Thurston Fluff

Some of the stats I've seen in this thread show that the starting pitching is about league average in IP and walks. I'd guess that the pitching is league average in most categories considering the team is hovering around .500. I bet the team's offense is about league average overall as well. I thought we were supposed to have above average starters. That might help explain why the team isn't as good as we hoped.

RoCo it sound like your dog is going through normal old age problems. He can probably be put on meds to help I don't know if Glucosamine will help hip displacia (sp?) though. Glucosamine helps joints by helping build/maintian cartilage. With hip displacia the hip joints aren't connected right and sometimes not at all. If your dog is grumpy he's in real pain. If the vet feels pains meds will help great. In the end though you may need to start to perpare yourself with the inevitable. Old dog's can regress quickly.

I'd like to see what Gross could do as a starter. He may not be a world beater agianst lefties but he should be able to hold his own agianst Loogys and could sit on most days when there is a lefty starter. That chance may come next year but I doubt he gets called up earlier than September this year. It comes down to our manager needing the crutch of a 13th pitcher. Most managers can easily manuever with 12, but Ned is challanged. So the Brewers continue to be a bat short on the bench. Yea it's Ned's fault his starters can't get past the 5th inning. If the sun stopped rising in the east I'm sure It'd be his fault as well.

I think the person in question would be hard pressed to find many Jews who don't know him who don't find the term offensive. There are some terms that are perfectly fine when used amounst a close group of people, all of whom know the background that simply cannot and should not be used in a mixed public forum. That is one of those terms. He may not like the fact that some deem it innappropriate and he may not have meant it that way but that doesn't mean it isn't offensive. I didn't view Hebrew Hammer as offensive since it has never been used as a coomonly offensive term. I use the term b**ch for my dog amounst dog people yet have purposefully refrained from using it on this board because I knew it had a derogetory term to some. Just because a person is Jewish, or whatever race, creed or color, doesn't make it alright to use terms others rightfully view as a slur. I read the dog at Miller park one and the issues thread. Quit frankly the person sounded like a trouble maker. He claims not to have been banned from any site in several years. Which is kind of like bragging that you have't been arrested for a while. Brian and all mods don't worry about this one you did nothing wrong except maybe bend over backwards a little to far to accomidate an person who seemed to be looking for a fight. I have no doubt all of BF.net will have your back. Not to mention if he acted like he did here in other places he will have zero credibility.

I feel bad for everyone involved. While I understand the grandfather's anger at the police it is differant than not strapping a kid in a seatbelt and him dying because of it. The officer did not knowingly put the child at risk. He could be guilty of not checking the area out well enough before he fired his weapon. Sad all the way around. I'd ahte to be the one who did it even if it was an accident. Not something I could live with very easily.

Two things form the article posted, Wisconsin does require helmets for motorcycle drivers or passengers younger than 18 and for drivers with instruction permits and their passengers. So the kids legally should have had helmets. I honestly thought it was required for all passengers but maybe I'm wrong. It might just be kids and temp permits. Some motorcyclists say helmets impair their hearing and peripheral vision, while safety advocates insist their head-protecting advantages reduce injuries and prevent deaths. This line always cracks me up when I hear it as an excuse. They say it reduces what they hear yet they ride a bike that makes more noise than a semi with steal wheels.

This is just an observation but I think the Cubs are more of an emotional team that can ride highs higher but lows effect them more than the Brewers. Pinnella is an emotional guy and so are some of the key players. Those types of teams don't handle big blows as well as even keeled teams do. Sheets loss is a physical one Soriano's is a phycological one. I have to think that Sheets loss not only has a ripple effect by the loss of a good bullpen arm to the rotation but he was also the only one who could be expected to go deep in every game he pitched. That lack of deep starts is really taxing the Brewers now.

Couldn't agree more. I always wondered why there wasn't rules banning body armor. i believe there is some sort of rule now about hard protective gear on the arms. Biggio was one who abused the elbow armor as well. He'd stick out the elbow armor on any inside pitch hopeing to get hit. I don't have a problem with that provided he had to suffer the consequenses of getting hit on the bare arm. If they are goping to allow protective gear they should make a rule stating that getting hit on protective gear is a non pitch. It would prevent the hitter from gaining an advantage.

