splitterpfj

An edge is an edge, I don't blame Torre one bit. I was at a game a million years ago, when Earl Weaver was managing the Orioles; Reggie Cleveland was pitching for the Brewers, and apparently Weaver thought he was throwing spitballs. Weaver came out and put on a great show, arguing with the umpires for probably five minutes, before finally returning to his seat. When the next pitch came in, everyone in the Orioles' dugout held a white towel up in front of themselves. It was hilarious, and it absolutely ended Cleveland, he got bombed the rest of the way.

December 18, 2004: Mulder to Cardinals for Danny Haren, Kiko Calero and Daric Barton. December 16, 2004: Hudson to Braves for Juan Cruz, Dan Meyer and Charles Thomas.

If you've never heard Owen's show, imagine Ray Romano's voice coming through your radio.

I hear you Owen, thanks for making me a star. What I'm saying is, if you're at a game where you see three errors, and two guys thrown out on the bases....of course that will lead to some booing. That's just not the same thing as dumping on a guy every time he gets in a game. Do you think Rickie Weeks needs anyone to tell him he's not hitting .200, or that Gagne needs the drunk guy behind the visitors dugout to tell him his ERA is well above six? Somehow I think those huge numbers, all lit up on that giant scoreboard, may have tipped them off.

On the booing, I don't get it at all. It's one thing to boo if the team is really stinking it up that day, but it's completely counter-productive to just lay it on a player every time his name is announced. I absolutely think that stuff affected Turnbow. Some fans still boo Wes Helms, some got on Brady Clark when he came back, and Carlos Lee heard about it all of last season. What for? If someone offered you 100 million dollars to live in the Houston area...would you do it? Of course you would, so sit down, and watch the game. Several current and former Brewers have talked about how they expect to get booed on the road, but you never expect that from the home crowd...which is exactly right, this is the HOME TEAM, that's like booing your wife every time she makes dinner, and then wondering why the spark has gone out of your relationship.

After 8 starts with Arizona, Dan Haren is 4-2, with a 3.04 ERA, and a .99 WHIP. In Oakland, Dana Eveland is 3-3, with a 3.23 ERA, and a 1.24 WHIP, while Greg Smith is 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA, and a 1.06 WHIP. Arizona got off to a great start, and is absolutely getting what they wanted - a great chance to win now. Oakland got off to a great start, and is absolutely getting what they wanted - good, affordable pitching, which they will control for several seasons. At this point, which team do you think got the best end of the deal?

The Brewers had a lot of road games early, against good competition. Almost no one met expectations offensively. Gagne failed as the closer. Turnbow just plain failed. The back end of the rotation has been a complete mess. Sheets missed a start. Gallardo was done after three starts. Not only are the Brewers lucky to be at .500, they're lucky they aren't where the Padres are.

Hello Owen- I'm glad you're here, and I do listen to your show when I'm running the kids from place to place in the afternoon, I can tell you really enjoy doing what you do. So Mike really knows his Brewers eh? Please tell him to get himself on here to have some fun with the masses....we're harmless until you misrepresent our pocket protectors. Trust me on this one, Owen, show up here in June during the MLB draft - we'll turn you into a walking encyclopedia.

That's baseball for you folks, lose six straight and look hopeless, then come home and get 3 of 4 from the team you've been chasing. Congrats to the Crew, and welcome back to Sir Ryan of Braun!

I've listened to "Heller and Murphy" plenty of times, while I was out driving around. The show can be entertaining, and it's a great place to get updates on the day's scores, and maybe hear a good interview with someone interesting. It is absolutely not a place to get anything resembling detailed analysis, or in-depth knowledge of the Milwaukee Brewers. ESPN is part of a huge corporation, a money machine which used to be a sports network. ESPN.com is a great place to read the standings, or to catch the latest from some solid writers, but it's all about dollars, it is not about information. Those folks will give you all the "Michael Vick is in Trouble" you can stand, but there's just nothing to gain for them by detailing what's up with the Huntsville Stars; that's like ordering a home-cooked meal in a drive thru lane. Mr Murphy, as far as informing, or really sharing ideas, your show could not possibly compete with this website. Your time on the air is pre-determined and limited, while this site never stops. You've got a balance sheet to answer to during the afternoon drive, while we are free to discuss anything from Marty Pattin to Eric Farris, whenever we want, for as long as we want, with a group of passionate, knowledgeable peers, all of whom have independently searched this forum out, chosen to join, and then chosen to participate. There are experts on the Milwaukee Brewers here, Sir, literally hundreds of them, backed by thousands more who are learning all the time through the process of asking and answering, every day, at all hours. You've got cars and pizzas to sell, which I understand. Go ahead and say something goofy, while Heller offends the last caller for attempting to cross his bridge, I get it, you're keeping the ratings up. Just know, when you do that, you are crossing the line from information to entertainment, which is something this community never has to do. Oh, by the way, Eric Farris is a second base prospect in the Brewers organization, drafted in the 4th round last year from Loyola Marymount, signed by Cory Rodriguez. Farris had been drafted previously, by the Atlanta Braves, 2004, Round 42. Sorry if I tripped you up.

