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To the people saying Puig gets away with worse, Puig has gotten more hand wringing and downright contempt from the National media than any player with less than a year in the bigs in history. The fact that there are so many people lined up to defend Puig now is because the hatred got so hyperbolic and ridiculous it finally caused a backlash. I don't know if everyone has been following the news about some small time organized crime figures being involved in smuggling Puig out of Cuba. Bill Plaschke wrote a column in the LA Times basically arguing that Los Zetas are going to swarm Dodgers Stadium some night in the fifth inning and start shooting up the place to get to Puig, and that he's put every Dodgers fan at risk. I think Gomez has a long way to go before he inspires anything nearly as stupid to come out of a reporter's mouth.

I love Carlos, I love the way he plays the game. He's been my favorite player on the team since shortly after he arrived. He's completely electric, and outside of Sabathia's stretch run he's the most exciting player to play for Brewers in the 12 or so years I've been seriously watching baseball. He'll take his bad cuts and make a few dumb outs, but his confidence and aggression work out overwhelmingly in his favor in the long run. Plus his approach at the plate right now looks better than it's ever been. He's taken the power from the first half last year and shown it alongside his added patience from the second half of last year. The overall BB% and Pitch f/x data looks similar to last years totals, but last year he had two distinct halfs, and it looks like he's putting the best of both worlds together. The batflip, watching homers, and raucous celebration stuff is something I think the baseball establishment could stand to chill out over a little. I have the most fun watching when I see the players having fun and enjoying themselves. Now all that being said he's clearly a guy with a temper, and pride that makes it hard for him to back down from a conflict.The business with the Braves was about 50/50 people being jackasses all around, but what happened tonight is pretty much 98% on him. He's got a reputation now as a guy whose skin you can get under, and he has to recognize guys are going to prod at him and he can't rise to the bait. He made a mistake, and hopefully he learned something. I think the people who watch him everyday know his heart is almost always in the right place. He's certainly not a Nyger Morgan. It will be annoying to hear him get the overblown Puig disgrace-to-the-game treatment for a few days, but I guess that's the price you pay for having a winning team.

The Pacific Coast League is the most hitter friendly league in Pro baseball. Take a look at his AAA stats compared to the other first baseman in the league. Take a look at a guy like Daric Barton who looks like Kevin Youkillis in his prime every half the year in AAA and then plays average to below average ball in the bigs the other half. Daric Barton a way better player than Morris and Ike Davis is a way better player than Barton. Ike Davis went to AAA for 21 games last year and hit 1/3 as many HR's as Morris did in a full year, and he's only 6 months older than him. If Hunter Morris put up 111 wRC+ in AAA like Davis did for the Mets in 2012 I would be ecstatic. I'm going to be way more generous than I should and assume Hunter could carry a 7% walk rate and a 22% K rate in the big leagues. These is about what he accomplished in in '12 and '13 in the high minors. In reality these numbers would almost certainly be worse in the majors, but this is a best case scenario. There is one player who has managed to put up an above replacement level value in the past ten years with those numbers or worse at 1B or DH, and that's Chris Davis in 08 and 12. That's a guy who has always graded out with ++ power that Morris doesn't have, and still he struggled through 5 years of mediocrity or worse. It's pretty simple really, if you're going to give up a greater than average number of outs to K's, and draw a below average number of walks than you either need to play a premium defensive position or have elite power. Hunter needs to take a huge step forward with his approach to be a major league player, and by all indications he hasn't done this. It would be one thing if he could mix in a bit in LF or 3b, but he can't even play average D at first. He hasn't earned to right to be even be in the discussion for a roster spot. He's a non-prospect in 25+ organizations, and the fact so many can squint and see a major leaguer is a testament to how awful system is.

Nobody is going to trade anything of value this early. Gennett and Reynolds are perfectly serviceable players. Davis has earned a little more time. Segura has earned an entire season's worth of time. Two moves I would look at making this next month or so would be to dump Overbay and Weeks for Gindl and Herrera.

Oops, I guess you only need to be active 90 days.

This is a trend across baseball I think. Very effective pitch and easy on the arm. Also Wang needs to spend an entire seasons worth of time on the Brewers active roster to become full Brewers property. Any time he spends on the DL will just be tacked onto the number of days he needs to spend in Milwaukee. Also TC07, that Wang article is behind a paywall for me. I'd love to read it if you could do a copy paste job.