Excellent stuff Hebrew. It's good to know there are people out there who do their research. May you have years of enjoyment out of your Dane. I'm no expert either and don't try to pass myself off as one but, like you, have done plenty of research. I do train my dogs for either pulling scooters or frisbeeing depending on their inclinations. We've got a sulky (think dog chariot) for the Akita who just loves to run with it. If you are interested in doing something fun with your Dane check it out. WWW.dogscooter.com Dogs love to have a job. I'm assuming the breeder talked to you about feeding the proper food to your dog. Giant breeds need a special diet as a pup so they grow correctly.

Some nice things Hebrew but I have to disagree with some of your statements. As for crating, don't. Not your dog. This needs to be done at a young age. As others have said, the dog will see it as a den and accept it. But if a dog has never been crated and then when it's 7 years old it's crated, it won't respond well. You'll have to work this in to its life like anything now. However, other users are right that a puppy should be crated to make it aware a crate is OK. But crating a scared dog that's going to pee on itself isn't humane at all. If you get a new adult dog in your house it should be crated and started out with a sensory deprivation technique used by professional trainers. It's not meant to be cruel but to establish pack leadership. I've provided a link that can explain it more fully thanI do here. http://www.leerburg.com/dogtrainingebooks.htm Also, getting a dog from the Human Society, although a wonderful, humane thing to do, is also very risky as many of those dogs have been abused, abandon and almost without a doubt weren't trained well The humane society tests all their dogs temperment before they put them up for adoption. While some may not be trained as well as you may like it is no differant than getting any adult dog. Humane society dogs are some of the lowest risk dogs available although I would recommend a mixed breed since most mixed breeds have less health risks than pure bred dogs. Overall if you are looking for a good family pet or companion dog the humane society has already done a lot of the temperment work for you. Not that this is always critical, but dogs breed from good AKC breeders (or even non AKC for non-pure breed dogs) will almost invariably be breed for good temperaments, good health (DNA testing now days is fantastic) and make superior pets, if the right time is put in. This is true for good breeders. The trick is it can be very difficault to find good breeders. Fact is the AKC has had real problems with breeders going for physical characteristics and not paying enough attention to the health issues. Virtually every pure bred dog has a set of problems due to poor breeding practices. The AKC has been working on this but from the Basset hounds legs to the Geramn Shepards hip problems all have been negatively effected by the AKC's ideal of the perfect looking dog vs the perfect healthy dog has made finding healthy pure breds from responsible breeders hard. I agree if proper research is done to find a breeds physical faults and asking a breeder about their efforts to avoid those faults one can find a great healthy happy pure bred dog. I had to search all over the country to find a pure bred Akita breeder who understood the thyroid and accompanying skin conditions problems. I has to inform several AKC breeders of those problems. Including one where I went to see the dogs and saw the tell tail signs of the crusty nose and loss of hair on the back by the tail where the breeder told me it was natural and nothing to worry about. I knew better since my last one had the same condition and he was on prednizone for life. All pure breds have problems be very careful when researching purebred breeders. Sounds like you did the proper research for your Dane. Good job.http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/smile.gif

The DL -- and then rehab. If he's eligible for the DL. I don't know how being headcase over a short period of time qualities him for the DL. If indeed that is his problem. I was really referring to any MLB pitching situation as high-pressure, especially in a game where a lead needs to be protected. In don't see how it was all that high pressure given the fact that he's been doing the same thing for several years in a lot tighter situations than that was. A game where the Brewers had a 15 run deficit would probably be "perfect" -- I wouldn't trust Wise with a 15 run deficit at this point either though True but the chance of that are so small as to be silly to wait for it to occur. If Wise had a history of being a head case or something I'd agree he should be dealt with differantly. Wise has been a solid player for several years and hwile he has never been spectacular he has been pretty consistant. He's the type of guy that Ned should give some opportunities to work through it and still expect less than horrid results. The fact that he melted down is evident but then so did CV, and CoCo with far less reasons to have done so. I wouldn't expect that can't hit/pitch well because of some kind of injury would be effective defensively either in a lot of cases. He isn't injured is he? I thought his problem was supposedly caused by his beaning a guy. I see no reason why his mental distress over throwing the ball would bleed over into fielding it. Brauns certainlyhad nothing to do with injury or Wise mental distress since he isn't Wise and Wise wasn't even in the game. For the record -- Over worked is something Ned used to describe his bullpen recently, -- I suspect some of those pitchers may have seen better days as far as 2007 is concerned. Ok I'll buy that to a point. But from what I've read Ned was trying to protect from overworking them and noted they have had a heavy workload. Which is why they went with a 13 man staff. As usual fun to be your antithesis.http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/wink.gif

