Big Reed

my point is the fact that they didn't take the wait and see approach or wait another 50 games to see if they'd turn it around. the players weren't producing and their GM took swift action to cut them loose. I'd like to see more GM's take the swift approach to cutting deadweight.

I hit a squirrel yesterday. I thought about trying to avoid it, but i kept being reminded of those two squirrels giving each other the high five after the motorist crashes.

is there a cars.com or progressive insurance type of site to compare the prices of different moving van companies? a lot of moving companies in their advertisements will say they offer free quotations. but i would hate to tell one moving van after he came 60-75 miles to our house, that i'm going to ask another company for their free quote as well. it's not like we live in a city. we live in the country in the middle of nowhere. i was just wondering if there was a site that compared Allied to United or mayflower and the rest? We have about 25,000 lbs of furniture and stuff. A U haul is not going to do the job. and my back doesn't want to do it either. This will be our first move where we will have to pay for the move and select the mover. In the past, the governement did all of it for us for free. We were spoiled. Anybody know how much packing and moving 25,000 pounds across the state of illinois is going to cost us? aprox 280 miles.

We have insurance. My son thought he broke his foot twice in the last year playing basketball. he was in extreme pain. the hospital took xrays and all he had was a sprain both times. The cost for each visit was $1200. We paid about $10 out of our pocket and the insurance covered the rest. I thought I had a heart attack last year mowing my 2 acres with a push mower. I went to the hospital and stayed there for awhile. my stay in the emergency room cost about $2500. I paid about $35. hospital costs, even for routine visits to the emergency room are expensive. I highly recomend for the active man to buy health insurance. if you don't have insurance, you could be like a friend of mine and be in debt for life.

I'm a writer. I write short fantasy stories for internet sports fans. fortunately, my wife has a job.

the question is if you dropped them, what's the likelyhood you could reclaim them or somebody even better in the off season? I'm in a similar situation with gallardo on my keeper team. My keeper team has a farm of 4 players I can place on it who are either in the minors or have played less than a certain amount of games. Right now i have C teagarden, pirates 1b Pearce, OF laporta and Indians Sp Miller on my farm team. I also have Colorado's 3b stewart and gallardo. I could place gallard o or stewart on my farm eam, but I'd have to drop one of the other 4 players. Gallardo is deadweight to me this year. So I ask myself, do I think he'll be better than the 4 I have on my farm team? Will he be better than Miller? or should i risk dropping him and allowing some either team to pick him and allow him to be his deadweight? the question you should be asking about Olsen and Volquez is if you think they'll be a star next year. because, in reality, keeper leagues typically last only 2-4 years before you start over. In a keeper league, you should worry about this year and next year. To answer your question, I don't see olsen or Volquez being an ace this year or next. i see them as being a good value pitcher, but not one worth keeping. if you dropped them, i'm quite ertain you'll be able to reclaim them at the start of next year. and if you can reclaim them in next year's draft, why keep them as part of your protected players? I'm not saying to drop either pitcher. i just don't think they are worthy of being considered protectable players. if you have a good offer, i'd sell high.

rather than over or under -reacting, I'd just like to see the brewers do something. people say we should wait and we need more time, and teams will not trade with us until the deadline. while melvin is applying his stand pat, wait and see approach and do nothing until the trade deadline, other GM's are taking action, cutting deadweight and making trades today. Are these GMs over reacting? or are they taking appropriate action? jacque jones and edmunds were cut this week. Seattle brought up Clement and balantien and released Wilkerson and nelson. Cleveland traded Michaels to pittsburg. other teams seem to think 30 games is long enough to wait before taking corrective action. it was nice to see turnbow released. I would have preferred to see him traded in the offseason when other teams were inquiring about him and he actually had trade value. once again, we waited too long before taking action. yes, we the fans panic and over-react. I think it would be refreshing if GM's would over react or at least not stand pat.

