Big Reed

I would trade for baldelli in an instant. I wanted to trade overbay for an injured baldelli last year. something to think about that is very rarely included on this board in the same paragraph that includes praise for our pitching prospects: how many times have we said our minor league hitters' stats are not as great as other teams' prospects because we play in pitchers' parks? if the brewers play in pitchers' parks, then wouldn't our pitchers' stats also be just a little bit inflated? Everybody says Huntsville is a big pitchers' park. then wouldn't we expect the players that pitch at huntsville to have great pitching stats? hendrickson posted tremendous stats in the minors as did Eveland. however, once they arrived to the majors, they were both less than mediocre. the same could be said for many other over hyped brewer minor league pitching prospects in the past and currently. if you can acqquire a proven star MLB player in crawford or baldelli, I say the time is now to part ways with one or two of those prospects before the world knows they are just the second coming of hendrickson and teams offer us guys like gross, nix and mench for them.

to answer madison blue's comment about buying a gallon of milk for $5 when it was only worth $1.19, I'd answer yes. I'm not about to start going from grocery store to grocery store just so i can get the lowest priced milk. And I'm not going to change my shopping habits and go on double coupon day either just so i can save $12.75 off my grocery bill. And i'm not going to the Cub foods to bag my own groceries and listen to the cashier tell me how much I saved. I'm going to go to the grocery store that I like, and I'm going to pay the prices they ask. there is a reason the milk was priced at $1.19. it's expiration date is probably tommorow. there is a reason the meat is half priced as well. Are you going to waste 5 gallons of gas driving to three different grocery stores just to take advantage of each one's sale items? Go to kroger for their turkey; go to cub foods for their 12 pack sale; and go to Shopko for their milk? is that the type of people you are? As for me, give me one store with a lot of selections and hours that are convenient to me. And if the milk costs $5, it's worth it to me. this is a quote from major dad of real GM. he generously allowed me to copy it: overpaying for baseball players is kind of like buying a 12 pack of coke. the rich people don't complain about going to their upscale grocery store and paying $4.75 for that 12 pack. and the cheap clubs like the brewers go to Sams and buy that cheap no name cola that's on sale for $1.99 or they go to kroger and buy that K cola and believe it tastes good. the fact is Coke tastes good, and is the real thing, and you shouldn't belittle the rich for paying more for it. And when the rich go to their upscale grocery store, they are not going to bring 500 coupons with them in an effort to save money. Collecting coupons and buying K cola is what teams like the brewers do. on a grocery bill of $100, the brewers save $9.85, and end up with a bunch of inferior products. the grocery bill for the yankees is $150 and they also tip the bagger. You could make the analogy of where do Brewers buy their winter coats? Marshall Fields? or Burlington Coat Factory? there's nothing wrong with buying a coat at the Burlington Coat factory as long as you realize the coats on sale there are leftovers from last year's sales from real department stores. You also have to realize the merchandise /product will never be as good as buying from a real department store. and yes, Marshall Fields overcharges. but so what? That's their right. the same applies to the Yankees. they overpay their players. that's their right. I doubt anybody here would tell their employer he is owverpaying you and you don't deserve that raise. george is just trying to keep his players and their families happy. thank you major dad for that analogy. I'm begining to think it's not the brewers who are cheap, but rather their fans. brewer fans are the type that search the internet for hints to their electronic games rather than going to the bookstore and paying for the hint manual. brewer fans probably copy church music rather than buying sufficient copies. brewer fans tape movies to VCR tapes and discs rather than going to the store and buying the original version. brewer fans probably copy software rather than giving microsoft its due. brewerfans buy their clothes at walmart rather than macys. I bought a dell laptop wit h all the bells and whistles. the brewerfan would have gone with the $499 model. brewer fans learn how to spell and use a dictionary verses incorporating a spellchecker on their websites. (after saying that, I noticed the spellchecker link is now gone) brewerfans buy things on ebay. modular wausau and national homes are great as are particle board kitchen cabinets. brewer fans settle for a window air conditioner rather than installing central