Polish Falcons

The crowd is incredibly riled up. They sound infuriated and aggressive but having a lot of fun at the same time.

I will add my personal rankings as well. EXISTING: 1. Fenway - Like SoCal says Fenway is worth the hype 2. PNC Park - As far as new stadiums go it can't get any better than this. If you go sit in the upper deck behind home plate. 3. Dodger Stadium - I tend to rate Dodger Stadium higher than others because I love the setting watching a game tucked in the mountains/hills on a beautiful Southern California night. 4. Wrigley Field - Unlike a lot of others here I really appreciate this classic stadium. I hate the Cubs as much as anyone but I love the scoreboard, the Ivy, the excitement at the stadium, the neighborhood, etc. I do think they could make some improvements a-la Fenway. 5. Camden Yards - classic design, groundbreaking stadium. I had no issues with sight lines the 2x I was here. 6. Miller Park - great atmosphere, the location might appear terrible to an outsider who doesn't love a good tailgate. Excellent value on seats. Great fans. Bratwursts. I do think the dome is kind of ugly though I appreciate it. 7. Citi Field - A lot of people seem to agree that the Mets outdid their rivals in the Bronx with Citi Field and I agree. Citi Field has a nice design and I applaud them for bringing in the fences. 8. Comerica Park - solid ballpark 9. Petco Field - I was actually a little disappointed with Petco. Didn't seem that special to me. 10. Progressive Field - It seemed cool when it opened as one of the first "retro" stadiums up but these days it doesn't seem to stack up to many of the other new ballparks built since. Unlike Camden Yards which does. 11. Citizens Bank Ballpark - I thought this ballpark left a lot to be desired. It seemed kind of like a "cookie cutter" design as far as new stadium goes, with nothing unique to Philly, and it is in a horrible location - the sports complex - a bunch of stadiums/arenas surrounded by concrete. 12. Yankee Stadium - This overpriced bandbox feels too corporate/like a shopping mall, and I find it laughable that the Yankees spent $1.5 billion on this blegh place while the Pirates spent 1/6 the price to create a gem. I wish they would have kept the old place instead of building "the house they built across the street from the house that Ruth built". 13. U.S. Cellular - I was there a really long time ago before renovations. Compared to Camden which was built a year later I believe, the White Sox really missed the boat. 14. Nationals Stadium - I said Citizens Bank was lacking in character but that is nothing compared to Nats stadium. 15. Tropicana Dome - really a depressing place to see a game. I left the game early (which I very rarely do) because I had a hard time sitting in that gloomy place when I realized I could be on a beach instead. RETIRED: 1. Tiger Stadium - I was here a long time ago when I was pretty young but my recollection of it is that it was a bit of a dump yet fantastic. I supremely enjoyed sitting in the overhanging upper deck. 2. Yankee Stadium - I rank the old yankee stadium really far behind Fenway and Wrigley, but I still wish they kept that place in tact rather than building that corporate mess they have now. 3. County Stadium - I have so many great memories here I actually think it was an underrated stadium. They just needed a better PA stadium to play the funky colmedina 4. Busch Stadium - The next four stadiums are basically the same. 5. Shae Stadium 6. Riverfront Stadium 7. Three Rivers Stadium 8. Metrodome - baseball isn't meant to be played indoors on astroturf like this. I look forward to adding Skydome to my list this year hopefully.

I mean this in a completely respectful way but I wish I could forget how bad Betancourt's D was, especially in the Cardinals series http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/sports/brewers_and_mlb/cardinals-take-3-2-lead-in-nlcs It wasn't just the error in Game 5, it was all the balls he didn't get to with his Grandma range throughout the postseason I also mean this in a completely respectful way. As terrible as the play may have been it was completely inconsequential to the result of that game, series, and playoffs. It took the brewers from a 1-4 deficit to a 1-5 deficit in a game they lost 1-7. It really has no bearing whatsoever on JJ Hardy pushing the Brew Crew to the WS.

I could be forgetting something but I don't recall Betancourt's defense having an impact on the final outcome of any playoff games. I do remember him making a positive impact with his bat, in the playoffs. Still don't see how one could possibly argue that JJ Hardy leads the Crew to the WS in 2011 without that being a reach.

Will repeat the prior comments. Watching the game at home I was shocked to see Parra wasn't out there to pitch the 11th. He looked so great in the 10th. This is an extra inning game, who knows how long it will go. Obviously you stick with Parra in that situation. I guess not. Axford is a mess right now.

I'm just tuning in now. Can anyone comment on how Fiers looked today overall? Clearly he struggled in the 5th.

Lawrie should get 3 games. The ump should be suspended indefinitely.

I'd rather see Green as well but this might explain something: Joe Block ‏ @joe_block #Brewers Travis Ishikawa in 7 starts at 1B: 7-for-22 (.318), 2 HR, 6 RBI

I tried suggesting this in the roster construction thread and several people responded to say it was no big deal that Dillard is on the roster because he is just a mop up guy, and that he wouldn't see playing time in close situations. Dillard has been in several close games since then, always doing a bad job because he is not a major league pitcher, and here he is literally giving away a tie game. It seems to me the Brewers have some talented starters in AAA (Peralta/Rivas/Fiers) who could make decent relief pitchers this year rather than letting these schlums give away games.

