Thurston Fluff

I have a hard time figuring this one out as well. Not only form the Card's perspective but from Cleveland's as well. It looks like an off season trade made early.

Amazing how smart starting pitching can make a manager look. Not to mention how it can make a bullpen look good. Bullpens look the best when they aren't used much.

Ironic that Florida got the lead on the other player in that trade isn't it? I don't want this to be about today alone. I think today is really going to be about what they get out of him all year.

Just looked at the line score for the Cubs and Harden went 5 innings and 87 pitches. He really is great in those five innings and can on occasion go deep in games but overall he averages less than 6 innings/start. Does that really help all that much? I really don't know but I suspect that type of pitcher can turn into a lot of stress on the bullpen. Not really looking to pile on the Cubs or belittle them just really curious if I'm the only one who thinks this will be a problem for them.

I would also recommend avoiding live plants. We have tried live plants three different times with it ending in a mess every time. Adequate lighting and plants that are meant to be under water are the two secrets of plant life in an aquarium. If you have those two things they will live a long time and help keep the tank's ecosystem in balance. Everything is super easy to run and use but our motor started making a TON of noise about 1.5 years ago and I've been too lazy to replace it. That's a big reason why I like the under gravel system. If you use an underwater pump instead of the air pump it's real quiet and very easy to maintain.

What were they supposed to do? They felt like Hardy was the better shortstop and that Hall could play CF. I'm not disagreeing with what they did. It just turns out the same guy is the one whose career is bearing the brunt of it. He is a pro who wants to establish himself and has his own best interest to look out for as well as the teams. I don't have to blame the Brewers for how they handled them but I won't blame Hall for finally pointing they are messing with his career as well. You may not care about that as much as he does but there does come a time when someone who sees the path he's put on is going to supply him with millions less dollars. I will not criticize a guy for pointing out he has done everything asked of him and wants to make sure his interests are not totally lost in the exchange. That would only be fair for the team oriented attitude he has always had here. He was hitting RHP pitching at a near .100 clip. Neither Hardy nor Weeks was that bad. I didn't see month by month breakdowns for each side of the plate but here are the totals form the first two months. Hardy April 628 OPS, 317 OBP May 701 OPS, 350 OBP Weeks April 690 OPS, 333 OBP May 696 OPS, 320 OBP Hall April 690 OPS, 333 OBP May 696 OPS, 320 OBP Since all of them played against both handed hitters either Weeks and Hardy played very poorly against LH relative to Hall or they all struggled against RH to some degree.

Big tank is better than small and wide is better than deep. The more surface area the better oxygen exchange. More important with saltwater than fresh. As far as filters go there are plenty of different types. Some don't like under gravel but I'm quite fond of them. They are about as close to the naturally occurring filtration as you can get and are the easiest to maintain and cheap to maintain. Stir the gravel around once once in a while and make sure the airflow is adequate. If you have good lighting you can grow real plants and that will help stabilize the nitrates so you don't have to do water changes as often. Just be sure you are getting actual aquatic plants. Some stores sell live plants that can live underwater for a time but are not really underwater plants. They will die quickly and add more crap that needs to be filtered. Once a fresh water aquarium is established it's really not at all hard to maintain. Saltwater is a little more work and a lot more expensive but well worth it. Fondybrewfan I've had saltwater tanks for a couple decades now if you want some help with setup or anything just pm me. There are several types of filters and lights to chose from. They all have their good and bad points so I might be able to help you avoid buying the wrong type and having to spend more getting the right one. It takes a couple years for the tanks to fully establish themselves for invertebrates and some of the more sensitive fish but many fish can be added after a month. To start the tank the only fish I would get are damsels. They are far and away the hardiest fish and can survive the ammonia and nitrite phases of the tank establishment.

