vegasbrewcrew1993

Great now I can look forward to Heyward hitting HR's against the Brewers. That magic St. Louis water will turn him into a superstar. I hate that the Brewers are stuck in the NL Central. They should have volunteered to switch back to the AL Central. That would solve their cardinal problems.

First, I guarantee you he won't hit .321 next year. New league, new pitchers. He might hit .300, but I'm thinking .275-.280 is more likely. Secondly, no, we really don't have enough of "those guys". If Reynolds is gone, we have two guys that hit 20 home runs last year, Davis and Gomez. Ramirez might hit 20 again if he can stay healthy. Big if. He's hit 29 the last two years. Gomez should hit 20, or close to it again. Braun, who knows what to expect. I think 30 is more likely than a lot of people believe right now. I think his thumb will be better. But besides Gomez and Davis, who was losing playing time at the end of the year, and Braun if he bounces back, we really don't have any other power hitters. Lucroy will hit 15. Gennett 10. Lind may hit 20. But this is not the 2011 team anymore. We hit 150 home runs last year. Good, not great. We shall see. He probably won't hit .321 but aiming for .290 isn't unrealistic. Not to mention that Miller Park is a little friendlier than the Rogers Centre. I meant it in the sense of plate approach. We have a lot of free swingers on the team. Lind isn't really a free swinger. I think Lind could 15 to 20 while hitting .290. That's a massive upgrade over the junk we had last year.

The Royals signed Infante to a four year deal last offseason. There is no way he plays for the Royals next season. My guess is either the Orioles or Blue Jays on a 2yr/$11M deal. I think he's a strong candidate to end up with the A's. Beane might like his patient approach. Weeks' average last year wasn't that bad. About .270 something. Beane likes to take on reclamation projects too. It's not a bad gamble for them. He''ll be available for cheap and he's an upgrade over Alberto Callaspo and Eric Sogard.

How true this is. It is sad. Whether you are Weeks fan or not, it is really just another end of an era in Brewers history. We have Braun and Gallardo left from that batch of very good to great young players that helped turn over a new era in Brewers history. Sad, sad day... I feel OLD now. I grew up with that group of Brewer players. Weeks, Prince, Yo, Braun, Sheets, Hardy, Hart, etc. Pretty sad to see that era getting closer and closer to its end. It's a shame that Weeks never peaked. Those wrist injuries destroyed him. He was off to a pretty good start in 2009 when he got hurt. I think it was during a game in St. Louis that he got that wrist injury. 2010 was a really good year for him. Hit 29 HR's that year. 2011 another good start before injuries slowed down his season. A real shame. I think Weeks could have been the best 2B in baseball. I hope he finds success in the AL.

Agreed! I don't care if Lind has under 10 HR's. It's his K/BB and OBP that I'm looking at. I find it weird that a ton of the Brewers fanbase will complain about being too HR-reliant and then complain about a players potential power. We want to move in this direction...... I'm excited and it's a small-market-friendly contract. Signing LaRoche, would have been much riskier had he failed it may have ruined us for three years. This way, Lind doesn't perform? We look elsewhere next year. excellent point. who cares about HR power. we have enough of those guys. bring in someone that can get on base and post a good average. .321 last year? i'll take that anyday of the week.

this is why you hold on to a guy like estrada. he either produces for you or gets you a solid return in a trade. A+ move by the Brewers. finally they won't have 50 feet of crap at 1B.

If they aren't a dynasty then no one else is. 3 titles in 5 years is remarkable. Especially impressive IMO since it was done in today's era. Players are more expensive than ever and somehow they've managed to keep everyone together. The Dodgers paid a crap ton of money for their roster and they haven't even made it to the World Series. Goes to show that regular season records don't matter. All you have to do is make it. That very easily could have been the Brewers. Anyways they are more of a dynasty than the Lards. They are a top all-time franchise too. Yankees are obviously first. Second place is between the Athletics and Lards. You can now make an argument that the Giants are ahead of the Red Sox. They are equal in World Series championships at 8. The Giants organization has the second most World Series appearances at 20, trailing only the Yankees ridiculous 40 appearances. Giants have 23 NL pennants to the Red Sox 13. Giants have 8 division titles to the Red Sox 7. The Giants also have the most players in the hall of fame.

wow horrible news. only 22, just a year older than I am.

