Thurston Fluff

Chuck Crim is one of my all time favorite Brewers that few remember. In some ways Brent Suter reminds me of him. They take the ball whenever asked and usually get the job done in an efficient, if unspectacular, way.

It wouldn't surprise me if he wanted to retire as a Brewer but he sure didn't want it to happen this way.

Out walking the dog today and I see a lady with her dog off leash in a school playground/baseball diamond. Dog is taking a dump while she is determinedly looking down. I call to her and tell her the dog is pooping over there and she yells thank you but doesn't budge. This dog is half a football field away from her and I know full well she has no intention of getting it. I watch for a while and sure enough the dog leaves the spot and she just goes on looking at her phone. It's bad enough to leave a dog pile anywhere let alone a school playground. Unfortunately I didn't have my phone with me or I'd have taken her picture and told her it's going on facebook unless she cleans it up now. As it was I went back a little while later, found it (It wasn't all that hard since it was close to the second base bag) and cleaned it up. I knew she had no intention of cleaning it up.

I think anger should be spelled angrrr?

I don't know if they botched it as much as people were expecting to much of them. People expect them to know all the answers when there is no way to know all the answers. They take the best information available and update it when new information comes about. That's still far better than listening to any of the other quacks out there but that doesn't mean you're totally protected by following their advice. Personally I've been on the conservative side of taking chances and more than follow protocols. I would never carpool with someone not vaccinated. Then again I never stopped wearing a mask and still don't do deliveries inside work places, bars or restaurants even though it's been a bit tough financially to say no. I guess I'd rather be poor and healthy than sick and wealthy.

Got to wonder how long before the team tries to put some restrictions on players activities outside of the work place.

I'm not sure it matters. The JJ shot was tested when more variants were out there which meant the efficacy of it wasn't an apples to apples comparison the the other vaccines. If anything it was wiser to choose that one because they knew it worked against more variants even if it wasn't as effective against it overall. I can see the argument that it's better to be protected at 80% of more variants than 95% against one and much less than 80% against others. Which was one of the possible outcomes at the time.

A .500 team who's core is aging just traded for two aging pitchers who have been terrible this season? Makes sense to me.

The very best decision the Dodgers GM made was decide "we are going to use our resources to be the very best team at talent development". Before the Dodgers, the big markets weren't really considerably better if better at all at developing talent than plenty of small markets. I'd argue the mid-market Cardinals were probably one of the top teams at developing players up until maybe 5 years ago. The Dodgers pipeline is so insane, they can trade 2-3 top prospects every deadline and a couple more pop up the next year. And generally they are smart enough at identifying talent to keep the very best players and add them to their loaded roster(Bellinger, Seager, Smith, Lux, Buehler, Urias, May) while trading the guys they don't think will establish in the end. It's honestly a bit disheartening because as long as the pipeline keeps going, along with having more money than Bezos, there's really no reason the Dodgers shouldn't always be one of the very best teams in baseball. Great post. Baseball America wrote about this last year: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/theyre-the-model-how-the-dodgers-player-development-machine-rolls-on/ To them it's a lot more than acquiring talent. It's spending money to find that talent and then making sure they are treated like Olympic level athletes once they are part of your organization. As for recognizing talent, it looks like the Brewers may be borrowing a bit from their philosophy on offense: power comes last. "On both the pro and amateur sides, through both traditional scouting and analytics-based methods, the Dodgers aggressively seek athletic, versatile players who hit for average and have strong plate discipline, believing they can teach those players to add power with swing tweaks if the contact skills and at-bat quality are already present." It's a lot easier to fill your minor leagues with talent when you don't have to rush them through the system because you can buy as many top shelf free agents as you want instead.

Given the lost year for most minor leaguers it shouldn't be surprising some prospects will be a little old for their level compared to normal years.

What I find disturbing is you were four when I was four years out of highschool. Same, but I was only 3 years out of high school.......old man! I carry root beer barrels and striped mints where ever I go. The striped mints were in my pocket for a while but if you pick the lint off it's just as good.

Coaches at the major league level do not make or break a pitching staff. They help or hinder at the edges. I often wonder how much of a role things like superior video shooting/editing capabilities, training staff, more detailed scouting reports and such do to help pitchers compared to a pitching coach. Obviously all are important but what percent all the behind the scenes stuff is. It'd be interesting to see if the teams than invest more on than others on that sort of stuff get better results.

What I find disturbing is you were four when I was four years out of highschool.

It seems like they do a good job of finding a way for a pitcher to succeed with what he has instead of trying to make the pitcher throw what- or where- they think he should.

People who drive with a dog in their lap.

Obviously he likes to organization to leave such a message. I think a lot of fans feel the same way about him. I know I do. I get he wasn't the best player ever but he played a role on some very good teams and obviously identifies as a Brewer. When all is said and done he's one of us at heart.

I'm with you. People on planes talking way to loud on their phone is the worst of these offenders. People ten rows away don't really care to know when you arrive and how grandma is doing.

When they had all the injuries in the outfield they managed to get some production with few legit everyday players for a while. If they can roll with what they have for a week or so it might help bridge the gap to give Hiura a little more time. Ideally I'd like to see him play for a couple months in AAA but if we can get by until he gets at least a month in to straighten things out it would be nice.

The best part about it is it's win win for two of the smallest markets in baseball.

This is where I'm at with him. I'd just add that our farm isn't exactly full of good hitters in the upper minors so trading one that has the potential to be above average in a year or so is even more questionable.

If it was my call I'd probably give him some time off before playing anywhere. Take some time to watch video, work on mechanics, take BP that sort of thing. IIRC they did the same thing with Burnes for a while.

I don't know art, but I know what I like. This ain't it. I don't know Art either but I heard he isn't into pretentious crap.

I can't think of one season (other than weird abbreviated COVID season) where he didn't go get bullpen rental(s) at the deadline. That doesn't make it an organizational strategy of how to build a bullpen. No matter how small the trade losing something in the middle of a season is less desirable than losing nothing and having it the whole season. I think some or reading way too much into why he does it. Personally I think he tries to find relievers before the season starts and fails more often than not so he needs to trade his limited resources to get them. Just like he does for positional players like Schoop and Moustakas. It just so happens rental relievers tend to be in our price range more often. When he doesn't fail to fill his bullpen he doesn't trade. Thus last season he traded away bullpen help instead of getting it. This season so far is the same. If the pen holds up he won't get anyone. If it doesn't he'll be forced to trade assets to fill a need. Which, again, is less desirable than not having to give up something for it.

He traded away two middle relievers this year. Last year he traded one before the deadline. I think he tries to get what he wants all over the field before the season starts and trades for what he needs during the season. Some years it's bullpen depth of the rental variety, some years it's shortstops with years of control left.

If his agent didn’t tell him he was potentially giving up way more money in the long run in exchange for guaranteed payments up front, then Peralta probably has changed agents since signing this deal, otherwise he knew what he was doing when he signed his extension. No reason to feel bad for him. He doesn't seem to be feeling bad for himself. Always seems so genuinely happy and humble. Such an easy guy to root for. Totally agree. He seems happy with his situation. Some players are happier with certainty even after they find out they could have made more elsewhere. Being in a stable environment you know and like has more value to some than others. I'm sure plenty of players went for the best money deal they could get but ended up in a place they hated playing and regretted it as much as the player who settled for less to stay where they were.