TauPentaRei

while we're at it, it's time for: Kendall Weeks 2-holer du jour Braun Fielder the goal of the experiment was to "get more runners on" for the boppers. success. now the new goal should be "maximizing plate appearances from the guy ravaging league pitching" how many more at-bats does a lead-off man get over the course of a season than the 9-hole?

Robin out on a routine 4-3. RotMFFLMAO fortheloveofweeks that is signature worthy, and that is the first time i have ever said that.EDIT: oh, i see now. your attempt at humor worked. it was funny.

Sorry, this is hilarious. But thank you for the hearty laugh. Oh man that cracks me up.

I have never seen Suppan not get the bunt down. what a professional

I think the biggest thing a catcher brings to the plate - or to the catcher's box as the case may be - is an encyclopedic knowledge of batters' tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. I think we owe the Cubs a big favor for breaking him into the NL Central for 57 games last year (with mixed results) to expose him to the players and to at least allow him to get his practical research / notebook started in earnest. But no, sadly, this is not quantifiable by statistics... unless you consider glowing testimonials by the likes of Suppan et al similar to "4 out of 5 dentists agree..." More than anything, the "wise old sage" of a catcher allows a pitcher to not have to overthink, to be able to relax and - with trust - just "throw". I think that as a pitcher not having to worry about the batter and instead focus on your own mechanics would be a luxury. What with batters gaining an advantage by leaving the dugout after "reading the book" on you or having watched their last at-bat frame-by-frame against you, a catcher's ability to level the playing field is not to be disqualified. How about being able to read a batter in the box like a poker player from across the table? Is that real or not? Knowing that an overly anxious hitter (aka hot-headed fastball hitter on tilt) is especially susceptible to a change-up at that moment. That might be a valuable skill. Is it me (here's one we can get from stat-heads) or is there a disproportionate amount of old catchers? Like why did Benito Santiago get to play until he was 62? To be fair, this goes against the logic of starting Rivera with Parra because of the "comfort level"

Caution... "Eye of the Tiger" ...Talk Ahead

um. Uecker is getting worse and worse. the call of the swinging bunt to end the Giants' 8th was ridiculously and prolongyly delayed until about 20 seconds after all activities (count, pitch, batter, swing, not-a-strike-out!, nubber-outside-homeplate, rivera pouncing, throwing low, prince scooping, umpire calling) am i alone here?

the 116 - 46 Mariners had no killer instinct because they lost in the playoffs.

usually a bachelor party (game is secondary)... lots of agressive male taunting / overt female ogling between rooftops because there's a 10' gap protecting your inhibitions... bring either sunblock or a poncho, and a wooden leg... bring binoculars if you care about the game... section 219 row 7 in a MB hoodie for I

Only got to hear bits and pieces; much obliged if anyone cares to enlighten... Was Zambrano's exit due to finger or forearm? (A doctor friend of mine replayed it over and over super slow-mo and opined that it could be a serious finger.) Was Mota as good as the box indicates? (who'd he mow down?) Any Turnbow camera shots seeing Riske get the call? What was Prince's (prima donna?) reaction in the 9th? How'd Billy do at 3rd / Ryan at OF? I love beating the Cubs. I wish Cameron was in the clubhouse to congratulate Tony on a wonderful game. I am sure Fukudome appreciated the love he received from the 9th inning crowd in "chant-form", and it actually was quite boisterous (to the tune of, say, "F the Yan - kees"), but damn is that Americanly unoriginal. Afterall, he is coming from a fanbase / stadium that sings (standing) tributes for the ENTIRE 3+ hours. Baby steps I guess.