I didn't say it was simply mental. Baseball for the most part IS mind games though. A guy that walks up to the plate with a HR or die mentality more likely to swing away instead of wait. A guy with a walk first mentality is more likely to wait on a low breaking ball near the edge than an overaggressive hitter like Gomez or Braun. It's not just walking though. It's walks, averages, everything. The Brewers have a bad approach. They often swing at bad pitches. More patience could result in higher averages since pitchers might start to freak out that the hitters aren't swinging at his junk.

The Brewers even with the massive hitting struggles late in the year finished with a team batting average of .250, while the Cardinals who you keep bringing up just barely finished higher at .253, both being middle of the pack in the NL. As for supposedly needing to hit more doubles which you also say, the Brewers had the 3rd most doubles in the NL, only 10 fewer than the league leading Rockies. When it comes to hitting with RISP, the Brewers finished 5th best in the NL, not near the bottom and again higher than the Cardinals. What happened last year is mainly that the team simply went into a terrible team wide slump at a really bad time and overall they have to draw more walks. To draw more walks, probably going to need some different players. Clearly need a big upgrade at firstbase. Lastly, the surgery on Braun has to to help him to back to being at least close to his former self. You are overstating the home run or nothing angle as many others have. Last year was an aberration. Even then they still made it to the NLCS. Most of the time they post good averages. You are overstating the home run or nothing angle as many others have. Am I really though? Why are things the same year after year? Even when they were beasts they still kind of sucked at getting the clutch hit.

Oh my goodness! He's greedy? He was injured for the better part of 2013 (pre-suspension) and all of 2014! His whole plate approach was affected, and yet he's still blatantly admitted at the end of the 2014 season that he needs to play a whole lot better. Greedy? Unless you know exactly what's inside his head, that's a completely absurd claim! It's funny that you two are holding up Gennett. He did manage a decent number of clutch hits, but that's hardly an indication of a better approach at the plate. He sure didn't walk a lot and he also swung at everything under the sun -- the main difference being that his contact rate was more humane. Heck, Braun had an insignificantly better OBP than Gennett in spite of a lower BA -- why? because he walked at a rate over 50% greater than Scooter's. Not that Braun walked a lot.... And while you're ragging on Ramirez, his BA was barely lower than Scooter's -- though both were in the .280s -- but his OBP was 10 points higher at .330. . . . Sorry, but it seems like some perspective's getting lost here. It seems the crux of the your frustration, like all of ours, is that most of what had been a pretty dang good & productive offense for a few years running went down the toilet atrociously in the 2nd half, which has left all of us with a bad taste in our mouths and a glass-half-empty outlook. The only reason it's somewhat easier to exclude Lucroy & Gennett is because they were the only two who more or less maintained solid BAs (never mind that Ramirez hit .285, too, only .004 lower than Scooter). Let's not forget Lucroy was hardly clutch in the 2nd half -- a 30-point BA/OBP drop after the ASB & a 100-point OPS dropoff w/ only 4 HRs & 25 RBIs. SCOOTER hit .253 w/ a .273 OBP with a 200-point OPS dropoff after the ASB w/ only 2 HRs & 21 RBIs.. . . . The point is, the 2nd half was ugly for everyone and pretty much no one came out of it looking any better at all -- except, oddly enough, Rickie Weeks, who hit .302 after the ASB, although with guys on base he was usually pathetic and hardly ever came through to drive in badly needed runs (including a total 0-fer with the bases loaded this year -- horrid!). Back on topic.... I'm not in love with Coles as a hire, but short of a Paul Molitor, I figured I'd feel underwhelmed by the name we'd hire. But ultimately it's not the name that matters. Coles knows most of our young hitters and is quite a different voice than Johnny Narron's. We had decent-hitting minor league guys under his tutelage and Detroit wasn't a bunch of slack hitters this year, either. So who knows? Coles at least gives some justified reason for hope given his history with guys in our organization..... You can't change a tiger's stripes, so to speak, but it's possible for our hitters to better understand both what they can do at the plate and what they tend to do -- good and bad -- to help improve their awareness of what they need to do, both in general and in specific situations. If Coles proves to be an effective voice, and especially if the Brewers' hitters become better at making adjustments as individual games progress and as the season evolves, then Coles' influence has the potential to greatly improve on the results the team got in 2014 under Narron. you're kind of proving my point. braun knew he was hurt, yet he didn't change his approach. he was still swinging away like a maniac. if he's still hurt, wouldn't it make sense adopt a more patient walk first approach? braun's greedy. always has been and most likely always will be. he got away with it before because he was healthy. now that he's hurt his greedy mentality is hurting the team. he's stubborn too. if he didn't want to change his approach then he should have gotten the surgery. if he didn't want the surgery then he should have taken the time to change his game. i'm giving scooter a longer leash because at least he hit for a decent average. it's still a pathetic situation though. even during our super fun heydays the offense still was overly reliant on the long ball. the brewers have tried this approach for years and it hasn't worked. you can't win relying on the long ball. at some point you're going to need guys that consistently hit singles and doubles. again i hate having to saying this, but we need to copy the cardinals approach. they usually have several guys that come through in the clutch. look at matt carpenter. the guy has no power, but he gets on base often. we've seen him drive in runs against our brewers often. jon jay this year went off. idk if it's the players or the coaching, but they have the right mentality there.

