Thurston Fluff

Does it really matter what the legal repercussions are? Since it is tested for and penalized in baseball it is not something that should not be used.

Sort of like the Hart excuse that his appendicitis, another condition that doesn't linger around for weeks but instead hits you like a ton of bricks immediately, was the cause for his slide before going in for surgery While I agree with the Davis situation appendicitis can cause problems before it blows. In college I had a teammate who wasn't anywhere near his normal self for about a month. He complained about not having the strength or stamina he usually had then he had to have an emergency appendectomy. Turns out his appendix was hampering him for a while but wasn't bad enough to cause actual pain. Just bad enough to prevent him from being his usual self. They should really be honest with themselves and cut bait with Suppan and Vargas if it means keeping Loe and Capuano. Both of the latter have been way too good in AAA to risk losing. I haven't been a fan of cutting Suppan or Vargus before now because I thought since it was already money spent better to have that money spent on an emergency plan than nothing at all. Cappy and Loe appear to be better options now so I agree it's time to cut bait on at least Soup. Vargus I'm less inclined to think is useless to us. It's a little early to pull the plug on him yet. They are at 13 pitchers now with 3 on the DL. That's 16 total. Cutting Suppan and Vargas gets them down to 14 and frees up spots on the 40 man. But with those two gone, they should be able to get back to the normal level of 12 pitchers once Edmonds comes off the DL. So even without Loe and Capuano, that's 2 more than they need assuming Riske, Davis, and Hawkins all return to the active roster at some point. Sure they could return both Estrada and Braddock to AAA, but what if they keep pitching well? I don't think there is ever a situation where too many relievers are a problem. It wouldn't be all that hard to trade Hawkins. Riske needs to show he can be effective so I think there is time to decide his fate. If he is good in the rehab then he will have trade value. If not he'll be cut anyway.

Great to see optimism Monty57. I think all the reasons you mentioned are valid. I also think we could have stayed status quo and it would have straightened out. It just isn't as bad a team as the record/play indicated. I think having Houston in helps as well. Get a little confidence going in the staff and maybe it self perpetuates into something bigger.

If memory serves Lou Palmisano got caught drinking and the team suspended him not the league. Quite honestly I would have more serious concerns with a dude that drank too much than someone who smoked pot once in a while. In each case it's situations in which players need to be vetted out and those with that type of problem should not be drafted high (no pun intended).

Two things -- 1) Do you want the Brewers hiring P.I.'s to investigate players? Because if no one tells anyone he smokes, there's no other semi-realistic way I know of to find out 2) Smoking marijuana is no more a character flaw than drinking or smoking cigarettes 1- The character flaw is stupidity not smoking pot. He was given a bunch of money to be a pitcher and did one of the few things he absolutely couldn't do if he wanted to do that. It is on the guy who drafted him so high to know what type of person he is. Dude was stupid and Jack is the one who didn't know what he needed to know about him pure and simple. I wholeheartedly agree on how benign pot is. I couldn't careless if anyone partakes if it doesn't effect the team. Hell if it was up to me there would be no testing for recreational drugs. It's none of our business. That has nothing to do with Jack doing his due diligence. Since there is a recreational drug policy and he is subject to it there is a need to vet that out before wasting money and a top 10 pick on him.

Sadly name recognition is far more important than productivity. Then again since players get voted on with only half a season's worth of production to base it off of I suppose how they finished last seaosn should count for something as well. I wish baseball had something like the NFL has with an all-pro selection on top of the probowl selections. Robin Yount always seemed to get screwed by the the timing of the allstar game. Didn't he win his second MVP in a season he didn't make the all star game?

