Thurston Fluff

He had the right to go where ever he wanted and did so. I wouldn't have lost any respect for him if all he did was take a job for better pay and more resources. The thing that bothers me about him is the image he sold turned out to be pure bull. He marketed himself of the hometown boy then pulled the most non-hometown boy move possible. Worse still, he seemed to be playing the "I'm doing this to get better pay for all managers" card then back stabbed a fellow manager. It's not cool to talk to an organization behind the back of the person you're negotiating to take the job from. If the Cubs came to him and asked what it would take, a person working for the profession as a whole would have said "ask me when there's a job opening." That he did this as a tide raises all boats ideal only to sink a boat in the process is telling. That's where I lost respect for him. Good luck working for a owner willing to do what he did to his own manager as soon as a new shiny object came along. Good luck sitting in your cramped office in the bowels of the Earth and suffering through cold rainy Aprils. Good luck trying to win in an organization that's never been known to be run especially well. They have the money to spend but it seems to be their only asset. Meanwhile I'm interested to see who the new manager will be. Also interesting to see how many of our current staff will follow him the Chicago. I suspect none under contract will be allowed to. Final thought. Matt Erickson is my out of nowhere pick to be our next manager. Hometown boy with the organization since 2008 and worked his way up. If anyone knows how our team operates it's him.

I would have been fine with keeping Canha as a first base option but I'd prefer this to keeping him or paying him 2 million and not have him at all. Just noticed he doesn't need to be added to the 40 man roster either. That makes it even better.

Maybe it's just me but I see this as much about supplementing the bullpen as I do the rotation.

I don't think they're related. Both are capable back of the rotation starters and both can be multi-inning relievers. I don't think a team can have enough of those.

I don't have any idea what's in Woodruff's mind. I tmay very well be what you think or he may be more worried about losing $30 million than hoping to make $100 million. The point I was trying to make is, from the Brewers perspective, if there was a time to make a calculated risk for a three plus year deal on an injured player it's now. If Woodruff is worried enough about his future combined with the Brewers being able absorb the money if he can't come back, there may be a deal to be had for more than two years.

He may want a two year deal but it's not unreasonable to think he also might be worried about leaving $20 million or so on the table in search of more only to end up like Jimmy Nelson.

One thing in favor of taking a bigger risk with Woodfuff is the timing of the injury. We are about to have several pre-arby guys filling major roles on the team so it's easier to absorb the money spent on Woody if he can't make it back to a serviceable level. It would suck to spend money of someone who can't help, but was that money really going to be used on players in 2020/24 anyway? If it was my decision I'd pay a much larger chunk of the 2-3 year deal in year one so the payroll hit would be when we had the lower payroll due to all the pre-arby players on the roster. That way the hit to the payroll when some of the young guys hit arbitration will be lower. If we offer Woody a 3 year $30 million deal with $10 million next season the next two years would be a steal if he's near his old self, not bad if he's serviceable and not terrible if he's toast.

I had an early day today so I went to bed at the end of the 8th inning last night. At least I'm well rested.

When you plan on picking up a balloon arch and are told it's in three easy to assemble pieces, the largest of which is about ten feet long and 4 feet wide would you A- come with an empty mini van with the seats folded down or B- come with your kid in a car seat and the back full of groceries. If you said B you forgot your sunglasses in the store.

Can't believe Winker didn't get any consideration at DH. I can't fathom any other reason we kept him in that position other than defense.

Granted it was a less money but the Brewers did that last year with Justin Wilson. A lot of it will depend on the money and prognosis going forward. Nothing has to be done immediately. The Brewers can afford to wait. If someone comes in and gives him a deal sooner than we're ready to commit to him nothing's lost.

I told a lady Halloween fell on Friday the 13th this year. Her response was "Really?" I fear for humanity.

Who cares? Now fans of teams that field good but not great teams have a reason to cheer. All season long they know all they have to do is get in and there's a legitimate chance to win. I'm pretty sure most fans would exchange seeing the two best regular season teams in the World Series to know they have a better chance to see their team play in it. If the point is to have the two best teams play the World Series just put the two best teams in the World Series and skip the playoff altogether.

I fail to see how fewer teams in the playoffs helps more teams have a chance to win it all in the playoffs.

I also like the chaos. If the the format favored the best teams too much it would make it that much harder for small market teams to field World Series contenders. As it is teams with flaws can get on a hot streak and win.

It sucked last night but more because it always sucks when baseball ends. It's part of my daily routine. I hate off days for the same reason. The biggest suckitude of a quick exit is we have to wait weeks before any real Brewers off season action starts. The one thing I'm excited about is I think this off season has a lot interesting story lines to follow. Big trades are probable. A lot of young talent is in the pipeline which lowers the payroll enough to be players in free agency. A possible managerial change which leads to coaching changes.

I agree with virtually everything you said except this. Five runs in two games isn't a lot but it should have been enough for this team to win at least one of those games. When your starting pitchers fail to produce a quality start on a pitching first team it's going to be hard to win. That should have been the minimum, yet it was too much to ask. The bullpen was pretty good but the one weak link turned out to be our all star closer. When two current all stars and one former all star wet the bed it's hard to blame the role players.

I was just coming here to mention it. His baseball journey was pretty incredible.

The problem would be you'd have to eat Red Robin fries. They're so soggy I swear they're boiled not fried.

How cool would it be if the Brewers had everything wrapped up but the Cubs needed to win the series against the Brewers and couldn't do it? Almost as cool as seeing a 3/4 empty Cardinals stadium in September.

I don't know if it's dumb as much as desperate.

This is my personal conspiracy theory on that. Selig was trying to get some amount of revenue sharing for the small market teams. If his team was doing well it would be hard for him to say they needed more revenue sharing to be competitive. It's hard to run a good ship when ownership has a vested reason not to. My non-conspiracy theory is it's hard to run a good ship when you don't have the money for sails.

I'm sure they were disappointed in how it ended but I think overall it was a good year to be a Philly fan. Their entire existence up to that point not so much.

Considering they had three winning records over the past decade, won more games than they did since 1899 and the most they'd win until 1976 probably pretty good.

Thanks. Now all day I'm going to be trying to understand. I wasn't a huge fan of Heart but she really has a great voice.