if it was up to me every hitter on this team is available for a trade except for luc, scooter, and braun. everyone else good bye. would rather have a lineup with 7 guys with no power but high average and high baseball IQ, complimented by 2 mashers, instead of what we have now. it's the safer approach too. in general pitching is going to win the battle. even the best hitter in baseball fails 7 out of 10 times. when you've got a team full of guys hitting below .280 then you're in deep trouble. a scrub like mark reynolds fails 9 out of 10 times. the one time he succeeds it's a useless solo home run. he reminds of mike cameron. my goodness was cameron the king of solo shots in blowouts. schafer .181, reynolds .196, maldonado and overbay in the .230's, davis and segura hit in the .240's. braun .266, parra .268. that's garbage, pure garbage. gomez hit .284 but struck out 141 times. weeks somehow hit .274. so only aramis, scooter, and lucroy were reliable. it's no wonder this team fell apart. all you had to do was avoid getting burned by those 3 and you'd get an easy W. i'm not asking for a lineup full of .300 hitters. but man can we at least have a lineup with most guys hitting above .275 even if it means less power? our magical 2011 year at least they had 4 guys hitting above .280. prince had an obp of .415. when the lards won it in 2011 they had 6 guys that played more than 100 games hit for .280. that's ridiculous. it's no wonder they won they WS that year. freese played in 97 games and hit .297. allen craig played in 75 and hit .315. in 2013 the lards again had 6 guys hit for over .280. 4 of those 6 hit for .300. that's crazy. oh and those aren't small samples either. all 6 of those guys played over 100 games. molina (136 games p) .319, carpenter (157 games p) .318, craig (134 games p) .315, and holliday (141 games p) .300. carlos beltran played in 145 and hit .296. that's almost 5 guys hitting at or over .300. it's a similar story with the red sox in 2013 too. several guys that hit for high averages. melvin is either stubborn or foolish to think his approach works. he's done nothing either to make me think he's interested in change. getting rid of aoki was stupid. guy hit for .288 and .286 his two years here and had an obp above .350 both years. this year he posted basically identical numbers again. in a lineup full of dummies, aoki was a bright spot. i knew getting rid of him was dumb. didn't like the trade from the beginning. nothing against will smith either. i just think the hit to the lineup was far greater than the gain the bullpen would receive.

They also aren't doing a bunch of other things that winning teams do either, like hitting grounders to the right side of the infield with a man on 3rd and less that 2 outs. They are up there hacking. And it isn't just those 3, it is practically the whole team besides Lucroy & Weeks. yup. really wish braun would change his approach. he's so greedy. even when he was healthy he was still greedy. can't remember how many times he'd be swinging for the fences with the bases loaded. he was able to get away with it back then because he had power. now it's a soft grounder since his hand is all messed up. ironic that weeks is one of the only guys that looks for the walk first. seems like he's been humble enough to realize that injuries have destroyed him and his only hope for getting on base is the walk. we need more guys like luc and gennett. tired of the all or nothing approach. can't wait until melvin is gone. maybe then things will change. until i expect more of the same. they'll be the poster child for extreme streaky-ness. when the brewers are on they crush everything. when they're cold....well.....just think about last month.

