Oxy

Gomez is just plain fun to watch. I have no problems with a Morgan/Gomez CF platoon for the next few years. I think that as he gets more playing time he will develop a better barometer of when he can take chances and when he can't (I hope). The things that make him a frustrating/poor baseball player are generally correctable or at least improvable mistakes, i.e. baserunning errors and plate discipline. He has a lot of tools that cannot be taught.

I had no confidence that Kotsay was going to catch that. Good thing he plays on the warning track.

Wow. Say what you will about CarGo, but that guy can run.

No, he didn't Ha! you beat me before I could delete it when I saw on Gameday that I missed a pitch.

Nice job by Wolf holding Pujols to a single there.

To be clear, I am generally not in favor of sac bunting either, at least when an "average" hitter is facing an "average" pitcher. I consider it a good option when the game is tied or there is a one run deficit in the 7th, 8th or 9th inning, there is nobody out and a guy on 1st, 2nd, or 1st & 2nd, and there is a very unfavorable pitcher/hitter matchup with better matchups to follow. There also has to be reasons not to pinch hit. Gomez is a bad out machine, so I consider that to be a good enough reason, without even taking into account the thinness of our bench, and the prospect of them bringing in a righty to face Gomez and Braun, since they still had plenty of lefties in the pen to make another switch when they get to Fielder. Add in the fact that Morgan is a good bunter with speed and I think it's a almost a no-brainer. At the very least, it isn't a terrible decision the way it was/is made out to be here.

With who? Gomez? He was the only option. I'll take Morgan bunting when there is only 4 guys on the bench. I was kind of surprised at all of the comments in the IGT about the bad decision to sacrifice there--especially when a lot of them were prefaced with "I'm not always against bunting." If ever there was a time to bunt, last night was it. I am guessing there was about an 85% chance that Morgan would get out without advancing Weeks in that situation. Morgan is a very good bunter with lots of speed. Heck he might not even get out if he bunts. My apologies to the thread topic. This could seriously get derailed.

Really? I don't know but I find that surprising. Seems like junkballers hang on longer to me since they don't rely on power anyway.

The key there is ON AVERAGE. Eric O'Flaherty vs. Nyjer Morgan with Braun coming up? I'll bunt. Or pinch hit.

I actually think the shifts have worked out more often than not.

An error for sure Schroeder is an idiot Misplayed and booted

If Fielder could bunt He'd have an easy single Instead he strikes out

Morgan Braun Fielder This has to turn around soon Let's score lots of runs

BA: "despite the 5 game losing streak there is optimism" - CRACK

Nice hit for Casey Swinging bunt for Betancourt Bring him in Corey!

Ugly start so far I may end up at the bar CATCH THE BALL RICKIE

This team needs mojo Could haiku be the answer? Perhaps. Shall we try? Another possibility could be a "nothing but sunshine" day in that EVERY post has to be a positive comment. After last night's IGT, it could be therapeutic, and really test the power of positive thinking :p.

You kind of dodged my question a little bit by talking about "the fans" and what the MLB baseball would/could realistically do. I'm not asking that. I'm asking about YOUR opinion, and what YOU would prefer. After all, YOU are a fan. Do YOU get excited by the possibility of a no-hitter vs. a one-hitter? It sometimes seems through your posts that you'd rather there wouldn't be any drama, emotions, or psychology in sports. The reason I made the connection between no-hitters and the playoffs is because I find them somewhat analogous, except on a larger scale, i.e. one-hitter : no-hitter : : best regular season team : World Series Champ. What the average fan sees as "being clutch" a lot of stat oriented people view as "being lucky." I just want to know what you think.

I assume you are just talking NL, and who is hot right now rather than who is the best overall. In that case it's hard to go against Holliday and Berkman. At the end of last week it probably would have been Braun and Fielder. The question about "who-is-hot" though changes so fast that it is pretty much meaningless. Overall, I'd have to say that Pujols and Holliday are pretty near impossible to top.

So most of the trade talk around here has been pretty unrealistic IMO, looking at guys who are better than average MLB players or outright stars (Reyes, Furcal, maybe Hardy). While I hope it happens, I don't see us having the prospects or the cash to be able to get Reyes this year, who is really the only good starting player to be on the trading block. Some other more realistic names have been thrown out there as well, like Izturis, Jack Wilson. These guys probably wouldn't be much of an upgrade over Betancourt. However, I'm fine with that. This team needs another infielder and this team needs defense. I have looked over the rosters of the rest of the league and compiled a list of the back-up SS or utility IF who might be able to shore up our bench and defense. However, I am wholly unfamiliar with most of them, especially the American Leaguers. For that reason I am going to list them here and hope that the vast knowledge of BF.netters can pick out some names who could bring some good defense and versatility to the Brewers bench, while at least showing one skill at the plate (power, average, plate discipline/approach). Also, it must be realistic for the Brewers to be able to trade for them by giving up low/mid level prospects or bullpen arms, the two trading chips that Milwaukee might be able to spare in a mid-season swap. I'm no prospect guru, so some of these guys may be young and untradable as they hold quite a bit of value. I'd like to know that too. Scouting reports please, on: Josh Wilson, ARI Robert Andino, BAL Roman Santiago, DET Ozzie Martinez, FLA Tommy Manzella, HOU Trevor Plouffe, MIN Eduardo Nunez, NYY Chin Lung-Hu, NYM Alberto Gonzalez, SD Andres Blanco, TEX Some other more well-known veteran names that may have already been mentioned: Brendan Ryan, SEA Adam Everett, CLE Ronny Cedeno, PIT Marco Scutaro, BOS Any possibilites from this group? Anybody that I've missed?

Marcum with another gem. As long as it isn't marred by the guys behind him I feel good about this one. A victory here, then take 2 out of 3 against STL and it's a 4-6 road trip. That isn't too bad all things considered. Then again, a loss tonight coupled with a losing series at STL and it's a 1-9 or 2-8 road trip. Ugh.

Yep, just all of that needs to happen... Exactly. In addition to improving the hitting, pitching, and defense, it couldn't hurt if we picked it up a little bit in the managing and coaching departments. The general managing has also been a bit erratic, so I suppose we could shore up some weaknesses there too. In my opinion, our ownage is off the charts, though. Hats off to Attanasio.

After reading hundreds of your posts over the years (longtime lurker), I have to question: are you in favor of playoffs in sports? Or should we just declare the regular season champs the World Champions and kind of do the playoffs just for kicks and giggles? After all, 162 games is a far larger sample size than a couple of playoff series', so it doesn't really make sense to give all the glory to the playoff winner.

I actually laughed out loud at this one, since I'm not sure if you are serious or not with your decimals. If it was a tongue-in-cheek estimation, well done. If you are using some kind of tango tiger blooded formula to figure it out I'm not sure what to think.

It's very comforting to know that despite a likely 5 game losing streak and our two "aces" getting shelled in the last few games we are able to follow up with guys like Marcum and Wolf. Barring injuries, this team is going to win plenty of games this year. Hopefully they win enough.