3and2Fastball

Oh, I bet a 40 year old Josh Hamilton could handle playing 1B

I completely disagree with the notion that Weeks should start hacking. One of the biggest assets of Weeks is his OBP. His career OBP of .352 is not going to be HOF worthy but that is very helpful to a team. This season in an epic slump he still has an OBP a full 138 points above his BA. There is value there

I thought it might be interesting to compare a player like Morgan who is arguably a little over-rated by stat-heads and a player like Raines who many feel should be in the Hall of Fame. At first glance to the casual fan, Morgan's numbers don't jump off the page at them, a .271 career BA, just 16 HR's a season. But as we know Morgan had a .392 career OBP and a OPS+ of 137 and he stole a LOT of bases. His peak years of '75 & '76 were just outrageous, a .444 OBP with 60 steals and 27 HR's in 1976 ranks as one of the most valuable seasons in MLB history, especially considering a Gold Glove 2B achieved that... and the year before that he had a .466 OBP with 67 steals and 17 HR's. Both were MVP seasons The thing I cannot wrap my head around is Joe Morgan's career .182 BA in the post-season, especially for a guy who was known as a "clutch hitter". This was in 50 games played so not a hugely small sample. He did have a few great post-season series, especially the 1976 World Series where he put up a .333/.412 Now I would never argue that Tim Raines was a better defensive player than Morgan (while Raines played some 2B he was mainly an OF) but I think a credible argument could be made that Raines was a More Valuable Offensive Player. Tim Raines was a switch hitter who hit .294 over his career with a .385 OBP. And he was more of a stolen base threat than Morgan with almost as much power (Raines averaged 28 Doubles per 162 games over his career while Morgan averaged 27 doubles per 162). Raines had 5 straight seasons of 70+ Stolen Bases. Raines' caught stealing ratio is off the charts. Morgan's top season of Total Bases was 1976 with 272 plus 60 Steals plus 114 walks for a 446 Total Raines had a season of Total Bases in 1983 with 264 TB's + 90 Steals plus 97 Walks for a 451 Total Raines had 10 seasons over 200+ Total Bases and in those 10 seasons he stole 592 Bases (an avg of 59.2 SB's) Morgan had 11 seasons over 200+ Total Bases and in those 11 seasons he stole 514 bases (an avg of 46.7 SB's) Joe Morgan hit .267 with a .381 OBP vs LHP Joe Morgan hit .274 with a .398 OBP vs RHP Tim Raines hit .293 with a .381 OBP vs LHP Tim Raines hit .294 with a .387 OBP vs RHP Again, Morgan had a career .182 post-season BA. Raines had a .270 career post-season BA Morgan averaged 42 SB's per 162 games Raines averaged 52 SB's per 162 games If you were putting together an All-Time All-Star team, and you didn't need a 2B (say you already had Rogers Hornsby on your team) and what you needed was a table setter, a spark-plug, a lead-off hitter, I'd say Tim Raines might be a better pick than Joe Morgan

There are times when I get way too far into numbers...but it seems to me when you have a player like Ramirez who never hits well in the beginning of the season, you should hit him 7th to start out the season and then move him to cleanup in June. Otherwise it is like beating your head against the wall. (The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over again and expecting a different result) Back to Hamilton (and numbers). Right now in 29 games played Hamilton has 15 HR's, 38 RBI's, and is batting .395 with a 1.274 OPS. *If* he can stay healthy, and granted with Hamilton that is always a big "if", playing in that ballpark surrounded by that lineup he'll have a very good shot at the Triple Crown. I have no doubt at all that a team like the Red Sox, Yankees or Dodgers will absolutely break the bank for him, even with all the risk factors, if that happens

Rickie Weeks has a history of being somewhat of a streaky hitter: in 2010 (probably his best full season) he had an on-base percentage of just .310 for the month of May and then had a June where he had a BA of .311 with a .417 OBP and followed that up with a July where he hit 9 HR's that month with a .392 OBP (and promptly went back to a .326 OBP in August) Last season he started off real hot (.304/.379 with 6 HR's in the first month) and in July of last year he hit just .230/.330 In 2008 Weeks hit just .202 in April and .211 in May and in Sept of that season he hit .283 with a .944 OPS Obviously the start to this season has been very very bad (historically bad for Weeks) but there is still reason to believe that he'll have a month or two coming up where he will flat out rake

