BillScottCanRake

SOSH.com has a rule that if its inactive for more than a month that thread is deleted. I think there are enough people who are here every day that it could work if the effort is put into. People check their fantasy stats every day, how much extra time is it to check to see how their player did the night before. not too much. It's not a matter of checking what someone did the night before. Anyone can check to see what happened. There are certain guys I look at every night to see how they have done. That's easy. Now, if I wanted to write something about them, that's different. I suspect that for this feature to be truly successful it's going to have to be more than links and stat lines. Going beyond that is going to take more than a few minutes a day. I spent several hours over a couple of days working on the first installment of From the Bleachers, and I had a number of readily available resources to work with. I don't want to discourage this, because I do really think that it's a good idea. But I think people should understand that to make this a feature worth having is going to take more than a few minutes a day here and there.

What did the AL have left for position players? From the ESPN.com article: Pujols and Texas shortstop Michael Young -- last year's All-Star Game MVP -- were the only position players who didn't get into the game. Ever since the 2002 event ended in an extra-innings tie, managers have tended to hold a hitter back just in case.

I think the goal is just to make the playoffs. Once in the playoffs, anything can happen. Having the best record in baseball this year doesn't mean they will win the World Series. That's why teams need to be careful sacrificing this year for next. The only way to really increase the teams chances of winning a World Series is to make the playoffs as many years as possible.

Brewerfan.net staff does a amazing job keeping us up to date, but I am sure that is a lot of work. By adopting players, the responsibility could be spread out a bit. I certainly don't want to replace any features. Instead I think this would complement them. The key, it seems, would be finding people who are willing to commit to a player and stay strong with their commitment even if that player stagnates or gets hurt. It's easy to get behind someone who's hot or got a big name like Braun or Gallardo. It's harder to stay with someone who's career has gone like Dave Krynzel. I do still like the idea, and in spite of the issues brought forth I think it can work. How well it works will be up be largely up to the users and how committed they are to making it work.

So if the Brewers are down 1 in the bottom of the 9th with a resting Fielder the only one left available, its ok for Counsell to take the last AB? Depending upon the circumstances, I'd be inclined to be more upset with Yost for letting it get to that situation in the first place than saving Fielder. Beyond that, Yost would have had some advantages La Russa didn't. Yost isn't shackled with the task of trying to get as many players into the game as possible, so it would be more difficult to get into that situation to begin with. But, if Yost ever did get into the position where Fielder was the only guy left on the bench (he never would be- it would be Estrada or Miller, but anyways), he could always use him and use a starting pitcher to pinch hit for a reliever later. While hardly ideal, hitting Bush instead of Cordero is better than letting Cordero hit for himself. La Russa was trying to play as many guys as possible while retaining a bench for an extra innings game and all the while trying to win. And while a manager might be able to get away with using a pitcher as a pinch hitter when managing their own games, I'm sure he'd get lambasted for doing so in an All-Star game. And it would have been even worse if that pitcher got hurt hitting. I don't think that holding Pujols back was a no-brainer any more than playing him was. There was a solid reason for doing so, whether or not you agree with the decision. It's way more important to force extra innings than worry about what might happen later on. So a pitcher has to hit.....oh well, they're from the NL, they're used to it....maybe not so much the relievers, but they take BP too. I don't necessarily disagree with you, though it's part of a managers job to think about these sort of "what might happen if" scenarios. So, while it is important to get the tying run across, that doesn't mean you can totally ignore what will happen down the road. At the very least, the hypothetical 12th isn't so unimportant that it should be ignored. And it's not like Rowand is a slouch, either.

EDR, correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a sizable population of Japanese origin that reside in Seattle, right? I am not EDR, but here is some information anyways. Per this web site seattle.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm, based upon the 2000 census, Japanese make up 1.59% of the population (about 9,000), while the number of people of from Asia is about 74,000, or over 13% of the population. It appears this is for Seattle proper and wouldn't include any surrounding communities. Of course, while it seems likely that season ticket holders account for the majority of the in-park income, I imagine that lots of Ichiro jerseys and other merchandise are probably sold to tourists seeing a game in person, on-line to people living in Japan, or people of Japanese origin around the US and world. Since the NBA draft, 35% of the visitors to the Bucks official website have been from China. While that in and of itself doesn't translate into additional revenue, I'd be inclined to believe if Yi signs he'll have an impact on what the Bucks take in, and he isn't near the phenomenon Ichiro was in Japan before coming to the US. I think it's probably difficult to exactly say how much an an impact he has on the franchise, but I don't think it would be an understatement to say "a lot".