I think I'd rather have both Sheets and Soriano healthy thatn both on the DL. Sheets loss hurts us as much if not more than Soriano's loss helps us. In the end it doesn't matter how the Cubs play. It's the Brewers play that has to improve.

Exactly where are they supposed to work through them? It's not like other teams don't do the exact same thing with this type of situation. They can't send him to the minors without waivers and him accepting the assignement. A pitcher in a rut, regardless of circumstance, has to work his way thorough it. Wise is in that situation and Ned put him in a very good situation to get past his problems without taking a huge chance at losing the game. Had he or Braun fielded their postion properly it would have worked so it wasn't solely the pitching that caused the loss. It was the perfect situation to put him in. He needs to get back on track and the only way to do that is to get back on the horse. It wasn't a high pressure situation at all until he made it one. Soup has been a 6 inning pitcher his entire life. A month or so ago someone was accusing Ned of keeping Soup in too long given he's been the most productive as a six inning guy. He pitched 5.2 which is about what should be expected from him. His pitch count isn't the only thing that should be taken into account. He is a control pitcher with very average stuff. Once the hitters have seen his stuff a couple times that day they may just get a read on what he has that day and his stuff isn't good enough to get past anyone when they have a good idea what's coming. I don't buy the over worked staff now either. They have a 13 man staff with several of them capable of going more than one inning. Parra may have pitched a lot of pitches three days ago in a start but if he was a starter it would have been his normal bullpen day so no excuse there. Really it all just boils down to players not doing their job even though Ned put them in a prefect position to do it.

I think the most important thing for a manager in baseball is the ability to keep his players playing hard day in and day out. Baseball is so much more a grind than any other sport it would be easy to take a few days off so to speak. I think htere are three levels of manager. Ones who shouldn't be, ones who can manage certain types of teams and some that can take anything given him and do more with it that most others. Most probably fall into the catergory of capable of certain types of teams. Tom Trebelhorn was a good manager for a yougn developing team IMO but I wouldn't want him with a veteran team. Phil Garner is the opposite. One thing that is to me at least way over rated in strategic decisions. It's visible but for the most part those decisions are dictated tothe manager by external factors. When to replace a starting pitcher and who to replace him with not only is dictated by game circumstance but bullpen workload, the need to avoid burning out certain pitchers, the need to get a struggling one back on track. Yosts use of Wise Sunday was a good example of that. He needed to get Wise on track since he's an important part of the pen. He put him in a game with no pressure and very little chance of changing the outcome. He struggled but that move should get Wise on step closer to regaining form and it shouldn't have cost the game. His move was a smart one even though it backfired.

If I thought the fans booed Helms on opening day because he came in out of shape after signing his contract I would understand. I doubt most of them did so for that reason since most of them probably didin't know that. They booed him because of his previous bad play. Seems to me the start of a new year would be the time for some encouraging cheering instead of kicking a guy as he's trying to get back on his feet. I only boo when I feel players are dogging it. Not running out a grounder, lazy or sloppy defense that sort of thing.

I don't thnk nayone thought he was as good as his first month or so. He's really not an all star caliber player yet. Maybe never will be. But he was supposed to be a better defensive shortstop than he looks right now. I can live with midocre offense if he's a gold glove tyoe defender but he isn't. After Weeks he's the most disappointing of the young players so far. Not that I dislike him or think he's due for replacement but he isn't as good as I'd have hoped either.

Maybe he just needs to get his head out of his butt and realize he isn't playing with the urgency and concentration he should be playing with. Somewhere along the line he has to figure out this is no longer the middle of the season with a lot of time left. Now is the time to step up. Everybody is tired, it's August, fatigue is no excuse. Honestly JJ's defense is not what I thought it would be. He needs to pick it up a little bit.

