tmwiese55

would rather have him miss a cutoff man once in a while than not get to balls that would be doubles with any other center fielder. This line of thinking is what I took issue with earlier, it's just doesn't make sense to think these things go together or that one can't be done without the other. Why can't he catch the ball and also throw it where he's supposed. I just don't see why we should accept people not improving their weakness, especially when it's so easily correctable. Of course he's one of the best defensive center fielders, I was one who was clamoring for him to play just because of D and then take any offense as gravy, doesn't mean it gives a free pass to do whatever he wants. I did happen to catch a Giants CF airmail a cutoff which led to a runner advancing to second and then scoring on Saturday night though, first time in a while I've seen a bonehead play while watching other teams. The pickoff trying to steal was already brought up but this exactly the problem. He's at 2nd already with 2 outs, there is no reason to steal 3rd other than to pad your stats. What makes it worse is he was nearly picked off maybe two pitches earlier and that wasn't enough for him to pump the brakes. Had a lead at that point too, he gets out and then boom they're down 4-2. Could've changed the whole game, maybe Segura hits him and Braun homers, we'll never know. Did I miss something else with Scooter or is this two game benching just because of getting tossed out of the game on Friday or did he screw something else up that I missed?

Bucks write-up in Simmons article today, gives a good idea why MKE can't let the Bucks leave.

solid post Thurston, I totally get it. It's been a while since I read moneyball but yea what you said was the big theme for team construction. I guess what I was thinking is when it came to emphasizing obp, and then being ok putting fat guys at leadoff with good obps because it's not worthing risking the out by stealing anyway. It's fair to say this is a different era though, back then you never wanted to risk that out because of the massive amount of homers, not the case anymore. I get your points about our specific team needing to push the envelope and take the risks but I still think the math would work out for us not to burn the outs so willy nilly. Hey, we're only three games in so hopefully things will still improve on this front from last year. Sweep Pitt and we're all happy again

Wasn't a big lesson of Moneyball to not give a way outs because you only get so many per game? Your point is true but overall big picture and mathematically it's better to conserve the outs. And really the whole point here was the times when they're massively thrown out or when the situation makes it completely wrong to take any risk. I think we're all fine with generally being aggressive since we have speedy players for the most part and it creates a more entertaining game. In your situation, I think we all agree to be aggressive if there's 1 out and try to get to 3rd and if it's a bang bang play then so be it. If you're thrown out by 4 steps you were clearly wrong or if you get thrown out going for 3rd with 0 outs (lind the other day) then you're wrong. Or if you're thrown out at 3rd with two outs with Braun coming up next, you're wrong.

I think the point that everyone else does it too was discussed plenty. And people like myself's take is that we do it more than others, which is hard to quantify since we watch Brewers way more than everyone else. I watch a ton of MLB network games though, which bounces to runner on situations (which is kind of the main beef we're all talking about) and I almost never see this stuff. Forgetting that though since it's still a diffucult comparison, just take how bad it was last year versus past Brewers seasons (since that is an easy comparison) and can anyone really not agree that it was noticeably worse last year? Three games is obviously too soon to say anything but early returns this year aren't great.

Charter is the worst for customer service. Their product is really really good but treat people terribly. Their model is to basically jack up people's rates and hope they don't notice. If they do notice, force them to call and complain their way into a lower price while fighting them the whole way. I just don't get cable TV, they're in the process of dying and instead of being super customer friendly and lowering costs to stay alive they're doing the opposite. Essentially forcing more and more people to ditch cable and go to watching everything online instead. Live sports is really the only reason to actually need cable, once all of that is streaming, cable will die not long after.

I was just going to ask about Giannis as well. I only watched the last few minutes last night and didn't think anything of him not being out there but then saw today about just a random benching. If it was just rest for the playoffs he would've said it. My guess would be a minor discipline thing like he was late for shootaround and Kidd doesn't want to 'throw him under the bus' by saying that to the media. Who knows though, I hope there's no rift between the two because he's the future of the team.