Whether it was by design or by accident, Melvin has crafted the roster to be like this. This team doesn't get on base nearly enough. Seems like runs only come via home runs. It's like teams in basketball that live and die by the 3 pointer. It's great when it's working, but ugly when it stops raining 3's. In 2011 we had a monster offense that lived and died by the long ball. when they were hot they were unstoppable. when the cold streak came they couldn't hit anything. this team sucks at situational hitting. remember the game against the marlins last month? i think it was the 7th or 8th inning that the brewers had the bases loaded with no one out. they ended getting nothing that inning. this team needs guys that can put a ball in play without having to swing for the fences. the brewers have far too many all or nothing guys. scooter and luc are the only ones that come up with clutch base hits. it's all about attitude. melvin or whoever the gm is in the future needs to look for guys that go up to the plate with an unselfish mentality. this team needs guys that WANT to be walked. braun, gomez and ramirez don't look like they're interested in being walked. they look more interested in making the front page of the journal sentinel.

we should hope that maddon decides to take a year off. that way RRR gets his final year and then the brewers can hire maddon. back up the brinks truck and pay him whatever he wants. this is the rare type of manager in baseball like francona that can completely change a team. brewers would be in tremendous shape with maddon as manager. too bad it's looking like he's headed to chicago. man epstein, maddon, and a young talented roster? cubs would have a good shot at finally breaking that pathetic record.

Good luck with that. History has shown that hitting coaches usually don't have much impact on how batters approach their at bats. Guys who are patient, take walks, and mostly swing at pitches in the strike zone did that in the minors before ever making the big leagues while impatient free swingers tend to have been that way in the minors before making the majors. Trying to change that approach significantly after a hitter already has a few thousand at bats under their belt is really hard to do. Maybe you can eventually get a guy to raise his walk rate up a little bit like say how Gomez has the last two years, but expecting a hitting coach to turn long time free swingers into patient hitters isn't all that realistic. then time for a major roster overhaul because this group of lazy free swingers isn't going to amount to anything. it starts at the top and melvin is a problem. when has this overaggressive approach ever won anything? there's a reason why this team misses the playoffs most of the time while the lards are in the nlcs all the time.

i really hope this new coach preaches a more patient and conservative approach at the plate. i'm so done with almost every brewer hitter overswinging at every fastball high. no you are not mark mcguire on steroids. you're not hitting that ball to the upper deck of the sky dome. just put the darn thing in play like the cardinals do. i hate them but they do things the right way. for once i'd like the brewers to be kings of the rbi bloop singles.

woohoo nice game by the giants! i hope they sweep. can't stand anything from the state of missouri

Really, I would say that Aoki looks more silly offensively and defensively more often than anybody in baseball. what makes you say that? all i remember is aoki making great defensive play after great defensive play when he was a brewer. just because he didn't make crazy diving catches like gomez doesn't mean he wasn't great defensively. he's a lot smarter than gomez and has a stronger and more accurate arm. aoki almost never struck out on junk pitches. braun does it all the time. remember how bad corey hart was with the low slider?

I don't think there are a lot of good hitters in baseball today. Too many dumb free swingers like Gomez in baseball today. Gomez has all of the talent in the world, but he lacks discipline and still gets fooled to easily. How many smart and truly good hitters are there in baseball today? I'm talking about guys that are smart enough to lay off junk pitches most of the time. Only a handful.... Even Braun even his prime was a little undisciplined. Prince, as awesome as he was, swung at a lot of junk. If Prince swung at a lot of junk, who in your opinion DIDN'T? It's really easy to watch baseball and be critical, it's a bit tougher standing in there vs 95 MPH fastballs and then having to adjust to a 87 MPH slider. Not sure if that makes all the hitters "dumb." The number of hitters that most of the time avoid low junk can be counted on one hand. I don't how far a guy can crush a fastball. There's still no excuse for swinging a slider that is clearly low and away for the 3rd time in one night. If it happens once it's not a big deal. If it happens twice you lack discipline. How about guys that are greedy and swing a super high fastballs? You're not hitting that out of the park. You're just going to pop it up. Guys like Aoki and Ichiro are rare. They usually don't look silly when they strike out.