Didnt Pujols play outfield for a while too a couple years ago. That takes away that excuse. That's why he didn't play, because La Russa felt that he could play OF or any infield position (yes, including third, short and second), and he needed to save someone for an extra inning game, especially since it was in an NL park and pitchers had to hit. Given the need to account for an extra inning game, I can understand why La Russa did what he did. If he played Pujols, run out of position players later, and some pitcher had to hit with the NL down a run in the 12th people would have gotten on to him for not saving a real hitter. Trying to get everyone into a game that "counts" makes managing an All-Star game a no-win situation with regard to roster management.

I'd be willing to guess injuries have much more to do with flawed mechanics than the number of innings pitched. There have been numerous studies that have been done on pitchers, and they have found that those young pitchers who have had significant increases in innings pitched between one year and the next are more likely to be injured. The Brewers are hardly the only team to do this. All teams are doing is playing the probabilities. You are right, Gallardo could slip on dugout steps tomorrow and break his arm, or bump his head and decide he wants to be a rental car sales agent. And he might pitch 220 innings this year and have an awesome career. But why go against the odds? This team is built to have a chance to win over several years, not just this year. It would be too bad if the overworked him this year, didn't win anything, and they Eldreded him for the future.

no, recte, I agree with you. One thing that surprised me is that Sickels didn't set one season with 200+ hits. I think Braun is a shoe-in for at least one. I think he also may BB quite a bit more than projected, but I do know the 'guess-ti-diction' is just meant for fun. Of course, the more a player walks, the harder it is to get 200 hits because you have fewer ABs to do it. As good as Pujols has been, it took him hitting .359 to get 200+ hits (212) in a season. His walk totals (between 69-97) are such that he's never had 600 ABs (he has had 590, 590, 591, 592, 591, and 535) in a season in spite of playing 154 or more games five times. On a side note, everyone talks about consistency in baseball. Take a look at Pujols stats for the first five years of his career and look how eerily consistent they are. sports.espn.go.com/mlb/pl...yerId=4574

I don't have a problem with the general tone of the article. I personally don't care about a players race so long as they are good, but I understand that a lot of people do care. So I understand why its important to have guys like Fielder, Weeks, Hall, etc in Milwaukee. The off-field aspect is something that shouldn't be overlooked. What I don't like the whole "I was right" attitude, because he wasn't. It wasn't "time to get more black and Latino players", it was time to be patient and let those guys in the system get to Milwaukee and do their thing, especially with Fielder, Weeks and Gwynn being in AA when the original article was written. If Kane had spent a little time on research when he wrote his initial article, he could have written about how minority fans should be excited about the future because of guys like Weeks and Fielder and Gwynn, instead of claiming to have an answer to a problem.

I think this is a great idea.

Hold on. That means if the Crew is in the playoffs, then he'd not be an option if he's reached his 80 more innings figure? That is correct. It would be nice for Gallardo to be healthy next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. And while there is no way to guarantee he will be 100% healthy in the years that follow, you can at least reduce the chance he'll be hurt by not overworking him as a 21-year old. This might be the Crew's one shot at a World Championship, and we're counting innings. That makes less sense that relying on a tennager's Camaro to save the day. This year isn't Milwaukee one shot or best shot to win a WS. They are going to have three or four good chances, and they should have a better team with a better shot next year. It might be nice to have Gallardo around to play next year. And even if this were Milwaukee best shot, why sabotage next year when there is no promise for this year? It would be a shame to have Gallardo turn into Neugubauer II, especially because management felt this was the teams only chance to win.

I believe he was on the original Brewerfan.com/net t-shirt.

I haven't seen this installment of the the Die Hard franchise, so my comment isn't directed towards this movie, tho it might apply. There does seem to be a trend towards making movies that are more eye-candy than a story. There seems to be more interest in creating stunning visual scenes that are in the movie not because they fit a plot but rather because the technology exists to add the effect. I remember the original Star Wars movies (episode 4-6) as much for their story line as their effects, even tho the effects were revolutionary for their time. There are still movies that are good stories, of course, but they seem to be less common than they used to be.

However, i dont entirely disagree. To me putting Gallardo in the bullpen to "save is arm" is dumb. If you want to save his arm, put in Nashville. Gallardo would have to move to the bullpen in Nashville, too. The Brewers have stated on a number of occasions they are going to limit his innings, so whether he pitches in Milwaukee, Nashville or Helena, he'll spend several weeks not starting. Given that, he might as well help the Brewers now by pitching out of the pen - he's a better option than a lot of relievers- and help them later - by gaining experience now he can use when he returns to the rotation. Sure, he could pitch out of the pen in Nashville, but that doesn't help his own personal development nor does it help Milwaukee as a team.

IDK What is IDK?

