Thurston Fluff

Is there really all that much difference? I understand to an extent the difference between the 8th hitter but all the rest will see a different scenario every at bat anyway. If a player really is that much different depending on where he bats doesn't that sort of say something about his real ability? If they can only succeed in perfect situations then they really aren't that good. Personally I think both are good so it shouldn't matter all that much.

Unless McDonald knew he was going to blow out his arm, trying to get a better deal than that isn't that foolish. He only became available as a free agent because he had a history of arm problems. Ben had lives on borrowed time throughout his time with the Brewers. I reminded me of Jeff Di' amico in that respect.

If we rate him as the fifth starter not on his contract what we have is a guy who will give you 30+ starts, eat up 175+ innings, have 10ish wins and an ERA around 5. Seems to me back end of the rotation guys are at the back end of the rotation because they cannot deliver half of that. I think a lot of teams would love to have a 5th starter do three of those four things. Some teams who are in position to win but need that fifth starter would even be willing to overpay for that type of production. When he got the contract I think the Brewers were one of those teams. I have no proof of this but I do think Melvin knew by the end of the contract that Soup wouldn't be worth the money but would still have value. In that respect he is right. He may be getting paid to be more than a fifth but if the discussion is when Macha replaces him it would be hard to find someone else who could do what he can as a fifth starter.

I think Suppan has until early June and then the plug will be pulled to give a AAA guy or McClung a chance while Suppan is healing some "injury" How does making up an injury help anything? If he gets replaced I would much rather they put him in mop up duty to help in some way. At least then his $12 million would be saving better pitchers for more important situations. If he is so bad that he is useless then just DFA him and eat the contract. i do not think he is worthless enough for that but if he's so bad that making up an injury is the only way then just get rid of him entirely. As far as how long he goes I think Macha sort of answered that indirectly with his comments on the staff realignment after the all star break. If at that point Macha sees a better option than Soup he will put that option in the rotation he plans on realigning after the all star break anyway.

I think at this point Gwynn would be better off with a different team. He's likable enough but he is not good enough to really be useful to a team who has playoff hopes. Good luck TGJ if you don't make it as a player you still may be able to stick around in the game as a coach or something. What ever capacity it is you are a class act and should be proud of yourself. It is far better to be a good person than a great player. That never leaves you.

I try to be as efficient as possible but never really understood why people are so impatient. Granted like, FTJ says, there may be times people really are in a hurry but I doubt most people are realy all that pressed for time that the extra 30 seconds is going to spell doom. If indeed some people are really in that much of a hurry I think they should either get a day planner or give themselves a little more time to get were they are going. Seems l more likely to me they just want to get home faster. When they get their I'm sure the extra minute or two of game shows or Inside Edition will be well worth the hurry but perhaps not the ulcer from all the aggravation they get from such slow people ahead of them. I've found playing little mind games helps while standing in line. I like looking in the tabloids for how many times a psychic foretells the doom of the earth compared to who is divorcing whom and dividing that number by three to find out when the next appearance of Jesus' image in a potato will occur. When you know that it's only a small step away from knowing when Brittany Spears will have another kid. Just divide that by her current weight and add 9 months to today's date and you have Madonna's next adopted kids name by looking at the numerical standing of the letters in the alphabet. If it's Britanny's sister having the kid then just subtract 7 and you get the same answer. According to my studies, which is every bit as accurate as any index fund manager, it's July 7th 2014 which, coincidentally, is the day after the National Enquirer says the Earth will end. Now that I did the first part it should be easy for anyone waiting in line to pass plenty of time by doing simple arithmetic problems to get all the gossip they need. Needless to say I've been stuck in the DMV for a while recently.

Some factual errors in your post. Rivera was on Detroit's opening day roster in 2002 at age 25. He was also basically the Brewers starting catcher the last 6 weeks of the 2006 season because at the time, Damien Miller was hurting. He's also had some big offensive years in the minors. It was a poor way to say what I meant. I should have said he didn't get a regular job as a catcher in the majors until his 30's. He may have had a cup of coffee a few times for injured players but he never started out the season on a major league roster and stick around for the year. Nor did he ever stick with a major league roster for more than a month or so when he did get the call. Of course I believe you are technically correct in that his first extended duty came in 06 when he was 29 for about two weeks then turned 30 while on the roster. Someone named Backupcatchers complaining about Bush being stuck with Rivera, I've seen it all now! After seeing the quality of my posts, or lack thereof, my case should be made. I think the entire 'he calls a good game' thing is overblown so it is hard for me to be upset about it. Bush gets a better hitter and a worse defender when he pitches, probably mostly evens out. Lots of GM's and other assorted baseball people must have been pretty stupid for quite some time if they are roughly equal in talent.

