Thurston Fluff

Lohse was as good as or better than Greinke since 2011.

While Wolf and Lohse (to date) weren't terrible signings, expecting those aforementioned pitchers to come in and be #2s for the Brewers when other teams are throwing out Greinke, Gio Gonzalez, Madison Bumgarner types really isn't good organizational building. Lohse should be expected to compete with the guys you mentioned. He had as good a season last year as pretty much all of them. RR only needs to stop making stupid decisions about stealing and baserunning fundamentals. Braun has 2 SBs & 5 CS. Aoki has 6 SB & 6 CS. Bit selective there isn't it? Those two players account for more than half the total number of caught stealing. Granted the team as a whole is somewhat low in stealing % right now but this same group of players stole bases at an 80% clip last season. According to stat guys that means it created more runs than if they wouldn't have stole bases. Seems a bit premature to stop now because their rate is to low to start the season. Like it or not last season the aggressive strategy was successful. So why stop doing it if you have the same players?

Has anyone here used USTREAM? I (well my wife really) have been working on streaming my dog games but haven't figured out how to stream directly from the camera instead of capturing it from the computer screen. Doing it the way I am makes it much choppier and less clear than I'd like.

Yea K-Rod sure wasn't very fun to watch on our team in 2011. You can get anyone to have a 3-1 K-BB rate, a 1.86 ERA, a 1.14 WHIP with a .209 BAA. That's replacement territory. I'm not saying he is going to be great. I'm not saying he will even be good. I was just wondering if anyone else was willing to give it some time before making dire proclamations on how stupid everybody involved is. This isn't a monster contract. This is $2 million on a reasonable gamble that he might be closer to the 2011 K-rod than the 2012 one. If we can get anywhere close to the 2011 K-rod for that price that is not a bad signing. Time will tell.

I guess it's just me who isn't in a rush to judge one way or the other. Oh well.

In 2010 he had more than a K/inning and a 3-1 k/bb rate and a 2.20 ERA. 2011 was pretty much the same. How is that not worth $2 million? The risk is whether he really is washed up as a 31 year old or if he just had an off season last year. One would think there is some amount of uncertainty in his alleged demise.

Anyone else think it might be a good idea to withhold judgement until we wee how things pan out?

Some of the most successful teams like the Cards and Yankees have only had two managers in 20ish years. Now look at the teams that change managers a lot. Which ones win consistently? It seems to me the teams that do well over a long period of time are also generally ones who don't get rid of the manager every three years or so. I don't think you need the best guy out there as much as a consistent atmosphere for teams to gel in.

If Peralta ends up winning 20, the streak will still continue, as he wasn't drafted, either. Perhaps I'm wrong but I think most people look at foreign players who were brought into the system as young, raw players the same as drafting them. Guys like Chapman or Darvish are a little different in that they came pretty much major league ready but guys like Peralta, Cueto and Rivera had to be discovered and developed just like drafted players do.

Going into last year, we had a starting rotation of Greinke, Yo, Marcum (assumed healthy), Wolf (Coming off a good year) and Narveson. That didn't pan out so well. I think those type of teams are more frustrating than this type. Last season at this time we were looking at a flop in progress. By the end of June we were more interested in next season. That changed when this group of players started to get playing time and doing well. The players on this team are more responsible for any enjoyment we had last season than the guys you mentioned (minus Yo but we still have him). Now they are back for a full season. Hardly the time to lose interest IMHO.

A .500 team (or sub-.500 team) is boring. As several people have pointed out, this team just isn't that good. It's hard to get excited about a team that you don't think is going to be very good. Sure there's some good looking players - especially with our hitters - but the pitching is bad and doesn't look like it'll get better. I'm pretty much an eternal optimist so maybe it's just that but I disagree with how good this team can be. They are in a slight funk after a pretty good run. If anything I think they are streaky. Past that I am hesitant to judge what type of team they really are going to end up being. There are just too many unknowns to determine what they are ultimately going to be. That, to me, is exciting. Some may not like the unknown but I like the journey. The pitching I couldn't disagree with you more. I don't know how a staff with a lot of youth could not be expected to get better. That to me would be a starting point of why we should get excited about the team. I guess it's all just how one views the unknown.

I wonder what the odds are he's still with the team by the all star break. At this point I'd say 50/50.

