Patrick425

For whatever reason I have never been interested at all in players "grades", whether it be baseball, football, whatever. I saw that in the paper this morning as well and didn't even bother looking through it. I pretty much know the players stats, it just doesn't interest me to see what grade a writer gave a player.

I hope this doesn't sound condensending, but couldn't they just look at the "R/H/E" scoreboards and ignore the "H/E" if they are not interested in those stats?

I don't know if they had this last year, but I think 2 years ago they had several AZ Fall League games on MLB Radio online. Pat Sejak was the announcer for some of them. Yes, that Pat Sejak. Anyone know if they plan on doing any online broadcasts this year?

To each his own, but to me the band is a big part of the College game day experience, whether it's for a #1 ranked team or #100.

I know he has "This is not a joke" printed in his ad. However, I think this is more of a statement regarding his disgust with his team than anything else. I seriously hope that he's not really expecting someone to fork over anything close to $10K to have their team logo on his ankle. I'd be surprised if anyone offers any more than $100.

I've always been a Weeks fan. I know not everyone thinks this is important because it fall into that dreaded "right way to play baseball" phrase, but I don't think I have ever seen him not hustle down the line on an infield grounder.

Sorry for the multiple posts. But as JoeHova eluded to, I think any sport could thrive if you pared the season down to 16 games, one game a week in addition to the season taking place during months when the weather is turning colder and people have fewer options of other things to do. Football definitely has an advantage there.

Ok, this makes sense and my comment that I agree completley with the fact that football is easy to watch and understand is not quite true. For many, I think it's easier to watch football than it is baseball. There is this missconception that football has more action than baseball. I think a lot of people think they understand baseball because they believe it's such a simple sport, but they don't.

I agree completely. My son is involved in various sports. Several weeks ago when the Packers were on Monday Night Football, his football coach rearanged the schedule so that the kids could get home early and not miss much of the game. There was absolutely no thought of that when it came to the Brewers playing at 5pm last Thursday. Yes, I realize it makes sense for a football coach to make arrangement for a football game over a baseball game. However, it was the freaking playoffs! I know that if it was basketball season, they would never schedule a practice (and would probably move a game time) during a Packer playoff game.

Towards the end of the season I also noticed a red or black line that would cut vertically through the middle of the screen.

Doesn't surprise me in the least. This is a city/state that will bump a regular season Brewer game on the radio in order to broadcast an exhibition Packer game. I was actually very surprised when the Packers were bumped the last two weekends (although to WKTI in Milwaukee, which isn't as bad as in past years when the Brewers were shunned to some weak AM signal that could not be picked up west of 894). In addition, last week I would tune in to 620 an hour or so before game time expecting some expanded coverage of Brewer Pregame, afterall it was the playoffs. TMJ had on their normal broadcast up until about 1/2 hour before the game as usual. Geez, the Packers get about a 5 hour pre-game (I know, exaggeration..but not by too much), for an exhibition game. Regardless of what people want to think. Doesn't matter if the Brewers were to win 5 World Series titles in a row. This is, and will always be, a football state.

I'd rather trade Escobar than Hardy.

Wow, I didn't think mentioning Spahn's name would spark all this discussion. Like I said, it was just a name that popped in my head. You really don't have to go back to Spahn's era to see the difference. Go back 20 years to 88' and the top 5 CG leaders in each league were in the double digits. If you go 5-10 years before that, pitchers like Caldwell, Morris, Steib, Blyleven and Carlton had CG totals in the high teens, low 20's. Now, it's considered a lot if a pitcher completes 4 or 5 games in a season. The complete game has become a note worthy event in a pitcher's season. Maybe you can argue that the hitters at certain possitions in Spahn's era and into the early 80's were not as talented as they are now. I'm not sure that makes sense, since there were less teams and the talent was not as diluted back then. Since CG and IP totals seem to diteriate around the late 80's, early 90's I guess it would make sense to make some correlation with the "steroid era". Now that it appears that HR totals are coming down to more reasonable numbers (doesn't take 60+ HRs to win the HR title), I'm curious if we will start seeing more starters complete games. I'm guessing not. The formula of starting pitcher going 7IP, setup, then closer seems to be forever ingrained into the future of baseball strategy. Yes, maybe I have to accept the fact that the game has changed, but I don't have to like it or think that it's right.

I kind of skimmed through all the posts in here. I know a majority of the posts were made before the Brewers clinched the wild card spot, so I'm not certain if this has already been brought up. Maybe this is a bit over-simplistic, but if your payroll ranks 15th and you finish in the top 8 teams, you must be doing something right. Of the 7 other teams in the playoffs, only TB had a lower payroll. Sure, in hindsight, Melvin has made some bad signings (Gagne, Suppan). However, I'm sure you could say that for just about every GM in the league.

Anyone get any email or any other information yet regarding the refund process. Credit card will be coming due soon. Would be nice to get that credit before then.

