strawbossisevil

When are the Cubs going to stop playing over their heads. They may be a good team, I get that. But they are definitely not a .750 win percentage type of team. They have major flaws, especially at catcher, center field and in the bullpen. It's time for them to get off this ridiculous hot streak and go back to playing like they had early this season. I hate the Cubs, not because they are closely situated to us, and not even because of their fans. I hate the Cubs because they can afford to go out and spend 200 million in an off season. Just imagine how good the Brewers would be if they had the cash to bring in a Soriano to play in LF instead of the Jenkins/Mench combo. How potent would this lineup be: Soriano Hart Braun Fielder Hall Estrada Hardy Weeks/Graffy

The thing that worries me for the rest of this season about Weeks is that he hasn't hit any HR since April. His power is down big time, and pretty soon the pitchers are going to realize that and won't be walking him at nearly the same clip as earlier this season. I guess I place a lot of this power outage on his wrist. It's just a guess, but the guy hasn't been the same player since late April. The potential to be a huge bat in the lineup is obviously there for the future though (as he flashed in April). I think the Brewers need to shut him down again. Give him the time he needs to get that wrist feeling 100% and then give him the chance to go to AAA to get his timing back. Right now he has no timing and a bad wrist, and that's definitely two difficult pills to swallow for a young player like Rickie.

I think part of what Ender was pointing to in this thread is the fact that, sometimes over a small sample a pitcher will get hammered despite pitching well. Sometimes you can have your pitches working well, you can be spotting them well, and the hitters just get lucky and you end up losing. I'm not so sure that applies to Capuano in this case, I haven't gotten the chance to see any of his outings lately. But I do agree that moving him to the bullpen is probably a bad idea. He probably should have gone on a few rehab starts to get fine tuned following his injury. Also it's pretty clear, just like Bush's start to the season, that things will not continue to be this bad for Capuano. We have a large sample of innings that says Capuano is a pitcher who usually has a low to mid 4s ERA. Going forward, I think that is what we can expect from him for the rest of the season. It is somewhat funny, how we entered the season with the belief that our starting pitching would be our greatest strength, and it has instead been our biggest weakness to this point. Adding Villy and Gallardo should help solve that later in the season though, maybe. What's scary right now, is that while our pitching is suffering, the Cubs has been much much better and has been the main reason they have gotten this close to us. Or many of us would point out that baseball is a game of streaks and slumps. That same hitter might go 18 for his next 30, and it would all balance out. That's baseball. The same goes with pitchers. Baseball is a streaky game, the fact which some seem to grasp more readily than others.

How about derogatory posting. There is no debate. And I think it's just as much a personal attack to go out of your way to make someone look like an idiot, by misquoting them and using only the parts of the post. That is the behavior that can't be tolerated. It was just as much a personal attack on me. Calling someone a jerk, who just acted as such is hardly the worst thing in the world. It's pretty obvious you are going to defend Mr. 8000 posts because apparently he's more valuable to your site. Go ahead and reward his behavior.

What's not cool. I put a lot of work into putting together the original post, only to have him mock it. And more than that, to read a few sentences and mock it saying things I never even claimed to say. The only one not being cool in that instance, was Brett. Since when is it wrong to call a Spade a Spade. It was a jerkish post, and smacked of elitism. Which is what I thought was the attitude that we were looking to get rid of on this site. But then again, maybe it's ok to stroke the ego of a guy with 8000 posts.

Well thanks for the telling me straight. I can always count on you guys to do that. I think you are overvaluing those pitchers, however. Obviously Felix is a stretch. Lincecum is probably a bit of a stretch as well, not because he's untouchable, but because the Giants don't need a quantity for quality trade (their rotation is unbelievable). The team that needs multiple starters, is the Yankees. I think if you offered them Capuano and Parra, or Capuano and Bush for Hughes, you wouldn't get the rolled eyes that you guys are indicating. The Brewers aren't going to trade Gallardo because they also have a similar depth like the Giants. If they had a weak rotation, you can bet that they would be willing to trade for an established somewhat above average starter and a top prospect lefty who can also jump right into the rotation. Think of it this way, if we still had Franklin Stubbs at the end of our rotation, getting shelled and no viable alternatives. Would you keep Gallardo over the alternative of picking up a pitcher who over the last three years has an ERA right around 4, and another pitcher who throws just as hard as Gallardo, is lefty, and is carrying a AAA ERA in th low 2s (and who also throws in the mid 90s). I'd think you have to do that, since you would be removing a huge weak spot in your rotation by getting the two pitchers for one deal. And why can't we trade Bush or Capuano unless we sign sheets. Let's say we do the Capuano and Parra deal for Hughes. Here's our '08 pitching rotation. Hughes Gallardo Villenueva Bush Suppan How is that not better than: Gallardo Capuano Villenueva Bush Suppan And notice, Brett while you are in such a hurry to judge my post, that I didn't throw Jackson into any of the deals for the stud pitchers. Stop being a jerk, and start posting civilly. That will be all. And instead of just blasting my suggestions, how about you guys offer a suggestion of what we would be capable of receiving for a package of those pitchers. That would be much more worthwhile than mocking the person in the original post now, wouldn't it?