Doesn't make any sense to me to have one pitcher get stuck with the backup all the time. If I was Bush I'd be a little upset. Soup gets to decide who he gets. The young guys need the good catcher and Bush is left with continually playing with the worst of the battery mates. I understand why they want Kendall to get more rest but I fail to understand why Macha can't figure out how to get the balance he wants without putting all the shortcomings of the backup on one pitcher. This isn't meant to be a knock on Rivera but he is the backup who didn't get a major league job until his 30's and Kendall is by all accounts a very good catcher.

Macha has already made a number of head scratching comments and he hasn't even managed a real game yet. Maybe he wants to get it out of his system before the games count. Seriously though haven't most of us been saying all along every manager does some very odd things? Stuff that just doesn't make sense. It always seems the one you see the most makes the most stupid moves or say the stupidest of things. That is because we hear every stupid comment and see every stupid move. Then we spend page after page talking about it and breaking down every syllable. Lets face it without these comments we'd have very little to talk about. Like pyros are drawn to flame we have to talk about baseball and this has got to be one of the most boring springs I can remember. So it's Macha's turn to give us fodder. Thanks Ken and please make a few more questionable comments. Maybe talk about kendall as a leadoff hitter or Counsell playing at least 5 times a week. Junkies need their fix and, without Ned, we are very low on fun things to talk about waiting for summer to come.

Bill Parcells called Terry Glenn a woman for crying out loud. i get what you mean but this is not the best example. It was in response to a question about Glenn being drafted. Parcells was mad that the Pats drafted Glenn instead of who Parcells wanted. At the point in which Parcells said the infamous "Who is she" line they he had yet to meet him much less have an opinion about his perfromance. Parcells later admitted that it was uncalled for and not at all fair to Glenn. Doesn't Tony Larussa do it almost constantly every single season? He seems to but I guess I'm not sure why getting into peeing wars with players like Rolen make him a good manager. It appears to me it only makes him lose them via trade and the team sucks more because of it. Pinnella does it as well so there is some merit to it but i tend to think it is a short lived strategy. Sooner or later players get tired of it or the manager does it to the wrong person. Personally I like leaders in any walk of life who treat their wards with respect. I do not think Macha crossed the line with his remarks. I think it was more off the cuff comments than criticism but it should have been thought out before he said anything. In the end the players will get used to any manager's style and know his real intentions/meaning behind what sometimes will be less than perfect wording. Learning is a two way street.

Villy really hasn't had to deal with a lot of high-pressure situations before for the most part. I tend to think he has done enough of that to show he can. He did pitch in the post season in two close games. Don't know how much more high pressure situation is a reliever gonna have in his career?

None of us here know CV or his personality so it is unfair to critizize how Macha handles certain players. maybe we don't but we did see how well he did the last couple years with a very different way of being handled. If he was doing well the other way what need is there to find a different way of motivating him? This is all about Motivation. Some players are motivated by themselves, some need to hear it privately, and some need to be called out in front of an audience. It is up to the manager to figure out which motivational style works for each of his players. If he thinks this is what it will take to light a fire under Charlie, then it is his call to make. He's been around them all of a month. I don't know how much he can really know about what motivates any of his players at this point in time. This has little to nothing to do with his thinking CV needs this type of motivation. It has to do with this manager's style in general. Well, at any rate, the message is pretty clear...this isn't Ned Yost still at the helm, and always defending guys in the media. When everyone sees a guy is struggling, Macha is at least going to acknowledge it. Players had better adjust, or they're going to be in for a long season. I personally like the new attitude, as this isn't a bunch of rookies who need to be coddled anymore. I am reserving judgment on Macha because, as someone who felt Ned was good, it would be very easy to hate the next guy simply because he replaced someone I liked. It is becoming harder for me because, in my mind, this is not the best way to get the most out of players. Just because Ned covered too much of the players backs doesn't mean doing the exact opposite is any better.

