MrTPlush

I agree. But, God, do I hope I'm wrong. With the year Christian Yelich is having, it just will seem like such a waste if we don't get to bonus baseball. He could win another batting title, put up 50 home runs and 30 stolen bases. The guy's just special. I want to see him take it to the next level in the post season. We have already accomplished more than the Angels have ever had with Trout. So I guess there is that.

They post it every year on how their could be some nuts tiebreaker and usually it is some far fetched idea just because it would take a perfect scenario. But honestly their are three teams in the NL Central that believe average baseball is the new style, no one is running away with the top WC so those two spots are very close, and realistically I see three teams very close vying to get into a WC. There are a lot of scenarios to make one nightmare of a tiebreaker.

Where does this idea that Weeks had a poor approach come from? He never had a poor approach and produced OBPs of .363 at age 23 and .374 at age 24. Weeks was notorious for repeatedly waiving at outside sliders. It was a hole in his approach the majority of his career, and ultimately his downfall. His downfall was injuries. Wrist injuries aren't good and leg injuries aren't going to help the cause. Pretty much every player in baseball, who isn't a star, struggles badly with some kind of pitch/location. I don't think one pitch is going to be a player's down fall.

I think his stats were partially inflated because he didn't really get much of a leash to do anything drastic. He was limited heavily to short passes in most cases. His deep passes were mostly jump balls and his medium game wasn't very good either. He simply did not have the talent to make plays consistently. He wasn't consistent because he wasn't that good. Of course, last year specifically, I thought their WRs sucked pretty bad and getting open was some fictional concept. So Horinibrook, not being Aaron Rodgers, didn't complete to many big passes. Looking at last year Hornibrook had ONE good game against a relevant opponent...Iowa. Which is shocking because I was at that game and he put together one heck of a drive at the end. His one shining moment last year, thanks Alex. The teams Hornibrook beat last year had an average record of 4-8. He was a joke against what ended up a 1-11 Rutgers team. Though looking back I will give Coan credit. He was pretty darn decent in his starts and they were against relevant teams. Maybe they will have confidence in Coan to start the season and give him freedom to have an identity.

Not shocking at all. After he was found not guilty there was little basis for being expelled. If they would have kept it intact Cephus would have went after the university hard and it would have been an ugly situation for the university. What wasn't fully clear is if he planned to actually go to Wisconsin and play football...or go elsewhere. We will see how that goes, but I would expect a return to the football team. The burden of proof at trial vs the Universities ethics code/board is drastically different(obviously, doubt I'm telling you anything you don't know). It was his lawyer's long comments on these matters that basically forced UW to allow him back into school IMO as they came so soon after his comments. Right, I am not doubting they could pull up some code of conduct stuff to knock him with...but the odds he did enough to, on a first offense, to be expelled? That is where I doubt it and to determine that would have been a messy court battle. If they had kept him expelled it would have seriously dampened his ability to go to college anywhere else. That is a pretty serious punishment you are thus putting on him. And it sounds like he still got something attached to his record at UW to where if he gets caught up in wrong, but not illegal activity again he very well could be expelled for good. Likely gives them a shorter leash in the future to expel him.

Meh...they just give reports. Stearns is the guy to decide those things. Burnes/Peralta both looked fairly good last year and that is why they went that route. I doubt it had to do with some scout saying the FA pitchers that Stearns liked were terrible ideas. No scout is telling Stearns what he should or should not do. If anyone would be to blame on the scouting side it would be the scouting director. He is likely the main guy compiling those reports and giving recommendations based on what Stearns is looking for. Below is their list of scouts. Interestingly there are only three pro scouts. I have absolutely no idea if this includes the fired individuals or not. Someone with am media guide would have to tell us that. SCOUTING Supervisor - Pro Scouting Bryan Gale Supervisor - Pro Scouting Taylor Green Pro Scouting Crosschecker Mike Berger Pro Scouting Crosschecker Ben McDonough Pro Scouting Crosschecker Ryan Thompson Pro Scouting Crosschecker Derek Watson Pro/Amateur Scouts Ross Pruitt Pro/International Scouts Bryan Bullington Professional Scouts Lary Aaron Jeff Bianchi Pete Vuckovich Jr. Amateur Scouts National Supervisor - Scouting Doug Reynolds Supervisor - Scout Teams/West Coast Special Assignment Scout Corey Rodriguez Regional Supervisor Josh Belovsky Regional Supervisor Dan Nellum Regional Supervisor - Scouting Drew Anderson Regional Supervisor Brian Sankey Regional Supervisor Mike Serbalik Area Scout Ty Blankmeyer Area Scout Mike Burns Area Scout Pete Orr Area Scout James Fisher Area Scout Taylor Frederick Area Scout Joe Graham Area Scout KJ Hendricks Area Scout Dan Huston Area Scout Harvey Kuenn, Jr. Area Scout Lazaro Llanes Area Scout Mark Muzzi Area Scout Scott Nichols Area Scout Wynn Pelzer Area Scout Jeff Scholzen Area Scout Jeff Simpson Area Scout Craig Smajstrla Area Scout Riley Bandelow Area Scout Steve Smith Area Scout Shawn Whalen

Not shocking at all. After he was found not guilty there was little basis for being expelled. If they would have kept it intact Cephus would have went after the university hard and it would have been an ugly situation for the university. What wasn't fully clear is if he planned to actually go to Wisconsin and play football...or go elsewhere. We will see how that goes, but I would expect a return to the football team.