It's too bad the Crew couldn't make this work. Adding Otsuka would make our bullpen probably one of the best, if not the best in baseball. And having him until '09, would make losing Cordero in the offseason a little bit more manageable (if that were to happen).

The saying goes that you get more for pitchers midseason than in the offseason, so I thought this might be a timely thread: We have four starters who in my opinion are currently untradeable - be it for contract reasons or importance to the team reasons: Those four are: Sheets (we need him to have any shot at the playoffs) Gallardo (top prospect, shouldn't be traded) Villenueva (lights out in the Majors, should be a solid #3, pre arby) Suppan (large contract, most likely not moveable with his current numbers) That leaves these pitchers as expendable: Capuano (has somewhat above average stuff, but is about to get expensive in Arbitration) Bush (is capable of being above average, has performed better recently, also close to becoming more expensive in arbitration) Vargas (has average numbers,still a valuable pitcher, but won't have a role on the team for long, with the emergence of Villenueva and Gallardo) Parra (just coming off major success in AAA, still the injury cloud looms, and he has trouble working out of the pen and is in position to join an already crowded Brewers rotation) Z Jackson (while he is a decent prospect, he's stalled at AAA and doesn't really have a place in the Brewers organization) W. Inman (He's still at least a year away, and has the hype of being one of the Brewers top prospects.) What would you like in return for a combination of these pitchers/prospects? I would really like to make a quantity for quality move. Such as a Bush or Capuano (a former All Star) and Parra or Inman (and another low level prospect if needed) for Philip Hughes/Tim Lincecum/Scott Kazmir/Erik Bedard/Aaron Harrang/Felix Hernandez. Moving Vargas together with Jackson might be able to net us a decent late inning reliever. Making both of the moves listed above would add another "top of the rotation" arm, while still maintaining 6 solid starting pitchers. #1 Sheets #2 Hughes (or other pitcher from the list above) #3 Gallardo #4 Bush or Capuano (whichever one isn't traded) #5 Suppan #6 Villanueva And it also provides us with a much better bullpen: Closer: Cordero Set Up: Trade Acquisition Set Up: Turnbow Middle Relief: Wise Middle/Long Relief: Villanueva Loogy: Shouse Mop Up: Spurling/Balfour Finally, if we add a prearby player, like Hughes or Lincecum. We will have additional money saved which we can use to sign Sheets and Cordero to long term deals. Thoughts? Impressions? Agreements? Disagreements?

Suppan is probably the 6th best starter on our team, behind Sheets, Capuano, Villenueva, Gallardo and Bush. That said, the guy eats innings, stays healthy and has average stuff. Not a bad guy to have at the back of a rotation. There are a lot of teams that would kill to stick Suppan at the #5 spot in their rotation (which is what I think he'll end up being for us next season). He's the kind of guy you can expect to win about half of his starts. Once again, I'll take that any day of the week from a #5 starter. Now was/will he be worth the amount of money we offered him? That's definitely tough to justify right now, as he is known to pitch better in the second half of the season. It's really easy to jump on a guy when he's slumping (see Bush/Sheets/Cappy/Vargas threads from earlier in the year). What he provides our team is depth, a solid averageish pitcher who stays healthy and can be counted on throwing a solid number of innings over the course of the year. That's not something to scoff at. That said, if his signing causes us to lose out on signing Sheets long term, I'll be whistling a totally different tune. IMO, next year's rotation will be: Sheets Gallardo Capuano Bush Suppan With injuries being the way they are, having Parra and Villenueva around in the bullpen will provide us with incredible depth. I wouldn't be surprised to see a quantity for quality trade involving our pitching staff as well. Trading Capuano, Bush and Vargas for another top of the rotation type starter so Villenueva can be put into the rotation.

