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...and there goes Yo's no-hitter.

That is great to hear. I have a question though. I bet most of the young guys at that level are on pitch limits. wouldn't that mean the bullpen would end up getting way overworked? How does that all shake out?

Another great start by Jeffress the other day. Last year, I was skeptical but now I am starting to get excited about this kid! I like how Jeffress has not gone any longer than 5 innings in a game. It's good to see the Brewers being smart with the young guys. The farm system is starting to look pretty stocked again now that all our top prospects from a few years ago have reached the majors.

Personally, I?m all about loyalty. In fact, I feel like part of what I?m getting paid for at my job is my loyalty. But ? if there were somewhere else that valued that loyalty more highly, I?m going wherever they value loyalty the most.

If someone feels that the bar was irresponsible in serving Hancock ..or for any bar serving any intoxicated person for that matter, they must also believe that all bars should have a two drink maximum. Afterall, that is all it really takes to go above the legal limit of intoxication. Or the bars could get around this by having bouncers not only check for ID's, but also check for designated drivers. If 4 people go into a bar, the bouncer could make sure one has committed to being the designated driver, and they could all have wristbands with matching numbers. When they leave ..the bouncer could check the wristbands to make sure everything checks out. Sound familiar? It should because this would be very similar to the process that Chuck E Cheese's uses to ensure that children are going home with their parents ...Children. Adults need to act like adults and govern how much alcohol they consume. Also, there have been many times that I have been over the legal limit and there would be no way for the bar to tell. How should that be handled? What is next? Should McDonald's turn people away if they try to add a McChicken to their Big Mac value meal? That would obviously be way too many calories and could contribute to obesity and high cholesterol ..thus leading to death.

Fatter Than Joey, Listening to your arguments makes me want to stay inside my house for the rest of my life. There is no telling what misfortunes I could contribute to while going about my daily business. I supposed even while staying in my house, I could still get myself into trouble. I could buy autographed 8x10 photo of Prince Fielder on Ebay, the seller could turn around and spend the money on cocaine and then proceed to take a lethal overdose. I suppose I should have done a background check on the sellar to make sure he wouldn't use the funds to harm himself... Face it, Hancock is responsible for what he did. What angers me the most is the fact that the establishment that served the drinks is being sued. Since they offered to set him up with a ride home, it seems to me as if they excercised more responsibility than the average establishment would. The bottom line is that a 29 year old man made some very poor choices that night. Rejecting a ride home - Check Driving drunk - Check Failure to wear seatbelt - Check Speeding - Check Talking on cell phone - Check Marijuana in the car - Check Chances are, he had made these same choices many times before. This time, he decisions ended in tragedy. I think what happened was very unfortunate event. I feel a great amount of sympathy for Josh and his family. What his father is doing however is wrong. Not that Josh's father owes it to anybody to help inform people of the dangers of drunk driving, but he could be using this as a platform to do so. This story could be about the poor choices that Josh made and it could really drive home the fact that no one is invincible ..that it can happen to you. Instead, his father is basically saying Josh would have been fine driving drunk if all these other people didn't screw up.

I remember when we got Capellan from the Braves. Some of us were wondering why Atlanta was willing to trade him. Maybe they knew something. They usually do seem to know something when they trade someone. I can't count how many highly regarded prospects they have traded in the past 5 years who have never been heard from again. Meyer Capellan Belisle Nelson Bong Spooneybarger ...etc

I think that it is interesting that the pitching projections total up to 3,291 wins and 3,290 losses. I wonder how this is supposed to happen when there are only 2,430 games played per year. I know that they are only projections but I put zero stock in them. When I see things like Prince being projected to hit 22 home runs it makes me think that the logic is not credible.

