HiAndTight

No kidding A lot of major league pitchers are really effective that only throw around 90-91 as K-Rod does because they have quality command and good secondary pitchers. Hell, we just saw that tonight with Gio Gonzalez who won 21 games two years ago without a blazing fastball. Loshe is another great example. When he threw really hard in his younger days, he never had the kind of success as he does now, even though his fastball today tends to sit in that 88-90mh range. It's not like there isn't tons of film out there of K-Rod to watch, yet he's been getting good and mediocre hitters out for years even as his velocity has dropped because he can command all his pitches well more often than not, just like any other successful pitcher who doesn't throw really hard. Plus, he has an elite changeup which he can throw at any point in the count. Speaking of that changeup. The more i watch baseball closely, the more it seems like young pitchers should all be pushed hard to learn a changeup, whenever possible. It's such a devastating pitch for guys with good command of them and not taxing on the arm. I watch Peralta and think if he can ever get just solid command of his changeup, he could be dominant. He's already really good even though everything he throws is hard, but mix in a pitch that changes speeds for hitters to think about, he'd be brutal to bat against. And it's so easy to throw if you practice on it. THIS is what kids should be throwing other than fastballs....and if Peralta can develop a good one, not even a plus one, but one he throws 15-18 pct of the time, he could turn into an ace. A legit ace.

You were and you are. Please stop. Anyone but the Cubs could still win this division. A 4.5 game lead is nothing. 7 game leads have been blown with less than 3 weeks left. If you were to tell me today that we do not go on to win the division but do end up winning a wild card, I would be satisfied. I thought this was a team that could win 70 games or upper 80's coming into the season. More players have exceeded expectations than not. And this isn't a shot, but PrinceFielderx1 is an optimist, convinced we could get Stanton AND the "unproven," Fernandez(yes, Jose) for Ryan Braun. I am a optimist usually. But not to the point that when it's pouring outside I believe that I can walk to my care and have the drops miss me. But....I'll say this. While I might raise an eyebrow at some of these posts, there better than the, "when will the wheels come off," type of fans.

I'm not going so far as to say it's over but this is a little far the other way. What about this team makes you suspect that? Their past? Never happened to them before. Lack of knowing what it takes to win a division? Done that before. Sure things happen but that level of pessimism always seemed to me to miss joy of the ride waiting for the crash. They were up 9 games on the Cubs this time of year in 2007 and ended up winning 83 games and losing the division by 2 games. I also seem to remember other occasions when we jumped out to big leads and let teams overtake us. And while we've done some of those things before(once recently) the Card are more talented, and routinely have done it.

Yes, it would. And he rarely throws "meaty fastballs." He just doesn't throw in the upper 90's(he also doesn't throw 88 as he has an average FB over 90, meaning he hits 92+ at times when he needs it and does a great job of locating it. When you have such a nasty change(and curve) you can get by with 89-92 all day long. Again, this I understand. That's pathetic. But lets say that it was Kintzler putting up these numbers, and I doubt you'd take have a problem with the actual production.

I don't even know what this means? That he's the type of guy you like from a purely "how he does on the field," perspective? And his fastball isn't 88-90. He averages over 90 MPH on his fastball, BUT what I really take exception with is this purely fictional idea that he's wild and rarely hits the target. He has VERY good command at this point. 5.60 SO/BB ratio last year, 4.78 this year. Some of these comments....like he's been putrid in Milwaukee, or that the only reason some like him is because of his statistics(which again..just means how he's actually performed). Seriously, guys can have success without throwing the ball 97 MPH. As far as his mechanics....really? He's been around for a while. Who cares what a 32 year old closer in the top 15 all time in saves throws as long as he's effective? He comes in, gets the last 3 outs and doesn't do it the WAY some would like. That's just a strange reason for not liking him. If he was 22 instead of 32, fine. But at what point does he become proven? If you don't like him because of his off the field stuff, fine. I fine almost no validity in the other reasons however. Oh, and saying, "if he loses his secondary pitches, he'll struggle isn't really saying anything. If anyone pitcher does so, they'll struggle. If Khris Davis loses his bat speed, he'll struggle. It kinda goes without saying. But what is there to suggest this is going to happen? Not every good pitcher comes in a 6'5 frame with a 99 MPH fastball and, plus curve and plus change(though K-Rod has the last two). K-Rod is getting it done and has done so while he's been a member of the Brewers.

