DougJones43

Today's outcome was pretty much a worst case scenario. It was exactly the reason the team should have avoided matching up Gallardo against Santana. Now, Gallardo's shutout effort has been wasted. Against almost any other pitcher, we probably win that game...

*sigh* The original poster didn't use all-caps, say OMG, use anytype of AOL speak, or write in a troll-like manner whatsoever. I know you and TLB think it's hilarious to go around and accuse everybody of saying "OMG" but I can assure you, it's really not that funny. I'm begging now, please let people voice their concerns, ask for positive reinforcement, or whatever -- without throwing out the uber-cliche "the sky is falling." Is it that hard for some of you to just stay out of a thread if you don't agree with the premise? And again, please leave to comedic routine to the people who can pull it off...

No Torres. No Shouse. Those were the teams two best relievers. Mota was even fairly effective for stretches. Also, no 1/2 year of Sabathia and no Sheets. That's 517 innings right there that is no longer with the team. That's significant. Hoffman and a healthy Gallardo will help make up some of that, but I still think over the course of the full year, the staff will be far inferior to last years staff.

That pretty much sums it up for me as well. I semi enjoyed this week's episode, and laughed a few times. They really should consider dropping the "sitting down and talking to the camera" bit though, as it really does make it seem like they are just trying to re-create The Office.

If I kill my girlfriend's cats or beat up an elderly person at a bus stop before then, it's on you. I hope all you mods are okay with having that on your conscience...

They got out of two bases-loaded jams tonight without giving up any runs. That's catching a break, big time. Constantly walking batters has nothing to do with bad luck, and they walked 7 more tonight. As long as the Brewers staff is at/near the top of the NL in BB, I'm gonna have a tough time chalking it up to "bad luck" or feeling sorry for them.

If you really want to blow off some steam, go over to the political forum and use the "cussin' corner." People have been known to take out some Brewer-related frustrations there, and obviously you don't have to worry about language. Also, there's often some good (or at least interesting) discussions going on in the other threads.

I regret trading Cruz, but mainly because the return was 1.5 years of Kevin Mench.

Phantom injury? Are you suggesting there was never actually anything wrong with him? He missed time last season, and this spring for the problem. Classifying it as "phantom" isn't exactly fair, or accurate...

His OPS was .732 in the postseason. But, if it makes you happy I went ahead and added those postseason numbers into the chart I had posted. It dragged his OPS number down another point, and made the sample size larger.

Tom H. made a blog post about Braun's health in the JS. I was concerned last year, and am beginning to believe again that it is still something to be concerned about. The fact that he re-aggravated the injury this spring makes me doubt it ever healed properly or completely. There could be other explanations for Braun's dropoff in production, but it sure seems as though his injury coincides with the beginning of the tailspin... <span style="font-size:large"> <span style="text-decoration:underline">AVG</span> <span style="text-decoration:underline">OBP</span> <span style="text-decoration:underline">SLG</span> <span style="text-decoration:underline">OPS</span> Pre Injury (990 PA): .311 .355 .610 .965 Post Injury (219 PA): .238 .324 .420 .744</span> It doesn't even look like the same player. I sure hope this issue doesn't become a nagging problem that affects his play for a really long time.

This is a team that probably needed many things to go their way in order to have a shot at the playoffs. Digging themselves in a deep hole early is really not good, because they probably don't have the talent to recover. The pitching staff just looks bad right now. Oh well.

I was referring to the thread I linked to. Why is a thread that has no redeeming value, other than to try and marginalize another discussion, allowed to remain open? Meanwhile, the vent thread was banned. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely okay with people disagreeing with me. I just wish people would spend more time actually debating the issues, and less time trying to be a comedian, constantly discredit other viewpoints with condescension/sarcasm, etc. And please everyone, if you're going to start a sarcastic thread, please make sure it's at least either poignant or funny...

Somebody tried to start a vent thread earlier, but apparently the staff wants to avoid outright negativity. So, complaining is bad. However, mockery and condescension are still allowed and encouraged, as evidenced by this thread.

The season didn't end then though. If you're going to pull out his worst month, you have to pull out everybody's, which would put you right back where you started... Among 45 NL pitchers with at least 160 IP, Suppan was: 42nd/45 in ERA 42nd/45 in WHIP 42nd/45 in K/9 If that's not "very sub-par" then what is??