He may be a lefty specialist but he can get righties out well enough to leave him in if they replace the lefy hitter with a righty. He's also good enough to leave in for an inning even if a righty is sandwiched between two lefties. I don't cringe when he faces a righty nearly as much as I did when Mike Myers had to face a righty.

I don't see how Wise could be DLed for hitting someone and not having is head on straight. I know we could make up an injury but that has long term risks. Wise wouldn't do it unless he was legitimately hurt because of the negative effect it could have on his arbitration. Melvin would be hesitant to abuse it because no one wants baseball to do to the DL what the NFL did to IR because of the abuse of the rules some teams employed to keep certain players on thier roster. Every illegitimate use of the DL makes it all the more likely a gentelmens agreement not to abuse the current system will be replaced with something more restrictive.

IF Yost were to be fired (or quit given how little he seems to be appreciated here) I'd vote for someone with a track record of winning. Don't know who will be avialable but i'd like experience. Absolutley no to Girardi. I don't know what all the love is for Girardi. He guided his team to a sub .500 finish and over worked his young, high ceiling, starting pitching in the process. The lackluster perfromance of the Marlins this year can be attributed in large part to his mismanagement last year. I wish he wouldn't have been fired so he'd have to have dealt with the mess he helped create. I'd absolutley hate to see him here trotting out YoGa, Para and Villy every 5th day for 8 innings and an elbow surgery at the end of the year. The guy has done nothing to prove he is more capable than Yost in guiding a team to more than what Yost has. At the very least Yost will have one winning season under his belt and didn't need to damage a young pitchers career in the process.

That was a good read Baldkin. My dog can tell when it's about to rain. She gets distracted which is something that never happens otherwise. Funny thing is once it starts to rain she's fine. It might be because we go out to the dog park on most rainy days to play frisbee. So she might equate that to play time. Aracko your mom needs to understand dogs don't view small areas as a bad thing. To most dogs it's a den. Which actually relates to saftey. If the dog chewes out of the crate I'd guess either the anxiety is getting way out of control or it has not been crated much and doesn't view the crate as a den. She might want to try to crate the dog more often for small periods of time when the weather is fine. Maybe give it treats in the crate. Once the dog equates the crate to it's own personal den it might take to the crate more readily in a storm. Only suggestions though dog phobias are the hardest thing to deal with.

I feel like I just read Brewerfan in a parallel universe and I only read three pages. Maybe we aren't alone. You could read fan boards of any team and find the exact same thing. Managers get blamed for making poor strategic decisions, players are never gonig to hit again, the grass is always greener ect.

Geno you've said nothing I disagree with in the last post. Except that the Brewers will not keep up with the improvements of the other teams. The tide is turning in some respects. Not all free agents are going to find Cardinal red a better option for their career than Brewer blue. Not all player want to be around the circus that is the Cubs. The Astros? Well who the hell wants to spend thier summers in Texas? The Reds and Pirates have little to offer that Milwakee can't except a starting job to someone the Brewers wouldn't want as a starter. We have an owner who has been in the black for a couple years and, given his day job, should be a wise enough investor to understand the need to reinvest those profits. If he doesn't we'll know a lot more about our owner won't we? For my part if they go back to penny pinching I believe it would be time to take up another passtime. There are no excuses or pity. Just results for the forseeable future.

Come on he's just passionate. I heard there is better reception for Mets broadcasts in prison. So lucky for him.

Some here have expressed the notion that, really, 2008 should be OUR year, given the maturation of YoGa, Braun, etc. But I don't think we can afford that luxury. While I agree with this I don't believe there has to be one magical year. This team was built to be competetive over a period of several years. This is the start of what should be a string of competetive years. Will I be disappointed if we don't go the the playoffs this year? You bet. Will it effect how I feel about the team's future? Provided they don't completely collapse and end up with a sub .500, record not one bit. I expect this team to make the playoffs a couple times in the next few years. If it's this year it'll be a great start. If not we better be there the next couple. I'm not interesed in one magical year. We were promised more than that. We were promised a competetive team for years to come. After 25 years of ulcer causing, eye bleedingly horrid baseball nothing short of that will suffice.