air. brewerfans role down the windows of their car when they are hot rather than waste gas and run the air conditioner. brewerfans buy cars based on their mpg ratings rather than their oeverall quality rating. brewer fans save the excess cheese waste and sell it as cheese curds rather than just throwing it away. nowhere except wisconsin can you find cheese curds, and wisconsin is no longer even the biggest dairy state. You won't find cheese curds in California or New York. brewer fans build additions onto their homes rather than selling their homes and building a new one. brewerfans finish their basements rather than buying a bigger house. Garages become family rooms. brewer fans vote for people who promise no increased taxes. Fiengold proposes legislation to keep campaign spending down, and brewerr fans like that idea. Why should we care how much somebody spends to get elected? but we do! Why buy a new one when this two year old car is just as good? brewer fans change their own car oil. brewerfans go to George webb rather than Wendys. brewerfans give out bubble gum and dumdums on halloween rather than chocalate candy snickers bars. brewerfans believe in wearing hand me downs. the brewerfan carries his own luggage in his hotel on vacation rather than have a bell boy do it. the brewerfan uses a calculator to figure out the restaraunt tip, and doesn't pay a penny more than 15%. The waitress looks at the $2.19 tip left on her table, and realizes it must have been a brewer fan. why pay more, when you can payless payless shoes is a very popular store in brewerland. Their shoes are crap, but people keep buying them. Going out to dinner means going to taco bell. a fancy dinner means Shakeys pizza parlor or olive garden. brewer fans have never eaten at Mortons in Chicago.. Why go to a place like that when you can go to krogers, and grill a steak on your backyard grill? brewerfans drink beer and water from their kitchen sink. While you may not agree with all of my generalizations, I believe you can agree that many of the things i've said are very accurate about people who live in Wisconsin and are native to the state. it's not you of course, but you know somebody in your neighborhood that fits my description to a T. The Brewers are simply a mirror and representation of their fan base. I've been to New York City and LA. their teams are very representative of their fan base. their fan base is rich and expects a quality product, and doesn't mind paying for it. and that's what the Yankees, Lakers and Knicks provide them. it's ok to be cheap. What is irritating is people who moan and complain about it. Does the guy who lived on the other side of the tracks whine and complain about being poor? or does he do something about it? My old neighbor and his sons still live in that single wide trailer in that trailer park. I got an education and got out. I'm not exactly rich, but when I go to grocery store, I don't have to look at the prices of the stuff I buy. I don't go down the isle with a calculator in my hand. I don't comparison shop. I just thank the cashier and tip the bagger. I can't believe the number of posts by brewerfans saying a player is overvalued, or that team paid too much. Do yo u do this in real life too? Did your neighbor pay too much for that snow blower, or did he get a good deal? do you actually go to your neighbor and ask him where and how much he paid for his new car, and then tell him he could have saved $200 if he went to place you know about? if you do, you are cheap! one huge gigantic tightwad. What are you going to do with all this money you've saved? spend it on an urn for your ashes? or spend it on a platinum casket with a lot of flowers? I think a few of you need to go down to the store and buy a pair of hat and gloves and donate it to your local charity. and when you go to store, don't look at the price tag. buy because it looks nice, or because it looks warm. wh t you do with your life should not revolve around how much is this going to cost me!

I'm here today. does that count? i can whine and complain with the best of them. My feelings about the seligs kind of parallel those expressed by Geno. and I can write really long posts if provoked. and often times when not provoked.

there can be no better name than Brent Brewer! Nick Bierbrodt came close.

in reading the press release after he was drafted, it was obvious this kid wants to play professional baseball and really wants to get his pro career going . he said didn't really care what team drafted him. He wants to be in the pros in 2 years. That's pretty fast for a high school pitcher. By signing now, he could make low A ball before the year is out. and who knows, he could make AA by the end of next year and maybe be a September call-up next year. it's possible! As a rule , i don't like drafting high school pitchers, but i like this kid's attitude. he really wants to be a pro baseball player and he's doing everything in his power to become one. .

