strawbossisevil

Glad to see some discussion of the World Cup here. Watching the selection show was awesome. One thing that was driving me up a wall was the Mexican ESPN Deportes announcers going on and on about Mexico being in the "group of death". I think that is absolutely ridiculous. They are playing the weakest team in the whole tournament (South Africa), the last place team out of South America's tournament, and a team that wouldn't have even made the tournament were it not for a blatant handball. Yes, South Africa is at home. But they are rated (by FIFA so take it with a grain of salt) worse than any of the teams that played in the Concocaf final. No team should lose to them. Yes, Uruguay has won a World Cup before. But that wasn't recent, and they had to beat Costa Rica in a playoff to even get into the tournament. Yes, France is ranked in the top 10 by FIFA, but despite being runners up in the last World Cup, they have undoubtedly taken a large step backward since. The only people I hear calling group A the "group of death" are Mexico fans/announcers. I think the rational behind thinking this way is the following...If Mexico doesn't make it past the group stage, it becomes an excuse (yeah we didn't qualify, but look, we had to endure the "group of death"). And if they do get through the group stage, it will become something to pat themselves on the back for (we are so awesome, we got through the "group of death".) The only group I see that could qualify as a "group of death" is group G, and even that group has a weak link (North Korea). All in all, I thought that the groups came out fairly evenly and every first round group should have a fair amount of difficulty even for the top seeds. I can't wait for the World Cup to start, after the US's victory over Spain, and first half performance vs. Brazil I really think our team is starting to turn the corner. I think it is advantageous that we have two European opponents as I think our counter attack style is most effective against those styles of play. US vs. Britain should be a great match up. I wonder if the South Africa crowd will identify more with their former occupiers, or with the USA as a country that also gained independence from British rule.

Riebes, is that just your opinion? Or do you have insider information that suggests that Wolf is going to be signed by the Brewers? Saying "book it" seems to suggest the later since I see no way anyone could be/act so certain about us getting a certain pitcher based on the large amount of FA pitchers on the market that we've been linked to. (Smoltz, Washburn, Davis, Wolf, Harden, Mulder....)

Maybe this has been mentioned before in the thread. But would a deal of Gamel, Salome, Cain, Butler get this done? Or Gamel, Salome, Cain, Rogers? This would be contingent on us being able to sign him to a four year deal. I like the idea of 4 years for $40 million as it would give us a pair of ace quality starters locked up for the next 4 seasons. Add a pitcher like Harden or Wolf to the rotation along with this trade, and I really like it. Gallardo Johnson Harden/Wolf Bush Parra

Agreed with what everyone is saying. If we can go out and ink Harden and Wolf, I think that will give us a very strong rotation. Is there anyway we could afford signing both? Gallardo Harden Wolf Bush Parra I really think we need to sign to of the following four: Harden, Wolf, Bedard, Sheets. Those are the only four worth spending FA money on in my opinion (assuming the report is true about Lackey looking for a Zito type contract).

I have a lot of respect for coach's opinion. I think there have been a few circumstances that have set him back in the eyes of many as a prospect. 1) Being his illegal substance suspension. 2) His injury riddled career (to this point) 3) The fact that his body size and swing are unorthodox 4) The fact that LuCroy has performed very, very well on both sides of the ball last season, while Angel struggled to remain healthy 5) Questions that have been made (fair or not fair)in regards to his dedication - (his injury issues, his not participating in winter ball, etc.) I think a lot of these negatives are not entirely fair to Angel, but they are probably what impacts much of Angel's perceived prospect status. I think some people need to remember that this is a discussion board. Not everyone is going to have the same opinion, and there is nothing wrong with disagreement (even disagreement with insiders). As long as posters come across as being honest and non-derogatory (I think this describes coach's style of posting well), I see their posts as valuable to the discussion. Where I have a problem is with deceptive/dishonest posting and posting that is demeaning or mocks the intelligence of other posters. I don't care who you are (insider or not), no one has the right to post in that manner.

Apology accepted. Thank you for clearing up that he is not planning on going on any visits.

