Big Reed

I like Hall for Crawford. however , if the brewers acquired Crawford, i would hate to have both Crawford and Gwynn starting in the outfield. An outfield of hart, Crawford and jenkins wouldn't be bad. The D Rays will soon have Price and Niemann competing for a starting slot in their rotation. i'm not as sure the D rays are as desperate for young starting pitching prospects as people think. All the D rays reall y need is to stop playing boston and the Yankees 17 times a year. as for guys like Crawford being over hyped, all players who make the all star team are overhyped the following years. Crawford is an All star! he must be great. I do like him a lot more than Pierre.

I'm begining to like Mark Loretta a lot more now that he's on another team. Salary wise, he's probably a little more expensive than Wiggington. I would think the Astros would probably ask for about the same type of package deal the D rays would ask for. i realize the Astros would not want ot trade Loretta to us this month. but as the year plays on, and the Astros are no longer in the chase, he might be available in late August to be able to add for the Division run.

thanks slack. looking at the link, it does not describe how the class ranking is given. it's hard to determine if one skill is weighted more or if they are all weighted equally. is vertical leap more important than lane agility? i don't know. But at least it's useful data.

this is where I try to focus on his on the field accomplishments rather than his off field problems. if the Brewers did acquire Dukes, where would he play? and what do you do with the guy he replaces? I have a hard time believing the brewers would start Dukes over Hall or Jenkins this year. Looking at Dukes' and Harts' minor league stats, I would say their ceiling is about the same. By acquiring Dukes, which current starting brewer outfielder would you trade? I could see Dukes as a potential future replacement for Jenkins. but timing wise, I think I would look to make this trade next year or the year after. I wouldn't want to add Dukes to our current outfield overload. I think he might be a nice addition after we cleared away some of the mediocre talent we currently have as in gross, nix, gwynn, and mench. looking at Tampa bay's roster and prospects, i have to believe they'd want a pitcher, first baseman, or catcher in return. looking at the brewers' minor league players, i would think the best match would be one of our pitchers.

I'd love to have Cabrera. however, he has two strikes against him. 1. his salary demands are going to approach what Soriano received from the cubs , and he and his agent both know it. 2. he is fastly developing a Gary Sheffield attitude. The reason he is playing third is because he demanded the marlins take him out of playing outfield and back to playing an infield position. He came up through the minors playing SS and 3B. he hated playing outfield, and made his feelings known publically, and forced the marlins to play him at third. Cabrera is not a take one for the team type of guy. i'm not sure why cabrera hated playing i n the outfield. i just remember he made a big stink about having to play there, and he kind of forced the marlins to trade away Lowell so he could play third. if the Brewers tried to play Cabrera in the outfield, he'd be pouting a fit worse than Sheffield. and he'd be demanding a trade.

As a purdue alum, I'm glad to see landry did well. This might at least help him get drafted in the second round. I think the bench pressing physical stats are more important for guys who play inside. i would think they would have 40 /30 or some type of speed tests, and those would be important for guards. i'd be interested is seeing what the exact tests give n were and how each player did in each test.

This is from my local Beardstown, ILL paper. I just saw this tonight, and couldn't believe it. By Bob Flood ... At Tuesday night?s City Council meeting a complaint was heard from a resident of Welch Woods regarding people parking in handicapped spaces when not handicapped. She said she had spoken to the police and the officer talked to her as if she had done something wrong instead of the other party. The officer did not issue a ticket to the other person. The resident said she had called the chief of police but he never returned her calls. She had also attempted to contact the mayor but he was not available. Mayor Walters told her that the police chief would try to straighten this situation out with her. www.beardstownnewspapers.com/weekly.html I guess to some people like myself, illegal parking in a handicap zone is a big thing. While to others, they would just rather look the other way and avoid the potential conflict/drama.

