Big Reed

ok, i can understand why you might not want cormeir. the guy is old and only faces 1-2 batters at most. but i do believe the brewers need a crafty veteran left handed reliever.

I would take exception to that. Cormier was having a very good year last year while pitching for the phillies. he didn't start stinking up the joint last year until he became a red. As A phillie, he had an 1.59 ERA in 43 games pitching only 34 innings giving up 13 walks and 13 kos. he was great in 2003 and 2004. he stunk in 2005 and for the reds last year. You have to realize at this stage in his career, he's a lefty specialist brought in to face 1-2 batters. I guess the question would be do the brewers have a need for a lefty bullpen specialist? or do they have confidence in Shouse?

Cormeir is a lefty who is a veteran who has had some success in the past. and he 's had an ok spring. looking at the reds relief staff, they've got to find new homes for about 2-3 veteran relievers. Since the y just waived Wilson without getting anything in return, i have to believe their asking price for cormier is pretty low .

the reds are shopping Rheal Cormeir. he's an old guy. he's had a decent spring. They can't be asking much for him.

this mlb rumor central place points out that the red Sox inquired about turnbow, but they were informed he wasn't available. So I guess melvin has taken him off the block. it's in the middle of the page. www.prosportsdaily.com/ml...umors.html

fatter than joey: I can respect your opinions. I may not agree with them. but I can understand where you are coming from. My views are different. they come from teaching junior high kids math. Some of our nation's school systems have just given up on trying to teach math and just gave in and gave them calulators. Wisconsin's educational programs are far superior than many other states even including the Milwaukee public schools.. FAR SUPERIOR. Expecting a high school student to be able to understand statistical formulas is expecting a lot - especially in Beardstown, IL. Brian: I respect where you want to take this site. you want the discussions to be at a higher level than the other available sports forums. Your #1 goal in starting this site was to eliminate trolls. However, in doing so, you will always have others mocking this site as an elitist site. I will readily admit i have not read all of john doe's posts. I usually only visit and post on three forums. And I only read 1/2 of the posts made. I noticed he has made about 50 posts. obviously some of his posts in other threads have rubbed others the wrong way prior to him starting the thread on bush. I don't need a link to his other posts. I'll take your word that he has been offensive in other posts. sometimes i get too emotionally involved in trying to protect the rights of others. That's my nature. i've done it before and I'll probably do it again. that's also been my undoing. maybe i should have been a public defender. Am I really the only guy who was banished that was given a second chance and hasn't been permanently banished? I've always been kind of unique. I think slyinski (SP) came up with a good idea about a tutorial, but yesterday's timing was not the greatest to bring up the idea. To echo and add to his suggestion; brewerfan does a lot of interviews, and also posts articles about potential hall of famers and writes other articles. Perhaps, rather than having a tutorial per se, brewerfan could post a couple of articles about the new stats being incorporated into the game. This would get the word out and explain the new stats and it would be open for anybody to read. the stats articles could be published much the same way as many of the other articles are published. in this manner. people could get up to speed and not think of the articles as a tutorial. I realize that much of the information is already included in many threads within the stats forum. but many people totally avoid going into the stats forum or read the threads posted there just by its very title. I also realize many articles on the front page also include information about stats. but I'm suggesting doing a separate article on stats and have it linked on the front page. if the person wants to get up to speed, he can read the article. if he doesn't, at least the information was provided, and you can provide it as a link/reference when questions arise about certain stats in other posts. I doubt anybody will ever totally agree with my expressed viewpoints. but at least you know where I stand.

i'd love for him to be a brewer. I was there on draft day screaming for the brewers to draft him only to see atlanta take him with one of their supplemental picks. he doesn't seem to have a future in Atlanta. his offensive numbers haven't been great the past two years. but his defense is outstanding. and he is rated as being the best minor league catching prospect by many worthy publications. the problem with any trade with Atlanta is they are a hard case to figure out. they have new ownership. their payroll has been dropping. they are said to be losing Andrew jones after this year, and chipper jones doesn't have many good years left. this is wickman's last year with Atlanta even if he is successful. Cox is rumored to be thinking of retiring after this year. Atlanta could go into a big rebuilding mode after this year. the y might just bite on trading Saltamachia for a couple of highly rated prospects. he was rated in baseball America as the 36th best prospect. if you do the research, you can guess who Cox would be asking for in return. my guess is that it would be a pitching prospect rated better than jackson or parra. my guess is that Atlanta would be asking for Inman, Villenuava or Gallardo. My question is would melvin be willing to give up one of those pitchers for a great defensive catcher? I think i would wait until I see what jeffress does this year and also to see if cox leaves before offering the braves one of our pitching prospects. Who knows, we may be able to get him cheaper

