MadScientist

It wasn't the record, the GM said as much. The young talent wasn't progressing, and the team stopped playing hard. RR gets some criticism around here for dropping the team out of high draft pick position (despite playing Yuni), but by playing hard at the end, there is some optimism for next year.

One of the interesting things Ned said near the start of his term with the Brewers was that the important thing was how the team would handle success. Ned and his teams were ok handling adversity, but did not respond well to having success.

Just have the catcher set up low and away and have him be late reaching up when a high fastball hits the ump in the grill. Then have the catcher say, 'oops sorry he crossed me up, but at least his face isn't grumpy.'

It's also likely that pitchers now have a better book on Segura than they did at the start of the season.

He can't be worse than Francisco. That's not much different than saying Braun can't be worse at 1st than he was at 3rd. Or simply saying he can be worse than totally unacceptable. Davis supposedly wasn't any good at first, but I'd like to see him given some more off season work just to make sure. If he still can't hack it, go with svuemrules' suggestion.

As a fan, I want the team I root for to be the good guys. It's harder to think of things that way when the star player is a cheater, liar and an arrogant douchebag. Yo's DUI was a point in time, not a saga that dragged out for 2 years. It's also easy to believe Yo saying he was sorry because his action was monumentally stupid and was of no advantage to him whatsoever. Still there were a surprising number of people defending him in that thread. Also wider philosophical discussions on DUI's cross into the realm of politics. PED's are a sports thing so the discussion can drift beyond Braun but still be on topic for the forum. In the Yo thread, Yo was called every variant of idiot that fit under this forum's rules. There was some call for trading him, and there has been plenty since the Brewers' season tanked. If Braun just took PED's and lied about it he would have been vilified, but nowhere near the level he has been. It was his over the top denials and the way he pushed blame on the collector (ignoring the current reports that appear to be false), plus bringing in friends and teammates to defend him that speak volumes about the kind of person he is. MLB has no choice but to come down on PED's hard. If PED's are not banned and the enforcement is not as strict as possible, then taking them almost becomes mandatory. It should be noted that the vilification has not come form MLB officials. It's the press and other players that are calling Braun out. That other players are going on record as strongly against other players who use PED's, is hopefully a good sign for cleaning up baseball. If any of the players who comes out strongly against Braun test positive they will be vilified by the press almost as much as Braun for their hypocrisy.

Keeping quiet will not do any good because he was so loud about is 'innocence'. Quiet will equal arrogantly satisfied with his actions and motivations, and merely sorry he got caught. Think of it this way, if you found your wife or girlfriend was cheating on you, it's possible nothing she says will ever allow you to trust her again, but some things might make it so you don't despise her forever. Genuine remorse over all his actions would be the best bet, but it will be difficult to convince people that he is sincere. Things that could help would be full disclosure on how long he's been juicing and what his motivations were when he started and why he continued. Giving back the MVP and ROY because he feels he does not deserve them would at least give some credence to his sincerity. I don't want to see tears in is apology, that would just annoy me and come off as manipulative.

Good return for K-Rod, but despite some of the comments here, K-Rod was worth it. He was pitching really well for the Crew and with his past history, he was a solid pickup for a team needing a closer / setup man for a playoff run. For once timing worked in the Brewers favor to sell high on a player.

Joe, they're all connected to the Biogenesis clinic. They were all given or sold substances that are on the list that MLB and the MLBPA has determined as banned. At least that's what is being reported to us. Everything is supposed to be confidential, so we're only getting bits of information--of suspect quality. When MLB announces the suspensions, we'll know more. Until then, we'll get teased along by TJ Quinn and the like. I'm still not hearing what these players did wrong and how MLB is able to prove it. Receiving PEDs is equal to a positive test per the CBA, and there is a paper trail indicating that some players have done so. That is what they allegedly did that was wrong. Proving that the paper trail / witnesses are reliable is problematic which is why MLB has not announced suspensions. They are trying to get their ducks in a row, and we are not privy to the details on how they are doing it.

As someone once said, it is the All Star Game, not the All Best-First-Half-of-the-Season game, so it is reasonable that the names get the starting spots. If Gomez keeps it up for another year or so, he'll be enough of a name to get votes.

