BillScottCanRake

Happy Birthday Brian and Patrick!

I remember her from Ghostbusters.

Col Flagg. One of my favorite TV characters.

...when I hear "playing the game the right way", I'm assuming they're talking about smart baserunning, hustling when appropriate, and protecting the plate on 2 strikes. However, in my opinion, it's a label often applied to players that suck. I agree with that. You hear all about how guys like Counsell and Kendall and Kapler "play the game the right way", but you rarely hear that same thing applied to someone like Braun. It is almost as though stars get by on talent, while role-players get by on grit and guile and hustle.

There is no way that Weeks will be shopped this offseason!!! Everyone needs to get that through their heads!!! I'm pretty sure the front office is banking on him tapping into his ridiculous potential and won't be willing to sell short on the former 2nd overall pick in the draft. Hall and Hardy are completely different stories!!! I think that if someone is of the opinion that Rickie Weeks may be traded this offseason, that's a pretty valid opinion, even if you don't agree with it. Valid enough that if someone holds it they shouldn't be told to "get that through their heads!!!" And, please save some exclamation marks for the rest of us. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif From Keep Brewerfan.net Beautiful 2) Posting threads with subject lines like this!!!!!! In our FAQ we ask that people avoid excessive punctuation. If one person adds two !!'s to their thread, and some adds three !!!'s, it becomes a raise to whose subject line is the loudest. I would hope that when someone posts a thread, it's well thought out and worth of people's attention. Unless it's something like "Brewers win the world series!!!!", it's just a thread. It's best just to avoid yelling in the subject lines completely. Thanks!

Once a pitcher blows a save, he isn't eligible to get a save in the same game. So, once Torres allows the tying run in the 9th, he's no longer eligible to get a save no matter what happens. Therefore, when he comes into the game in the bottom of the 10th it's not a save situation for him, and he therefore can't blow another save. That's too bad. I can't take too much credit for the idea, tho. I remember a game in the '80s sometime where a pitcher game in to face a hitter, then he was moved to LF for a single hitter, then he moved back to finish the inning. I was to say it involved Mike Marshall, but I can't say for sure.

Once Torres blew the save in the 9th, he (realistically) could only get a win, loss or no decision. Could a pitcher get credit for two blown saves in a game? Technically, I think the answer is yes, but it would never happen. Here is how I think it could be done. - Torres allows the tying run in the bottom of the ninth, blowing the save. With two outs in the 9th, Torres moves to LF and Stetter gets the last out of the inning. - The Brewers score thee in the top of the 10th. At that point, because he completed the 9th, Stetter becomes the pitcher of record. If Torres shifts from LF to P for the bottom of the 10th he could, theoretically, blow a second save if he gives up three or more runs in the bottom of the 10th.

Why is this sort of situation so hard for so many people to execute? http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/cthawkinson/traffic.jpg I don't know how many times I have seen the driver making the right almost fade into the left lane (and a driver making a left) and vice-versa. There are two lanes, both should be able to make their turn at the same time.

turn signals aren't always "necessary" IMO. If someone needs to or might need to see the signal, I will use it. But if noone is within a certain distance of me, I will just turn or change lanes... The problem with that is when a person thinks there isn't anyone within a certain distance of you, but it turns out there is. I have been saved twice from getting into an accident because someone making a no-look lane change at least had the courtesy to signal, allowing me to react accordingly. I think that everyone, even the best, most vigilant driver, is going to miss seeing a car from time-to-time. At least if they signal I can get out of the way.

PM sent Jamie.

Just to address this one point which seems to be a common argument against, what if the score tonight is 11-2 after 4 or 5 innings? Who would you rather have working in that game, Dave Bush or Carlos Villanueva. Personally, I'd be happy to let Bush eat those innings and have Villanueva available tomorrow night if needed. I agree absolutely. I don't have any problem with that situation. I'd use Bush and, if neceesary, Mota in a game like that and save everyone else for a game that is winnable. I guess my fear is a situation where you can't use McClung because he already pitched and is recovering, and you can't use Bush because his next scheduled start is coming up, maybe Wednesday or Thursday of this week, for example. Maybe that situation won't ever come up, or maybe if it does come up it's no different than just having two relievers unavailable. Like I said, maybe that situation doesn't come up, or maybe it doesn't matter. And if it truly doesn't matter, I am more than happy to cross this off my list of worries. Beyond that, nobody ever said he is so bad he[/i] shouldn't pitch (on the road[/i].) What has been said is that they think it is worth a try to have him make his starts at home and have McClung make the starts on the road, so perhaps we can put the argument that he can't be used on teh road to bed right now. I guess I can see that. At the same time, he's not getting his starts skipped on the road because he's good or because McClung is great. Maybe saying "he is so bad he shouldn't pitch on the road" is a bit extreme. But, he does apparently pitch more poorly on the road (for whatever reason), and if that's the case (and it is), isn't it possible that he's susceptible to pitching poorly on the road from the pen? Maybe it doesn't matter if he's only going to pitch in lost cause games anyways. Like I said, even tho I am not in favor of a home/road platoon, I can be convinced otherwise. I'm not entirely convinced, but I less against it than I was, if that's any consolation.

