Gopher74

Actually...yea, kinda. A lot of people thought he was going to be our 3rd basemen of the future after his first year. I'd rather have Helms on the roster than Seth McClung. A sentiment I'm quite sure you wouldn't have shared about an hour ago.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hJkm5R40Hj0 Yea, it's by Moby...I guess. I could have sworn it was a remake from the 70's, but I honestly don't know. I just know that on the Gone in 60 soundtrack, it's on there as "Flower by Moby".

Chamberlin won't be in the rotation if they can help it until August. And who really wants Mussina anyway? Burnett's contract is a problem because he holds the option. If he gets injured again (high probability) he picks up the option and spends next year rehabbing on the Brewers dime. And he also has a no trade clause that covers half the league. Obviously if Oswalt is available, he is the best pitcher out there. I don't think even the Yankee's non-Hank mouth pieces have stated they were going to wait until August. From what I heard it was June, but either way, no, I wouldn't want Mussina, just arguing that he could likely be had. Burnett's likely to miss some time, but he's also likely to throw 150 or so innings, and at worst he's got one more year on his deal. We're talking about getting an ace. You're not going to get one that's perfect. With Johan we'd have to give up everything, with Oswalt, he may be on the downturn and he's got a big contract, ect..ect.. Burnett is similar to Suppan in what he's going to be owed, and he's a better bet to be a true ace. More question marks, and less stability, but when he's on, he can be a true ace to go with Yo, and Sheets. Plus I think it's pretty much assumed that he's going to opt for Free Agency this next year either way.

I didn't see anyone compare Brantley to Gwynn, only that he was a player who developed his slugging later on, and so to could Brantley, a pretty basic comment when projecting minor leaguers.

To what end? If he's proven, and I'm not saying he has, but if he's proven that he can hammer AA pitching, why wouldn't you want to promote him? I don't know also why you'd want him up for only 2/3rd of the year next year? If the guys ready, he's ready. Why hold him back. Again, I'm not saying he is. But if he continues at this point until the ASB(AA ASB) then there's no reason to keep him out of AAA. And both rosters being full? Who's blocking LaPorta? Nix? Mel Stocker? Dillon? I don't see that any of those players should be blocking LaPorta.

Yea, that's true, but the best way to do it I've found is try going at least a day, maybe a day and a half without eating when you start your diet. I know that goes against a lot of weight loss modes, however I've had to cut 25 or so pounds coming out of football in high school, and then in college I'd have to cut about 40 pounds. Taking that first day, day and a half shrinks your stomach and then you get a real nice kinda jump start on your diet. you get full far easier. In truth, most of us would try to go 2 days doing this. Then when you're in your diet, the absolute biggest thing you can possibly do is before every mean, every time you eat, drink water. Not just a little bit, but literally try to slam water almost to the point of being uncomfortable. First of all you get hydrated, and that's not only better than diet pills as far as how much energy you're going to get, but it does a great deal to increase your metabolism, which by the way, does not slow down with age, it slows down with lifestyle. If you maintain your identical lifestyle from the time you're 20-80, your metabolism isn't going to change. Some diet pills will help you, mainly before you're going to run, or get whatever cardio in that you want to get in, and they'll suppress your diet, but they're not a good long term solution and people generally take them thinking that's what's going to help them lose weight. Losing weight comes down very simply, to burning more calories than you take in, but to do it right, you have to still eat the small portions that have been talked about in this previous post. It's a lifestyle change though. One that's going to make you a healthier, happier person.

Ephadrine(SP?). Not saying it was smart, but we used to take those for football games, and they would give you that feeling.

Based on what? Doug Davis was gone that next year, and he's really just a 4/5 type starter. Eveland's success is over a handful of a starts. And we netted Guillermo Mota for Estrada. Lets wait and see how he plays out. He may be a huge part of our success this year, and will need to be if we have success. So far, so good.

The problem with that is at the time, Sizemore was almost an afterthought..a throw in. Cliff Lee was the big piece and Brandon Phillips was the other good option. So using what those players turned out to be and trying to equate them to comparable's in the Brewers system isn't going to be Jeffress/Parra/LaPorta and Brewer. Maybe Parra, Fermaint, and Gamel. Something like that. I don't know about that. Sabean is pretty damn stupid. Does anyone realize that he's been a GM for a lot longer than 2 years? The Zito deal was terrible and they're not a good team right now, but they've been a good team for pretty much his entire reign as GM, and while it's easy to wrap that all up into Barry Bonds, it's also pretty lazy.

