ESPNOwen

Aw hell, there was so many e-mails...it's all a blur...all I remember is teeth...and claws...and the alamo... But it's over now, but alas, the guy who hipped me to this site says he will no longer listen to our show...so, with the help of Babs Streisand, I will wish him farewell.

Thanks for welcoming me. I love message boards. Even one full of a bunch of "pencil protector" geeks. Ugh, I wish I had said that correctly. Again, I'm a tad spazzy. As for the Linebrink trade, the team may very well regret it, but it was one I think they had to make. Their bullpen was in shambles last summer. Doug Melvin has a really tough job as they have no payroll to speak of, so when folks take shots at him, I expect them to be fair. Fans are rarely fair.

Wow - I'm certainly not worth all of this. As one of our listeners said a while back, "Owen is a bonehead." He was right. Let me start here - I was wrong. Brewersfan.net is obviously a quality site. So forgive me if I stepped on any toes. Secondly, there is no question that the lot of you probably know more about the Brewers now than I ever will, so kudos to y'all. My co-host Mike, on the other hand, really knows his stuff on the Brewers, so if you're a Brewer fan, I think his opinions are worth listening to. Now, to explain my rant: We were getting a number of e-mails to our show critiquing the job Doug Melvin has done, e-mails with categorically wrong information. So I pointed this out...loudly...that they were wrong. What can I say; I'm kind of a spaz. For example, one guy said Calix Crabbe was part of the trade. Another listener complained about the "Kevin Mensch" trade. Umm, that one got the team Francisco Cordero, who, as I recall, was pretty good. One guy talked about the prospects given up for Linebrink as if there were gold. Mike Lucas of the Cap' Times has a great line, "Prospects are suspects." I agree with this thought. But I took exception when "Andy from Portgage" felt it necessary to say I hadn't done my homework; well, I had done my homework. He added. "Inman is in his first year ever in the majors and frankly, 4.17 as an era in the bullpen would be an improvement." Yes, a reliever who essentially gives up one run ever other outing would be an improvement...or not. Inman's single A stats do nothing for me, regardless of what Bill James has to say (BTW - I'm a fan of James as well as the Pro Football Prospectus cats). I like the Linebrink trade and would have given up those prospects for him, too. I could go into a longwinded explanation about all of this, but no one cares what I think about this trade. I hope you'll give our show a shot as at least half of the hosts have a clue. Owen