I posted in the turnbow thread that the red sox announced earlier today tha tpapelbon would be their closer until further notice unless they acquired a closer from outside the organization. as i read this thread , I'm going to speculate the red Sox have been in contact with the nationals about cordero.

as of 2 pm central thursday, the red Sox announced that their closer for this year will be papalbon. they didn't like what they saw of tavarez or piniero. This was announced on the Dan Patrick show. there's probably a link somewhere. it was hinted/speculated this would be subject to change should the red Sox acquire an effective closer in the future. but it was made clear that if no moves are made, papelbon is the man. Turnbow's name wasn't mentioned .

i provided a personal reply to the Sbrynski's PM. If Sbrynski wants to forward or provide exerpts to anyone associated with brewerfan, or post it here, I gave him permission to do so. It's long. i have a problem with fatter than joey's expressed attitude in his post above. he wants people to debate him and back up their points with factual evidence. he wants new posters to get up to speed and debate him at his level of knowledge. Why should we demand or expect any poster to get up to speed and talk to you at your level? I'm not even sure what level you are at and how much i need to learn so that I can converse with you. I do know we have many high school and junior high readers and posters who are totally lost by all the statistical explanations used here. Should they just remain silent and not post? Surely if they tried to engage you in a debate about stats, it would not be a fair discussion and would end up in a basic name calling session. How about a new approach? Lower yourself to the level of the person you are talking to? Sometimes, you just go into way too much information and it's a total overload. Even today, many long time posters admitted how they were "hazed" by regular posters, and they weren't truly accepted until they had been posting for over a year. i think what is not being said is that they learned over the course of the year just not to question or oppose the views of certain posters. it's kind of like my wife who has learned not to speak her mind in Sunday school about people's literal interpretation of the Bible and her beliefs. The ladies all think she agrees with their viewpoints. I could put on the same facade here, but I refuse. yes i have mentioned it before, about there are at least 10 stats that can disprove every other stat. Sample size can do a lot to prove or disprove a stat. years and timeframes can also be used. Even the same stat can be used against itself. At the time Ross Perot was running for office, I was taking an international economics course at USF that was looking at the economics of NAFTA . Ross Perot had some really nifty looking charts and some really big ears. Our class decided to stray from our topic for one day and take a look at Perot's ideas. We found every one of his ideas / charts to be totally wrong and against the true principles of economics. Several years ago, I got into a discussion with Al about the value of the baseball stat called CERA. Some of you may recall those discussions. CERA stands for catcher's ERA. it represents the ERA of the catcher as he is catching a game and can be used to guage how great of a catcher he is. I argued with Al for over 3 months over the uselessness of that stat. My premise was that anybody who was Maddux's personal caddie would have a great CERA. and anybody who was Jamie Wright's (brewer's pitcher at that time) caddy would have a terrible CERA. A catcher's CERA was more determined by what/which pitchers were throwing to him than the catcher being a great or bad catcher. CERA as a stat to rate catchers is a totally worthless stat because it is non-conclusive. it can't really be used to prove or predict anything. I've written many posts about how great jenkins is against lefties in the odd years. I've even provided stats and links and references. but others just want to look at his stats from last year and say he should be platooned because he doesn't hit against lefties. For everybody who uses last year as their reference stat and says jenkins should be platooned, I'll use jenkin's career stats and his stats from 2005 and 2003 and 2001 to prove he can hit against lefties. if you want to take me to task