Thurston Fluff

They have suction machines to get flem out of lungs so I imagine ti would work for the nose as well. Actually pretty easy to do. We had to learn how to use one when I was a kid because we had a kid we took care of through respite care who had to be suctioned out several times a day. It was almost as gross as feeding him through a tube in his stomach or change him.

Lets get a fundraiser together for that sandwich.

I wasn't surprised he gained some unwanted weight last year nor that he has taken it off this year. I thought being the youngest player to hit 50 bombs and have such a great year at his age was going to make him a little less inclined to do what he did previously to get to that point. It isn't uncommon for younger players who do well early, seemingly without effort, to think they will automatically get better with age. That he slimmed down from added workouts just seems to me he learned a valuable lesson from last year. I'm glad he went through it last year and learned from it. Dude could be awesome this year if he is really has rededicated himself to constant improvement vs resting on his natural abilities. I am so pumped for this year I can hardly stand it.

I don't give a rats behind who he is a fan of. If he is good at his job and doesn't let his initial bias show I'm fine with it. I think it's good to repay the Cubs for taking away Hughes. Now we can work on converting a lifelong Cub fan to a Brewer fan. Considering who he previously rooted for it should be a relatively easy task. Even worms can be trained if you apply enough electricity to them. Given Cub fans are nearly as intelligent as worms I think we can convert him in time. Lets face it the Brewers are certainly easier to root for than a salary bloated, perennially under achieving, franchise like the Cubs.

Considering Bonds essentially did it for the purpose of being considered the best of all time I think taking away the very thing he did it for would be an appropriate punishment. Players of that caliber don't need to do it and the only way to prevent future ones from following suit is to make sure they will not get the desired outcome. From all accounts Bonds doesn't really give a rats behind what people think of him but obviously he cared enough about his records/legacy to cheat to get them. That said I don't see where this will end so I'm not sure it's a workable solution.

I still say a 3 year 15 million dollar deal even if he misses the first year. Then again, it's not my money nor I am nearly as smart as even the worst GM in baseball or have the slightest bit of info that Melvin has. I don't think Sheets would sign for an average of $5 million over three years. If he has surgery and gets five or so starts to show he is healthy he will get way more than that next winter. He is not hurting for money. He already has millions in earnings so it isn't a bad time to take a risk and see if he can't still get that last big contract. IIRC Chris Carpenter went to St Louis after an injury and made out alright after the showed he was healthy. Compared to losing Molitor, we went from what 92 wins to 13 years of losing baseball. If we only lost Molitor that year it wouldn't be as bad as this year but we lost Scot Fletcher and Chris Bosio as well as a few other guys that I can't think of off the top of my head. That year is always remembered for losing Molly, and rightfully so, but we had huge roster change from competent major leaguers all over the field to Sal Bando's assembled group of janitors and grocery store clerks in baseball uniforms.

I thought there was a difference between pre-free agency arbitration contracts and arbitration contracts for players who filed for free agency. I can try to find it but if someone has the answer it'll save me some google time.

In any other year the Brewers may still have got the picks. There have been several teams in the past who signed a guy coming off surgery to a multi year deal with the hope the second season would come cheap enough to off set the lost one. This year I just don't see that happening. So the brewers went from losing Sheets and CC for four picks in the top two rounds to a sandwich and a second with Sheets injury and Texeria signing with NY.

If the brewers knew more than they were letting on why would they have offered him arbitration? I don't think they could keep Sheets in the dark about the extent of the injury and if he knew it was worse than they let on he would have accepted arby. I might be time to start questioning our medical staff's abilities somewhat. I know it's not an exact science but obviously Texas doctors saw something the Brewers didn't.

The fact is Sheets threw more pitches than almost any pitcher in baseball in the 1st half last year after coming off of 3 partial years in a row. It makes absolutely no sense to do that, sure that might be my opinion but it is one that I'd think most people would agree with. You don't think riding your best pitcher in his last year of a contract while in a playoff race makes any sense? I do not think most people would agree with you on that by any stretch of the imagination. That is the same as saying we shouldn't have used CC on three days rest at the end of the year since that could have injured himself, or he wouldn't be effective in the playoffs or it might scare teams from signing him in the off season. I get what you mean but to say it doesn't make any sense completely ignores the situation the Brewers were in. If not for Sheets work earlier in the year maybe we don't get to the point where CC could have made the difference at the end of the year. Then the chances we took with overworking Parra would have been in vain as well. As far as the abuse points and such I guess I have to wonder if more likely than others is really as relevant as how likely an injury will happen in a given situation. To say they took a greater chance Sheets would get injured to get to the playoffs is not the same Sheets is likely to get hurt by doing so. If there is some sort of stat that shows payer X is, say 32%, likely to get hurt by the way he was used I think it would be more relevant than saying Player X is more likely to get injured than player Y then it might be more relevant to the argument of why a pitcher should not have been used in a certain manner in a particular year. ------------------------------------- Moderator note... closed in favor of new thread: Sheets watch, Part 2: May need surgery, Brewers may need to pay for it. The new thread has been added to the Designated Threads List. -------------------------------------

As usual Ennder shows me I'm wrong. Thanks, learning is good. I do think saying the Brewers organization did it is more accurate than Ned did it though. To me that has almost become the defacto excuse for everything that goes wrong, from Sheet injury to the toilet overflowing. I think fondy has the best answer for it. Nobody in particular but maybe everybody in general.