Yes, Suppan's poor start on opening day tipped the scales for me in favor of starting this thread, but that certainly doesn't mean that what he did all of last year didn't come into consideration. And also, how can you consider the original premise of the thread to be an over-reaction when it was posed as a question? I didn't start a "DFA SUPPAN" thread. I posed a question, wanted to know how long of a leash posters thought he deserved -- after being a marginal pitcher the past couple years, falling apart at the end of last season, and now getting roughed up early this year. If we're not going to call Suppan's status into question now, then when? You (and a handful of other posters) seem to think it's up to you to decide when is a "reasonable" time to discuss something. You should be the judge of when something is reactionary, and when it's legit. It's completely arrogant, and many people don't feel like waiting 'til you think it's acceptable to discuss something. I personally don't feel like staying silent until he's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he needs to be removed. Seems pretty pointless to have the discussion then, don't you think? Honestly, I don't see the point in a message board if you can't state opinions, or discuss anything that's not set in stone and/or already occurred. We may as well just post news stories and box scores if that's the case. If your opinion is that he's a fine back-end starter the way he is, then just say that. I really wish people would just refrain from posting on issues if they have nothing to add other than just attacking or mocking the premise of what's being talked about.

I'm with Ennder on being concerned about Ryan Braun. He just hasn't been the same since the strained intercosta muscle. I don't think he ever fully recovered, and the fact that he aggravated it this spring supports that. After (prematurely) returning from the injury last season, Braun hit .238/.321/.449/.770 in 165 plate appearances. Not horrible, but definitely not the type of monster numbers Braun had been putting up. With a lackluster spring, re-injury, and now slow start, it seems very likely that it's still an issue.

I also pointed to the fact that his entire 2008 season was very sub-par as a whole, which seems to indicate a downward trend. And that trend appears to be continuing, and quite possibly getting worse. The point is, stop classifying this issue as nothing more than an over-reaction to 1 or 2 starts, because it is much larger than that and you know it. I'm tired of legitimate discussions being marginalized by people who insist it's only about this season when it isn't.

Can we please stop pretending that this issue is only about 1 or 2 starts? Do you really think people would be reacting the same way if Gallardo had turned in two similar performances to start the season? For reference, Suppan regressed significantly in many areas in 2008 -- and here is a snapshot (per the JS) of his last eight starts dating back to last year:

6 BB in 3.2 innings? Absolutely brutal. If Suppan can't throw strikes, he's completely useless, and the team simply can't afford to let him even make the ten starts I originally stated. One or two more starts like this, and he needs to be replaced.

So, is there any circumstance in which you would admit that excess weight hinders the performance of a player? I guess if you really wanted to, you could point to the "fluctuations happen in baseball" argument no matter how obese somebody is. At some point, you're just being stubborn and not being realistic about balance, timing, agility, and the human body. What if Fielder played this season at 350 lbs? Would you be okay with that? What about 450 lbs? I guess that would be totally fine, because we would still have no exact statistical way to pinpoint how it was affecting his hitting and fielding.

Not really. If he (or the team) thought that his weight wasn't an issue last season, why did he work so hard to lose a bunch of weight? Listen, I think I can see what's happening here. You're getting so caught up in the semantics of the argument, and whether or not we can "prove" exactly how Prince's weight affected his performance, that you are missing the bigger picture. The point is, carrying significant extra weight is generally bad for a player's performance. Prince was overweight last season. It is extremely likely therefore, that his weight prevented him from playing as good as he could have (not saying he was bad). As fans, it is within reason to expect a player to be in good shape, as being out of shape can, and often does, hinder player performance. Prince had kind of a down year -- and it is not at all unreasonable to correlate that with his weight, even though it can't be proven for certain exactly how much. I really don't know how to say it anymore clearly, although I have a feeling you will continue to fight me tooth and nail on some portion of the semantics, as you often do on these boards.

First of all, nobody ever said it "destroyed" his production. Talk about a strawman argument. Maybe it cost him 25 OPS points over the season. Maybe 50 OPS points. I guess it's possible that it didn't hurt him at all, or maybe made him better, although that would certainly go against common sense. You're right that nobody really knows, and it can't be proven either way. That doesn't stop conventional wisdom from telling us that playing while overweight is not generally good for results. That said, the point is Prince's obesity very likely hurt his production on offense and defense. How much will forever be unknown and unprovable, but that doesn't make it any less likely. How do you know that the first month wasn't difficult for him because his balance was off-kilter due to the excess weight? Oh right, because you've decided you know the true reason for his struggles, and everybody else is just foolish... I also think it was much more then 10 extra pounds, but again, I don't have access to his weigh-ins. Therefore I can't know for sure, and I guess that means the entire argument should be thrown out.

Are you honestly trying to claim that carrying a lot of extra/unnecessary fatty weight for an entire season isn't going to hurt a player's production? If that's the case, why does anybody even bother to work out? They could all show up weighing 400 lbs, and there is no way we could prove that the extra weight is hurting their performance, right? Please...

That bad month counts as much as any other month. Just because he was still a good hitter doesn't excuse the fact that he played all season out of shape. Also, don't discount the effect that his enormous girth probably had on his already poor defense. The bottom line is that his obesity more than likely diminished his performance, on offense and defense. Even if his numbers were still good, his weight could have been keeping him from being even better. In other words, he was too fat.