Menace II Sobriety

Fair enough I mis-worded my point. Macha stated the two biggest disconnects were Braun and Fielder. My interpretation was that they shut him out, whether he made an effort immediately or not, most everyone else came around other than Luis Cruz. I believe the exact quote was "Braun is going to do what Braun is going to do." They don't have to hang out or even get along but that quote leads me to believe there is more to the story, and he has his own agenda. Edit: I am not saying he sabotaged Macha, I am just saying that maybe Macha isn't the only one that deserves blame. Where is Braun honestly rated as an offensive player across both leagues? Would it be worth trading him for a similar rated pitcher? My opinion is yes.

Maybe they talk about trading their top players and maybe they don't, but both of those teams do something that the Brewers don't and that is win. You find it insulting that the team would consider trading Braun, I find it insulting that the team only sniffed the playoffs once in the last 5 years with all of these players and regressed the last two. I have mentioned to a few of my friends for the last few months that I felt this could be the off-season the crew traded or started talks about trading Braun. Personally I feel he may be starting to wear out his welcome. It was reported that he was the one that shut out Macha, also with those statements he made about getting more pitching 2 seasons ago. I know these are only 2 examples but in a small market like ours, these stories never make it into the paper. The fact that they did leads me to believe that many stories of a similar nature have been held back over the past few years. My point is that if the Brewers can make a trade and get a TOP P in return for Braun with a similar contract, it is worth exploring. What they are doing isn't working. What happens if DM can get a Lars Anderson type back with that top pitcher. All of a sudden you have a 1B ready to step in. I realize that all Sawx prospects are overrated in the national media, but he is close to ready and Boston is the team in this discussion. I do not necessarily want to trade Braun but he has had chronic injuries the last 2 seasons that he happened to talk about constantly without ever mentioning them. Also we already know that the trade market for Prince was down during the trade deadline by reports stating Melvin was shocked how few people were calling about him. I realize this opinions are on the wrong side of the fence for a lot of people, but that doesn't mean the team couldn't be better without Braun than with in the correct scenario.

I think it can be argued that the Hawkins signing was much worse than the Riske signing. Hawkins was overkill with a good bullpen with plenty of young talent coming up in the near future. Hawkins was supposed to be the 7th/8th inning guy but many assumed other players would assume that role. To me the Hawkins signing was more about a few extra million to spend and a guy willing to come to Milwaukee. With Riske he was lights out before he signed. I would like to see how at the time before the recession when older players were still getting huge paydays anyone knew it was a bad signing. 2001 CLE 26 0 2 0 1 0 3 0 0 27.1 20 7 6 3 18 29 1.98 1.39 .206 2002 CLE 51 0 2 2 1 0 5 0 0 51.1 49 32 30 8 35 65 5.26 1.64 .257 2003 CLE 68 0 2 2 8 5 17 0 0 74.2 52 21 19 9 20 82 2.29 0.96 .196 2004 CLE 72 0 7 3 5 7 9 0 0 77.1 69 32 32 11 41 78 3.72 1.42 .240 2005 CLE 58 0 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 72.2 55 28 25 11 15 48 3.10 0.96 .208 2006 BOS 8 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 9.2 8 4 4 2 3 5 3.72 1.14 .222 2006 CWS 33 0 1 1 0 1 2 0 0 34.1 32 16 15 4 14 23 3.93 1.34 .246 2007 KC 65 0 1 4 4 4 16 0 0 69.2 61 19 19 8 27 52 2.45 1.26 .240 He put up great numbers in the AL, and signed on to a team that we thought was going to be a contender for years to come. At the time he could have been the piece to the puzzle that pushed this bad bullpen forward. I agree that paying Bobby V the money is worth it if management deems fit. 1 or 1.5 million extra a year will not stop this team from signing a single player in the near or long term future of this team. Mark A. wants us the fans to forget about the last 2 years this team has put up and focus on the future. Over the tenure of his ownership it would be a small investment to keep the fans from losing faith.

I don't have to worry about this because my wife is still a virgin. There are some people that are out to make a quick buck but if that were the case they wouldn't offer to help out at all. They would string you along and avoid the situation as long as possible, not tell you they will help remedy the situation on the first contact. Also to say that they knowingly sold the car with a defect would also mean that they knowingly bought the car with a defect. The dealers are going to have the car looked over by one of their people before they buy it at auction or in a trade. If a defect was noticed 99% of the time it would not be bought. It is not like these cars sit around while they debate how to avoid making necessary repairs and still sell the car. The car gets bought, it goes in for a quick check and it is for sale the next day at the latest. This is like getting a flat tire, sometimes it just happens, especially on older cars. That is why warranties are in place. If a company sells a product and it is faulty, and at first notification of the default offered to remedy the situation there is no way they should be considered working in unethical business practices.

