jerichoholicninja

He was hated well before the PED scandal. He played with a little bit of cockiness that rubbed people (Cardinals fans and the national media who took offense to the lowly, irrelevant Milwaukee Brewers having a really good player) the wrong way. I remember very early in his career, he would get booed basically every time he came up to bat in road games.

Pretty much. Are umpires allowed to remove pitchers who don't have control of their fastball because they might injure a batter? I get what the ump was trying to do, but that's not his job. If the pitcher isn't warmed up, too bad. Have him lob a few balls to the batters until he's loose.

I would hope there's some sort of punishment for the umps. I understand their reasoning and I can't really fault them for doing it but they chose not enforce a rule and you can't just pick and chose what rules you want to enforce. I don't think you can punish the Phillies for anything. It's not their fault the umps chose to let them circumvent a rule.

I looked into Phillips numbers last year expecting them to be terrible. They were with the Angels but his overall 93 OPS+ was right in line with what he's done the last 6 years and was better than both Villar and Perez. Better than Sogard if you take out his ungodly start. I'll take Phillips on a one year deal.

So because he was good at his job at one time he should be given slack because he's bad now? I guess we might as well bring back Lohse and Wolf to round out our rotation.

I went into that expecting to see massive overreaction to minor things but wow, does he have any clue what he's doing. The making a pitching change without having a pitcher warming up is a fireable offense. And then to ignore the issue when questioned about it by changing the subject and guaranteeing you'll make the playoffs? Have to believe he's close to losing that clubhouse already.

He was 94-96 which is pretty typical. Wasn't paying super close attention but the highest I saw was 94 and a lot of 92 and 93.

Is it a "cold" gun or his Hader down a few ticks tonight?

If Cain or Yelich are up, yes. Not so with the rest.

Just kind of all the more surprising that they didn't pursue Walker for cheap. He's certainly not spectacular, but he's fairly safe. I think Kipnis could end up being the one we wish we had pulled the trigger on. I think Stearns wanted to see if Villar could get the magic back, and if he can't, there will be someone we can acquire at the trade deadline similar to Walker last year or if Dubon is doing well at AAA you could give him some time there too. Either way I don't think anyone here is too concerned long term with 2B, but this year might be a project to get some production there. I can understand that line of thinking if Walker wasn't to be had for dirt cheap.

Interesting that the Padres used 1/3 of their visits with Sogard at the plate.

So, Cain and Yelich... pretty good moves so far.

Only slightly worse than Perez and Villar? That's pretty bad. Play solid defense, but can't hit a lick. They're 3 bad options. If I could only have one of them for 162 games I guess I would take Sogard as he's probably going to do the fewest things that will hurt you out of the bunch.

Only slightly worse than Perez and Villar?

My opinion on Uke is that's he has always been a terrible play by play guy. Awful. Back in the pre cell phone days I could flip him on and wait 30 minutes for the score. He's a comedian who likes baseball and has amazing stories to tell. I only listen for the stories. Today it's irrelevant because my phone can tell me the rest. Side note: I listen at home, not while driving. Exactly. If you want to listen to a baseball game and know what's going on, Uecker isn't your guy. If you want to hear the same "I was bad at baseball" stories over and over again, then you love him.

Coghlan? Is he still considered a 3b? Nevermind. Signed with the Cubs yesterday.

Plouffe signed with Texas. Looks like he may have signed in Japan but perhaps the return of Matt Dominguez?

They were doing such a good job in their rebuild. It's such a pointless signing at such a non-premium position for such an average player. It almost makes me think ownership said go spend some money on a "name" player for fan interest. I think that is exactly what that was. Who buys tickets to see Hosmer? Maybe the goal was win 72 games instead of 71? No I think they really liked him for some reason. They were connected to him as soon as the offseason began and ultimately signed him for about what was expected despite not really competing with any other team. And if they wanted to sign a "name" player there were plenty of "name-ier" options that would have cost less years and money.

Going to jerk the second base position all around and not let anyone get comfortable there. I’m sure we will see Sogard tomorrow. When you have 3 crappy options what difference does it make really?

No Villar. But Perez's lack of baserunning skills have already been on display.

The Gallo shift - love it!

Why is this guy newsworthy? And why does he think he can negotiate his ticket price because the Marlins traded some guys? Well, duh. You're just some random attention seeker.

What I want to know is how much "rest" is a guy with the day off really getting? They are still coming to the ballpark at the same time, sitting out under the sun shagging balls, getting their practice at bats, stretching, have to be ready to pinch hit, etc, etc, etc. Now if you told them not to come to the ballpark, then I could see that as a real rest. I've always wondered that too. If I'm Craig and I'm planning on giving Braun a day off I tell to stay in the clubhouse until the game starts. No reason for him to stretch, throw, shag, and take BP if the whole idea is to give him a rest. For the most part I would guess the wear and tare on your body is from getting ready for the game and not actually playing the game, pitchers and catchers excluded.

Cameron Rupp is a free agent and has way outhit Bandy over their careers. I guess he's regarded as well below average defensively though.

Very few teams have enough quality to justify sitting a star 10% of the time if he's healthy. The extra 5-10 starts by the star, even if he's tired, are likely going to be better than what the backup would provide. Generally, if the backup is good enough to justify sitting the star, then that backup should be starting somewhere and you're wasting his talent as a bench player. The only reason we have that quality in the OF is because the market for OF dried up, so our quality backup means we'll have to have less-than-stellar production elsewhere. I'd be fine with Yelich playing an extra 5-10 games, even if he's a little tired, if it meant we traded for an upgrade at SP, allowing that SP to get 30 starts with Suter playing a valuable role as "swingman." The relative increase in production at SP should far outwiegh any benefit received by sitting Yelich on the bench 5-10 extra days for rest. But that trade didn't happen. I'm far too excited about the start of the season (odd roster and all) to continue to dwell on this. I am going to cheer for Woodruff and Suter to succeed. They may be question marks, but their success would greatly help the Brewers now and into the future. It's time to put the offseason in the past and watch the Brewers as they hopefully make the next step into the playoffs in 2018. Totally agree Monty, I don't think there is any evidence that you would get more production from a player if they sit 10 extra games, and if so, a less than 100% starter is better than a bench player. If that is not the case, then you are wasting that bench player's near starter level of talent sitting them on the bench for 140 games, and you would benefit your team much more by trading that near starter bench player for another player who could start for you and contribute more. During the Pirates back to back playoff years they applied the strategy of playing guys less after learning from the Golden State Warriors whose research showed that playing their starters less kept them fresh for the playoffs and improved the performance of their bench. Pittsburgh wasn't just not starting guys though, they would give the starter 2 or 3 PA's and then sub them out. There was an SI article about it at the time.