vegasbrewcrew1993

Pittsburgh's players may have more long term upside than St.Louis', but St. Louis has the bigger payroll. In the end that will make the difference in the battle for the division. The Pirates are set for a nice little run. I don't think that the Reds will make much noise next year. They are probably going to lose Phillips and Choo. Milwaukee's offense will rebound and so will the pitching. The bullpen will probably regress a bit. That's how it usually goes in baseball. One year the bullpen is great and then the following season it regresses a bit. My just for fun early predictions for next year. St. Louis 93 to 98 wins Pittsburgh 88 to 94 wins Cincinnati 85 to 90 wins Milwaukee 77 to 84 wins Chicago 74 to 81 wins

RED SOX!!!! HAHAHA CARDINALS

wow how is that interference? the 3B was diving to catch the ball. What the heck is the 3B supposed to do? Not dive and let it go? MLB loves them some Cardinals!

hey chris can you take wainwright and that david freese guy with you? i still have nightmares of that nlcs from 2011

Best organization from top to bottom in baseball. As a Brewers fan I'm not afraid to say it. No shame. Top 3 for sure, but no baseball organization is better than the Yankees organization. The success of the Yankees dwarfs every other team.

wait until axford takes a sip of that magic st.louis water. he will be pitching great in no time lol

There's a lot to look forward to for the Brewers. I'm excited to see if the pitching prospects pan out. I'm expecting some growing pains. It's probably going to get ugly at some point at times, but I have hope that the young guys will be fine in the long run. The lineup, when healthy, is top 3 in baseball. Even if Hart leaves I believe it is still a top 5 lineup. I don't think Braun will be traded away. The moment he starts playing well everyone will forget about what happened. I'm just enjoying watching Peralta develop.

haha call that a balk stupid ump....

lol the cubs....

Lucroy is awesome. He doesn't get any attention because the media loves to ignore Brewers players not named Fielder or Braun. Lucroy can hit with the best and he's very good at framing. Sometimes though I question his defensive skills. He's not terrible but he's not great. I think his blocking ability could use some work. Still though this guy is top 5 at his position in baseball. I'm very happy that the Brewers have him signed for a while.

There's no conspiracy, that's the point. As a practical matter the balance of interests heavily favored taking a plea right now and serving a suspension, and I'm sure his advisers told him that. That doesn't mean he was actually guilty, it just means it wasn't cost effective for him to continue to fight it. I'm not saying I believe he took something one way or the other, because I have seen essentially zero evidence for anything other than sensationalist and irresponsible reporting/leaks from ESPN. I think the 2011 suspension was very suspicious, obviously. But if people had given him the benefit of the doubt there, then I don't see how this plea changes anything. Imagine that Braun's camp is told that MLB is going to do anything they can to nail him, including disregarding certain provisions in the CBA, and that they are threatening him with a 100+ game suspension (and even throwing around talk of a lifetime ban). Imagine further that the MLBPA -- faced with all these upcoming Biogenesis suspensions -- tells Braun that they aren't going to invest a lot in defending him and that he's on his own basically. He's faced with: [1] Immediate suspension, costing him around $3M, on a last place team, when he's already injured versus [2] 100+ game suspension, costing him at least $10M (and obviously a lifetime ban would cost him $120+M), at the earliest starting in 2014 when the Brewers might be competitive again and when he would be healthy and back in his prime. Furthermore, if MLB does something shady w/r/t the CBA to try and nail him (e.g. they suspend him and make it appealable to Selig alone, who cursorily dismisses any appeal), he's faced with a protracted legal battle that could conceivably cost him millions just to fight the charges. Why would any sane person not elect for #1? He "admits" guilt, true, but everybody (except for some Brewers fans) already thought he was guilty after 2011 anyways, and that was always going to be hanging over him. Everybody already thought he got off on a technicality, so he's not taking a huge hit to his reputation/legacy. He lost nothing and saved himself millions of dollars, and at the same time acted in the best interest of the Brewers team and Brewers fans. It was a business decision; risking millions of dollars and everything else just for the "TRUTH!" would have been foolish given that his reputation was already tarnished to begin with. Perfect answer. If the evidence is so overwhelming then show it to the public. If you are set on suspending the rest, then do so already. All this talk of suspending A-Rod and Cruz yet no action so far. Bud is pathetic. I think the guy has always been jealous that Attanasio was able to turn the Brewers into a success unlike Selig's family. The Seligs were a colossal failure as owners. Attanasio has done a superior job as an owner. Would not surprise me if Selig went out of his to focus on Braun instead of the others.