I just wanted to add the according to the latest Elais updates on mlbtraderumors that Weeks is now a Type A free agent. He is third from the bottom for his ranking group but he made the cut.

You could be correct, I thought that they used injuries in a formula to get an estimate but not a straight prorated #. My thought was that even if he produced the same #'s as '09 without missing 3/4's of the season that would give him the needed bump. http://tigers-thoughts.bl...09/02/elias-updates.html (edit: replaced initially posted link with permalink and offset quoted material --1992)

I got rid of cable about 8 months ago when my bill jumped to $170 a month. Hulu is nice but sometimes I don't have the patience to wait the delay that they have. Burn Notice and other shows are delayed 8 days from original viewing. With a mix of Hulu and torrents you will never need cable again. It only sucks if you don't have it hooked up to TV and you have company looking to watch something immediately.

According to this http://www.mlbtraderumors...ias-rankings-update.html Weeks is only .5 point away from being a type A free agent. Seeing as how he was injured most of last year, I would assume as long as he is mostly healthy next year with slightly above average production he will be a type A.

Jeffress will be in the AFL this year. People need to remember that his innings pitched number does not tell the whole story. Between the 2 suspensions he was continuing to work on his development down at the spring training center working with the rehabbing players.

Would you care to add more to the conversation? So he threw an elbow earlier in the week. Here is Prince charging the Dodgers loccker room. Within 5 more minutes of looking I am sure I could find something that he did in the preceding week of this event to tick of a team. At the end of the day the Marlins took not one but two opportunities to possibly end his career. "Anyway he got clocked with a huge clothesline after a rather futile, weak punch to Volstad's face so it didn't seem to be the smartest response." If by clocked you mean blindsided with a cheapshot you are correct. Watch the video the entire team piled on him and basically gouged out his eyes.

So if this happened to Prince instead of Morgan would people feel the same way? He laid out the catcher on a play where he probably didn't think the ball was coming home. You can say he should have slid, but by the time the ball was in his vision he was maybe 3 steps from home plate and laid the boom instead. If Prince was thrown at intentionally twice in one game and he charged the mound. I doubt many people on this board would have a problem with it. Also I realize he stole 2 bases after he was hit the first time, but if you don't want a guy to steal hold him on base. Teams come back from large deficits all of the time. Whatever the reason if this happened twice to a Brewer in the same game many would be applauding him charging the mound as it doesn't seem as the pitchers retaliate enough. If anyone got in a cheap shot it was the first player of the Marlin's bench that close lined him and the catcher throwing punches as he was getting mobbed. EDIT: To clarify my point, Morgan has wheels. I don't think he had time during that play to think " I am safe if I slide, or could be out but have a chance to steamroll this guy, so let's separate this guys shoulder."

You can get them made at Splat DPI they are located down by the casino. I interviewed there years ago and the owner told me that they make those large heads for the games. http://splatdpi.com/index.php

But you cannot make a play on a ball you do not reach. I think HiAndTight's point was that he would rather have a 3B with range and take his chances on a few errant throws than a 3B that literally cannot field a ball unless it is hit directly at him. You will have a good fielding percentage if you can't touch most of the balls hit at you.

Any money that the Brewers can offer Cliff Lee he can get from another club that he would rather play for. They are not going to outbid everybody for his services. Also he stated that he wants a no-trade clause in his contract because he has been shipped around so much in the last 2 years. I highly doubt he wants to sign a 5-6 year deal and commit almost the rest of his career to play in Milwaukee, maybe if the Crew could add a clause where he can demand a trade he would be interested. The Brewers are looking at less pre-sold tickets going into next year than this year, so it would make sense to have a smaller operating budget. They can leave room to add salary at the trade deadline, but what good businessman takes a 5 million (not factual just a guess) loss and than sets the budget the same the next year and hopes for a better year. I think they could afford a $20 MM player in the right circumstance. I do not think it is a good idea to add a salary like that just because they have bad contracts coming off the books and this one can't be worse. We have been waiting 2 years for these contracts to be gone, I am sure they have a plan in place.

I still don't get it. You want to overpay pitchers to come to Milwaukee but don't want to tack on extra years. So you say that the Crew only got Wolf because they payed the 3rd year at about the same salary he was offered for two years from other clubs. This means that you would rather pay Wolf 2/23 or 24MM than 3/27 to get him to come to Milwaukee. Sheets is a non-topic, there is no way he was coming back to Milwaukee and to pay him 10MM this year would have been a non-starter.