You seriously don't get why there is a contingent of people that don't want him around because of the multiple domestic violence issues in his past? Yes I know, never convicted, but that's because battered women hardly ever follow through with charges the first hand full of times the abuse occurs. It comes up every year, I personally want nothing to do with him on a personal level. Francisco Rodriguez has domestic violence charges dismissed This blog post is good summation for the uneducated. Why Abused Women Don’t Press Charges – A Jailhouse Study As a pitcher I hate everything about his game except for his plus off speed stuff; his FB isn't special, his mechanics suck, and he can never hit his spot, his success depends almost entirely on hitters getting themselves out. He had reasonably good fortune all year in 2011 and he repeated that for the most part this year, but it shouldn't be a surprise if he's awful for half a season, has a terrible year, or has another year like 2014. He's basically the same guy every time out, the difference is whether or not the hitters can get him to a throw FB when they are looking for one. I see him as a risk as I think he's just as likely to fall apart as to repeat his success this year and when I add my personal distaste for him on top of how I view him a pitcher, I see no compelling reason to bring him back at any cost. I'm extremely disappointed that the Brewers have continued their relationship with K-Rod given his past, and yet people are willing to crucify the NFL over similar issues. I'm just not willing to look the other way, it's not who I am. The odd part is that the organization goes out of it's way to avoid character issues with amateur players but has seemingly looked the other way with K-Rod because he was cost effective for the level of production at the big league level. I think his continued employment has been extremely hypocritical of the organization given the stance they've taken on other character issues with players in the past like cutting all ties with Tom Wilhelmsen for being a pot head. However, since the organization tends to do the opposite of my wishes I'm sure there's a reasonable chance K-Rod will be back for 2015. That's sports nowadays. Punks get employed all of the time. 1 team taking a stand against it isn't going to change the system. Would rather have the player on my team and compete instead of being the one team avoiding talented [jerks] and losing all of the time. In a perfect world these guys would have minor issues. Unfortunately almost every athlete is a scumbag of some kind nowadays. Awfully hard to have a team free of [jerks].

Balfour posted a 5 ERA and 6 BB/9 this year after the A's let him go. He is not the example to use if you're trying to make a point on keeping a closer. Oakland Balfour is different from Tampa Balfour. Both sides were stupid for not trying to sign a new deal. When he was an A he posted several good seasons.

in a new york minute. it's not easy to find a competent closer. yeah his saves were always exciting, but he got the job done. you don't let go of a good closer. just ask the A's. balfour was good for them for years and they struggled without him. losing a closer moves up several guys out of their roles. doolitte, a good setup man, ended as closer. if balfour had stayed, doolittle stays at closer, which prevents garbage man luke gregorson from becoming the new 8th inning guy. luke gregorson was a major reason why they fell apart. unless they can somehow get santiago casilla or joaquin benoit, k-rod needs to be back. who is going to close if leaves? will smith? not a closer. thornburg? not a closer. jefress? oh god no. broxton? haha he's like john axford, mentally soft. guy couldn't even handle a high pressure 8th inning in the 2nd St. Louis game 2 weeks ago.

I'd be super happy with that deal! Davis+Fiers for 3years of Donaldson? Yes please! Move Braun back to LF and how about signing Norichika Aoki back to play RF? Bat Leadoff, grind out ABs vs. Swinging 1st pitches/K in 3-4pitches? Parra compliments Gomez/Braun for rest days. And even Aoki. I mean Dondaldson put up 8 and 7.4 BRWAR the last 2 seasons! No way Davis/Fiers can duplicate that WAR combined. It'd be an underpayment for Donaldson. Probably need to throw in a guy like Arcia or Taylor. And I'd do it. Taylor especially. Donaldson is exceeding his numbers in the Minors at the ML level. He's a STUD. The Brewers need a STUD to bat 3rd or 4th. Braun used to be it and he's either going to again, or be just good. If Braun returns to Stud status would imagine a Lucroy 2, Donaldson 3, Braun 4, Gomez 5 lineup. You're looking at 4 players Lucroy a 6WAR, Donaldon 8WAR, Braun 6WAR, and Gomez 5-7?WAR You're talking 25-27Wins above Replacement in 4 players. If Braun returns to form. With that WAR amount you're talking about starting with a 75-77win team if those 4 play together in a season. That's 1 Helluva Starting point! Thus why I'm all for it. With the Avg staff we have + those 4 there's a strong ability to contend next season. Find a 1b bat and the team is loaded. My point exactly. All that was missing from the Brewers was one more big bat. If they had Donaldson the collapse probably doesn't happen. People here are underrating Donaldson. Guy doesn't get a lot of attention because he plays in Oakland. He's a top level player without a doubt. I like Davis and Fiers, but neither will combine to put up stud numbers. Anyways this is all for naught. The A's have no intention of trading an inexpensive stud. An A's exec when asked about a possible trade said it was stupid idea.

Their status as a contender might be the only reason why they'd listen to a trade offer. I'm hoping they fall short this year. Maybe they'll start to lose patience and look for an immediate upgrade.