It must be really hot in Arizona, because Rickie sure was wearing a lot of ice around his neck. Ahhh sorry, I was looking for a place to say that all yesterday - after seeing Rickie's home run picture - but no thread obliged, and I didn't feel like it merited a new one. But since we're talking about the long term financial outlook of the club, I hypothesize that if I was Prince I would be irked by Rickie's disproportionate paycheck : production ratio. Thank goodness Prince is motivated by anger, disrespect and spite. Now that that is out of the way, I am just really happy that Braun - Prince will have 3 - 4 (please, Ned?) locked down in our line-up for at least the next 3 years and MAYBE the next 7. How wonderful is that? Moving right along, I see Prince's arby figures (there used to be a roast beef sandwhich joke / pun to be made here) at 9, 12 and 14. Conservatively one could call it 8, 10.5, 12.5. So what is it going to take for Prince to be in the line-up for 2012 thru 2014? The whole concept from the player / agent perspective is more money now at the expense of less money later, yeah? He hits the open market in his slugging prime he is a $20M+ rake. $100M for 6 years puts him at 13M for each of the 3 arby years and 20M for the 3 after that, effectively "overpaying" him 8 million dollars for the arby years and fixing the 3 after that with a hedge. with an extra Mil bonus for homer #52 to round it out.

"...Left-handed pitcher Chris Capuano had a MRI this morning on his left elbow... The team is calling it soreness and inflammation..." Really? Oh that's nice. The team. How subjective are MRIs? My previous impression was that they are quite conclusive. Usually the results of an MRI start with either "Player X was given good news when..." or "the MRI discovered a FILL-IN-THE-BLANK, doctors are prescribing a course of action..." What's with the half-information? edit: I'm on board Chuckie. This stinks sumpin fishy. My own guess is that it has to do with insurance policy / $ recovery haggling.

thankfully no I don't. but lord have mercy! talk about addition through subtraction. That I will never have to witness / hear / read about the antics of those 2 again is almost as refreshing as holding my tickets to game 2 at Doublemint Field.

knowing it'll get buried for good, i'll throw my reply in here just for the hell of it because i saw that Escobar play too. (by nature of the bar-time white sock broadcast only did mine eyes see the glory.) but in the midst of a tee-ball error-fest and after suffering from chapman-cain-nunez-fermaint-gillespie-gamel slappy magoo infield grounders, during the top of tenth i was awoken to MLB all-star caliber SS defense - showing not only incredible in-the-hole-throwing-side lateral range but a ridiculously meticulous patriot missile cannon from short left. one of my first thoughts (right or wrong) was Jeter 10 years ago. (in the interest of full disclosure, he made an error on the very next play as he botched an easy throw in the (scoopable) dirt after recovering from knocking down a gloveside grounder, picking up the ball coolly on one bounce and making the low throw out of rhythm) BUT,,, that that crowd of geezers managed to give a sun-soaked, nap-time standing ovation is more testament to the quality defense than I can ever give.

greenies banned from the game, right? just guessing here, but i imagine 25 cups is an equivalent upper to a rhinocerous greenie.

NO WAY!

My knees aren't even close to Major League baseball player caliber knees, and I could stand on a mound after months of inactivity, throw heaters and not tear cartilage in my knees requiring surgery. (though i'd probably blow out my shoulder after a while). I'm not trying to stir the pot I'm just wondering.

just hypothesizing and all, but could this be like a Krynzel mini-motor cycle type deal? What was Yo doing during the off season (I say Matador in Mexican bull fights), and why does the staff find out about this condition only now?

"Pitchers and catchers report with torn knee cartilage" doesn't have that same nice ring to it.

from the 9/26/07 JS game recap: Yost denied he summoned McClung specifically to hit Pujols. "The pitch just got away from him," said Yost. Shouse's quote in that report... "This was a great opportunity for us to capitalize on what the Cubs did, we just didn't get it done tonight like we should have." ...becomes a little more cryptic if you read between the lines.

