strawbossisevil

Personally, it frustrates me. Because you know in the game threads people are going to off about how bad of a defender is everytime he makes in error. When, in reality that isn't what makes him so bad. I think people should try to have an accurate understanding of their players' strengths and weaknesses. And stupid nicknames like YunE-6 are only going to encourage such ignorant posting in the game threads. I don't think it is nitpicky, I think it is wanting people here to actually be capable of intelligently recognizing Yuni's strengths and weaknesses. It's like coming up with a nickname that suggests Yuni's batting average sucks. It isn't his BA that is the problem, it's that he seems incapable of taking a walk. I know that Logan is just eager to bag on Betancourt (thus the signature), but at least bag on him honestly.

Nah, YunE-6 rolls off the tongue better. Alcides E6cobar is a little unwieldy. Besides, Escobar doesn't play for us anymore so I really couldn't care less how he does especially now that he is in the AL. Call him whatever you want.Ok, fair enough. Part of the reason I'm opposed to it is because I do want others to be actually informed on our team's players. But if you want to make an unfair assessment about one of our players because "it sounds good", that is your choice. Who here is a fan of Ryan "brains but no" Braun? Sounds really good to me, just rolls off my tongue therefore it must be a good nickname! Go Crew!

Then, let's be sure to call the Royals shortstop Alcides E6cabar because if E-6 applies to Betancourt, then it more than applies to E6cobar. Part of a good nickname is having it actually describe the player. How about instead...Y Bet on Y. Betancourt?

The point is, Betancourt turned a higher percentage of the balls he got to into out than Escobar last season. He isn't a player who will have a ton of errors (he only had 18 last year). His problem is range. How about leave the corny nicknames out if they don't actually describe the player. Ryan "Best Range" Braun, might sound catchy, but it doesn't actually describe him as a player at all. Edit: At least JosE-6 Hernandez' nickname had some factual basis to go on.

You do realize that Betancourt had fewer errors and a higher fielding percentage than Escobar did last season, right? His problem isn't errors, it is range. (Might need to consider changing your Betancourt nickname, it doesn't apply).

Which below average, past his prime shortstop are you suggesting we should have gotten? Truth of the matter is, there wasn't much out there that was even much of an improvement on Betancourt. Also, I'll add that having a below average SS in the playoffs will not be as appealing as having an average/above average shortstop in the playoffs. When the Crew is making their playoff roster I'd rather have Furcal in there than Punto. As for Melvin suggesting that they add Betancourt to the deal, I guess I'm not convinced that actually happened. I think that is Melvin not trying to make it sound as if Betancourt wasn't someone the Royals forced upon the Brewers in the Greinke trade. (I could be wrong, but it is a hunch I have that makes a lot of sense IMO). You don't want to come across as dissing your own player.

Exactly. If you are going to whine, at least make sure it's about one of his weaknesses.

Most of the "upgrades" were guys in their mid to upper 30s and trending downwards. Some who hadn't played a full season at SS in a few years. Add to that, no one is going to trade an average to above average shortstop at the start of the season. So, if we want average or above average performance at SS, we have to wait until a team is willing to give up such a player (like Furcal). All that were available on the FA market when we got Betancourt in the Greinke trade were aging below average MLB SS. I can already tell, too, that people are going to be whine everytime Betancourt makes an error this season (I've already seen it in the game threads). Never mind that he had less errors last season than Escobar. The problem is not his errors, it's his range that makes him a below average fielding SS.

1) Young players need regular at bats. You don't develop when you are sitting on an MLB bench. Facing AAA pitching everyday is far better for player development than facing MLB pitching once a week. 2) The Royals are not going to be in a playoff race this year, so playing the hot hand (Cabrera) while waiting with Cain potentially earns them an extra year where he'll be part of their organization. This seems like a common sense move to me.

Fixed, per what was stated during yesterday's broadcast (which I referred to twice now in this very thread).

The way things currently are perceived by the management, per yesterday's broadcast, the only way Nieves would be starting in a playoff game is if one of Kottaras or Lucroy would be on the disabled list.

