HiAndTight

First, I don't like the idea of giving guys a free pass because they get 'key hits' or whatever. Sorry, but EVERY at bat is a key at bat. Knocking in a run in the third inning works just as well in the 12th. Sure it's great and memorable when a guy gets a hit to win a game or whatever - but it doesn't dismiss the five other times he failed in the game. Second, he's not being attacked in the zone. Davis is swinging at pitches out of the zone. Swinging at good pitches is one thing, but hacking at everything is what he's doing. Third, no, he won't gain respect from other pitchers at this rate. That will come with success, which he won't have if he doesn't adjust his approach. Pitchers will keep throwing him crap until he lays off of it. I'm not saying Davis has to be sent down, but he has to make adjustments if he's going to stay in milwaukee. I agree with everything you said. Davis has proven to be an exceptionally patient hitter throughout his professional career thus far, but he's just not getting the job done right now. And I'm also not in favor of sending him down, though sending him down for 2 weeks might not be the worst idea if he's not improving once Braun is back in the lineup. But if the Brewers are going to continue to contend in the Central, they're going to need Khris Davis to be much more productive.

Marco Estrada has as many walks as Davis, let that one sink in. The baffling thing is last year he walked 11 times in 136 at bats, yet this year he's only drawn one walk in 109 at bats. In the minors he drew walks at an above average rate. So why the hell is he showing worse than Yuni like impatience so far this year? And why are there zero signs of this getting better at all? I gotta assume that the hitting coach Narron brings this up and Davis also sees this when watching video of his at bats, so i'm really at a loss to grasp why it still keeps happening in nearly every at bat. All Brewer outfielders are swinging at junk. Given that Davis did not due so before this year, my guess is the directive is to "attack" pitches. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/brewers-outfielders-are-chasing-pavements/ I don't think it has anything to do with any new "directive," coming from anyone. Do you really believe after Khris Davis was exceptionally productive in his first stint in the big leagues, the same coaches went to him and said, "hey, even though you performed very well last year, we want you to change your approach this year?" Do you think there is any chance they would do so with Braun? We know they told Gomez to change his approach when Svuem was here, yet his BB% is the highest of his career thus far. My guess is that Braun's thumb has had an impact(as well as a very small sample size) and it's likely painful or at least difficult for him to check his swing. And with Khris Davis, the Brewers moved Ryan Braun to a new position to give him a spot in the starting lineup. Just maybe he's simply struggling due to pressure placed upon himself.

They aren't using FAs to "build" a team though a la the 2000s era Yankees. They have plugged holes here and there with mid-level FAs in order to remain an above average team that can reasonably threaten to make the playoffs. The budget HAS allowed for this strategy. We can afford to sign a good FA nearly every year so long as those contracts are only 3-4 years long. What else are you going to do with the money? Tell the fanbase that you've invested tens of millions of dollars in a a few Latin American scouting and development camps that are going to pay off in 2025 while the team wins 71 games in 2014? Sorry, but I'll take Ramirez, Lohse, Garza and meaningful games in August and September. Meanwhile the CORE of the team is All-star caliber young players at C, SS, and CF--the 3 most important "positions" on the field. Two of those were directly a result of Melvin trades--sometimes even getting rid of prospects! Somewhat amazingly, Lucroy was probably the least heralded MLB prospect coming through our system post-Ryan Braun, and yet he is pretty easily the best player of the bunch. Maybe Melvin was just lucky, but if he can keep trading away the Matt LaPorta's and Brett Lawrie's of the world in order to end up with Jean Segura's and hold onto Lucroy's, go ahead and do it. In my mind, he's earned the leash. If only he would have traded Mat Gamel too! Maybe then we'd have a World Series ring :P. I agree(though I still like Lawrie and would love to have him over Marcum). But Melvin has done a lot of things that have gone unrecognized. He's done job of recycling what he has into useful players. They signed Aoki(which Crew07 just chalks up to luck, but then when two of the consensus top 10 overall prospects don't pan out and it's an organizational flaw that we didn't take better players in the 2011 draft) who was very useful and at a very good price for two years then turned around and turned him into Will Smith a incredibly promising looking young power lefty who could very well end up in the rotation. Hardy for Gomez. Locking up Lucroy, picking up Estrada. We had a couple years of very bad drafts. Had we hit in Arnett, Jungman/Bradley drafts, those players would be on the team right now and our future would look better. But...things happen. The draft is extremely volatile. Especially when dealing with pitchers. They're aggressively going after Latin American players, they've got an underrated group in the minors right now, and the FA moves we've made have been pretty good as of late. You can continue to just constantly belabor misses we've had in the draft and complain about almost literally everything, or you can look the fact that we've got a competitive team, a very nice core of young starting pitchers(Peralta, Thornburg, Nelson, Smith) and a core of key players signed for the near future(Luc, Segura, Braun, Gomez). And several young guys who are performing very well.. I believe our farm system hit just about rock bottom, but is certainly on the upswing. This draft is an important one. Between the LA signings last year, Para this year, and our draft, there is the opportunity to add a lot of talent to the guys like Coulter, Taylor, Roache, Arcia and others(Richardson despite the fact he's a bit older). So we can keep hearing how we're not a 108 win team, but things also aren't nearly as dire as other prognosticators would have you believe. This draft is an important one.