the problem in waiting and hoping for a cardinal collapse is that they have several players they can add to their team down the stretch, and the brewers have "virtually" none. the cardinals have Carpenter and Mulder to add to their pitching staff in August. they also have a guy named rasmus they could bring up or use as trade bait. They also have money they could spend to acquire a veteran who may have a big salary. The biggest thing I fear about the Cubs is not thier players, but their financial backing. if the Cubs wanted to or saw the need, they could open their purse even larger and acquire several more veteran players if an injury arises. if the Cubs needed another ace starter, they could afford to acquire one. if lee goes down, teh Cubs could afford to acquire another quality veteran to replace him. the Cubs have the financial backing to buy a championship. if fielder or sheets goes down for the brewers, it's the season's over.

the dodgers' de Witt. he plays third base, you heard it here first. acquire him now.

You HAVE to go to Church Street in Downtown Orlando. It's definitely not Disney. here's a listing with people's reviews on some of the more popular nightclubs and restaurants. I like to go to sites that offer people's opinions rather than what AAA and the orlando tourist bureau want you to know. http://orlando.nightguide.com/nl1dt.htm

I felt bad last year winning one of the brewerfan baseball leagues and not being able to go to a brewerfan and proclaim my championship. think about it. if you were to win a brewerfan fantasy championship, where would you post it on brewerfan? inside that one fantasy thread that's 20 pages long? no thanks. in the major league board? in the softball forums? if i win a brewerfan fantasy league i want all of brewerfan to know, not just the people who were in my league. I want all the stats geeks and old timer posters and mods to know I won. I want to be a bit boastful and melodramatic! and what better place to do so than a fantasy forum?

so if I called the views and actions of the moderators conservative? Would you thank me? and say yes this is a very conservative site and to be a moderator, you must first be conservative. Thanks Team Canada for proving my point in a different thread. I guess you felt necessary to remove that other "odd word" just as I predicted you would. I guess I can't call myself gay and odd in the same sentence? Who was I offending by calling myself gay and odd? Me? it should be obvious I'm a part of that liberal community. If I called myself black and odd would you have deleted the word Black? calling myself odd was more derogatory than calling myself gay- at least in my opinion. What would happen if a very open and honest gay person started posting here? Like time Tim Rock and Eddie Murphy and the Black community do, the Gay community uses a lot of words in their common everyday language not to be derogatory but their language may be offensive to others who are just not familier with their meaning and context of the words and their lifestyle. Saying gay and #!%++ are very common words in the gay community. They are very open about what and who they are. What happens if somebody comes out on the off topic forum and says I'm gay and a crossdressor and just told my wife and she kicked me out of the house, what should I do? Will that thread be deleted in its entirety? Will it be treated as if it was political or religious? what happens to the thread gbpacker started about being evicted from his home if he had prefaced it by saying he was evicted because he was gay? would that thread be locked ? would that thread be allowed for discussion? Can we not talk about gays or being gay without offending a moderator? maybe I want to know where the gay bars in Milwaukee are. Would that be considered ok? or would that be considered gay? I've been to Orlando many times. I lived in Tampa for 4 years. Would anybody be offended if I recommended to Rocobrewfan some of the gay bars in orlando to go to? They are a lot more festive than the usual tourist places. Rather than just going bar hopping, if he really wants to have fun, he should go gay bar hopping. I'm not dissing gay bars. Anyone that's been to one knows I'm right. they are a fun place. A dictionary is not really a book that defines words. People and society define words. A dictionary just lists the many meanings people have given to words. The words irregardless and ain't are now included in most dictionaries. Why? because the makers of dictionaries decided enough people use those two words, so they included the meanings of how the words were used. The word gay has many meanings and uses. it can be a noun, verb or adjective. If I say something is gay, surely my meaning for the word is totally different than Team Canada's. he doesn't understand the majority of my posts. Very few people do. if I wanted to be derogatory to team Canada, I wouldn't choose obvious words. I would speak in tangents that some posters would understand while others would have no clue. Al knew where I was coming from and what I meant. he can read through the tangents because he's read enough of my previous posts. but if I used the words I really wanted to use, I'd be banned in a second. So what's wrong with calling something or yourself gay or #!%++? before deciding if a term is derogatory, I'd like to hear the opinion from somebody who is gay or odd or #!%++. I believe you are trying to protect a culture that doesn't need protecting. and therein is my point. I think you are trying too hard to decide what is right and what is derogatory without ever asking somebody from the gay community what is really offensive to them. You are making decisions about gays based on your own lifestyle without input from the other side. I think the phrase " walk a mile in my shoes" is appropriate.