under 35, loathe the DH the DH - quite frankly - is unAmerican: slothlike, one dimensional, elitist, static, non-democratic, predictable, reactive ooooh and what really burns my britches is Papi and others taking their at-bat and immediately retreating to the clubhouse to watch frame by frame video of the previous pitch's nuances, not to mention the prepped video of whatever reliever might be brought in to face him in end game later innings. Thereby effectively removing the real-time evolutionary art from the game in favor of scientific preparation. I am all for allowing technology into the game but not in such an un-balanced fashion. All this talk about "just another stick in the line-up" - though true - is just the tip of the iceberg. The psychological impact can be monumentally rewarding or devastatingly crushing. Zambrano socking a homer to put himself ahead 1 - 0 amps him up something special… hell, Zambrano with a low pitch count in a tie game coming up bottom 6 with a RISP gets to stay in the game - Sheets, maybe not. John Q. Southpaw flaring a duck fart to extend a rally demoralizes a defense, lifts the entire O-squad. More sections of this 7 layer dip include the need for a versatile bench, situational hitting (e.g. the importance of an 8 hole hitter - a COMPLETE nonfactor in AL play), fundamental station to station bunting / hit & run play, substitutional timing (is your long reliever burned up from the night before?), plus more. With no analysis to support the idea, I would guess statistics to show that NL games are closer - due to the absence of the aforementioned stick and the rarity of big innings where your line-up turns over. The NL is just so much richer textually. And if the Brewers pitchers could succeed in laying down a bunt (excluding Suppan) with a success rate over 20%, I posit we wouldn't care. We're just so frustrated by the lack of production (excluding Yo) and the precept of having 8 hitters in the line-up.

I don't know if this even justifies a response it's such utter bollocks. [The Royals] cite being between St Louis and Denver as being a reason and would love being in the same division as the Cards. What does this mean? My brain CPU is starting to shut down this makes so little sense in a rational sense. Kansas City should be grateful for its AL market share; to wit, Missouruh, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, New York, NoCal and Maryland are states with two teams split between the AL & NL, with the lone exception being Pennsylvania (Pirates & Phillies) The Brewers ownership has discovered that many fans miss the AL Not here; NL baseball will always be the thinking man's league. And how exactly has ownership supposedly discerned this? Exhaustive research I am sure. They don't have anything else to do. that was brought home last April when the Indians drew very well on short notice when games were moved to Milwaukee Milwaukee likes baseball. The Indians are a wonderfully talented young and exciting team to go see play. Excellent seats were available for absolute peanuts. It was Ichiro too, right? They have also found that Brewers fans resent Miller Park becoming Wrigley North when the Cubs play there. I love the rivalry, and I'll tell you what's even worse than hearing "Wrigley North": traveling White Sox fans. Congratulations Bill Madden you blubbering idiot, for burning up 15 seconds of air time with complete non-recyclable, non-compostable, staight-to-the-landfill garbage.

I had to watch that Mench at-bat from Wrigley. It was sad. It proved Yost's cluelessness. Jenkins deserved (was entitled?) a shot to win that game. It cost me many many beers in side bets. Unfortunately, it is one of the handful of things that I recall so vividly from last season. (the gut wrenching ephemeral yet lingering depression following the extra inning Braves loss courtesy of Cordero and McClung is the most powerfully poignant) 2007 was Yost's interview. Cox's applause of Ned pre-contract extension is worth peanuts to me now. Unsalted stale soggy peanuts. No injuries save for the annual Sheets vacations; no excuses. If this team meddles out to a 25 - 25 record I can see Simmons getting the Captain's Hat. (?Kremblas up to bench coach / token Milwaukee presence / good vibration purveyor?) So that seems to be the majority opinion around here, but what qualifies Teddy - other than his not-ned-ness - from delivering a winner? This will be a VERY interesting power/authority dynamic to see get established considering the history.

In California... Austin, TX... Portland, OR... Boulder, CO... and uh that's about it until a radical paradigm shift. Photovoltaics are over-rated. Get the solar thermal systems up there instead.

I put this in the IGT, but I think it's important enough to place again where more can see it. From today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on the IHBP: "...As John Rooney said on the Cardinals' KTRS broadcast: "This is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen a manager do."..." http://www.stltoday.com/blogs/sports-bernies-extra-points/2007/09/ned-yost-punkd/ It's refreshing to see exterior perspective... and that we aren't crazy. EDIT: man, it's really recommended reading - the article BLASTS Yost. "...Instead of worrying about his team's fate, Yost stroked his own ego and insisted on throwing the last rock at La Russa. And in doing so, Yost undermined his team's chances of winning a must-have game. It's incomprehensible, but Cubs manager Lou Piniella must appreciate how La Russa, his old boyhood chum, did such a psychological number on Yost..."