This has been a pretty interesting discussion. To be honest, I am not sure how I feel about the whole home/road platoon idea. The Dave Bush Man of Mystery article presents some compelling data that this may be more than just random noise and bad luck. Normally I'd say Yost looking to correct something that isn't a problem, that the difference in home and road splits is just random noise, bad luck and/or not worth worry about. In this case, however, it does indeed seem like Bush has some sort of issue pitching away from Miller Park. Just what that issue is and how much it affects him seems to be unanswered at this point. So, while I am not against Yost trying to eliminate bad starts by Bush on the road, I do have three issues with the platoon idea. 1- Having two different fifth starters could have an adverse affect on how many guys are available in the pen. Will there be times when both Bush AND McClung are unavailable solely because of the platoon? I understand that neither Bush nor McClung could pitch ever day out of the pen, but trying to manage their throwing so they can make their next start, while one is recovering from their last start could leave the Brewers a man short in the pen at times. If that happens, you are really going with a 24-man roster and an 11-man pen, which is a pretty big risk to take in the middle of a playoff race. 2- If Bush's problem is pitching on the road, the isn't it a problem whether he's starting or relieving? If this is true that when Bush pitches away from Miller Park he is so bad that he shouldn't pitch, doesn't Yost have to not only manage McClung and Bush so they can make their starts, but also manage the pen to ensure that Bush is available out of the pen only at home? That's going to make things pretty complicated, isn't it? If that's the case, isn't Bush unavailable this whole four game series against the Cards? Again, that seems like pretty big thing to have to work around. 3- Is McClung the answer to pitching "on the road"? While I agree he's been better than Bush on the road this year so far, I'm not sure I'd expect him to continue to pitch as well as he has away from Miller Park. He may well, but based upon how he's pitched before he came to Milwaukee, I don't think it's a slam-dunk that he will do so the rest of the year. I guess at this point, after writing this post, unless someone can easy my worries (particularly 1 and 2) I'd come down against the platoon. Not necessarily because I think the idea of not pitching Bush on the road is bad, but it makes bullpen management infinitely harder, and McClung is just as likely to have a road-clunker as Bush. I'm not sure the potential benefits outweigh the potential problems. Even tho I'm against the idea, I'm glad that Yost seems willing to pull the plug on this pretty quickly if it doesn't look like it is going to work. I don't agree with him on this issue, but it looks like he's smart enough to give this idea a short leash.

If in some unlikely event I were to win, I won't accept the tickets, as I won't be able to make the game. That said, I'd still like to play. I, too, like Ron Mahay from Kansas City. So I'll say: Mahay for Robert Hinton and Brad Nelson and the ever scrappy PTBNL.

My wife went thru the same things. She graduated in December 2005 and has had one long-term semester long sub job between then and Sept 2007. In Sept she was hired at 75% time last year (bumped to 85%) this year. She had a lot of the same things happen to her that happened to you (lots of applications, not many interviews). Between the time she graduated from school until she got her job last September, she subbed like crazy. I think she subbed in 8-10 different school districts. That not only looks great on a resume but it gives you a lot of practical experience you can take into an interview. My wife's had much better interviews as she has gotten more experience. If you can afford to live subbing, its a lot better for your future than taking another job outside teaching. The other piece of advice is to take any teaching job you can get if you can afford it, even if it's 50%. Not only are you gaining experience, but most job openings are posted internally first, and if they are not filled then they are posted for everyone. That gives you a much better chance at a job than you might otherwise have if you weren't working for that school or district. Good luck, and hang in there best you can. Once you get that first break, things will probably snowball from there.

I've got a rhyme that comes in a riddle O HI O Whats round on the ends, high in the middle O HI O

Is it possible Brewers nixed his consideration before it was announced due to possible Sept (or earlier) call up? I don't know the protocol on this - do ML teams have veto power? I wondered about that, too, but I thought other players had already been pulled from the game for that very reason. That doesn't meant the Brewers didn't ask for him to be removed from consideration, tho...

I wonder if Hamilton was better off (as far as being remembered goes) hitting 28 first round homers and losing than hitting 10, 10 and 6 and winning? I am pretty sure five years from now everyone will remember that Hamilton is the guy who hit 28 home runs in one round, and most will either think Hamilton won or they won't remember that Morneau did. Sort of like Tin Cup. He didn't win but he's immortal.

seeing as no Brewer pitcher has ever started the all-star game (that I recollect, at least), it is a tremendous honor Sheets is definitely the first. This was a Trivia Question during the WMLW broadcast the other night. I like the idea that he's gonna start rather than relieve. I think it keeps him closer to his normal routine. And the fact that is is only two innings will keep him sharp for his start on Saturday.

