Thurston Fluff

Just read on Yahoo sports that the Marlins fired manager Fredi Gonzalez. and named Edwin Rodriguez interim. kind of surprised by this. link

Injuries to Lohse and Penny are probably the biggest reason that the Cards needed to sign Suppan. They tried some of their AAA guys, and they didn't seem to work out. Suppan has a good history in StL., so it makes some degree of sense to sign him as opposed to some other retread. I suspect that Suppan is a stopgap for the Cards until Penny gets healthy or the make some sort of trade. Of course it is. I used that as an example to show how he negated his own argument. They are the ones who are supposed to be the guru's that our team should be hiring because they did something with our castoff yet our guys did something with one of their castoffs. So the idea that this should be some sort of warning sign about our staff's ability is just false reasoning. I really don't see Narveson as a good starter either... I am concerned that he won't be able to get RH batters out consistently. Which is one hand less of a concern than Suppan was. I agree on Narveson. I'm glad we get to audition him in a season where only the most optimistic thought we could contend. It'll be good to see what an entire year's worth of information shows us before they have to decide on next year's staff.

They found the fault in mechanics. Peterson never could. Suppan was never given enough starts this year to establish much as a starter. Each is probably good for 4 runs in 6 innings most of the time. Coming in for spot relief appearances isn't the same. He's getting strikeouts now and more velocity than he ever had here. Neither could Castro or Maddux so I guess it must be a Brewer thing. Either that or he isn't fixed and it wasn't mechanical. It just might be his stuff isn't very good and he can only manage to get through 4 innings to one of the worst offenses in the league. An offense that has not had to face him regularly like NL ones do. I suspect another turn through even that lineup and we would have seen his numbers look like they did with us. This is exactly the kind of thing that needs to happen to make the incompetent Brewers brass wake up. They gave in to fan panic, and the coaches couldn't fix a problem with mechanics. No patience. They never let Suppan start enough games. Not anymore of a wake up call than Narveson shold be to the Cards brass. It's clearly their fault for ever needing Suppan in the first place. They had Narveson but had no idea how good he could be because they never gave him enough starts to find out.

You could make the "small sample" argument because it's an average of just over 3 players/team that were surveyed. Not unless you discount every poll ever done. It is routine to use a small random sample as a snap shot of the average. Most polls average about 3000 people as representative of a whole population and it's accuracy is around 3%. This poll was taken after the Gallaraga "almost perfect" game, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with it. While it very well may have he was also IIRC the rated as the second best last season. If not second very high. It isn't a surprise that he got a small bump from how he handled that call but it wasn't like he went form being one of the worst to first. He has been highly regarded by players well before the blown call.

I was just called an idiot savant. I don't even know where the country of Savant is let alone come from there and I'm not an idiot.

I hope that clarifies things a bit. If he had a chance to come back it would be harder to justify a minor trade for a veteran backup just to send Lucroy down. Now that he is out of the picture I wouldn't mind seeing them trade one of our 100 or so #5 type starters for a veteran backup. I'd love to see a Henry Blanco type come in. A good defensive veteran catcher who could help the defensively challenged Kottaras along would be fine by me.

Cincy is a year away from a rotation of Volquez, Cueto, Bailey, Leake, and Chapman. Yikes. St Louis already has Carpenter and Wainwright, Garcia is up already. Carpenter is old so who knows how long he'll be able to maintain but they always seem to field a competitive rotation regardless. Chicago has a veteran pitching staff that is better now and legit prospects from AAA through A+. Cashner, Jackson, Carpenter, and Dolis. Pittsburgh has Lincoln in AAA, Alderson in AA (depending on what you believe about his recent struggles) and just drafted the 2 best HS arms in the draft in Taillon and Allie. Pittsburgh isn't an immediate threat, but in 3-4 years they could be very formidable. How many times do we see legit prospects flame out? Furthermore how many times do we ever see all the prospects pan out? Until they all have elite rotations in the majors they are all just what if scenarios. I certainly want better pitching and think it is on the way in the form of trades and better drafting. looking at the last two drafts they have spent more and, generally speaking, higher draft picks on pitching prospects than they ever did with Jack in charge.