Oswalt's supposedly on the market right now. Mussina doesn't appear to be in their plans for this season once they get their ideal rotation figured out. I don't recall who it was that said it, Girardi or whoever, but they said that a rotation of Kennedy, Joba, Wang, Pettite and Hughes would be a good rotation for them. No Moose in there. And Burnett's contract is not a problem. He holds the option, and I'd be thrilled if we could get him at his option numbers. He's a Sheets caliber pitcher in terms of stuff.

I think it's safe to say at this point, whatever we could get for him pales in comparison to what we could possibly get out of him if he can continue to find that white thing about 60 feet away from that little hill out there. He has been really impressive the last two times out. He throws a 100 MPH fastball with more apparent ease than anything I've ever seen.

Call me old school Brewer fan--I can't imagine the Brewers doling out this much money at once, especially with this new strategy of giving young studs like Tulo and Young large contracts. The money we throw at Braun and Fielder, if we do, is going to determine a lot. Well, in that scenario, it's really just be re-signing Sheets as we'd be paying only 8 million more for an extra year of Garland. But no, that's not likely. It's incredibly unlikely, yet my point was simply that there are an abundance of possibilities. However, lets keep the Tulo and Young signings in perspective. Tulo got what 31 million over 6 years? Young not much more. I'd be thrilled if we signed Braun or Prince to those types of deals. They're not exactly bad deals for teams like us. Those are encouraging deals. That sets the market for a guy like Braun. To get him for 6 years now, you're going to have to dole out an additional 13-15 million for that extra FA year, but it's still entirely reasonable. And the point that keeps getting lost, is that these Brewers are playing on a whole new playing field financially. They'll never again be able to match payrolls with the Yankee's like they often did in the 80's, but they'll be able to say in that Braves/Cardinals range IMO. I'll concede the point that Gallardo might develop into an ace, and that would be great. Maybe my problem is that my definition of an ace is someone who brings it at 95mph or devastates hitters with an unhittable curve/off speed pitch. I don't see either of those pitches for Yo. But Gallardo could become more of a Harang type ace I suppose. But in the end Sheets to me is the better pitcher, more ace-like if you will, and so that's why I probably think of Yo as a number2. Yea, but the thing is, Yo's got that 95 MPH fastball. Yo can even run it up to 96, and with that power curve that appears to be very similar to his fastball with his deliver and movement until the last second, that can be that devastating combination. I'll think that he's got better stuff than Harang. Harang is a guy who sits around 88-90 for the most part, topping out at 93. Yo sits at about 91-93 topping out at 95/96, so he's definitely a step ahead stuff wise. He's also got a developing change and slider that he can go to and that he can command at this point. Neither are quote-unquote "out pitches" at this point, but they're good solid, "get ahead pitches, and may develop into out pitches. Hell, the kid is 22 years old. Parra just has too much to prove and no real track record when it comes to pitching 200 innings a year and consistently making it through 6/7 innings of work, and while I love the idea I can't count on it as a GM, and I'd have to be forced to act accordingly. Yea, but you're not a GM. You're a fan stating that our rotation and staff look bleak next year before you afford Parra the chance to develop. And of course he doesn't have a track record of pitching 200 innings. Gallardo threw 155 and 121 in his two years in the minors. No minor leaguers go 200 innings. The fact however remains that Parra's got great stuff. He's got better stuff than Gallardo. Just another point that it's entirely too early to make declarations about our 09 staff. And I guess I don't understand the lack of confidence in Villanueva. Velocity is important, but it's number 4 behind location, movement and changing speeds. If anything, even with worse results, Villy's breaking ball has given me more confidence in him thus far this year. His change, and Curve are plus pitches now, and his fastball just needs to be located like it was last year for us. A guy can't dominate in the role we used him in last year if he's just a number 5.