I'm generally one who's good at being unbiased and not to nitpick refs as I know it's not an easy job. My summary was in the UK game we got more of the breaks in the first half. They got them down the stretch, other than the shotclock miss on Hayes. The bs charge on Gasser to take away a 3, punch to gassers face, block/charge against Frank that came right after Dekker took the charge so the refs didn't want to call two in a row but it was clearly a charge, and I want to say there was one more bad call on us late maybe a charge called on Nigel. For Duke, I rewatched it last night to see how bad the refs were since I was at the game and tough to tell. I've read other boards saying how it's balanced by how Okafor and Winslow were in foul trouble, well they deserved to be in foul trouble. All of Okafors fouls were legit and he actually got away with a few bumps early out on the frontcourt that could've been called (but didn't have to be). Winslow could've been called for several charges throughout the game to make his worse, but all his were legit too. One really bad late was blatant charge where he elbowed Duje in the face, instead its a fould on us and 2 pts for them when it should've been his 4th. Overall, I really didn't see much to complain about from either side until we got that 9 pt lead and they basically gave them 6 free pts on questionable calls right after that. Some And 1s for Allen that didn't need to be called, one which he was literally not touched. Then throw on the extra points by missing the Winslow out of bounds and the botched replay and it's a whole different game. I understand stuff happens though and you can't get every call right but if just 2 or 3 of these 6 or 7 questionable calls goes the other way it's whole different game. I know others have complained of their hand checking and holding while on D and I do see the argument but I don't think it warrants much complaining. In a championship game this type of things is common due to refs not wanting to call a foul every time. However, this is part of why it was surprising to see them call such questionable ones on UW.

Yea I don't see swinging out of his helmet as a bad thing. I actually love it and it shows how hard he plays and I usually get a good laugh out of it. And yea of course he's going to have more good than bad, that's not the point, no one on here denies that he's a great player and probably our best right now. The point is these are easily correctable things that were a big problem last year, so you'd think the manager would've cleaned this up in spring training yet in the first few games nothing has changed. No denying Davis has a noodle out there, almost needs his whole body to get into the infield.

I believe I saw Gomez miss a cutoff on opening day, instead chucking it all the way to 3B, ball didn't get in clean and bounced around for a second, but not enough for the guy to advance. If I recall it wasn't a speedy runner and not a real threat to go for the triple, but he still blasted it out there risking the throw away.

Yea of course we're not going to play that style. I'm just saying a well prepped UK team that plays their A game (due to having a week off) can't be beat unless we shoot 83% from 3 again, or whatever it was. We need them not to play their best.

I'm going tomorrow as well. Just can't wait for the entire experience. I was going regardless if we made it so it just makes it sweeter, especially if we pull this out somehow. I agree that the biggest problem I see is that if we put Frank on Towns they'll feed him and he'll keep slamming into Frank until Frank eventually picks up a couple fouls. If we put Nigel on Towns, he has a 4 inch height advantage. Tough problem to solve. I also have a fear because I watched the bloodbath Kentucky laid on West Va last Thursday after having 5 days to prepare, I'm afraid they just play their A game tomorrow and there's nothing we can do about it then. I'm not to worried about defending the 3, not sure where that's coming from. They really only have one good shooter. In fact the strategy will be to try and force them to shoot from outside. On the other hand if it's a UK vs Duke final with UK winning I'll win every bracket I'm in, I'll be able to sell Monday's tickets for lots of money, and won't spend on two more nights of hotel/partying. Large financial swing in my directions if UK wins but I don't care, go Bucky, this will be greatest sports win of my life as well.

The NBA is completely blowing up worldwide right now, it would be foolish to push them away. It's that simple. And for those saying nobody cares, go back to when we were good around 2001 and it was sold out every night. Even go back to that Fear the Deer run a few years ago and it was sold out every night. Basically, stick Kevin Durant and Russ Westbrook in MKE instead of OKC and we'd be sold out every game and considered to have some of the craziest fans. We just need Giannis and Jabari to become stars. For the logo, I don't like it either. Retro and old school are 'in' right now, simply tweak the old logo with the buck spinning the ball a little bit and go with that one. These new types like this always fizzle out.

It's not really about being out of breath tired. With so many deadballs it's almost impossible to get that gassed. More about your legs being a little worn down and then your shot is just slightly off. It's why they make such a big deal out of playing back to backs in the nba. I would assume Kentucky to press us a bit due to their depth and our lack of depth, especially at guard. Would really be nice to have Tre for that game.

I wonder if the lack of depth led to the poor shooting yesterday. Gasser/Bronson basically have to play all 38-40 mins so the quick turnaround on one day off could come back to bite us vs AZ if we manage to get by UNC. On the plus side, if we get through next week they'll have a full week off to prepare for Kentucky.

[sarcasm]Man I can't believe Villanova lost before the Sweet 16.[/sarcasm] Yea if UW pulls this off no one will say they won't have earned it. UNC, AZ, Kentucky, Duke. Have to beat 3 of the 4 blue bloods of CBB, plus AZ. I'm content with a FF birth at this point.

Calipari really impressed me during last year's tourney run in the way he handled the media and defending the players. Mostly just kept reminding everyone these kids are 18 and 19 yr olds, dealing with the pressures and scrutiny. Really made me believe he cares about these guys and getting them to the next level.

