BarneyStinston

K-Blow can blow any game. Never underestimate his ability to wildly fail. No outs. 2 run homer, the Twins are back in business

Well, the Brewers are 107-126 (.459) in regular season games since Hank was introduced on opening day 2014. However, since the Hank bobblehead giveaway on Sept 13th, 2014, the Brewers are 30-55 (.353). Since Hank's second bobblehead giveaway on May 10th, 2015, the Brewers are 15-25 (.375). Since Hank the Dog met Hank Aaron on August 21, 2014, the Brewers are 36-70 (.375). Looks like a pretty obvious curse to me.

Far too many claims in recent years. When you are claiming this much on waivers, your farm system is really depleted. Basically, Melvin has gotten and paid for garbage since 2010.

Heck, Counsell as manager is equivalent to Yuniesky Betancourt as my hitting coach, and Jeff Suppan as my pitching coach.

It seems fitting that the guy who almost broke the hitless streak record is being hired as manager of the team with the fewest hits in the NL. What will he do next? Mess around with the players' batting stances?

We sure could use Ned Yost around now. Never going to get him now though.

At this rate, this just feels like an all-time record breaking losing season. I think 36 wins is the record for fewest wins in the modern age, and we are on pace for 27 wins. Funny thing is, the Brewers have played more home games than anyone at this point. So far things should have been cake. The road stretch in May should be more difficult.

Maryvale has been in urban decline for quite a while. There is no future for enterprises who wish to grow and flourish. That's why the malls there has been long abandoned. The only good move for the Brewers was to get out ASAP. Outside of the ballpark, the only reason to go to Maryvale is for a police ride-along to see some gang activity and wild chihuahuas.

So, you are saying that you've never seen the ceremonial first pitch get thrown out on TV? I know that I have seen a few national anthems and heard them on the radio many times. How this can this be considered commercial time if I am seeing it live? There is obviously also a ton of time being wasted between innings, and enough to even interview fans, players, coaches, and others, which we have all seen, and even show replays. That is really not commercial time when they do that. Regular-season commercial breaks during games that are not nationally televised are supposed to last just 2 minutes, 5 seconds. The rest is pure delay. The point should be trying to reduce the non-playing time delays between innings rather than in game time which we pay to see. i am sure the replacement of extra innings will be next.

I think deciding to take a fine in order to maintain a routine that works for a player is probably a no-brainer. How many times have you seen Braun do his routine and the pitcher is still not ready to deliver the ball anyway? Take away the ceremonial first pitch, national anthem, god-bless america (ugh, the worst!), roll out the barrel, guessing the attendance, guessing which hat has the ball, seventh inning stretch, sausage races, infield dirt sweepers, warm up catching in the outfield and infield, and the car that circles the field during pitching changes. These are things between innings that clearly are purely done to waste time and slow the game down.

You really have to wonder that if this were the NFL and not MLB, K-Rod would have been banned from playing for at least a year for what he did off the field. Baltimore Ravens and Minnesota Vikings eventually gave in and made the moral decision to drop their star players. You have to wonder why the Brewers moral compass has simply been ignored, and K-Rod essentially got away with battery without even expressing remorse. IMO, its really hard to root for this guy when he's such a monster and he blows ballgames.

The only optimism I have is that this team can realistically be a .500 team this year.

For the record, I am not painting a conspiracy here. I simply believe that TJ surgery versus PED usage should get the same amount of consideration as enhancement techniques. MLB clearly favors one over the other. Artificial joints are done to return a basic function like walking, not to get better at professional level pitching. As far as a return to a normal state, anyone could argue that taking HGH to return to a more normal level during their youth is the "natural" thing to do. I just don't buy that this surgery is in any way "natural" at all. This is not simply a return to a preinjury state, The new graft is woven in a figure 8 pattern and anchored through holes drilled in the bone, ulnar nerve moved to prevent scar tissue from affecting it. How is that anatomically normal, equivalent to a preinjury state? Even many pitchers believe that they can throw harder after the surgery than beforehand. I have copied the text of that article out for you here. For some reason I did not have a login screen when going to it: Outliers: Stats show Tommy John surgery really is a game changer By Modern Healthcare Posted: March 22, 2014 - 12:01 am ET Tags: Outliers, Physicians, Research It was an interesting epilogue to a colorful life and career. Just days after Dr. Frank Jobe died March 6 at the age of 88, a paper was presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting that showed the surgical technique he invented has had some notably impressive results. Researchers compared the records of 179 major-league baseball pitchers who had undergone Jobe's ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction technique, better known as “Tommy John surgery,” against 179 pitchers who did not have the surgery. Both groups were matched for age, body mass index, handedness and major league experience. Before surgery, the pitchers who underwent the procedure had been outperformed by the control group. Post-surgery, the “patients of Jobe” allowed fewer walks and hits per inning, won a higher percentage of games and had a lower earned-run average. Researchers found the surgery extended pitching careers by an average of 3.9 years. But for the original surgical subject—Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star Tommy John—the statistics were even more impressive. John, who told Modern Healthcare that he and Jobe were forever linked in history like Burns and Allen, or Abbott and Costello, pitched an additional 13 years and won 164 games after the surgery (compared to 124 wins before). Researchers, however, included a caveat with their findings: “We do caution looking too much into the improved stats for pitchers,” Dr. Anil Gupta, a paper co-author and surgeon with the Florida Orthopaedic Institute in Tampa, said in a news release. “We do not want to suggest Tommy John surgery is an option for improved performance.” Also, while the findings were presented after Jobe's death, the study itself was posted on the American Journal of Sports Medicine website on Dec. 18. Jobe, who was once called baseball's “career saves leader” in a Chicago Sun-Times headline, was honored last summer by the Baseball Hall of Fame for his contribution to the sport.