Wolf is a legit #3 on a mediocre staff, but certainly wouldn't be the #3 on a legit contender. He was with #3 for the division winning Dodgers last season. Brewers contended in 2008 when they had Sabathia/Sheets/Gallardo down the stretch. That's the type of top line pitching you need to be a legit contender. They never had all three together at one time. They won down the stretch with CC but virtually nothing at all from sheets or YoGa. In fact they got more help in the last couple months from Bush and Suppan than they did Sheets or YoGa. Without Bush and Soup in August they wouldn't have made it to the playoffs. While I agree with the basic premise that good pitching is a great thing to have for a sustained run I disagree that it takes great pitching to be a legitimate contender. There are just too many examples of contending teams who didn't have top flight pitching to make me beleive it can't be done. The Cards for example had Suppan as a major contributor to their WS run.

My point was that IF he is going to be replaced, it better be by someone who has proven the ability to identify pitching talent, and have guys to bring with him who have proven the ability to develop that talent. After all, that's really the only way this team can seriously contend. I agree if he would get replaced it would have to be for someone who has that knack. I disagree that it's the only way this team can seriously contend. Melvin has built a couple contenders in his time as GM in both Texas and Milwaukee that was built around offensive oriented teams. While the Milwaukee run was short lived it was still a couple years of contending baseball. More over I think this team is much closer to contention than it was prior to Melvin coming here. As you very well stated this team has YoGa as an legit ace, a decent #3 in Wolf (I'm going by his career stats not his limited ones this season) and a combination of guys who can be legit 4/5 guys. What we are missing is a quality #2. If we go back the the LA Dodgers comparison they have one more legitimate homegrown starter than we have so that is essentially the difference between good and bad. We have enough offensive talent to go out and get a legit #2 type pitcher. I think that happens this off season and next year will be better. St Louis rebuilt it's team from World series winner to contender in a very short period of time because it had always had a good farm system run by a good GM. Right now so does Milwaukee. I think our rebuild will be more like St Louis' was vs the 20 year type we are used to around here.

At the time it was a good signing. He was healthy and had a long enough track record to think he was as safe a bet as you could get. It just turned out bad. Still time enough to make something of his time here. He may be exactly what this pen needs. A fresh veteran with an established ability to get people out might go a long way to stabilizing the pen. Kind of like a trade without having to give anyhting up.

Further, while I fully support the move to DFA him, I don't have any ill will towards Suppan. It's not his fault he was offered the contract. He has never jaked an injury to just sit back and collect a paycheck. He tried his best, and that's all we can ask for out of any player. He was simply, well....bad. But by all accounts he is a good guy and a good teammate. That is so perfectly stated I have a hard time adding. He was a good guy buy all accounts and did give his best effort. He simply wasn't good enough anymore. Thanks for your time here sorry it wasn't more rewarding for all of us. Good luck in all your future endeavors but glad you're not gonna clog up our roster anymore. I agree Melvin doesn't suck, but sometimes change can be a stimulus for better things to come. While I agree sometimes change for the sake of change can be good I think it is more relevant to players and coaches/managers than GM's. Change for changes sake can be beneficial in the sense it changes the environment. GM's are not part of the daily environment of the team like players and coaches are. Thus, to my way of thinking, change for changes sake is beneficial only when it changes coaches or players. just saying if there were someone in the Dodgers front office (for example) that is expecially talented at identifying pitching talent, and has guys he can bring along who have proven they can develop pitching talent, that would be a GM candidate you would have to seriously consider. I know you only used the Dodgers as an example but they have 4 guys on their staff that were drafted by them so it isn't like they've set the world on fire by drafting and developing these great pitching prospects. They have Kuo and Kuroda as FA's from Taiwan and Japan respectively and the rest came from other organizations. In comparison the Brewers have three of thier own. I do not beleive that is enough of a difference to make a change. The real difference between them and us is payroll and ball parks. Their park is better suited to pitching than ours and they can afford to take a chance and pay $15.4 million to a guy like Kuroda. Maybe the thought is they can evaluate players already in baseball better than Doug. To that arguement I'd sayhe has found good pitchers over his time here as well. Just not in the last couple seasons. Even then I think Wolf will still end up a decent pitcher in the long run. Not to his contract perhaps but the Dodgers overpaid Kuroda as well. He's good but not $15 million good. They also gave up on Garland so it seems like they don't always get it right either. From my perspective I think the evidence suggests the Dodgers evaluate pitchers little if any better than Doug. I thinks it has to do as much with the fact they can afford to take some chances and have a park that makes pitchers look better than they would be in a Brewers uniform.