It'd be premature to do so if we have a 5.5 game lead on Sept 1st. Do you not remember some of the big leads we built over the Cubs in the past?

[sarcasm]Is it wrong of me to wish the Brewers were a little more racist if that is how the Cards have built their roster for the past 20 years?[/sarcasm] Sorry....kidding obviously.

These literally never get old....especially given the hypocrisy of Carpenter.

How does Lara look like he is destined for 3rd right now? I've only seen a few clips here and there, so I'm not sure where the 16 year old will end up. What's your opinion that he's not a SS based on?

Agreed. Griffey was my favorite non-Brewer(wasn't he everyone's). But we might not see another Mike Trout in our lifetime. I keep going back to Mantle. The whole package of power, speed, D, everything you want in a player. 2 time MVP runner up by age 21. He might average 9 WAR over his first 10 years...if not more.

Only marginally my friend, but his arm is fantastic. As for the other bats I'm super high on David Denson based on what I've seen in WI, I'm still very intrigued by Tucker Neuhaus, and I'm keeping a sharp eye on last year's big bonus babies in Latin America; Nicolas Pierre and Franly Mallen. I'm also still following Victor Roache, he just seems like a guy who's going to need to make major adjustments as he moves up each level. I think it's been significant. He's not stabbing at the ball like he was, he's receiving the ball MUCH better, his hands look much softer. I've seen him several times now this year and I'm just not seeing the MAJOR issues others are seeing. Not when we're talking about a 20 year old in LowA. His arm is great, we agree on that. His receiving is at least average at this point. A ball pops out here and there, but that was fairly consistent in the past. His blocking is just a matter of muscle memory. He is very agile for his size. He doesn't always square up, but you'll also see him really do a fantastic job on some pitches that would get by most catchers. He may very well move because the Brewers are happy with their current situation behind the plate and Luc is one of the top 5 catchers in baseball IMO, and his bat looks like it could move quickly, but I think it'd be a big mistake. One guy I'm still holding out some hope for is Richardson. He has all the tools. I think his time off hurt him, but I'm hoping he has a real big second half and can still turn into a everyday regular.

Well...my answer would be Brad Mills and I would have thought before you told me otherwise that those pitchers could be placed on the 60 day DL and Mills could then be easily added to the roster.

it's presumed that you're referring to hellweg. it should be noted that hellweg is a player on the 40-man roster optioned to the minor leagues. he is not currently earning major league service time, and is earning less than he would on the major league roster via the split portion of his contract. he was injured while optioned. he is currently on the minor league 7-day disabled list--not on the major league 15-day disabled list. because he remains on the minor league 7-day disabled list, and because he's missed more than seven days with his injury, the brewers could recall hellweg, pay him the amount that his contract calls for when earning major league service time, and immediately place him on the 60-day disabled list. hellweg would be earning major league service time along with his major league pay while on the 60-day disabled list, and would have to be added back to the 40-man roster at the conclusion of the season. thus, the brewers pay hellweg more, and his service time clock starts ticking again. whether these are huge concerns or not, only brewers management knows. Yes, as he was the player being discussed in the quote in my post. As far as him not being able to be put on the 60 day DL because he's on the 7 day DL, and the Brewers would have to pay him for major league service time and recall him in order to do so....I'll take your word for it. It just doesn't seem logical to me. So assuming Tallion was on the Pirates 40 man roster, but in the minors when he needed TJ surgery, he'd be taking up a spot on their 40 man roster as well, correct? The same for Nelson?

Agree with the first part of your post. Totally disagree with the second. The Rays became contenders by doing what the Cubs are doing. Building their farm system up with high value early round picks and trading off their good players and building a great farm system. The difference being the Cubs will be able to add 5 20 million dollar a year players to what their current payroll is when they're ready to win.