Giants announcer on Melky Cabrera foul ball on the 3B side: "Could be playable... Although Ramirez decided that it's not... He was waiting for somebody else to get there." Cabrera follows with an RBI triple and a run scored.

Hats off to Suppan. When I saw him signing minor league contracts with KC and SD my feeling was that this guy must really love the game of baseball to put himself through that after making over $50 million as a major leaguer. I doubt his success will continue but at least for tonight he can feel like he has proven something. He earned himself another start at least. And yes it also reflects very poorly on the current Brewer lineup, but anyone can have a bad day at Petco park.

I think the timing makes good sense. With Michael Morse out the Nats left fielders Xavier Nady and Mark DeRosa have really been struggling badly. Now Zimmerman is injured too they can't afford to keep these .100 hitters in the lineup. The nationals are currently in 1rst place and should do what's best to stay competitive. The time clock has passed where the Nats don't lose a year of Harper for calling him up. It's finally an exciting time for nationals baseball the wanna put people in the seats. Lots of good reasons for the call up. Mainly he is their best option at this point. If he struggles he can go back down when Morse is healthy in a month or so.

Even though they only gave up 2 runs that was such an ugly and stressful inning. High leverage situation and we are using these terrible relief pitchers. How about Peralta? Take a risk and stretch Estrada in for an extra inning? Break out of the routine and bring in Veras an inning early? This is brutal to watch.

I want to see Aoki get some more starts and regular at bats. He has a good plate approach and may prove to be a very good hitter if given the chance.

My mlb.tv has been terrible this year also with freezing up constantly. It's my 3rd or 4th year with mlb.tv and in past seasons I was very happy with the service and never had this problem. My connection is fine and I have a good computer so I have no clue what the issue is. I thought about contacting mlb.tv to see if they could offer any advice but haven't yet. I guess my inclanation is that they will try to blame it on my network even though my network is fine.

If the Brewers pinch hit for Izturis in the bottom of the 9th (which they should) and they tie the game, then who would play shortstop in extra innings?

I'm really low on Tim Dillard. Don't they have a better bullpen option than him in the minor leagues? I would've rather kept De La Cruz around, who also might not be very good, but is better than Dillard. Who could the Brewers call up to take the last spot in the bullpen?

Listening in on the game. I haven't seen much of Aoki yet but he sounds like a guy we could use in the lineup. He has a good eye, can take a lot of pitches and make contact. I would like to see him batting leadoff again tomorrow, with Braun & Hart back in the lineup, and Weeks hitting 2nd.

Just tuned in on gameday audio and a big jack by Gindl. So happy to hear some baseball!! Why do we get BA & Rock on the radio instead of the new guy Joe Block? Does anybody know when/if Block will be covering the games on the radio?

Here's my prediction: 97 - 65. This year's team is better than last, and will win one more game. Aramis Ramirez proves to be a good signing who will produce well in the cleanup spot. Braun has another MVP caliber season. Grienke has his best year since his cy young season. Gamel/Gonzalez/Ramirez 2012 > Fielder/McGehe/Betancourt 2011. Marcum is fine. Lucroy and Gomez take small steps forward. Taylor Green will be solid role player and cult status grows. Aoki is a wild card.

I have $99.5M now for the 25 man roster. A couple notes this doesn't include performance bonuses, and it assumes Green & Izturis get the 24&25th spots which are up for grabs. Barring FA any signing those spots would likely go to somebody else making the league minimum so even if they don't make the team it is a wash. I wish I knew how to export excel in here I could show the out year obligations as well. C Lucroy 0.451B Gamel 0.452B Weeks 113B Ramirez 6SS Gonzalez 4.25OF Hart 9.3OF Braun 7OF Morgan 2.35BN Gomez 1.96BN Kottaras 0.7BN Green 0.45 BN Aoki 3.5 (Includes $2.5M posting fee + $1M salary)BN Izturis 0.45 SP Grienke 13.5SP Wolf 9.5SP Gallardo 5.75SP Marcum 7.725SP Narveson 0.47RP Loe 2.175RP Axford 0.47RP Braddock 0.45RP Estrada 0.45RP Parra 1.2RP Rodriguez 8RP Veras 2 (Brewers arbitration offer. Veras requested $2.375. case pending) TOTAL 99.55

Also, as someone stated in an earlier post, the 25 day period is not a hard and fast rule. They try to come to a decision within 25 days, but depending on the situation, it could take longer. Whoops, I must have overlooked one of the first 58 pages or 1,159 posts on this thread. That figures. This process has been so long and drawn out. I no longer think it will be resolved by Valentine's. We may have to wait until March. I wish I could get my mind off baseball in the offseason.

I'm expecting we will have to wait until the last minute to hear a decision on this. If I understand correctly the last minute would be sometime on February 14, which is 25 days from the date of the hearing (Jan 19-20).

$700k