It's too bad Bush struggled so much out of the gate. But it's nice to see that he's really turned it around nicely. As I said before the season began, I think Bush has a better chance to be a solid #2 than any of the other starters in our rotation. Having a top of the rotation of Sheets, Gallardo, Bush next season should be just fine.

Gross had two hits in his last start, he is far from "stinking it up". His OPS is quite respectable, especially for someone capable of playing CF. I'll go as far to say that I'd rather have Gross in the starting lineup over Gwynn. I hope they have Gwynn up to be the 4th OF and not start, because we need all the offense we can get right now, and Gwynn is the one who's unable to hit out of a paper bag.

I'm a huge fan of the Mama Cozi's pizza that you can find at the Aldi Stores. They are almost 5 for $10, but they are by far the tastiest flat crust pizza that I've ever had. The sauce is really tasty, they don't skimp on the cheese as some cheap pizza companies do, and the crust is actually pretty decent. The spaghetti sauce at Aldi's is also a family favorite. 99 cents, and more delicious than Ragu or Prago.

Ben Sheets- (A-) His slow start is the only thing holding him back from a straight A. Chris Capuano- (B-) His fast start didn't last, hopefully he can have a successful second half and doesn't fade as he has in the past. Jeff Suppan- (C+) He's doing what we brought him in to do, soak up a lot of innings. He's been hammered pretty hard lately though, and he needs to get back to the consistency he showed earlier in the season. Dave Bush-(C-) He's been better lately, but he hasn't been the sleeper that many people expected him to be. His secondary numbers still suggest that we could see better things from him going forward, we just need to see that play out on the field. Claudio Vargas-(B+) He's probably been one of the best bottom of the rotation starters in the league. While his stuff hasn't been great, it's kept us in a lot of ballgames. While he doesn't have the ceiling of a lot of our other pitchers, he's far exceeded the expectations many had for him entering the season. Carlos Villanueva-(A) If he continues to pitch as well as he has, a move to the rotation sometime either this season or next is a certainty. His poise has been incredible. Aside from Sheets, Villanueva has been the most valuable pitcher on the staff to date. Yovanni Gallardo-(A) Came up and showed that he belongs in the big leagues. Even showed that he can do a little something with the bat. Adding him to the bullpen will strengthen what has been a weakness and provide Yost with another long term option. Congratulations kid, you've earned it. Matt Wise- (A-) Has been a great asset to the pen. And has been a big part of locking up victories by pitching in the 7th. Derrek Turnbow-(B+) Has looked much better than he did at the end of last season, here's hoping the turn around continues. Coco- (A) He leads the league in saves, and aside from a few hiccups has been absolutely dominant. Brian Shouse-(C-)- He hasn't been quite as good as he was last year. Needs to buckle down on the first batter more. But he's still managed to keep an ERA in the 3s, so he hasn't been too bad. Chris Spurling- (C-) I think he's done far better than I expected him to. He is definitely the first candidate to be replaced if a trade is made. You won't hear me complain about his ERA in the 3s though. He is better than the majority of teams pitchers at the back end of the bullpen. Johnny Estrada-(C-) He needs to take a walk every now and then. His average and power has been nice so far, but we could use him on base a bit more. Prince Fielder-(A) He's an MVP candidate and is showing us how special of a player he really is. Enjoy him while we got him folks. Ricke Weeks-(D+) While his wrist may be part of it, he hasn't shown the power that he had in the early weeks of the season. Of all the prospects cluttering the field for the Brewers, Weeks has been the most disappointing to this point. Hopefully a solid second half will make me eat my words on that one. JJ Hardy-(A-) The early homerun pace wasn't sustainable, but he showed us that as he fills out and enters his prime he could be a 30HR threat (and may still get there this season). The combination of his bat and his glove makes him an elite SS. Ryan Braun-(A) Could anyone have predicted this kind of showing by Braun. He could be the best offensive player on this team, and that's saying a lot considering who we have playing first. Corey Hart-(A) He's stealing bases, hitting for average and power. If his second half is as good as his first half, he'll have Brewer fans forgetting all about Carlos Lee. Bill Hall-(C-) His defense has gotten markedly better as the season has gone along, and he can really cover the gaps well. His offense is slowly starting to come around, but it's certainly a far cry from the numbers he put up last season. It's been nice that our offense hasn't needed his offense to this point, but hopefully a strong second half by Hall will add yet another catalyst to our strong offense. Geoff Jenkins-(B+) -12 HR in part time duty is showing he still has a bit of pop left in his bat. The drop off from Lee to Jenkins in Left has been surprisingly small, and Jenkins defense has made it that much less of a difference. Kevin Mench-(D+) His lack of plate discipline and power have really been a huge disappointment. He has not filled his side of the bargain in the Jenkins/Mench platoon. Gabe Gross- (D+) Decent plate discipline. Not so good hitting numbers however. He has nowhere to go but up in the second half. Tony Graffinino-(C-) His slow start helped bring up Braun, so I can't dislike the guy too much. He is what he is, a valuable backup middle infielder. Craig Counsell-(C-) Decent OBP and defense. Very little else to write home about. Damian Miller-(C+) Definitely beats having Moeller out there. After a slow start his bat is finally coming around. Tony Gwynn - (C+) Played a valuable roll of the bench. Can hit for average but needs to start putting some balls into the gaps. His defense was very good. Greg Aquino - (F) Pitched very poorly to start the season. How was this guy ever a MLB closer? His numbers may have been effected by an injury, but I'm more than happy with him at AAA. Elmer Dessens - (F) A 1.80 Whip, a .369 BAA. This guy wasn't fooling anyone. He's done more for the team by being on the DL than he did when he was on the roster. Jose Capellan - (D-) Had a really bad attitude and average stuff. His numbers (4.50 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, .222 BAA) don't telll the whole story with this creep. Ned Yost - (B) Putting Estrada in the 5 hole was not a brilliant move. Despite that, he's managed at keeping the team level headed despite some difficult stretches. He's managed the bullpen and bench well and has kept his clubhouse controversy free since Spring Training.