If someone posted in this thread that the manager is what gets them fired up, and he is like a god, would that be ok? Or, are you just disgusted with the negative feelings that managers can cause with the fans? No, my feeling about the negativity of RRR does not play into why I felt the need to say something here. It has a whole lot to do with not wanting yet one more thread hijacked by the fire the manager crowd. If someone thought the manager was something to be excited about I think this would be an appropriate thread to express that in. My beef is, in a thread titled "help me get excited about this team" some people chose to bring up the need to get rid of the manager. Each subject is it's own thread for a reason. "Fire the manager I can't stand him," doesn't seem appropriate here nor is it very interesting to see that in every stinking thread. All I'm asking is keep the manager bashing to threads about the manager or what is wrong with the team? I honestly don't believe I am alone in wanting that.

Having been a member of this site for about a decade and four managers later I've come to one major conclusion. Every thread every season need a fire (insert manager's name here) post. Can't we just once have a thread that sticks to the topic at hand and leave the manager out of it? It gets to the point that I don't want to even look at the topics because it always comes back to "fire the manager." As far as the team goes there is a lot to be excited about. The pitching is up and down but seem to be startling to gel. The offense is surprisingly good considering they were missing two of their best hitters for much of the season. They are an aggressive team that do a lot fo things well. They are 6th in all of baseball in batting average, 4th in slugging, 1st in stolen bases, and the pitchers don't walk anyone. That isn't bad for a team still getting itself together health wise.

Pitching is a crapshoot but the Brewers brass is especially horrible at scouting and drafting pitching. Or developing them. It's hard to know which is the most significant problem. Right now we have three starters who were drafted and developed by the Brewers. No team in our division has more homegrown starters. Of those homegrown players I'd rank Samardzija, Bailey, Cueto, Garcia, Lynn and maybe Shelby if he continues like he is to be more than a mid level starter. I think Burgos and Peralta both have the potential to be as good maybe better than the rest. St Louis has three that are really good and the Reds have two. We have one and a couple that may end up being there when all is said and done. Maybe I'm higher on Peralta and Burgos long term than some so the top level talent is debatable. But we really aren't as far behind in homegrown starters as it seems. I think a better question is the group of guys who may not be good starters but can carve out a nice career in the pen. That is where we seem to have a lot of trouble. I have some hope that we have enough serviceable pitchers in the system to change that sooner than later.

Bit ironic to show a list of other teams pitching prospects in an effort to show the lack of Brewers ability to develop pitching has one who came from the Brewers system.

I'll waste a $10 million on a complete bust if I can get an elite talent along with him. Better than spending at least $30 million on mediocre pitching at best. Rationalizing risky spending one way because we wasted money on risky spending another way isn't really a good answer.

You'll invest $42M in a mediocre starting pitcher, but you're going to pass on 6 years of a potentially elite player over a difference of a million bucks? The only problem with that is you may end up paying for someone who is a complete bust. It's hard enough to project minor league talent let alone amateur talent.

Is there a law stating manager complaints are mandatory every time the team struggles for a week? It just seems to predictable not to be mandatory.

Maybe it was just payback. http://buccoblog.mlblogs.com/2006/06/03/breaking-news-sign-stealing/ Or just simple paranoia. http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130317&content_id=42868484&notebook_id=42889594&c_id=pit

I just noticed the Brewers have a positive run differential for the fist time since April 2nd. Small steps to the top.

Getting someone as good as he appears for half a season of Greinke is awesome on it's own. Finding him at the one position we had no long term answer at is incredible. Nice job Doug and company.

Ennder Melvin did a study of pitcher mechanics to reveal what mechanics/body type do best injury wise. When they hired Peterson as the pitching coach it was because he was already on board with the results he discovered. Wouldn't that lead one to believe if they are promoting over the top pitching it is because it is less stressful on the arm? If was after Melvin started to follow that philosophy that the Brewers started to have more success with developing pitchers.