about stats go ahead. I just showed you three examples. my main concern and the reason i spoke up today is that once again the word elitist is being used to describe the brewerfan poster. and once again a newbie is complaining about being picked on. We all know this is not the first time this has been mentioned. and it's obvious from other long time posters, that this "hazing" of newbies seems to be a tradition at brewerfan and it usually finds a basis in the overuse of stats by posters to defend their arguments.. I think it's way past time for the "hazing" to stop. there is no way a 9th grade poster can expect to engage in an intelligent conversation if the conversation is taken to a college graduate's level of complexity. I have often informed my wife that many people are not as smart as her and many people don't understand things as easily as she does. There is more than one right way of doing things. Her way may be the most efficient way. (marital tip: Never tell your wife her way isn't the best way) I try to tell her for others, a more simpler approach may be required. and that applies here. you need to tone things down and discuss topics at a level that everyone can understand. and while you may not think you are calling somebody a name, your inclusion of stats in your discussions intimidates many would be posters. I don't have any personal agenda or vendetta against anybody here. I just want to point out that some of you need to rethink how you reply to others. try making your replies as if you were trying to explain it to your son or daughter. Try thinking about how you would discuss a topic with your wife. Are you going to talk FIP with your wife when you discuss jenkins? Will you make her take a tutorial so she can talk at your level? rather tha n brian's opinions, I'd like to hear from his wife about her opinions about the use of stats on this website. She is a member of this site. I'd like to hear from some of the other poster's wives. Wives are not dumb. mine is as smart as me. I'd like to know how many wives like to talk about FIP and OPS, or do they just stick to the basics of ERA and batting averages when they talk about hitters and pitchers? how man y wives would be willing t o take a tutorial about stats so the y could converse wit h people here? or do they think the idea was just as stupid as I did? I quote my wife " take a tutorial just so you can talk sports on an internet sports chat forum? how dumb is that?" Do your wives think you go just a tad overboard in some of your discussions? how about trying to make a newbie feel welcome rather than always challenging their oppinions and making them prove their worth? I realize many of you posters were put through hell your first few months of posting here. I'd like to think the future would be different. there are some posters who will never be up to speed on stats. and there are many others who just shy away from debates and conflicts and many others who just don't care.. I care. I care a lot. I closed out my pm to sbrynski with this thought: the question i leave you with because i could go on and on, is one of focus and direction. what do you want brewerfan to be? what is it's focus? what type of posters do you want posting at brewerfan? Do you want it to remain an open forum where anybody can post their thoughts? or do you want to limit posts to only intelligent debate? if you look around, very few sports forums are focused on intelligent factual discussions. most open forums are the escape for drunks to vent their rage after their team loses. I think brewerfan is a great site. I always have. however, it is not geared or oriented to the common man. It is geared and oriented to the intellectual. Is that the direction you want brewerfan to take? or do you want the forums to be less factual; less inhibitive and less argumentative? You can forward this reply in part or whole to anybody in brewerfan you like. I'm not really mad at you or any other poster. and many of the things I told you could easily be referenced to others. but you can probably see yourself in some of the topics i discussed. the main point is that today was not the first time somebody refered to brewerfan regulars as elitist. and it's not the first time somebody admitted that other posters tend to haze newbies for 6 months to a year before they were accepted. that is something i would like to see changed.