What part of it does Yost have in it? He certainly was not overworked these past few years was he? I think he did overwork Sheets in 02 when he went from 150 ish innings to over 200 which, for a young pitcher, is a lot. But he did not have a workload type of injury for about 6 years after that. Seems a bit odd to blame the manager for a guy who had multiple unusual injuries not related to workload then has a very common injury for a pitcher 6 years after his workload increased and suddenly that was the reason for it. Especially when said workload went down for the last three. I think it far more likely Sheets, like so many others, broke down due to the usual rigors of his profession than being overworked 6 years ago. Seems way too easy an excuse to blame Yost for everything that went wrong but easy does not mean it's really what happened. Instead the much simpler reason is the nature of the job leads to this type of thing. See Capuano for example. He had two of them and one was well before he ever got here. I don't see a lot of complaints he was mismanaged by Yost that caused it. I think not doing proper exercises and diet goes a lot further to hamper properly strengthened and maintained flexibility in the tendons and attachments than logging a couple hundred innings three years ago. Not to mention Sheets did put up a few hissy fits when Ned did take him out of games so even if he was overworked it was partially by his own demands.

Nor did Yost.

Every year a few weeks before valentines day we get an increase in love and just because balloon bouquets sent from women to men. I always suspected this was to get a better valentines day present. Today we had a very fun gal in the store ordering one so I asked if she was just plying for a better valentines day present. She laughed and said she hadn't thought about that but she was sending it out because her husband forgot her birthday last year and it was coming up in a week so she wanted to send him something as a gentle reminder. Then she added if he did forget she would at least be able to make him feel real bad. Women are so devious.

Im very sorry to hear that about Ben. Maybe Ben would be in better shape if Yost hadnt abused him for so long. Or he kept himself in better shape.

I won't be passing out. Like the mighty polar bear, I am designed by nature to consume and absorb mass quantities of food and drink. Being the same size as a polar bear isn't the same as being a polar bear. Sorry FTJ but I need to maintain my rating as number one on your revenge list and if you keep lobbing me easy ones I am obliged to hit them. Someday we will actually meet and I suspect I will be disappointed in your actual size. It'd be hard to live up to my imagination of it considering your user name. Homer I'm looking forward to the pics. Best wishes to the happy couple as well as FTJ's stint in rehab afterward.

FTJ gets a case). Wait a second. I was the first to vote here, first to demand alcohol in return and voted every day since then. Just didn't feel teh need to brag about it like FTJ. If he gets a case can I at least get pictures of him throwing up afterward?

You have to pour it out of the can to get it in your mouth so I'm sure that is the preferred pouring out technique. I've done it with apple juice and it worked out well.

They are still in the lead two have 17% but they have 22% so they're pulling away from the pack. I did notice the first picture had the guy in a gorilla suit so it was tough to vote for your bro again. He didn't have his head on and any self respecting gorilla wouldn't be caught without his head on in public. Not unless someone stole it that is.

I think the owners are less worried about the economy short term since most of them are locked in to their tv deals for varying number of years as well as many of their sponsors. What they probably are worried about is making a huge multi-year deal for someone then have their tv deals run out and not get as good a one again. The SOP for the past few decades was when one deal ran out it was expected to be replaced by a new one for even more. That may not be the case when their current tv deals run out.

Their bullpen has a chance to be significantly worse than last season. While true given the volatility of relievers in general the same could be said of every bullpen. I think a more relevant fact is they got a little lucky that Wood did have a good and, more importantly injury free, year than if another reliever can replicate what he did last year.

Thanks ennder and cwolf. All I was looking for was a reason to actually think that was going on vs what seemed to me to be wishful thinking. Those are good enough things for me to think there is merit to that belief.

Endaround I apologize for being so obtuse but does a decline from peak automatically mean wearing down or injury prone? Couldn't it also just mean he wasn't as good as those few years suggested he was? Maybe it's just semantics but to me wearing down means injury or complete loss of production due to age. He's not that old and hasn't really has much of an injury history.

Got my wife to vote. Can I have two beers. I'm willing to beg if necessary. http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv208/ThurstonFluff/gladystouchedup.jpg

How does him not being as good as people think relate to wearing down? I agree he is overrated but not injury prone or wearing down.