So here's the challenge to the statheads: give us a breakdown of how the Brewers have fared over the last X years vs. SP's (or pitchers in general) with ERA's within certain ranges. Do we really score less than the opposing pitcher's ERA when it's 5+ and above ERA when it's 3 or less? I guess my question would be more like: How does the Brewers performance against +5.00 and sub-3.00 ERA guys compare with that of the rest of the league? Why would I ask that question? Because we watch 150+ Brewer games per year and tend to remember beating up on Yohan Santana while being shut down by Mark Redmond. If you see that sort of thing often enough it's easy to conclude "Dang, the Brewers do really well against the best pitchers, but when we face bad ones we are terrible." But most of us haven't seen enough games by other teams to know whether or not what the Brewers are doing is being done by most of the rest of the teams in baseball or if they are odd-balls. We don't see (or remember) when Diamondbacks do the same thing, or when the Yankees beat up on Josh Beckett and King Felix and are shut down by Carlos Silva and Garrett Olson. And even if we remember the occasional game, most of us don't watch 150+ games played by another team. I really wish I had the time to pick another team outside the Brewers and watch them closely for a full year to see if a lot of the perceptions fans have about the Brewers are accurate or not. I suspect that in general Milwaukee performs roughly the same as most other teams do when facing guys with higher and lower ERAs. And I suspect that most fans of other teams probably feel the same way we do.

Just a quick note. It's Branyan (with an a), not Branyon. Melvin and Co have been talking about adding a LF bat and reliever for several weeks. There is no doubt those are weaknesses that need to be addressed. Identifying a need and filling it smartly are two different things, tho.

To answer the question "[is] CC willing to stay long-term?", I think the answer is "Absolutely!" Milwaukee is competitive and from all accounts they have a great clubhouse. That being said, he's still going to be after a huge deal. And while he might consider playing here but not, say, Minnesota or Pittsburgh, that doesn't mean Milwaukee will get a discount. If he turned down 18 million per year from the the Indians, I doubt he'd take 18 million to play here.

Unless a deal is WAY to good to pass up, I would not trade Escobar, Gamel, Hardy, Hart, Fielder, Gallardo, or Parra. Just about anyone else would be fair game. Did you forget to add Braun to that list, or would you trade him for the right pieces?

Yeah, why not. Do you think he is going to say: "nah, don't put me on the post-season roster, my arm will surely fall off should I pitch 171 innings (or 180 or whatvever arbitary number you want to pick)". I don't get all the fretting over this, don't know much about it, but my impression is there is not much evidence behind this innings guidline that some are so worried about Parra exceeding. The line of thinking is not "When Parra reaches his innings limit he is going to be injured", but rather "For younger pitchers who are still developing, yearly increases in innings pitched above 25-30 innings increase the odds of an injury". For a pitcher with a history of arm troubles who only exceeded 100 innings in a season once since 2003, I think that is a big deal. As has been pointed out the team did not seem overly concerned about this last season with with Gallardo Gallardo was removed from the rotation after his June 29 start and not returned until July 19 when he replaced Ben Sheets in the rotation, with the Brewers in the middle of the playoff chase. In between he made three relief appearances of 2.2, 2.0 and 4.2 innings, with the last being in relief of an injured Ben Sheets. Assuming that he missed three starts and would have gone six innings in each, that's 9ish innings that were shaved his totals from last year. I suspect he would have remained in the pen longer if not for Sheet's injury. To me that is showing concern about his workload, even tho it didn't work out quite like the Brewers had hoped it would. Additionally, Gallardo progressed nicely from 121 innings in 2005 to 155 in 2006 (plus playoffs, I think another 7) to 200 combined innings in 2007. While his increase last year that is a little on the high-end, a 38-inning increase for a guy without a history of arm troubles is much different than a 60+ inning increase of Parra remains in the rotation from now thru the end of the playoffs. Again, it's not cut and dry, so I certainly can't say someone is wrong for wanting to let him pitch. Given his injury history and how important he is to the 2008 and 2009 Brewers, I hope the team is smart about managing his workload from here on out.

I guess I was defining clubhouse cancer as it related to his direct interaction with his teammates. I think he could probably get along with the other 24 guys well enough for a couple of months without someone getting punched. But I 100% agree with you that the media would be a chemistry killer, and I 100% agree with you that I don't ever want to see Bonds put on a Brewer uniform. Hopefully the threat of shutting BF.net down is enough to make sure it never happens.

doing the math....Parra has roughly 14 starts left in the 2008 season. If Manny averages 6 innings in those 14 starts that would equal 84 innings. Add that to the 93 innings already pitched this season and that equals 177 innings pitched through the 2008 regular season. Ride the pony while he is hot. And what if he makes 4 more starts that average six innings in the playoffs? That would be 177 + 24, or 201, or just short of 66 more than the year before. Would you let him go that many innings? I am not saying it's wrong, I'm just curious how far you'd let him go. As for my own opinion on this, I tend to agree with Toby (AndThat) that it would be nice to see him sitting at 155 innings at the end of the year regular season. If he's at 155, even if he makes 5 7-inning starts he's "only" at 190. And while that is definitely higher than I'd like to see him go, it's a lot better than 200-210. It limits the wear and tear on his arm and still gives Milwaukee a good shot at not only making the post season but doing well when they get there.