CheezWizHed

Wow... really low energy/motiviation level today. This job is sucking the life out of me...

Texas is KNOWN for their chili. Cinncinnati is "known" for their chili because they put spaghetti in it....

Mrs. Paul's?

WooHoo! First team to 50!

Do you really think that from what we know about Kemp, he'd be petty and clash with Braun? And based on Braun's statements, do you believe he would have a problem moving to 1st base? Clearly I do think there would be problems or I wouldn't have brought it up. Kemp called out Braun through the media. No, I don't think they would make good teammates. Especially this year.

Does anyone think Kemp and Braun on one team would be a good idea? Let alone, Kemp moving Braun to 1B?

To use an extreme example, if the value of the Brewers has gone up $100MM since Mark A bought the franchise, doesn't matter much is he loses $2MM on the balance sheet in any given year. Thats a pretty great way to run out of cash flow...Businesses do not run this way. Sure, they could get loans to run the daily operations based on the value of the business going up, but its also a good way to flush your profits down the interest drain.

After spending two weeks on a business trip in Europe, my boss calls me at 8:30AM on Saturday (got home 9PM Friday night) to ask me to fly to Detroit on Sunday for a week. Yeah, that didn't happen...

Skiing and shooting in the same event? I used to think the same thing, but I've come to really appreciate how difficult that really is to do. You race as hard as possible with your heart going a mile a minute. Then you need to stop, focus, and shoot at a target (which is made much harder with your heart racing). Way more interesting than just x-country skiing alone.

The Pirates also signed LHP Matt Ford, the Brewers' 2003 Rule 5 pick from Toronto, who last pitched professionally in 2008. he'll be attempting a comeback at age 33. Now that's an alumni blast from the past... Yeah, no kidding! But he is a LHP, so he'll be given chances for the next 6 years at least.

The Pirates also signed LHP Matt Ford, the Brewers' 2003 Rule 5 pick from Toronto, who last pitched professionally in 2008. he'll be attempting a comeback at age 33. Now that's an alumni blast from the past... Yeah, no kidding! But he is a LHP, so he'll be given chances for the next 6 years at least.

obviously without the ability to play the outfield [sarcasm]Wait... are we sure he can't play leftfield?[/sarcasm]

Way to make Mark Reynolds my new favorite Brewer. Rob Deer was an awesome guy to a 7 year old Warning Track Power... I second for a 12 YO CWH...

Back in 2008, I dropped Dish and when to over the air with a Tivo DVR. I'm out in the country, but can still pick up 5 main carriers (with 2-3 channels each). We also added Netflix streaming at that time. Netflix has a great selection of kids programming and PBS (OTA) normally has a pretty good selection, especially if you get 3 channels. Netflix also seems to have the best movie selection IMO. Just recently, I've been having Netflix throughput issues (topping out at 1-2 Mbps, which won't do HD and bottoming out at 0.3Mbps, which continually interrupts to buffer). I'm still seeing how they will debug and fix the issue. But my network will handl 10Mbps pretty consistently and other streaming works fine (Crackle, Hulu, YouTube). I had Amazon Prime for a while, but rarely used it. Similar to others, it counted it as a bonus to the 2-day shipping and Kindle features. The interface was really painful to use and find movies, too. I'm looking at Hulu Plus right now. They seem to specialize in TV programs over movies. I plan on starting a 7 day trial tonight due to my Netflix streaming issues. Crackle is free. Very limited selection and difficult to find shows. You basically have to browse through almost everything (filter by Genre and scroll). I do like my Tivo, but it was rather expensive. I think it was ~$300 to purchase and $300 for a lifetime subscription (which paid for itself 2 years ago). It will stream Netflix, Amazon and YouTube (and its 5 years old now). If I was considering it now, I'd browse around to see what else is available. But I've been very happy with it. The main items I miss are Packer games on ESPN, most Badger games are on the B10 or ESPN, and I see no Brewer games (save for the rare Fox game) anymore. But for the most part, I don't miss the dish. We try to limit TV watching for all of us (kids only get 30-60 minutes per day). And it was too much of a bad habit to flip through TV channels on the satellite to find something to watch.

Would prefer Schafer in center or Gindl in the corners over Golson by quite a bit. I think he was referring to players that probably will start in AAA. Assume Schafer and Gindl are the #4 and #5 OF in the bigs and then re-read the comment (also noting that K. Davis is Kentrail, not Khris).