He started out slow last year as well. He has been around long enough now to get judged on his whole body of work vs a few spring games. I don't think he should just be handed the set up role and let him work his way back to his usual level of play though. If he is a slow starter let him take less important spots to play in until he is where he needs to be. I have little doubt he is going to be an important player in the pen like he has been. I just am not sure if it will be April 7th or May 7th when he steps up. If it's May 7th then let him take over the setup role then. Why suck in the setup role before then if there are alternatives?

I don't think Braun is just trying to get out of spring training games.

Is it just me or does it seem like we have an unusually high number of inures around the body truck area? Intercostal muscle strains and back strain types. Braun last September, Solome, Looper now Cameron. Is it time to start looking at their strength and conditioning program or their stretching regime? Those tpyes of injuries always worry me because they have the tendancy to linger or never quite heal all the way. Maybe we can start a fire the trainers thread now that Ned is gone.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif

My guess is that this isn't an issue as Escobar will need two full year in AAA anyway. Totally agree. Even if he is readyish there is no need to rush him until he would regress if left to rot in the minors. Why start his clock early when we have a great one already? To me the debate is either about signing Hardy long term or if Escobar rips up AAA so well that he forces the Brewers to make a decision earlier. I don't think that will bee the case but if he does it can only be a good thing. But I think people are really underestimating how much talent the Brewers have gotten from the farm system and how unusual that really is. The Brewers have 4 4+ win players in Braun, Hardy, Fielder and Gallardo. That's a huge amount. If Hart gets his form back he can join them. Thats 5 players at an All Star level. That just doesn't happen all that often. Counting on it happening all the time is dangerous. I think we got totally lucky they all panned out when they did. The farm was so depleted they needed that many to pan out. Now that they have a solid roster and a quality farm they need fewer to pan out at a time. They also have more draft picks to get those fewer players in because they will be getting some compensation for those lost players. The time of greatest need for a high % of prospects to pan out was the early part of the decade. Now we need to supplement it with a steady stream not a flood.

He doesn't have the flash to make highlight reel plays that he shouldn't have gotten to. He has exceptional reaction time which enables him to have great range, as most metrics would prove. What do you mean by flash? Doesn't he have the ability to dive for a ground ball get up and throw it? Are his reactions limited to balls a certain distance away from him? Does his arm strength only work with throws at a certain distance? I just don't understand what flash others have in making plays look great that he can't make if he really is that much better at it than others. JJ has put up several solid seasons now - something Billy Hall has never seemed to do. JJ was left at one position something Bill Hall never had the chance to do. the one year he got to play his normal position all year he did as well as JJ. JJ plays the most solid defense on the team. See above statement. JJ was the only everyday player not to offensively slump in crunch time last season. not true JJ has never been overpaid. Not even the year he spent on the DL? Since this is his first year of arby he's one injury or slump away from his second year of being overpaid. JJ doesn't employ Scott Boras. Neither does Bill Hall JJ always leaves his game on the field. He has never once embarrassed the organization or created any off-field controversy -- which means: Ditto for Hall. Not sure what it has to do with anything since JJ's agent isn't about to give JJ's services away for free either. JJ is a fan favorite. He brings people to the ballpark. So does any number of players. I do not think there are a whole bunch of people out there saying hey lets go watch JJ play today. It's a concept I think is way overrated. JJ has established himself as one of the top shortstops in the game and He is good but there are several better. This debate is about whether he really is that much better than our own minor league player so maybe he isn't worth that much more that we should keep him at short just to make him happy. JJ hasn't even peaked yet. How do you know this?

Other than Rickie Weeks (who is arguable), the Brewers haven't really had any "bust" prospects come up in the last few years. There is a whole line of prep pitchers who have not panned out. Brad Nelson is 26 and fighting for a reserve job. I agree we did get a lot of good ones in a relatively short period of time. I'd argue that high a success rate is not as necessary now than when the current crop of players got drafted. The farm was so completely devastated, or more accurately Bandoed, that a total overhaul was needed. Now we just have to find guys to fill in the holes as they appear. A job made easier by having good players who will return either high draft picks or prospects in the future. Then again I am such a hopeless optimist that I may be viewing things with too brewered of glasses.