Don't know much about Jeffries other than the written word provided here. However, unlike past drafts, there is no player after Jeffries that really stands out or perked my interest. in the past , we've taken flyers on injured players with high ceilings, or college players with great production. but this class of picks just says nothing - well ok, it was a draft. nothing special. The brewers didn't make any stupid pick - just none to get overly excited about. I didn't see any other team doing much better. In the past, people would say the baseball draft is just a crap shoot, and I would disagree with them and say there are certain players who will be stars. Weeks was one of those players you knew would be a star, as was Fielder. but this year, I have to join the masses and say this baseball draft will be a crap shoot. obviously there will be players who become stars. but based on their performance this year, the stars are going to be hard to pick out from the also rans. In the past, people have said small market teams need to build up their farm teams to be successful. I can't see the Royals or Brewers getting a lot of future starters out of this year's draft. Unfortunately, both small market teams are going to have to learn the future success of their franchise cannot be solely dependent on their draft. They are going to have to pony up and spend some money on some free agents to fill in the holes. Spending $50 million on payroll and hoping to have a great draft is not going to add up to a winning team. I realize Melvin knows this, but many fans do not.

I'm moving to a house on a nice lake near Rushville and Beardstown, IL as of 1 July. It is about 45 miles directly west of Springfield. I'm not exactly sure what type of internet access i will have whether it will be via cable, phone line or satelite.

I have a question about moving, IP addresses and brewerfan accounts. I will be moving to Illinois later this month. I'm not sure what type of internet access I will have. I know my IP and email address will definitely change. Should I cancel my curent account? Can I do so from a different Ip address? Will I have to establish a new brewerfan name and account? will ezboard allow me to use my old account with a new IP address? what other things related to this site will I have to worry about as part of my move?

i hit the back button, but the box was blank. I've noticed that on other forums as well. on my computer, hitting the back button will take me to the place where I was about to post, and it will have an open posting box, but the post itself will be gone. no biggie.

I have a question about the locking of threads process, not the reasoning behind locking threads.. There was a thread in the about Konerko re-signing with the white sox in the rumors /trades forum today. it is now locked. totally understandable. I opened the thread and prepared a reply to it while the thread was still open. I submitted my post and it was accepted by easyboard, but it never appeared anywhere. By the time I had posted my submission, the thread was locked. my question is, where did my post go? into the internet wastebasket? can it be found and reposted on the konerko thread on the major league board? or was it one of those unfortunate events that sometimes happen and we're sorry, but you'll have to retype it again? Is it possible for locked threads like this one to be moved to their appropriate forum and then reopened? is it possible for posts from locked threads to be moved and attached to other threads? Would this become a nightmare and burden for the current mods? I've never been a big fan of locking threads. but i realize it serves a purpose.

I'm aware of the brewers draftees who did not sign and probably got away. i'm curious as to the other big name draftees from other teams that did not sign. Did that catcher from Texas ever sign? is there a link to the non signees ??

but couldn't we just kind of talk to them and make them an offer, and then agree with them to wait until after the deadline to sign them? last year we signed Miller before the deadline and it cost us a pick for doing so. I'm not so sure Oakland was actually going to offer Miller arby. So couldn't we work on the sly and have everything in place, and then agree to wait until after the deadline to sign them? and keep our pick? I recall one of our draft picks in the early nineties signed within hours after we drafted him. it was kind of obvious we had already made an under the table pre draft deal. couldn't we do something similar with a free agent? it would appear that our better alternative is to make a trade and acquire a player with a larger salary than to get squeezed in a bidding war for a free agent and then end up losing our first round draft pick as part of the bidding war. I would hate to win a bidding war for Washburn and then end up losing our first round draft pick for doing so.

