Thurston Fluff

I have heard really good things about Devil in the White City and I have always wanted to tackle The Fountain Head and Atlas Shurgged, but havent had the guts yet I read the Devil in the White City a while back and it seemed tough to stay interesed in it for some reason. When I finished I was left with the feeling of why the hell did I bother.

Kind of like how there aren't any other viable leadoff candidates [*ahem* corey *cough* hart]. IMO, the Brewers are at a point with Yost where a cadaver would be an upgrade. FIND SOMEONE!! I don't think anyone exists who can win with a team that has 5 of 8 starters getting on base under 35% of the time when only two of them slug for more than .450. Not when the pitching staff gives up an average of 5 runs a game anyway. BTW if Hart could be moved to leadoff without creating another hole at the equally important 5 hole protecting Prince I think Yost would have done that already. Why rob Peter to pay Paul? Moveing players around doesn't help when there simply aren't enough productive players to go around.

Carlos' struggles are really the same as everybody on the team at the moment. I have no idea why the team has struggled so much other than maybe the combination of youth and a tough early schedule made them press more and they lost confidence in themselves a bit. I still have faith they can come around and become at least serviceable. I'm not as confindent that they will be as good as I thought they might earlier in their careers though.

Looks like Yost won't be calling him "Braunie" anytime soon, after how Braun threw him under bus yesterday. I guess he will be calling Braun something else... I didn't think Brauns comments threw Yost under the bus as much as it did the players. I know Hardricourt seem to think his comments harmed Yost but he also thought posting something as significant as Yost is going to be fired from a non sports, non baseball, blogger of unknown integrity level based on an unnamed source was a good idea.

I'm currently reading The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson about the cholera outbreak in 1854 London. It looks at how the development of large cities with very concentrated population masses intertwine with the spread of disease and the nature of scientific inquiry at the time. It's worth the read if only to about Dr. John Snow who not only figured out Cholera was a water bourne disease but he also was the one who, in a matter of weeks, figured out how to administer ether in proper doses and built a machine to do the job. Remarkable man all the way around.

I think Russ summed it up pretty well. There is a big differance between publicly calling out someone and privately telling them to pick it up. The most I've ever seen Yost say about a player publicly was the way he handled the public "I'll throw a fit if I'm platooned" situation with Jenkins and Mench in spring of 07. In the JS this morning was the only other time I can remember him not agreeing with a player. He said he doubted Stetter's reasoning of being fatigued as why he couldn't throw strikes. Both situations were not really publicly airing out a player as much as it was a sign he doesn't just accept players attitudes regardless of what they are.

Sure... but wouldn't you be too if you just hit 50 jacks in the big leagues and were getting paid about half a million dollars for it? Not as mad as I would be to pay a poor defender whose OPS is around .750 a couple million. This is a terrible argument. You don't base contracts on what sports writers think. Along with statistical production that is exacly the sort of stuff Melvin bases the first three years of contracts on. It's also a component in arbitration for the palyers as well. Had Prince not been called up for another year or so he probalby wold have made more money his second and third year in the bigs. Soenhow i got a feeling he wouldn't have been as happy if the Brewers waited until he was Howards age to call him up so maybe he should quit comparing himself to him.

How is yost supposed to know how well all the minor league players are actually performing? He has no way or time to both scout minor league players or evaluate them and do the day to day managerial duties he was hired to do. I have no doubt that he can tell Doug the type of guy he wants but that is not the same as him determineintg who is ready to contrbute or who has the potential to be useful. Don't you think it's a bit unrealistic to expect Yost to know the minor league players, how well they are performing and whether or not they are ready to play at he major league level yet when he has no ablitiy to go see them or the time to break down scounting reports, or talk to the AAA manager in detail about them or even watch video of them? Seesm to me that is why they have GM's to begin with to evaluate the team talent throughout the organization and the rest of the league. If Yost is expected to do half the GM's job then I think this organization has a lot more problems than we could ever hope to solve.

but I'll bet a 6 pack of Kul Light this will be Ned's reasoning on the pregame show tonight. I'd rather hear Doug's reasoning on it. Ned's job is to use who Melvin gives him. Melvin's job is to give him useful players to use. Ned I'm sure will repeat the company line since publicly questioning his boss' choice is not a sound strategy to ramain employed. I agree with SoCal about the multiple innings guys. Ned and Doug seem to like guys who go longer than one in the pen. I'm not as convinced there is any more reason to believe the Sox can blow out the Brewers than any other team though. The Brewers don't get blown out often and they have faced as tough a teams as Boston already this season.