Blast! Bucci was one of my darkhorse favorites for SP options.

5. One (or ideally more) young player in farm system really takes an upward turn. I debated between No. 5, which I believe is really important, and finding a 1B or having an internal option really step up at that position. Then wish for Hunter Morris to take an upward turn and you get both wishes (kind of like wishing for more wishes).

I think it means Olmsted was really bad last year and isn't worth a 40-man spot.

That is why people have voted for Yuni B. He represents that vote.

except Youk is 35 and on his way to Japan I never keep track of non-Brewers that closely anyway. 35 isn't a bother because it would be a 1 year reclaimation project anyway. Certainly nothing long term. But I guess its a moot point. ...the bad thing is that no matter how many platoon options & combinations get pulled from that blob, nothing more than blah comes out of it. Yeah, I wasn't saying the platoon would be great, but about the same "blah" as signing the FAs out there. I think the best option is to go out and get Ike Davis If we are able to get him at a low trade and we really think Morris needs another year, I'd agree. But the only think that keeps that idea from being "blah" is that he has some bounce back potential.

Looking at last year's qualified 1B starters, an OPS 800 was around the median. (Eric Hosmer was at .801 with 15 1Bs above him and 16 1Bs below him). These are the guys that are available: - Kendrys Morales(29): 2013=787 OPS, Career=822 OPS + Give up draft pick - Kevin Youkilis(33): 2013= 648 OPS (28 games), Career= 861 OPS + Injury Risk - Jeff Baker(31): 2013= 657 OPS, Career= 744 OPS - Michael Young(36): 2013= 731 OPS, Career= 787 OPS - Mark Reynolds (30): 2013= 699 OPS, Career= 793 OPS - *Ike Davis (26): 2013= 661 OPS, Career=768 OPS - *Justin Smoak(27): 2013=746 OPS, Career=700 OPS - *Mitch Moreland(28): 2013= 736 OPS, Career= 758 OPS *Will require a trade to aquire Or if we platoon our own guys: - Sean Halton (26): 2013=687 OPS MLB, 2013=809 MiLB - Hunter Morris (25): 2013=766OPS MiLB, 2013 vs RHP (MiLB)= 824 - Juan Fransisco(26): 2013=733 OPS, Career vs. RHP=776 OPS - Taylor Green (27): Career MLB =609OPS (140 ABs), Career MiLB=822 OPS So of the FA/Trade lists, there are really only 3 people that could realistically put up the median 1B numbers (800): Morales, Youkilis or Davis. - I think the Brewers have the right approach for Davis with the buy low attempt. Is young and worth seeing if he can bounce back (for the right price). - I wouldn't bother with Morales. Too expensive for getting a middle of the pack 1B. - Youkilis is kind of interesting. Someone you take a flyer on to see if he can bounce back from injury and trade off later. But I think you can piece together an "ok" year at 1B (700-750) by platooning the 4 guys I listed above rather than get one of the other 1Bs and get a 650-750 year out of them. Plus, the added bonus of giving Morris a chance to stick at the MLB level without too much pressure as part of a platoon. And if not, Francisco does the LH side of the platoon.

Ah... so you voted for Yuni B at 1B... The problem IS as big as they think. 1B was putrid last year. Still isn't any better. I think what you meant to say was: These guys they are pursuing (post-Hart and all the other 1Bs Seattle aquired) aren't any better than the options we have in house. I don't see any of the vets left as a significant improvement over Morris/Halton/Francisco/Rogers. And at least with Morris/Rogers, you have a chance to see if you actually have a legit MLB starter. (Sorry to JB, but I can't see Halton as anything more than a platoon/bench player)

They're once again focusing on the biggest achilles heel of the team from the previous year (1B)... I've seen this attitude here a few times and honestly don't understand the problem. The biggest achilles heel from last year is still the biggest achilles heel this offseason. So wouldn't we focus on it??? Now, I agree with the rest of your statement about ignoring guys that we have who would be an equal improvement. At this point, I'd be fine with a Morris/Halton platoon, but I'm guessing the Brewer's front office would be afraid that this would signal to the fans that they were "giving up".

High schools have been doing it for years: You can't take out the catcher / Catcher can't block the plate unless he has the ball. My favorite BB story is playing catcher when someone came plowing into me and tried to take me out. I was completely ready, planted my glove into his gut and stood him straight up. He was called out, then kicked out of the game.

I hear the Phillies signed him in the hopes of trading him for $1