TooLive, they talked about that during the Royals game broadcast yesterday. That has more to do with Nieves being Gallardo's personal catcher this spring than the opinion the coaching staff has of him. Everything I've heard (per yesterday's broadcast) is that Kottaras will be getting the majority of the starts not pitched by Gallardo.

Lucroy isn't a scrub, he's an up-and-coming prospect who was rushed last year due to injury, he should improve. Gomez is one of the top defensive CFs in the league, and over a season will probably be a win or two over replacement minimum, even more if he finally breaks out. Betancourt is a replacement level scrub, but that's about it. I would put McGehee in the "proven" category right now, he is an above average 3b. Wolf is an above average #4 pitcher. I'd like to see a current team that has stars waiting on their bench rather than "scrubs". The majority of teams have benches that look exactly like the Brewers.

I think part of the issue with Boggs is that a lot of smart baseball people don't view young players as good players to have on the bench. There might be something to the idea that young players do best when they can get regular at bats, whereas an older more experienced player can draw from their career experience in pinch hitting situations in games that are close. As others have mentioned, Kotsay is going to be the #5 OF once Hart comes back, he shouldn't be starting much at all and his time in the OF should be limited. This seems like a current attitude among most MLB GMs, not just Melvin. These players aren't robots, and experience certainly can play a part in certain situations that can't exactly be measured by comparing Bogg's minor league statistics and Kotsay's statistics. I think Melvin made an attempt to buck this experience trend with Brad Nelson, and came away more convinced in the importance of game experience in the team's 25th man.

With Furcal, Reyes, Scutaro and Rollins all available, I think we can use some of the money saved from Fielder moving on to sign one of those guys. Furcal is a guy I'd love to have on a 1-2 year deal while we develop a SS in the minors.

Right, because Gamel is seen as Fielder's replacement next season. That doesn't mean that if a situation were to come up where one of our top players were to go down that he would be incapable of filling in that role. He certainly has the experience to fill in at any of those four positions.

...Betancourt wouldn't be horrible in that situation as at least he has the HR power capable of tying the game. When the only other viable FA options are in their mid to upper 30s, and likely to be only marginally better, I think the complaining will be largely overdramatic. There are no FA shortstops that would be considered a go-to type of guy in the bottom of the 9th. At best, those other FA SS might get on base only 3% more often than Betancourt, and with less power.

No news that I´ve heard. Although he has experience at 1B, 3B, and corner OF. I´m sure he´d prefer playing one of those positions in the MLB over playing in AAA. I don´t think Kotsay would be a long term guy in LF/RF if either Braun or Hart went down long term. Heck, if it wasn't for Gamel going through an injury himself this spring, he might be up with the team playing in RF on opening day.

I guess this would be a fair argument if I had the daily habit of making such complaints. I haven't posted here in a long time, largely because I've been turned off by the repetitive nature of the discussions/posters.

Any team that has an injury to a star player in their starting lineup is going to be in trouble. And the fact that the Brewers have 5 offensive players who are above average with the bat are no different. However, I don't share the pessimism. Here's why. If either Hart, Braun, Fielder or McGehee goes down long term, I think Gamel would be brought in as their replacement. And while Gamel may not be able to equal the production of a Fielder or Braun, he'll probably be capable of putting up an OPS in the low to mid 800s. In CF we have Morgan and Gomez who are essentially the same player. So an injury to Gomez wouldn't be a huge drop off. At SS Bentancourt wouldn't be all that hard to replace with a waver wire replacement with very minimal drop off. Same is true at Catcher, baring a big season by Lucroy (although I think he has the talent to put one together). The only position where a long term injury would significantly impact the Brewers is at 2b. Going from Weeks (a top 5 2b) to Farris would be a significant drop off. While an injury to a starter would hurt (as is true for any MLB team), I think the Brewers have decent options at almost every position were a major injury to happen.

I don´t think there will ever be a time where the Brewers go "far enough" in the eyes of some posters. And that's my point. We have put together perhaps the best lineup/rotation combination since the days of Yount/Molitor. I think obsessing over the fact that Reed will be on the team for a week or two (until Hart gets back), or the fact that the last guy on our bench is Almonte is making mountains out of very small molehills. That is just my glass half full perspective, I guess I'm just sick of people repeating the small negatives over and over again ad nauseum in post after post while not adding anything new to the discussion.

