Thurston Fluff

If I'm not mistaken arbitration players cannot have their salaries reduced over a certain percentage. If he got injured or, given his age, started to decline arbitration won't help us. He could cost more money than he's worth simply by the rules of the system. But it is good to know we have the choice.

I do think this going with the young staff leads in to the amount of RP signing in the minors done by the club over this offseason. Somebody will be sent down often who has options while a mix of guys are called up for relief. That is not a bad observation. But how does it help if you still need five starters? You can't send down a guy even if he has options if you need him every fifth day.

I don' think our season hinges on any single starter turning into a true #2 as much as it does finding four be at least average. Going into future years I think we need a couple of them to become top of the rotation types. I just don't think it's necessary they pitch that way this season for us to be in contention.

Another two years and you can rent a car.

I really hope they go with Hunter Morris, but I'm not optimistic that they will. The Brewers tend to be overly cautious with this type of thing and it's always bothered me. If he comes up, hits .100 for a month and that ruins his confidence for the rest of his career, then I'm concerned about his "make-up" anyways. I don't think it's about worrying about his make-up. It's about who is going to produce the most. Realistically what you can expect out of someone in his position? Segura was a better hitter, for a longer period of time and more experienced than Morris and look what his first month was like. If this was a year long thing where he could be groomed for the position long term, in a baptism by fire sort of situation, I'd be ok with it. The Brewers have shown they will do that with guys like Weeks and Segura so it isn't like it is unprecedented. As it is he's going to be there for a month and, barring injury, never get a sniff until September. That is not what the Brewers need in April.

If they can trust Segura to be an everday SS without having ever played at AAA; why is it so inconcievable that they could bring up Morris for 1-2 months without having ever played AAA? In a word consistency. Morris put up one fantastic season. Other than that one season he never had an OPS north of 770. Segura by contrast surpassed that in 5 of his 6 minor league seasons. The season he failed to surpass the 770 OPS mark he played in 11 games and had 36 ab's. Segura was by far more consistently good all the way along than Morris has been. Now add in the comparatively little time Morris has had in the minors overall vs Segura and you see more differences than similarities. There really is no comparison between the two cases. That doesn't even address how long it took Segura to get acclimated to the majors once he got there. If it took Morris only as long he'd be back in the minors before he got anywhere near acceptable numbers for a first baseman.

I think at this point let some of our bench guys play until Hart comes back. I've always felt it made sense to play bench guys often early in the season anyway so maybe a slight silver lining is this gives some of the bench guys enough playing time early to help them stay sharp all season long.

Count me in as someone who supports the WBC. In small part because I do like seeing how far the other national teams have come but mostly because I think it promotes baseball on a world wide basis. That is a far better way of doing it than the NFL is by playing a game in Europe or moving a team overseas.

So the reason Barry Bonds is not in the Hall of Fame is because people are concerned about his long term health problems? No he is not in the hall of fame because many people are concerned that someone else now has to choose between long term health problems and attaining the records he broke using them. Not to mention the guys who had to choose between long term health problems associated with steroids and getting a job over the likes of Bartolo Colon or Melky Cabrera.

Being a lefty is going to help Narveson's cause. I also think there is a comfort level with him as well that will help. I don't know if either should be the case but I think they will. I think Peralta has the most upside but he did have some control issues that wouldn't be hurt any by going down for a while. If nobody crashes and burns in spring I'd start with Peralta in the minors to make sure he really has the control issues taken care of. So just to be clear steroids is cheating but having a surgery to give you a "new arm" is totally fine As soon as surgery leads to long term health problems like steroids do I'll be against it as well.

From now on the posts will not have my name in the topic. I promise! As long as the topic titles are as creative as they have been in the past I think we'll all be happy.

Meh. Couldn't care less about whether RRR told his player to cause someone else physical pain or not two years ago. Personally I am against LaRussa tactics. I think there are plenty of equally successful managers who don't have to go that route. It can be done without intentionally causing physical pain on another human being for some supposed infraction of some arcane unwritten rule. As far as Ron's competency goes I'll worry about a lack of it after he's actually had a losing season.

My guess is that this decision, like many decisions in this world, was financially based (TV ratings, crowd sizes, etc). That might be so but if the NCAA is any indication not likely. Wrestling is the only sport other than basketball and football that consistently makes a profit in college athletics. It traditionally has a strong following in the eastern European countries as well as Asia and the Pacific rim. In the US it is not huge but not small by any means. The typical wrestling fan is very dedicated to the sport. Not to mention it has very little cost associated with it so poorer countries can stay competitive. A mat, singlet and a pair of shoes is about all it takes equipment wise. And Yes Hawing I'm sure Barry is livid. As is pretty much everyone who ever stepped foot on the mat.

How can the IOC eliminate wrestling as an Olympic sport? It was a main event at the original Olympics in ancient Greece for heaven's sake. Other similarly "good" ideas would be eliminating outfielders in baseball, hockey in Canada or the forward pass in football. Idiots.

Man that's a long time to pay a pitcher that much. I know CC got that many years and it proved to be worth it but that is a huge risk. I guess he is the main draw on a pretty bad team so some of that is recouped by name recognition but still. Long contracts to pitchers just seem like a bad idea to me.

