HiAndTight

Yes, of course, every player is streaky. That much is obvious. However saying that's "part of the game," like all players are equal in this regard is dismissing just how hot and cold Branyan can go....

That's because he's worth nothing. Anyone is better than Izturis though. The guy's been worth roughly 19 war in parts of 7 seasons. Granted thats' inflated by one 5.5 year, but he's solidly above replacement level, and I think he'd be a pretty big upgrade to the Brewers. But I think Craig Counsell comes out of his brief retirement until something long term can be done...and I'd take him over Izturis as well.

Well, I fully agree....but in addition to prospects falling off, Greinke and Gallardo allow the Thornburg's, Peralta's, Jungman's, Bradley's, Fiers, Scarpetta's of the world have a lot less pressure if they slide into the #4 spot into the rotation. Gallardo came up and was expected to be a front of the line guy right out of the gate. To be a guy like Thornburg who can throw in the upper 90's, and has potentially dominant secondary stuff, or Bradley who has the potential to be a #1/2 power lefty, Jungman who could be a #2, Peralta...same thing. If we can ease those guys into the rotation while we have two frontline starters, I think we'll get more out of them earlier as they have a lot less burden to bear. And it certainly seems as though the Brewers future lies with it's pitching and defense. So...pony up...pay Greinke. It's a franchise saving move for the next decade IMO and I don't think that's hyperbole.

Woah. You're walking on very thin ice here. Those are most certainly fightin' words 'round these parts. FACT: Russell Branyan is 27th all time in ISO. FACT: Russell Branyan is 2nd all time in SO% for all hitters with over 3000 PA's. FACT: Russell Branyan once hit a ball from AT&T Park to Kodiak Island, Alaska. LOL....I like the last one. Branyan's a FUN guy to watch, but again, he's changed teams 13 times in 14 years. And it's not because of his value. I'm not saying I'd be against working him out, getting him down in AAA and see if we could get that short stretch from him, but it's not likely. And.....I think I need to stop "fighting," this fight. Not that I consider it really a fight, or heated, it's just the Branyan love is so....I'd say over the top, you guys would say strong and validated that I don't see us getting anywhere. And don't get me wrong. I've see stretches of games that I've only seen from other Brewers such as Jenkins, Braun, Prince and fellow Cleveland gems Burnitz and Richie, and he's been as good as any when he's on top. The problem is, when he's not hitting, I'd rather see Greinke up at the plate.

That was the "only," problem? And yet he's been with 13 different teams in 14 seasons. Does this honestly not strike anyone here? Either the drove of Branyan lovers have a better understanding of his value, or the GM's of baseball teams realize with Branyan, you get a guy who is going to hit everything in the world for a stretch like Matt Kemp right now, and then quickly turn into a awful, awful hitter. And play him instead of Hall? From June 28th he had a .173/.271/.288 with an OPS of .560. This was over 24 games. In the first 26 games he had a line of .300/.387/.775 with an OPS of 1.162. Am I REALLY the only one who sees what this guy is? He's a terrible defender at 3rd, and he's a guy who nobody wants. Yeah, it's great when he has that 15 game run where he gets fastballs and a couple hangers, but it's a little dangerous when he changes wind currents in the other half of his playing time when he can't hit volleyball thrown up there. Another argument against, last years numbers, .197/.295/.370 OPS of .665. Another argument. Not a single team in baseball, teams in much more need of power than us thought he was worthy of so much as a contract this year and not a single team signed him.

I'm wondering when we're going to forget about Branyan? Hart to 1st, Aoki starting is a much better opinion. Branyan's stat line looks good for the Brewers because he'll put together a couple week stretch in which he hits a ton of HR's and then for the next 6 weeks be a .180/.300/.350 hitter. And he can't play defense anymore. This obsession with a guy who's played for just about every team in the US and Japan is dumbfounding.

We've heard a lot of Brewers pitching prospects talking about pitching to contact and that being a point of emphasis for them this year. None have said it's a organizational wide approach, but I've heard it referenced many times how this pitching coach wants pitchers to pitch to contact with the capability to get the K's when they need them. We all love to see Thornburg's 11.5 K's per 9, but if it leads to him only going 5, I'd rather see it closer to 8.5 and going 7. Just food for thought.

Not over Aoki I assume, correct? I'd prefer Braun/Gomez/Aoki assuming Gomez is a short term thing. Hart/Weeks/ANYONE ELSE/Aram/Lucroy and then our pitching. I love these dramatic, "all is lost,"posts in May and then they just look like nonsense in Sept. And I'm not ready to say Yo's struggling. He's looked dominant and has been hit hard by the Cards. That's it. And frankly, I'd rather see them bring up Gindl than Schafer. When Gomez is healthy, we've got 3 CF'ers who are all very good defensively. Gindl in RF gives you a solid defender with an absolute cannon for an arm and power, ability to draw walks and a left handed hitter. Very similar to Gamel offensively IMO. Not the great swing, but we need to try a different approach. I'd like to see some games with Aoki and Gindl batting 1-2 once Gindl gets his feet wet because both can foul off a lot of pitches.