The Brewers have put together perhaps the strongest opening day roster in the past two decades and all I see on this site is complaint after complaint, usually from the same people, like some broken record. Princeeatmeat (among others), I think we understand how you feel about Kotsay, Bentancourt, et all. Seeing the same things written over and over again has made this forum practically unreadable IMO. This Brewers team is very good, and while they have a few imperfections, so do the overwhelming majority of MLB teams that have similar salary limitations as the Brewers. I understand that some may be more glass half empty type people, but repeating the same lines over and over again gets tiresome. As for the whole Cruz situation, it is too bad that we lost him. Although I am excited to see if Farris can develop into a SS. The guy has shown that he has the tools to hit, if he can continue to develop his glove together with his bat, he could be an exciting player.

Break Out - Mark Rogers - He will come up mid season and will finish the year with an ERA in the high 3s as a starter giving the Brewers' pitching staff one of the deepest rotations 1-5 in baseball. Disappointment - Bentancourt. He'll be a black hole in an otherwise strong lineup.

I lived in Orlando last year. You can actually get closer to the launch without going into the park and paying for the tickets if you go down in the area where the cruise ships come in to Cape Canaveral. Be sure to get there early! Traffic for a launch is always ridiculous.

Crew07, I like that you realize that you are on your own island here. But what I don't agree with is the disparaging remarks about the knowledge of those on this website. Especially when looking at the minor leagues. One of the more popular aspects of this website is the ability to follow the entire system, including the minor leagues. We have a lot of people who are very knowledgeable about the minor league side of the Brewer's club, and despite that, they recognize that this move gives the Brewers perhaps their best shot as an organization over the next few seasons (could be longer than two seasons if they can extend Greinke/Marcum). The Brewers could have just sat on their hands this offseason and done nothing. Where would we be in the next three years if they decided to take that approach? (I'm guessing 4th or worse in the division for at least the next 3 to 4 years) Would we be likely to make any playoffs over that time by staying in house? (I seriously doubt it) How would the lack of competitiveness effected the Brewer's payroll? (As attendance would certainly plummet with the Brewers not being competitive) I'm sure there are 29 other teams that would have loved to have a farm system like Tampa Bay did these past few years. But how did they get there? They got there, in part, by being basement dwellers for a decade. To their credit, they took advantage of that draft position to draft some great impact players/pitchers, and used their top pick (Young) to get a guy like Garza. But now that they have been competitive over the past few seasons, their farm system is not nearly what it was at the end of their abysmal decade. Your views always strike me as idealistic, but not realistic. Yes, ideally the Brewers should be trading their players for young cost controlled ace-level pitchers. That would be the ideal. But the reality is that few teams, especially in this economic climate, trade young cost controlled ace pitchers. Ideally the Brewers could build a World Series champion team without the addition of any Free Agents/trading minor leaguers for established major league players. But the reality is that no team, even your posterboy Tampa Bay Rays (which strangely enough has gone through their first major wave of talent without a WS championship), has won World Series without some Free Agent/trades for veterans. Idealistically, the Brewers should be the best at evaluating and developing our minor league players. In reality, expecting our minor league evalution and development to be #1 in MLB year in and year out is impossible. Idealistically, the Brewers would identify players primed for break out seasons (Greinke 3 years ago, Marcum 3 years ago etc.). The reality is that none of the other 29 teams recognized them as primed for a break out season either. You then dump on Melvin when he fails to live up to this idealism. You express your frustration that he isn't able to make the idealistic moves you want from him. Moves that often have no place in reality outside of your own mind. Here is the reality that I'm happy to embrace. Before Doug Melvin, the Brewers had never gone to the playoffs in my lifetime (I was born 1984). Over the past few seasons, the Brewers made an incredibly exciting playoff run (bolstered by an astute trade for CC Sabathia) and are primed to go for an additional pair of runs over these next two seasons (with a rotation and offense that could/should both be top 5 in the league). We are in the middle of a high point in franchise history. I am going to choose to enjoy it, rather than be disappointed that our Baseball America ranking isn't very high and a rebuild might be a few years into our future.