tmwiese55

Hope that was joking on Garcia. He's obviously missed a lot of games lately but when he plays he's been hitting fine and hitting HRs.

The app I use to get a quick look at the lines has Wisconsin -6.5. That seems awfully high. And CBS/Caesars says 68% of bets are on ND and it's still gone up. This seems like a weird one. I don't know what they saw in UW last year and first two games this year, but I guess UW has such a solid reputation or track record at this point. I suppose we're off a bye week too. Something similar happened in a UW at MSU game about 5 years ago and they ended up being right, UW won in a blow out.

Yes Chryst is supposed to be back to calling plays this year. Yet, so far nothing has changed. Thing is have to remember he was one of the best play callers in CFB in his previous time at UW and then to Pitt. It's really odd how the O has just not taken off since he's been back, it makes no sense. Only thing I can think of is now that he knows he has such a good D that it's allowing him to be way too conservative. Whereas in the past and at Pitt he had so-so Ds so knew they had to score points.

Yes the D looks like a train wreck. Hard to believe it's been like this for about ten years now barring an occasional ok stretch of games. Seemed they were really aided by the rain last night in the 2H. Take that away and there's a good chance they had a game on their hands. The missed 4th down by Det was huge too. Guess give credit they stopped it but also seemed a very poor play call.

That spread seems like a trap, like Vegas wants money on ND. And I can't understand why they'd want that with how our O has looked. I guess we'll see how the money comes in as the week goes on.

Yea at least the Reds and Pads haven't won in forever so if they ended up going on a run it's something new. Even if we kind of don't like them due to their spending sprees of late. I see all sides though, generally speaking Pads still seem like the more talented team and Cards seem like the worst.

I'd guess they feel they can replace the Strickland/Box types each year for near league min costs (rather than overpaying these guys) due to their scouting and how they've been so good at identifying these types. And as long as you have Hader as the insurance policy at the end of pen you can spend a couple months sorting out the guys in front of him. So, I'd guess it's a king's ransom or they just keep Hader and try to win it why they have him. And I'd add in that king's ransom would likely have to be a long term controlled fix of 1B/3B they really like who's ready to play now. Basically that it won't be prospects only. I'm generally happy with Urias at 3B if needed, but team would be super strong if Urias could be your Taylor from LAD type going forward. Where he plays starter level but at a ton of different position backing up 'starters' and filling in for injuries.

All true. I'd guess a hurt on the OBP the 2nd half of the season is pitching no longer being afraid him. He was probably able to milk a bunch of walks to start the year based on his reputation, but once everyone figured out he has no power there's not much reason to be careful with him. Which also kind of makes sense as to being able to increase his BA with better pitches, but OBP going down at the same time. Prior to the last week or so he had been looking pretty good, lots of hard contact and I think I saw some hard %s had him near tops in the league during the 1-2 months prior. But even still when that was looking good he had a lack of HR power, which is a problem when owed this much for that long. You don't pay that for a good contact hitter. Still confident he'll be like he has been the last couple months (good/ok, but not near what he was) for the playoffs. Which obviously is better than what we he looked like prior. Give another offseason to get the knee and back issues behind him, clear his head and make some tweaks and hopefully he's back to clear all star level next year. Don't think we should be ruling that out yet by any means (though obviously I'm not saying it's a lock either). That DP to blow the game last night was a definite 'cmon man' from me but with more adult language. Just terrible on a 3-1 pitch

Obviously shouldn't lose both game and score 1 run. But Det has been a pretty solid team since a April or so bad start of the year. Assuming they have some money to spend, they could all of a sudden be the #2 team in Central next year. Seen talk of them getting the Astros SS due to his connection to the Det manager being the old Astros manager. They must have plenty of money to spend with Cabrera as their only real contract.

Others have put the whole argument in full in here explaining all the scenarios for both. I get that for Wood, but it also put him at the most risk of getting nothing due to his age, if he were to get hurt or underperform. Burnes is young enough to rebound, Wood is not. If hits FA after TJ surgery at age 32ish he's playing on one year deals from then on out. And I don't mean he'd take a Peralta type deal, It would be legit money that say gets him to 34ish and he never has to worry about money. Combine that with the fact that even best case he hits FA at 32 that age limits how 'mega' his deal would be, as opposed to Burnes who would not have that limitation (essentially Burnes' lotto ticket is higher). Also, what I mean would be a payday, not at the 150+ mil area he could get, but it's the first big money he'll have made and it eliminates the risk of the Nelson situation while setting him for life. Others have made posts laying it out for both and I get them all and we really have no idea. Some of it comes down to each person's preference. But I'm just saying I'd guess this way on it, who knows.

These are going to be interesting scenarios to play out. I'd still guess Wood is the more likely to lock in something reasonable and buy out a year or two of FA just for the stability and eliminating injury risk and becoming the next Nelson. But mostly I was just adding I wonder what the agents behind the scenes or insiders best guess on the CBA factors in. The public vibe seems to a change to the arb/team control years, so if they think that's likely it would reduce their likelihood to lock into anything if their guys might hit FA a year sooner. Though who knows how current players will be grandfathered etc, I guess I'm just saying if the agents think the new CBA will be friendlier to this exact scenario they're unlikely to do anything before that's sorted out.