Given Braun's season last year after the positive urine sample as I see several possibilities about his use of PEDs. 1- Braun was using all along and continued to use even after he got away with a dirty test once. This is possible but I'm not sure how plausible. While it appears A-Rod did this verifying there are top level players who are still using. But to that point it seems all the guys getting caught are old or mediocre players having mediocre careers. Both seem to me guys who are desperate to hang to a flailing career. Braun is in the middle of a very long contract and in the prime of his career. He hardly seems to be the type of user currently in the game. But some people are arrogant like that and they think they can keep getting away with it. 2- Braun was using then got caught and stopped but had no negative effects on his performance. I suppose it is possible steroids don't work but there is plenty of evidence that shows they do. If find this to be the least likely. 3- Braun never used them. To me 1 or 3 seem most likely. I have no idea which one is true but I sure hope option 3 turns out to be true.

I agree but is it any worse than people who just accept information they don't understand? Seems that happens quite often judging from how misused some advanced metrics are are at times. I tend to think a lot of dismissal is as much due to that than simply being too stupid or lazy to understand them. I kind of like zips as it gives a nice objective preview to use when nothing else can be at this point of the year. But inevitably you'll get someone mid season talking about how good someone is by using zips or saying some rookie is better than he is producing by using Zips.

I hope the injury does not interfere with his post-baseball life. I also do not think I will miss him on the field. It's going to be hard for me to forget his hanging Nyjer out to dry and then 'fessing up to his own less than stellar behavior months later. Ditto. Being a jerk isn't enough to make me want him to suffer the rest of his life. That said I thought his attitude/antics on the field should have been more of an embarrassment to the team than it appears it was.

I like the move but as already said, I don't want to see Segura play less. Like when it's May 15th and he is betting .200 and Gonzo .300 and all the fans are calling for the switch, what will RRR do? He'll do the same as he said he would do with Gamel last season. RRR hasn't sat guys like that when he said they would get a fair chance. He hasn't played guys like Taylor Green and Jeff Bianchi as much as a lot of us thought he should. But as things play out it seems less his reluctance to play a young guy than perhaps he didn't think those specific guys good enough to be everyday players. I'm not at all worried that Ron is going to bench Segura for Gonzalez.

Regardless a good move for Marcum. Sign on with a low pressure team with a mess at SP in a pitchers park. Not to mention a shot to go to a contender midway through the season if he pitches to his norm.

I imagine there won't be a lot of playing time at first with Gamel ready to go. It seems like the perfect time to get him a lot of work.

Hunter Morris vs. Mat Gamel in spring Training Given our other options I don't think Morris is in the conversation at this point. He hasn't had any time in AAA and really only one good season period. He could be the next big thing or he could be the next Taylor Green. (Who I still hold out hope for incidentally.) All right, we know Gamel likely becomes starter while he's gone. Who takes Gamel's spot on the bench remembering Gamel was going to play some OF too? Sign a vet? Meh. As far as I'm concnered just find a 25th man who never sees the field unless in emergency. I wouldn't mind them mixing in Green and Schafer more often early so they can get enough AB's to be useful. Maybe pick up an end of the bench guy or go in house for that 25th roster spot that never gets used. Maybe even go third catcher to start with. The optimist in me hopes we see Schafer, Green and Gamel get enough good AB's to get some confidence/experience early in the hope that carries over later in the season. He had an oblique injury that never seemed to heal until April in 2011. He tweaked his knee walking on the sidewalk in 2012. Now he decides to wait until January to get surgery in 2013. The evidence is there. It isn't like he knew it was going to swell up on him and he just figured "why not wait until January so I can miss a month or so of the season?" Players work out during the winter. It isn't unheard of for off-season workouts lead to such things. Physical injuries that can be visually seen cannot be faked. You don't fake torn cartilage, swelling or a hole in your knee surface. Unless you think he's smashing his knee with a hammer to get out of work or something you kind of have to accept he's really injured.

I'd imagine people who follow soccer leagues felt the same way about the world cup until it became more prestigious than the individual leagues are. It's a risk but the reward is a much bigger world following. I can't help but think increasing the pool of potential players mitigates the loss of an individual player in the long run. That said it would suck if one of our guys was the sacrificial lamb to get to that point.

Wow not a very flattering preview for the Brewers by Passan. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/no--20-brewers--ryan-braun-s-bat-isn-t-big-enough-to-overcome-ragged-rotation-004818437.html;_ylt=AqU1E32bXvF7i0Y9NtZpXtIRvLYF;_ylu=X3oDMTRrNmY4Z3ZhBG1pdANMSVNUUyBNaXhlZCBMaXN0IE1MQiBFeHBlcnRzBHBrZwM4YzlmNzUxNi1jNWIxLTNlNWQtYjU1ZC04MDUzMWRiN2EyZWYEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgM3NGYxNjMxMC02MDQ2LTExZTItYmViZC1mNmM3NDE1NDA3MjE-;_ylg=X3oDMTFoODgyNmttBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANtbGIEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3

I was saying to the S.O. last night, remind me of this video when I'm grumbling about McCutchen or the Pirates at MP this season. I was thinking the same thing as I was watching Kaepernick slice up the Packers.