I would consider that deal as well if, as you stated, Mulder was deemed to be healthy. Our pitching rotation is very weak, in my opinion. This is what it looks like: 1. Sheets - Great pitcher, will he even stay healthy though? 2. Capuano - Good pitcher, ERA should be around 4.00 3. Bush - Mediocre, could easily have a 5+ ERA this year. I woudn't want to rely on him to be anything higher than a number 4-5 pitcher. 4. Vargas - Sorry, but I have not seen anything from this guy to cause me to believe he is a quality SP. He pitched well against us last year, to snap our 5 game winning streak to start the season and people were complaining about how we made such a bad pitcher look so good. Now he plays for us and people seem to think he is a good SP. I just don't get it. 5. Villanueva - Looked great last year but seemed to pitch better in the majors than he did in his minor league history. Was it a fluke? I hope not. Don't forget though, many young pitchers come up and look great in their rookie years (Zack Duke) only to look terrible in the years after. I am pulling for him and comfortable with him in the 5 spot. You have to admit, if this was the rotation for the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Tigers, Cardinals, or any other team expected to compete for playoff spots ......Everyone would be knocking their Starting Pitching and calling it a weakness. If the Brewers ever want to get better, they are going to need to replace their Claudio Vargas' and Dave Bush's. I am sorry, but that it just how I feel. Imagine if Sheets goes down again, we will likely be looking at a rotation of: Capuano Bush Vargas Villanueva Jackson That scares me....and I don't think there is any way we could play .500 ball with a rotation like that. To be quite honest, I am worried about playing .500 ball with Sheets in the rotation. By adding a healthy Mulder, our rotation would look so much better: Sheets Capuano Mulder Bush Villanueva Thoughts?

I know he is coming off some injuries and all but due to our lack of activity so far, maybe this is a topic we should revisit. The possibility of moving Mench and/or Jenkins for quality starting pitching seems to get slimmer every day. I don't know if we are going to be able to bring in a solid pitcher to replace Davis via trade. I have heard rumors about Jon Leiber but I do not think he would even be an upgrade over the other pitchers we have in the mix. We need to bring someone in who is clearly a step above what we have. As of right now, it looks like there are only 3 good FA pitchers left out there: Jeff Suppan Barry Zito Mark Mulder With Mulder coming off of a terrible season and an injury (which I do not know a whole lot about) maybe we could get him for a good rate. Could he be a Jermaine Dye type signing like the White Sox experienced?

Thanks for all of the Power 50's that you have done. You have always done a great job and I have yet to find a brewer prospect list that is more accurate, in my opinion. Good luck with whatever it is that is consuming your time and as Raider Tim stated, hopefully the next producer/s of the Power 50 will be able to do as fine of a job as you did! Thanks again!

Could someone please explain this to me. I am unfamiliar with the rules regarding the MLB draft. Thanks.

No I am not. Please enlighten me! I am an operations management major and quality control/assurance falls under my qualifications. I am always looking to learn new things!

Does anyone here think that the Brewers will select him again in the draft? I hope that they do, I am disappointed that we didn't get him to sign. I do however have to commend him on going to college to get his education. Does anyone know what he is going for?

I didn't really mean EVERYONE. But many of the projections seem off base. 29 home runs for Carlos Lee? I thought that was far fetched ...or near fetched if you will. Do the projections take "contract years" into account? Haha, I know they don't , but if I were generating projections it would be a major factor.

Any ZIPS on Gross, and Dave Bush?? I don't buy any of them, I am just curious. I think that they underestimated Hall and Davis ...I just think they are way off for everyone. What do these projections take into account? Do they take age, improvement, injuries ...and yada yada yada into account? Or are they purely statistical? Or are stats relating to all the yada, yada, yada, incorporated into actual statistical performances to generate the projections? Or do 3 fat guys get drunk and whip them up?

After coming to grips with a better understanding of six sigma and statistical process control, I am wondering if it could be applied to baseball. Perhaps it could be used to detect processes that "out of control" and signal the early stages of slumps before they are actually deemed "slumps". I also think that by gathering random samples from a players history of perhaps 14 consecutive at bats, a person could compute a range and confidence level that a player will perform in that range. I know that applying six sigma to baseball would not help players hit, unless it could help them to detect slumps in their early stages and work out kinks faster, but it could definately be of value in determining what players are the most consistent and what players have wider ranges of performance according to their samples. If a team is looking to sign a FA, and is looking for someone who is beneficially consistent, they could use some of the philosphies of six sigma to find them. These FA may also be flying under the radar and come at lower costs. The other question to be determined would have to be whether or not a consistent player is better than an inconsistant, within reason of course. Would you rather have a player on your team who will hit 1 homerun every week, or would you have a player that can hit 4 in a week every 4 or so weeks and carry a team for a period of time. I have plenty of details that I could go into and I plan on trying this out over my winter break. If anyone is actually interested in this topic, I will elaborate, however it would be senseless for me to ramble on if no one cares. So, does anyone care? Has anyone ever tried this before?