They tried to sign Axford. And who is to say that would have been a bad deal? We don't even know what was offered. But that aside, you can't be hurt by a contract that wasn't signed.

The jury is not "out" on the Carlos Gomez extension, the Carlos Gomez extension is a steal. If he were a free agent right now, I'd be willing to bet that Boras could land him a multi-year deal with an average annual salary of at least double the 7 million that he's making this year. Gomez isn't really the type of deal I was talking about either, but I totally agree. And I think if Gomez was a FA right now, I think you're legitimately talking about him getting three times what he's making over 6-7 years. Even a 2012 Gomez is worth a helluva lot of money. And he's kinda exploded since then. I remember when everyone was upset we sold so low on Hardy.....

I can honestly say I'm not certain who you're arguing with here. The face of the franchise thing is something I haven't really seen debated, and obviously players move on. I don't know anyone who believes the Brewers are going to win 108 games. I'm not certain how you can say that we're no more destined for "failure," if we were 9-20 as opposed to 20-9, but I think that goes back to your general disagreement with everything the Brewers have done in....a while. Nothing has "magically," happened. But the Brewers have obviously done a better job at developing their own prospects than we thought they were doing the past couple years, and they've also had more success with their own prospects and free agents than many thought they would have. I don't believe though that they or anyone else is looking at this start saying, "hell, we don't have to worry about drafting and developing players, we can just sign aging vets to fill in and we'll be fine." They went after a high ceiling prep arm last year, it looks like they're going to end up with at least one of the top Latin American prospects and perhaps a couple other solid ones one year after picking up two higher profile guys last year. But until they build their system back up, I'm not sure why we can't be happy we're having success however we're having it right now. It's not sustainable to expect to get middle of the order production out of free agents like Ramirez, or front of the rotation guys like Lohse, Garza or to pick up a lock down closer like K-Rod. But we're doing alright with that this year. There also isn't just one way to build a team. Many of the things you want are just unrealistic. I just suggested a Gallardo trade knowing full well it's not going to happen while the team is performing well. That would undoubtedly be the best for long term success, but there is probably only one front office in baseball who'd make such a trade.

Rays traded Brenden Harris, Jason Pridie, and Delmon Young for Garza Rays traded Garza for Hak-Ju Lee, Chris Archer, Robinson Chirios, Sam Fuld, and Brandon Guyer. Rays traded Shields for Patrick Leonard, Mike Montgomery, Wil Myers, and Jake Odorizzi. Pretty substantial wins for the Rays. Pretty substantial wins right now....and they could be enormous wins. Myers is a stud, I love Archer. Not sure how Odorizzi is going to handle the AL East and think he ends up as a long man down the road, but for the time being he's filling in for Moore and whomever else. And there are a couple other guys they could get impact performances from.

I'm late to this party here, but I'll still add my 2 cents. 1st-Cole hasn't earned the right to come over and jaw at Gomez. 2nd-Gomez should have been tagged and called out for leaving 3rd as I didn't see time called. Ignore this if I'm wrong because I didn't care enough to go back and look at it, but if that would have happened, maybe Carlos would have learned(maybe, probably not) that he doesn't need to throw a tantrum because someone says something to him. I say that realizing that I'm not certain what Cole said and that I suppose he could have made some type of racial slur which would have been juuust about the only thing that would have been acceptable to set Gomez off, but given that he plays baseball and his 3rd basemen is Pedro Alvarez, I doubt he'd do that. 3rd-I'm also worried about Gomez and his anger issues. I think they could have hurt us in that game when our leadoff hitter became Herrera the rest of the game, a game that went 14 innings. But the thing that annoys me the MOST about baseball in general is this juvenile, middle school like approach to the "fighting." The type of people who USUALLY start these fights are the ones who in middle school only run their mouths when they know that the teacher is right there or the principal and that there isn't actually going to be a fight. They can just posture. So in that vein, THANK you Maldy for actually smacking someone in the mouth. The fight was stupid. The unwritten rules are often times stupid. I'm not a fan of standing there for an extended period of time, though I didn't think Gomez did. I'm really not a fan of reacting to some mean words and costing your team your own ability to play for a few games by acting childish. But for the love of god if you're going to be the tough guy. If you're going to tug at your jersey, scream and throw a tantrum and you're going to act like you're so angry that you just can't hold it in and act like an idiot, then do something about it. Throw a damn punch and get it over with. This fake tough guy crap I see makes me sick. Either actually fight, or shut up, ignore it, stand on third base and try to score a run for your team.