I'd love to see your 1-5 happen, the potential there is tremendous. Two things that struck me while reading your post: 1. Would you really ask Bill Hall to move again, and if you did, don't you think he'd come unglued? 2. Nobody's missing, you've got our current lineup, minus Cameron, with Hall and Gwynn still on the bench. If the goal is to free Doug M to pursue pitching, wouldn't we have to part with some players from that lineup in a trade?

I have pretty little confidence that Dave Bush will out-pitch Adam Wainwright. Yeah, it's not a matchup you'd put big money on, but the Brewers lost to Nelson Figueroa, then beat Johan Santana within 24 hrs, and they won the Bush-Hamels game. Weird things happen.

For those who insist that San Fran would never deal Lincecum, and who want to know where these rumors get started - in this case, it was Tracy Ringolsby who reported last winter that Lincecum was available for "A quality bat." I have no idea if he was right, but I do know Ringolsby has been covering baseball for over thirty years now, so he does at least deserve a listen when he reports something. He could have been wrong - he had also reported that Roger Clemens was headed to Boston before he signed with Houston the last time. I personally wouldn't trade Lincecum, and if I did, I doubt I would do it mid-season, while he was the best drawing card on an otherwise weak team. That doesn't matter though, the Giants have yet to name me GM. The Giants are in a rare position, while they need young talent at almost every position, they have the most valuable commodity of all, young pitching, to offer. The two teams look like a great match to me, the Brewers need a good arm for this season, and beyond, and the Giants need to add some bats that can help sooner than later. Maybe it ends up being Cain, maybe it's something that hasn't been mentioned here yet, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see these two teams get something done.

I think they'll make a run, but without a trade for pitching - no. I think they had it with Yo, but they just don't have a suitable replacement ready to go.

The vast majority here wanted to see Villanueva and Parra make the rotation to start the season, both moves seemed like the right moves, but neither guy has performed well. Is that on the GM, or the players? Gallardo getting hurt is absolutely brutal, that's clearly not on Doug Melvin, it was just a freak play. I think Doug had an excellent off-season, with the exception of the closer role. Overall, I think the bullpen is much better than it had been, with Turnbow out, and Stetter in, things are very solid - except for the closer spot. I'm not sure that it's Doug's fault that Cordero left town, but it's more than fair to wonder why he chose Gagne to fill the void. Even so, I loved the decisions to bring in both Kendall and Cameron, I like the Riske signing, and the deal for Torres, while the deal for Mota was absolutely stealing, as the deal for Shouse had been. We'll see, he's got to fill one major hole in the rotation, and the closer spot to figure out...and that's assuming the young starters start to look better. The team developed the young core, and they're letting them play it out, it's a tough call, if they don't get it done, do you blame Doug, or do you start moving guys like Weeks, Hardy, Parra, etc? I could envision a scenario where changes are made this winter, then some new GM comes in with most of the pieces in place, finds a closer, gets Yo back, and begins to look like a genius by this time next year.

Gagne needs to be the closer for this team to succeed. I'm not convinced of this, but even if it's true, the man's confidence is gone right now. I think it's absolutely the right move to make at the moment, just as St Louis was correct in pulling Izzy for a little while, despite his past success. I'd love it if Gagne got the job back later on, and excelled, but it'd be fine with me if he became a great 8th inning guy too.

Gagne officially lost me today. I never thought he'd be great here, but I thought signing him was probably the best option available at the time, and it's Mark A's money. I give up, I gotta have less Gagne.

The Brewers absolutely think Lucroy may have a future as their starter, which is why they sent him to Hawaii last winter. There's still a lot of distance between Lucroy and Milwaukee, but yes, it does look like the team has two solid prospects at catcher. You know when a college catcher is taken in round three, he's going to get every chance to prove he can do it. Lucroy does not have the upside of Salome, but he doesn't have a suspension in his past either. I think if he does make it to MLB, he won't be great at anything, but he'll be above average at most things. A catcher who can get it done defensively, (even if he isn't dominant there) and who provides 15 HR on offense, is absolutely a major league starter. Heck, in today's game, that's almost a stud.

If the Giants did decide to take prospects for Lincecum, I would imagine they'd get Gamel or LaPorta, with Salome or Escobar, and possibly two of our better young arms, which happen to be in A ball right now. That's a really steep price, but I could picture the Brewers doing it, as stated, that's the sort of deal Oakland and Baltimore were able to get.

The Giants floated Lincecum's name over the winter, they were prepared to deal him for Alex Rios, and discussed dealing him for Delmon Young. I have no idea which Brewers players the Giants prefer, but people need to stop saying the Giants wouldn't let go of Lincecum, he was already gone if Toronto had jumped on it. No one believed Bedard or Haren were truly available at first either, but they certainly were.

Road construction bugs me.

marketing guy

ITALIC, BOLD, UNDERLINED RALLY CAPS...with Captain Kangaroo. Let's see you top that! http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa319/toddecopp/CaptainKangaroo.jpg

Oh, Thank God!

Gagne has had two horrible outings, and has otherwise pitched very well. He's had two "blown saves" that never should have been, on a bad throw Weeks and a blown call yesterday, otherwise he's allowed a solo homer this season. Two terrible outings, not five, not most of them, not even a lot of them - two.