paul253

While I am thrilled by the emergence of Thornburg and Khris Davis, I am equally disappointed by guys like Rogers, Kentrail Davis, and Jimmy Nelson. It's nice seeing Schafer hitting again and finally being healthy, and it's nice seeing guys like Green, Gindl, and Bucci have some success. Gennett, Peralta, Scarpetta and Heckathorn haven't really taken off but they haven't really taken a step back either so I guess you can't complain. I'm excited to see how Jungmann, Bradely and our second round pick (his name eludes me right now) do once they sign. Overall, I guess I'd like to see more guys have success but considering how few true impact players are in the system you can't complain too much. The Brewers need to be much more aggressive with their players though. Seid seems to favor more of the safe college players in his drafts which is fine I guess, but if you're going to do that they need to advance quickly. There is no reason for Khris Davis to be in BC right now. Schafer I think should be moved up. Wooten should be moved up. I'd be ok with Komatsu moving up even though he's really struggled lately. I'd also like to see the Brewers draft more toolsy, high ceiling high school players then they have been lately.

All these promotions and Khris Davis is still in A+?

Whats new with Rogers? Did he end up having that surgery or is he trying to rehab his carpel tunnel syndrom?

I put in a little water pond in my backyard garden. And when I say little, I mean little. I think it's just a 10 gallon little liner. I was wondering what kind of plants or flowers would be good to fill this thing with. I am not familiar at all with plants or flowers that grow in water, other than water lilies I guess, so any suggestion would be helpful.

If anyone can have a higher batting average then on base percentage it's Yuni. Maybe some of his at bats are so bad that it negates something he did in a previous at bat?

As Melvin doesn't draft or develop anyone, I agree that I have zero faith in him. It was Z's and now Seid's job to draft talent and was Nichol's job to develop it, though it appears now that Tunnell may be pulling the strings with the pitchers. Ultimately he has the final say, well he and Mark A. I suppose, over who the Brewers draft. I realize he doesn't do the scouting but he is still responsible for the pitchers selected. He is also responsible for hiring the scouting director. He also is the one making trades. He traded for guys like Zach Jackson, Jose Cappellan, and Jorge De La Rosa, none of who had much success in Milwaukee.

By the way Rivas hasn't been horrible, but it's the guys like Thornburg and Jungmann who figure to be fast tracked that are the future of the rotation as soon as 2013. Rivas hasn't been terrible, but his ceiling was low enough to begin with. Now his walk rate is up, his strikeout rate is down, and his is very inconsistent. As far as Thornburg and Jungmann being fast tracked, I'll believe it when I see it. I can't remember the last pitcher Milwaukee has ever fast tracked. Thornburg will spend the rest of the year in BC, all next year in Huntsville and then start 2013 in Nashville. Jungmann, assuming he experiences success, will follow a similar path but be a year behind. I have zero faith in Melvin drafting and developing a good pitcher and that will not change until he's developed more than one (Gallardo). I had hopes for Peralta, Rivas, and Scarpetta, but until they reach the majors and have success you can't give him credit for them. Same deal with Heckathorn and Thornburg. He's had far more busts (Frederickson, Adams, Lintz, along with soon to be busts Arnett, Nelson and Miller in addition to all the other pitchers drafted in his tenure that didn't turn out) than he's had successes. Greinke is a far better pitcher than anyone Milwaukee has in the system. They are still a much better team with him than without him. He's been inconsistent this year but has a good track record and he is still young. I'd have no problem signing him to an extension right now.