When his team doesn't have as much talent as other teams, that is what he needs to do. He's always been that way so I don't think it's due to this team's makeup.

still did not seem to understand why he was getting platooned and help out of games. I think he did understand but felt he should have been given the same leeway Hardy and Weeks got. Neither of them were really any better at the time. When JJ got the shortstop job back Hall was coming off a 35 hr, team MVP season and played decent defense as well. His reward was losing his job at short to a guy who had done nothing as of yet in the majors. He took all that in stride. I think the platooning this season was more or less the straw the broke the camel's back. He felt he had to say something just so they know he wasn't going to just be used and abused without saying a word ever. He said his peace then went about playing hard like always. I don't begrudge him for saying something when he did. Sometimes a man has to stand up for himself. He did so only after a rather long line of less than perfect treatment by the Brewers. I have no doubt both Doug and Ned agree that circumstances made Bill the sacrificial lamb for the betterment of the team more often than was reasonable to ask without some sort of speaking up on his part.

If La Russa has a fault it's that he over manages. He's always tinkering and moving. From sac bunting the second hitter of the game to running out of position players by the 10th inning he seems never to be content to just let the players play.

I had no problem with hall when he asked for a trade. Part of it had to be his not wanting to get jerked around without standing up for himself. He has always done what was best for the team even if it wasn't always the best for himself. After all the switches and work to do as asked he then was the one who lost playing time even though he wasn't the only one who was struggling. I understood why he was the one who lost playing time but that doesn't mean I thought Bill shouldn't have been a bit miffed by it. How he handled himself after his initial emotional response was as professional and worthy of admiration as any player I've seen. He settled in, encouraged his teammates, started to enjoy when he did play instead of lament the days he didn't, worked hard and improved to where Ned is comfortable playing him more. I'm happy for him and am as big a fan of his as I am of any Brewer at any point in the team's history. I don't feel like I owe him an apology because I never felt anything negative about him. The only thing I do is gain more respect for him as a person, player and his professionalism every day.

A CC contract could probably be insured because he has never been injured. Sheets might be another story. IF CC would want to sign a big contract that could be at least partially insured it wouldn't cripple the team if he did get injured. If he under performs that would be another story. That's a risk you take with anyone though.

I know he's 1 of the admins, but do you have to refer to him as BRAIN. I like to suck up.

They are still the same team. But those 5 games just went POOF, so you are no longer expected to win 90 winston games. Only about 87 (you were expected to start about 3-2). You don't get those wins back. This is where I start to lose confidence in projections. It can't take a long term projection with all that encompasses then change the outcome before all the factors play out. Considering the nature of the game to be accurate it has to assume there will be a 5 game losing streak sometime so why does it change if that streak comes early instead of late? Maybe I'm the one who is stupid here since I don't gamble but any system that doesn't take into account the way baseball season play out if it doesn't account for slow starts not being indicative of the final record. Especially if it doesn't take into account strength of schedule and such.

Wells said TLB. I even read the whole thing. I would disagree to a very small extent with Melvin bringing in good guys. He did bring in Tavarez. But I get what you mean. It is mostly the players that make it go. But some amount does have to go to Ned since we all know full grown men don't always act that way. When they don't I'm sure Ned, with the full backing of Doug and Mark, takes care of it. Maybe the best way of putting it is it's an organizational principal that all of them agree on.

competition over Brain wins. Last call you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.

BHOPABT --barley hanging on playing for a bad team. looks like a Turkish name doesn't it?

When the Brewers were 4 games under .500 two months ago, it goes without saying that the odds were low of them having the best record in the Nl for the next 2 months. Well, the improbable has happened Not to nitpick but if the Brewers really projected to be better than the >.500 record showed then it would seem probable not improbable that at some point a winning streak would even it out. Projections show what will happen over time. That must take into account the nature of winning and losing trends somehow. That's where I think projections get misused. They look at a projection then see where the team is relative to that projection then adjust it up or down according to the current record. for example if the Brewers were supposed to be a 90 win team and after two months they are 4 below 500. A lot of people then think the team is only an 85 win team based of the slow start. But the projection must have taken into account a bad stretch along the way since every team goes through them. Same with the Brewers last year. They started out hot and people said (myself included) they only have to play .500 ball the rest of the way to win the division. That doesn't take into account the likely hood of them not playing .500 ball the rest of the way. Almost every team that plays above their heads at one point play equally below at another. Those un/lucky enough to buck the trend have either really good or really bad years.

