Thurston Fluff

Good read. Funny how Scott Boras thought the baseball market didn't run the same way as normal business did in the economy. He seemed to think baseball economics was entirely controlled by TV revenue or something. He must have missed the part about naming rights, suites, season tickets, ad revenue and luxury boxes not being renewed. Perhaps the genius agent was wrong? Either that or he will be at the head of the line crying collusion.

Does your phone have a memory card? I've put tons of SD cards through the wash, and all of them have worked fine after. Yes it does. I haven't tried it yet but planned on trying it tonight when I get home. I'm taking the pessimistic approach so I won't be disappointed if it doesn't work but you give me hope.

I was out playing with my dog in the snowstorm Saturday and thought it would be cool to take some pictures of her while in action. It took quite a few tries to throw a frisbee and take a picture at the same time and still manage to time the picture right so she was catching the frisbee as I took it. I did get some real cool ones then promptly forgot my phone in my pocket and washed it. I'm not sure if I'm more depressed about the wrecked phone or the lost pictures.

Over the history of the game, most top players reach the big leagues by 23 or so, with many a year or two earlier than that. You hear a lot of times that people will say, "oh back in the old days, guys had more time to develop etc." That's really not true for the best players. That may be true for the best payers but what is the average age for the normal players? I seem to remember something like 25 or 26 as the average age to break into the majors but that could be way off. It is true that many of the best and brightest of all time can play at a high level early on but I don't think anyone is saying the likes of JJ Hardy, Cory Hart, Manny Parra and Rickie Weeks are in that category. This core, though very talented as a whole, is more along the lines of good quality major league players. What makes them so good is they are all above average. I don't think any of them qualify as historically the best like Yount or Molitor. So their age progression should probably be viewed as such not as the best of the best of all time.

They may not be young in terms of years of major league service but most of them came up at a relatively young age. Going forward I do not believe they could be considered young. Most will be 25 or so and should be approaching their prime. That is one of the primary reasons I think the Brewers will defy the national perception that they will not be competitive for a division title next year.

I'm with cheez on Lucroy. I don't think any 22 year old who has never played above A ball is ready to play the most demanding position in baseball.

I've had it for a few years and though I don't watch enough movies anymore to make it all that cheap/movie it is nice to have movies in the house when I want to watch them. I like the fact that I can find odd movies and search for certain actors or directors. It's a lot nicer and easier to find unusual stuff than looking through the local blockbuster for hours.

Yeah, that's weird. I think maybe he might've meant gap power, but even his extra base hit numbers aren't what I'd expect to see with his speed. Or he just saw him the few times he actually did hit for some power. He was a pitching coach for the Reds AA team in the Southern league last year I believe so maybe it it was one of those things were he saw him during a power surge. Or maybe it just goes to show his area of expertise is pitching. In any event he was one of my favorite Brewers and I'm glad he is in our system again. Especially since he lives in the valley and occasionally goes on the radio and talks baseball. It'll be cool to get his take on things after he's been in the Brewers system for a while.

It seems to me the Yankees are making moves that seem to force them in a cycle of ever higher spending. Every time they sign someone it means they have one less draft pick to restock an already weak farm system. That means to remain competitive they have to sign free agents and lose more draft picks. Their other option is to make trades using the few minor league players that have some worth or make one sided trades to salary dumping teams. Either way they end up in a perpetual cycle of needing to spend. If ever they stop spending at an ever higher rate they will have a huge rebuild on their hands. Apparantly that is not a Steinbrenner option. If any team can do this it's the Yankees. I do wonder if they will ahve the resources to do so and pay off the new stadium and deal with harder financial times even if they are the Yanks.

Just repeating what was said. I think he was taking about the whole package and very well could have used the term power to mean can hit a few extra base hits along with good average and plate discipline. Or just as likely he could have over hyperbolized about a player he thought was going to be a good major league players soon.

I don't know if anybody else heard him on 1570 the score yesterday but he was in studio for an hour. Some of the stuff he covered was how much he liked Brantley and felt the real loss wasn't La Porta whom Bosio said was a pure power hitter but had holes in his swing. He mentioned LaPorta had a real great couple weeks where he was just pounding the ball and it coincided with the time Clevelands scouts were there so they kind of got enamored with him. He felt Brantly has the best combination of speed, power and is the more accomplished hitter. He felt it was a foregone conclusion that Stetter was going to be on the major league roster out of spring training. He didn't really have a good idea of what he would be working with at AAA this season but mentioned Aguilar as one fo the guys he was hearing a lot of good things about.

If it is a straight up one for one deal I think it means they want more than one starter and one reliever more than they want offense. If this means they can get two free agent starters instead of one I'm all for it. What we have now is a team that has no pitching depth at all. If trading Cameron for a cheaper alternative gets us some protection from injury then it would compensate for the difference in the two players.

Wolf intrigues me. At one time he looked to be a very good pitcher then got derailed by injuries. At this point his injuries are old enough to alleviate some worry but not so far away as to drive his price up too much. I think guys like Penny and Wolf are the value guys right now though their value is tied to risk.