He's been in the bullpen for a few weeks now (5 appearances). He did manage to get his ERA under 7.00. Must have missed that. It's about time though. If he can make it as a reliever that would give us two young leties in the pen for the next few years.

Jackson has been horrible. No thanks. Pena is coming around, but he had a rough start. Jackson has been horrible no doubt but I've read several times over the last couple years that he has trouble on his off speed stuff and has been working on it extensively as a starter. He's one of those guys that may not look good in the minors because of what they asked him to do more than just being bad. If his only problem is the third pitch I wouldn't mind seeing what he can do. I'd much rather he did it as a reliever in the minors. I think it might be a good time to move him to the releif role and see if he can handle that role or he just sucks.

The Giants won't be competitve during Lincecum's current contract, so they may as well get several major-league-ready prospects and get younger while Lincecum is still healthy. Lincecum is in his second year so if we trade major league ready players he'd have three to four years with those players. The other factor that connot be overlooked is the giants are not small market. They don't have a six year clock to work with for top notch players like the Brewers do. Licecum has a better chance of being locked up by the Giants long term than he does of being traded before his arby years are up.

in his two games played in AAA hes got 5 walks, 1 hit and 2 earned runs over an inning of work. I doubt that will happen.

Sorry if this has been mentioned before but something Melvin has mentioned many times in the past is cost certainty. This contract helps the Brewers plan other contract offers and gives them a better idea how much they can afford to spend on other players. The thing about arbitration years is the arby comes so late in the off season that it inhibits smaller market teams who are tight aginst their spending limits from making the extra million or so on an offer that could land a free agent. The more players locked up going into free agency the easier it is to target and sing a free agent. 7 years for such a major piece of the team is huge in that regard.

From everything I've heard Edmonds can't even play defense very well anymore so I'm not sure what they think they'll get out of this. IsPie going back to the minors? Doesn't the way they are treating Pie seem earliy similar to how they brought along Patterson? No wonder they never get much out of their prospects they always jerk them around.

I'm nearly 100% certain that Yost not pitching Gagne last night would not have led to this. No one instance does. An overall steady pattern is established by series of one time instances though. How each instance is handled independantly determines whether a manager is consistant with the philosophy he goes by. To do something one way once and the same sort of situation another is not consitant. To me he handled this the same way he did Turnbow. Both had the opportunity they asked for and each are afforded the same chance to succeed. What would Yost be telling Gagne if he doesn't allow him the same chance, professional courtousey if you will, that Turnbow got?

Buc, it was a position to fail, not succeed. Gagne labored to get through his 2nd inning Monday night, and did not look all that sharp last night. Yost (& Gagne) got very lucky, which I'm concerned that Ned will mistake for good judgment. Of course there is room for agruement on this so respect your opinion but I think on the whole getting your players i the spot they are most comfortable playing is the right situation. As I said if Gagne said he was good to go and wanted the job back then I'm ok with Ned allowing him to do so. Agins it's less to do with that particular game as it is how you treat your players. One thing we know for sure Ned is not a Mike Sherman type who doesn't listen to his players. Veteran do need to be treated differantly than young players. the sheer amount of experience they have makes them more knowledgable about their own mind and body than any outsider could. They've been through pretty much everything already and know how to handle it. This is just my opinion but I don't think you just can take these players opinions out of the equation and still hope to keep both them and the rest of the players playing hard for you all the time. Once resentment sets in it's really hard to overcome. Resentment comes when professional respect doesn't.

