brewerfan82

I have a friend that recently moved to Baltimore and I was wondering if anyone had any tips on finding good deals on round-trip flights. There isn't a specific time I want to go visit, but I want to keep an eye out for any weekend deals that might pop-up, even on short notice. Any advice? Thanks!

To be fair, the JSOnline article left out some quotes Braun had about the offense not getting the job done as well. This is from Adam McCalvy's article which seems to be quoting the same Braun conversation as the original post: I for one love Braun's candidness.

1 vs NYM (1-0) 4 @ CHC (2-2) 3 vs STL (2-1) 3 vs LAD (1-2) 4 @ CIN (2-2) 3 @ PIT (1-2) 3 vs ATL (2-1) 4 vs WSH (3-1) 1 @ SD (1-0) Record: 15-11 Prince - 7 HR's Braun - 5 HR's Hoffman - 8 Saves Tiebreaker: 20

I agree that I'd much rather have Hart than Francoeur, but it'd be great to add another nice young pitcher like Jurrjens. And while Francoeur might not be attractive as a centerpiece to a trade, I would think he might be valuable to a rebuilding team as a throw-in in a deal as a player who's still in arbitration for the next couple years. Maybe we could swing Francoeur along with a prospect to another team for a bat to replace Hart. The following players could be nice additions (albeit, I have no idea who's actually on the block): Luke Scott (.357/.508/.864), Adam Dunn (.400/.529/.929), Brian Giles (.277/.271/.548, but he's only one year removed from a nice line of .398/.456/.854), or Scott Hairston (.386/.566/.951) If we could swing a couple deals that landed us Jurrjens + Scott/Dunn/Giles/Hairston for Hart + Parra/Jeffress + a couple second-tier prospects, I'd be all over that. Am I over-valuing Jurrjens?

Here's the excerpt from Ken Rosenthal's article today: Any possibility we could swing something for Jair Jurrjens? I'm not sure why they'd consider dealing him, but I don't know who else we'd want unless they ate some of Lowe's or Vazquez's contract. Also, seems like if the sticking point of getting something done is that the Brewers don't have a replacement for Hart and the Braves need to find someone to take Francoeur... the obvious solution is to include him in the deal. What would it take to get a Jurrjens/Francoeur deal done? Hart plus... Jeffress? Parra? Any other ideas of what might work between the two teams?

I've wondered the same thing, however, someone with great range will have more plays that overlap with one of his corner outfielders. So it's possible that some plays that would require him to make a great play would already be covered more easily by another player.

Is everyone counting the July 1st game against the Mets on purpose? 4 @ FLA (2-2) 3 @ ATL (1-2) 3 vs COL (2-1) 3 vs CWS (2-1) 3 @ CLE (2-1) 3 @ DET (1-2) 3 vs MIN (2-1) 3 vs SF (2-1) 2/3 vs NYM (1-1...2-1 including July 1st) 15-12 (16-12 including July 1st) Prince: 6 HR Braun: 8 HR Cameron: 3 HR Total: 17 HR

Similarly, Ben Nicholson-Smith at MLBTradeRumors.com responded with his best guess for Peavy's destination in yesterday's live chat:

The Cardinals are NOT classy. They're a regular peanut. They just happens to have a cane, a monocle, and a top hat.

I still think with the number of righties in our lineup, it's more important to keep the lefties we have on the bench than to swap one out just for the sake of having a righty. We don't need a right-handed bat to compliment Prince at first, and the rest of the lineup rakes against lefties and should only have days off against righties, in which case a left-handed compliment would be beneficial. In the case of pinch hitting scenarios, with most teams having only a couple left-handed relief options, most of those pitchers will be saved to face Prince (who you're not pinch hitting for) and possibly Gamel (and if Gamel's in the game, you have Hall on the bench if you really want to pinch hit for him). So most often, our pinch hitters will be facing right handed pitchers anyways. At least, this all seems to be the case logically to me. If anyone can find the splits on how many pinch hitting at-bats we've had against lefties, that would be cool. But I'm guessing it's not high since McGehee has only 16 at-bats total on the year as our only viable right-handed hitter off the bench. That said, I could see the case to replace McGehee with a veteran right hander, especially now with Gamel adding depth to the corner infield spots. With little need for a player that actually plays on defense much (hey, we went with Nelson to this point...) we could probably get away with replacing McGehee with a Grudzielanek, Alou, Durham or even Frank Thomas (although that's mostly for my own amusement!). I also still wouldn't mind us taking a waver on Edmonds over Duffy, although Duffy's defense has definitely been a plus to this point. But there's no reason to complain about replacing Nelson with Gamel (with Catalanotto available to fill that spot at times during the year).