Semi-Final Round ? Home runs totals from the first round will carry over to the second round. ? Each player gets 10 outs to hit as many home runs as possible per at bat. ? The two players with the most home runs in the Semi-Final Round advance to the Championship Round. I haven't watched one of these in years (maybe going back to when Burnitz was in it) so I don't know the rules. But the two bolded items seem contradictory to me unless the the last one isn't right. Should that read "The two players with the most home runs after the Semi-Final Round advance to the Championship Round"? Or do only the home runs hit in the second round count towards moving on to the third?

Thanks for the hard work, everyone. Lots of good reading in there.

I just wanted to say that Braun seems like he can hit a bit.

A couple of things to consider with regard to Gallardo. First, if Gallardo is sent to Nashville, it uses an option. If he remains with the team the rest of the year, no option is used since he was added to the 40 and 25-man rosters simultaneously. That might not matter, but it is always good to have options available for younger pitchers. Second, if Gallardo is going to pitch in Milwaukee this September, he's going to have to spend time in the bullpen. I suppose if the Brewers think he'll cost them games pitching from the pen they'll send him to Nashville and let him pitch from the pen there, but I hope they wouldn't make that decision based on one outing. As for Parra, I think he'd be an excellent addition to the bullpen. While I think he'd excel in the left specialist role, I think his stuff is good enough that he can get righties out, too.

The qualification is 3.1 PA/team game played rather than ABs, or 502 plate appearances for 162 games. Should a player not have enough plate appearances to qualify, additional ABs can be added to a players total until they reach 502 plate appearances. There is an article on Wikipedia that explains it better than I could: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batting_average Also note that from 1967 to the present, if the player with the highest average in a league fails to meet the minimum plate-appearance requirement, the remaining at-bats until qualification (e.g., 5 ABs, if the player finished the season with 497 plate appearances) are hypothetically considered hitless at-bats; if his recalculated batting average still tops the league, he is awarded the title. (This policy was invoked in 1981, securing Bill Madlock his third NL batting crown, and in 1996, when NL titlist Tony Gwynn finished the year with only 498 PAs.) Also note that ESPN shows Braun is on pace for 508 plate appearances.

Does that mean Corey Hart is going to be our full-time CF? I just find it hard to imagine a gent who was drafted as a 1B would be our centerfielder for the foreseeable future. I know it was a long time ago, but Hart was a CFer and SS in HS and was drafted as an OFer. I think it speaks well of his overall athletic ability that he's move around so much. EDIT: Forgot to mention he has 17 ML games in CF and he played there some in AAA.

How much credit should Attanasio get for what has been done? It's hard to say, because one of his best attributes is he isn't a Selig or married to one. Almost any new owner would have had that attribute, too. I like Mark and I think he's done well in his short time owning the Brewers. But I think time will tell just how good he is an an owner. He hasn't really been tested yet, and once he is tested I hope that I can say his best attribute is something other than not being a Selig.

maybe during the time it might not mean anything to let a player advance one base but if that run comes into score and it effects the outcome of the game. As Brian said, if that runner scoring eventually matters, him moving to second doesn't matter, as he'd have scored from first had he remained there. Remember the Texas game? The one where we were up 3-0 with 2 out in the ninth? The first runner who got on went to second without a throw "because that run didn't matter." But it was a chance to get out number three, which we never got and ended up losing. If the run doesn't matter, why not try to get an out, which would matter. I don't see why you don't try. When a team is ahead 3-0 with two outs and a runner on first, they really don't care about that runner. Does he have to score for the other team to come back? Sure, but they don't specifically care about preventing that runner from scoring. They will trade that runner scoring for one more out 100 times out of 100. In the case of the Brewers-Rangers, to keep the runner close enough to first to give the catcher a realistic shot at throwing out the runner, Fielder (or Graffy?) would have had to hold the runner at first. The Brewers clearly felt they had a better chance retiring the hitter by aligning as if no one was on base than they did retiring the base runner going to second. It's that willingness of teams to trade a player moving up one base for better defensive alignment (not holding the runner) combined with the lack of importance of that run that makes it defensive indifference and not a steal. And that's why it is defensive indifference even if that run eventually scores and the offensive team ties or wins the game in that inning. That run was important, but the defensive team was indifferent about it.

I dunno, if I'm taking grounders off my face, and airmailing throws into the stands, at some point it is going to bother me. Grounders off the face? That's a new one... Anyways, that's why so few guys make it to the bigs, and it's why even if I had the physical tools I'd never make it. The mental portion of the game, a players ability to focus on the here and now as opposed to 10 minutes ago, is as important as their physical ability to play. That's why even when he was struggling defensively Braun was still able to pound the ball this spring. Its the same reason that Corey Hart was Southern League MVP even though he struggled defensively at third. Both Braun and Hart knew they belonged in spite of their struggles. As for Mat specifically, the dude has a 31 game hitting streak. I suspect he "knows" his bat will play, and I'd "getting hit in the face" it's not bothering him a whole lot.