Thurston Fluff

Braun secretly called Rodgers right after he called Kemp, Tulo and Joey Votto, and told him, too that Dino Laurenzi Jr was an anti-semitic Cubs fan who kicked dogs, and stole lollipops from babies. Haven't you heard? Yeah. I've never understood this view that Braun ruined Laurenzi's life..blah blah blah. The dude didn't follow procedure and it probably wasn't the first time (people presume Braun didn't just use once, so we can likely say the same for Laurenzi). Laurenzi gets zero sympathy from me. To say that Laurenzi was slandered by Braun is laughable, imho. To the best of my knowledge Braun never gave out his name. Which is why I have a hard time with the media going all sanctimonious on Braun. They were the ones who found the dude's name and published it. Might be legal but it doesn't take away the damage that it did to him. Far more than Braun did by saying some anonymous sample taker was at fault.

It appears some people might embrace Braun after all. Ok so they view him as the villain. But it appears many of them like villains in the game. I'm sure he'll take it if we keep winning. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/04/10/did-ryan-braun-taunt-the-phillies-fans-last-night-god-i-hope-so/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs

Trade him while his value is at it's peak!

Dear MR Braun. While it is tough to admit, the black fedora fits you quit well in downtown Philadelphia. Speaking of downtown, please quit taking our pitchers there. Sincerely, Philip De Antente', The Philadelphia haberdashery and hat emporium.

Take a look at the title of the thread.

Boston: If you want to be the champs you have to beat the champs. Brewers: Yep.

I know it wasn't a huge shove or anything but a player should NEVER touch a fan in the stands anymore than a fan should touch a player on the field. Frankly I think he should be fined. Not much but enough to let everyone know the player was really in the wrong.

I love how they excuse Peralta because he admitted his mistake but somehow forget Braun did the same under the same circumstances. I wonder what Peralta would have done if he thought he had a legitimate appeal case that was to be heard confidentially. WE won't know because he passed his test (or wasn't tested during the dirty time) while cheating. Though one would think if Peralta was really sorry for what he did instead of sorry for getting caught he would have turned himself in at the very beginning of the case. I'm not willing to give him any more credit for accepting his penalty only after finding out there was a huge pile of evidence against him than they are Braun. I may not be classy but I also am not hypocritical.

does anyone boo Mark McGuire in st louis? did anyone after he lied to congress? the hypocrisy of the writers at ESPN is overwhelming. someone wrote yesterday that he was okay to cheer for bonds and mcguire because what they did wasn't "against the rules".... unreal. sure, there weren't "rules" at that time, but "rules" were created BECAUSE of them. First of all McGuire didn't lie to congress. He said he didn't want to talk about the past. I know it' splitting hairs but one is illegal and the other isn't. Second it was against the rules when Bonds and Mac did them. There was just no way to test for it. Big difference when making the argument he tried to make.

As for the media's self-righteous indignation toward Braun, and how offended they are while trying to tell fans of a team how to react to their team's best player's first at bat, they can shove it. What bothers me about the media self righteousness is they are complicit in the damage done to the very same people they seem to damn Braun for. It was the media that leaked Braun's supposedly confidential appeal. It was the media who made public the name of the person who took the sample. It was the media who put Braun in the situation where he felt he had to lie. While that does not excuse Braun for choosing to lie it does not leave the media blameless for the victims of that lie. The fact that Braun won the appeal shows there were problems with the process. Had Braun's appeal been kept confidential the process would have been fixed and nobody would have known who the sample taker was. So if they want to bash Braun maybe it's time they took a long look in the mirror and realize they are as much to blame for anyone thrown under the bus as Braun is. While what they did is not banned the reason they did what they did was for far less noble a reason than wanting to get back on the field or help the team win. Nor was it to make sure the public was kept informed on as important issue like Watergate or something. They did it for ratings. IF that is who is damning us for cheering Braun then I think we should wear their condemnation as a badge of honor.

This is the single best response I have read so far anywhere. I have never been the type to idolize or worship players in general. But I don't want to have to hate any of them either. I just want to cheer my team and the players on it.

Henderson is a nice story. He did well for a couple seasons. But the league is littered with guys with a decent year or two and a lot of crapitude beyond that small window. A 10 year minor league journeyman who suddenly does well seems to be the perfect candidate to be one of those types. It shouldn't be mandatory to let him totally flop in a closing role trying to show he is more than that. It isn't like Henderson won't be given a shot to show he deserves the role again. I don't blame RRR for wanting Henderson to prove he is more than a flash in the pan. Especially in a season his boss publicly said the team needs to play better early. After all it is probably his job on the line if another slow start dooms another season.

Hope springs attorney. Or is it Hope Spring's attorney?

Interesting read on how valuable a skill framing pitches is. Also nice to see Lucroy is among the best of them. http://grantland.com/features/studying-art-pitch-framing-catchers-such-francisco-cervelli-chris-stewart-jose-molina-others/

What about Melvin's m.o. suggests he'd trade Estrada after a good season to make room for a prospect? Lyle Overbay was traded to make room for Prince Fielder.