It's a 5 year tradition to go out with my dog and play frisbee on the first big snow storm of the year. I got out at 8pm and got back at midnight on Monday night. Then due to the weather I had most of the day off yesterday and we played another 6 consecutive hours. When I got in with her at 7pm she immediately got her house ball and dropped it by my feet as though she hadn't done a thing all week. Border Collies are awesome but not for the timid.

1982 I was 18 and working second shift in a factory. The guy I worked next to was a huge Brewer fan and always had the game on while working. I'd like to say I would have been as hooked as I am without the team going to the series but honestly I don't know. I do know I looked forward to the games before the team really started to look like contenders. If that was because I was getting interested in the team or because of the mind numbing boredom of putting a nut on a bolt for 8 straight hours made any distraction a welcome diversion I couldn't tell you.

I don't really see the difference between trying and failing and not trying at all.

Good luck to 3TO may the baseball Gods smile upon him so he can have at least a Brady Clark, Scott Podsednik level career. Given Seattle's situation it makes a lot of sense for him to go there even if Doug wanted him back. Can't blame a guy who has struggled to stick in the majors for doing what's best for his career. Clearly liveforoctober meant, 'I don't know if the ball is going to travel 800 feet, or only 600 feet' Or it hits the catchers mit and he walks to first or the dugout. I know some have said they would be disappointed with a Gamel/Hall platoon. But I think it makes sense. I'm don't know how much sense it makes to have a defensive liability who has yet to play in AAA play the hot corner even as a platoon player. Especially for a team with playoff aspirations. As far as what the Brewers do there isn't much on the free agent market. Mike Lamb is the best 3B option for a left handed bat in the free agent market. While I hope we get an upgrade via trade I think at this point I'd rather go Lamb/Hall platoon than bring up Gamel before he's ready. Lamb has kind of a weird career so far. His OBP is kind of streaky from year to year. If we get the good Lamb we get a guy who takes his walks and hits for decent average. If we get the bad lamb we don't get the average and his power is never going to make up the difference. I think hoping Lamb keeps his OBP up high enough is a better gamble than hoping Gamel is good enough offensively to offset his defense. With Lamb and Hall we have two players who have had a couple good years sprinkled in with some pretty bad ones. All we need is for one of them to get it together for a year to prevent a black hole at third.

Keep in mind that it's not so much giving up on Hart as it is being willing to trade him for the rotation arm that we're going to desperately need in 09 if Sheets isn't back. I understand that but I don't see the outfield depth as so great with cheap talent that it makes any sense at all to trade a viable young player if we have to replace him with a more expensive player. especially when said player that will provide little if any upgrade there. Why not just sign a free agent pitcher with that money and keep the cheaper younger guy we already have? If someone comes asking for Hart in particular and are willing to give us a player we feel is better than he is or fits the team better no problem. I just don't think shopping Hart for pitching with the idea of signing Abreu makes a whole heck of a lot of sense financially or performance wise.

I think some people are giving up on Hart way to early. He is one year removed from having a better OPS than Abreu had the previous two and very close (ten points) to Abreu's career OPS. Add in the difference in defense and I don't see how he adds much over Hart. He would cost a lot more and the chances of him getting better is far smaller than Hart who is 8 years younger and has just started his major league career. Granted Hart had a down year this year but it was only his second year as a full time player.

To a degree. The gorilla is kind of a local landmark so it really was quite an attention getter already. But yes three news stations have been by now and I just got a call from the AP in Milwaukee asking for details about the reward offered which wouldn't have happened without the decapitation. But it was a animatron type thing that cost over $1000 to replace so I would much rather have the total gorilla than a couple days of coverage and no head. Heck we named him and spent more money on his clothes last year than I did mine. He's our inanimate gorilla-child. We surrounded him with black balloons and I am in the process of making a toy soldier balloon man to guard his beheaded corpse.http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/bb92575201569807dec70f821fb5f396c378d6b.jpg http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/0c5255e27757184bd9b7a6b38c27797e590cc56.jpg

I can into the store this fine day after thanksgiving and found someone had decapitated our gorilla outside our store. Police called, one TV station already stopped by, several people stopped by to send give their condolences. $1,000 reward is being offered.

Probably not fair but after Hendrickson I've been a little skeptical of curveball first pitchers. A 25 year old lefty who has those type of numbers on his fourth organization has to have something wrong. Either himself as a person or his stuff/location just isn't major league quality.

Looking at his stats doesn't really thrill me but I don't know how much his stats matter given he would most likely be a loogy. All we have to go on is what he did facing both righties and lefties. If someone has his right/left splits that might be more telling.

Sneezing inside a gorilla mask sucks.

They had an interview with one of the Brewers minor league guys last summer on 1570 in Appleton. Can't remember off hand if it was Money, I think it was, he gave a basic run down the AA team. According to him Solome was great at everything except calling a game. He may have the offensive side down but he apparntly still needs work on his defense and game calling.