No, that's not true. If that were true, that would only encourage teams like the Marlins to be cheap and defeat the entire purpose of revenue sharing. No, we'll get as much as 70 to start out the season next year, and certainly more than the 60 we received this year. How much money are we going to miss out on because the Yankees and Mets get to deduct their stadium costs from their luxury(payroll) tax? I think we are going to have to get to the post season just to offset that. I wouldn't be surprised if there is actually less money next year than this year. Both teams have been given a break the last couple years as it is, so that's not going to have any impact I don't believe. I believe it's been the last 3 years possibly, but at least the last 2, so that should be fine.

Our farm system still has plenty of tradeable pieces. I'd argue that it's got more movable pieces than it did 2-3 years ago. At what point would we have ever considered moving our top prospect in the past? Now Matt LaPorta, a legit top 20 prospect would take a lot to get, but still most certainly can be had for the right deal...a statement that I suppose is always true, but that "deal" isn't going to be require as much as it would have in the past. Also, I don't know what "overly productive" equates to, but what I do know is that Rickie Weeks was one of the top 5 leadoff hitters in baseball last year in a number of statistical area's. That's pretty productive to me for a guy who was banged up most of the year. Rickie's problem is confidence. He's the sort of player who presses when he's scuffling a little bit. I'm sure this will illicit a disagreement, but for a player like him, I just see him as getting a hit early in a game, or having a 3 hit game, and then following the next AB/Game as though he's almost earned a little bit of capital in his mind, and he's a lot looser up at the plate, not putting so much pressure on himself to succeed. Again, this is what my opinion of Weeks is, I don't actually know that any better than anyone else, I just know that when I played, that's kinda how I felt, and that's when I'd really go off. And for him, to be able to just go up there and trust his hands and let it all hang out has proven to be a huge plus for him. I believe that he's at worst the 3rd most talented player on this team, and quite possible the most talented. I also think he needs to go after that first pitch a little bit more until pitchers stop grooving him fastballs to get ahead in the count. You've seen what he does when he swings at the first pitch. The leadoff bomb vs the Cubs, the three run triple the other night...when he's aggressive, he's an incredible player. He simply needs to find that happy medium between aggression and patience that hinders so many hitters.

A pitcher throwing a ball that an OF'er has to jump up and bring it back isn't doing anything positive. You simply can't argue that Weeks getting on bae and scoring a run isn't doing anything positive. The analogy doesn't mesh at all. Yes, in both cases, things are going on out of their control, but at least with Weeks, he's putting himself in position to do something positive. And it's not real often that a pitcher gives up a bomb on a perfect pitch. I suppose if we're going to argue that, then we could also go to the extreme and say that Weeks go on via a passed ball on a third strike, was balked to 2nd, 3rd and then home. But since we're trying to use more reasonable situations, I don't think we should use any of the extreme outliers.

I don't think it's really worth it to lock up Prince long term. Especially at the price that Boras would demend in order to do it. If' we're talking about a 5 year 70 million dollar deal, I could stomach that. If we're talking about a huge 100 million dollar deal, then...umm..no. Simply not worth it at this point. The problem is, I believe that Mark A WILL do it, even if it doesn't make sense. IF the choice are keeping Braun+Prince+one of our other players, Hart, Hardy, Weeks, ect...And Hart, Weeks, Gallardo, Braun and Hardy then it's not a difficult decision for me.

No, it's really a terrible analogy. I didn't respond to it at the time because I didn't think you meant it to be a serious analogy. But in your analogy, you're comparing Weeks scoring runs, to the pitcher being bailed out on a ball that Ichiro has to bring back. So you're essentially equating leaving a ball up or over to get drilled and hit nearly out of the park is the same as Weeks getting on base to score runs. No matter how you put it, Weeks is doing something good. How much credit he gets is to be debated for his runs, but the credit that goes to Ichiro versus the pitcher is not up for debate whatsoever. It's really a poor analogy. Edit-I'll post the initial comment so as to clear up any confusion. Whether or not he comes around to score is almost completely out of Rickie's control, so to give him credit for that is like giving a pitcher credit for 'hanging tough' on & retiring a batter because Ichiro pulled back what would have been a HR. A better analogy would be to giving Weeks credit for scoring a run would be like giving a hitter credit for hitting a Ground Ball that scores a run, or hitting a sac fly that brings a run in. It's still not exactly perfect, but at least in that scenario, both are doing something positive, and the merits of just how positive they are can be debated.