Ok, I'll ask again. Does Dukes have a higher ceiling than Hart ? I don't think so.Would the Brewers rather have Dukes playing Cf over Hall in the net 3 years? Would the brewers actually acquire Dukes and shift hall out of CF? I highly doubt it. Would the Brewers start Dukes over Jenkins in the next 3 years? maybe against lefties. the problem that i see in acquiring Dukes is that he would be a bench warmer for probably at least the next two years for the Brewers. I do not see the brewers starting Dukes over Jenkins, Hart or Hall. Based on his minor league numbers, Dukes probably does have a higher ceiling than jenkins and hall. however, high ceiling guys do not replace guys that are coming off career years like Hall or guys that are brewer fan favorites like Jenkins. And with Dukes' temper, I don't think it would be a very good idea to trade for him with the knowledge that he would be sitting on the brewers bench for the next two years. I'm sorry, but I don't see the brewers trading Jenkins, Hall or Hart any time soon. and I believe a guy like Dukes would become frustrated very easily if he were limited to playing in less than 80 games a year as a back-up.

i wish football gms would draft football players more on their game performance than their athletic skills. All we ever seem to hear about football players is their 40 times and their combine scores. and for a while, all Sherman did was draft the fastest player without regard to any real football IQ or skills. I can still remember that Oklahoma QB from 2-3 years ago who won the Hiesman trophy and wasn't even drafted. And how low did OSU's QB Smith get drafted this year? WHY ? because he's slow and small. it's nice to know NBA Gms don't draft players based on athleticism.

Gypcasino - my thought was meant to be rhetorical rather than specific. but it's about doing the right thing, and doing the right thing sometimes creates unwanted conflict. My thought was that you would probably handle those types of situations in a similar fashion to the violation of handicap parking. Telling somebody to stop smoking involves as much conflict as telling someone they cannot park in a handicapped zone. To some people, it really does bother them physically to be in a room of smokers. So when somebody totally ignores the no smoking rules of a workplace or restaurant, it is just as bad and harmful to that person as someone violating a handicap parking place. This past month we attended a $100 Lions club charity dinner. It was in a no smoking room. A friend of ours invited us to sit with him. He must have lit up at least 15 cigarettes during that dinner/evening. We didn't say anything to him. If it had been a restaurant and we were eating privately, we would have contacted the manager and asked to be seated in a different location. But in this instance, we avoided conflict and had a miserable evening and left early. I have a real big problem with people who throw their cigarette butts on the ground or out the window of their car. But I usually avoid conflict and allow people to continue to do so without complaining to them or forcing them to pick up their butts. it's a tough call. Doing the right thing - or avoid conflict? To me, using a seatbelt is very similar. If a person is a passenger in my car, they will wear a seatbelt at all times. It doesn't matter to me what their age is or what the law is or who they are. I will stop the car and enforce that rule and have done so on several occasions.. I don't care how rude I might seem, Wearing a seat belt is a personal thing with me. It's a tough call. Doing the right thing. It's not going to make you popular.

Doing the right thing is very unpopular. I once talked to a truck with two fat guys parked in a spot for pregnant mothers. there was a perfectly good spot two slots down. I actually asked which one was expecting. one of the fat guys had no sense of humor about the situation and totally ignored my question. the other replied he was expecting his third child. i've often viewed people who park in handicapped slots as truly being handicapped - they can't reed and are truly ignorant. the worse offenders are those that only "plan" to spend 5-10 minutes in a store. a question to think about - what do you say to people who smoke in no-smoking zones? or swear in public? or to co-workers that waste 1-4 hours a day posting on the interent during office/work hours? Do you ignore their behavior? Do you bring it to their attention? Do you inform their supervisor? or do you just accept their behavior as part of our new society?

I distinctly remember wanting the brewers to draft C Taylor Teagarden in 2005, and they drafted Inman instead. Teagarden received the highest bonus of any third round pick. But it was only $725k compared to the $500 k the brewers gave Inman. Inman wasn't a bad pick either. I feel the results are skewed because of the many supplemental picks that other teams have had after the first rounds. it's been a long time since the brewers had a supplemental first round pick. there were 14 first round supp picks in 2006 and 18 in 2005. When comparing team spending, those teams with supplemental picks are going to rate higher than teams without them. there have also been unique signings in baseball the last 5 years that would make the brewers look a little cheap. the mariners in 2005 gave third round pick Tuisosopo a $2.290 million bonus just to prevent him from playing football. texas in 2003 gave second round pick Sinisi a $2 million bonus. I'm not sure why the dbacks felt like they needed to give Justin Upton a $6 million bonus. but these and others are exceptions to the rule and lead people t o believe the brewers were unwilling to spend money.. While the brewers may not spend the most of any team, i have confidence that money is no longer a deterant to them going after a quality player in the first round as it once was.