What website are you currently using for your fantasy league? Yahoo How much time do you devote to fantasy sports? I only play in one league of fantasy baseball, but I pretty consistently devote some time to it everyday. In regards to the site specifically, what sort of things do you really enjoy about your current league setup? These could be things that have evolved over time or are staples of the site. It's free It has many league formats (head-to-head, points, etc.) with a large variety of statistical categories to choose from It has tons and tons of customizable league settings (waiver lengths, trade deadlines, etc.) It has a nice online draft component It keeps a record of your past leagues It now has some support for keeper leagues, allowing you to designate each team's keepers before the draft It has an easy-to-use team management system (changing starters, etc.) It has links to your players' games for that day so you can quickly check their games' progress via Yahoo's GameChannel, a Flash-based game tracker (and it even highlights your team's players) It notifies you when your pitchers will be starting (and even your hitters once they have the games' lineups) What sort of things do you dislike about your current league? It doesn't have a mobile site that is easy to navigate from a phone. It would be nice to be able to easily make team management moves on the fly from my cell phone. Their live player tracker (which also gives you a live look at your fantasy scorecard for the week), StatTracker, costs extra money. They could have more support for keeper leagues. Like transferring the rosters from the end of the previous year into the new year so each team can designate their own keepers, rather than handling that off-line and having the league commissioner manually input each team's keepers before the draft. It could keep more information from previous years' leagues, such as a transaction log (this would have been helpful for determining some of my keeper league's nuances such as not being able to keep any players that ended the year in one of your fantasy team's DL spots) What improvements would you like to see made? See previous question What sort of things do you consider unnnecessary? While the extra pay services are nice, I don't want to pay for anything. So I guess those are unnecessary http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif What other sources (other than the host site) do you use for fantasy information? The major sports websites (ESPN, CBSSportsline, etc.) Anything I can google Have you tried multiple sites for fantasy sports, and if so, why did you switch? I haven't used a different site in years because Yahoo is so comprehensive, customizable, and FREE If another site were able to meet your needs as a fantasy participant, would you consider moving your league? Yep! But I'm pretty happy with Yahoo's service either way.

Haha, well I guess I'm a sucker for words that rhyme! The only way it could be better is if it was "Hack! Whack! Back! Track! Wall! Ball! Gone! SO LONG!" But seriously, I kind of like it. Although, I've only heard it called twice so far, so we'll see how it stands after hearing it over and over again.

I generally really like Brian Anderson, but he does lay it on thick and gets pretty annoying during no-hit bids. I switched my audio source over to Uecker at the end of yesterday's game and dealt with the time lag between tv and radio. I'd rather hear Ueck's call of a no-hit game anyways. By the way, anyone else digging Provus' "Back, track, wall and GONE!" homerun calls? I really like it and I think they picked an excellent choice to fill Powell's shoes!

I think this thread needs to be renamed "Victor de los Vizcaino: Myth or Legend?" I tend to mix Valerio de los Santos together with Luis Vizcaino in my head at times and I understand the Victor Santos/Valerio de los Santos confusion, but this thread is a little hard to read, haha.

Just went to Madison East on my lunch break and picked up one of the new design Therma jackets (I think it was the last one, they had quite a few of the satin ball and glove logo ones though) for $24 and a retro Yount jersey for $52! I was one day late for getting the additional 15-30% discount, but it was still a heck of a deal!