That would make more sense. Clearly that's just the opening bid, and one the Brewers would never take, but something the Cards would have to ask for. Asking for Hart in exchange for Crede is so over the top, that it's hard to believe. Not that I don't, just that it's hard.

You may have to revise that "team not contending" remark. Adding Frank is going to go a long way to helping them stay there all year. As is a healthy Rich Harden. Speaking of which, Harden's a FA after this season, correct? Or is it next year? Anyway, this has been posted I believe in the minors board, though it seems like this is a appropriate place to talk about it.

This has to go up as my favorite post ever on any board. For all the talk of sample sizes and what not, there's an awful lot of knee jerk whining on here. Now this specific thread may not be "whining", but it's certainly full fledged complaining. Just let it play out and see where we're at in a couple months. Not saying you can't talk about who should be playing and who shouldn't, but you're right, there is thread after thread after thread about how terrible this player is, how bad our pitching staff is, how bad it's going to be in the future, how we don't have a playoff caliber staff, how Weeks is a bust, ect...ect... I also just simply don't agree with the premise that he's a selfish player. He's just not a great player, 2006 notwithstanding. That said, he hit two solid singles right up the middle today and was looking great at the plate. His approach looked fantastic. This is when Bill Hall gets locked in, goes the other way, and then hooks that outside pitch like nobody I know and goes on a tear.

So you're using his future Batting Average to argue a point? Ok, let me play. What'll be said about Bill Hall when he hits .320 this year? Edit-To keep this to one post, since I know how much TwoLiveBrew hates multiple postshttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Crede has looked nice, but the white Sox wanted hart in return for Crede. So given a choice of rolen or glaus, I think keeping hall has turned out to be the best alternative. No they didn't. There's no way. That's such an asinine suggestion, that it's impossible they asked for something like that. Of course I've got no actual knowledge of what they asked for, but that just seems to patently absurd, they couldn't have. Beyond that fact that Corey Hart is the better player, he's cheaper, younger and under our control longer.

It'd be nice to get Weeks out of that leadoff spot at some point in the future as I think it really stymies him as an offensive player. Don't get me wrong, he's a fine leadoff man so long as he can get on base at a .380 or so clip(the .374 from last year that I expect him to build on being my reference), however if you could have a guy like Brantley who could post an OBP in the upper 300's, and move Weeks to the 5th spot(or even 3, though talk of that is obviously premature) I think it'd make him a much more productive hitter. He just takes too many 1st pitch strikes. Pitches that I assume he used to drive a bit more. And on that front, I'd rather see him around a .285/.365 mark than the .240/.375 he was last year as I think it'd lead to more runs. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is, I hope that Brantley can one day become that leadoff hitter we need. Just not sure if he can at this point.

I don't know how much you would gain by moving him to 2nd base. If he's good enough to handle 2nd, you'd probably just keep him at Short because his strong arm and great range is what makes him a great IF prospect. If you move him to 2nd, you're taking that away, and you've still likely got a player who's got trouble making the routine plays. It makes sense, in theory, but you're either wasting what would make him a good IF'er, or dealing with the same issues. In that same breath, I do find it a bit surprising that Rickie never saw any time at shortstop in his college career. He seems to have all the physical attributes to be a fine defensive Shortstop.

I don't think that's even close to the same thing. The very obvious reason being SS is a more important position than CF, so clearly you're going to keep a guy there until he proves he can't handle it. You don't take a guy who's going to be a big league CF'er and play him at 1st base and LF and RF very often.

Right, but the point here is that a guy, who hasn't done a whole lot so far in his career is the one saying it about 20 games in. We're not talking about what guys THINK. We're talking about what this idiot said. I like Cedeno as a player. I got into a long debate with him on this forum regarding people perception of him vs Pie being unfair(and it's about 4 months early to think I was right), but this guy is a moron, and it's getting easier and easier to see why Cub fans hate him despite the fact that he's clearly a very talented player. I now understand how someone could get thrown out at 2nd on a friggin walk. It's a "Cedeno" thing.