Wow. No skeletons in your closet that people don't know about? Generally, people like to hide bad habits. And even if he was busted for drugs before, getting the rap sheet on a minor is pretty tough... As soon as I am in line for a million $'s I'm sure someone will find all those skeletons and a few I don't even know of. He was handing a kid millions so it was his job to know as much as he could. I tend to view character flaws as something that has warning signs thus something he should have known was a risk. It isn't all that tough to find out what kind of people he's hanging with or if he had any trouble as a youth. If he was perfectly clean and then got into trouble once he became rich then perhaps I'll cut him some slack but after seeing most of the rest of his pitching prospects flame for varying reasons I just don't think he was very good at it. Personally, I have more of a problem with Melvin and co. not 'vetting' Eric Gagne, who showed up on the Mitchell report about 4 days after he was signed. I think Melvin knew but didn't care which is different than not knowing. He went on what Gagne did in Texas the year before he got here which was not a steroid based result. Overall I think everyone agrees Melvin screwed up on that one but he hasn't had nearly as dismal a record with acquiring pitching as Jack did with drafting pitching.

I think he meant the prospects they drafted not guys Melvin picked up along the way.

Interesting question. I am by no means an expert on it but to me some of it was pure bad luck, some of it was Jack Z. not being very good at selecting pitching prospects (selecting a pot head to me represents a lack vetting prospects for off field issues), some of it probably was how the organization handled the pitchers. I think the Brewers have addressed the last issue ending in part with the hiring of Peterson in that his hiring was a part of the overall approach Melvin has adopted with the pitching philosophy within organization. Jack Z is no longer here so we kind of have to wait to see if that changes. The luck factor is out of anyone's control but that sort of thing tends to even out over time.

I think you answered your own question GM. They lost a lot of hard throwers, who are coveted and had to replace them with sort tossers who are not.

If we lost Loe or Capuano in AAA due to promotion or granting FA, I'd give him a shot at AAA. Lefties always get more shots... No kidding lefties always get more shots and the Brewers seem to be a collecting point for soft tossing lefties. Usually I'm all for it but in this case maybe not so much. He always seemed kind of lazy to me.

I'm fine with Parra being given the shot. He's got to learn sometime and has shown he can be effective if inconsistent. Going with minor league players gives us no more assurance of effectiveness and will necessitate moving someone else off the 25 man roster. Yes we can cut guys who aren't contributing much now but we have to ask- is it possible they can be usefully in some way further down the road this season without wasting more money or minor league options/service time? Suppan, for example, won't win us more games than other options but is already money spent. He will cost us less if we don't have to pay him and his replacement who will do no better. At his point Soup is as good as any for emergency starts and we have to pay him either way. Cutting him only means we won't have him in an emergency. If we are going to suck at least suck while not wasting resources for later years.

Found this little piece from Doug Glanville on technology in baseball in the OP-ED of the NY times. Thought it was interesting enough to share.

I had to start work at 9 this morning and won't get done until about midnight. I just took an order for tomorrow morning that has to be done by 8 am. Hard to be funny at 8 am Sunday morning to begin with let alone after a long Saturday.

They brought him up during a hot streak so in that respect it's not bad. What happens when he's not will be what determines the value of this move. Overall it's hard to think he's really ready for this. But to add onto that, there's Hendry taking on Carlos Silva -- and his remaining minimum price tag of $25M through 2011 -- because the Cubs wanted to make a villain of Milton Bradley. I guess I just hope the Cubs keep Hendry as GM. Silva has been a serviceable pitcher this season and Bradley is curled up in a corner hiding from the world somewhere. The Cubs finally saw what JAck Z. must not have. dude has problems beyond laziness or attitude. He's really not well. This isn't the normal bad guy thing it's looking more and more like true mental illness. I went from laughing at him to pulling for him to get through this. Bradly is signed through 2011 at I beleive $11 million or so as well. Of all the things Hendry did wrong I don't think this is one to point out.

any loss of velocity is going to hurt a two pitch pitcher more than a three pitch pitcher. Sheets can't afford to lose any and still be effective. Either that or he'll have to work on his changeup a little more than he has.

I take no glee either though I don't deny being relieved it isn't our team that has to suffer through his getting back to form phase. As I sated earlier I think his current numbers are not indicative of what his future ability will end up being. Few if any pitchers come back from major elbow or shoulder surgery and do well their first year back.