I am thinking they will get stuck with him by default just because they have so many holes to fill and not a crazy amount of money to do it. I figure the only way they make a change at SS is if they rearrange deck chairs and sign someone with better offense, but not as good defensively. If you are going to get stuck with a black hole offensively no matter what Arcia probably isn't the worst because he really good on defense usually. That being said if they say resign Moustakas, but let Grandal go that is some scary offense on the lower half. Pina/Arcia/Pitcher? Yikes...especially when Thames having a down year isn't exactly a shocking possibility...or Braun/Grisham disappointing. Maybe there is a decent offensive utility guy to pick up incase we really are dying for the offense over defense. Which probably isn't a bad plan when they keep getting sick of Arcia and try to get someone else in there...well news flash Saladino and Co. suck offensively and aren't any better defensively. Thus, we always find our way back to Arcia.

Our TV contract ends after the year with Fox (rumor has it). We currently sport one of the lowest in baseball...which to some extent is expected as we are the smallest market in baseball outside of Cincy. However, the current contract was signed before the explosion of TV deals that saw notable increases. Comparatively speaking we should have quite an increase ourselves signing a new contract. That being said the only teams lower than us are also set to get new contracts. I would guess we will end up close to the Cardinals on the new TV deal which is around #35mil per year...about a $10mil increase. You can see a Fangraphs article below that details how we and some other team are a bit outdated at the bottom and all are pretty much up for renewal. So I think it is reasonable payroll is still on the up and up. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/estimated-tv-revenues-for-all-30-mlb-teams/

It's amazing how many years we can watch Badgers FB, watch players wildly exceed expectations and then just declare with this level of certainty what will happen... In fact, I would almost guarantee that you'd have said the same when Tolzien took over in 2009 before leading the Badgers to 21 wins and a 2 PT conversion away from a top 3 national ranking. I haven't actually watched Coan in Spring Practice or camp, so I won't guess how he's progressed, but It'd be foolish enough to write him off. Especially with the talent around him. All he has to do is be a competent passer. We have good receiving options, he has a strong arm and Taylor and the running game makes the job far easier. Do people really not remember that Hornibrook led us to a 13-1 record and a TD away from getting into the playoffs in the B10 Championship game? I didn't watch the Badgers in 2009, so no, I would almost guarantee I didn't. I mean strong wording to say Hornibrook led them anywhere. The defense led them there and running game ran the offense. Unless by default you just give the QB leadership credentials. In my opinion Coan doesn't have the sheer talent level to take over an offense and lead it...Mertz does, but he is also a freshman and producing is a way different ball game than just having the talent. Coan is basically a guy who is sent out there and be average...that's what you hope for because with Taylor and their running game that will make the offense great. Sure maybe Coan magically changed over the offseason...but unlikely.

He definitely holds a little value for a trash team hoping to strike gold. Could maybe get bullpen help using him if they target big league help.

How many threads do we need on this? It makes zero sense for Moustakas and I’d say Grandal is a pipe dream. Moustakas makes $8mil if he picks up that option. A $2mil pay cut from this year...that is not happening. The Brewers would take him back at that paltry amount all week long at worst...so what is he risking? Essentially nothing by declining. Now Grandal...didn’t have a market last year. $16mil isn’t the worst if he doesn’t think his market will be strong. He has been pretty bad for awhile now. Certainly not helping his cause as the season winds down. Still, odds he takes a mutual option and doesn’t test the market...very unlikely. At worst someone would pony up similar money for one year. Though he has the risk that the Brewers could move on taking away a possible option to sign with. As $16mil is a lot of money and we may put it towards pitching if he declines.

There is no way Moustakas will price himself out of Milwaukee.

COME ON PEREZ! You can’t get behind in the count!

I can almost bet Coan>Mertz He is a freaking freshman QB...no reason to toss him to the wolves. Coan isn’t going to lead this team anywhere so after he struggles in multiple games he will be sent away for Mertz. Let Mertz get comfortable and get into a groove as a freshman.

The last game I was at I was sitting down the RF line about even with the super shift second RFer. Every single time Arcia came over for the shift he spent time staring into the crowd between every single pitch. One time looking back at the last second to be ready for the pitch. Not sure if he does this all the time or if he does it at SS too...but man it was strange. You got 8 guys focused on the game and one who is waiting for the pitch to be done so he can go back to looking at a pile of nachos or something. Which isn’t to say players don’t stare into the crowd or mess with the crowd between pitches, but Arcia had to keep looking back to make sure he wasn’t missing the pitch and all he was doing it blankly staring at something every single time...and that isn’t exaggerating it. Just an observation. I don’t think his loss of playing time at periods the last two years and Counsell(?) essentially calling him out for his defense is only because of poor play. I think there is more than just playing bad going on that they aren’t exactly thrilled with.

WOAH SOLVDD

NEVER.A.DOUBT

This box score may be one of the most insane in history. What on earth.

Guys I think Yelich is healthy.

You know, your constant bashing of CC is getting beyond old. That's like 5 negative jabs at him tonight, in just the time I've been watching the IGT. Please stop. When he starts making better decisions then I will stop, deal?? We are in the 12th inning. Good bullpen moves pretty much don’t exist anymore.

Do you think CC has the balls to send Hader back out there for the 10th? What else is he going to send out there?

Haha, I noticed that too. Zonked. How anyone could sleep through that noise is unbelievable. She has to be passed out, she didn't move an inch that entire inning. Are we...uhh....erm, sure she is still with us? Literally?....

That was one of the most impressive choke jobs I have seen in awhile...wow Nats....just wow.

Haha wow Turner...that is embarrassing.