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If Wolf can't see how this is hurting the team, or Melvin, or Roenicke, they're ALL idiots and should be fired. I don't understand all the knashing of teeth at brewerfan over the backup catcher (not picking on you RoCo). Dougie has made it clear he values catchers that 'call a good game' (i.e. defensive catcher). the main issue as presented between Wolf and Lucroy was pitch selection. Obviously we have to have 2 catchers and at least 1 is going to be a perceived defensive 'good pitch calling' catcher. no matter how much we complain Dougie isn't going to change his spots. So wanting the situation to change requires Melvin's firing. i personally don't agree with the premise that pitch calling is a definitive talent (shouldn't approaching hitters be discussed by P and C before the game when reviewing scouting reports with the big issues agreed upon in advance?)

Ron S.O. Roenicke makes Dusty Baker seem like a genius. My estimate is that baseball is 90% player talent/performance 5% manager talent/performance and 5% intangibles/luck. So ultimately the vast majority of success is determined by the players. You can argue the exact numbers, but the fact is that player talent is clearly the vast majority of the key to determining team success. However, over a 162 game schedule that 5% the manager contributes is significant in putting a talented team into a position to make the playoffs. last time the Brewers made the playoffs it was a 1 game difference. to simply ignore the impact of stupid decisions by the manager is a recipe for failure.

Obviously, MLB pitchers have much better command- but at the same time, I would bet that most walks (non-intentional) are mistakes. By that logic then most players are identical, but some are better than others because they get more mistakes from pitchers. Pujols really isn't more talented than YunE6 and Braun and Gomez are twins separated by better luck on pitcher mistakes. Man when do the brewers hold open tryouts, I might want to give it a shot, I feel lucky these days.

Loe should be relegated to mop up duty, if not outright released to make room for the return of McClendon. Dougie is slow to cut ties with his choices and former Rangers. I don't see Loe going anywhere after that half season of success last year after years of mediocre crap. He just doesn't have a strong FB to make the sinker that much more effective. When he can't locate his sinker (a lot this year) he doesn't have an out pitch and he gets battered around.

Not to get off topic, but it's kind of sad that the "glory days" we dreamed of when we had Prince, JJ, Rickie, etc in the minors and were suffering through 100+ loss seasons has netted us a .500 record and one playoff appearance. And where does that responsibility lie? Am I the only one who thinks the Brewers will mostly likely not sign Fielder, Greinke OR Marcum? Won't be able to sign or won't try to sign? If they all decide to test Free Agency then yes the Brewers will most likely not sign any of them because the Brewers can't outbid a majority of teams. I believe that Mark Attanoseio will definitely want to retain at least one to keep the sheep walking through the turnstiles and paying big money for a team just good enough to look like a contender. At some point spending money to make money will override strict budget limitations.

For a first year manager, I think he is doing a great job and making a lot of good adjustments. Why does he need a "grace" period? The man's been in baseball 20+ years as a player/coach. What did he do that entire time while he was sitting on the bench watching games? Did he sit their humming to himself with not a thought in his head. He's watched more live games than 99.9% of the posters on this board. Other than Lucroy all of the players on this team have multiple years of big league experience. He shouldn't need more than the few months (from hiring til day 1) to have an idea what each player has to offer. Granted it will take some time to figure out each players personality, but it hardly needs much to figure out that Carlos Gomez shouldn't see the 2nd position in the order more than in an emergency, that Kotsay is spent, Corey Hart is the regular RF and doesn't need a ton of time off, this is not a running team and Kameron Loe is a ROOGY. It's great to have a manager that the players seem to all like and respect. Baseball is littered with managers that players didn't like and it was never an issue as long as the team was winning. I could see him being the manager in Milwaukee for a long time. That's my nightmare too. He's no different than 99% of the other old school managers that have no clue about putting players and teams in the best position to succeed/win. He has a team with much better talent than Macha so they will win more games this year and most people without thinking a bit about the change in personnel will just assume RR is a better manager.

just say no to big Ten players......

Not to rekindle some of the earlier debates, but when there's grumbling about low-ceiling college players this pick is where my complaints lie. I don't have any problems with the pitchers we took, but what does Ramirez bring to the system that we don't already have with Gamel, Halton, Morris and Hawn? Especially after taking Morris and Hawn last year. I hope this isn't a trend where we burn a 4th or 5th rounder every year on a college 1b with AAAA written all over him. Sorry for the negativity. Speaking as someone who bleeds negativity that was a really weak attempt. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif I agree with the sentiments. I had been very happy with rounds 1-3 as there is no clear "Arnett, what the heck are you thinking" moments for any of the picks. Like the Lopez pick at 2 as it is clearly not a Jack Z cursed player pick, but decent upside. Ramirez would probably still be around in rounds 6-7 and that's the highest we should have sent a flyer on him. Their BPA list must have been dropped on the floor and somebody mistook page 14 for the top of the pile.....

norris went to jays @74.