Resurgence is way too generous a word. He accumulated some saves but he otherwise put up the same crappy numbers. In two years in the KC bullpen his ERA, WHIP, FIP, and BB/9 were all worse than his career numbers. He had a slight uptick in K's but that's about the only good thing you could say about it. hey, I said 'small'

I would argue that Hader has a chance, but I think most people expect that he'll be dealt vs. re-signing him when the time comes. Right, I'd say Hader if he signs an extension would be #1 Plus, factor in if they win a WS in the next 2-3 years it bumps up all the current guys' resumes a ton as long as they stay on a longer term extension of some kind and remain high level players. I mostly mean Yeli, Hader, Burnes, Wood, Peralta as the main options. Adames as a wild card since he's so young and small sample. ETA: to add to the post below. It seems Mcguire wasn't retired by Oakland either. That's probably the one where he should/could be

Some might not be familiar Wily had a small resurgence a couple years ago as a reliver in KC too, was closer for a little while.

I think it come down to our franchise. We don't really get guys hear for 10+ years and certainly not many of Braun's caliber. It will probably be decades before another such deserving candidate exists, unless Yelich revives his career as an AS caliber guy. Good point and possibly another factor in moving this to a Yes. None of the other players from his come up group will get it. And unless one of the key pitchers now actually sticks here for 10+ years and continues being very good there doesn't seem another one will be anytime soon unless Yeli rights himself.

Braun deserves it way more than Rollie Fingers who was barely here. Aaron is debatable but factor in the Braves time in MKE and I get why that makes sense. I'm kind of a stickler on not overdoing number retirements, and I think I'd lean towards Braun getting it. Take away the PED bs and I think they would for sure, with it it becomes debatable and I don't blame either way. But 14 years, ROY MVP, and leader in all hitting stats and borderline level HOF player (but not the longevity for it) I think pushes me to a Yes.

Yea one of the best RH swings I've ever seen, pretty much textbook and exactly what to coach. I remember saying at one point when complaining how the Brewers were bad my whole life saying something like 'when do we get our pujols, everyone else seems to get them'. A few years later we basically got two at the same time in Braun/Fielder(obviously each one notch below) and MKE baseball has been solid to good ever since. Braun would've been an interesting HOF debate without the PED issue and that thumb injury kind of costing him 2ish years of prime stats. Yea the Brewers OF injuries hit early in the year when he probably wasn't an option. With the emergence of Taylor and all the others back and ready to go the need around mid to late season never materialized. Really doubt he'd have spent 7-10 days in AAA getting ready either and it's not ideal to have him get read taking bats at the MLB level while in a pennant race, so I was skeptical the whole time. Sure would be funny for them to get a title a year after he's gone. But also good they don't do a cheesy put him on the roster for one day and give him one AB type thing then give him a ring.

While probably simultaneously saying how cool it is for Nelson Cruz to be doing what he's doing at his age.

I like the change ups and different voices, what's the saying 'variety is the spice of life'. IMO nobody they've put out there is bad. I'd probably rank Dillard last and Coshun 2nd to last, but neither is bad especially compared to listening to other teams on occasion. I actually think Lepay does a very good job and has been a smooth transition, good rapport with Rock. For the most part he just blends in and that's all you want. Huge step up from Coshun who used to be the fill in. Seems to me he's about as ideal of a #2 fill in you could ask for. Just remember, most teams can't even get one good guy, let alone two. Generally like Sophia but she really needs to clean up the 'he said's. Just use some other similar phrases, and many times you don't need it all. I know it's just a filler phrase and everyone does it, so no bid deal. If you notice she never says 'umm or 'uhh' or 'ya know' like so many others do, but she uses this instead. It's better than those but she could clean it up very easily, especially since it seems most of her reads are completely written/scripted. Put in alternate phrases if you need to, I'm thinking of that old hockey announcer board with like 100 different ways to say 'passed the puck'

"The games against LSU and USC were in 2015 and 2016. We are too many years removed from these wins for them to matter much to me"--sure seems like that's not counting them to me. To the bold, in the last full season they were in the B1G title game with a lead at half vs OSU. Led for much of Oregon in the Rose Bowl vs a QB that ended up lighting up the NFL 9 months later. No they didn't win either game, but went toe to toe with top level programs, that is being good. Two seasons before that they were undefeated and had the ball to win the game vs OSU to make the playoffs. That is pretty darn good and recent. They beat more often than lose to all other B1G programs outside of OSU (can't blame them) and PSU which makes no sense and should be blamed for, especially blowing the 28-7 title game. Yup, same page on the O as I've said since the topic started. If they got the O humming anything like 2010 they'd be winning these game instead of hanging in them. Again, to your ranked thing. delete OSU, it's simply not fair. They're still like 3-4 or something like that without that, so nothing great but it's ballpark what you'd expect against similar level teams. PSU is essentially the head scratcher or frustrating part in there. And yea, certainly a frustrating start to the year after the crap covid year. Bad sign and as I said if we get pasted by ND and put up a 7 or 8 win year he's gonna get some grief. I'd guess a big offensive coaching staff shake up would be forced on him. But so far it's been one game they should've won if the Qb didn't fumble at the goalline. Just saying to chill and see how the year goes before jumping to conclusions and freaking out. But, most important thing missed in all this talk: They won the Mayo Bowl.