I've got to seriously disagree with you here. Wisconsin may not quite be on the level of Colorado, California and Oregon, but there is a huge amount of great beer in the state. Tyranena, Lake Louie, Ale Asylum, Oso, Potosi, Lakefront, Central Waters are all fantastic brewers and that's only scratching the surface. New Glarus is the 18th largest brewery in the country and it only sells within the state. It's larger than many significant national and regional brands like Founders, Anchor Steam, and Great Lakes. This is a pretty amazing accomplishment. The state is seventh in the country in total craft brewers. Oregon might be heaven if all you want is IPA, but I'll take the balance and selection here over pretty much any state other than Colorado and Michigan. Agree with you on the distributorship law. Crony capitalism at it's worst, but this isn't really the proper place to discuss that. The selection has more to do with who's name is on the stadium than the availability of good beer in Wisconsin. I save my beer drinking for the parking lot in any case, because I don't really care to pay stadium prices.

Roenicke really seems to like Schafer. I like him too, but not for any reason I can back up with a real argument. Gennett and Schafer back to back in the lineup is going to grind a giant hole in the batters box. Too much grit.

The Orioles did the same thing with their cap logo too a couple years ago. Would be a nice compromise to get the better logo in there without doing a complete retro redesign like the Jays did.

I've heard it said before, and Mike Vassallo said it today on twitter. I'm sure it's just that a SP can veto a uniform choice, not that they actively decide each day what to wear.

The starting pitcher decides the uniform, and I guess they were feeling good in them. Wasn't a decision made by the club.

No problem with taking Lohse out there. Why take the chance with a guys with as much power as Alvarez?

I guess Lepay is a better fill-in than Coshun.

You assume this could be done when it absolutely couldn't. If I could flip Estrada for an Archie Bradley/Taijuan Walker/Dylan Bundy type player I would do it in a heartbeat. The problem is nobody would ever make that deal with you.

It was kind of neat, but you really aren't missing out on too much. The coolest part was how he gave his whole bonus check to his parents. I don't know if I could have done the same if you gave me a chunk of cash at 16.

They've got the best pitcher out out of the way. Hopefully we got to see plenty of the old Edison Volquez tomorrow.

lets hope wily and luc can work together without the world coming to an end tonight

Starling Marte LF Travis Snider RF Andrew McCutchen CF Pedro Alvarez 3B Russell Martin C Neil Walker 2B Travis Ishikawa 1B Jordy Mercer SS Francisco Liriano P for the pirates

I don't think it's fair to criticize Doug for not making certain trades when we don't know what was at the other end. You can say he has a tendency to stick with veterans, but at the same time the market has shifted from where it was ten years ago. Teams aren't giving up impact prospects for marginal vets or one year rentals like they used to. It's gotten to the point where I think some teams are getting great deals selling their prospects. I think Dexter Fowler, Craig Gentry and Doug Fister were all steals this off season. Also if Estrada is going to be on the block, which I think is likely, then bumping him from the rotation just kills his value.

If you could add 2 or 3 years at the 10 million range I would definitely be for it, but I don't think that deal really makes sense for Lucroy. If I were him it would probably take something in the Yadier Molina range to get me to sign away free agency. He's plenty athletic, so I don't think catching into his 30s will be a problem and he continues to hit the cover off the ball.

Looked great again out there tonight

Wow he's looked really impressive lately. I know some wanted to see him starting in AAA, but I think he's shown he's one of the better arms on the team and I'm sure he's much rather be in the MIL pen rather than the Nashville rotation. Also nice to see that Roenicke is willing to let him go multiple innings. What has really stuck out to me is how he's using his changeup. I don't follow the farm a closely as some here, but from watching him last year and reading scouting reports I got the idea he was mostly a fastball/curveball guy who threw a change every now and then to keep guys honest. One of the reasons I wasn't bullish on him over the offseason was because I didn't think that curveball was good enough for him to lean on and be consistently successful. I know it's only been six innings, but his change looks like a plus offering to me, and that completely changes his profile as a pitcher and my confidence in his future in the rotation. For those of you who have watched him develop, has he always had that pitch and now he's just got the confidence to use it in big spots? Or, did he develop a new weapon over the offseason? Either way it's great to see.

If Roenicke claims it would be too much for Wang to face a couple of below average left handed strikeout machines in Howard and Brown in his opening outing i'll lose my mind. When will there possibly be a better time?

still got two innings left to pitch could see him in the ninth

Your hate only fuels him