it's sad when a starting pitcher can't go at least 7 innings per game. This means we are either babying our pitchers too much or we have a bunch of mediocre pitchers. Can somebody tell me why the pitchers of the 60's and 70's could pitch 250-300 innings for te n consecutive years and never have ar m problems? and today's pitchers can't even go 200 innings in consecutive years without having problems? have steriods and other enhancing drugs ruined today's pitchers? one would think in today's ages where everyone is bigger and stronger that basbeall pitchers would also be bigger and stronger. what happened? Where have you gone Jim kaat, Gaylord Perry, Bert Blyleven and Phil Niekro?

I think we have discovered the problem. We need to bring the dip n dots back. I believe the problem first started when ittibits was introduced to miller park. now all the hitters want itibitty batting averages to go with their itty bits.

Gaudin is the odd man out and headed to a relief role. would the brewers have an interest in Gaudin? To be successful, the brewers need all of their starters to be able to pitch 6-8 innings every time out. these 5 inning performances by parra, Villenueva and bush are killing us. you can't win a division if three of your 5 starters can't pitch pas t the the 5th inning. if you think our relievers are overworked now, just wait another two months.

pogo - i don't like nachos that much. i prefer dip n dots and brats. and soda verses beer. I'm kind of odd that way. as for a new strategy, how about making a trade in May rather than waiting for the trade deadline in July? that would be something totally bizzarre and different for a GM to recognize a problem and take immediate action to fix it rather than the tried and true let's see how this goes approach. I've seen the let's see how this goes approach used for 30 years. I've never seen it actually work in any of those years. here's hoping the brewers make a dramatic move before Memorial Day. if the brewers have any hopes of trying to win a division or a world series, they have got to become RISK takers. Standing pat is not going to get it done. Finishing third is no longer acceptable. to offset their small payroll and small market, they must be RISK takers. they were RISk takers when they signed Gagne. they must be willing to take a risk once more. Take Zito off the giants' hands before they realize he has regained his stuff. obtaining Zito would cost the brewers a lot less in talent than going after Cain or Linceum.

that's the problem with baseball and melvin. a trade could be made this week. but the traditional GM wants to wait and see and will wait until july to do something. and by July , we will be so far down and out, we won't need to do anything. it's time to do something now to make up for or oversight this Winter.

I think it is safe to say that Theriot is a lot better player than many brewerfan posters thought he was. part of my thinking last year was that he seemed to generate wins despite his stats. he was a sparkplug- a good luck charm. a scrappy guy. is he a better shortstop than hardy? probably not. is he an all star? definitely not. But he's also definitely not as bad as some posters tried to make him out to be last year. I think he's better than Counsel who makes more money. it's kind of like how some brewers think of Suppan as a good pitcher, while others get blinded by his salary and say he's a terrible pitcher. Suppan's a good pitcher. he's not all star material. But he's better than a lot of other pitchers. is Suppan any worse than Moyer or Wakefield or maddux? Some would say yes, while others would argue no. the same applies to theriot. he's a nice guy to have if your team is going to dedicate salary resourses to other areas like Soriano, lee and Zambrano. Every team needs a Theriot.

it should be noted in bando's behalf that he was ordered by the brewers' ownership not to draft anybody in the first round that wanted a big or even mid sized signing bonus. At that time, the brewers had no money to draft players who had high signing bonus demands. So in saving money, bando drafted a bunch of losers. I blame this more on ownership than Bando. bando later remarked he would have wanted to draft certain players who turned out great, but couldn't afford to pay their signing bonus demands. The biggest problem with the brewers in the 90's is that while FA signings were escalating, Bud Selig wanted to show other small market teams that they could could compete without spending a lot of money on free agents. and he used the brewers to prove his point. his idea backfired in his face, and created the big rift between teams that we see today. if bud had been able to get a salary cap imposed in the late 80's as part of the strike agreement, baseball would be a lot different today and a lot more competitive and even. it's too bad bud wasn't the owner of the yankees or St louis or Kansas City. I can't believe the article didn't mention the brewers switch to the national league when at the time the brewers three best minor league prospects were all projected as dh only. That was well thought out Bud.