You do realize that your "not feeling you had to do that" has caused you to waste far more time coming back over and over to the same thread to try to defend your misleading initial post. Clarity is important, and by not being clear you insulted the intelligence of the others reading this thread. If you are going to post about a situation here, all anyone asks is for you to be honest and clear. I think you of all people, as a representative of a group of players, should understand the importance of clarity in communication. We all owe that to others whenever we try to communicate, regardless of the size of the group or the topic of discussion. Also part of being an adult is fessing up when one makes mistakes. How much rage and frustration could have been spared simply by saying, "yes, I could have clarified that better, sorry." Problem solved, just like that. You do that, and this discussion ends two pages ago.

Well Butler has admitted to be working on secondary pitches and not throwing some of his more dominate stuff. I don't think you can take a lot away from his numbers. If he's focusing on developing secondary pitches against top level talent he is going to get torched more often than not.

Can you be more condescending? The idea that the only way our team could get two years of Hamels is by giving away those two players is your opinion. Nothing more.

I personally think it's ridiculous that a team can purchase the rights to the best 3 FA starting pitchers to come available over the past two seasons. How is anyone supposed to compete with them when they are intent on buying an ace pitcher (or two) to add to their already stocked rotation? Like another poster above said, give them their trophy right now, and let the other 29 teams play for their own title.

Here's how I see it. There was no way we were going to be able to afford to keep Cameron and upgrade in pitching in a significant way. On top of that you have Cameron likely regressing. Adding Bowden who had a 2-1 K/BB rate last season in AAA would not be very good. I think he tops out as a #4/5 guy in the majors. Word out of Minnesota is that Gomez has shown signs of being more than a mere slap hitter. He's shown great power in BP, but so far that power hasn't appeared in the games. He's young though, and there seems to be a lot of hope that eventually it will show up. As Ender pointed out, the trends from last season speak to improvement. And when you consider that he had a very unlucky BABIP last season, we are buying low on him. Yes, we all wanted more of a sure thing, but if Gomez is able to put it together in the next year or two, we could have a very good center fielder. I think this team, while they may not admit it, is really looking forward to 2011 to make a big run at the title. I think it's possible that they make a go at a Lackey with the money they saved, along with an injury risk pitcher (Sheets, Bedard, Harden etc.), but even with pitching like that, I just don't see how we are going to make the playoffs next year. I think it will be a year where we bring in a lot of youth, looking for a 2011 payoff (which should also coincide with a huge influx of young pitching). Next year our offense will be adding a lot of young bats who are going to need a season of seasoning: Gomez, Escobar, Gamel, Salome, Lucroy, Weeks (getting back to where he was before the injury) . Our team is going to be full of high potential guys next year (you can add Parra to that list), and if a couple of them step it up, who knows, maybe we'll even compete. I think the idea of having Gerut platooning with Hart is brilliant. I think that would work out very, very well and would be a huge offensive upgrade in RF from last season. That upgrade would likely make up for some of the offense lost going from Cameron to Gomez.

Right, but the thing is, unless I misunderstood his point, he is not saying that half of all pitchers are getting F grades. If he is saying that he is grading it not in quin-tiles, but having it more like high school/college (<60% get Fs, 60-70% get Ds, 70-80% get Cs, 80-90% get Bs, 90-100% get As) then yes, a B- grade would make sense for Gallardo. But then I question some of his other grades (cf Suppan and Looper).

But my point was that you just can't get rid of pitchers based on an IP count, because the majority of SPs not reaching that inning mark were worse than Gallardo. That fact can not be ignored, and that fact clearly would push Gallardo's numbers into the top quin-tile, especially in ERA, which I think is the best measure of success when looking at results (while other counting stats may be better for predicting how he'll do in the future, ERA gives the results of what he was able to accomplish with those numbers this year). I understand that he is in the NL and that might help him a bit, but when you consider the fact that there are a lot of bad pitchers that you are throwing out for not having a sufficient number of innings, and when you consider the fact that Yo Gallardo is a great hitting pitcher. I don't see anyway anyone can justify a grade below A-/B+ (with B+ being very pessimistic). Rating him as being in the bottom third of the second quin-tile is utterly ridiculous IMO, especially when you would add hitting into the equation.

I'd be all for signing Webb and Bedard to one year incentive laden deals (perhaps with team options for a second year). We could then use our trading chips (Hardy, McGehee or Gamel) to land pitching prospects that we can add to those already within our system (ones who are a year or two away from being in the majors). The hope being that in a year or two, we can fill in our rotation with prospects. I know that is a somewhat risky move bringing in two recently injured pitchers, but I think the upside of the moves would make it worth it. Hopefully add a more effective Parra and Bush and that makes for a very competent rotation with Suppan serving as a solid option as a 6th starter/long reliever.