There's early busts that the draftniks like every year. like many of the ted thompson picks?

Ryan Braun just showed Albert Pujols what the meaning of classy is.

it was pretty clear when the Jays made Bautista the "permanent" RF that they were opening up 3B for Lawrie. encarnacion is a fill-in til may/june and super 2 status is gone. Cain move makes sense for money.

If I may point you folks in the direction of this fine article. From the article: So obviously he understands that sore ribs aren't good for a pitcher, yet he didn't shut Zack down at the very beginning as a precaution when they are 4-5 weeks out from opening day so that Zack could continue putting "stress" on ribs that are "sore" (at the least). A good journalist might ask, "Did you ask him how his ribs felt after each of his starts?" That, unfortunately, would probably reveal that yeah they did and the discomfort was still there and they still didn't shut him down. So they wait another week..... Maybe Raasch is the problem. Maybe the GM asked him in a way that his answer wouldn't be to shut him down (DM: Does he have any verifiable injury that requires us to shut him down; Raasch: Well, not verifiable, no.). It's RR's job to make sure that a player is able to go no matter what the doctor/trainer and player says. As an organization the Brewers have had multiple failures when players weren't totally honest about their health condition. The managers role is to make sure the player is telling everything he knows based on what the player says and what the manager observes. If Zack was still having pain and problems after the first start in ST RR could easily have shut him down for a few days to see how he progressed (like skip a turn and limit the "stress to his ribs" that are "sore"). Instead the brewer brain-trust decides, hey we're all in, no point of holding back our top starter for a few meaningless ST games, pedal to the metal.....

Some very interesting comments from Roenicke on Greinke's injury and a few other tidbits My main reaction to the injury was to be irritated at Zack for not being upfront and reporting the injury right away. I can forgive him for playing basketball, but not coming clean. Now it's clear that the brewers knew right away, but didn't think it needed to be investigated further or shut him down as a precaution until 2 weeks later and he wasn't getting better. How incompetent. I was going to give roenecke the benefit of the doubt on some of his stupid comments until I saw what he put into action, but clearly the fact douggie picked him and his stupid comments indicate he is as bad as suspected. Now the handling of Grienke makes it clear the we have another stoopid manager. There's a reason this team has only been to the playoffs twice in 41 seasons - crappy management....

I would agree with everyone who thinks that the odds are pretty high that the division could come down to 1-3 games and thus even if his injury only cost the Brewers one game, that one game could be significant. There's a lot of variables that ultimately will play a role in what team takes the division. Unlike football, you can't simply slot a baseball player in for another and expect them to contribute at the same level. So the team that has fewer starts lost by the top players is going to have an advantage. Right now the cards have taken the biggest hit with the loss of wainwright, but at present the brewers are running second with our starting RF likely not ready to start the season, our starting/main catcher will be delayed, our number one pitcher will miss 2-3 starts, and Rogers, Gamel, and Parra are delayed with injuries that could easily delay/impact the first few weeks to over a month of the start of the season. While it isn't the end of the world, even brewer fans with LASIK brewer goggles have to admit it isn't a good start to the season.

Hawing might be the loser, er winner. They are aligned right now (assuming pitching every 5th day throughout the remainder of ST) as: 4/4: Marcum 4/5: Greinke 4/6: Gallardo I would expect that to change since the 5th spot aligns with days off in April if the rotation starts with the # 1 on the first game (4/2 @ CIN) meaning Narveson would pitch on 4/6

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1) go to the windows icon (lower left corner) and click once. 2) under the menu that pops up select "computer" on the right side to bring up the explorer window. 3) On the far left under the header is "organize" with a down arrow. 4) Click on that and a menu appears. Select "Folder and search options" 5) There should be 3 tabs in the next window: "General", "View", and "Search". Click on "View" 6) mid-way under "Advanced Settings" is a heading "Hidden Files and Folders". Select the radio button next to "show hidden files, folders, and drives". Hit ok or apply, followed by ok. Close Computer. 7) open itunes and attach iPod. Enable iPod for disk use (don't know). 8) go back to the windows icon (lower left) and click once. 9) select "computer" on right again. 10) you should be able to see your iPod and on it will now be a folder called "Ipod_Control". Follow NeedMore Fans instructions....