I would suggest that you read up sports psychology if you really believe that to be true. I coached for over 25 years all the way from kindergarten kids to college kids. I have gone to countless seminars and read plenty to keep up on things like motivation and teaching. While each level is different there in one common thread. Every level up you go increases the amount of personal accountability the athlete is expected to assume. By the time kids got to college they were expected to handle being told the truth about where they are and where they need to be. I don't see why adults making literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce results would somehow need to be treated more gently than a college sophomore. The mental aspects involved in baseball seems more about how to get out of a funk not about worrying if they are good enough to play at this level. Peralta knows he has the stuff to be here. He just needs to physically do it. He isn't afraid to pitch. He just can't hit his spots regularly right now. Frankly that has always been his problem. Getting those kinks worked out can be done in the majors or minors. That's true of every professional league, sooner or later everyone has to perform. Baseball is unique in that there's very little coaching available and a very small tolerance of poor performance. Look at the difference in Alcides Escobar from year to year... that year with Macha every time he went 0-10 he was sat on the bench, very few young players are going ascend or maintain performance if they constantly worried about being removed from the game or being sat on the bench. It doesn't matter what level of sport or the game being played, that's not how you develop players. If I was saying yank him if he has none more bad start maybe some of that would have been relevant. All I said is this should serve as awake up call that he has to improve or he will get sent down. He should be given a fair shot to show he is ready. If he gets the fair shot and he is still not up to par time to find someone who is I do not believe that A- he doesn't already realize this is a performance based league (though it probably would drive the point home more) and B- that he would bust into flames and never be the same again. I don't think it would even set him back a day. It could just as easily be a motivating factor as it could be hamper his confidence. That is assuming it is a confidence issue. Frankly I don't think his problems are confidence related at all right now. He just can't hit his spots. Sports are as much mental as they are physical. I could spend all day talking about the differences between "throwing" and "aiming" or "hitting the pitch thrown" vs "guessing at the pitch" but I honestly don't have the time right now. Those are mental issues that manifest themselves physically and cause poor performance. The harder a pitcher tries to throw strikes or "aim" the ball to the catcher the more velocity/rotation they will lose and the worse their location will be. It can be a hard concept to understand unless you've been on the mound or in the batters box and have been in that situation. "For the love of the Game" was a pretty cheesy movie but they had one part right, athletes that perform the best don't hear anything or see anything that doesn't matter, they don't hear the crowd, the entire focus is just the bat, the ball, and the glove and everything seems to happen in slow motion. When you get to that relaxed and focused state the game slows down, it doesn't matter what game, it's the same in football or basketball as it is in baseball. Working on not over rushing or how to be properly aggressive is something that is required in any sport that requires timing. I've experienced it myself. TO compliment my rather weak offense on my feet I was told to learn a footsweep. I worked at that move for almost two years with little success. Then suddenly I felt it. After that I could just see it develop in slow motion. Learning it had nothing to do with confidence or being told I could stay on the roster even if I sucked. What really helped was repetition. Keep doing it over and over then suddenly it just clicks. I've seen that happen countless times. I know that is the same in baseball. It's called muscle memory. It is created by doing it over and over until it becomes second nature. Repetition can be had in AAA as easily as it can in the majors. Because Peralta has the kind of stuff to potentially be a number two caliber starter, so a team needs to be more patient with an arm like that. That's the type of arm and stuff which all teams need to have a quality rotation, assuming he can harness command at some point. That is a good argument. It's probably why he was penciled in as the third starter even though Fiers had a longer record of success at the major league level. But at some point he has to produce. If he is given a fair shot to get squared away and we have other pitchers who can produce better results he should be sent down until his potential turns to production. It isn't like he dominated at AAA last year or that he has nothing left to learn as a pitcher. As it is he is the best option and first choice. When he isn't he shouldn't be given the spot because he has better raw stuff or potential to help next year. WE want to win now. We have an awesome offense and pretty good defense. WE have enough pitchers to choose from that we should be able to find enough to be competitive. Unless we decide to forgo success this season so one pitcher can learn to harness his potential. The minors are for raw stuff. The majors are for production.

Let me start by clarifying something. I have not said one more bad outing and he should go anywhere. In fact I didn't give a timeline at all as far as I can tell so I would prefer you not to insinuate that I did. I said this should put Peralta on notice that you have to perform in the majors or you don't get to stay. That is true and was something they all knew going in. After all Melvin was very public about that all along when talking of going with the young guys. I think the whole idea of blowing someone's confidence is way overblown. Do you really think it's more confidence building to stay up and get hammered than to be told to go down and work on it? As far as comparing Peralta to Segura I think it's apples and oranges. Each player responds differently so assuming it worked with one guy it will work with everyone is off base. I do think every major league player despite age or position knows this is a performance based league. You get to stay when you are performing and have to leave when you are not. If their mental makeup is too fragile to perform under those condition then I think there is very little hope they will ever be capable of dealing with it. The only time confidence matters is if they feel their stuff isn't good enough to be here. That they can see clearly enough by the results.