The only thing that should be on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting, since firing a manager and GM who have had the game of baseball pass them by is apparently not an option, should be, "What prospect(s) can we get for Player X?" What does the game has passed him by even mean? Has the game changed so much in the past ten years that someone who has shown themselves to be very adapt at their jobs then somehow could not adjust to the nuances of today's game? Really since the 5 man rotation and the specialized bullpen came into play the game has been the same. It doesn't just pass you by when you are an active participant in it all the while. DFA Suppan - The guy is a cancer, pure and simple, because he proves that performance does not matter. Cutting him will lift a pall from the clubhouse somewhat, not to mention opening a roster spot for someone more deserving. while I agree with DFAing him he is not a cancer. From all accounts he is a nice guy and good teammate not a cancer at all. A cancer is a guy like Jeff Juden who was not only a bad player but a butthead for a teammate. Fire Melvin too? I don't think so, but if they replace him with someone who is arguably an improvment I'm fine with it. I would want someone who isn't arguably an improvement because that logically means they are arguably not one. Melvin is still the same guy who has been looked upon as a very astute GM around the league. If you look around the league the teams who remain competitive year in and year out, Boston, NY, Minnesota, Anaheim, St Louis, Atlanta are also the ones who keep their management in place even in tough times. Stability over change is usually the fastest way to improvement unless the current guy sucks. Melvin doesn't suck.

Where did you get that impression from?

Truth is, he was buried in the organization, but it's just as true that Melvin needs to learn from his own successes. Give a guy a chance, especially when he's cheap because you may catch lightning in a bottle ala Axford, McGehee, etc. Isn't it telling that an organization who is building from within, takes chances with guys like McGehee etc., and has a GM who has been successful with finding those diamonds in the rough decided Heether wasn't worth keeping? TO me it either says Melvin is wrong on Heether or he doesn't think he is ever going to be a McGehee. Personally I'll trust to Doug still being sane and his ability to see hidden talent...or the lack thereof. The only logical reasons to keep Suppan over anyone is that Suppan is already paid and/or we don't want to start the MLB clock on some prospect. By being paid, I mean that if we had to bring another player up from the minors to the 25 man roster that wasn't already under a MLB contract, that would cost the Brewers the difference between the MLB minimum ($400K?) versus whatever the player was making in the minors. Now guys like Riske (when he comes back) are already on a MLB contract so that wouldn't apply to him. I've been saying that for quite some time now. If we are going to lose why pay more in service time and money than we have to? Getting Soup level production at 12 million is better than getting Soup level production at 12.5 million.

If things suck fire the manager. It's a lot easier to do than get rid of the real problem. Too bad it never solves the real problem. Time for their owner to do what Wendy did for us and fire himself. Still have a lot of respect for her for seeing she was the problem and doing something about it. If she hadn't we'd be the Orioles.

The difference from Cameron (albeit in 16 games) and Hardy compared to Escobar and Gomez is negligible thus far. Several million dollars and about three years of control have to be factored in as well as on field production this season.

You must have watched enough baseball to know most players/teams end up close to their norms by year's end. This team is about a 500 level team thus has underperformed so far. If they follow the normal trend by year's end they will be about what they always have been thus there is a likely surge in production from the very people who are so seriously under performing now. If, by some chance Hoffman, Hawkins and Davis all hit the wall in the same year and others don't meet expectations then, yes, it will be a bad year. The chances of everyone being below career norms all season are more remote than the team staying as bad as it currently is. I fully expect an uptick in performance from some of the very same guys who have failed so far to coincide with the development of some of the younger guys. Thus I expect better results as we go forward. I certainly don't expect, or want, them to quite under any circumstances on June 1st.