I' m really unsure what Dukes best outfield position would be. he was playing Cf because of baldelli's injury. I' m not certain if that's his best position. And while we think the tampa bay D rays may want to unload him cheap, i haven't seen the rays being willing to trade away any of their prospects very cheap. i keep hearing rumors about a lot of d ray players being available. but the DRay GM sure has a mighty slow trigger in making any trades. it's almost like he has a house for sale but refuses to come down in his asking price.

loan rates are low. I've seen a lot of new homes being built flooding the market and plummeting the sales of older homes. I've known several real esate agents who would let you sell your own home if you listed it through them if you give them their commision. When I sold my home last year, it was listed with my agent and also with a military locater service. the people who bought it were military, so I have to believe they saw it on the military relocation service. One agreement I had to make when I listed the house on the military locater service was to include the statement that my house was being listed by an agent.

I prefer to look at his on the field problems. is he better than Hall in center? No. Does he have a higher celing than hart? no. is he a better option than jenkins? no Do the brewers have a dh? no. Do the brewers already have too many outfielders on their major league team? yes. Despite the fact the brewers may be able to acquire him at a rock bottom price, the brewers really have no need for him. the brewers would be better served to try to acquire relief pitchers Ardsma and /or MAc Donald from the White Sox.. if you were talking about Young, Baldelli or Crawford, I'd be interested. but i just don't see Dukes being a better starting option than what we already have. and no way would I acquire Dukes to be a bench player.

I think we need some clarification on Kyle Peterson. was he actually a Stanford grad ? or did he just attend baseball practices there? Was he a Senior or Junior when the Brewers drafted him? I want to find the facts before we bad mouth that fine institution of learning with a big tree as its mascot. the last time i checked , a team has three outs in an inning. I may have struck out once, but I have two outs left. and I'm gritty. Rob Deer taught me well. a question I'd like to bring up: is this brewerfan message board actually owned by Brian? or is he just the administrator of it? my understanding is that this message board is an EZ board community and provided and subject to EZ board community rules and regulations? Is the brewerfan site and brewerfan message board two separate entities? Did Hoffy know this? Why is there a dead horse head on my bed? and who sent it?

brian - check your email for a reply. it's nothing bad, just a little long for this forum.

Howard the Duck ? You actually want to be known as one of the 11 who saw that movie? I know who the other 9 were. I think we need some guidelines. A lot of really bad movies were actually box office smashes. Do we want to include bad movies tha t didn't make a lot of money? or I was thinking you wanted to know what movies we love to watch, but are just afraid to admit that we watch them? I thought that Citizen Cane by Orson Wells was a terrible movie. I had to watch it for a college English class. I would never secretly or publically watch that movie again. but we all know how great a movie it was. Well I like Sleepless in Seattle and you've got mail and that movie with Cary grant and katheryn hepburn and jimmy Stewart. there., i've come out of the closet. I like romantic movies with happy endings. I like ET too. and that one where the robot Johnny 5 alive comes to life. as for a really bad movie, there was the original Batman movie with Adam West as Batman. . this is the movie that first introduced the batboat and the bathelicopter. Don't ask me how I know these things. nobody mentioned the brady bunch movie? I guess even though it was a bad movie, nobody secretly liked it either.