Trading him about the same time they traded JJ Hardy would have probably packed more talent into 2011 and beyond. If we get a good pitcher for Fielder it doesn't necessitate the trades for either Greinke or Marcum. We get different or better long term players back for the guys we traded. I get the idea of trading at peak value but I don't think you trade legit MVP type guys just because you can get the most for them at that point. Realistically the best you can hope for is someone as good for a few more years. Yet they will have their best value with a few years left on their contract. To me that means the best you can hope for production wise is to break even. If you get Matt LaPorta instead of Jean Segura you don't even do that.

Some sort of Tater I'd expect.

No doubt about Iowa's dominance. Having the Vince Lombardi of wrestling coaches kind of helps that. One of the great moment in my life was meeting Dan Gable. But I think the dominance was deeper than just Iowa even back then. It is the number of teams that do so well every season that I think is impressive. It common for half the top ten teams to be from the Big Ten. What is uncommon is for another conference to have more top ten teams than the Big 10. Then when you look at the number of all Americans it gets even more impressive. When your conference has 50% of the individuals in the championship round you have more than one team dominating.

I'm glad you're such a charitable dude even though you are apparently missing the larger point. Ramirez signed a 3 year contract with a 4th option year, given the historical injury rate it was a virtual certainty that at his age over his contract length he would land on the DL at least once, the only question was really the severity of the injury. I think you said Ramirez is fragile and will inevitably get injured this season. I just don't see how that shows he inevitably will make a trip to the DL in 2014 or show he is a fragile player. I know last season Bleacher report had ranked him as a moderate risk of DL time. Not sure what it is this season but I bet he isn't ranked as inevitably going to get injured. Look I get what you are saying. I just disagree with your overly hyperbolic pessimism. If you mean he has a higher chance of injury than most and we should account for that then say that. Not he is a lock for injury because he is a fragile little old man.

Just wanted to give a little love to the most dominant conference in any sport in all of division one college athletics. Big 10 wrestling. This season five of the top ten teams at nationals are from the big 10. Including the national champions Penn state and runner up Minnesota. It also claimed 34 of the 80 All-American spots. The next closest was the Big 12 with 11. Ten Big Ten wrestlers competed in the finals (there are only 10 weight classes.) The next closest was five from the Big 12. While that would be pretty good for any conference for a single season that is just a typical season for the Big Ten. This is the 8th consecutive national championship in a row for the Big 10 and 33 total in it's 86 year history. Considering wrestling is traditionally the third largest money maker in college sports and always turns a profit it not exactly a minor sport. Which to me makes it's dominance all the more impressive.

Do I tell him I had his growth chart poster on my dorm room wall in 1987-88? (I was proud to have it because it was supposed to be for kids up to age 16 and they gave 21-year-old me one, without my asking.) Do I tell him I still have the growth chart (though not currently displayed)? Only if you want to remove all doubt as to whether you still have your 1987 nerdiness. p.s. you should display it proudly. Or did you forget the lessons of Revenge of the Nerds? Should you do Twitter and want to check him out yourself, he's at @RobDeer45, and he seems to be hawking a baseball camp. If he's trying to get you to buy one shouldn't he be Hawing it?

I can't say I'm totally mad at him being cut but I wouldn't have been angry if he was kept either. All in all I felt it was going to be a week spot after Hart left no matter what. So I am not to fussed about it. I really don't think losing Francisco instead of Overbay matters to the team's fortunes this season. They asked him to make changes and he did. They talked about how he was working hard and had made progress and then when they dump him, they trash him. The talk about defensive is hyperbolic. I realize they can't say they want these guys because its a chance to get some old guys and some relief from all the young players, but come up with different spin. While he looked better on the offensive side he failed miserably on the defensive side. I'm not sure how you can say it's hyperbolic when it was a stated goal before free agency even started and well before the position was filled with who we have. He hurt his shoulder in 2009 as 31 year old, and while past durability is better than a history of frailty, being durable in the past is not any kind of predictor of future health, it doesn't work that way. Please explain to me how hurting his knee sliding into second base has anything to do with a previous shoulder injury. Sure there is more concern for older players but the idea that he is fragile and will inevitably be on the DL is way off base. I am being charitable in saying inevitable is the same as saying almost a certainty. No age to injury stat I have ever seen showed that. All I ever saw with injury predictors pertaining to age regression is they are more likely than someone younger to get injured. Totally different thing than more likely than not to get injured. Let alone a forgone conclusion he will.

Just curious, with Reynolds taking over 1B full time, and a fragile Ramirez manning 3B, who takes over 3B when Ramirez inevitably gets hurt? Does that mean we have Overbay starting at 1B and Reynolds at 3B? If that is true for any extended period of time, we are in big trouble. I looked at his stats and saw he started playing full time in 2001. I do not know if he had any sort of major injury issues before 2000 since he has three seasons of sub 100 games but since 2001 when he started playing full time he has 8 seasons playing a 142 games or more. Of the others he played at least 120 games in all but 4. I guess I just don't see that as fragile or an inevitable injury.

Maybe they just thought you were the rugged, horse riding, cattle roping type of guy. Did you buy some country music or a cattle head belt buckle on Amazon recently?

It's amazing what learning a little class can do for a guy.