Its a good start and a bit under appreciated nationally. It seems odd to be 17th in the ESPN power rankings with these kind of pitching performances. However, I wouldn't say that it is unusual for Boston or Philadelphia to struggle out of the gates. Its just funny how as soon as the local media panics over a thing like Braun's thumb, and he has a performance like tonight's, then becomes a national ESPN headline "Braun answers boos with 3 blasts" to stir up all the haters.

I can't see any logical fan throwing any ball back at any game if they were lucky enough to get it, especially one with a name attached to it. Closest I ever got was one going off the tip of my fingers. What good would it be to be the guy who can only say "Oh, I caught Braun's third home run in a game and threw it back"?

Unless you have a source which you can link to I think you need to revisit that statement. I haven't read up on TJ surgery in a couple of years but a temporary 1-2 MPH increase is not dramatic nor unnatural. It's the difference between a tight tendon and tendon which has been loosened up or someone who was holding back because his arm was that sore prior to surgery. Furthermore how is TJ surgery any different than ACL reconstruction surgery? Finally completely torn tendons do not properly heal, there's no mechanism in the body to affix them back to the bone or naturally tie them back together. Not to mention it takes an incredibly long time for partial tears to heal because there is very little blood flow through our joints. So again, provide a link and some evidence to back up your statements, everything I've posted can be found through simple google searches. This article probably sums it up best: Tommy John surgery–fact and fiction P.S. - I understand your larger point about cheating but painting TJ surgery as something it's not by passing along misinformation is misleading at best. For one, a repaired ACL is not used to deliver a baseball to the plate. It is used to maintain everyday function. TJ is specifically done to enhance the unnatural motion of pitching. In most cases the pitchers arm is still functional, just not adequate for major league competition. Hence this is a procedure almost exclusively done for pitchers. Orthopedic surgeons (especially MLB player surgeons) have very legitimate interest in suppressing or admitting to "enhancement" as it obviously can only hurt their practice greatly to do less procedures if it ever gets considered a kind of cheating. One surgeon actually comes out and says “We do not want to suggest Tommy John surgery is an option for improved performance.” Yeah right. Players going under the knife NOT to improve performance? I admit some do it for pain issues, but the bulk are doing it to improve or prolong their careers. The argument is illustrated here http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/07/25/205513618/is-it-fair-for-baseball-to-reject-drugs-but-embrace-surgery Statistics: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140322/MAGAZINE/303229956 Post-surgery, the “patients of Jobe” allowed fewer walks and hits per inning, won a higher percentage of games and had a lower earned-run average. I think most would admit that there is more science and evidence of specific enhancement with this surgery on a player as compared to someone taking a short course of PED's, which shows nearly nothing definitive.

So if a guy breaks his leg, having it reset and put in a cast is considered performance enhancing? Two totally different things. When a guy breaks his leg, he does not get a whole new leg and get it reconstructed (new tendons, muscles, or bones). For Tommy John surgery, its taking a new harvested tendon from some other place or a cadaver and anchoring it. Nobody needs Tommy John surgery for function in everyday life, as the tendon generally heals in time. This is pure enhancement to undo the effects of years of damage and avoid long term healing in a race against time for most pitchers careers. Genetically, most of these guys (especially young ones having the surgery) would never have such long careers without the surgery. Its a cheat, and a very definitive one at that. It very conclusively increases a pitcher's function dramatically and unnaturally. Imagine if hitters had a surgery that definitively restored a power swing progressively lost over the years. You know that would certainly be considered cheating. Why is it cheating to take medicines but not cheating to get your elbow rebuilt? Why do we salute the surgeons and vilify the pharmacists and biochemists? Why salute long term records broken by a guy getting TJ surgery to artificially extend his career, but not those using pharmacology?

Since TJ surgery is one of the few legal performance enhancement techniques that still remain legal, with no consequence of being branded a cheater on the horizon, its no surprise that scores of guys are swarming at the chance to resurrect their careers.

They had to shore up the defense. i don't think its much of a risk putting Francisco on the DFA anyway.

The Brewers typically aren't good in the last few years in April. Last year they managed a couple games over .500. However, with several infield positions in doubt, I think they need some time to get it all together. I think Pitt and St Louis will try to come fast out of the gates to start the season. 11-17

In my youth, I never really understood the hype over Robin Yount. I much preferred Cecil Cooper (a 6th round pick) hitting with 32 homers and 121 RBI's in 1982, 7 straight over .300 batting seasons, and a career OPS better than Yount. On top of it, he is virtually ignored by the HOF. Heck, what major league player could you ever find swimming at the local YMCA? That was Coop.

77-85. 4th place. A couple of starters do some stints on the DL. Out of the race by the end of June.

Exactly. What Braun took had absolutely nothing to do with his performance. Just look at Braun in spring training this year! Braun's power is an automatic given, whether on some substance or not. It is his reaction time, selection, and adjustment to what the pitcher is giving him at the plate that makes him good.

Since some Brewer fans think they are so of such a high moral authority, why don't they lobby to vacate all Brewers appearances in the playoffs in 2011 while they are at it? After all, they are all tainted and Braun played in all the games! After all, USC had to vacate an entire season and a National Championship because of Reggie Bush, and he didn't even cheat in the game.

I don't see A-Rod relinquishing all of his awards: 3 MVPs, 2 gold gloves, 4 Hank Aaron awards, and 10 Silver Sluggers. Once the first guy from the steroid era makes it in the HOF and it is revealed that that guy took steroids after the fact, the rest will quickly follow, and Braun will make it in. All it takes is a guy like Cal Ripken admitting that he occasionally took banned steroids to cope with nagging injuries and keep the streak alive.