. If they screw up, they buy their way back in. The Cubs are going to flip the switch soon because of their money. Miami is bad, Indy is bad. Ask me who I think is going to climb back up from the depths and I'll tell you that I have no idea (let's just assume Peyton Manning is done for his career or something, that is a bit of a bad example). In baseball, you tell me that the Cubs are bad and the Padres are bad, I'll put all my chips on the Cubs reviving things. The NFL has some great parity. At the time of the recent CBA, they really only had one focus at keeping it and to be honest I think they screwed that up: Banning Ted Thompson from the NFL.

Oh, I know that the 't' isn't silent in Spanish, I speak it, I'm just saying that he missed out on all the accents if you were trying to say it authentically. I guess it was just like he was trying to be real cool about saying it authentically but really was not doing it at all. I also know his ethnicity isn't Spanish and the whole Cuban thing is the reason for it, but whatever Hispanic/latino tone you want to use about it was missing.

The problem with "Betancore" is that, yes, the silent 't' at the end is correct, but he didn't add any of the other correct pronunciation that would be used in a Spanish context. That's what always kinda annoyed me about how BA said it.

So when Wisconsin football played South Dakota it was a "50/50" game? Where do I place my bet?

No offense, but yet another baseless percentage thrown out there. It's 50-50. Brewers will either win or lose. Baseless percentage? It's not as if Vegas is really good at predicting this things or anything.

I was down there visiting family in late March of 2002 and we phoned in and got tickets for the opener the day before the game. They were handing out plastic replica rings which I think is what got it anywhere near full capacity. I agree on the fanbase in cities like this. You have so many transplants and older people that aren't going to go to too many games. I never really blame these fanbases for their lack of support. I think you give them another 20-30 years and they'll start to have kids that grew up there that weren't completely influenced by their Yankee or Cub-loving parents.

Yeah, I'm normally all for principle. It was just 13-0 with every single good bat on the bench already for STL. Point taken, however. I've conjured up the bad luck as the Cards have the bases juiced.

http://www.newshat.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/solve-rickie-weeks-needs.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2011/02/07/gal_super-bowl_19.jpg

The only reason Dillard or such would be needed would be due to injury in which case they can be put on the roster anyway. Thanks, that makes a lot more sense. I figured there had to be some fallback rule for a team that had an injury-filled September.

Not that I think Dillard is worth much to the staff, but could some of those bottom feeder/depth guys have a "bruised big toe" or something starting on about August 26th and go on the 15-day DL so that we can bring them back up in September and still possibly use them for the playoff roster? Maybe I'm not understanding the rules correctly, but an injured guy is given an exception and allowed to be on the playoff roster, right?

I think McGwire should have been the one who approached the league and umps about the cheating.

http://gatewayredbirds.co...php?f=1&t=46600&start=10 What happened to the guy with all the statistical proof that said there was only one explanation and it was sign-stealing?

I'm late to the party here but cheering for the Pirates the whole series. I know it may be a challenge for 2 NL Central teams to make it and the Brewers be one of them with the division-heavy schedule down the stretch, but I'm still confident that the Crew can take the Pirates, and keeping the Braves close keeps us "Cards getting hot against everybody but the Brewers" safe.