SoupTown

"Why can't you just get over the PED thing?" With all due respect, WHAT should I get over? It does appear to me, based on the evidence, that Braun used and needed PEDs to perform. And it may be he used them to sign a 100+ mill extension. Now I sure hope I am wrong. As Ryan will be here another SIX years. Ouch. Paying a guy $20 mill a year to hopefully put up a .700 OPS smacks of terrible management decision making. And, in fact, will CRIPPLE the club for the five years after this. But what does interest me is the OTHER PED group seem to be performing kind of OK post PED. So maybe I am wrong. Maybe PED only helps 10%. And Braun will be a 20 home run guy, with decent D, and high OBP for the next six years. I hope so. Without rehashing the past, one can only make educated guesses on evidence. And the evidence of what Braun 'SAYS' holds no truth. I dont know the dates involved, but I hear you saying PED was 2011. And 2012 was after that. Was not 2011 the year Braun got his extension. Coincidence or evidence.

Honestly, you just pitch Lohse until the season ends. Or until you can trade him. You guys better hope for a no hitter or something so he becomes tradable. I was all for the Lohse signing. I was wrong. It has not benefitted us. Next time Boras comes a calling we need to mention... Lohse, Suppan, Gagne. What a waste of money. I see Yo's ERA at Texas is 3.5 and he is 2-1. His normal high whip. Bad luck teams wanted Yo instead of Lohse. You get the feeling Melvin and Mark are little boys playing with big boys. And are continually taken advantage of.

Because the game was on freebie MLB.TV, I got to watch Brauns at bats. I missed the first, but the three I saw he still has this inside out, straight armed, no hands, push swing. I saw two fly balls to the warning track. The home run he hit, I am encouraged how far it went, but still hitting a sitter down the can to right center with the inside out swing. Where is this pulling the ball I heard about all spring training. I am sure soon will leak the thumb is '90%' only. There will be an excuse forever to cover the PED days.

I listened to the game on the internet radio. 3 am to 6 am in Sydney. I am a true fan. My point is Jimenez seems to have made some very nice plays at third. At least two Uke was glowing about - a behind the bag grab and throw to first. And on some double play he just said 'wow'. So, my optimism is that next year we can have 20 guys at league min - pre arby. And Jimenez even got one of those hits we special in... a single. He will fit right in!

Why do we need to wait until mid season?

Just remember, Melvin, in spring training was in awe of this roster. He said it was rare to have roster with no holes in it. RR, just remember, said, in spring training, how much he liked this team. And he repeated it even recently. So, the GM sees a roster with NO HOLES. The manager sees a roster he REALLY LIKES. So much for talent evaluation.

Well, there were no changes... so I guess we should ask for a 'good explanation'

that is the problem with this management; when we are 20 games below .500 (pretty soon, hey!), they will put all their thinking together to find a way to finish 10 games under; all resources will be applied to get from minus 20 - top three pick, to minus 10, pick number 16... and off season the entire mantra will be we are small market, yet finished in the top half (14 out of 30), and our 'true' talent level is the plus 10 period, so all we need to do, is apply that to the entire season, and we will be 91-71 next year. Oh, but we will need to sign an overpriced free agent starter to replace Lohse, of course. honestly, they should sit ARAM and give Jimenez 10 or 20 games. We need to see what we have. Lucroy at first... what a joke. He is in slump, so make sure you get his bat continually in the lineup. Has Rogers ever played first base... ha ha. I feel this thread may be very popular

Michael Reed I hope can be our future Brantley. To my eye they are so similar skill sets. At 22 years old in AA, Reed may be destined soon to Milwaukee (mid 2016?). I recall each year Reed starts out really strong, but then fades. I sure hope he can have a breakthrough FULL year.

My Mrs has invited me to fine 'a back up' team to barrack for. That would be the Twins, I guess. So I am holding off for the time being. It is kind of weird letting the end of last year dissolve over three months, almost to the point of forgiving this mob. Then some optimism comes in. Then spring training fuels the optimism. Then 10 REAL games of baseball, puts your emotions back to the swan dive of 2014. The most awfulerer thing is that when you look up an down the roster, you suddenly see no hope. You see a bunch of oldsters who can not really improve. You only hope they will get back to 80% of their former selves. And the youngsters all seem to be low ceiling (nicely cheap) guys. So you have a team of expensive BAD oldsters, and cheap OK youngsters. What a mess.

re the 'depend on home runs', we are 29th or 30th of all teams in home runs. And we aint walking. And we aint having any batting average. That is wild that our cornerstone offensive guys are sporting OPS in the 400s and 500s. WOW!