two easy analogies; word perfect is a better word processing program than MS word. yet the business world forced everybody to know, use and love MS Word. dream weaver is a far better product than front page. yet the business world could care less about all the bells and whistles that dream weaver offered. All they cared about is getting a web site published on the net. as for stats / non stats a lot of us could care less about the new stats. All we want to know are the basics. that is not to say we could never understand your new stats. we've looked at them and just don't think they're worth caring about. We ackowledge dream weaver (new stats ) is a far better program over froont page ( traditional stats). but we don't care because front page provides us everything we want. does anybody here know how to do matrix mutiplication? it's a fun way to do multiplication, but not one I'd want my children to remember come SAT time. it's a tota waste of time - much like many baseball stats. ok, everybody, let's all do a tutorial in matrix multiplication because Mr Bigelow thinks it's a fun way to multiply. Yup, sure. as for Word Perfect verse MS Word. Don't try to force your opinions on us non stats folks. and don't try to force us to be like you. You will meet with a lot of resitance and also resentment While you believe your way may be the right way, and you may believe you are only trying to help us and show us to the world of your stats enlightenment, we may be perfectly comfortable in our non-stats (word perfect) world. when I go to a ball game, the last thing i want to think about is how a bunt is going to affect a batter's OPS. sbrylski - now you are admitting in your last post you are closed minded. Were you just being sarcastic ? was that a form of your humor that i just didn't understand? or did yo u actually say what i thought you said? look at your last paragraph. You are starting to place requirements of who you believe should and should not post here. You don't want closed minded people to post here. That's what I believe you said. you want t o limit posters to only those who are open minded. just because a person hates the use of stats, doesn't mean they are a closed minded person. I'm very open minded when it comes to religion and gay rights. I don't like schools dictating their students wear uniforms. and I don't like people forcing their opinions on others. I personally hate the use of stats to form conclusions to baseball debate topics. and why do i hate the use of stats in baseball stats so much? because for every stat in baseball that a conclusion is based on, there exist at leasts 10 other stats and formulas that can prove that stat wrong or predict a totally different outcome. there comes a time when there are just too many stats and it takes away from the fun of the game. people start to care more about their fantasy teams than they do about their real teams. we start rooting for our opponents to get triples against our reliever who's not on our fantasy team. Wins and losses don't matter, but having puhols on our fantasy team does. in the market world, you have game boys, Nintendo Dx, play stations, xbox, apples and Pcs. I prefer pc games. this doesn't mean that i haven't taken the time to look at the other game boxes and what they can do. this doesn't mean i'm closed minded towards apple. it just means i've looked at the other gaming devices, and i chose the pc games and the pc device. the same applies t o stats .I've looked at the new ones and didn't like any, so i stuck with the old traditional ones.. just because somebody doesn't like the new stats does not mean he /she is closed minded towards them or progress. it just means he /she has looked at them and made a constructive decision. and that decision was that i don't need these new stats. they do not enhance my take of the game. there are many worthwhile things out there in the world. just because I'm not LDS, doesn't mean i' m closed minded about their thoughts and ideas. look at President Reagon. he did not want to briefed on details. he was a big picture man. I doubt anybody would consider him closed minded. however, stats were definitely not part of his life - especially baseball stats ( he was a baseball broadcaster). i think it's great you like stats and can apply them to your enjoyment of the game of baseball. but please don't try to force your love of stats one me or other new posters. i don't want or need to take a tutorial on baseball stats. . I can understand them and apply them if i wanted. and please don't limit the participation in this forum to just those baseball fans who love stats or are "informed baseball experts".

