Thurston Fluff

The GM handbook circa 1977 clearly states that you have to have at least 1 LH starting pitcher. Dougie's just doin' what he knows..... I seem to remember him saying he will compete for the job not that he had it locked up. What about Nelson though. He might have the most upside of all three. He acquitted himself quite nicely in limited time at MIL last year and I don't think he has a whole lot left to prove at AAA either. But as of now there is only one spot for Nelson, Thornburg, and Smith. I just don't want Nelson rotting away in AAA and he is definitely a starter who shouldn't be stuck in the bullpen long term. Thornburg and Smith seem more suited for the bullpen than Nelson. I doubt there ever is such a thing as to many good young pitchers. Especially in a farm system supposedly lacking in major league prospects. Nelson has all of 83.1 innings of AAA ball. He posted respectable but not eye pooping numbers over that time. He is not going to be rotting away in AAA. He will be learning the things he needs to be a better major league pitcher when his time comes.

Every soft tossing RHP dosn't have the ability to be Marcum, certainly a couple of guys around baseball will be, but all of the rest are going to be back of the rotation or bullpen guys. Why bring up what RHP when Smith is a lefty? There are a lot of lefties who have good major league careers with 90 MPH fastballs. Smith fills a need. And he still has some upside. But I don't see him catapulting us into contention. I hope he does - but I don't think he'll have that kind of impact. I seriously doubt a 32 year old RF with average production with one season left on a contract gets you any player who catapults us into contention. You are either overrating how good Nori was or underestimating the value of guys who can single handedly catapult a team into contention. Even if he is a few years away.

There's a difference between 'high' and 'higher'. I don't think anyone expected a high upside prospect for Aoki. But I don't think it's out of the line to think we could have gotten a player with higher potential than Smith if we had been willing to take a guy in the low minors compared to a current major leaguer. How high a ceiling does and A ball player have to have before he is guaranteed to ever make it to AAA? There is a lot more risk to go along with younger players. They had an average major league corner outfielder with one year lef ton his contract. They needed bullpen help in general and a lefty overall. IIRC he is going to be only one of two lefties on the 40 man roster. They got a decent prospect whose chances of contributing in the majors is a lot higher than virtually any A ball player Aoki could land us.

I liked Aoki as much as anyone but we need to realize being a pleasant surprise is not the same as being a great player. I think getting a young lefty for a career 755 OPS corner outfielder isn't bad.

The thing I don't get about the people who want him to tell all is what that is supposed to accomplish. Is knowing how he did it, when and why somehow going to make things better? Knowing he cheated is enough for me. I don't see how that changes by the public knowing the details. I am just guessing here but, to me, it's more like people want to know so they can act outraged or maybe so they can see him squirm in some attempt to feel he was punished enough or something. Either that or it's a watching a train wreck sort of thing.

Anyone else find it funny the team that polices every aspect of how other teams act are the ones who say they aren't the morality police? I guess they are just to busy being the unwritten rules police to worry about it. At least next time I see some arrogant "this is how you play the game" type comment from one of their fans I have some good ammo.

I have a theory on why teams are paying older players so well when it is such an obviously poor risk. It is sort of like how teams paid players who had a good batting averages well after it was known batting average wasn't all that useful in assessing a player's value. The lag time between conventional wisdom and new information leaves some teams to make very foolish moves simply because they are still working under the old paradigm. In the PED era it wasn't all that uncommon to find guys playing almost as well at age 40 as they were at age 35. Thus teams were willing to give big paychecks to guys into their 40s. I think some teams are still working under the obsolete paradigm. Just my own belief nothing to really back it up but it would explain such a move as this.

The Central will be owned by Stl/Pitts. battling it out the next 6 seasons they have what all teams desire, young top of the rotation pitching with enough Bats to support it. Keep in mind St Louis has a good rotation but had more than their share of luck hitting with runners in scoring position last year. That is unlikely to be the case year in and year out. I would have been willing to think it was some sort of skill until the WS. If they tanked there I find it hard to believe they really are just better clutch hitters or something. I like Pittsburgh's long term outlook more than I do St Louis.

I doubt many players bolt on principal if there is a difference in money.

Good. Now go away.

And I think that's silly. Go inside if you have to, intentionally walk him if you want, but there's no need to risk injuring a guy because he's good. Eddie Matthews hit four homers in a game once (almost five I believe) and the opposing team drilled him in the head causing him to miss significant time. That's just moronic. Whoever said throw at the head?

There is throwing at a guy for what they did and there is throwing at guys to change what they will do in the future. I think if a team is teeing off on pitches the pitcher has to do something to stop it. If hitting them gets them out of their comfort zone pitchers should do it. That has nothing to do with being mad at the hitters for what they did. It is about not letting them continue to do it.

From what I have read he didn't seem to get along with some of the star players on the team. A manager is never going to win that battle. See Macha, Ken for example.

I like RRR and Doug but I can't figure out the Yuni thing either. Maybe they think he can be a good coach or scout some day and want to use a lost season to suck up to him for a future gig. While I say that in jest at least that would be a better reason than anything he does on the field.

I think we ever let guys like Bianchi, Schafer and Halton grow into bench roles we would end up with a better bench in a year or two. I did see an article by Jeff Passon about unsung players of 2013. Gennett was ranked 9th while Kris Davis was 22nd. So it appears maybe he is starting to get some national run. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/list-of-baseball-s-most-unsung-players-goes-in-one-direction-131517711.html

Who cares if is he is taking a 40 man spot if Lalli was the alternative? Time enough to remove him from it when there is someone more worthy in need of it. I also think throwing hard is showing something. Control is something that can be learned. Throwing hard not so much.

