Thurston Fluff

What you didn't hang out at the arcade playing Pac Man? I didn't either because I could never afford it. But I got pong for Christmas one year which is where my gaming days started. All in all D&D and board games were far more popular for our generation of gamers than video games. REALLY glad neither of my parents or many in their card playing group smoked. We used to love it when they had a card party. We'd get the leftover snacks. Nothing beats a half bag of day old stale chips, some dried up brownies, cookie crumbs and leftover cold cuts on wonder bread for a 10 year old.

Maybe the players who were demoralized about the teams moves should take some time to assess those moves now to raise the moral. It might turn out our best shot at the playoffs in 2022 was by trading Hader and his 16.20 ERA since then. Instead of second guessing a decision that so far has turned out to be good for this season as well as the future they should try to figure out how to play better.

Yea, I can see that.

Tell him you used to be a gamer when you were young then challenge him to a game of checkers.

Yea because whining about management helps the team win more games.

This sadly impacts us in the Appleton Green bay area. I used to be able to listen to local sports shows from early morning to 6pm. Now there's a spot between from 11-2 with only national shows because the Big Show is gone.

I could see them trading Adames the same way they traded Grisham. His power over on base profile as a batter is ok on a team that isn't made up of mostly similar types. Turang may not have the power but he hits for average and gets on base. We need more of that. Adames could very well get us a legit third baseman. He doesn't need to be a 30-40 HR guy. 20ish HR power who can also hit for average fits our offensive needs better. I'd love to see a couple more guys who hit in that .280 range to go along with our power bats. That gives Urias second and Turang at short. Our defense stays strong and we get a more diverse offense.

I could see them trading Adames the same way they traded Grisham. His power over on base profile as a batter is ok on a team that isn't made up of mostly similar types. Turang may not have the power but he hits for average and gets on base. We need more of that. Adames could very well get us a legit third baseman. He doesn't need to be a 30-40 HR guy. 20ish HR power who can also hit for average fits our offensive needs better. I'd love to see a couple more guys who hit in that .280 range to go along with our power bats. That gives Urias second and Turang at short. Our defense stays strong and we get a more diverse offense.

Is it wrong to not care which way the toilet paper goes?

I'd add that batting average has more meaning now than in it did even a few years ago. Batting for average is a sign of good contact ability which I'd argue is something lost along the way when people stopped valuing it. I also think some of the benefits of shifts is because there are fewer batters who can get a hit based on where the ball is pitched to contend with. That's a skill that shows up somewhat better in batting average than OBP.

He wouldn't even have had to do that. He could have just said I took something I knew was illegal to get healthy and back on the field. It has the added advantage of being more believable (possibly even true?) and make him look like he did it for something more noble than a competitive advantage.

I think people who are angry when a star player gets traded are going to have a lot more anger over the next few years. The way for a small market to remain competitive is to get something for great players before they leave for nothing. If we want to have a good team to watch year in and year out we have to accept losing some of the players we like. In essence to be a fan of this team given the way it operates, we need to invest our emotional attachment to team not the individual players. I for one don't get overly attached to players. For myself having a good team to follow is more fun than seeing a great player on a bad team so it doesn't really bother me.

I'd bet at least half of us agree with you. The half that disagrees tend to be more vocal. It's human nature to be more vocal when you disagree with something. I think the all in crowd is going to be more disappointed in the Brewers approach in general because not doing every thing to win now is anathema to their belief of how to win it all. Given the negatives are always louder and the Brewers approach is the opposite of what half the fans want it will always seem like there's more negative sentiment than there really is.

Is there some sort of workman's compensation for injured players? Every other job is required to pay for employees injured on the job. I can't imagine there isn't some sort of system in place for someone who can't find a new job, not just a baseball job but any job, until he recovers from surgery.

The Brewers are paying for his surgery and rehab either way so it isn't about saving money due to injury. It is about having to pay a major league salary or lose a roster spot to keep an injured minor league player they don't think has a future here anymore. While it's a brutal thing it's the system, not the team, that determined a minor league player gets a major league salary or use a 40 man roster spot for being injured. The Brewers are playing on the short end of a rigged system as it is. Hard to blame them for using the system in one of the few ways that favors them. That said the system needs to change. But that would be the union that needs to do that. I think part of what Barker is mad about is the union didn't cover that. I tend to agree the union doesn't help the minor league players enough.

How much better would our farm system look if Ashby and Hiura were still prospects? It's easier to have a good farm system when a team doesn't have room for good prospects in the majors. Part of the reason the Dodgers can maintain their system is because prospects like Ashby stay in the minors longer because they can keep players like Kershaw. It doesn't mean the Dodgers don't have a very good draft and development system but the difference is we have to promote any prospect that looks like they can help while the Dodgers can just promote the ones who force their way onto the roster by pure performance. That leaves a farm loaded with useful players learning of the farm instead of on the fly. It also means they're more likely to get more out of their rookies than we do.