Aren't you a lawyer? How many people sitting in jail right now as a result of plea deals were definitively guilty of the crime they were charged with? MLB was going to lay down the hammer and do whatever they could to suspend him, it sounded like to the point of abrogating the CBA. And I'm guessing the MLBPA wasn't that keen to back him up in a protracted legal battle (for which his legal fees could very well have exceeded the $3M or so he's losing here). Don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to know there's quite a bit of room for doubt left. Personally I honestly could not care less about whether he took PEDs (aside from K-Rod/Gallardo crimes people are mentioning -- people who want Prince back instead of Braun, have you forgotten when Prince tried to storm a clubhouse and beat up a dude?), but his admission here doesn't make me more or less convinced that he took something than the original suspension/acquittal. If MLB has such "overwhelming evidence" they wouldn't do this cloak of dagger crap. Why not just admit what the evidence is? They're leaking everything else to ESPN & co. All we know is that there was some shady list at Biogenesis that Braun's name allegedly appeared on, that MLB was deadset on destroying him, and that he decided to accept a deal that affects him and the team in the most minimal way possible. I will be very interested to see how the A-Rod situation plays out; if MLB isn't able to get any other suspensions to stick, will that change people's thoughts on this? Perfect answer. If the evidence is so overwhelming then show it to the public. If you are set on suspending the rest, then do so already. All this talk of suspending A-Rod and Cruz yet no action so far. Bud is pathetic. I think the guy has always been jealous that Attanasio was able to turn the Brewers into a success unlike Selig's family. The Seligs were a colossal failure as owners. Attanasio has done a superior job as an owner. Would not surprise me if Selig went out of his to focus on Braun instead of the others.

I like him. He's patient and has power. For the past few years it seems like the Brewers have had too many impatient hitters. I don't if that's on the hitters or the hitting coach. I can see this guy being the 1B of the future and Tucker Neuhaus being the 3B.

They can't per the drug agreement with the MLBPA. I believe Braun is now allowed to talk about it in detail, though. It would be nice if the public was allowed to see the evidence. That would put the case to rest. Until then everything else is speculation. The only thing that is confirmed is that MLB's test failed. I go by facts and that is a fact. Until MLB shows evidence I am going to believe that he didn't take anything.

If MLB has any evidence then they should release to the public. They should back up all their talk with facts instead of having BSPN do their talking for them. No one knows what went down. All we have is MLB's claims that they had enough evidence to fry Braun. What if Braun decided that he was tired of the situation and decided to give in? 2 years of dealing with non-stop questions. MLB could have kept this going forever.

How do you know that Braun hasn't been a long time user? Not all steroid users can physically or would choose to bulk up to the levels that guys like Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire did. Plus, that would be a major red flag anyways. We right now don't know what exactly Ryan took, when he started taking what he took, and for how long. He could clear that up himself by being honest instead of making cryptic statements. Either way, some could be right and maybe Braun mostly just used PED's to help recover from injuries. Just as plausible though is that he's been a long term user who managed to have a regimen set up which allowed him to beat the testing system for a long time until finally getting busted. Hell, Lance Armstrong managed to beat drug testing for about a decade or longer. He wouldn't have to be built like Bonds and hitting 50 plus homers a year to be a long term user. PED's alone don't put on tons of muscle mass, just look at other players who have been busted and the levels/drugs a long term user takes can differ. How do you know that he is a long time user? Just because MLB got a dirty snake in Bosch to say something? Seriously Bosch is their star witness. That guy would say anything to save his sorry butt. No one knows the truth and I doubt we ever will. Both sides are sketchy. The only proven thing is that MLB's test failed. That's all that we know. After that everything is speculative. Where is MLB's overwhelming evidence? Bosch as the source?