Greinke's trade value would be much lower than it was when the Brewers got him. For one, he'd only have a year left on his contract as opposed to two years. Also, when he was in KC you could always argue he was the really good player on a really bad team. Well you can't really say that anymore if he pitches on a first or second place team. Plus it doesn't look like we have any in house replacements for him right now. Peralta and Rivas are both pitching poorly, have been all year. Scarpetta is inconsistent and others like Heckathorn haven't had enough success to be considered possibilities for a rotation spot next season. I think Melvin may be better off approaching him now about an extension. His value is a bit lower but he's not exactly Jeff Suppan. Something has to give though as Greinke, Marcum and Wolf are all free agents at the same time. If Melvin doesn't sign at least two of them I could see Milwaukee falling back into being a 4th or 5th place team really quickly. All that being said, if you could get one good, high level, high ceiling pitching prospect for him, I'd probably do it. I'm thinking of someone who had Pineda or Hellickson's value last season. Maybe someone like Teheran, Matt Moore or Jacob Turner. I'm not sure how realistic those possibilities are, but I wouldn't want to take any chances on a A-baller.

I don't think we necessarily need to trade Hart for pitching. While it'd be ideal, it would also limit the return some. I'm not necessarily advocating trading Hart because we desperately need pitching prospects. I'm more so advocating it because we have so many outfield prospects that are a year or two away from the majors and because Hart's value was at it's peak last season and I don't want to see it fall back down. Likewise, I don't want us to be forced to hang on to all these outfield prospects forever while we try to figure out what to do with them (exactly what they've done with Gamel. Luckily it looks like we will finally have a spot for him next season but usually it doesn't work out that well). While we could always use more pitching, I think you need to approach it like the draft and get the best prospect available. A shortstop would be great and I'd be ok with a 3rd base prospect too as Gamel is now a first basemen and Taylor Green is far from a sure thing.Catching prospects Tyler Robers and Cam Garfield have done nothing this season so catching would be an option if you can get a good one. Getting pitching in return for Hart would be ideal, but I don't want it to be pitching or nothing because as others have said you might not get much.

I didn't think Mitre was pitching all that badly. It seems like a lot of bullpen moves are being made just for the heck of it.

Rickie Weeks absolutely cannot hit or lay off a breaking ball. This is why his strikeout total is so high. He saw 4 pitches, all outside of the strike zone, and swung at all of them.

I will really question the wisdom of this organization if they don't bring up Gamel. I could understand Green as well because he can spell both McGehee and Weeks defensively but Gamel deserves it and this offense will be better with him in there.

Yeah I can't stand the WWE. It's like a soap opera. Unless you have been watching it for awhile, you have no idea what's going on. I do watch TNA though a few things bother me about it. 1) They used to have a great tag team division which has pretty much disappeared. Beer Money is still around, and the Motor City Machine Guns are still going although one of the guys is hurt. But LAX is gone, Team 3D is gone, The British Invasion was gone until just recently. I rarely see Generation Me or Ink Inc. anymore. The Tag Team division in the WWE is virtually non-existent so TNA could really make some headway with a competitive tag team division with regular teams, not just pairings for two singles wrestlers. Back in the day the WWF's tag team division was amazing. Demolition, Powers of Pain, British Bulldogs, Hart Foundation, Strike Force, Bolsheviks, Brain Busters, Killer Bees, Fabulous Rougeaus (sp?) Conquistidors, Legion of Doom. I could go on. Eric Bischoff ruined some great tag teams in the WCW, most notably the Steiners and Harlem Heat. I see him doing that in TNA as well. 2) Having Ric Flair stay with Immortal as opposed to going with Fortune, the group he started, makes zero sense. 3) I'm not sure if this is where they are going with the X division, I hope so, but they need another title belt to help boost up some of the other wrestlers. There is too much talent for one championship belt. It can be something like the Intercontinental Championship where the up and comers get to be champion to further boost their status. Someone like Crimson could benefit from being able to be champion for awhile. 4) Enough with the Angle and Jarrett already. It feels like they've wrestled at the last 6 pay-per-views. Hopefully with Angle the new #1 contender we've seen the last of it. 5) Do more with the homegrown talent. Styles and Samoa Joe deserve to in the discussion for the title. I understand you need to feed the egos of guys like Angle, Sting, and RVD, but WCW relied too much on free agent talent as opposed to building up their own guys. I don't want to see TNA make the same mistake.