While the Padres are technically small market they are not as small revenue as their market size suggests. I did a little looking to see the difference in their tv deal. From what I can tell they are in the middle of a 1.2 billion dollar tv deal that gave them an average of $50 million per year the past ten years with a $200 million signing bonus. It also appears the team would also received a 20 percent equity stake in Fox Sports San Diego. From what i can tell the Brewers made an average of $20-$28 million annually during most of that time. What it is now I don't know. Tampa just signed a deal a couple years ago that now gives it about the same as the Rays at first then go up annually. So they are now even or even ahead of San Diego annually but had been making around $35 million annually prior to 2018. Their main problem is, and always has been, lack of attendance at the games. I really don't have much sympathy for their plight because it seems like the community doesn't support it. But I do admire their organization for putting out a good product on a regular basis despite their limitations. Which leads me to this. While being in a small market sucks it does help drive innovation to create equal results without equal resources. Losing that may lead to less innovation. Whether that's good or bad I don't know. Anyway I really don't care if they win it all or not. I think the Brewers are a far better run organization and their track record shows that. I guess San Diego accepted they have to spend money because they can't put forth a good team without it. One WS win for the Brewers, Royals, Tampa, Oakland or Miami is equal to three of any of the big spenders. When we win ours we can enjoy it without any asterisks of winning due to a rigged system.

If that's true then you have to accept the all in approach leads to all out for years to come.

How many World Series titles did those two mortgaging the future moves get us? I know it got the Royals two appearances and one title but the Brewers? Not so much.

This.^^^ We've tried the all in route and got one playoff appearance and lost to an inferior team in the playoffs. That happens. All. The. Time. The team adopted a more bites at the apple approach years ago and I applaud them sticking to it. The worst thing a team can do is bounce from one organizational strategy to another in the heat of the moment. If you don't trust your plan you should not have implemented it and you probably shouldn't have been given the job. As for grading the moves, incomplete. It's hard to tell if depth trumps top end talent minus depth. Nobody doubts we are deeper in the pen. But we also have elite talent in the pen. We still have an elite elite reliever in Williams. It isn't like Hader was lights out in the post season to begin with. I know small sample. But that's the point. The post season is all small samples. Thus the strategy of getting there more often. The other reason for the incomplete grade is given the odds of going all in is still well below 50% we could still be closer to a World Series title now than we were before the trades. I can see a scenario where we went all in, dialed 1-900-getabigbat this season, and still have lost in the playoffs. In fact that would be the most probable outcome. That would mean less chance to win in the future as well. If a few of these new additions help win a World Series two years from now while still giving us a legit chance this year then we very well could be closer to winning it all than we were two days ago. Even if it isn't this year.

Given the likelihood of rebuilding the farm via trades of at least some of Hader, Woodfuff, Burnes, Lauer and others in the near future I'm more comfortable trading more farm talent that I usually am. If they aren't named Chourio lets talk. Not a fan of rentals for top level talent but if there's some team control beyond this season all the more reason to let some upper level prospects go.

Given the likelihood of rebuilding the farm via trades of at least some of Hader, Woodfuff, Burnes, Lauer and others in the near future I'm more comfortable trading more farm talent that I usually am. If they aren't named Chourio lets talk. Not a fan of rentals for top level talent but if there's some team control beyond this season all the more reason to let some upper level prospects go.

That was my thought as well. Was Sadzeck able to pitch today or was he due for a day off anyway? Either way I'd guess Small start will be more of an opener of a bullpen day type than a true starter.

The internet in our shop went out of Thursday. They originally said they'd come out on Friday. On Friday, near the end of the time they said they'd be there a customer service rep came in and said the service tech couldn't make it and we'd have to reschedule. We asked him if he could do that and he said no we'd have to call or go online to reschedule. So they sent us a customer service rep who couldn't help us to tell us the person who could isn't coming and he can't help us reschedule. Kind of makes me wonder why he's there. Finally today a service tech came to fix it. Or so we thought. Problem is, when AT&T fixed the internet they disabled our phone. So we called them and they told us they can't come out until Friday. It's a business line and we are heavily reliant on phone services and they can't come out to fix the mistake they made on Tuesday until Friday? Now we're trying to get them to forward that number to our cell phone. Last attempt they told us it would take fifteen minutes. That was over an hour ago. Still no forwarded number. God I hate AT&T.

Offense is a homophone. Maybe they just got the wrong meaning.