No, he can't. Can;t find a source for that info right now but Hellweg to the 60-day DL has been brought up either here or over at BCB. It's been discussed here as well, and stated that he could be moved to the 60 day DL. I don't know one way or the other, it just SEEMS like common sense that he would be able to. So do you remember for those saying he couldn't what the rationale would be? Seems foolish to have to leave a guy on the 40 man roster who's out for a full year on the 15 day DL rather than the 60 day DL. But perhaps there is a reason for it. Again, it just seems on it's face without knowing the details counter intuitive.

I know, I'm talking about his initial rookie contract from when we drafted him, that got extended. I don't believe anything has been done to Nelson's contract since he's been drafted. Pretty sure he's in the same boat as 99 percent of draftees at the same time in his career.

I certainly hope that Brewers don't make their decisions about their big league roster on where BA has prospects ranked. And nobody, not one person has said that Nelson is a "can't miss, will never struggle, phenom in baseball?" We're talking about replacing our #5 pitcher with a guy who is dominating AAA unlike Odorizzi ever has(and it's not really close) and who has better stuff than Odorizzi has/had. Using this logic, Angel Salome would have been a much better option at catcher than Lucroy because Salome was a top 100 prospect(baseballprospectus) while Luc never was. Nelson may struggle. May. And while you say Estrada has "already done it," he really hasn't. He's been good over parts of a season. He's never been successful over a full season as a starter...which would be one thing if he was 28, but he's 31 years old. He is what he is. A soft tosser who gives up a ton of HR's, but throws strikes. He has been effective, but as he continues to lose velocity, he's regressing. And he's not a guy who can get away with mistakes. The question isn't if Nelson is ever going to struggle. Again, using that logic, when exactly would we bring up a prospect? Incidentally, Odorizzi is striking out 10.5 per 9 right now and has a 3.35 FIP while Estrada has a FIP around 5.50. So even your example of what "could go wrong," is a guy who I'd prefer over Estrada right now. But again, Nelson throws about 4 MPH harder than Odorizzi and induces far more GB's, and where Odorizzi did struggle(at age 22/23) in very small sample sizes in the big leagues, Nelson is 25 years old and has given up 1 ER in 16 IP and just 7 hits. So this is a strawman argument that people are presenting Nelson as some type of Clayton Kershaw type prospect as is comparing him to Odorizzi.

none of those are on the 40-man (which is full at the moment). i was referring to lack of healthy, quality pitching depth on the 40-man beyond fiers and nelson. It wouldn't be that hard to find space on the 40 man. Hellweg to the 60 day DL(if he isn't already). Gorz to the 60 day DL would also be an easy fix if they're not comfortable bringing him back right now. Then you have several other guys who could be moved for the right guys.

We're wouldn't be trading for Chavez to an everyday player. We'd be adding him to do what he's done the last couple years which is backup 1st and 3rd base. And he hasn't been hurt this year, has put up a slash line of .277/.342/.483 with an OPS of .825 the last three years playing in about 240 games in that role. If you want a really good left handed hitter who can play 1st and 3rd base and vastly improve our bench while paying about 1.7 million dollars for him, he's perfect. I suppose the version of Eric Chavez that isn't a "shell of his former self," is Josh Donaldson. Though I don't see us being able to pry away a guy from the team with the best record in Baseball who's under team control through 2018 for any 2-3 players in our organization from the A's. So a "gritty vet," who can actually produce, but who just needs to have his PT managed, seems ideal given our situation and the fact that the D-backs probably don't have much use for him.

First two that come to mind are Griffey Jr & A-Rod... must've been fun to be a Mariners fan in the '90s Griffey came to mind for sure, but Trout is even better. Walks more, hit for more power, and stole almost as many bases in Trout's age 20 season(49) than Griffey did in his first 3 years(16,16,18). Arod is obviously in the discussion. Both kinda show how great you can be at 19, 20 and just how hard it is to reach what Hank, Ruth, Mays and company did. God does it make me sick that Mike Trout isn't playing LF right now for the Brewers(or RF..or CF, whatever). Eric-friggin-Arnett because the Yankees decide they have to one up the Red Sox and sign him out of the blue. But I digress. Guy is going to be a blast to watch the next 15 years.