That's how Francisco hits them. I watched his home run against the Cubs last week and it 3/4 the way to the fence it looked like it would be gone by a mile, then it just died and barely cleared the fence.

I can't say about tonight, but Last night it was little league night, so there were thousands of kids with their parents at the game. Even with that and the number of cubs fans there, I still think the attendance was far less than the number reported. I don't think selling will affect the attendance much because how much worse can they be? Bringing up some new kids may spark a little interest, but none of them have been hyped like Weeks and Fielder.

Seems a bit of an extreme reaction to a tweet from Arod about being cleared to play. I suspect the real reason for the reaction is that the Yankees want to dump Arod and claim injury insurance. The tweet may mean the Yankees are stuck paying his salary. Serves them right.

Part of the problem is that a plain vanilla play by play guy does not fit the format for the Brewers radio broadcast. It works if you have a good color guy with him, but in the Brewers format, the pbp guy does pbp and color at the same time. Uke is great a mixing the two, but the innings he is not doing pbp, he is gone. Block has improve greatly from last year, but I'm not sold on him in this format.

I don't care what degrees or professions people have. Ever hear of "book smart, life stupid"? Everyone is bombarded with information detailing how dangerous and stupid driving drunk is starting in grade school. Maybe too many people are willfully ignorant of the risks that come with driving drunk and need to learn lessons the hard way personally, but I just don't see how the risk of ruining one's life and quite possibly the lives of others instead of taking a cab or calling a friend for a ride is worth it in any circumstance. Do people still do it? Of course, and it's stupid. In this day and age there are multiple alternatives to get home without getting behind the wheel drunk, and if people aren't intelligent enough to use those options I'm sorry, I think they're stupid. As this article points out, most DUI deaths occur with drivers who have no prior DUI's. http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/editorial/even-the-bishop-drives-drunk/article_3c88de89-5b76-5724-9d18-d84d4aaac721.html We may not be able to say anyone who gets a DUI is an alcoholic since that has a specific definition that can't be determined from the data. We can say that they are stupid for ever getting behind the wheel drunk. People who have the mindset that DUI's are just part of the process of maturing are just helping to enable drunk drivers. Yo was a complete idiot for getting behind the wheel drunk. It will take a long time for me to ever consider respecting him as a person again.

No offense, but I wish you didn't have a job. Yo has earned condemnation. He has brought shame to himself, embarrassment to his team, and irritation to the fans. How much has Yo regularly been drinking to even be able to get behind the wheel with a .22? I found the following description: 8. BAC = .18-.25 = Drinkers are disoriented, confused, dizzy, and have exaggerated emotional states. Vision is disturbed, as is perception of color, form, motion, and dimensions. Drinkers have increased pain threshold and lack of muscular coordination. Drinkers stagger or lose the ability to walk and have slurred speech. Apathy and lethargy are typical. To any athlete worried about the free cab service not being anonymous, DUI's are a hell of a lot less anonymous.

Buying medical information may put MLB in a grey area as far as HIPPA goes. If they try to use it that information to suspend players MLB might be in an even worse position.

6 HR in 6.2 innings. He'd fit right in with the Brewers pen.

2011 Axford blew the save on opening day... Ha, good stuff. Or not so good stuff.

Davis will get 50 games this year in left field when Braun is suspended. (I wish I could put this in blue, but with the way the witch hunt is going I think it will happen.)

If I were the opposing manager and Braun was at first, I would tell every runner to take a big lead and run with every pick-off attempt, and keep running until they hit third because the throw would be in left field. Braun was as bad at third as he is good at the plate, and I don't think switching sides of the infield will make him decent.

He heard someone say that the Red Sox were shooting themselves and took it to mean it was a team policy.

I hope insurance doesn't pay. The Yankees being pinched by their own massive contracts is good in every way for the rest of baseball. It reduces the amount that the Yankees can over pay other FA's and it makes other teams leery of such contracts. And if the situation keeps the Yankees out of the playoffs, great.

He managed to win ROY, but it was a down year for AL rookies in 04. His line was only: .239 / .319 / .426 / .744 Looking at the numbers Gieinke should have won it, but being on KC probably doomed him.

Not only are there no arby hearings, but not even one player got to the point of exchanging numbers for a hearing. I guess all parties had a good idea of their worth. Nice to have no drama over hearings this year.