Didn't see an non-Brewer IGT for today and didn't want to start one just for this. So, thought I would stick this year. Not sure if anyone is watching the Red Sox/Angels game. However, in the top of the 8th, there was a signal cross up between Veritek and Masterson. Veritek apparently called for a slider and Masterson threw a fastball. The ball screamed by Veritek and ended at the backstop. It was, correctly in my opinion, called a passed ball. The ball was definitely catch-able if not for the crossed signals. However, the announcers (Buck Martinez and Chip Carey?) seemed to be confused as to why it was called a passed ball and stated that they were going to score it as a wild pitch in there score book. Anyone see this? I don't know why it would be a wild pitch. The official scorer can't make any assumptions regarding what pitch was called or what pitch should have been thrown. If it's a catch-able pitch and the catcher does not catch it...then it's a passed ball..right?

I'm not sure I understand. So, it's not fare to compare Spahn to Webb because Spahn put fewer runners on base? So...he was a better pitcher and pitched more innings. Anyways, Spahn was just a name that popped into my head. You could go back 20-25 years and look at all the innings and complete games that were thrown. Suddenly, players win a few contract disputes with management, get paid more, and the complete games and innings take a dive because their precious arms need to be protected.. To me, it's wrong. Sorry, I'm just bitter today. Maybe I should take a break from posting until I get over the season being over.

So I should just accept it like the rest of the sheeple. I guess I'm trying to get a handle on when it changed and why (never mind, I know when and why - free agency and the players taking over baseball). When did we start getting excited about "Quality starts"? Quality starts remind me of the participation certificates that my son brings home from his grade school "fun runs".

Ok, so expect less from pitchers and pay more. Sounds about right.

So, what if the choice is spending $3-$4 million on a "big name" experienced manager vs paying $1 mil or less to a "rookie" manager and spending $2-$3 on bullpen help or other roster talent? Look at the Cubs: Baker and Pinella = 9 straight losses in post season play. Just sayin' edit: I guess this is similar to what Thunderbat was saying. Sorry, missed his post.

Whoa. Maybe I'm out of touch but do people think he could get a contract like this from some team? That's $32.5 mil/ year. That's nuts. Santana got 6 years and $137.5 mil. I'm thinking more like $125 for 5 years or $105 for 4 years.

I think that last Friday night game of the regular season is the reason Suppan started on Sunday. It's kind of a catch 22. If Suppan does not pitch at well as he does in that game, the Brewer's possibly don't make the playoffs, at the same time, I think that game helped give Sveum the confidence to start him yesterday.

Ok, I was trying to avoid this thread, because I wasn't sure how to respond without a one line sarcastice response, which I know is not exactly welcomed by the moderators. However, everytime I come on the site, I see the thread and it gets my blood boiling. Are we serious? Really? Maybe by the time these guys are FAs they will be able to pitch more than 200 innings. Sorry, I guess I'm just "old-school" as the kids say. Somewhere Warren Spahn is spinning in his grave.

After following this team since the late 70's it was fun to again see them become contenders and make the playoffs. However, my biggest enjoyment this season came from sharing it with my 10 year old son and watching him go through the joy and heartbreak of following a team. By son has been interested in baseball since he was 3. By the time he was 4 he could name the Brewers lineup (maybe not always pronouncing the names correctly) and would often do so while playing imaginary games in the living room. Over time he collected Brewer autographs and his room has become somewhat of a "shrine" to the Brewers. The last week of the season and last Sunday was very exciting in our house as we all hung on every pitch. I'm sure the neighbors could hear us going nuts as the Brewers clinched the wild card. I don't think my son had a clear understanding of the playoffs and what the atmosphere was like until he went to the game on Saturday. I could see in his face that it was beyond what he was expecting, especially as we were leaving the park and you could hear "Let's Go BREWERS!...clap, clap, clap,clap, clap....Let Go BREWERS..clap, clap, clap, clap, clap" through out the corridors. I'm not sure how much he slept on Saturday night and he was raring to go Sunday. I don't think he had any thought in his mind that they could possibly lose. Even in the ninth inning when Hart got the single with one out, I think he was still believing the Brewer would pull it off. My wife and I looked at each other, knowing that our son was probably about to be served a hard dose of reality. It didn't really hit my son until we were waiting in the crowd to go down the escalators. I looked down at my son as the tears streamed from his eyes. It tore my heart out, but at a same time it put a bit of a smile on my face as I realized that he was beginning to really understand the highs and lows of being a loyal follower of a sports team. This morning he called me at work to ask where the game score cards were (he keeps score at all the games). He needed to finish Saturday's game because of the confusion regarding the interference call. I think he's still trying to "re-live" the weekend.

On the way home there was someone that called 620 and was very upset about the players not coming out. I'm a bit torn on this. One thought I had was that there were some loud boos for both Suppan and Hart during the game at various points. We have had several discussion regarding the "merits" of booing, so I don't really want to get into that too much, but I wonder how much that plays into it, if at all. On a side note, Hawing...were you sitting on the Isle in section 213 Row 8? If so, we were basically sitting right across from you, except we were a couple of seats in from the aisle in row 8 in Section 214. I would have come over and asked however I felt kind of odd going up to a stranger and asking "Are you Hawing?" Since, I would have been taking a total guess, just from your response in the "Where you sittin" thread.