It's wrong, it's ridiculous and it's an example of these parents trying to live vicariously through these kids. Who the hell cares if you win a tournament in LaCrosse of Dubuque if you're the COACH of kids? I take it back, pitching year round is the second biggest problem IMO. Stupidity and ignorance about how to train and what to throw by adults is the biggest. To these kids every game is the most important. They need adults to reign them in and help them realize just how irrelevant they are in the big picture(in a way that still motivates them to play hard, but not put themselves in danger).

Having a flat rule that you can't lift during the season is not only not going to solve the problem, but is going to stunt their development. I went pretty deep into my objection and emphasized what "football lifting," they should be doing(which is just basic strength and conditioning to make athletes stronger and more explosive). I specifically said they should be focusing on doing a tone of core work, squats, using free weights, etc..etc...I also clearly made a distinction between upper body lifting and building up your core and legs. I guess the idea of "football lifting," is a foreign concept to me because building your body for the explosion needed is just an athletic thing. I've coached HS sports for 13 years now, and have helped run our schools weight room for a good chunk of that. Part of the problem is not understanding how to lift or when to lift or what exercises to do. We've had several kids who've played baseball at the next level and have been in the D-1 state tournament several times and we also haven't had any kids with major injuries. But our best pitchers have also played basketball, football or Wrestling. Specialization is absolutely a HUGE and maybe THEE key contributor to injuries from pitching. Kids arms need a chance to heal, to rest. Their muscle fibers need to heal. This is why whatever lifting program their on, they shouldn't be doing it the day before games and certainly not the day of games. And they should at the very least tone down their workouts on their upper body and go to lighter weight, higher reps. And I can't speak to the years you've coached baseball, but in my district there is quite a bit of money and SOME of these parents send these kids to camps, hire former big league pitchers to work with them, play fall ball in wooden bat leagues. I myself played 75 games a summer when I was younger and that was a while ago now. Kids from THAT traveling team hurt their arms. One had to miss his entire Jr. season when he was being scouted to have surgery. He was 6'3 185 and threw in the upper 80's as a Jr. Another was throwing 80 MPH as a Freshmen, hurt his arm and couldn't throw 80 MPH by the time he was a Sr and never pitched for us again. I caught and pitched very little. They need to put the ball down. And you don't get sore from lifting if you lift on a regular basis. You get sore from lifting on an irregular basis. But even how they lift needs to be taught correctly. Kids are worried about how much they can lift and stupid things like cheating on your bench by not going all the way down through a full range of motion(lifting using a full range of motion applies to all lifting). So does an proper warm up. If you're going to lift during the season, you can do the exact same leg, back and core workouts you do for any other type of training. You need to pull back on the bench, curls, upright rows, and focus on lower intensity shoulder exercises and flexibility. I think a big part of the problem is just ignorance regarding lifting. And finally, throwing hard isn't the issue here. Radar gun readings ARE important. Do you see guys who throw 85 MPH going 1st overall, or do you see guys with mid 90 fastballs going 1st? The idea that you have to pick between throwing hard and learning how to pitch....the two aren't mutually exclusive. Why are words like "projectibility," thrown around with young lanky pitchers? Because teams hope they learn how to pitch or because teams hope they add velocity as they get bigger and STRONGER. "Learning how to pitch," isn't going to happen in HS for the best pitchers, the professional type prospects, the D-1 prospects, because unless their from SoCal or Florida, the competition they're facing should be low enough that a good fastball and marginal curve should be allow them to dominate. But if you're teaching kids to throw splitters as has been mentioned above, or having 12-16 year olds throwing year round and throwing curve balls and sliders, nothing else is going to hurt a kid as much as that. The splitter thing probably pisses me off more than having a kid throw 194 pitches in a game as that is just ignorant and irresponsible.

I don't think anyone does at this point. Nor do I think that's even a remote possibility at this point. He'd have to start every single game and get 5.3 PA's over the next 95 games. For a point of reference, that would be 860 PA's over a full season. Weeks led the league a few years ago with 754 PA's. I think we're clearly out of the woods in terms of Weeks option vesting. So Weeks and his option are no longer a concern. I do think he should get a little bit more playing time because he's going to struggle if he goes 5-6 days without getting a start as has been the case much of this year.