I was actually thinking the same thing... I would hate to have rain delays and slick fields potentially risking another Gallardo injury. Sorry Jeff.

Work never stopped me! Today's grocery list: Cat food, conditioner, jelly, and hot dogs! Go Brew Crew!

I don't know why he was ineffective last year, but how can you possibly say he's "major league average" and that it was a "terrible signing"? The five seasons before last year he posted ERA+'s of 119, 117, 135, 122 and 191 and has a career ERA+ of 124. I don't see how that's even close to major league average nor how that would indicate he would have a down year last year making the signing terrible.

I'm not interested. Outside of one game in RF, the only three positions he's played in the past 5 years are LF, 1B and DH. And I don't see him getting much more time in LF or at 1B than he would at DH... His stick is a little nicer than Counsell's off the bench, but he couldn't provide the necessary backup on the infield that Counsell does.

I'm also on the McPherson bandwagon. He'd provide a lot of insurance at a position that is full of "ifs" in the organization. Worst case scenario: We lose a Thorman-type player from AAA Best case scenario: We have a top notch 3rd baseman for the next few years We add a lefty stick to a righty dominant lineup Hall replaces Counsell as a supersub player Gamel is allowed to shift to a position where his defense isn't as much of a question mark If you trust Hart in center, a much more balanced lineup including Weeks, Hardy, Braun, Fielder, Hart, Gamel, and McPherson could be sick in 2010. I still consider McPherson a top-notch talent and I hope Melvin does too.

Someone makes one of these every April Fools and I always have a heart attack before realizing what day it is! The timing is just too perfect for these things, lol. I remember a few years back when someone posted a Lyle Overbay for David Wright trade... Man I really wish that one had happened!

Thanks for all the insight! All of your advice and experience are a real help for us! I'm continually amazed by the Brewerfan.net community! If anyone has any additional/specific advice or experience regarding: Travel/safari agencies to go through Countries to visit (especially to see a broad range of wildlife; elephants, cats, primates, etc.) Parks and landmarks to visit Or anything else to add, that would be fantastic! Thanks again!

A friend of mine and I are planning a trip to Africa and I was wondering if anyone here had any experience and/or advice on this. We haven't narrowed down exactly where/what we want to do yet, but we're thinking of spending about two weeks there sometime in 2010 and hoping to keep it under $5000 each. Although, we want to make sure we can experience as much as we can, so we'll hold it off longer to save up more money if needed. We definitely want to participate in some sort of safari while out there and I've done some web research and found quite a few organizations that offer 10-14 day safaris, but I'm a little concerned about how trustworthy some of these places are. Does anyone have any experience with any organizations that they'd recommend going through? Thanks a bunch! And any other advice concerning the trip, safety, things to experience, etc. would be much appreciated!

I was going to make fun of the inclusion of this toilet pic... but it does singlehandedly prove the place is nicer than Wrigley Field! http://img4.uploadhouse.com/fileuploads/3548/3548774efcb07ab39a4f20447d47c690573c80b.jpg

I absolutely love Conan, but it took him a couple years to really come into his own and if it weren't for Andy Richter, I don't know if the show would have lasted long enough for him to become what he did. Same can be said about Craig Ferguson, it really took awhile for him to find his niche and grow on me. I think it's really hard to judge a new talk show host on his first two episodes, so I will continue to watch and see how it develops. I agree that I was unimpressed with the first monologue, as it seemed too text-book talk show monologue-ish (if that makes sense). The second show was a little better, but I don't think the writers have figured out Jimmy's personality yet. I liked him on Weekend Update with SNL, so you would think that would translate well to his opening monologues. I think they're just playing it too safe and close to the vest at this point and it will get better. I think he has pretty good potential as an interviewer as well, he just seems incredibly nervous and out-of-place as of now, which is surprising since he spent so much time in front of live crowds with SNL. So we'll see... but I agree with KegStand, Seth Meyers would make a fantastic talk show host!