If the Brewers pushed their prospects a little we could see whether or not Komatsu were able. He'll never bring the same kind of power as Hart, but I do think he'd be an upgrade defensively and with the OBP. Next season when Fielder leaves it'd be nice to utilize Weeks' power a little more by moving him down in the lineup. Morgan and Komatsu at 1 and 2 would be nice place setters for Weeks, Braun, McGehee and Gamel.

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So I finally got my wish with Ross and Thornburg moving up to BC. I'd like to see a few more moves (Kamatsu, Kh. Davis) but I'm definitely interested in seeing how Thornburg performs in BC.

That situation right there screamed for a bunt by Weeks. It has always bothered me that certain people seem to be immune from bunting in situations where it is obviously called for. Braun and Fielder I can understand. Weeks not so much.

It's become apparent to me that Melvin HAS TO upgrade shortstop. Betancourt has become a major liability in the lineup and this team is already inconsistent enough. JJ Hardy would be ideal because not only does he play good defense, but he'd be a popular player in Milwaukee from day one. Baltimore isn't going anywhere and will trade him for the right price. He won't take an arm and a leg to acquire but I think it needs to be done.

This is it. If the Brewers really want to win the division they need to get some separation over the next month. I'm talking like gaining 5 games on St Louis. It's going to be tough with the schedule but there's no excuse not to gain on St Louis when their 3 best players (Pujols, Holiday, and Wainwright) are hurt.

I don't really think the Brewers have had to deal with too many injuries, as least compared to most teams. Greinke a month is the biggest loss, but when guys like Morgan and Saito are some of your biggest injuries, that's not too bad. Don't forget about Hart and Lucroy and now possibly Marcum. And Parra and Stetter too...not huge losses but because of their injuries they had to go with Daniel Herrara. You saw how that little experiment turned out.

I only watched a few pitches but the ones I did see seemed like his velocity was down. Can someone tell me how his velocity looks tonight?

Yeah looks like something with a muscle. Maybe miss a start or two but nothing serious. I hope so at least.

Because of this stupid DH no DH problem there will never be a perfect solution. I say just decide. DH or no DH. I don't care which it is but pick one. Then you can have three 5 team divisions in each league and mix the schedule up all year long like every other professional sport in America. Or just add two team and make four divisions with 4 teams each and figure out a better way to divide up the revenue amongst the teams so that one franchise doesn't have a payroll of $202 million while another team has a payroll of $36 million. I love MLB, don't get me wrong. But there are so many glaring problems that don't exist in other sports that I just scratch my head and say "Why don't they just fix the stupid rule?". Can you imagine if, in the NHL, Alexander Ovechkin got to go to the highest bidder because he is from Russia while Sydney Crosby had to be drafted because he is from Canada? Can you imagine if, in the NFL, the New England Patriots were awarded 9 extra draft picks because of free agent losses and picked 10 times before Carolina got their second pick? Or what about in the NBA. Washington selects John Wall but he decides "you know what, they are not giving me as much money as I want so I will just go back college. I'll try it again in a few years and see if I can make more money then. If not, I'll just enter the draft again for a third time and keep doing it until I get what I want." What if Jerry Jones and his $2 billion dollars could just outbid every other team for any player he wanted and had no salary cap whatsoever? What if the NFC North had 5 teams and the AFC South had 3? Would you, as a Packer fan, think that was fair? I realize some of these comparisons aren't entirely fair, but you get my point. These problems are staring MLB right in the face and they aren't doing anything about them. It's not that I don't like some of the ideas people are putting forth here. Some of them are very creative. But doesn't it say something about the state of MLB when realigning divisions based on payroll has about the same chance of happening as them finally picking between DH or no DH for every major league team?

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Yeah his last three starts were pretty good before this. Maybe he's throwing too many strikes.