Yes it can be done. They've almost lost several times this year, no reason to think it's impossible. I went into the selection hoping we'd get Gonzaga as our 2 due to like everyone said here, AZ having such an advantage in LA. Gonzaga to LA keeps their travel not brutal and AZ is between LA and TX. Of course it's closer to LA but it's much closer to TX than Gonzaga is. Didn't get that lucky and I think we have a tough draw. UNC has it's warts but they have the talent to win any game when they don't make bonehead turnovers. Other notes, it's a joke UCLA made it at all. and I thought ND should have gotten a 2 over Kansas. Kansas has 8 losses and I think will be missing two rotation players for the tournament. Heck Iowa ST could have gotten it over them, beat them twice head to head and have the same 8 losses.

2. making an out at home for the first out This is another one, absolute must not have this happen. Really you should never even have to slide when going home if there's nobody out. I'm not sure what the word is on the expected lineup yet but I just hope Gomez gets put in the middle of the order rather than at leadoff. These mistakes are a lot more acceptable when you have your #7 or 8 hitter at the plate. batting him lower would allow him greater freedom and it would get the most out of his power rather than hitting solo HRs.

Shield and SOA would be my picks then for older shows. Wife might not be a fan of the incredible amount of violence on SOA. Other current HBO pick would be Game of Thrones, definitely best show on TV right now. Tons of violence and sex type scenes that one would think would turn women off but it hasn't seemed to, seems everyone loves it regardless. Also if you liked BB, which I'm sure you did like everyone else. I think the new Better Call Saul has started out very strong. It's not entirely clear how it will go for a multi year show but so far it's been very entertaining so far and looks it will be around awhile.

If Ron cracked down on the aggressiveness and Gomez turned back into a sub .250 hitter who slapped the ball around, didn't make baserunning mistakes because he was careful and tried to take walks would that make our situation better or worse as a team? Personally, I'd rather have a guy who hits 25 home runs, steals a crap load of bases, is a mental problem for pitchers every time he is on a base and OCCASIONALLY GETS THROWN OUT AT 2ND TRYING TO STRETCH A SINGLE... than a guy who is safe on the base paths and tries to draw talks once in a while but loses the rest of that. This was my second point. There is no reason to think these things are mutually exclusive. Of course you'd rather have the second player you mention, but there is no reason to believe that emphasizing avoiding getting thrown out by 30 ft will lead to someone losing his ability to play the game. I think your last line is spot on that Ron is trying to clean this behind close doors, at least he better be.

Yes if UVA loses at any spot that's our best shot for a 1. They'll have the same number of losses as us but two in the last two weeks. Yes the Anderson being hurt is relevant but it could be argued that it hurts their chances of a 1. Who knows how he'll be able to play when he comes back, appendectomy can really hit some people hard. Also, the same logic applies to UW, our only bad loss was with Frank and Tre out and we've had to play without tre for two months. Without that Rutgers loss we'd be guaranteed a #1 already. I think it's a much tougher call if Duke loses. They'll only have one more loss than us, but with a H2H win on us and tons of great Ws in their pocket. coin flip in my opinion and I couldn't complain if they leave us at 2. Just have to hope the committee is logical and doesn't put a fringe 1 seed that ends up at 2 (UW, Duke, UVA, AZ) in Kentucky's bracket. That spot should be for Gonzaga, Kansas or Villanova.

Yes I could really do without Harold Reynolds saying the same cliches over and over. Sometimes the intentional talk thing with Kevin Millar (I think) is a little unwatchable too. The nightly coverage though is fantastic, jump from game to game. post game interviews with key players in each game (not just NYY, BOS, Dodgers, and now Cubs like on espn). They actually show numerous highlights for every game to tell the story of each game. Not just one HR from a star player and then the score like espn.

I was thinking the same thing, Wisconsin is united today. I think they're going to get pasted though and not really give Nova a game.

I am also of the belief that we exaggerate the issue because we watch the team every day. Basically every game played features at least one dumb base running mistake or dumb defensive mistake; I really don't think the Brewers make a exorbitant amount of mistakes compared to everyone else Yes that's probably at least partially true. But for those of who've been watching for years, it sure seems the last two years and especially last year were worse. Too Live kind of made the same comment about regarding the running into outs. This is one that I feel has gone way up in the last 2-3 years for us, almost as if it's being coached. Generally I watch a fair amount of other games besides us though, nothing crazy but usually I watch MLB network instead of ESPN during baseball season and they jump from game to game (which is awesome) and almost always to games where runners are on base, and I never see this there. Sidenote, ESPN becomes unbearable to me starting after the bball tournament due to nonstop NFL draft bs. Then camp starts in July/August and it's unwatchable again due to nonstop NFL obsession. I start going to MLB network in April and don't look back.