unfortunately, I posted my comments in the other 4.00 ERA thread before realizing this thread existed. So now since this thread was created, I'll expand on my precvious comments. I saw a lot of probelms / issues in that thread that angered me. Chiefly, because it's not the first time something like this has happened. a new poster comes and posts something without doing any research. his viewpoint ticks a lot of established posters off. then they tell him off. and then rather than debating the subject, everybody gets defensive and starts talking about who pissed off who first. then the established posters say their comments were not name calling but rather sarcastic refeerences to TV stuff. Well how's a guy to know? In the middle of a word war, i don't flip on the comic central channel to make sure he's only being sarcastic. i don't watch SNL or South park or the Simpsons or any of that "funny" stuff. I spend my time watching the history channel and GSN. While you may think your comments were only being sarcastic and humorous, the person on the receiving end understood them to be name calling and belittling. and I have to agree with him as that's the way your comments came across. these funny sarcastic one liners are getting old really fast. and I'm speaking to more than one person. it's as if some people here have their own little clique and make inside jokes only they understand. and if you're not in the cilque, you have no idea what the joke is about, and you think the joke is on you. a problem with the tutoring idea is that yes, it would be nice if you tried to teach the newby a few tutorials about stats. but what if the person doesn't want to learn stats? this is not about a person buying the new microsoft office and asking for help on how to use it. what if he /she just wants to be a fan? not an informed stats fan, but just a normal fan? can't we accept that without trying to change him into a rotissori geek? I thought if you wanted to debate stats, you should go to the stats forum. A lot of people go to college. Very few of them take stats or calculus courses. that doesn't mean the guy who took stats is smarter than the guy who didn't. it just means the guy who didn't take stats just didn't like stat courses. Are vets required to take stats courses? I doubt it, but vet students are one of the smartest students at college. please don't try to force a new poster to start visiting other baseball reference sites and develop an understanding of stats and other brewers trivia /history before allowing him to post. maybe you should do that before bestowing the person with moderator or all star status. We're not applying for a governemnet job here. We just want a place to vent our feelings about the brewers. i think it's great that many brewer posters know a lot about stats and brewer history, and baseball reference stuff. but please, don't try to force that knowledge on other posters. and please don't try to apply your standards to everyone who posts here. Very few posters could live up to those expectations. When i come to this site, i go to the off subject forum, the trade proposal forum and the major league baseball forum. I don't come here to learn the new baseball stats. I don't come here to share my java programing knowledge or web site design experience. I come here as a fan. a brewers' fan. Sometimes i think the established, informed posters forget that many of the posters here are not as informed as they are and do not wish to be . I would believe we have a lot of posters who are still in high school that have never taken a stats or algebra course and have no clue what you are trying to say. Sometimes your posts come accross as a person who's a highly educated jerk. ted williams was a tremendous ball player. but he was a terrible coach and manger. Why? he held everyone to his standard. he thought if they only tried as hard as he tried, and if they only put forth the same effort he put forth, they would be just as good. ted williams was a terrible communicator. he didn't understand that not everyone wanted to or had the capacity to know and do as much as he could. I see that same problem here. You want to make people know as much as you do so that they can speak on the same level as you. and so that you can debate on the same terms. Well, I for one don't have to time to watch 10 years of simpsons and SNL reruns or south park. I don't think their humor is funny either. I don't have time to get another degree in stats. I don't have time to design a spell checker for this site. rather than trying to educate the poster to come to your level of understanding of the game and its stats and financial implications, it time for the more informed poster to start toning down their act and start speaking to the level of the less informed / knowledgeable poster. Even when not name calling a poster, you come accross in your comments as talking down to the poster which is essentually the same thing and it immediately places the new poster on the defensive.. perhaps it's time for the more informed stats geeks to take a course in human communications. the first rule is to know your audience! rather than being the Que continium, how about coming back down to earth, and start coversing with other brewers fans as if they were your friend? I'm an Eagle Scout. but I don't claim to be the greatest hiker or camper. i don't claim to know every bird or tree variety that exists. I don't know how to tie 50 knots and I'm afraid of heights and don't like wall climbing. there are a lot of scouting stuff i don't like and can't do. but, the fact remains, the Boy Scouts of America decided I was worthy of being an Eagle Scout. As a Cub Scout and boy Scout leader, I don't try to force upon my boys the importance of them becoming an Eagle Scout. I don't try to force on them my scouting knowledge or experience. I also don't brag about being an Eagle Scout to their parents. if my boys want to become an Eagle Scout, first they have to become a tenderfoot. I'd give anything of myself for my scouts. if they want to quit and join basketball and little leagues, i'm not going to scold them or tell them they're missing out. I' m also not going to give them an ultimatum or try to force my opinions on them. it's their life. What i try to do is instill the values and morals of scouting. a scout is coeurteous. a scout is friendly. a scout is kind. a scout is helpful. etc. if you can apply the principles of scouting into your life, then i as a scout leader have done my job. as I said before, i thought this was a fan forum. if you want the fans to be more informed, then I suggest you change the title of the forum. yahoo has many groups/forums people can join. Some have entry comments requiring a poster to write something before being granted admittance. if that's what you want to do. then so be it. if all you want are posters who are informed, it would be very easy to establish membership and posting requirements. I think there are many people with enough time on their hands that could develop a test for people to take prior to being allowed to post. is that what you really want? because that's the direction you are headed. I don't write long posts like this very often anymore. When I do, it's for a reason. While you may not agree with my viewpoints, I hope you will at least realize how some of your viewpoints and comments are coming across to people like me. I loved stats as a college course. but I hate a fan site where every other word is a stat and where conclusions can only be drawn by using stats. I hope some of you can learn something from this post. I appoligize for it's length and also apoligize for not including any stats to back up my main points. I'm not calling out any one person. we all say things we are regretful for later- including myself.