Please tell me you're not comparing a rookie pitcher whose only professional experience is pitching one season of minor league Rookie ball to someone who had a lengthy track record of being an excellent relief pitcher in the majors. Which of these two pitchers is more likely to become a useful pitcher during the season in question? It seems that the pro-Wang crowd wants to gloss over the fact that it is virtually unprecedented that a team would carry someone with this little experience on a big league roster. Pitching in major league baseball is really, really hard and usually requires a number of years in the minors even for elite prospects--(which Wang is not). Now this is the type of insight I come to you for! It's not just really hard, but really, REALLY hard. Guess what else is hard? Finding talented young pitchers who are left handed and can throw the ball 96 MPH. And by the way, Wang's not an elite prospect according to....you.

So you're comparing a 1st round (8th overall) draft pick to Wang? It's absolutely amazing how obtuse you are. You CONSISTENTLY come up with this bizarre set of criteria...I "challenge you to find someone who has done exactly this," and then as soon as someone does you say, "so you're comparing a player who has done this before to this?" "Name one time a contender has carried a rule 5 player on a contending team! Oh....it's happened about 10 times in the last 10 years, well how many of them were ROOKIE ball pitchers?" It's beginning to get more and more just pathetic and obscure these restrictions. Not that I felt your argument had any credibility left after you still argued against the Twins keeping Johan Santana even with the benefit of hindsight at your disposal. It's just fascinating how far some people will go to try and find something to turn into such a controversy. The worst guy on our roster....like almost EVERY other team in baseball sucks right now. The difference is, there is a very real chance that guy could be a very good pitcher for us in the future. Edit-And actually....YES. He is comparing Wang a 1st round draft pick to Wang because that is the analogy that people far smarter than you have used. Adding Wang is like adding a 1st round draft pick to our organization. So I guess aside from all your "yeah, but that's not EXACTLY the same," like whining, Wang is comparable to a 1st round talent.

However, when doing something a bit differently works, I'll admit that it worked and enjoy the wins I completely agree. I was against the Sabathia trade for the simple reason that I believed(still believe for that matter) that Zach Greinke was available and that we could have acquired him or another very good starting pitcher whom we controlled for multiple years as opposed to Sabathia for just 3 months. Yet when it happened, I sure as hell sat back and enjoyed the run CC went on carrying us into the playoffs. When we traded Brett Lawrie, an elite prospect for Shawn Marcum, I thought the Brewers should have done a complete tear down and rebuild. Yet we then went all in, traded for Greinke and enjoyed the best year since '82. Last year when we signed Lohse, and this year with Garza I was hoping we'd stay out of the FA market, give the young guys a chance, trade anyone with value at the deadline. But this has been one of the most enjoyable starts to the season that I can recall. So basically I'm done hoping the Brewers are going to go the Astro's/Cubs tear down and rebuild route. I think we're putting more resources into the farm system, into international free agents and I think we're doing a better job with our prospects. So....that's how the Brewers are choosing to operate and rather than CONSTANTLY bashing the Brewers and the way they do things, I've decided just to enjoy their success and hope that their decisions with their draft picks and free agents work out.

I'm bringing up Lucroy to make a point. That using a small sample size and saying, "this guy can't hit," is asinine. And no, Schafer is NOT more comparable to Gamel(who by the way I believe would have been a very good big league hitter has his career not been derailed by back to back season ending ACL injuries) or Brad Nelson. Nevermind the fact that Schafer is a plus defender in CF(as well as LF and RF) whereas the other two were awful defenders anywhere other than 1st base. And since we're talking about bench players, I'm not sure how either are the least bit comparable to a guy who can come in and play very good defense at all three OF spots. And to the bolded part, I guess you're just not getting the point. You think Khris Davis should be platooned because despite mashing right handers last year, he's struggled in limited AB's this year. It was a factious comment based on how obtuse you are regarding incredibly small sample sizes. I'm still baffled as to why you believe that Herrera should be our SS when Segura is out or our CF'er when Gomez is out when he has very limited PT at either position.