They might be reading he isn't fully back yet but that was a bad idea to give him that much on the year he was coming off surgery. I don't read much into what his future is by what he does this season. If they would have gone two years 15 million I would have thought it better. Then you get one year of coming back and on of him as good as he can be. In any event for the A's it's a one year deal and all they need out of him is some semblance of ability and they can trade him at the deadline. Maybe they have to pick up some salary or don't get the return on him they hoped for but the money won't prohibit him from getting them something in return.

I wouldn't read to much into what sheets does this year. He's coming off an injury where it takes some time to regain his usual stuff. I would have been more surprised if he came out and was his normal old self this soon. He may take the better part of the season to regain his velocity and movement. Next year he could be cheap and more effective for what ever team takes a chance on him. Given he's a two pitch starter he has to have two great pitches not two good ones. Maybe his pitches come back to his presurgery level maybe they don't. His days as an elite starter may be numbered but he could go the reliever route if all else fails. What should be getting more obvious is Melvin was correct not to give him that much money.

On baseball tonight about a week or so ago they were talking about how little relievers throw in spring and how it might be effecting their location early on. Usually ESPN just throws stuff out there but if you look at how little Hoffman threw this spring maybe there is something to it. What ever the reason it's got to stop sooner than later.

This past winter the pitching strapped Washington Nationals non-tendered 25 year old Scott Olsen following an injury plagued 2009 where he posted a 6.03 ERA, then went out an re-signed him for around $1 million plus incentives. Also this past winter, the pitching strapped Brewers tendered and ultimately gave a raise to $4.215 million to 30 year old Dave Bush following an injury plagued year where he posted a 6.38 ERA. I think you have to look at where the teams were in terms of their overall goals. The Brewers needed to put together a competitive team where the Nats are just looking to move from bottom feeder status. If they non tendered Oslen and he moved on not big deal in the big. They weren't expected to win this season. If the Brewers non tendered Bush and he moved on we would have to have gone out and got another pitcher or suffer through more Suppan in the rotation while trying to compete for a playoff spot. Is it really smart for a small market team to spend so much money on middle relievers like Riske and Hawkins. One of Melvin's biggest issues is that he spends way too much money on the bullpen. Sure Riske might have pitched ok if he was healthy but we still shouldnt be spending good money on middle relievers. Add that to paying Hoffman 8 mil per season and the absolute waste of 10 million on Gagne and you can see a pattern on overpaying for relievers. Since it was the weakness he could address I would rather he spend it there than pocket it. If you have a weak area fix it. The only one of those deals that hamper the team long term was the safest one he signed for a reasonable price. Riske was the lowest risk of the group. It just so happened the odds didn't play out for us. The rest were short term deals. I don't really have a problem with high risk high reward deals if they are short term gambles.

When did cardinal baseball become synonymous with whining cry babies? It's one thing to take issue with one team or one situation quite another when you have a problem with everyone else. Maybe they should start to realize what the rest of the league already knows. They are the ones who don't have a clue how the game is supposed to be played.

Any food that curbs your hunger via nausea should be avoided thus I avoid McDonalds if at all possible.

Couple thoughts. First I hope Cam gets back sooner than later for Cam' sake. He was a good guy and decent all around player for us. IF Hall could get his foot in the door and show he has something left some good can come out of it. Hall is another guy I root for. It'd be great if he did end up with a good career. As far as them getting desperate I don't think any team gets too desperate in the early going. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think too many trades go down in April or May. By June Cam will be back so about the time they may consider it they won't need it. In any event I don't want to see Prince traded at all this season unless the team is like 10 games below .500 and 15 game out of a playoff spot at the deadline. Even then it better be a huge return. One that would obviously not be there in winter. Plenty of time to trade him in winter without screwing with our season. If they want him, they should have to overpay for him, and then I'd only trade him if we were sure we have the depth in our system to overcome injuries or bad play we could have While I understand the sentiment about large market teams who buy what ever they need there are other teams who will have Gerut type players available who won't demand overpayment. If it makes sense for the future without hurting the present I don't care what kind of deal it is for the Sox.

Talent wise you could be right Davego but he has some pretty good guys in AAA ahead of him now. Although some are lefties so maybe it's one time being a righty is good for a reliever.