Thurston Fluff

I remember the young gent who was doing very well but ended up breaking down because of overuse, like T-Bow. I disagree T-Bow was overused. There were around 15 guys who pitched both more inning and more appearances and did far better than Turnbow. He was supposed to be a workhorse type for us. That was part of his role on the team and why he was paid a couple million. As for Villy if he was overused why did he do so well as a starter in september? I think it had more to do with him losing his focus a bit in his new role. That happens with young guys. I don't blame Yost for the fact that he was pretty much forced to use players in roles they were not equipped to handle. It's up to the GM to assemble the correct pieces for the manager to use. I agree with the poster that mentioned that Yost needs to quit slotting every pitcher in a specific inning. The more flexible Yost is, the more I likely I think this BP could be a strength of the team. This is one of those things that both sides have valid arguements for. A some managers and players like having specific roles they are slotted for. It gives them the stability of routine that makes their job more predictable thus easier to get into the flow. Many of these guys are creatures of habit and don't do well with change. In some ways to get the best out of each it can be best to keep them in stabile predictable roles. Of course it helps if you have good enough players for each role. Others feel it should be a more flexible thing to take advantage of the changing environment. I honestly don't know which I prefer but there isn't an obvious right or wrong way IMO.

I agree the second-guessers were more numerous, but especially in 2007's IGTs/chat there were plenty of people who made their comments/'moves' well before the outcome was determined on the field. It was most certainly more than 'every now & then.' This is true but there were also times when the move Ned made worked and someone thought he should have done something differant. Ultimately no one will be perfect as an arm chair manager if they had to make every move like a manager does. What I'd like to see is someone give his opinion on every move he makes log it and see who made more correct calls Ned or the fan. I have a feeling if we had some sort of statistical evidence how many times Ned was right vs a fan we'd have a differant opinion of both.

I think they will go the short term veteran route for any position they don't have an established core memeber of the team until they find a suitable replacement in the minors for that spot. Free agency always has enough complimentary players to fill in the voids if the team already has a sound core of players. I could see the Brewers doing short term contracts like that for several years to come. Same contracts same type of players types just change the names on the back.

He knew he had bad eyesight since he was a kid. His career path is major league baseball and his reason for not getting glasses is he didn't want to? Dude is Jeff Juden type of smart.

AS FTJ has said many times if Ned learns from his mistakes he'll be ok. One thing I wanted him to do was get an older established mentor type bench coach. I don't think he could have picked a better person to compliment him than he did. If Ned gets the help he needs to help his weakness his strengths will be all that much better. I think he's a good leader of men and handles his players well. If we get that strength without the accompanying weakness there should be no problem in the management side. Of course that all goes for naught if the pen isn't capable of perfroming better than it did last season. No matter how good a strategist this team has it will not help much if the players involved aren't up to the job.

I guess it all depends on what you call reclamation projects. To me a reclamation project is a guy who wasn't on a roster last year or coming off an injury. Pretty mcuh the entire pen will be made up of players who spent the entire year pitching in the majors and have a history of success at this level. They may not have had banner seasons last year but they are all serviceable and as reliable as one could hope for in such an unrelible area in baseball as a whole. There certainly is enough established veteran relievers to go along with the ususal group of young guys and reclamation projects like Choate that the pen should be servicable at the very least. Last year as it was constructed I didn't think it was all that complimentary to the teams needs for the pen.

The problem is after those two were left with precious little choice when we need pinch hitters, when someones gets hurt, when we play extra innings... regardless if they deserve it or not there will be times when we have to run guys out there in situations that will make Brewers Nation cringe. True but that doesn't necessarily mean a weak bench. I think the bench forms a little like the bullpen. You have a few established guys and sign a few guys to minore league contract with an invite to spring trianing and see who sticks. We pretty mcuh know what we get out of Counsell and Gross. We know Gwynn will be adequate and might even progress further. We know Dillon has a chance of being adequate though he could fail. What we don't know is who might become the next Scotty Po. vs the next Alex Sanchez. The only way to cover that uncertainty is to find an adequate amount of players to vie for that role.