Agreed - like Axford last year and his 22 era in April. A 20-8 start could have been 16-12 real quickly. And that's taking the human element out of it. A blown save can cost you more than one game just as coming from 3 runs down in back to back games vs the Cardinals can have a greater impact than just two wins. Absolutely. Right now you're basically saying as soon as he feels good enough he's back in the lineup. I'd rather wait until he feels good enough to get back in the lineup....and then give him another 3-5 days off. Just no reason to push it. Especially since we'll have Schafer back. Davis, Gindl and Schafer can handle the corner OF spots.

And Khris Davis is all the sudden a platoon player because? After putting up a line of .297/.369/.549 with an OPS of .918 last year in the 56 games he got in, I'm not quite ready to anoint him a platoon type player after roughly 20 starts as the main guy in LF. I think that's ridiculous. Caleb Gindl is deserving of a roster spot and is a great 5th OF'er. I have no problem using him from time to time vs tough right handers to give Davis AND Braun a day off. I do not believe that Davis should be out of the lineup vs right handers however. It is time however to start treating Braun almost like a catcher. 140 starts a year if everything goes well with regular games off. Kinda ironic that most of us had concerns over signing Prince long term instead of Braun because durability issues and yet Prince is on the field 162 games a year and Braun's dealing with constant issues.

LOL Holy captain overreaction What of it? You tried to argue that because in a small sample size that Schafer couldn't hit. I'm simply pointing out that Lucroy also didn't hit very well in his first 2 seasons(his first season in particular). Not to mention that Lucroy had a BABIP of .287 and .317 in his first two years whereas Schafer was at .253. The comparision is only ridiculous because it contradicts your myths. And what "respectable publications," are you referring to? The ones that take a players prior Major League experience and then project what a player may do the following year? Yeah, that's not flawed. "I don't think Schafer is good because in 340 PA's he had a low BA driven by a low BABIP and the projections that use a players past major league performance say the same thing." You realize every "respectable," publication had Lucroy with a very poor BA after his first season as well, when again, his BABIP was nearly 40 points higher? Yes, I know that's your idea. I think think it's foolish to take our backup SS and go with a guy who has played VERY little SS in his career. Especially when our current SS is hurt. No...no they do not. Maldonado is a backup catcher and Herrera is a bad backup everything. Good point. We DEFINITELY should have platooned Prince when he struck out 7 times in his first 9 AB's in 2006. Sample size, smaple size, right! You do realize this is the minor leagues we're talking about and NOT the major leagues? I'm curious, why does Gindl's minor league performance mean so much, but you're so flippant to dismiss Schafers? The sky is blue. I'm not sure what we're doing here other than just stating basic facts at this point. This doesn't mean you dump Bianchi and Schafer. Herrera, sure. A-I'd rather start a SHORTSTOP at shortstop than Herrera. That's just a given on the bench. Always keep a utility IF'er, but the one position he should be able to really be able to play is SS. Herrera has played THREE INNINGS at SS in his major league career and just 62 of his 705 major league games behind the plate. B-How exactly is Davis going to prove he can hit Right Handers...if he is a platoon player? You think we should bring up Gindl, that's fine. Send Braun to the DL so he can fully recover. But you don't dump your top bench players in the OF and the IF for inferior players. Especially Herrera.

Terrible is being kind. That fly ball that he got himself all turned around on when Wang came into the game was just awful. Of course then Gennett can't handle a GB to him on the next at bat, but that was at least a tough play. And that throw......What the what? It looked like he had a piece of tape stuck to his hands and he was just swinging his hand to get the tape to come off.

Not really. Not if you go 1-6 with 4 K's and you get a bit hit in your final AB. It's akin to saying it's hard to complain about a pitcher walking a bunch of guys because his team ends up winning 10-9, so his 8 walks in 4 innings is something to worry about.

2012 Giants Brad Penny-6.11 ERA in 28 IP Mota 5.23 ERA in 20 IP 2014 Red Sox Allen Webster 8.43 ERA 30.1 IP Clayton Mortensen 5.43 ERA in 30.1 IP Of those 4 the youngest was 23. Mortensen was 28, Penny 34 and Mota 38.