What I'm saying here is that these are scattered meltdowns that happen to most relievers and that you guys shouldn't be so anxious to face him. So true. You've got a good grasp of baseball sure you aren't really a Brewer fan undercover? It's also why I'm not overly worried about our bullpen. It's a veteran group who will go through good and bad times. Overall they all have, at the very least, been serviceable for lengthy stretchs of time over their careers. The meltdown we had last year in the pen was more due to youth and lack of legitimate talent. I don't see the same potential problem with the pen this year. The only potential problem I see with Marmol is the workload issue. He's going to be in new territory workload wise this year and despite his obvious talent it is a question mark whether he can sustain the workload and still be as effective as he was earlier. If he can't the Cubs pen is no better than ours.

That's exactly what I did casey. I saw it after I posted and tried to fix it but couldn't. I guess that's why we have ModGods to help the flock.

Maybe this was his master plan... take all the heat and let the players concentrate on getting better. And man did he take the heat. I honestly believe this is part of it. I won't go as far as say master plan as much as his natural approach to that sort of thing is to protect and deflect. He's the anti-Guillen. That said, I think he may be standing too close to the helium tank sometimes... Busted. What gave me away? My chipmonk version of rawhide?

Some of those who don't like Yost are my favorite posters and I have a great deal of respect for them so I'm not too worried. But either way I'm pretty immune to be told I'm stupid. I already know that. p.s. thanks for cleaning up the blue Casey. Didn't know what the hell I did to make it look like that.

I was 18 in 82 and not interested in baseball until I was stuck working in a factory second shift. The guy i worked nect to was a huge Brewer fan so it was on all the time. By the end of the year I was addicted. It's hard for me to compare because that is where I became a fan of the Brewers yet wasn't really a baseball fan yet. That and I had yet to suffer through the lean years like I have since then. This one is special because of the wait. That one was special because it was my initiation into baseball.

I thought about starting a smoking thread for a while. I've done it for about 15 years but lately I've changed some of my ideas from the conventional methods. I rarely ever smoke at above 150 now. It eliminates that little bit of metallic flavor that can happen if you smoke at too high a temperature for too long. I always wanted more smoke flavor than I could get in 4 hours and doing it onger meant dry meat or some of the bad smoke flavor creeps in. My friends didn't notice but I sure did. It also allows the meat to remain very juicy without having to wrap it. Takes about 8-12 hours smoking time to do it that way but once you try it it's hard to go back. I still do steaks at 250 for 1/2 - 1 hour then finish them on the grill. If anyone is interested in finding a very nice selection of wood that is very reliable without bark check out this site. http://www.smokinlicious.com/index.php?home One other tip that I learned from the encyclopedia of food and cooking is never allow meat fat to drip onto natural coals while cooking. It causes a chemical reaction with the coals that creates harmful carcinogens. The book gave the example of an average size steak having the equivalent of 15 cigarettes on it. That chemical process only occurs when the meat fat hits natural coals. If anyone wants to know the actual process I can probably write down the actual reaction with all the technical names and such but suffice it to say use a drip pan. I have been looking for a way to keep the chicken skin more tender and crispy so if anyone has any tips on that It would be appreciated. My chicken always turns out well except the skin looks great but tastes like smoked leather.

Not this summer but probably within the next couple years. When we do go back it would be great to have a beer and celebrate, by then we hope, a championship. Last time I was in Italy, Rome I think, I saw a guy walking down the street in a Green Bay Packers jacket. I thought he was another tourist from Wisconsin but he was actually a Italian Packer fan.