This trade is exactly the kind of trade people have been calling for Melvin to make, except obviously it wasn't for pitching. Thankfully none of them will be Brewers GM in the future. Gomez is on track to match his 2B and 3B totals from last year. He's matched his HR total from last year alreadyin 40% of the PA and hence the jump in SLG. I'll be a lot more convinced he's had a real improvement when more than 1 stat moves in a positive direction. And that OBP is still abysmal by any standards. Keep in mind his brother suffered from deabilitating depression. Was his brother a Brewers fan? Sometimes stats don't give a true picture. You have to eyeball a player. Gomez is getting past the eyeball stage, he's had >1200 major league plate appearances. Sure he's 24 so theoretically he could break out, but at some point there has to be more than an opening day HR to show you a trend towards breakout and a increase in only 1 power measure doesn't pass the muster test. On the 1982 brewers he'd be a good CF, in 2010 as an OBP black hole he should be batting 9th every game sharing the time with escobar, especially when Gallardo pitches.

Yeah, Narveson didn't have quite as many three pitch at bats as I would have liked. Ball, Ball, HR (Like Suppan)? Strike, Ball, HR (Like Parra)?

But if he can get through two an outing, he'd be very valuable in the pen. That said, I'm pulling for him - if only so that the Brewers can boast one of the best (if not THE BEST) pickoff moves in the majors on their staff. Forget his pitching, why don't we move him to the OF.

How about if Mark A. is only reason that Suppan and Gagne are even on the team? What does that say about the GM if he allows the same situation to develop in Milwaukee that developed in his previous job. Worked well for the Rangers.....

The brewers should keep Hardy at SS in 2009 and let Escobar get most of a year at AAA. Then move Hardy to CF in 2010. In fact, we have Robin in the dugout for the next week at least to talk about what a good move it was for him to move to CF. Cameron is the one year fill-in at CF and Hardy's bat is above average for CF. He should make similar money in CF as he does at SS. Sign him long term if he is willing and he makes a transition to CF, otherwise trade him when Escobar is ready. Hart? This year has been the same trend as last year without the September Surge. He started 2007 and 2008 slow, peaked in late June/Early July, dropped til September then made a late surge. The main difference being his OPS peaked over .900 in 2007 and peaked in the .850s in 2008 with a September slump. Obviously from his comments he can't handle the pressure of a tough media market like Milwaukee where the fans can't remember what you did in your last at bat and would be better suited to playing for the Florida Marlins where nobody shows up to boo the players. Go year to year with him unless he trades some FA years for a good team deal. He doesn't have quite the power, nor quite the speed to be great at a corner OF spot. Weeks? He's always 50AB from breaking out ....., now if only the same could be said about his atrocious defense. I've been waiting for the breakout year for Rickie simply so that he has maximal value to trade him. Keep him as long as he's cheap. Fielder? He has all the potential of being a standout DH. Trade him after his next monster year or the next offer that's too good to pass. Go year to year with him for contracts as he's waiting for the big payday anyways. Hall? Move him to catcher.

As a side note -- I saw a graphic today -- The professional sports team with the longest playoff drought (other than the Brewers) was the AZ Cardinals at 9 years -- The Brewers are at 26 years, I suppose that puts some depth to the fan's sense of urgency, esp. if they think w/o CC and Sheets we are in trouble for next year. Not sure where you saw that, but the Pirates haven't been in the playoffs since 1992 and the Royals some time in the mid 80's so I doubt the accuracy of that. Maybe Ned shouldn't be the enabler that he is and the players could start holding themselves more accountable for their onfield performance. Exactly. Ned publicly states he's happy as long as the team battles. Privately, who knows, but there doesn't seem to be any thoughts about accountability by the players that when they play like crap the paying customers can voice their unhappiness. I guess in this whole debate I see a culture clash between those who are fans of the team and those who go to games to be entertained. Many call the latter, bandwagon fans, but that mis-characterizes them. A significant number of the 3M that will attend Brewer games chose attending a Brewers game as a form of entertainment and aren't as emotionally invested in the psyche of the players as the typical poster here. The entertainment 'fan' (EF) simply wants to be entertained and when the actors are laying a pile on the field and wanting the fans to excuse their defication, suprise, suprise, the EF lets them know they don't appreciate paying for that *crap*. Get used to it, because when you put out a product that's entertainment and the actors are paid as if they are entertainers, their performance is going to be judged by everyone atttending the event. Fans can chose to moan and gripe about it, but with success comes minority status and the only way to have success is to pay for it. I don't think there's enough fans to keep MP filled and the payroll high enough to keep the team competitive and the EF in the minority.

Aren't PTBNL guys usually lesser known prospects? IIRC, players can't be traded with less than 1 year professional experience, or are on the DL. They have to be PTBNL, but I believe they are told that they are part of the deal just not officially until they qualify to be traded. Edit: No Lucroy OR Green = big wet kiss for Melvin from BtA. No kidding, I wasn't so happy with losing another top prospect, but if the WI St J is correct then I'll take back 25% of the bad things I've said about Melvin. Ok, 50%....