Funketown

You mean something like "Ryan Franklin needs his guns so his new hitting coach Mark McGwire can teach him all about shooting up" Bingo.

If I were a bit wittier, I would make a snarky comment about shooting up and Mark McGwire.

Wow, I knew the Brewers' TV contract was bad, but I had no idea it was that bad. Are MLB TV contracts listed anywhere online?

Here's what I've got: SP: Gallardo, Wolf, Davis, Parra, Bush MRP: Suppan (with some spot starts), Vargas, Villanueva LHP: Stetter, Narveson SU: Hawkins, Coffey CL: Hoffman C: Gregg Zaun, George Kottaras 1B: Prince Fielder 2B: Rickie Weeks 3B: Casey McGehee, Mat Gamel SS: Alcides Escobar LF: Ryan Braun CF: Carlos Gomez RF: Corey Hart, Jody Gerut IF: Craig Counsell First to miss roster: Narveson, Villanueva, Kottaras, Gamel Replacements: Loe, Lofgren, Treanor, Heether, Edmonds I think the biggest issue is what to do with Gamel. I wouldn't be surprised if the Brewers left Gamel in AAA for a while or even possibly the majority of the year, in order to get an extra year of service, putting McGehee and Heether on the big club. If McGehee can still play 2B (don't see why he couldn't), he will be a solid injury replacement for Weeks, at which point Gamel would likely be called up to start at 3rd.

Hopefully he sees significant playing time in Cleveland. I'm pretty confident he will, given Hafner's struggles. Here's to hoping he (finally) puts together a healthy 600 PA season and has a chance at cracking 40 HR's.

They'll just have to see what he does in Spring Training this year. With the club's glut of replacement level AAA starters, I don't see much of a reason to keep Lofgren around.

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif If you can't tell, this pleases me.

If players who participate in the HR derby consistently put up worse 2nd half numbers than 1st half numbers, it's probably as much selection bias as anything. Players who are picked for the HR derby are typically chosen because they have hit well above their true talent level for the first half of the season. We should expect these players to regress a bit in the second half.

Grandal hit 16 HR's in his age 20 season at Miami, while Braun only hit 10. Doing some rough calculations, this guy projects to hit 77.4 HR's over 700 plate appearances in his rookie season!

Right, that's a good call. Two years ago, on a 55 degree windy April day, I saw an 8-2 Brewers victory that included a Jason Kendall double off the top of the wall and six solid Jeff Suppan innings. I got the tickets just above third base a few rows up in the upper deck for about $25 each. Although the attendance was announced at 35,000 or so, there were no more than 20,000 fans there at any time. You've got to think at least a few of those 15,000 fans who aren't willing to sit through a rainy, cold game are willing to accept just about anything for their tickets.

I don't see anything wrong with this. If fans are willing to pay a premium to buy tickets early, why shouldn't the club take advantage of it? This will basically help them recoup some of the money they've been losing due to scalpers.

I was saying Boo-urns.

How many PA's does Braun even have when Prince isn't hitting behind him? 50? 100? Pulling that out seems to be more data mining than anything.

8) When a drunk Cubs fan is standing up facing away from the field trying to start a chant in the middle of a rally.

The issue is more complicated than this. Teams pour an exceptional amount of resources into drafting, scouting, player development, signing bonuses, etc. If teams were not rewarded with control over these players, they would not spend as much in any of these areas. For every player making $400 K to put up all-star numbers, there is a Brent Brewer or a Cutter Dykstra. For players who make it to the majors, it favors management, but for those who never touch AAA and pocket $600-$700 K, the system favors players.

Looks like the Giants won two arb-hearings in a row to me. Great deal for the Giants.

I'd put Thomas ahead of Griffey. Of course, Barry Bonds was obliterating the baseball over this same time frame, but we don't want to open that can of worms, do we?

