DHonks

The Rockies named a Milwaukee-area native as their new GM today. Congrats to a fellow Hilltopper! He's been in their inner-circle for a long time, so it's hardly a surprise.

Go Royals!!! I still like Yost more than any other recent Brewers managers. He had some strategies dealing with pitching that I liked, such as: 1) if a pitcher warms up, try to get him into the game 2) try to let your starters go the extra inning unless pitch counts are high I like Ron, but sometimes he pulls a starter that is cruising along and trusts his bullpen. I don't get it. Relievers can have bad days. When a starter has 90 pitches and is cruising, don't pull him!

adambr2, yes they could decline the option but make a qualifying offer.

hopefully this works. We need it to.

turbo, that's the kind of guy we should acquire. Either that, or figure out a guy that's like Overbay was....mashes in minors but hasn't been given a chance in MLB. This could be Clark.

what about trying to acquire Yonder Alonso or Andre Ethier? Both have fallen out of favor.

I've said all along that this is a no-brainer. Yo had a very good season and will be paid below market rate. The only question is do the Brewers feel comfortable enough with Fiers and Nelson to be willing to trade either Lohse or Gallardo? Yo could possibly net us a first baseman. Of course, we could deal Gomez or Parra to try to land a 1b

next up for me is Marquette basketball. I obviously follow the Packers religiously, but one nice thing of baseball is that it's 7 days a week. Although during my coaching season, I tend to really fall off. That's why it's been nice that I haven't fully experienced the Brewers' 6-week slide.

I've got a question that I'm serious with, even though the topic is somewhat controversial. Growing up in a suburb, I followed the Bucks but probably only went to 2 or 3 games. Most people I knew never went to games, but followed them on TV as well. One factor for me was the price of tickets. We know from studies that Milwaukee ranks among the most racially segregated cities in the US. We know from other studies that Milwaukee minorities are doing nowhere near as well as whites. So how is it that the Bucks games seem overwhelmingly full of minorities?? And what does this mean for their revenues? Probably not at all accurate, but I always assumed this was because players often donated large amounts of tickets to local charities. Given a new arena, what would be a likely decent capacity? Are there other examples of a city where the local college team draws better than the NBA franchise in the same arena?

I can't find the link, but for my Econ unit on gov't revenue I quote a number that businesses and individuals in the US spend roughly $150 Billion annually to help them file their taxes. Count me as someone in favor of a flat tax, or at least a much flatter tax code. I like simplicity. I also think we need lower taxes to help out businesses. but now I'm going to push towards being political. Really, I'm glad I don't make these decisions

reports are that other devices bend as well. Same thing with the antenna-gate when they found nearly all devices had a death-grip

lcbj68c, growing up in WI, I never knew people that went to FLA. The WI retirees move to AZ, Palm Springs, or Vegas. Out here every class I teach has cheese heads in them. I can't fathom the Brewers going to Florida where bus rides are long. In Az, there are no bus rides even an hour.

got my iPhone 6 today. I ordered it last night and was surprised to see I could pick it up at the Apple Store 4 minutes from work. So I went after class but before coaching today. So far seems nice. I'll let you know more once I finish getting it setup how I like. Somehow iCloud backup got turned off at some point, so I have to do a little work myself.

I like the idea near the 17 more. My favorite was the Scottsdale parcel near the 101 and Bell. Of course, I think an awesome spot would be the land between Scottsdale and 56th just north of the 101, or perhaps immediately north of that near Pinnacle Peak. I'd stop every day after work!!

Okay, so if Braun isn't going to ever be the old Ryan Braun we knew, why not encourage him to totally reinvent his game? I mean, let's tell him that homers don't matter, that we want him to focus on becoming an OBP stud. He's always had a good eye, and I think that if we put him at leadoff with lowered power expectations, he could become an elite leadoff hitter.

so my unofficial count for today. Of my 180 students, I counted 15 with iPhone 6's and 1 with an iPhone 6 plus. So already more students with iPhone 6's than all non-Apple phones combined. interesting that when we discussed some of the amazing numbers for sales in Econ class, I had 2 boys and a girl that professed they couldn't wait for the watch. More teens are wearing watches these days than 3-4 years ago, but I didn't expect to hear interest in the Apple Watch

