DHonks

I've often wondered why Rickie doesn't bunt more, too. Hart seems to have a much better understanding of how to use it as a weapon. I've only seen Rickie try a few times, and when he gets it down, he easily beats it out

I was actually thinking about Nelson being a callup for the Boston series. He has a left-handed bat with some OBP/SLG potential, and is on the 40 man roster. Branyan makes sense, but likely can't be sent down, whereas Nelson can be.

Colby, I always wanted teams to choose hitting or pitching for the kid, but allow the kid to dabble in the other. That way, if the player has legit power like Van Benschoten, I'd like them to pitch but DH in the low minors. The reason is because a team has such a huge sum of money invested in players, that I'd like to do anything that can help improve their return on the investment. So if they want the kid to hit, let him go to the pen once a week, or throw bullpen sessions twice a week. Once they lose the pitching arm strength, it's rare to get it back. Kieschnick never threw 95 again like he did in college. Or if they pitch for you, let them DH 3-4 times per week to work on the swing.

I still remember seeing Narron in a big league spring training game probably 3 years ago. He was warming up to start an inning, and I thought "man, he's just lobbing the ball to the catcher. He must really be loose already to not care about warmups." I was shocked when the fastest pitch he threw was around 80 mph, with his Bugs Bunny-like changeup-- three swings on one pitch!

One thing is that currently, Milwaukee and the Brewers probably have some brownie points with MLB after hosting the Indians last year. They showed they could do it, and the Cubs in Milwaukee would likely outdraw the Cubs in Chicago

that's rough for Stanczyk. He was kept in A+ despite good numbers, and never given a consistent role. Then he has a few hiccups, and he's cut?

My family company has a branch in Waterloo. Any chance your a chem engineer?

Pogo, if Brantley can play good defense in CF, hit .300, and be on base at least 40% of the time, he won't just be a starter, he'll be a perenial all-star

Max Scherzer...wow! 4.1 innings so far in relief, 47 pitches! 7 K's!

wow, Hurricane with 10 BB and 7 K's so far. A bit different from his roughly 2:5 BB:K ratio of last year

Narron and his Bugs Bunny changeup belong in AAA. As for the minor league staffs, I see us as possibly having Parra and/or Villanueva in AAA come June 1st. It'd allow the club to monitor their innings while replacing them with either a rejuvenated Bush or an innings-eating Weaver.

I had high hopes for Alonso, but I think he has had 2 seasons in AZ, and now 2 more in WV. Man we're weak at 1b

What amazes me so far this year is that Brantley, Gamel, and LaPorta (among others, including Salome) are outperforming the AA seasons of Prince, JJ, Corey, and Rickie.

Frankly, if we could land Oswalt, the Astros could have their pick of any 3 players out of: LaPorta (as a PTBNL, since can't be traded yet) Gwynn Iribarren Escobar Hardy Gamel Katin Jeffress Butler Hammond etc Really, the guys currently on the 25 man roster are the only ones I'd demand we keep

my big thing is that it depends on what you're looking to do with the clubs. I nearly decided to become a pro (my handicap peaked at +1.8, but now I'm around a 1.8). If you don't care about performance, you can get the knock-offs that club-builders assemble. They have huge variations in their performance, however, you can't beat the price. If you go name brand, the decision comes down to blades, pseudo-blades, and cavity backs. The cavity back technology now would rank with the performance of blades 15 years ago. But the blade technology now has the forgiveness of cavity backs just 5-10 years ago. In reality, both types are much higher in performance and forgiveness than 5-10 year old clubs. For woods, buy something name brand. To buy on the cheap, find last years (or two years ago's) models somewhere. I always recommend golfgalaxy.com to people who want new items that might be from a few years ago. However, be careful with drivers, because you need the right shaft more than you need the right head. With fairway woods I can recommend graphite or steel. With irons, definitely go steel.

Stevo, I've always found it hilarious that Brewers fans complain about contracts. They don't realize that the contracts are flexible. How often do we see players getting overpaid so that the buying team can appropriately plug a hole for a few years, then deal that "horrible contract" to another team in return for players? This is not like signing a contract to work for a normal job...you're overpaying to keep someone, knowing full well that you likely will deal them before the end of the deal.

danzig, it helps that the child has never seen his mom and dad together, except to make the tradeoffs. She says he's really fond of me. So I don't know if there's a difference. He's also aware that I've been to more of his basketball games and practices than his dad. As a teacher in AZ, I'd estimate that 50-60% of my kids have some sort of situation that would have been rare in the 1980s Milwaukee suburbs (where I was raised). That is, divorced folks, deadbeat folks, deported folks, etc.