I think it is helpful to look at grading the players as dividing the position up into quin-tiles. And breaking those quin-tiles up in three ways to determine the exact grade (A+, A, A- etc.). I don't think we can throw out all the pitchers who didn't meet the minimum inning requirements since the overwhelming majority of them would fall into the bottom two quin-tiles as far as results (which could probably be clearly shown by averaging the results of those who did not pitch the needed number of innings). I don't think there is any doubt that Yo fits into the top 20% of starting pitchers in the league. His ERA stat, for example, if we are to assume there to be 150 rotation spots in the league, would almost certainly put him in the top 20% of pitchers. For example, Zack Greinke would be in the top third of the top quin-tile. Therefore he gets an A+. I think Gallardo would fit in the bottom third of the top quin-tile, therefore he would get an A- on the season. I don't think it would be justified to dock him much for missing a couple of starts as I think he would still be in the top quin-tile in games started this season. While assessing future stats stats such as K/BB rate, HR rate, GB/FB rate might be better. If we are focusing on results, on what actually happened this season, I think ERA is the best stat for pitchers because it is focused more on results, which is what we are grading here, rather than forward looking projections. I think for hitters OPS or OPS+ would fit best for grading purposes as it measures their run production (although defense and ABs would also have to be taken into consideration). One other thing to consider about Gallardo is that he is probably in the top 20% of all hitting pitchers too. I don't think that would change my grade on him, but it's something to think about.

Nope.

Maybe one of you could help me understand what's going on. I just bought a new laptop, a Gateway. Anyway, it has 4GB memory, an Athlon 64 x2 QL-64 processor, and Windows Vista 64 Home Edition. While running it, the screen occasionally goes black (although it still is backlit). This has happened a couple of times after it sits on screensaver for a while. Although it also has happened a couple of times while I'm using the computer. Once the screen goes black it doesn't come back on and I have do a restart. I should mention that this isn't a problem with it going into hibernate, as I turned that off. Any ideas as to what the problem could be? This is my first time with Vista 64, so I'm wondering if it is just a case where it's a buggy program (I'll be updating to Windows 7 once it comes out). Thanks for your thoughts.

That deadspin article was worth reading for this comment alone, I´m still crying from laughing so hard.

Going back to the thread where I talked about how Prince Fielder has anger management issues. I listed a number of reasons for my opinion, this situation just presents another one. Can´t wait until he´s no longer a Brewer.

McGehee was recognized as one of the top defenders at 3b in AAA last season. I imagine his lack of range and errors have much more to do with his bum leg than his natural ability. I think once he gets that fixed, he´ll go back to being an above average defensive 3b, unless in the past year he somehow forgot how to play a position that he excelled at in the minors.

Agreed about not telling him the password. Going through the doors sans password is one of the charms of the place.

Victor Santos is not Mexican though, he´s from the DR.

Mods, feel free to move this to a different forum if appropriate. I am currently living in the Mexico city of Torreón and have season tickets to the baseball team here in town "Los Vaqueros". Tonight I witnessed a complete game outing by the Vaquero´s team´s starting pitcher, none other than Victor "the Vampire" Santos. I can only imagine the lengths a player has to fall to go from playing in the majors to playing in the Mexican league (I imagine salary down here is significantly less here than in the minors back in the States). And while his stats are not very good this season down here either, he did pitch very effectively tonight (especially considering the little league quality defense playing behind him). All in all, it was a trip down memory lane to see Victor Santos once again dealing for a team I was cheering for. http://www.minorleaguebas...p;t=p_pbp&pid=276343

Going off of the original post question, I think our team would only be successful like the Red Sox were (when they featured Ortiz and ManRam) if we had top of the line pitching like they did. We need at least one, if not two top flight starters in the rotation with Gallardo. Hopefully a Hardy trade will bring one back, and hopefully we can develop one in the next year or two.

I think if Gallardo was going over 120 pitches per game, than we´d be talking abuse. But finishing around 110, that´s fine, especially since he doesn´t tend to pitch a lot of high pitch count innings.