A guy and girl walked into the shop a few minutes ago. He said his wife told him the balloons he got at the party shop wouldn't last overnight. They didn't so they came to us. He says "Boy I was wrong." I said at least you are man enough to admit you were wrong. She replied "too bad he wasn't woman enough to be right all along." Game, set, match.

I am forming a mime football league. Anyone want to join?

The problem here is that if Gennett hits .250, his OBP is going to be below .300, because he rarely walks. Weeks, for all his foibles, was still getting on base the last 2 years with a .328 and a .306 OBP despite posting BA's of .230 and .209. Gennett's OBP is tied almost entirely to his batting average, so if he stops hitting (and hitting for power, which I suspect so far is kinda flukey), he will become almost completely worthless. How likely is that? Gennett's a 23 year old who has hit for average throughout the minors. Given his age, he is likely to get better not worse. It certainly isn't out of the realm of possibility that he improves his walk rate. So why worry about what will happen if he not only stops progressing and actually starts to regress. At least not until there is some reason to think it would be so.

I wonder where they got those numbers from. I just looked on MiLb.com and saw different numbers. http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=571697

His mental state can certainly affect his performance. Tiger Woods is a different golfer now than he was 5 years ago (although he seems to finally be recovering something). If Braun's performance falters from his career norms, people will assume that his former numbers were a result of juicing and blame his fall on that, but I would doubt that the chemicals (or lack thereof) will have nearly the affect on his game that his mental state will have. I am not a believer that outside distractions effect performance for any length of time. I think it can for a season at most. Prince seems to be dealing with some of that now in Detroit. So I understand it does have some effect. But I doubt it is something that carries over for years on end. I don't think the comparison to Tiger is all that accurate either. Tiger is widely reported as kind of a jerk in person. Hell even half his family doesn't like him. He has very little support in his personal life because of it. So to the extent that it did effect Woods it had more to do with not having people around him to help deal with it. All that said Tiger Woods is still the top rated golfer in the world. Not winning majors has as much to do with a much improved golf world and Tiger's age/health than his mental state due to outside distractions. That and he got rid of some of the people who helped him attain greatness. Braun seems to have decent personal relationships on the team. I think it is less likely to effect Braun's performance because he isn't going to be facing people in the clubhouse who want him to fail day in and day out. Even assuming it effects him for a whole season, which I think is unlikely, I think his contract being a problem for years to come for the reasons they said is far fetched.

How is Braun being a pariah in baseball equate to him not playing well? If Braun was always on PEDs and is now going to have to play PED free it no doubt would mean less production. If he just took them during the 2011 season to get healthy then one would assume he is going to be the same old Braun. That would mean he is still playing on a team friendly contract for his ability. I could understand if they said something to the effect they believe he was always a juicer and now that contract is going to be a problem. What being a pariah has to do with it is beyond me.

I get that Scooter's cheap (although of course there are ways other than premium free agency to fill holes with mediocre players). i can get behind everything you said in that post but I'm not sure the other ways are cheaper while providing the same amount of certainty as free agents or average caliber prospects. You can trade for them. But giving up something for mediocre seems a wash at best. Finding one on the scrap heap is a good option. One I fully endorse since it gave us the likes of McGehee and Bianchi. But I think that has less certainty of filling a position with an adequate player than the other options. I do think it helps to add some of them to add cheap competition more than to assure adequate coverage on it's own.

That's exactly why I worry about settling for mediocre production, not so much next year -- we're likely to stink, so it will be a great year to take the measure of a risky prospect -- but for the five years after that if next year produces mediocrity. Second, I think you're misreading jerichoholicninja's Yuni comparison. The point isn't "Gennett is of the same general quality of Yuni." The point is "We run the risk of attaching too much significance to a small sample, as we did with Yuni (and arguably Segura)." I think that's a fair point, and of course I also think (know) that Scooter has a much better chance to be a good player going forward than Yuni does. Have you seen the cost of mediocre on the FA market these days? In years and money? This is just my opinion but I think he has a skill set that is under appreciated in today's game. That should lead to a good value for production ratio. I am not saying he should be treated like a star in the making. He does look to be someone who can hold his own by playing consistent, if unspectacular, baseball at a position where that is the norm. And the norm costs money unless you produce one on your own. We are not going to have a lineup full of all stars. So we have to find people who can contribute something at a cost that allows us to fill real holes. So I guess my point is this is who we have. Whining about the fact he isn't ever going to be an all star seems to miss that most teams need to have those guys on their team so they can address areas where they have nothing. Guys like him allow the team to avoid a black hole like we had for a few year ago with short and third. Simply by being a cost effective mediocre player who allows the team to spend money on players like Ramirez, Braun and Lohse. Why bash a guy for being what he is if he is better than what you have and helps you get better elsewhere?

the brewers are only responsible for compensation while under contract. if Lalli gets called up today, gets hurt in Milwaukee tomorrow and lands on the DL for the rest of the season, they are responsible to pay him for the remaining contract for this season. If Milwaukee then decides to cut ties with Lalli in October, instead of keeping him in the minors next year, they are not responsible for any compensation beyond the expiration of the current contract. so no, they would not owe Lalli anything next year if they cut ties with him, regardless if he gets hurt or not in Milwaukee. I thought they were responsible for medical costs throughout the rehab regardless of when the contract expired. Providing the injury was work related of course. While a separate issue from salary one would think it a waste of money either way.