I used to be a big time runner before Anterior Compartment Syndrome knocked me out of the game. Are you running heel to toe. Some injuries can come up if you are landing more in the middle of your foot (which sends the shock of the foot landing right up your legs and into your knees). I might also suggest running on grass instead of those treadmills. Running outside is a lot more fun, and the grass will provide a bit of cushion for your knees. As always, stretching is a good thing. If you have tight Hams or Quads that can cause a lot of problems with your knees, back etc. You might also have tendinitis in your knee, which might get aggravated when you run longer distances. Not much you can do with that but ice and take anti inflammatory medicine such as Ibprofin.

Let's get into their bullpen again. Their bullpen has to be absolutely gassed right now. They've already pitched 13 innings in this series. If we can be patient with Marquis and get to their bullpen early, we could really put up some big numbers.

The Cubs bullpen is going to be all used up for Sunday's rubber match (assuming Sheets can manage to hold a 7 run lead tonight). Ours on the other hand, will hopefully be better rested.

Such a bummer. It's a shame they let this happen. Of all the games to have our closer blow it, this one had to be the worst. I hate the Cubs. Hopefully Sheets and Bush can take at least one of the next two games, but I have an awful feeling about this series. Hopefully this will serve as a wakeup call to our team and will fire them up the way the no hitter did earlier in the season.

Hughes looks like an absolute stud. I've posted this before in another thread, but I'll post it again. Our offense has actually been better than the 100 win Cardinals team from a few years ago. We don't struggle to score runs as much as we are led to believe, our offense is actually quite adequate. Where we fall way behind the 100 win Cardinals team is in our pitching rotation. That rotation had every single pitcher under a 4.25 ERA. We currently have only one starter who fits that bill, and he's going to become a free agent after next season. As the popular slogan goes, offense wins games, but pitching wins championships. Adding another top of the rotation stud would go a long way in making us a more dominant team, even if we have to down grade from Hall to Gwynn in center. A rotation of: Sheets Hughes Gallardo Capuano Suppan/Villenueva Would be much more competitive than running out: Sheets Gallardo Capuano Villenueva Suppan When you get a chance at a young pre-arby stud pitcher, I think you have to try and get him, even if starting pitching is a perceived strength. Edit: Although if the Yankees would be willing to take Jenkins instead of Hall, then that definitely is a trade that you have to make. I just don't see them being that stupid, even if they are the Yankees.