We have 37 games left until the all-star break, 60% of those games are against teams over .500. I have absolutely no problem with them giving up now. In fact I'd prefer it. I cannot beleive anyone wants this team to pack it in this early. Why on Earth would anyone want to watch a bunch of crappy players going through the motions. That will happen if those in charge decide to quite on June 1st. Then we get 4 months of 2002 play from here on out. If anyone doesn't have a problem with that needs to check their sanity. While not likely they will turn it around to the level necessary to compete for a playoff run it should most certainly be their mindset until the numbers show it's impossible. Otherwise every season they start out slow or some of their players don't play up to potential the players will start packing it in on June 1st. Why not after all when fans prefer they did anyway? The difference between 81 wins and 61 is the difference of 20 days where I feel a little better and the sun shines a little brighter even though I know it's only temporary. It's also the difference between a team close to contention and one that needs to start over and is five years away. This team is in transition no doubt but what happens during that transition is as important to how quickly this team's fortunes turn, and which direction, as is the final year of a team's run. I certainly don't want player like Escobar learning the valuable lesson of packing it in by June if things aren't' going our way. How to deal with a bad situation is something that can have a positive or negative effect in the future. All of whilom depends on how it's handled now. I just don't see how quitting as a team teaches the right way to handle tough situations.

I don't think this team will make the postseason this year, so I don't mind letting a Hall of Famer chase down a counting stat. I don't want this team's goal to be chasing win #81 or 83. While that is a perfectly fine attitude to have as a fan I would not want the decision makers thinking that way. If every team gave up on June 1st because they had a losing record baseball would have very few good games past June 1st. Last time I saw a Brewers team do that was in 02. No need to mention how painful that team was to watch. No amount of personal milestones could make me watch that team play let alone one obtained by a guy who is not worthy of playing anymore. Teams can and have come back from 10 games below .500 and at least competed for a playoff birth in September. Even if they don't I disagree with the idea that a team ever gives up chasing an extra win or two just so an individual can achieve a milestone he doesn't deserve. I want, nay demand, my team plays hard and gets every win it can until the last game. When they quit playing to win I quit watching. No amount of individual milestones would entice me to watch.

It really shouldn't be that hard, let him come in for any 3-run lead save opportunities to get him to 600, and then you don't have to worry all that much about how Hoffman is used for the rest of the season. First of all he would have blown a three run save last night and has blown such leads in the past. Second, other than his family and friends, who gives a rats behind if he does get to the 600 save mark? If he isn't good enough to close he should not be in there in a save situation period. His 600 saves comes in a distant second in importance to me vs a win for the brewers. Personal stats are fine as a bi-product of good play but are terrible if they become the priority in who gets to play when. At this point he simply isn't good enough to be a 600 save guy thus shouldn't get there. There are other options, but if you flat out feel a pitcher can't be used in ANY meaningful situation then they don't belong on the team. That's pretty much the case with Hoffman right now and has been for the entire season. Every roster has one like that on the staff. Our problem is we have more than one. That said if there are more than one like that I would hope it's someone who has some potential down the road. At this point we are wasting two roster spots one two old guys who will not be in the league next year.

If Suppan isn't DFA'ed for Loe he will almost certainly be for Riske.

I'll admit I was wrong on how good he would be defensively this season. I don't really buy the young excuse as much as some others simply because he was sold to us as a phenom defender not a work in progress. I know I shouldn't buy into they hype but this regime didn't sell us crap as chocolate like Bando did so I believed. Either Malvin and company were wrong as well or they are starting to over hype the prospects which I do not approve of. Dude has everything he needs to be great and we sometimes see it so I still beleive he can be a great, not just good, defender. Just wish I would have been told that by the team.

Mitch Stetter- Miller highlife. It's good for one thing (cooking brats) and one thing only but often gets used for other things. Matt LaPorta- Zima. sounded good at the time but was willing to give it away without trying it and are glad we did.

If the fielders creep in for speed guys who can bunt it opens up the field behind them. Sometimes the bunt isn't just to get a hit then and there but to open the field for the rest of his ab's. I think it can be especially effective for guys who don't normally have a high batting average. Overall I think who is bunting and what his other hitting abilities are determines if it's the right move not the concept of bunting itself.

Allegro is a great marinade for steaks. There are several flavors but I like the spicy one the best. I usually marinade it for about 24 hours then grill it. If you really want an excellent steak try smoking it for 1/2 an hour at 150 degrees then finish it off on the grill.