jjfanec, to answer some of the double-standard....As an Apple shareholder, I absolutely hate that Apple revolutionized the mobile phone market by destroying the existing model of a smart-phone, but within months had competition from copy-cat devices looking, feeling, and working nearly identically despite patents. Apple put the design work into the devices and basically had to teach component companies how to make parts that fit their devices, but the entire industry benefitted. However, that's in the past and those lawsuits have been settled. Since we can't turn back the clock, I absolutely love having iOS, Android, and Windows phones as the competition is driving all of them to create better, more useful features. The first phone I ever truly enjoyed was an iPhone. It led to me one day buying a macbook Air 11" as I always wanted a powerful ultra-portable machine, and the rest of the tech companies were insisting that ultra-portable meant crappy netbooks (I owned one and got rid of it after 4 months). I think I'm on year 4 with my macbook Air, and it's still working great. In fact it has aged much more gracefully than any computer I've ever had....none of that bogging down that happens after a year usually on a laptop. I owned an iPad 2 but I didn't like my "iPad elbow," so I yearned for something ultraportable. I've absolutely loved my iPad mini w/LTE for nearly 2 years now. The iPad elbow is gone, but I find I take it everywhere. Given that the mini has taken over much of my couch internet browsing and I rarely travel with my macbook Air, I may choose to upgrade my laptop to a 13" in the next year or so. It sounds weird that I have 3 devices, but they all have distinctly different purposes. I love that all my files are instantly synched via iCloud, and the new iOS 8 features will enable even closer integration. I'm also considering an Apple watch. I've been trying to lose weight for 2 years now with moderate success. I've looked into all sorts of fitness trackers, but in the end I kept thinking "what's the one tech company that I've been happy with going to do?" I wish the Apple watch had more independent features as I can't fathom trying to go for a jog with my phone. I've also long found it stupid that to check time, we have to reach in our pockets when for decades we already had a convenient solution mounted to our wrists. logan82, they might seem like overpriced luxury items to you. They once seemed that way to me. But I will pay more for quality. I've never had an Apple device with problems, whereas I have hated Dell, HP, and lenovo notebooks. I hated my Palm phone and found my 2005 Nokia flip phone great. I work at a school with Apple laptops and Samsung Chromebooks. I would never buy a Chromebook given their current capabilities. I also haven't heard a single good comment about Windows 8. Given my level of happiness with Apple's devices, they will have to royally screw up to get me to change. And lastly, while running a high school golf tournament the last 3 days, I spotted 2 iPhone 6's. I'm curious how many I will see tomorrow at work...I'll bet 4 or 5.

I'm really ready for it. I've long said I didn't like the size of the iPhone 5, preferring the iPhone 4. It's a bit awkward in my hands as it's so thin and light. I think something more substantial may feel better. I've also been a huge fan of my iPad mini since it first came out, using it everywhere. But the 4.7" iPhone isn't much bigger than the 5, and I think it should be a good comfy size. As a teacher with 185 students each semester (this year 305 students), I see that 85-90% of teenagers in suburbia have iPhones. When I've polled them about tech in the past, I find that they prefer the iPhone 4 size. I figured guys might, but I thought girls would prefer bigger. But it turns out that teenage girls don't carry phones in their purse/bag, but in their jeans and they don't want anything bigger than a 5S/5C. So the consensus among most students has been they prefer a 3.5-4" phone. I think when I polled students last semester, the result was over 90% iPhones, a few HTC, LG, Samsung, or Chinese phones, several with flip/qwerty phones, and 2 with no phone. Also surprisingly considering the coverage is they overwhelmingly like the 5c. I had a student buy a Windows phone 2 years ago, but he returned it within a week and got an iPhone. It was shocking as he was really looking forward to being different from the rest until he hated the device. I have never had a student with a Surface, but in fairness most don't have iPads either. I did see 2 Surface tablets in the wild at an airport a few months ago....only two I've ever seen. I cover computer buying at the end of each semester with my Econ classes (some real world stuff for seniors about to leave for college and likely buy a computer), and while I explain processors, RAM, etc, I now pretty much just show them deals on Apple devices since they've told me to stop wasting their time with Windows, and they would never consider a Crap-book (aka, Chromebook as they call them). Somehow I got on this rant....but yes, I'm looking forward to the iPhone 6. I don't foresee needing an iPhone 6 plus, but I do want to see it in the store before I order my upgrade. I'm making fewer calls with my phone to my ear, so the plus may be viable. Most of my calls are in the car via bluetooth. I've made plenty of calls on my iPad mini over the last 2 years, too. If I don't get to a store to check out an iPhone, my students will have them starting next week. I definitely love how iCloud links my Pages and Numbers docs and spreadsheets instantly on my devices. After giving up on Microsoft Office years ago in favor of OpenOffice, I've been converting all my documents to Pages and Numbers over the last year and a half. It's also been great as I haven't used a flash drive in probably 4 years, although I have a ton of old ones lying around in drawers

I'd expect 2015 to have Clark/Rogers platooning at 1b, Ramirez at 3b, and Rogers filling in 1-2 days a week at 3b.

I'd give Seggy a shot in 2015, knowing that there's a chance Arcia could be up by August making the jump from AA

Thorny...is anyone optimistic about him next year? We've seen this scenario before where a player misses time with a mysterious injury, then reports to spring training and on day 5 of camp is off to see a specialist, causing him to require surgery and miss the following season as well

K-Rod isn't Mexican, he's Venezuelan. Soria...never realized he was from Mexico. But he's also a closer. A lot of the speculation for AZ was back when Darron Sutton and Mark Grace were on broadcasts. In 2013 the Dbacks thought they would land Gallardo and much was made about him being a great fit both for the club and the fan base. We know the Rangers and Astros aggressively pursued him in previous years as well. Maybe it's living in Arizona, but I've heard people for years talking about wanting to acquire him and how he'd make sense. At this point I see Yo's option getting picked up and the Brewers considering dealing him. Someone might be desperate for pitching. I'm scared of his declining velocity and K's. He's got a WHIP below career norms, but it's aided by his best career walk rate. I swear I remember him pounding the zone early in his career, with tons of those K's on fastballs looking. Perhaps he can continue to reinvent himself as a pitcher.

just noticed that in August and Sept Komatsu has returned to being a solid OBP machine.

great outing. Hopefully the Stars hold on.

I see Weeks going somewhere to DH and having a breakout year. Seattle anybody?