Absolutely there are plenty of busts among Top Prospects, however despite the fact that I'm not a math genius I know that Zero Top Prospects equals 100% busts. And we have Zero Top Prospects ("ZTP") in our entire organization at the premium position of SS. It makes sense to me to try to parlay as many trade chips who are just going to leave via free agency anyways into as many Top Prospects as possible. Marcum, Greinke, K-Rod, Corey Hart... there is real trade value in those 4 players, maybe especially Hart because he won't be a free agent until after 2013. If it looks like, in June, that we aren't going to win the World Series this year no matter what, then we'd be foolish to not make a lot of trades

yeah Profar looks a lot more like a Barry Larkin type than a Royce Clayton type.... I think Greinke & K-Rod for Profar would be a great trade for both sides, but I'd be absolutely shocked if Melvin pulled that off. At any rate, if we are sellers at the deadline we should be looking for a highly rated SS prospect, someone we can keep for 6 years... and absolutely Profar would be at the top of the list of a guy who could conceivably be available

Are you kidding? Travis Ishikawa is only 28 years old! Kotsay was 36 years old last year. I'm pretty sure that Roenicke is thinking of Ishikawa as "his Kotsay for the next 8 seasons..."

One would think that if the Brewers traded Greinke & K-Rod for Profar (and I doubt the Rangers would be foolish enough to do that, but maybe, it would certainly help the Rangers' chances to win the World Series this year), then I have no doubt that Melvin/Mark A would turn around in the off-season and spend the Greinke/K-Rod $$$ on a fairly big name free agent, so it wouldn't necessarily hurt the Brewers too much in terms of fan reaction.... certainly not longterm

I think that the very close friendship with Johnny Narron does indeed give the Brewers a slight chance to land Hamilton. Hamilton gave a (somewhat) intriguing interview with the MLB Network yesterday in which he eluded to the fact that the support system with the Rangers won't necessarily be a deciding factor in terms of who he signs with. He went on to say that the biggest part of his support system (his wife, his Father-in-Law, his religious ties) will go with him to wherever he signs with. So the connection with Narron would certainly help the Brewers' chances but likely won't help them get a discount.

yeah I think Lawrie will end up more of a Corey Hart type than a Ryan Braun type. Pitchers have adjusted to Lawrie and Lawrie hasn't adjusted back as fast as elite hitters like Braun, Miguel Cabrera or Josh Hamilton do. We'll see how this season progresses. Lawrie also has a playing style that could lead to injuries too

wow Jurickson Profar for Greinke and K-Rod would be an incredible deal for the Brewers. I would be absolutely thrilled with that.

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to how good of a career Aroldis Chapman is going to have. Small sample but the guy has been practically unhittable this year. What do you think he'll eventually evolve into? Elite Closer? All-Star Starter? Often injured bust? All-Time Great? Average Starting Pitcher?

Silver Lining is that Ron "Small Sample" Roenicke might be inclined to start Green over Ishikawa in the next game

Not unless there is a bar in Crivitz named BABIP & ERA. I'm not convinced that Bill Schroeder even knows what BABIP is....

Green with a double... uh oh now all he needs is a walk-off HR in his last at-bat to get a chance to have Roenicke start him 2 games in a row

2 hits through 7 innings. Greinke is awesome when he is on

There isn't serious need at 1B? We have a lot of outfielders.

Braun probably cannot be moved to 1st in the middle of this season, but at some point soon (2013? 2014?) they should move him there in order to help his durability and save on the wear and tear on his legs from all the running in the outfield

Good to see Taylor Green starting. Uecker is fun to listen to, but I wish this was on TV! Green needs to hit for the cycle or he may never start again No pressure

There is a very slight, if improbable, chance that the Brewers could land Josh Hamilton in free agency if for no other reason than that Hamilton is very close to Johnny Narron

Rollie was super-clutch in the post-season, much more so than Hoffman, Lee Smith, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, Eckersley and a bunch of other closers, especially Billy Wagner. That is why I tend to think of Rollie as the #2 closer of modern times, behind Mariano Rivera.... there are other guys in the distant past that were clutch like that, such as Dizzy Dean, but they were starters who were also called upon to close games. I know that the post-season is usually a small sample, but I think the way a baseball player performs in the post-season often sets them apart when comparing the greats

Hamilton is a huge risk. I'm intrigued as to what the rest of his career will be like. At some point he'll have a decline like everyone else. Will it be sooner rather than later because of the damage done by drugs and injuries? Or will it be later because he missed 3 years in his 20's and thus missed out on the wear and tear that the grind of a full season takes?

Josh Hamilton with 4 HR's tonight, now with 14 on the season He turns 31 years old in a couple of weeks. Looks like he is just now hitting his peak

So basically, one walk off pinch hit home run by Green would equal him getting 3 starts in a row? And then if he hits .500 in those 3 starts he'll more starts? Is that basically it?