I'm just thinking that reds insiders say that hermanson is looking as good as he did in 2005, and they plan to use him as their closer. Coffey looked good last year and has looked great this spring. Eddie guardado is still hurt. Stanton is a lefty which i highly doubt the reds would part with. The reliever the reds acquired from the nationals was damaged goods. Hermanson's return and Coffey's emergence would make Weathers the third rightie in the bullpen. and the reds also have the relievers they acquired from the phillies. I just have to believe the reds have a surplus of relievers. I see them as having a shortage of starting pitchers. i wouldn't mind sending Vargas or hendrickson to the reds for weathers. i doubt the reds would give up weathers for hendrickson. but they might be willing to trade Weathers for vargus. and the brewers could insert Villenuava into the 5th starter slot. I see the brewers needing weathers more than they need vargus.

pienero had another solid day yesterday pitching a scoreless inning and getting the save. That's now 7+ innings in 7 games. Francona is said to like taveras as his closer. I have to believe the red Sox have found their closer and are no longer interested in acquiring turnbow. Although that could change by mid season if Piniero chokes.

the white sox are also talking about erstad getting 500+ atbats. Erstad is looking good this Spring - at least batting wise. it's hard to tell the spin from the truth.

it sounds more to me that the phillies beat writer is saying that lieber is gone. and then he's trying to review the past and see what deals were on the table for him that could be revisited. the mench for lieber deal was proposed before the brewers made other deals. Now that the brewers have vargas and Suppan, they no longer really have an interest in Lieber. and now that rowand is healthy, what the Phillies really need is another reliever- not an outfielder. another part of this trade that the beat writer is not addressing is that since the original lieber trade proposal involving the White Sox, the white sox acquired erstad who's actually doing very well this spring and is projected as their starting Cf with 500+ atbats. the white sox now no longer have a need for rowand or lieber. so this looks like a rehashing of old news without much consideration to the other teams involved.

I've noticed the brewers relievers are not doing as well as expected. last year as part of their attempt to win the division, the reds picked up a bunch of relievers. it would appear they now have a surplus of quality veteran relievers. Dustin hermanson is back. And the reds have coffey, Weathers and Stanton. they also have eddie guardado coming back from an injury. rick White is there as is ryan franklin. Obviously, the reds can 't keep all of those veteran relievers and still have room for several of their pitching prospects. homer baily was optioned to the minors this week. but he was a starter. I realize most people say you shouldn't trade within your division, but the reality is that it happens more often than people want to admit. the brewers and cubs have made several minor trades. the brewers have also made trades with the cardinals and astros in the past. EDIT: Removed excessive punctuation from subject -- Brian the Automator

after geting rocked in his first two games, pineiro has pitched scoreless ball in his last 5 games. Tavaras has also looked good. tavaras pitched 3 scoreless innings yesterday. Pineiro was said to be boston's first choice as closer in the off season, and it looks like he's going to take over and do well. on a different front, florida and tampa bay are having problems wit h their closer. KIm is being mentioned as a possible trade to florida to be their closer. their projected closer - Tankersly hasn't thrown a pit h yet. . it's nice that Turnbow is having a great Spring.

from one side of the coin, turnbow has looked great this Spring and he's attracting attention from teams like the red Sox who are desparate for a closer. his trade value will never be any higher. on the other side of the coin, he's looked great this Spring and we need him in our bullpen. boston does have some prospects worth trading for. if the brewers think braun is not ready to make the leap, mike Lowell may be available, although Boston doesn't have much depth at third or first. pineiro has looked terrible this Spring. boston will want somebody who can pitch a 1-2-3 inning. it's also possible boston might go back to papelbon as their closer.

my total thought process is that the brewers have a lot of pitching prospects that if we keep bush, Capuano sheets and Suppan for the next 4 years will never realize their potential pitching for teh brewers. tampa bay needs and wants young pitching prospects. We have several we could spare. and I think upton is worth trading one or two of those prospects for. No, i would not want to trade Yo or inman for upton. but i'd be willing to trade Jackson or Parra or maybe Villenuava. I'd definitelty throw in hendrickson and jones. to get talent, you must be willing to give up perceived talent. the dbacks obviously thought more of Eveland than the brewers did. maybe we could get tampa to feel that way about jackson or parra or hendrickson. I'm not down on these guys, but i don't see any of them having a future as a Brewer. .

