jerichoholicninja

From my TV watching eye it seems like Maldonado is more "in the game" than Lucroy ever was. You constantly see Martin barking out orders to the infield, going to the mound, and throwing to bases. Lucroy was very low key and it doesn't mean he wasn't a leader but just from what you see on TV Martin looks like he's more in control than Lucroy ever was.

Dodgers have done the same with Kenta Maeda. There were lots of people saying when this happened that it was an unprecedented move. It's happened 3 times this year alone.

Minor league players play. Hence Ben Sheets American hero and Matt LaPorta taking one in the dome.

For as much crap as we like to give umpires it's amazing how bad the minor league guys are that they bring up.

Garza looks a lot more like a vampire than Victor Santos did.

He is very annoying on close pitches. It's either "how do you reward a hitter" or "how can you lay off that?"

I was actually thinking about the winter Olympics. The SI article kept talking about how supposedly adding basketball to the Olympics is the 70's "saved" it by making it a world wide sport and the same would happen with baseball. I doubt there's any truth to that but it's the NBA offseason so you can get guys to play and not have an impact on your season. If you put baseball in the winter Olympics then you don't effect the MLB schedule but all the Latin American and Mexican leagues play in the winter. I still wouldn't care though.

I'm surprised there wasn't a thread about it but baseball will be back in the next summer Olympics in 2020. Just read an article in SI about ways to get MLB players to play. One suggestion was to play less games during the Olympics so that the missing players won't have as big an impact, which is just stupid to me. The other was to shut down for two weeks like hockey does. Not as bad an idea but still not good. I personally don't care one bit about the Olympics and would not want the MLB season halted to accommodate players playing in it. Frankly, I see no reason for baseball to even be in the Olympics. Baseball doesn't lend itself well to tournament play and even if it's somehow worked out for MLB players to make it you can bet the majority of really good pitchers aren't going to risk getting hurt playing in it. The WBC does a fine job of pitting the best from each country against each other and it hardly effects the MLB season.

Have we even put a 3-0 pitch in play this season? Stop swinging at it.

Trats and most midwest teams are going to have skewed attendance because of April and early May games where it's 30 degrees. I went to an early season Trats game a couple years ago and counted all of 14 people in the stands.

Lol at you two.

I don't see how that should make a difference. He's not hurt, he's not going to play in the minors, and I'm pretty sure I read he won't even report. If people are going to throw a fit about what the Brewers did with Davies they should be doing the same about Sanchez. The only difference I can see is that Sanchez agreed with the move while Boras was a big crabby pants about it. The difference is that there is enormous potential short term gain for Toronto and no short term gain for the Brewers. Toronto is asking Sanchez to make a short term sacrifice for the goals of the team. The Brewers asked Davies to make a sacrifice for no gain for the team or Davies. The Brewers had about a 0% chance of making the playoffs before that move, and even if Wilkins came up with a big hit, they had a 0% chance of making the playoffs after the move. There was literally no benefit to the Brewers. The potential benefit was that the Brewers finished 19 games out of the playoffs instead of 20. The benefit to Toronto for potentially winning even a single extra game is enormous. That might be the difference between the playoffs, and potentially the World Series, or missing out. There's enormous benefit for that move to the club. The cost/benefit ratios are wildly different. One is a legitimate baseball move with tangible benefits, one was just being cute. I don't blame Davies or Boras one bit for being upset over Davies sacrificing a good percentage of his salary for no benefit to himself or the team. I just can't agree with that. Both teams did exactly the same thing for the same reason.

Since that's kind of the opposite way the population is moving I doubt that happens.

There are enough kids in entertainment I don't see how that would be an issue. And even if that is the case they could at least find a bunch of 18 or 19 years olds instead of actors who look no where near the age they're playing.

I don't see how that should make a difference. He's not hurt, he's not going to play in the minors, and I'm pretty sure I read he won't even report. If people are going to throw a fit about what the Brewers did with Davies they should be doing the same about Sanchez. The only difference I can see is that Sanchez agreed with the move while Boras was a big crabby pants about it.

This is probably more Random Thoughts but it still bugs me. When movies and TV shows try to pass 20-somethings off as teenagers. The one that really bugs me right now is that gum commercial where the guy does drawing on gum wrappers to show he likes the girl. They are supposed to be portraying high schoolers but I doubt either of them is under 30. I guess I can understand wanting to have experienced actors play major parts in movies and shows but this is a commercial and neither of them has a speaking part.

There was another player traded last year who's going to put up a 40/100 season this year while playing subpar defense and posting pedestrian a OBP and all he brought in return was a career AAAA backup catcher. I think Milwaukee did fine.

Best case now is probably to re-up with Colorado Springs and hope the Brewers get so fed up with it that Mark throws a boatload of cash at the owners and moves it somewhere else.

Nah, not fouled. Replay on bat checking across half the plate pretty obvious he went. The ball clearly changed direction before it hit the ground meaning it hit the bat. And the plate is not what determines a swing or not. In fact, there are no written rules for what determines a strike on a check swing.

So Scooter fouled the ball, which they missed. And he didn't swing, which they also missed.

I don't think fall instructional league means Arizona Fall League. Is he even eligible?

Is it just me or does Broxton look like a right handed T Plush at the plate now?

I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting... Are you saying you should force him through the system quickly no matter how he does at each level because that is his only chance to be a star player? I don't think anyone's saying he should move through the system slowly if he shows he can hit at each level, but you seem to be suggesting that even the act of thinking about being cautious in the case that he struggles at a level is somehow going to prevent him from developing into his potential. Are you afraid he's going to read this forum and that's going to cause him to develop more slowly? I just find the stance very strange and stubborn. I want him to be the best player he can be no matter how long it takes or what that ceiling is. The best way to do that is to look at him as an individual player, assess what's best for his development and react accordingly. If he would be a star player forcing him through the system quicker than his performance dictates, then I'm sure he'll still be a star player if we allow him to advance through the system as he performs well at each level as well (and he'll have a better chance of succeeding, and he won't start his clock as soon, and we'll get him for more of his prime years). If I remember correctly from the draft thread he was no fan of Ray so it makes sense that he would find any reason to bash him. Especially since the one "making excuses" is not someone from the organization. I don't know how he's doing offhand but Ray's at High A and he's been there for all of two months. I'm sure he's one of only a few (if any) of this year's picks that are playing at that level or higher right now.

I see what you're talking about and in my almost 10 years of working and/or coaching high school kids I've never seen this before.

We just recently cancelled our cable TV (Charter) and started on Sling. We tried Vue, but could not get Brewers games on that service. Sling has the FS-Wisconsin feed when the Brewers are on. Maybe in the fall I'll switch to Vue for Big Ten. Otherwise, we've been very impressed with Sling and the value we get for $25 dollars a month. We kept Charter for our internet service. What's funny is the "bundling" with cable TV was only saving us a whopping six bucks a month. Speaking of bundling, when we moved into out house and I called Charter to get our TV and internet set up they kept trying to sell me on the home, internet, and phone package. I kept insisting we didn't need a home phone and would never use it and it was in fact cheaper to get just internet and TV than the package. The service rep didn't believe until I walked them through the math from their own website. The rep was shocked and then agreed with me that, yes, it was cheaper than their bundle.