There is a risk when you sign any pitching. A guy with the ceiling of an all star that could blow out his arm for 1 year, $5-10 million is a much better option to seeing a guy signed for 3 or 4 years, 30-40 million that your risk/reward is he is either a solid #3 or he's throwing batting practice for 10 mil a year. Which signing was worse? Gagne or Suppan/Wolf? Personally, most of the time I talk about the Gagne move to somebody it's just a chuckle. "Yeah, that was a bad one." It wasn't a great risk but he was putting up all-star numbers before a public meltdown in Boston that nobody would have known about if it wasn't on the big stage. When you bring up Suppan, obviously, the person you're talking to gets red in the face and angry. As for Wolf, he's not on Suppan level yet, but he's getting there. (cleaned up code --1992) So it is your contention that you can sign an all-star caliber pitcher for 1 year at 5-10 MM, but you cannot get one at 3-4 years at 30-40 MM. I know what you are getting at but the logic is wrong. If a player has that great of an upside someone will outbid the Brewers to get them or they will chose to go to a more favorable location. I think it would be a fun survey to see how many MLB locations are less favorable to play in than Milwaukee. I love the city but come on if you are a 20 something year old MLB player your first chose would not be Milwaukee. I can think of 5 off of the top of my head. 1) Kansas City 2) Cleveland 3) Detroit 4) Cincinatti 5) Pittsburgh And these are all debatable. Milwaukee may be a great town for the older players with wives looking to finish their careers, but it is not Chicago, Denver or even St. Louis.

I see you are a fan of the Eric Gagne method where a player gets payed $10 MM a year to go golfing, This is also known as the Ben Sheets style to free agency. (pared back quoted material --1992)

It is actually not up to the distributor in this situation to sell Molson Ice. There is one distributor per location to sell a subset of beverages, within that subset they are only allowed to sell what beers are sold in that geographical location, much like a McDonald's and the monthly specials. A few examples from the early 90's are Big Sky Beer, Matilda Bay Wine, and Miller Red. I am very familiar with Miller products and all 3 of these were geographically focused sales initiatives that rolled out in several markets but were never available in every market. If Molson Ice were available from the distributor you would be able to find it in the big supermarkets as they carry most every brand.

You can't just trade a veteran on his last legs after 15 years of service for an A ball player. They has to be a certain level of professionalism in this game. They can ask if he wants to be traded or what he would like. You cannot just up and trade a player like Edmonds, he has earned some respect throughout the league and deserves a say in how he spends his last 2 months in professional ball.

The Red Sox also have the ability to carry double the payroll if they want. They can overpay slot value on any player that falls in the draft, get a ton of comp picks for players that were offered arbitration. Not to mention they can afford $50 million just to negotiate a contract with a player.

I had great work done at Allis car care on about 60th and Lincoln. I had to get something in my starter fixed, and they didn't even charge me. The guy that fixed it was a buddy of the owner who helps out from time to time to get out of the house. I have used them a few times and it has always been a good experience. If you check it out be careful because there is a Midas or Car X that also uses a name very close to this one a block down the road. The one that I am referring to had a handyman on the sign.

My feelings on trading Corey Hart have changed over the last day or two. I wanted the Brewers to trade him asap for whatever the best deal was, whether that be Minor,Sanchez, whomever. After reading a lot of Giants fans insight into how Hart is Rowand 2.0 and his numbers will regress at AT&T without them taking into account that any pitchers' numbers would also grow outside of that park, I had a change of heart. If the crew can't even get Sanchez in return for Hart, who they don't really want anyway, why trade him. If everyone is expecting a second half regression as was the case in his last all star year, the best thing could be to hold onto him until the offseason to prove this isn't a fluke. A new commitment to work ethic, finally deciding on contacts and other points can be made for this. If Hart has a moderate 2nd half coupled with his first half domination, this could be the rare case of a player being worth more for 1 year than 2 playoff runs.

Of course they are trying to protect their investment, why is this even a debate. This is by no means unethical, people put insurance on their houses, cars, and many other pieces of their lives that had a significant cash investment. That is all the Brewers are doing. It has already been stated that the team will continue to test him and he is continuing his rehab program. This just ensures that any possible slip-up is handled internally. The way some people view this issue you would think it was Ray Lewis or Mike Vick that team just added. A better question is why wouldn't he be on the 40 man instead of a guy that was earlier in the season like Vargas, Schoenweis, or any other person that could be picked up off the scrap heap. Even players like Hawkins and Zaun weren't really needed to signed with the depth in the farm system. I would bet if Jeffress was put on waivers at least 2/3's of the teams would like to acquire him. He has #1 type stuff that should be protected for a team with most of its legit pitching prospects in the lower minors.

Maybe the powers that be want to give Cain a few starts in CF over the course of a week to see how his bat would play if they were to trade Hart and than slide Cain over to RF.

When was the last time the Brewers had a first round pick that threw 100 mph with this much upside coming off of 3 drug suspensions? You could have made the same debate before the Brewers acquired Sabathia. Just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. Of course it is protecting an asset, but if they feel Jeffress is going to be a September call up and have the spot on the 40 man what is the difference between leaving it open for 60 days or putting him on it now. The spot was open, it's not like they released someone to make the addition.