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You don't like the new look? Some people are never happy! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Isn't it great that thorugh 4 IP, Ben has allowed only 2 hits, no walks, and has 3 K's, and most of us probably aren't thinking anything of it. I just hope that he keeps pitching like this for the rest of the year. It's a lot more enjoyable than some of the stuff we've had to put up with the last couple of years. Another 1-2-3 inning in the fifth with 2ks... ho-hum.

what did he do? K'd after hitting a LOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG foul ball to left.

It is quite the pretty swing....and now that I've finally seen it, I can try to match it to one of the ones on MVP Baseball! I've got some BP footage I took in huntsville last year that I'm trying to get online. The file is a 15mb windows media file.

Pretty swing, isn't it? Congrats Corey.

Nice job on the Indy game, Kraft4a3.

Would a Weekly MLB-game thread work? It wouldn't be as organized as the daily Brewer threads, but it would allow everyone to post their thoughts on specific non-Brewer games in a single thread. Bash away...

.215 BA, .307 OBP, .246 SLG. Those numbers are not good, but I'll "take a look at the bright side". Even tho he is slumping, Podsednik's OBP is still nearly 100 points higher than his BA. What does that mean? It means even if he "only" hits .280, which is probably a reasonable expectation, we can expect his OBP to be in the .370-.380 range, which is right about where it was last year. I'm encouraged to see this sort of improvement in his game in spite of his two and a half week cold stretch. Combined that with some well hit balls that have turned into outs, and I'm not too worried. It would be nice if he could get a day or two off now and again, but I don't think he needs an extended sit-down.

I'd say players, whether active or on the DL, are probably a pipe-dream. But I don't see why other Brewer personnel couldn't do the occasional in-game chat. I suppose a lot of it would have to do with the robustness of the chatroom and whether or not it would be moderated or not.

K's matter for pitchers and not hitters??? This really does belong in another thread, but BA or BP did a study a few years ago that basically said that picthers could only control strikeout and homeruns allowed, that once a ball was hit, whether or not it turned into a hit or an out was fairly random. Obviously strikeouts matter sometimes, especially in the situations you suggested. But Jim Thome is a pretty good hitter inspite of striking out 150+ times a year. And Sosa is pretty good. And Sexson is pretty good. Giambi. Some guy names Ruth lead the league in Ks more years than not and id OK. PS- Ben Sheets is pretty good

Does this qualify as a pitchers duel yet?

I'd rather call up Saenz first. His "clock" has already started, so why also start Hendrickson's arby/free agency clock as well this year? At this point, Saenz has only three days worth of service time, so that really isn't a worry. If he's called up later this summer, he isn't going to get enough time to be a Super-2, so he'll be exclusive property of Milwaukee thru the end of 2006 and arby eligable thru the end of 2009. If Hendrickson is called up this summer, he'll be the same. The whole point about the arby clock posts is to prevent guys from being Super-2s, and I'd have to think both guys are past that point. When they are ready, and they are needed for more than a spot start, bring 'em up. Not a second before, and not a second after.

Good grief! Another 5-spot in the 6th following a 5th inning run, and Beloit is down 16-0 in the 7th. Isn't there a 10-run rule or something?

Wow... he was so safe...

The bull pen just hasn't gotten it done in the last week. The disaster that is the current pitching staff cannot be blamed entirely upon the bullpen. It would certainly help if someone on this team other than Sheets could go 6, or god forbid, 7 solid innings once in a while. I'm not impressed by some of the performances I've seen out of the bullpen, but I certainly think they'd be less exposed with a few better starts. I don't think anyone wants to see this bullpen exposing itself...

Feel free to delete this post from the thread after the correction is made, but Sunday's the 9th. My birthday isn't until tomorrow.

but a guy making millions of dollars better... I've seen balls like that get past guys like IRod and Johnson. I'm pretty sure if that sort of throw eats up good catchers who do make millions we can excuse Bennett. And speaking of players getting millions, any chance that Helms will revolutionize the game? I mean, could we see players being signed to large contracts based upon their ability to hit texas-leaguers to the opposite field?

If I were teaching a youngster I'd teach them a change before I'd work on a knuckleball. I think a change is not only a more effective pitch but it is more easily controlled. I think a 10-12 year old who can locate their fastball and throw a decent change is going to have a lot of sucess. Not only that, but I think they a great foundation for sucess as they get older.

Anyone know why JJ came out? Probably the same reason about 20 guys played; because it was a 19-3 game.

Chris, Sarfate then basically backs up wat Money was saying. Only one day off, the rest of the days they're throwing. So it begs the question...are these young pitchers able to recover? Sarfate could probably handle it better than Wilhemsen last year or Jones the year before because he was older and his arm more mature. I suppose that sort of generalization works most of the time, but it's going to fail a player or two. How do you come up with a generalized program for pitchers when two 20 year old pitchers can have completely different arms (so far as there development and maturity)? When you've got 19 year-old HSers on the same team as 24 year-old college players?

Im wondering what the percentage of high school pitchers is that throw curves and sliders and especially spiltters when they are growing up and when do they start with these pitches. I grew up a pitcher and started throwing curves and splitters by the time I was 13 and now can barely lift a baseball let alone throw one as a result. I have this feeling that kids these days are starting to throw these pitches at maybe too young of an age and when they start getting a bit older, like around 20, its coming back to hurt them. First off, I'm sorry to hear about your arm. 27 is too young to not be able to throw a ball around. The answer to your question is "probably too many too early", and you're right that it's probably causing all sort of problems down the road for a lot of kids. Given the normal stress an overhand delievery places on the arm, curveballs and slider are just piling on. The problem, is, if you're a 14 year old kid throwing 80 or 85, it's going to take some smart adults and a lot of will power on the part of the kid to NOT want to learn those pitches, as someone with that sort of arm has some serious potential. And we all know that scouts are going to be drawn by a HSer who throws in the 90s with a good curve. Evidence seems to show college age pitchers who've not been injured have a better chance of staying healthy down the road. It would be interesting to find out what sort of pitcher the typical college pitcher was at a younger age to find out why this seems to be true. The why (luck, mostly a fastball pitcher early, better mechanics, etc) may prevent the type of troubles we are seeing from Jones, Neugebauer, etc.

Apparently they soft toss every day, plus all the weight training. I went back and looked thru the Sarfate interview, and it looks like his routine was: - Start - Day 1: No throwing, 30 minutes of running plus leg work - Day 2: Bullpen session, running poles, upper body work - Day 3: Long toss, core work (?), 10-15 minutes of running, abs - Day 4: Fifteen light sprints and 5 minutes of throwing - Start I don't know how much this may have changed since last year, nor do I know how much of this routine was tailored to Sarfate and how much could be applied to other pitchers. Nor do I know how long he threw in the pen on day 2, or what he considers his core work on day 3. But there it is anyways.

I guess my questions would be: How does Milwaukee's development of pitchers differ from others? I mean, do the majority of clubs have similar routines or is Milwaukee in the minority here? We know all about Milwaukee's history of young pitchers getting hurt, but how does this compare to other organizations? It appears that the younger arms (HS and guys with only a year of college like Parra) are experiencing more arm troubles than college guys. Does this mean simply they are more suseptable to problems regardless of their regiment, or they aren't being handled properly? Regardless of whether he's right or wrong, it's good to see some of the guys in charge of developing these players are thinking long term instead of just about tomorrow.

I need some advice. Is it ok for me to root against Helms? I mean, is it ok for me to hope that his BA drops to .150 in an effort to force Yost into parking his butt on the bench? I am really enjoying this team, but, I am not sure if I can watch another one pitch groundout to short or second.

Interesting comments...