There were four unforgivable problems with bando offering Molitor that paycut. the first was that Molitor had one of his more productive years and nobody gets a paycut after having a productive year. gee, I had a great year, and I'm offered a paycut? second - prior to Bando offering molitor a paycut, there were only about 2 other baseball players in baseball history that were offered paycuts. offering a player a paycut was unheard of back then. those two previous paycuts were the result of injuries and the player missing the previous 1-2 years. their cuts were justified. third - bando informed Molitor that the brewer finances were not very strong and he asked him to take a paycut to help out the team financially. he asked him to take one for the team. fourth - at the time of the paycut, bando informed Molitor that he was giving him a paycut because of his age, he was not going to play him every day the following year and that he was going to start playing young guys like Joey Moyer more, so that Molitor would only get about 450 at bats and because of the lower projection in atbats, he was not worth as much, and thus deserving of a pay cut. at that time, Molitor thought 3,000 hits was still attainable; Bando didn't think so. Molitor knew staying with the brewers would limit his atbats and by staying, he would be hard pressed to collect 3,000 hits. So he left for toronto and a chance to be the full time dh. The sad part about molitor is that most people think of him as just being a dh. he could have played third base or outfield or first base his last three years and put up numbers like Mark Grace or Overbay. he was not as fragile as people make him out to be. he played third base for toronto in the world series after not playing there all season. he could have played a position, he just didn't. Molitor is kind of like big Poppy. Big poppy could play first base - he just doesn't because the red Sox have a great first baseman. Big poppy is probably just as good of an outfielder as manny is. When it's all said and done, will Prince be remembered as a first baseman or dh who played first in his early years? as for molitor - he got the shaft from the brewers. as for the article- that's why i want the brewers to win now. I'm tired of hearing we have a 5 year plan and in 5 years our draft picks wil l make us a competitive team. I lived through all the bad years. i want just one good year before i die. I don't want to be like Cubs fans. Buy me a championship. and I won't complain if you sell all of the players next year. but me a championship. Unlike some , finishing in second or third with a winning record is just not enough. it's nice, but not enough.

I will agree that the cardinals won a world championship in 2006. I will not agree that they were a great or even a good team that year. They did have an experienced manager and a tradition of winning which may have led to success in the play-offs. I don't expect a team with less than 85 wins to win a division in the next 5 years. if the brewers want or expect to win the Central division or the wild card, they need to focus on getting 90 wins as their goal rather than trying to compare their record to the cards or cubs. if the brewers can shoot for 90-95 wins they will not have to worry what any other team in their division does. Focus on yourself and your own wins - not your competition. Unfortunately, I see the brewers in the 85-87 win category and hoping to backdoor their way into the play-offs at the expense of some-one elses' misfortunes. i see posts saying the brewers are only a lee or pujols injury away from a division crown. The brewers are a fielder injury away from being in last place. Good teams play through player injuries; bad teams don't. Rather than pinning on hopes on some other team's possible injuries, it would sound a lot better if brewer fans thought this team could beat a healthy cards or cubs team for the division championship. rather tha n placing our hopes on pujols getting injured, it would be nice if we placed our hopes on our own players performing to expectations. a true competitor gets no satisfaction of beating a depleted team. they want to win when both teams are at their best. I want to beat a cards team that has both Mulder and Carpenter at their best and glaus and pujols cranking them out. if the brewers can do that, then they are a great team.