Gotta reiterate what people have been saying about how this will likely (surely, given the system) increase Hart's salary next year. The $615,000 is certainly a nuisance this year, but assuming a 35% increase for Hart (should be reasonable if he has a mediocre year) next year he's looking at $6.5MM rather than $5.6MM. As for arguing that $700,000 doesn't matter for the Brewers, I don't understand this. Sure, $615,000 in additional costs does less to hamper an MLB franchise than a Taco Bell, but if the Brewers were not affected by this, they would not have invested their time and money into this arbitration hearing, and would have simply settled closer to the $4.8MM.

http://citifield.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/jeff_francoeur.jpg Thanks, Mr. Minaya.

I love the poll, 5 years for 80, 100, 125, or 150. Could anybody even make a reasonable argument for Fielder getting 5 years 125 from the Brewers? If so, I'd like to see it. He's a great player, but anyone who has ever managed a lemonade stand knows that if you buy too much sugar, you can't afford any lemons. This guy should go back to 6th grade personal budgeting class. * I will admit, I did not read the article after hearing the synopsis.

Maybe sCrUBS 'fans' at Wrigley should be given a surcharge per ticket to help pay for cleaning up the excrement hurled out of drunken sCrUBS fratboys at parks all over the country.

Huh? With the exception of Gamel/McGehee, who exactly are these guys taking playing time away from? Lucroy needs another 3-4 months minimum in the minors. Schoenweiss, Halama, Inglett, and Treanor are extreme longshots to make the 25-man roster. If Parra's in the rotation, the only guy you could really argue is losing time because of Wolf and Davis is Narveson. While I think the Brewers overpaid for Hoffman and Hawkins, who are they really blocking? Axford? I'd rather see them delay the service time of Braddock and Wooten than bring them up now. The core of this team is still Fielder, Braun, and Gallardo. You're not going to see Josh Halama starting opening day. These are extremely low cost signings (what do you think they even have to give these minor league ST invite guys anyways?), and I don't see the harm. Back to Schoenweiss, I guess I don't see the point. Stetter already tears lefties apart, and is much better against righties.

To start the season, I'd like to see: 1) Gallardo 2) Wolf 3) Davis 4) Bush 5) Parra CL) Hoffman SU) Coffey SU) Hawkins LOOGY) Stetter MRP) Villanueva MRP) Vargas MRP) Suppan/Narveson I don't like the idea of keeping Parra out of the rotation to start the season in favor of Suppan or Narveson. If Parra implodes, then I'd be fine with moving either Suppan or Narveson into the rotation depending on which of the two had shown the most. As for Suppan, the argument that he should not be cut because he is making that salary is silly. Suppan's contract is a sunk cost; it should not effect whether or not the team plays him. I haven't seen many on here making that argument, but you definitely see bad contracts finding the field for no apparent reason other than their price.

I've never heard this point referred to as a basic principle of math...Just because a data point skews the mean of the data set does not mean this point should not be included.

I agree that people probably overstate it, but Minneapolis in early April is on average about 10' colder than Chicago or Detroit. Just looking at some rough numbers online, early April nighttime temperatures between 35' and 40' are pretty common. That said, I would personally much rather watch a game in 40 degree weather in a beautiful outdoor stadium than in that mess they called the Metrodome. I like the Hudson signing for the Twins, this only improves a very solid offseason. So long as they keep Delmon Young off the diamond, they should have a very good club next year. Their line-up is looking very strong; here are the CHONE projections for 2010: 1) OF Denard Span: .294/.371/.409/.780 2) 2B Orlando Hudson: .274/.346/.403/.749 3) C Joe Mauer: .332/.408/.510/.918 4) 1B Justin Morneau: .279/.350/.494/.844 5) OF Jason Kubel: .274/.340/.473/.813 6) OF Michael Cuddyer: .268/.342/.459/.801 7) DH Jim Thome: .233/.351/.442/.793 8) SS JJ Hardy: .253/.307/.404/.711 9) 3B Brendan Harris: .260/.321/.383/.704 If I were a Twins fan, my biggest concern would be that outfield defense combined with a fly ball pitching staff. Losing Gomez and (presumably) Crede, that will be a pretty brutal defensive club all around.