You have no idea what Fiers teammates think, so you're absolutely not sure of anything. I doubt the Brewers(players that is) are watching the scouting reports or worried about a starting pitcher because he's had a really good start in AAA. You CERTAINLY don't know(and to suggest you do is again, ridiculous) that he's 4 years away from contributing. We were losing the game when Wang came into the game and we were without Braun, Aram and Segura. Not sure how Wang is at fault when he could have finished the game without allowing a runner to reach base and we still would have lost. And it makes plenty of sense. He's a very talented young pitcher and it's not hurting the Brewers. I never would have thought I'd hear such whining over the fact that our team has been soooo good that we've been able to get off to a 20-8 start and has been able to protect a promising young pitcher on our 25 man roster.

The only thing that's idiotic is that you continue to spew this nonsense. It's just not true and it's been flat out proven to you. Rule 5 picks kept on Major League Rosters since 2002*(WHO MADE THE PLAYOFFS). And god knows some of these are truly poorly run organizations. Like Boston when they won their WS, or the Cards or A's. 2012 Orioles, Ryan Flaherty, INF 2011 Diamondbacks, Joe Paterson, LHP 2011 Phillies, Michael Martinez, INF 2010 Phillies, David Herndon, RHP 2005 Red Sox, Adam Stern, OF 2004 Cardinals, Hector Luna, INF 2004 Astros, Willy Taveras, OF 2004 Red Sox, Lenny DiNardo, RHP 2003 Athletics, Mike Neu, RHP 2002 Athletics, Jason Grabowski, INF I'm also curious what exactly you think the worst guy on a teams BP should be? What's your expectation? Not to mention your assumption that Wang can't get guys out after 4 outings, the last of which the defense absolutely killed him starting with Herrera getting turned around on a routine FB and immediately followed up by a GB eating up Gennett that led to 3 runs.

"Impact talent"?? Guys like Kershaw and Sale are impact talents. They were already dominating big league hitters at the age Wang is now. Wang is years from even being serviceable at the major league level if, and it's a pretty significant if, he ever gets there. Brewer talent evaluators are high on him but they were high enough on Jed Bradley to pick him in the middle of the first round and how's that working out? I also don't buy the notion that Pittsburgh wouldn't be open to a trade. Who's to say the Pirates are anywhere near as high on Wang as the Brewers or that they wouldn't prefer another player that fits their needs better? One of the most illogical posts I've ever seen. A-EVERYONE was high on Bradley coming out. Going into his JR year some thought he could be a top 3-5 pick and was a near consensus top 10 prsopect in that draft. B-You haven't got a CLUE how far away Wang is from being "serviceable," at the ML level. C-So unless you're Clayton Kershaw, the second coming of Sandy Koufax or Sale, you're not an "impact talent?" D-Nobody is to say what the Pirates opinion is as a matter of fact. So in lieu of Huntington coming out and say as much we have to go off the reports that they were upset to loose him and only left him off the roster because he was a young pitcher coming off TJ surgery. So I don't know if they're high on him or not. I certainly read they were. And I don't know if they'd be willing to trade with us for him. But I'm guessing Melvin's had a thought or two regarding this.

Heck, Jungman could even find his way into that rotation if he continues to improve. Or Hellweg(later in the year) as pitchers coming back from TJ often times actually improve their mechanics out of necessity so that they can stay healthy and strengthen their arm. That one is a little less likely. Who knows what pitchers might make a big jump in the next 15 months. Maybe even Wang!

Whatever they do, they need to do it quickly. That they've managed to get two wins while being handcuffed with regard to the bench shouldn't give them confidence moving forward. Braun should go to the DL and Green should be brought up, and I would have liked to have seen Segura sent down as well with Gindl getting the nod. Let these guys heal so that they're(namely Braun) isn't dealing with this injury longer than he has to.

It's an article putting into perspective how good the Brewers pen has been thus far this year. It's not Woodward and Bernstien, but not sure it's quite as bad as you and endaround are suggesting.

Nor is anyone suggesting as much. But it is a major concern. And it's not 1 BB in 101 PA's. Even is BABIP is up almost 50 points from last year as well. I'm think he'll snap out of it. I don't think he'll be able to carry over what he did the last couple months of the season last year over your average 162 game season, but if he can be a Josh Willingham type guy I'd be very happy with that. I don't follow what you mean by "coaching issue," however. Plate discipline is something that comes from muscle memory and hand eye coordination. I don't know how a coach is going to change that. And obviously RR isn't a big fan of his pitch selection based on numerous comments he's made.