It wasn't just two innings it was two innings with rather bad control and it looked like Gagne was opening his shoulder near the end of the two, a sign of fatigue If the veteran payer says he's good to go and is ready to play the position he was hired to play it isn't sheer stupidity at all. You seem to be under the belief that the player either does not communicate his availablity to Yost or Yost's ability to here the payers cry for rest or that somehow a 32 year old veteran reliever domehow doesn't know when he's ready to pitch. If Oyst was told by the veteran player he was ready to go then it isn't such a stretch to play him. the sign of fatigue you mention seems to be debateable to me. One reason I think it isn't a bad idea to get him in a game agian in a situation he says he's comfortabel with is so the corrections they made so recently gets used in a game. relievers pretty much have to make thier adjustments in the game since they rarely get to work on the side. I don't think I could possibly disagree more. That's not guts, that's stupidity. Just because it "worked" doesn't mean it was a good decision. Why is it that if it doesn't work, he made a bad decision, but if it does work, he has guts? It was a bad decision no matter how you slice it. If Ned is supposed to put players in the right spot to succeed I don't understand why he gets called stupid when he does it and they do succeed. I would have thought it a good move even if it did not work. Me in their 30's need to be treated with a certain amount of respect in their proffession. Other players see the treatment afforded these established players. The manager should at least listen to these adults when they are talking aobut their ability to do something in their field of expertise. They've earned that repsect. If the player fails in said situations then the manager can do what is necessary without other players grumbling or said player getting mad and causeing problems. These players, after all are both mature adults and human beings. The players want the same respect out of their manager as any of us want from our boss when we are in our 30's and have established a certain level of efficeincy in our job.

Seems to me that the average Packer fan generally requires better, more objective analysis. Is that an inaccurate generalization? I don't really listen to sports radio at all, so perhaps I'm off base there. I think it's a fair assessment. The average Packer fan is more knowledgable than the average Brewer fan. The Packer fans are the football equivelant of the Cardinal fans in baseball. The reason I found this site to begin with is I wanted a more knowledgable group of Brewer fans.

but I get to work from home whenever I need to, so it's all good. With just the wife and me with a couple college kids work is home so I guess from that perspective I get to work at home a lot as well. But I shouldn't complain I get my BF time while waiting for calls, doing deliveries and such.

There are two ways to make it in sports talk radio. One is to be an informed, knowledgeable, and well rounded in all sports the other is to be contriversial and tick people off. Making statements that will incite people to listen just to see what they'll say next. I guess we know which path he chose.

a 1967 mustang. 302 V-8 4 barrel carb and could easliy smoke the tires with it. Not sure how I lived to adulthood but man it was a sweet ride. Until I wrapped it around a tree.

I thought consultant was a fancy way of saying you no longer had to work in a cubicle.

To the contrary, it seems like many managers "break in" their young talented players against pitchers that they have an easier time handling to: a) keep them productive b) grow their confidence Seems like there are two paths for this. One is the Weeks, Hardy, Braun, Fielder approch where they come in and play consistantly right away (barring injury) or ease them in like Hall and Hart did. It looks like both ways work but I think part of the equation is how prepared they were coming in as well as who else is on the team. Hall was out of options and really wasn't ready for more. Hart had people blocking him but really did everything he could in the minors so for his progress it seemed wiser to let him play occsionally agisnt the major leaguers. The others pretty much came in with no real veteran in fornt of them nad porbably needed consistant at bats to keep them progresing. Prince was a little differant since they traded Overbay to make room for him. Maybe looking back that was a mistake since I think Prince could have used alittle more time working on his defense but offensively he had all the making of a real differance maker and a MVP type player. Those guys are in a differant category thna most. Gamel to me looks like someone who obviously needs more work on defense. Add in the chance his development could be done more harm than good jumping two levels and playing part time and I just don't see the benefit outweighing the potential downside.

10 errors in 37 games and no experience higher than AA. No way. Especially in a platoon or part time situation. He should play regularly and get promoted level by level until he's as ready as Hart was. I really don't want to see any young players waste their first three cheap years in a part time or learning on the job.