my point about this being a store with customers rather than brian's house with guests should probably be rephrased. usually, your hated aunt gives you a call before she visits, and you can either leave the house or lock the doors and pretend you're not home.. Brian may not like some posters, but he can't lock the doors to them. by doing so, he would lock the doors of this site to everyone.. he can ban sombody from posting, but he can't stop that banned person from browsing. Anybody can read the information provided on brewerfan whether they are a member, a former banned member or just somebody doing an internet search. This is not a restricted yahoo or MSN group that denies access to the public. Anybody can read what is printed here. Just like a Walmart, brian cannot prevent somebody from entering his store. If this was Brian's personal blog about the brewers, he could lock people out and password protect it. That's the difference between being a welcome guest allowed inside brian's house, and being a poster at brians' web site. one has a lock, the other doesn't. it's been quite obvious in the past that people Brian has banned in the past still frequent his site. While they may no longer post, they still read the articles and the other posts, and then they either cut and paste, or they talk about the posts made here on other sites. Other sites also now provide links to brewerfan as their official source of information. people have more faith in brewerfan than they do in the mil Journal. yes, Brian does incur the expenses to keep this website afloat. But i'm going to assume brian labels those expenses on his tax forms as Business expenses. As a business, Brian cannot discriminate. I can post. if this were Brian's house, he could refuse me entry. I doubt that he would. but at least he would have that right. There is nothing wrong with establishishing a decorum and rules for a business. Many restaurants require their patrons to wear a suit and tie. 6 Flags now requires people to wear clothes inside their park rather than just bathing suits(it's actually a written posted rule). brian can post the rules and encourage his patrons to follow them. he can request patrons to sign consent forms. You can't go to the Miller factory and take a tour and just start drinking the beer for free. But there are also rules that apply to Brian. he found that out when brewerfan.com was stolen from him. People can't steal a house. I think the one word Brian hates the most is the term elitist. I think brian hates that term because he doesn't feel that he is an elitist or that this site was created to be an elitist site. it's not like he charges people $10,000 to be members like they do at Augusta. he provides the site free of charge and all he asks is that people be civil towards each other and to try to talk intelligently. Does requiring a person to be civil and talk intelligent mean the site is elitist? I don't think so. however, once a word is used more than once to describe a place, the description - for better and for worse usually sticks. Being called elite isn't necessarily a bad term. it beats the heebeejeebees out of being called a Monitary Organizational National Archive and Depository of Brewers Licensed Information and Statistical Analysis (MONALISA).

That was a very good analogy about how posters are not customers, but rather we are guests in brian's house and should act accordingly. But I would respectfully disagree. This is not a premium channel or pay site. There is no password, fee or membership club card number. This is not a private club or a personal blog. This is not a yahoo group that requires the poster to write something before inclusion is given. this is not a restricted MSN site only for brewers fans. This is a public domain access site. And as such, we are not guests into Brian's house, but rather customers he has to deal with. As with any type of business, there are always some customers that you love to see every day. But there are always 1-3 that you dread their arrival because you know they will find something to complain about, or they expect extra attention, or they will return something that was perfectly fine. or they will compare you to some other store and demand that you beat or match the other store's price. You dread those days, but you know they will happen if you keep the store/ web site public. it's how you deal with those customers that will determine your success. I think a good analogy of what brewerfan is would be from the movie You've Got Mail. Brian has said many times he could care less how big his readership grows. he founded the site for intellectual baseball talk. The Corner Book store in that movie was passed on from generation to generation as a business that cared more about books than profit. . It had it's own clientel and its loyal store clerks.. it did not try to compete with Fox books. it was well respected in its own circles. but it didn't make its owner very rich. the corner book store had its own niche. and there's nothing wrong with that.

The complete Revenge of the Nerds and all of its sequels Lamda lamda lamda . Police Academy and it's 5 1/3 sequels Whatever happened to Guttenberg? Scoobie Doo ! Naked Gun and its sequels the parent trap - let's get together ya ya ya. Flash Gordon and Flesh Gordon ( there wasn't really that much sex in either movie.) I watched it to gain insight into the advances of space technology Barbarella. one of Jane Fonda's best movies. Porkys and its sequels maxwell Smart and the nude bomb. it had no nudity in the movie. it was rated pg. but it definitely was a bomb. i missed it by that much. the Adams family snap snap you rang? beetle juice Mr Mom anything by mel brooks Space Balls - may the schwartz be with you Lonestar the princess bride. my name is Diego montonya. you killed my father. prepare to die. the Dr Who TV series. the movies were never as dumb as the series. Star Trek. Should we watch where no man has boldly watched before? The first two movies were nice to reminence.. but saving the whales? the muppet movies. I can't believe we watched the Muppets Treasure Island yesterday. now the title said secret! so don't tell and ruin my personna.