Counsell and Gross are probably the two top bench players. Both have shown they can do that job alright if given the proper amount of playing time. After that you're talking about players who will only get playing time if they actually show they deserve it.

I'm not sure you want the Brewers to emulate the Royals mode of operation.

What a remarkable run from being traded for an all star closer to barely worth a career journeyman reliever.

Drink less the night before? Drink more the morning after? You're obviously someone younger than me. Not sure if I'm better off now than when I would go out partying all night and went straight back to it the next day. Oh the memories of the Mole Lake Bluegrass festival in the 80's. Five straight days of drinking till my eyes bled. Trying to remember not to walk through the bikers areas lest I get more than the pain of a hangover for my troubles. Drink till you fall asleep get up with a beer and a shot and start all over agian. Did I mention I didn't even like bluegrass. I had fun but even thinking about it now hurts.

Drink less the night before?

I don't no how bad this is for the Mets considering the circumstances. They need productivity now not potential. Even though Milledge could be special next year they needed to change the atmosphere after last year's meltdown. There is a little element of addition by subtraction in both this and the Mota deal. The Nats right now I'm sure are perfectly willing to risk attitude problems for young hig ceiling talent. Especially if this turns into a wake up call for him.

No I don't believe he is. Regardless of that his ability to negotiate for that type of salary is predicated on the groundwork done by the union. If not for the union there wouldn't be free agency, owners could set a pay scale far below what they have to pay now, they wouldn't have to charter flights or stay in the best hotels in town, he wasn't subjected to PED testing until union members were... the list goes on. Although he probably misses out on some benefits the union memebers receive through the CBA there are plenty of benefits he enjoys regardless of his membership. Simply put Miller would not have made $19 million if there wouldn't have been a union. He certainly wouldn't have made that much if everyone would have crossed the pickett line when he did either.

Miller did benefit from something he wasn't willing to sacrifice for though. I do understand the differance you are trying to make but if it wasn't for the union, whose line he crossed, he wouldn't be a millionaire today. In fact he'd probably be looking for a truck driving job now that his playing days are coming to an end. It should also be pointed out that there were plenty of minor league players who were not willing to do what he said. I think your claim that there were very very few is not accurate at all. Just look at how few major league caliber players actaully did cross.

I feel the same way most seem to. Miller was great for the Brewers and a class act. I hope he feels as good about this time with the Brewers as Brewer fans feel about it. But it is time to move on. I'd be way more comfortable with someone less likely to have age related problems in that position. Not to mention the chance for one of the other guys to show what they are capable of.

Ir true that would be sweet. He's the kind of guy I hoped Melvin would target. Not a great but dependable veteran who could be well above average on any given year with a reasonablely low amount of risk that he'll completely melt down. Thanks AL my day is brighter.

I always liked Herges. He's been around for a while and would certainly be a functional part of the pen.

Just got her checked out and she's got a strained ACL. He thinks it could be partially torn but it's moving easily with no clicking or grinding so it probably isn't a full tear that would require surgery. Two weeks of anti-inflamitory meds and no work and she should be ok. Thanks for the Doggie Downer thought casey. I asked and he thought it's be a good idea as well. So Gladys get's two weeks of being a hippie dog and she should be back to her normal workaholic self. Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with myself in that time. He didn't give me anything for my downtime.

Part of any stat is what purpose it's used for. Some do a great job of predicting future perfromance while some do a better job of explaining what happened in the past. Some show certain qualities but not others. For instance quality starts shows a pitcher's consitancy but not how dominating a pitcher is. Sheets and Soup could have the same number of quality starts but one is clearly more dominating. Eventually the reason there are so many differant stats is because there are so many differant qualities one might be looking for. So far no single stat manages to show all the qualities so in that sense they are all flawed.