I don't think Kintlzer gets sent down. He's a guy that we have to get back to pitching like he did last year in order for our BP to really round into shape. He was a really good SU man for us last year. Fiers is a fresh arm in the pen and can go multiple innings, so I don't think it makes any sense to send him down. We don't know what is wrong with Thornburg yet exactly. Hopefully it's not serious, but anytime a guy has pain in his elbow and starts to lose his command a bit, you have to be worried. And Wang isn't going to get sent down. He can't. I still think the most likely scenario is he gets sent to the DL. Plus, the Brewers SEEM to be leaning toward putting Gorz back on the 15 day DL as his velocity has been up and down in his rehab stints. We'll fine out in the next couple days. But with with Thornburg and Gorz likely not being available for the Cincy series, your options are kinda limited. Plus, despite the fact that we had a 13 inning game vs the Mets, the workload was pretty spread out vs the Mets, and our BP was given a break during the Pirates series. Mets Series Game 1 Fiers 1 IP 21 pitches Duke 1 IP 6 pitches Game 2 Duke .1 IP 3 pitches Wooten .1IP 2 pitches Smith 1 IP 14 pitches K-Rod 1 IP 16 pitches Game 3 Smith 1 IP 21 pitches Kintzler 2 IP 40 pitches Duke 1 IP 11 pitches K-Rod 1 IP 8 pitches Kintzler may not be available vs the Reds and Smith could use a day off, but K-Rod has a rubber arm, and Wooten, Duke, and especially Fiers should be just fine, and Smith could be brought in for a couple left handers. A perfect scenario would be Wang to the DL(he did just get hit with a baseball, so maybe he has a painful bone bruise ...that forces him to the DL. I'd certainly prefer to see Nelson come up and take Estrada's spot and Estrada become the long man, but I think Estrada gets another 3-4 starts to try and right the ship before Nelson is brought up. Plus we have to worry about Nelson being a super 2. So I don't know if he gets the nod until...what is it, mid July? How about Jeremy Jeffress getting another shot. He's throwing the ball well down in AAA. He has a fresh arm as does Fiers. That should provide you more than enough to cover any innings you need, be it from short starts or just regular BP usage. But I think they'll be fine either way.

I have just the opposite theory. If you take enough calculated risks and buy out a couple years or Free Agency, or at least get team options with buyouts for multiple players, you don't have to hit on all of them to make it well worth your while. I point to Braun, Lucroy, Gallardo, even Gomez(though he wasn't pre-arby). I think the value of the initial contracts more than made up for the poor contracts handed out to Bill Hall...and I can't even really remember any other poor deals that we made. I still believe in Segura. He is inexplicably putting up an OPS of just .455 against LHP this year as opposed to a .865 OPS last year. His BABIP is down 45 points from last year which I think is just bad luck. He's struggling vs fastballs right now. That's the big difference to me. I think he's pressing. He's jumping at Fastball's just like Weeks does when he struggles, just like Hardy, Hart did when they struggled. He needs to stay back on them and he'll be fine. My opinion of him hasn't changed. I think he's a first division SS. Having just turned 24 years he's a young player who's got to make adjustments. I'd still like to see a contract worked out where we can buy out the rest of his service time and add on a couple of team options for ~13 million or so with a 2-4 million dollar buyout. But this is on spec as much as anything. From watching him play, his speed, power(not that he's Tulo, but I still think he's a 12-18 HR a year guy) his D and I think he'll hit around .300. Not saying he's going to be Lucroy by the way, but Lucroy through his first 211 games and through age 25 put up a line of .260/.307/.366 .674 OPS. Segura through 253 games at age 24 has put up an OPS of .278/.315/.383 .698 OPS. Again, two different players and scenarios, but both were kinda rushed up due to a need on the big league team and didn't play much at AAA. But again, I like what I see from him based on what I think he'll be, his athletic ability, his tools. It's hard to sign players to pre arby deals if you put more emphasis on certain metrics as opposed to projection.