Thank you very much fellas. I spoke with her last night, and I think she's somewhat understanding of things. She feels that I basically got cold feet and allowed one unanswerable question to lead me to jump to conclusions. In effect, she thinks that I think too much. Ultimately, we're going to continue going out. I think that what happened was I had a sort of "mid-life crisis", only with dating. Or perhaps I got cold feet. But for a few days, I allowed an issue to totally dominate my thoughts. In my mind, it meant that we were destined to break up, so we might as well just get it over with. However, she knows that I love her, and I know that she loves me. She also feels I'm much better with her son that I give myself credit for. And she also promised me that if I feel overwhelmed right now, that I can stop putting pressure on myself--I'm her boyfriend, not the boy's step-father. She reminded me not to worry about disciplining, just to be sure I don't undermine her (she is much better at disciplining than I am). I think that this whole issue has slowed down the pace at which we were going. I think it was going along too easily, and the result is that we both anticipated an engagement in the coming months (sometime around the 12-14 month point). But now we're going to bump back our timeframes, and continue to live 1 day at a time. Thanks again for all the advice. Sometimes this site gives the best advice, because all my friends just said, "we like her, but we're all about you. So do what's best for you." I think that--at this point in time--being with her is best for me.

Thanks guys. Most of the advice I'd gotten had said, "sounds like setting her free is the right thing for you and for her." But i just spoke with a cousin, and he suggested that if she truly loves me, she'll give me time. She'll understand my fear/concern. So he feels that there's a good chance she'd rather have me struggle and be there, than not be there. So I think we'll talk about this. Perhaps I over-reacted. But I've been proud to have lots of answers, just I didn't have any for this scenario. Of course, I do love Wisconsin, and being "trapped" in Arizona until I'm 39 is also a bit of a concern. But I think some of you were right. As mothership pointed out, perhaps I'm just being hard on myself. I'll keep everyone posted...thanks for the thoughts though.

RyDogg, it's killing me inside, cause we get along so well. I'm done with school, and a middle school teacher. She absolutely loves that I'm a teacher. I really want to have kids. I always have. But part of the problem is that she's my first girlfriend. We've dated for almost 8 months, but that means I've dated for a total of 8 months in my life. And we've talked about the future so much, yet it never scared me. But when she asked why we've never taken a trip with her son, it scared me because I had no answer. And I think the fact is that I love having her as my companion, and while I care a lot about the son (I'm very kind, sensitive, and a teacher, so I like kids), I'm just not sure if I'll be ready for him. And ultimately I'm new to dating. I've been having fun with it, but we're at a point where she's viewing us as a family of 3, and I'm viewing us as a couple. And if I'm afraid to take him on daytrips now, I just don't know if that will be changing anytime soon. I'm not saying I can't learn to love him, cause I care a lot for him. But I think that if I'm apprehensive after nearly 8 months, that it's a sign that he might not be in either my heart or my plans.

hey folks. Last September I met a fantastic lady and we started dating. While I was 26 (now 27), she was my first girlfriend. She also has a 5 year old (almost 6). After an amazing 7 months, yesterday I told her that I think I had to let her go find someone else. We had zero fights. We got along great. But last week she asked me a question..."how come whenever we have plans to go somewhere--the three of us--you find an excuse not to go?" I pondered it all week, and on Thursday it hit me. I think I loved the arrangement as it was. She and I were in love, and saw eachother roughly 6-7 days per week. I got to see the kid quite a bit, and I care a lot about him. I go to his basketball games and practices, and sometimes pick him up from school. But in the end, I think I like seeing him, knowing that when he has a rough day (he has a VERY defiant streak) I can go home. It's like having a niece or nephew...they're fun when they're good, but they're not my problem. So after enjoying his game, then seeing his dad take him for the weekend, she and I had a great day. But as the day went on, talk turned to the future. And it started to eat at me on the inside, knowing that in the previous few days I'd been wondering if I could ever live with him. I knew that I could marry her, as I love her VERY much. But I just don't think I'm ready to commit to having him full-time So yesterday afternoon I confessed to her that I liked him very much, but I think the reason I don't want to take even day trips with him is because I'm just not ready to be a father. If that's the case, then perhaps my wonderful girlfriend (whom I planned to marry) should move on and find someone that can be there for both her and her son. In the end, I can be there for her, and always love her. But since I cannot guarantee that I'll be able to be perfect for her son, then perhaps she should move on. As of now, I have a few days to figure things out. She's hoping that my commitment to the kiddo changes. But I think I'm coming to terms that it won't, and a woman that I truly love will be moving on, in part because the situation just isn't right. Any thoughts? Did I do the right thing?

In 2006 Sheets appeared to start throwing the changeup to the league's best hitters. Guys like Derek Lee, Pujols, etc all have seen quite a few changeups in recent years.

in my 3 years assisting in the Fall League, the one organization to always send quality humans was the A's. I also liked the Blue Jays and Dbacks players'. The Reds, Dodgers, DRays, and Phillies often lacked in high character players. The only Oakland farmhand that was really a distraction was Barton.

I wanted a Jenkins-for-Weaver swap 4 or 5 years ago, but that never happened. I liked his durability and "stuff". But his personal demons seem to be holding him back to this day

My suggestion is to do your homework. The valley is currently a huge buyer's/renter's market, with prices dropping daily. Unfortunately they were overinflated for a long time. The Valley is huge, and there's lots of teaching jobs. I work in Paradise Valley Unified School District, which has many perks. But I've also applied to many others.