Depends on what you are doing with the paper. It's scratch paper if you intend to scribble (scratch is another term for quickly writing something down) a memo on it. It's scrap paper if it's a bit of random paper used for any number of things.

JJ would have made that same play, but it wouldn't be highlight reel because his reaction was so much faster that he got to the ball and made the play look easy. If this was true he would be making as many highlight plays as any other but they would be even deeper in the hole and would only be more of a highlight simply because he got to one that others simply couldn't make. He may get to some balls quicker than others but he would still make as many plays that looked cool. They'd just be cooler because he went further.

Man, the more I read this thread, the more depressed I get. It seems like we're going to be doomed to having five year windows where we realistically contend for one or two seasons, and then the other three or four years are letting the youngsters mature before they inevitably leave. Guys like Escobar is exactly why Hardy leaving isn't the end of the world. By the time Hardy is in his 5th year Escobar may very well be banging the door down not just capable of learning on the job. By the time Hart is gone we might all be raving about Cain like we were Hart a few years ago. With a well run organization with good scouting and quality coaching in the minors there is no reason the next JJ Hardy and Prince Fielder can't be ready to step in without missing a beat. If they are sprinkled in. To me the Hardy debate is less about keeping the player we have but about keeping enough of the last core around to prevent wholesale changes every 5 or 6 years. Keep those who we can't replace and replace those whose production can be replaced in a more cost effective manner.

And they are never quite good enough to make the World Series. I think any team that can make the playoffs is good enough to win it. The worst Cardinals team to make the playoffs was the only one to win the World Series. Does that mean it was the only one that was good enough to win it? Wouldn't you agree several of the Oakland and Minnesota teams were better than that particular St Louis team? I never bought into the they never won it all so their approach must be wrong argument. If Escobar is a stellar major league defensive ss who provides .710 OPS as was projected above, well, what are they out really? Slick fielding .700-ish ss are not that hard to find, nor are the terribly expensive. Renteria has a career OPS of .750; Orlando Cabrera, .720. Those guys are available every year. There is slick fielding and then there is extraordinary fielding. Ozzie Smith was extraordinary. Orlando Cabrera is not. I think most of the people who rave about Escobar think he has a chance to be in the extraordinary class. Many raved about Hardy's defensive ability, and rightfully so, but everyone seems to agree Escobar is more than marginally better.

Except that Hardy isn't under salary control by the Brewers beyond 2010, upon which time he can sign a huge contract at SS somewhere else & tell you to pound sand. That is all the more reason to move him to third if a better defender is in house and ready for the majors. He's going ot tell us to pound the sand anyway. As soon as he sees the money he's gone. He may not like being moved but if it helps the team and he won't be here anyway why not do what is best for the team and have his bat + Escobar's defense in the lineup? I don't really think Hardy is going to be a Brewer past 2010 anyway since he will command a bigger salary than the Brewers can realistically afford. Especially if they have a guy at his position ready and able to take over. We have to get used to a changing lineup as Brewer fans. The ones that will change the most ore the ones who have good players ready to take over. It makes no sense to me to have JJ here past 2010 when his replacement is ready to go at a fraction of the cost.

From everything I've heard or read Escobar is a once in a generation defensive shortstop. If I was the Brewers and wanted JJ to move even if it meant he wouldn't stay past 6 years I'd sit him down and tell him a story about this shortstop who hit 35 hr, hit for a .270 average and and OPS of .899. All this while playing a more than respectable defense and was the team MVP. I would explain to him how that guy got moved for a guy who had relatively no big league experience and was injured the last couple years. I would explain to him that move was made because that rookie had immense potential and was a better shortstop defensively. I would tell him sometimes the really good teammates need to sacrifice their own self for the betterment of the team. I would explain to him since he didn't have a problem when the shoe was on the other foot he needs to sack up and deal with being a third baseman for a year or two if and when the time comes. The above statement is based on the assumption that Escobar really is that good and can continue to improve his offense.

Infamous houseguest (and native Wisconsinite) Kato Kaelin turns 50 today. finally age and IQ meet.