I think posts that have stupid pictures as their single entry are just as trashy and degrading to a website as one line sarcastic replies. You may think your pictures and cartoons are really funny. I don't. I think the majority of them are in bad taste. Do you agree Brian? Do you agree Kat? I also believe if you are going to take the time to edit people's posts that contain one too m any exclam ation marks, then you should also take the time t o correc t tha t persons' spellin and grammer two. You know, as long as your editing a person's post, you might as wel l do a jo b and finish the job right. Now that I have your attention! You have to also find your niche. What is brewerfans' niche? What is your market? What type of poster do you want to apeal to? What type of poster do you want to cater to? Who are you trying to impress? the average Brewers fan? or Baseball America and the Brewers' front office? What is your ultimate goal/vision/focus for Brewerfan? to be fully subsidized and made an official site by the Brewers or Milwaukee Journal? I also believe you should treat a poster as a customer. but who are your customers? and who do you want to be your customers? this site has a definite tone about it. No trolls allowed. No trash talk allowed. Only intelligent baseball talk! While you may not degrade people, for good or bad, brewerfan has a certain aura about it that some people just don't like. It's like going to Morton's of Chicago for dinner or staying at the Ritz in New York. Many people from all facets of life have heard of the Ritz and Mortons. But very few people enter their doors because they feel they just don't fit in. Sometimes I feel brewerfan is more like a nice college prep academy rather than a bar or a barber shop where guys can speak their minds about the Brewers. Where is the let's do golf on Thursday afternoon thread? or was that a private memo sent to your foursome? Who do you want as your posters and readers? Upper middle class yuppies aged 21-32? There was a thread not too long ago where posters were posting their SAT and ACT scores. The average SAT score was well over 1200. That's definitely not the typical sports fan or the typical student/person. As I said, you have to find your niche. With your current posting rules, you are defining what that niche will be. There is nothing wrong with being compared to Morton's of Chicago or the Ritz of New York. There is nothing wrong with catering to Northwestern or U of Chicago graduates. They are well respected throughout the world. Nobody thinks bad of a Stanford grad! But in so doing, you must understand there is a vast audience that will be left without a place to speak their mind because they are afraid people will mock their grammer, or they know no other language other than cell phone txt; or their words and dialect are too colorful; or they'd just rather rap with their friends. if web sites were like fast food resteraunts, I'd say brewerfan would be an Arby's or a Wendys. The food is good, the place is clean, but a little too expensive for the taste of the majority of people. ESPN is kind of like a MacDonalds. You know what you are getting and it's cheap. Some MacDonalds like the one at Disney are nice. Others like the one in Hammond and Gary are kind of trashy and a little unsafe. However , they've been in business for the last 40 years because they let their customers do whatever they want. They cave in to the demands of their customers to stay in business and to stay alive. You can let your customers/posters dictate to you what they want. or you can maintain certain standards knowing some customers will never come in your door. brian, i know when you wrote your post, you did so with very good intentions. You probably knew I'd read the post and respond to it. You were probably hesitant not knowing what type of response your post would generate. And you knew my reply would not be a one liner. I read a thread this past month where colby was arguing with somebody on the draft forum. i always thought of colby as a smart, well tempered baseball guy. I didn't realize before that thread that Colby actually has a job working for a baseball related magazine. I thought he was just a fan. Now I realize he's more than just a fan. This site started out as a site for the fans and by the fans. And now it has become much more than that. and you have become much more than just a fan. brewerfan is not just a personal blog site that you can just shut down. It's become an official baseball site recognized by members of the real press; the real media, and the brewers' ownership, Because of that, you have certain standards and rules you must enforce. I kind of liked the old days of trash talking and craziness of the troll wars. I loved annoying the heck out of you defending all the trolls' rights for their freedom of trolling. I loved playing mind games with art teachers from Reedsville. it's kind of funny my main nemisis turbo rickey aka strutter aka many other names teaches in a city named after me. However, I realize those fun days are over. You've got a great site Brian. I'm proud of you and what you have become. As Rickey Nelson once sang, "you can't please everybody, So you've got to please your self." the image of brewerfan is a self protrait of yourself. it has your heart and soul in it. As they say in the business world, it's your "baby". I. on the other hand, am a pirate; a dinosaur; a troll; an annoying big brother; an Eddie Murphy Donkey; a lonely Ogre. My Air Force Commanding officer used the term " loose cannon" to describe me. I like the direction brewerfan is going. Will I follow it? Probably not. Our paths will cross many times in the future, but they will never be joined. God Speed!

thanks. i know i have a few good rookie cards mixed in, but my son doesn't seem that interested in picking up my hobby. and the cards take up about 6 feet of wall space in my basement.

Jefferson? Did somebody say they were from Jefferson? Give my aunts and uncles and cousins a HI from Reed Bigelow. their last name is Stoppenbach. My mom was a Stoppenbach! they used to own the sausage factory that now makes pepperoni for pizzas.

I got a chance to see fenway park on an off day. they allowed me to just walk around. i sat right behind the dug out for a couple of minutes. the place is great.