Couple things. 1. Braun was using synthetic testosterone. Let's not confuse what he was using with anabolic steroids like Winstrol that was so popular in the 80's. 2. Whats to say Braun wasn't using this stuff from Paul Bosch back to his Miami days? You even said his numbers have stayed the same the entire time. It's not hard to beat MLB's testing as long as you keep your T/E levels under 4-1. Braun most likely failed his test in 2011 because he just took his dosage which explains the 20-1 level he had. The truth is that no one knows what went down. If Braun lying then oh well. I'm not going to accept MLB's story just because they are the MLB. Their test failed the first time. There's a reason why the test failed. It just proves that their testing system is not reliable. This was a vendetta plain and simple. MLB got angry that Braun showed that their testing system was weak. They were embarrassed and decided to go after him. Eventually they were going to win. MLB was going to stop at nothing to get their revenege, even if it meant kicking him out of the league. Braun likely doesn't want to miss out on millions of dollars, so he accepted a deal. The damage had been done anyways. MLB's slandering tactics worked. Braun's only mistake was being so quiet about it. He should have known that the MLB was going to slander him as much possible, so he should have told his story. Quite frankly I don't give a crap about what Braun does in his spare time. I root for the team, not the players. As long as he is a member of the Brewers, I will root for him. The moment he leaves I will forget about him just every other non-Brewer. I don't have any personal attachments to these players. I don't know any of them personally and I don't care what they do in their personal lives. If they want to dope then that's their problem. If the enlarged heart and shriveled testicles aren't enough to scare them away from PED's then that's their problem. Most of the league is doing something to cheat anyways. Pitchers do their own little thing on the mound that helps them. Coaches and players steal signs all the time. Let's not get all high and mighty about this stuff anyways. In a perfect world baseball would be a clean game. Deep down inside we all wish it was clean. That's the way that it should be. Unfortunately it isn't. Players cheat all the time. It's no longer a big deal to me.

I'll get ripped apart for this, but I agree with everything you just said. I think Braun took something (most likely to heal after a long 2011 season filled with injuries), but I would bet that he didn't take a PED. Mark McGwire, between his rookie year and 1998, when he hit 70 home runs, bulked up by 37 pounds. Ryan Braun, between 2007 and 2012, added 8 pounds. His rookie year, he averaged a home run every 14.4 at bats. In 2012, he averaged a home run every 14.55 at bats (those numbers are from memory earlier this evening.) Where's the gains from these steroids he's supposedly taking? Braun was a top 100 amateur talent per Baseball America. He was an All-American at Miami. Are we supposed to believe he was juicing in high school? Exactly my point. His stats have always been consistent. His body size has always been consistent. It's not like one year he had normal forearms and then the next his forearms looked like thights. Someone with his talent could probably hit over 50 homeruns if assisted by PED's. I just think he got tired of MLB's vendetta and decided to give in. I don't blame him. This battle could have gone on for the rest of his career. Might as well get the suspension over with. ESPN and MLB have done a fine job of destroying his reputation. Now what bugs me is Jeff Passan's tweet that some Brewer teammates are happy about the suspension. Keep that stuff in the clubhouse...

i don't blame him for accepting the plea deal. braun is rich, but not rich enough to fight the mlb. eventually those shameless jerks were going to get what they want. they have already ruined braun's reputation. might as well serve the suspension during a lost season. i'm still certain he didn't take the juice. he doesn't have the appearance of a ped user and his numbers have always been consistent. there has never been a sudden and mysterious spike in his numbers ala chris davis. davis went from a nobody to a guy that is on pace to set a legit record.

I wish the Brewers would only play the Cubs and Marlins. Another great start by Willy.

an absolute gem from willy peralta. the kid is on fire. i hope the pen doesn't blow it. this game would probably be over if RRR hadn't sent out his Sunday lineup.

Just saw the bullpen era. Man if you had told me that the Brewers bullpen would have the best era in baseball I would have thought that this team was a World Series contender. I was going into this season expecting the pitching staff to be solid, the bullpen to be at least average, and the lineup to kick some butt. Who would have thought the bullpen would be the strength of the team, but the Brewers would have a bad record. Baseball is weird sometimes.

Nice start by Gallardo. It's too bad he couldn't 7 innings. Oh well at least it's better than his usual 150 pitches by the 4th. Hopefully they can keep the Marlins at 0. GO Brewers!

I'd be disappointed if the Brewers were not able to find a pitching prospects. Castellanos is a really good prospect though. That would definitely take care of 3B. We could be looking at an infield of Castellanos, Segura, Gennett/Weeks, and Morris. Not bad at all. Do you think the Brewers could get Jake Thompson?

True, but that is only one guy, what about the other 4 spiots in the rotation? lol damn i'm sad again. i feel like eeyore when it comes to the brewers starting rotation. everything is just so uncertain and gloomy