What an interesting turn of events. It is almost like the Crew has 20 games to show something... or the entire mob is tradable. The goal would be trade ever player that cannot be here in 2017. The last half of 15 and all of 16 is the rebuild. You need to market the team as the NEW FUTURE. ARAM you hope against hope he can somehow have a decent first couple of months. He is mid year trade. Lohse is mid year trade. Broxton is mid year trade. Go Go is Gone Gone Lind is traded back to an AL team. Parra mid year trade. I hope he replaces Gomez well. Cotts I hope has a blinder for a dozen appearances, so we can get a prospect I am even trading Segura as he will be in last arby year in 2017. But maybe he is a keeper. I am not sure. Davis is like Jean. He is tradable as he will be expensive in two years, then gone! However, a point is to try to con the public (or catch lightning in a bottle that 2016 can have young guys lead us to the promised land); but, in reality, 2016 becomes a rehearsal for 2017. The problem is we do not have any impact talent it seems that will become the new leaders. So end of 2015 and 2016 could be really, really ugly... albeit cheap for salaries. If you get rid of all the above (keep Jean and Khris), you shed SIXTY million in payroll. Replacing them with pre arby guys you end up with a team salary around $50 mill. And you hope in trading all the buggers you end up with three or four prospects that become your end 15 or 2016 rookies. If you run at team at $50-$60 mill for end 2015 and 2016 you then have room to add a player or two in free agency (mind you, I dont like that much, but you may need to do it - unless your 2016 crop develops and you happily pay the arbies and extensions as they develop - that is my first preference. So, my cheapie cheap 2016 team is Peralta, Garza, Nelson, Fiers, Thornburg Lucroy, Clark, Scooter, Segura, Jimenez, Davis, 'Somebody', Braun We actually, in house, can have a decent pen, I think.. and our Frankie (scary as can be, is around through '17) The bench is Maldy, Rogers, H Gomez, Peterson, Shafer? The pen would be, going backwards Frankie, Smith, Jeffress, Knebel, Blazek, Henderson?, Wooten The above will not disgrace, but some guys really need to improve. And if they do not, well, it will start a long term of horrors - until some group of minor leaguers and/or hopefully the prospects we obtain mid 2015 and offseason 2015 are actually good. In short, if in 20 or 30 games we are not singing the praises of this 25 man roster... it needs to be blown up. If we are singing praises, then 2017 will be good also, as almost all are coming back... just not the salary of ARAM and Parra. So you end up with a better team CHEAPER. Man, I hope this current mob will pick it up. If not, it can be years before we have a chance to be decent.

If Jean performs like he has started for ONE MONTH, all will be forgiven. And we will be talking 15 year extensions. Or the motza trade.

I have a hunch when we get to week 2 of May the entire central will be .500. And we can start afresh. And grind our opposition into the ground. PS... I think Lohse will pitch better

As they say... rearranging chairs on the Titanic Gomez proves he works there Lucroy double machine after a speedster Braun our hero Lind best batter Davis more pop than ARAM now Ramirez naturally falls to here Gennett Segura if segura has discipline to walk in front of pitcher, leave him

if the old brewerfan salary page is ok re arby, Segura starts arby year one next year; if you traded Jean you have a problem that you look like you have punted the year; but... if Arcia has a great year at AA (he has started out blazing) you can consider a trade; but surely the return must be good - overwhelming, even; it would need to be a trade where all lookers say 'we love Jean, but for the franchise, we had to do it' to be honest, I like Jean - his energy on the things I read (hardest runner down the first base line), his D that is praised, his possibility of being a good batter (going back to his first half year)... but, you do what is best, dont you overall, the Brewers are very deep at short; so I hope DM can take advantage; I feel the trades of Hardy and Escobar were beneficial to both sides - and it worked out good for the players, so hopefully, such continues edit... and with Segura turning down the extension, one knows that he will bolt after last arby year; the best for now, is Jean to have a blinder first month

Smith had one game prior. Broxton two prior. Cotts and Blazek (my choices today), had two prior. Broxton likely was only used because his ERA was 9, and RR wanted him to lower it, to feel better about himself. edit... Cotts and Blazek used yesterday, so I guess maybe not for them. So maybe Ron did it all A-OK. Perhaps I need to withdraw my criticism.

I wish we had batted poorly in Spring Training

Broxy.... hmmm, I wonder why. We use our designated 8th inning guys in a 6 inning blow out. Maybe RR is sad Broxy is seeing his 9 era, so he wants Broxy to lower it. Who knows?

Well, Soup I going Cotts or Blazek in the nineth. Cotts to get some mojo going or Blazek to give the young guy more confidence

Well, Soup, I am a bit disappointed RR was not pro active re Braun. I guess he does not want to ruffle feathers. You do know Ron thinks if you pander to every player, then the final product will be good. But you can see how that worked out last year. Mind you, I think Gennett got a little message by being sat. I guess there is some age limit.... if you are over a certain age, then you are immune to any scrutiny Oh, Will Smith.... does that make sense. Is he not like the 8th inning guy. Oh that is Broxton. I dont get it. You dont use likely your best reliever in a 6 nil game. Mind you, because Broxton HAD to be use the other day - and Smith sat, it means that Smith now needs work. Funny how all managing decisisons mean something.

Soup: well, what do you think RR will do for the last couple of innings, from the pen Soup: I am not sure, but it really sets up the pen to get work from the 6th and 7th guys.. whoever RR thinks they are Soup: yes, Soup, this allows RR to really give a rest where required and give the end guys an inning, this is just the sort of game the Crew needed Soup: yes, Soup, it will be a nice last six outs to listen to; I hope RR can really get advantage from this, and not just let it run along; for example, if we are worried about Braun's ribs, he should be pinch hit for Soup: let us see, let us see

I like the playing for one run. Get ahead by six

ARAM sixth would make the line up nice. (Krush 5th) Instead of being relied on to carry the O, he just becomes a tough at bat at 6. Also, when you rest him, you dont juggle the line up, you just put Jimenez there. I thought I would be kiss of death today. Just turned on... 5-nil, but Nelson goes walk, walk. But now I am excited again. Let us have a half a laugher. Dont give them a couple of runs to make a game of it. And let us tack on one or two.

What is interesting to me is how RR said, in spring training, how happy he was with the team and it has no holes in it. So on player evaluation Doug and RR (and I guess Mark) are on the same page. They think we have a very competitive set of player with no holes. I tend to agree with them. But... if they have evaluated wrongly then 1) in July should be blow up time, because the 2016 team is a carbon copy of this one 2) Doug and RR need to be canned because of their lack of ability in evaluating players