i get very tired of people who are always optimistic in the Spring and then become depressed in the fall and bring up 10,000 excuses for losing. Guys like me saw all of those faults and addressed them in the past Spring..I get tired of saying "I told you so." it's as if you were brainwashed by the brewers' front office spin in order to sell tickets. give me a person who is always optimistic, or is always realistic, and i can relate to them much better. i'm being very optimistic that all of our pitching prospects are healthy and that melvin can find a fool of a gm to take them off our hands before they get injured again. I know that's not true. As i speak, several are still not going to be healthy this year. loking at our current pitching staff at the major league level and their contracts and their age, i see no reason to keep guys like hendrickson, parra, jones and rogers. We have Guys like jackson, Yo and villenueva that are worth keeping. it's time to get rid of some pitchers who do not project to make an impact for our team. That's why i'd love to ship a couple to tampa bay for upton. the tampa bay GM doen't want old guys with big contracts. and he doesn't need anymore outfielders. he wants young pitching prospects. That's why i say give him a couple of ours for upton, and then sit back and see what Upton can do. Who would you rather have? Parra or Upton? Rogers or upton? we haven't had a guy with Upton's attitude in a brewer uniform since gary Sheffield. I' m sad to say with talent comes attitude. but sometimes you can turn attitude into a positive. I say with Upton, it's worth the risk. I'm sure he wants to be better than his brother - or at least be a starter.. if a guy like me is ever positive or close to being positive about something,, you know it's a good thing. even Eyore smiles once in a while.

if Koskie is done, I think acquiring crede could be a good thing. he's a proven commodity. he's going to become a free agent. Sounds like a perrfect stop gap fit. the Brewers could offer him arby, and surely as a Scott boras client, boras is going to find a better offer. and we'd get a first round pick for him. the problem we had with offering arby to graffy was that he had a lousy agent who didn't market graffy very well. I' m positive boras would be able to find Crede a new home. and then we could thank both crede and Boras for helping us out.

as far as being a project goes, Upton has gotten significant at bats at the major league level in two seasons. he's not really a project anymore. and TB's options are about to wear out. This will be his year to either break out and become a star, or be forever labeled as a bust. Tampa has no room for him in their outfield. And they thought so much of his infield defense, that they imported a japanese third baseman, and traded for a shortstop late last year. I've heard tampa was thinking about playing upton at second. they already have cantu there. Clearly Upton is a man without a job. I wouldn't hesitate trading turnbow for him. i'd also throw in one of our overhyped pitching prospects before they become like every other brewer prospect and blow out their arm. Rogers or Jones or parra or hendrickson and turnbow for upton? sure....

I doubt Jenkins or jones ends up as a platoon player despite what yost says and what jenkin's batting average against lefties was last year. jenkins has hit decent agains t lefties in the past- it's an every other year pattern. I have to believe he'll hit against lefties again.

As i said earlier , i think the mods and editors should discuss this offline. I believe certain mods, just like referees, have different levels of tolerance. A poster can post one thing in one forum and get a little slack, but say the same thing in another and be edited for their actions. I'm not saying either mod is wrong or out of line. a question I have - does brewerfan post anywhere who the mod for a forum is? i know who the mods are, but i don't really know which mod moderates which forum. and i stilll blame rydogg for telling me to include some additional !!!!!! and #$%#% in my posts. Casey edited it and said I was swearing. it was rydogg's fault. i didn't realize using the pound and dollar and percentage signs to form a word was a form of swearing and excessive use of punctuation. as for Al's complaint, i think it has merit. as for the poster I mentioned being banned, it was about a month ago when a bunch of us for no apparent reason started a chat session. Brian was there. Some other guy whose name i can't recall started making some off hand remarks, and brian told him in the chat he was banned. i don't know if brian actually banned him, if he was a long time poster, if the guy had previous warnings, or any history about this guy or if the two of them were just joking. but it made the rest of us guys like me wonder - wow - he got banned for saying something in a chat room discussion? it was kind of like witnessing a drive by shooting. You never know what led up to the banning or if he was actually banned or not. Sometimes you don't know if brian is being serious or is just playing with you. it's kind of like me telling colby to buy another cat to fix his mouse problem or me telling fatter than joey to join tthe YMCA rather than buy an exercise bike. there's a fine line between being serious and sarcastic.