According to this story from Yahoo, they are looking to move him for outfield/1st base/relief pitching help. sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/mlb_experts/post/Five-and-Fly-Yankees-might-move-arms;_ylt=Al5HJl31xYqXHmRsj4do1kARvLYF?urn=mlb,37700 Would we be willing to trade either Hall or Hart for Hughes? I would be willing to offer them: Hall and Vargas (maybe even Capuano if they want) and Inman for Hughes. Adding an arm like Hughes could set our rotation up for years to come: Sheets Hughes Gallardo Capuano Suppan

How about we pick up Parra or Thatcher for free. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I don't believe the move should be a short term one, however if we could package Capuano/Bush/Vargas together with a prospect or two and get a pitcher who could be capable of putting up low end ERA numbers for the next few years, I would be thrilled. Our team's offense is only going to get better as our players mature, but if our team ever wants to be elite, we are going to have to have our starting rotation come closer to the numbers that the Cardinals put up a few years back. I wouldn't be opposed to bringing in a Mark Buehrle either, if he comes cheaply enough so that we don't mortgage our future. Adding him and Gallardo (if he can continue to pitch at the level he did in his last start) to the rotation in place of Bush and Vargas might be the last step in running away with the division and having the depth to compete deep into the playoffs. I think the pitching decisions that Melvin makes in the next few years are going to decide just how competitive the Brewers will be. He has some tough decisions coming up (extending Sheets being the big one), so it will be interesting to see how he intends to keep that rotation competitive.

The other day I decided to compare the 100 win Cardinals from a few years ago, and our current Brewers team. I was surprised to see that our team is better offensively than that Cardinals team was. We have the edge in that regard. So why is our team not a 100 win team then? The answer surprised me a bit. It's been our starting pitching. While I think many would agree that our starting pitching has been good this year, the Cardinal's starters all featured ERAs under 4.13. Carpenter 2.83 Marquis 4.13 Mulder 3.64 Suppan 3.57 Morris 4.11 For comparison, here are the Brewers starters numbers: Sheets 3.19 Capuano 4.35 Vargas 4.09 Suppan 4.90 Bush 5.17 So, despite our starting pitching being somewhat of a strength, if we want to improve, we need to make it even better (whether through internal improvement or via trade). Adding Gallardo and possibly Villenueva to the rotation might be a step in the right direction, but I still think a package to bring in another stud pitcher, might be what makes this team good enough to be a 100 win team.

I'm pretty sure most Major League pitchers pitch from the stretch whenever there are runners on base, including 3rd or 2nd and 3rd or bases loaded situations. The reason being, that the windup is so slow and methodical that it is quite possible for a speedy runner to steal home. The windup also does not allow any pick off attempts, so even if that guy on 3rd or 2nd has a huge lead, once you start your windup you can't keep them close to the bag. Think of it this way, a pitcher is not going to want the guy on base to get any extra jump on a hit (especially with guys on 2nd and 3rd) where a single may or may not score the guy from 2nd. In High School and occasionally in college you'll find pitchers that work out of the windup with the bases loaded, but I believe the higher you go, the less frequent that is. Edit: If this is the case, it's interesting to note that Bush is well above average with the bases empty, going from the wind up. And he gives up an OPS of over 100 points higher when he pitches from the stretch making him very below average. Like Geno has suggested, it appears Bush has issues pitching from the stretch (which I find strange since he was a college closer, but whatever.)

And what good is going to come out of these lawsuits. Even if for some tiny technicality, either the bar, or the towtruck driver, or the stalled motorist is given some of the blame. It is not going to bring his son back. All the money in the world isn't going to change that. Its going to be put on a blue collar guy who unknowingly made the tiniest mistake which somehow contributed to the death of Hancock. I mean it sucks that someone died, it really does. But sometimes accidents happen despite everyone's best intentions, and it shouldn't mean that we need to go out and sue the pants off people. While we might have the right to do that, it doesn't make it the right thing to do. Besides what good is going to come out of sticking it to the little guy. I think I'm scared to go out of my house too. And because of this I'm going to end up as a coach potato and get congestive heart failure, which I can link back to Fatter Than Joey's messages on this site. FTJ, my lawyer will be calling in about 20 years. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

What, you mean make numerous other peoples lives miserable too? Yeah, good thinking. We live in a lawsuit happy world. Here are the facts that we do know. The stalled car had its flashers on. Hancock was driving drunk after being offered a cab by the restaurant. Hancock in his own self made, self produced drunken stupor drove his own car into the stalled car. Notice where the blame should fall. The problems here are not going to be made any better through a lawsuit. If anything, Hancock's dad will be rolling in millions earned off the backs of hard working blue collar people who had no idea that they would somehow be responsible for someone destroying himself by driving impaired. People need to own up to their mistakes (or their children's mistakes) and need to stop always trying to pass the blame (or get rich quick, whatever the motive is).