the nats lost, so it looks like the 16th pick is ours. it would have been nice to be in the top 15 circle to have some flexibility. perhaps some teams will decide not to offer their players arbitration. and perhaps this year the brewers will be willing to wait a couple of more days before signing the free agent. i have a question. can the brewers contact a prospective free agent and make an offer to them before they are offered or declined arby? or would that be considered tampering? example: Washburn wants to return to the Angels. Millwood may want to return to the indians. can the brewers talk to these free agents and offer them a contract before the angels and indians decide to offer them arby? I'm not saying signing them. I'm just talking about making them an offer. I seem to recall the Yankees did something like this with sheffield where they had sort of a verbal under the table agreement but would not sign him until after they knew he wasn't going to offered a contract.

my personal oppinion is that if a thread warrants being locked because it is offensive to somebody, it is probably in your best interest to just delete the entire thread. by locking a thread, the offensive posts are still there to offend people. and after locking a thread with offensive subject matter, you are probably going to see a related thread opened with similar offensive posts. I don't see the point of locking a thread. it's better just to delete the entire thread. just my oppinion.

what's wrong with spending a lot of money and actually drafting and signing a Scott borass client? The cubs drafted and signed a boarss client on the same day- a record for borass. I recall three different teams tried to sign Jason Varitek and refused to pay him the money he wanted. Their loss if you ask me. however, we all forget about the past, as Jason's now a beloved all star. all those other catchers who signed for little money are still making little money because they're still in the minors or became fringe major league players! What was wrong with opening our pocketbook and going after a catcher like Teagarden? Sure, he wanted a ton of money. so what? Save some money by going with Geico insurance for all employees. put more water in the beer. Charge more for tailgating. have a car wash and a bake sale at each game. In 3 years, when he becomes a starting MLB catcher, and in 5 years when he becomes a perenial all star, he will be worth every single penny invested in him - just like Varitek. it appears as if yesterday's draft went back to the old ways of brewers drafts - we drafted people we could afford to sign verses those with bonified talent. I thought we had learned our lesson of drafting players we could afford verses drafting the best available talent. I guess we don't need a catcher either. We've got some tremendous ones already in our system.

I read the other thread initiated by massbrew in the major league forum. I have to ask the stupid question. massbrew said emoticons were evil. Don asked if we could just get rid of them. the answer provided was that we can't get rid of them. I personally like the emoticons. that is why I have to ask the stupid question- why does massbrew not like them and considers them evil? Do they cost more to incorporate into a post? does ezboard charge more to use them? Are posters just posting messages completely of emoticons? I've noticed other message boards incorporate some emoticons , but not as many as ezboard does. can somebody enlighten me as to what the real problem with emoticons is? and can you provide me a link to an example of a post that went overboard in their usage? when talking about costs, I'm thankful this site added a spell checker. I know others who read my posts of previous years are thankful as well. thanks in advance.

My initial thought is that if the site had a separate fantasy sports forum, it could be used ffor posting fantasy information much like we post information on the players coming up for the draft. we could provide info on who's the best scond baseman or running back or point guard and the like for fantasy purposes. We could also use the forum for trade proposals and also as a place to look for leagues starting up. it was also my thought that while there are not many fantasy posts currently that if there was a separate forum, a lot more people that play fantasy sports might start posting fantasy related posts. I'm also not sure if kat wanted his off subject forum to be cluttered with threads about who the best catchers and qb's are . perhaps if somebody did start using the off subject forum area and did start posting about fantasy player rankings, you would see a lot more fantasy posts. a lot of people are attracted to come to this site because of its extensive minor league coverage and its ability for sports fans to be able to talk off the subject once in a while. my thought was by adding a fantasy sports forum, additional people who would not normally visit this site might soon become regular posting members. I'm talking about future growth and expansion. To me a fantasy sports forum would be a logical path for that future expansion. When we lived in Tampa, we had a favorite restaurant - beef o' brady's. they were basically a hole in the wall sports pubs, but their roast beef sandwiches were great. yesterday I ate at a beef o' brady in Dayton. and in the past 2 years , they have expanded from 6 hole in the wall pubs to 150 franchised restaurants maybe this site is not ready for the exponential expansion of members adding a fantasy sports forum would bring. I realize adding a forum costs money. memory space costs money. having twice as many members also costs money. and this is a not for profit site with a volunteer staff. but to deny something solely based on the limited fantasy posts of the past is not a realistic evaluation. there were not that many posts about minor league players/activities before we developed the minor league forum. and the minor league forum generated interest in creating the draft forum. I guaranteee if a fantasy sports forum was created, it would soon fill up with posts and increased readership. just look at the current exponential membership growth of this site. new sports fans would soon be visiting this site and staying here because the entire site is a worthwhile site. . I'll accept the current oppinions expressed. they were genuine and sincere. I will continue to use the off subject forum for fantasy sports related posts. however, I will respectfully readress this issue two years from now in the Fall of 2006. I'm not upset about losing this issue. I am saddened though by the number of people who actually read the poll, but refused to vote. only about 1/5th of the people who read the poll voted. and that spoke a lot more than the no votes cast. if people cared and actually wanted a fantasy sports forum, they would have expressed their interest through their vote. consider the poll closed.