Scouting reports say 90-91, but I've seen him pitch a few times, and seen some 92-93 readings. So I don't think he's necessarily below avearge velocity wise, I'd say he's pretty average. It's just that he has so many different pitches, and he throws them for strikes. He can saw guys off with his cutter, has a change that has pretty good movement and a curve that has made guys look pretty silly. Haven't seen enough of his slider to form an opinion, but I agree, he has the chance to break through his velocity ceiling with how many pitches he can throw for strikes and how well he can command those pitches. I don't ever remember having so much fun with these link reports. Every night you feel like you're watching a guy who, with good luck and a little projection, could be legit starters for a playoff caliber team(with the obvious note that the number of things that can go from from AAA to the bigs is a mile long, so from LowA to the bigs, it's even a longer list). Still, makes it fun. Edit-I should say I haven't seen him pitch in a couple years, but that's what I noticed. I suppose I'm also highlighting the positives as the highlights I saw from him are likely what's leading to such success right now. If he CAN sit at 91-93 in the big leagues with his command and 5 pitches, it'll be really interesting to see just how good he can be. I'm guessing he's more an 88-91 topping out at 93 or so, nonetheless, with his command, I think he could have the upside of a #3, and a very good chance to at least be a Marco Estrada type pitcher. Which again, I know I'm a broken record, but all these young pitchers coming up...it makes it that much more important to re-sign Grienke. Give them the chance to ease into the rotation behind two proven studs. You're more likely IMO to get the most out of them if they don't feel the pressure of starting game 2 for instance and can just blend into a talented rotation full of young power arms behind the two vets.

Look, you have to be able to hit at the major league level, or at least handle a bad if you want to be a big league pitcher, and you have to be able to maintain your velocity later on in your outings to be a legit starting pitcher. I mean, you don't have to hit for the cycle, play CF in college when you're not on the mound or anything ridiculous like that, but you have to be athletic. Which to me...means the new "scouting," definition of athletic is 6'6 220. So...clearly TT is NOT athletic. You want athletic. Eric Arnett. There's a future starting pitcher. He's tall AND he sat on the bench for a dominant 7 win Indiana Basketball team. Now THAT is a starting pitcher, not some middle reliever. Now sure, one can't get out of low Rookie ball throwing a fastball above 90 without walking 6 and giving up 5 ER's and the other has some of the best stuff in baseball and is putting up video game numbers in AA and maybe one of our 5 best starting pitchers right now, but he's just not athletic. I'd hit the sarcasam text, but it'd just look like 1982 again.

You may be. I'm not. His velocity reports were better in earlier starts and he's still dominating. If he ends up being a guy who throws 88 I'll be disappointed, but for a guy clocked at 97+ last year, and after ST'ing and a few starts into the season, could just be deadarm.

Another voice of reason in a sea of knee jerk reactonary responses. Gamel will be back, and for the time being, we might even end up being a better team. Aoki in RF/Gomez-Morgan in CF/Braun in LF. The possible additions of a Josh Willingham type addition. Caleb Gindl or Schafer getting the call. Likewise for Green. And does anyone think that Gallardo,Wolf, K-Rod and Axford wlil combine for an ERA near 6.00 all year long? Or that ARam, Weeks, Morgan and others will hit like they have all year? Not likely. June 1st would be the time to even start to think about it. Plus, you still have Tyler Thornburg just dominating down in AA. If the Brewers wanted to be aggressive, who knows. He could have a '92, Cal Eldred like rookie second. Wily Peralta still hasn't been written off. Fiers. My point in that regard is that for GOOD teams who end up winning a WS or a division, they'll ususually get contributions from players they simply didn't expect it from. Minor leaguers who progressed rapidly throughout the year and you can catch lightening in a bottle. Bottom line, my post is all over the place, because the possibilities are all over the place.

Further mortgaging their future how? Marcum for Lawrie I'd agree with. Beyond that, I don't follow? How is adding a 1B and a P and I doubt we're talking about CC and Tex type players(just for example) mortgaging our future? We'd be much more likely to sign a guy like Derek Lee, and inquire about a guy like Oswalt. And there's nothing to suggest we'll be hurting for money in the future. Hence Melvin's position on payroll flexibility. In fact, all I've heard since we pass 80 million in payroll was that we were maxed out. Not true then, not true now.

One more thing. David Freese is 29 years old.

By the way Logan, not trying to be confrontational, but I think we're writing Gomez off a little early. He looks like a diffeent guy so far this year. I'm at least 5 months from convinced, but I am intrigued.