I didn't say you would gain anything by trading hart or fielder. What i did point out is if you were willing to trade either player, you would find a lot of teams willing to trade NOW rather than waiting until july. A point was expressed that too many potential trading partners would not be willing to trade us a pitcher now because the y were still in the race.. I disagree and pointed out if we offered up fielder, we'd have teams knocking on our door in two minutes wanting to make a trade. teams won't wait until the deadline to make a trade to acquire somebody like fielder. On the other side of the coin nobody is going to offer the brewers anything before the trade deadline for a guy like Weeks or hall. I believe if hart was offered as part of a trade, you would find many takers who would not wait until the deadline. a lot of people look at a player and say it's early and we need more time to evaluate so we don't need to make a trade now.. I look at players differently. I look at their previous year, spring training and then look at the first 25-30 games to see if the player has made any type of an improvement. A good example would be rRchie Sexson. he was terrible last year. he's forgotten how to put the ball in play and get a hit. it's only 30 games into this season, but Sexson has shone nothing in those 30 games that would indicate he will ever get out of his slump. I look at hall and Weks much the same way i look at Sexson. it's only been 30 games , but in looking at their production from last year, I' m not seeing anything in those 30 games to indicate either player is going to step up another level this year. hall at least looks like he'll hit 30 homers while batting .260. I have no clue what Weeks is going to do. And i think other GMs would also be hesitant to make a trade for Weeks right now based on his current performance. This thread was supposed to be it's time to trade an asset to replace gallardo. if you really want to do it now, you could do it by offering a prized brewer asset which i highly doubt melvin would ever consider. But don't just arbitraily say it's too early and other clubs are not willing to trade right now. the truth is, they are not willing to trade right now for what Doug is currently offering. I personally think Melvin should make a move now and not wait to see how Parra, Villenuava and Bush will pan out. I' m not expecting great things from that trio this year - good things, just not great things. But I know Melvin will wait it out. That's the reality. the brewers need 4 starters who can pitch 200-225 innings to be a play-off team. No matter how well Parra and Villenuava pitch this year, they will not pitch more than 200 innings. I think the brewers have enough offense already and should be willing to trade hart for a 1/2 starting pitcher. but i know that's not going to happen.

Tim allows his friends to call him Matt. it's kind of a in family nickname. kind of like when people call me Reed. My real name is Ned, but I post as Reed on internet forums.. I used to be a catcher in the big leagues before this new job was offered to me.

my point is that a lot of teams are ready to sell. it's just that melvin is not willing to meet their price, and he's hoping if he waits longer, then they might not ask for as much or the brewers' farm hands might improve their value and he can trade them for a better player. I guarantee if the brewers offered the Giants Prince Fielder, they'd trade the brewers Linceum by tommorow. They would not hesitate or wait until the trade deadline. They'd jump all over that deal. While that deal may be a tad unrealistic and unpopular, I think it is safe to assume if the Brewers offered hart, they would be able to make a deal with any team this week. the problem is not that other teams are not ready yet to make a deal. many teams would be willing to make a deal tonight if the right brewers players were offered. the problem is melvin doesn't want to trade away players like hart or weeks or hardy or Fielder. Oswaldt could be had this week if melvin wanted to part with certain players. But melvin would rather wait and see and hope guys like Parra and Villenuavea and Bush will elevate their game to a much higher level than previously expected. From Melvin's viewpoint, if these three pitchers can elevate their game, he doesn't have to trade Hart. from my viewpoint, expecting Parra, Bush and Villenuava to all elevate their game three noches is being way too optimistic. and the longer melvin waits to take action, the further back the brewers will fall.

I will agree with an earlier poster who pointed out part of the brewers' problem was their starting pitching. I read this past month that the Dodgers' goal for each of their starting pitchers is to pitch 7 innings every turn. If they do not pitch 7 innings, then people are upset. Just think how great our relief staff would be if all 5 starters could go out and pitch at least 7 innings each start. just think how great our relief staff would look if 3 of our 5 starters could pitch 7 innings. or would it be greedy to ask for two of our starters to pitch 7 innings? is that two much to ask or expect?