brian, are you sure that's what the title was ?? I thought it much worse and more sarcastic than that. I kind of like that title. Can I have it back ???? While it may have been meant to be sarcastic, it has kind of a new meaning today. Can I have it back? brewerfan regular is kind of a boring title. another idea just popped into my head. brian, we know you can change the sub titles for posters. it's probably time consuming though. How about as a money raising venture, you sell titles? members could pay you $5 -$10 a year for the right to have a "personalized" sub title ??? I admit you probably won't get many more than 10-20 requests. but think about it - 20 requests for a "personalized " subtitle could bring in $100 a year !!!! i'd be willing to pay $10 a year for a "personalized " subtitle. I think others would too.

I just obtained regular status today. I used to have a different more reflective sub title. it was very unique. it was also kind of appropriate and deserved. I forgot what it was. which is a good thing.

I would like to ask the simple question of the interest of having a fantasy sports forum. I would love it and be a big contributor. but I also realize we can only have so many forums. and I also realize adding additional forums costs money. and Brian is losing money off this site to begin with. The question has been posed before. I thought I would pose it once again.

brian, we know you're not big into fantasy sports. but I'm talking not just about baseball, I'm talking about all fantasy sports. I'm confident if created, this could be one of your busiest forums and another 500-20,000 people would want to join brewerfan and contribute to this forum. we could even try to interview Greg Ambrosius from fantasy sports magazine . he's from Iola , WIS. I even talked to him on the phone one time several years back. he's really a nice guy. we could use the forum for fantasy mock drafts. I think this is a great idea, and worthy of at least taking a poll on the issue. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/happy.gif

Now that we have a new Political forum ,what's the chance we might be able to persuade Brian into creating a fantasy Sports forum ? We could use this forum to talk about fantasy sports, review possible trades, and also to help establish new fantasy leagues in baseball , football , basketball and maybe hockey and also sports wagering - I mean for monopoly money of course.. I truly believe if the forum was established, we'd have a lot of people contributing to it. I would even be willing to write fantasy power rankings for basketball and baseball. my fantasy football talents seem to be lacking. I know I've brought up the subject before, and it has been met with a big NO. but that was when we only had 300 members. I think now that we have over 1,000 members, we may have a new demographic that needs to be reached- and that is the fantasy sports player. But since we have a new server and other stuff, I thought I would once again bring up the idea for approval. the worst that could happen is NO. I' m also willing to throw out a second idea - now that the new political forum has been created, how about if we could change it's name to the fantasy forum after the election is over? fantasy and politics are kind of the same anyway. and every four years, we could allow political conversations on that forum. or we could call it the fantasy / political forum and use it for both fantasy sports talk and also political talk? they do kind of run together anyway, right? is this one of my best ideas ever or what ? I didn't ask if it was a good idea. I just asked if it as one of my better ideas? there is a difference. how about if we took a poll first? See how the creation of a fantasy sports forum and politics are very similar ???