Hmmm turn my dog into a junkie. Not a bad thought. I can see her know working the corner for enough money to see her "vet". In the end she'll be seeing the same dentist as certain athletes. Seriously though not a bad tought casey. I'll ask the vet when I see him today if that's an option.

If you put the peanut butter far enough down that they can't reash it with thier tongue they have to work out how to get it usually by chewing it for a while. If you do it make sure you keep an eye on it show your dog doesn't shred it and eat the plastic. She shakes hands, sits, stay, roll over, along with some other funny tricks that are PG-13 rated. I'm working on her to pick up socks and put them in the hamper now. It'll be cool when she learns it. Her command word in "do the laundry." I think it'd be funny when people come over and you tell her to do the laundry and she looks for socks to put in the wash. Problem is she's very bright and while she pick things up quickly she also gets bored if the tasks are too simple. I can keep her interested for about an hour but as time goes on the need for physical work gets worse. All the things you mentioned are good ideas. Unfortunately I'm not sure she views humans as anything more than some sort of throwing machine she needs to figure out how turn on.

My 4 year old Border Collie injured her hind leg this weekend playing frisbee. She's limping but isn't in so much pain as to prevent her from wanting to play. She's the type of dog that doesn't understand why a little pain is a problem since she has three perfectly healthy legs left. I'm taking her to the vet tommorrow to see if anything is really wrong or if it's just a strain. Regardless she's out of action for a while. She doesn't handle idle very well at all. This is the third day since the injury and she's bouncing off the walls. Actually she's taken to the back porch whinning and generally making a nusance of herself. I picked up all the toys so she can't be tempted but yesterday she dropped a rubber band at my feet and took her customary five foot retreat waiting for me to throw it. I walk away and she picks it up and follows me until I stop then drops it and that goes on forever. So I'm trying to figure out things to do with her that occupy her mind without the physical excertion. I've tried putting peanut butter in the bottom of a plastic bottle, do the usual training with treats ect but she requires two or so hours daily of brain and body work. I'm running out of ideas and need some help. What kind of passive games do others do that dogs seem to enjoy?

I love bits of info like that. Thanks for sharing. I agree with you Johnriggs12. I went there once years ago and quite frankly whole experience sucked. I don't have the emotional connection to the park and this was before the Brewers were in the NL so, for me it was the actual experience of the park. That wasn't very good. Bathrooms smelled bad, crappy seats, cold, windy, and not close to worth the trouble of getting there. To top it off I went with a bunch of guys who felt as though the world loved everything about Cubdom. Nothing but common decency kept me from throwing up. Well common decency and the fact that I didn't want to go to the bathroom again if I could help it.

would have loved to see the Brewers dangle Turnbow if all the Phillies wanted was a hard thrower with a fragile psyche. Both blew up in the same year only Turnbow blew up a little worse. Both recovered somewhat this year only Lidge recovered to a higher level. Over the course of their careers Lidge has had the better of it. Last Lidge was clearly better. Lower ERA, lower WHIP, better k/bb ratio but he did have a worse BAA than Turnbow. I get what you're saying but if all they had to give up was that then they got the better guy. Bourn seems like a different shade of TGJ to me. Ditto. It give me hope Gwynn can net us something of value in the pen. My buddy is a Phillies phan and thinks the world of Bourn Identity. He considers him a real sleeper - I think Houston made out OK if Bourn can get on base at a decent clip. He might be right but how many Brewer fans think Gwynn is a viable answer to centerfield here? All it takes for fans is a couple base hits in timely spots by a young player and they are on the bandwagon. After a year or two of mediocrety that tune changes. On the Brewers end, I think Melvin has to be thinking that he will end up signing either Linebrink or Cordero, otherwise he could've put together a better package than that for Lidge. I wonder know how much better a package it would have taken to get him from a division rival. Certainly if Houston received similar packages he'd still have been traded to the Phillies.