Hey if he wants to go to his home team so be it. But I don't think I see him walking away right now with this window they have set up the next 2-3 years with these pitchers in order to go to a somewhat mess of a situation in a crazy media environment. He might never get a better opportunity for a title than the next 3ish years.

So now his big wins don't count if more than 4 years ago. They went undefeated 3-4 seasons ago and were in the B1G title game up at half time vs OSU in the last real season that was played. I don't know what your expectations are but the program has been at the highest level it's ever been for the last 10ish years, including since he's come back. Generally speaking they're at the same spot they've been for 10ish years, and that spot is higher than it ever was previously. I would say a more accurate way to put it is the Offense isn't up to the expectations or hope we had since he came back, if the O was a semblance of 2010-11 combined with the current D they would be one level better, basically 2nd tier instead of 3rd. Instead they've maintained their same level but have done it in a different way by winning with D.

Have this SF and Cubs game on in background. Bryant's return to Chi so lots of talk on him. I looked at their finances a bit and I'd definitely have my money on him sticking with SF. Big market team that's spent freely in the past that clears several big contracts in the next two years, two of them in Belt/Longoria at common positions for him. He's originally from LV area so it's close to home. I think SF has new management in recent years so maybe they'll try to manage a bit smarter than past of handing out big contracts, in order to avoid sitting on bad contracts like they have been lately. But I don't know their philosophy and I think KB is only 29, not 32ish.

Yea I'd agree with OSS in general that loyalty might not be the right word. But, he genuinely seems to like MKE area as his 'home' at this point and possibly forever. So maybe loyalty isn't the right word, but comfortable and happy might be accurate. Might just be the type who doesn't want to live/work in a big city. Workwise, they give him all the freedom to do the national stuff and he likely has full power to make his own schedule, whereas a NY/LA team might try to impose their will on him a bit. I'd venture a guess that with all his national stuff (assuming heavy travel happens again) he likes being in the middle of the country as no trip is overly difficult. A place like Dallas would probably be the most perfect for that but MKE/Chicago is darn close. I actually think it's also a good thing that he misses some games just to get a different voice for some days. People get sick of anyone after 160 games, especially after 15 years. I like how Rock has missed some time this year and think the primarily replacement (drawing a blank on hsi name right now) has done a great job. IMO he's the best play by play guy in both sports and should be the #1 slot on TNT/TBS for baseball and basketball. I guess I could give Costas a small nod in baseball but that's mostly nostalgia and how I appreciate his appreciation for the history of the game. Still curious if they'll try to get him involved in Bucks a bit going forward with Jim moving on. Could be a factor too, another local gig for a title contender for a bit of extra money.

It's a catch 22, if we beat them you say they're not any good then, so the only good teams are the ones that beat them. He's beat big name programs Mich several times, LSU, USC, MSU probably more than once, Miami twice, division title on the line games vs MN, and we can crap on Iowa if you want but they're a consistent top 25 team we beat more than we lose. OSU is just a different animal and should be taken out of any equation, but has gone to the wire with them twice in recent years. To the wire with top 15 program in Oregon. Concerns are the one odd awful year the last year of Horni. Can chalk last year up to covid in general, but then the O blew again last week so combine last year and last week and it's a concern. As you've seen by my posts there's plenty to criticize and improve but just asking to step off the ledge and keep things in the proper perspective. Say they get spanked by ND and end up the year like 8-4 or worse so it's back to back bad years, yea he deserves some heat on his seat. Especially if the O, passing and QB development continue to flounder. But for the time being let's just take a deep breath. But take a step back, it seems we have this convo every time they lose a game. He was supposed to be fired after the ILL loss then went on to win the division and take OSU and Oregon to the end to finish the year. UW is top 15-20ish program, not top 5-10, that's what it is and will be, set expectations. You're gonna lose to the elite teams like OSU and you're gonna go in the ballpark of .500 vs similar programs to yourself. Also, just looked the OSU games. 3/4 times under PC they've played them legit close, one OT loss in there too. Not like UW is some joke, only took one bad loss to them. The 20 year struggle vs PSU by UW is one of the oddest things, we've been a slight notch ahead of them as a program that whole time yet we've beaten them maybe twice and one was right after the sanctions. Win a couple of those PSU games including the B1G title game would've been a big help for PCs resume, especially the Title, but they blew it. For the OSU/PSU/Mich topic, well just delete OSU. I think PSU/Mich are a combined 1-12ish vs them in that time too.