Something to think about when posting references and links about this site at ESPN. a regular poster who had posted on ESPN for about 3-4 years was banned today by ESPN for posting the same message on several (about 10 boards) ESPN baseball team forums about forming his own baseball forum for posters to talk on. My guess is either somebody turned him in as spamming the new ESPN forums, or ESPN is taking a harder look at messages soliciting people and banning the originator of the message. I don't know the real reason he was banned. I only know he only had about 10-15 messages posted which were all the same inviting people to post on his newly established major league forum. and within a day of posting those messages, he was banned. like I said, it's food for thought. i would reccomend to all brewerfan posters when posting at ESPN to make your posts informative and then provide a link to the story rather than being solicitive in nature.

my thoughts on college verses high school is if the player is good on the field, he will get promoted fast track whether he is a college player or not. there are too many examples of where a player produced and was fast tracked. Neuge was on track to arrive to the major leagues just as fast as Eldred and Sheets were before injuries delayed his arrival. jenkins went to college. pods did not. who is the better player? who went through the minors quicker ? who arrived to the major leagues at an earlier age. it doesn't really matter! They are both integral parts of our team. In looking at the past, Seaver went to college and I doubt Bob Gibson did. who was the better pitcher ?? They were both about equal. Nolan Ryan went to college. Clemens went to college. Carlton ? I'm not sure. reggie jackson, mark mcguire, and Sal bando all went to college. jose canseco and rickey henderson did not. Mulder and Zito went to college , while Hudson did not. there are plenty of all time greats who went to college and just as many that did not. in looking back, it is probably not a fair assessment to compare college verses non college for players that played before 1960. Players like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson were probably not afforded the opportunity to go to college. and players like Babe Ruth probably didn't go to college either. I think a fair assessment would be to take a look at last year's all star team. That's 50 of today's best players. I would be interested in knowing how many of the players on last year's all star team were college verses non-college players. I'm predicting that there will be twice as many college players that were all stars last year than high school players. I'm very curious as to the break down of last year's all star team. I think we may be selling college players short, and over-hyping high school drafted players. I know before even looking that Jenkins, Prior, Helton, Clemens, Mulder, Musina, nomar, jeter, ventura, Zito, glaus, Bonds, and giambi were all college players. posada was junior college and Soriano was a foreign player. I'll try to complete my research on last year's all star break out of college verses high school by Monday. If anybody wants to beat me to it, feel free to go ahead and do so. I think we'd all like to see the results/ break out.

in reply to the person who said that all the best high school talent is drafted and signs and becomes a pro and colleges just get the leftovers and therefore their ceiling cannot possibly be as high as those of the high school players in the draft. I think your assessment was not totally accurate. there are still a lot of talented high ceiling players who prefer to go to college rather than going straight into the pros upon being drafted out of high school. the Brewers drafted several of these players in the lower rounds with the hope they may be able to convince them not to go to college. Sowers was a first round draft pick out of high school who decided to go to college. and again he was a first round pick. his ceiling hasn't changed much. guys like Giambi and nomar garciaparra were lower draft choices out of high school because they had already made up their minds about going to college first. Mark Prior was a first round draft pick by the Yankees coming out of high school. Why he turned down their offer and went to college is beyond me. but the fact is, he did. while guys like AROD, Griffey and Sheffield were studs coming out of high school, guys like Berkman, Nomar, and Helton were just as studly as high school players, but decided to go to college first. I therefore suggest that there are plenty of college players with ceilings just as high as the high school players they are drafted with. the main problem with college players, just like in the NBA, is that team GMs love the unknown more than the known. Guys like Boozer and Walton fell in the NBA draft because they played college ball for 4 years and became known commodities. but a guy like Darko who averaged 8 ppg in Europe is a mystery and is real tall and could be good, so he is drafted second overall ahead of the known commodity Melo!. Guys like Townsend, Sowers and Weaver became known commodities, and guys like Nelson, Homer Bailey and Rogers leap frogged ahead of them in the draft. I believe the ceiling of college players is just as high as the ceiling of high school players. look at the Brewers !!! Molitor went to college. Yount didn't. the end result was the same. they are both Hall of Famers.