All that said, even with my opinion being withheld on Gomez's seeming resurgence or the lightbulb possibly going on, I'd still be starting Aoki and leading him off. Again, the numbers be damned, it doesn't take much to see that he is the prototypical leadoff hitter for the Brewers. And food for thought, what type of player is Gomez if he could take and fould off tough pitches until he got the pitch he wanted like Aoki? That could be amazing....scientists, take a little DNA from each, some from Weeks for toughness, and throw something together for us, eh?

He is, hun? It's imossible for a 26 year old player who was rushed to the majors at an irresposible rate to improve? Watch him through non-biased eyes. Gomez has done a much better job thus far at waiting for his pitch. Laying off those sliders down and away... Lot of great players wouldn't have had much of a career if the powers that be declared a player who won't be 27 until next December to be incapble of changing. Look, I'm not a Gomez apologist. I'm really not. But when I see very distinct difference in his approach to start a season, I'm going to at least give pause and see if he can keep it up before I declare that it is simply impossible and that he "is who he is." And by the way, there's not a lot of bashing of Gomez? I'd re-read the thread and the board.

Amazing how much bashing of Gomez there has been on this board when he makes an out when he's been ond of our best players thus far.

Well, the first game has a total of 3 cy young awards going at it. The second game has a guy who has been a stud in Cain and just signed for about 22 million per vs a guy who's put up a 3.82 ERA over the last 3+ seasons, and you come back with Bumgarner(2.52 in '12) vs Marcum(3.19 ERA in '12). Sure, "great," if you're talking about "all time greats," may be an exaggeration, buuuut....he's the Brewers TV guy. Not only is he trying to drum up interest, but this is also a pretty dang good series for pitching matchups.

No but we knew they were the same offensively, but Gonzalez is a million times better on defense. Yes, there is. Gonzalez at his worst is basically what you get from Yuni. Gonzalez at his best can give you 20-25 HR's for the Brewers.

Because Gomez is finally(in limited AB's albeit) starting to look like a complete player, and one who doesn't just look better because he has a .832 OPS vs right handers, but because his plate approach has been infinitely better than it's been previously. And he's 26. And we have an entire lineup of players slumping. And, while this shouldn't be an overwhelming reason, he does offer some speed. Edit-And he can do what he just did there. Take a couple pitches, get on base, and put the Brewers on the board on a WP that nobody else on the team likely scores on. Erase what you've seen of Gomez. The hyperactive "just got home from work and your dog is going crazy," type attitude, and just go off the way he's LOOKED this year. Not even his numbers. He LOOKS like he MAY have turned a corner. Of course Pujols also looks like the 25th guy on the roster, so it's very, very early, but lets just give Gomez the chance to keep doing what he's been doing. For all you Gamel fans out there, of which I certainly consider myself to be one, Gomez is YOUNGER than Gamel. I suspect if he was in the minors the last couple years, he'd be putting up ridiculous numbers. That said, I'd have gone; Aoki-RF Gomez-CF Hart-1B Aram-3B Weeks-2B Lucroy-C Gonzaez-SS Morgan-LF(though I'd ideally go Gindl in RF and Aoki in LF, or Shafer in LF, but Conrad's a nice callup).

LaPorta's gonna get one more chance in Cleveland before the let him go just as Gamel will with the Brewers. Best choices are to move Hart to 1st, Aoki to RF and bring up Gindl or Schafer.

I'm guessing I know who you're talking about(And it's just a guess), but I've actually known Braddock and spoken with him 15-20 times and I find her assesment to be 100 pct inaccurate.

-Gomez is still just 26 years old. -Gomez is the most talented of the bunch at 6'4 220 and possibly the fastest guy in all of baseball. -Nobody here is ignorant of his issues thus far in his career, however plenty of players have improved their game. -We all follow baseball. We don't need to be told to not buy into Gomez and his small sample size as though this is a class. But the fact remains, the guy was brought up way too early and is the best pure athlete on this team. Those types of players sometimes struggle early on. Chances are he finishes the year with a .275 OBP, but right now he's taking some pitches, taking good swings and laying off the slider more than I've seen him do up until now. So....when you consider the fact that he's got incredible defense and value without hitting .285/325, I'm still holding out hope he can be that player. At least as long as he IS being that player.

You mean for instance being able to hit a 95 MPH out of the zone, low and away after being pounded inside 3-4 pitches in a row? I don't recall the game, but it was a couple weeks ago he hit a laser in that scenario to the RF gap that one hopped the wall. I just thought...how many hitters can hit that ball? Cabrera, Pujols, Kemp right now..there are other great hitters. Prince obviously, but he doesn't hit that ball. Votto's the same. I suppose those guys carry higher OBP's because they don't go after it, but it was impressive.