Patrick425

I guess we will never know if the Brewers would have responded "in kind" if Lucroy had not hit the grand slam. I can't see any situation where Lucroy throws his bat at another player, regardless of the situation. He doesn't appear to be that kind of player (most MLB players are not that kind of player). My hope is that they would have taken a higher ground and not stoop to the childish "well he hit me first" level. You'll never convince me that that type of retaliation lowers the percentage of hitters that are thrown at.

So if Will Smith, when he had to go in to a game cold earlier this season, had gone up to the homeplate umpire and made some comment about his mother and purposely gotten himself tossed, they could have just put in Duke with as much time to warm up as needed? Yeah..that was kind of my thought. If a coach forgets to warm someone up that's not the reliever's fault, so for the sake of "injury prevention" shouldn't he get all the time he wants to warm up? Is it ever the reliever's fault if he get's put in without given a chance to warm up?

Thanks. Ok, I understand that. What kills me is how you guys know this information! Is there some web site that details the contracts of all minor leaguers?

I posted this in the Manny Machado thread before this thread was started: I think last night's Brewer game was a classic example of how to handle being thrown at. First of all, I really respected the way Braun just took off his shin guard and trotted down to first without any emotion after clearly getting plunked on purpose. Second, Lucroy's follow up grand slam was the exact way to take "revenge" for getting thrown at. I know that there are a lot of jokes about St. Louis and being "classy" on this board. However, all joking aside, I think the way the Brewers handled that whole situation last night was a complete class act. No emptying of the dugouts, no retaliatory actions...just winning the game. AZ will probably end up with some fines and suspensions. All the Brewers get is a W. I also want to add that I was surprised that the new pitcher gets unlimited warm ups when there is an ejection. I guess I never realized this. Seems like a dumb rule. If you are going to purposely throw at someone and not be prepared with a relief pitcher, then you should not have the luxury of unlimited warm ups.

I think last night's Brewer game was a classic example of how to handle being thrown at. First of all, I really respected the way Braun just took off his shin guard and trotted down to first without any emotion after clearly getting plunked on purpose. Second, Lucroy's follow up grand slam was the exact way to take "revenge" for getting thrown at. I know that there are a lot of jokes about St. Louis and being "classy" on this board. However, all joking aside, I think the way the Brewers handled that whole situation last night was a complete class act. No emptying of the dugouts, no retaliatory actions...just winning the game. AZ will probably end up with some fines and suspensions. All the Brewers get is a W.

Please explain this to me. I know he's 29..but he had a 1.8 Era this year. Like someone else stated ...seems like he could have possibly at least provided some bullpen depth at some point. I'm sure there is some explanation involving terms like "super 2" or something that I'll never understand.

I doubt that. It's all in good fun. Players don't take this kind of stuff as seriously as some fans do.

Stupid things that slow traffic down... -People "campaigning" on an overpass. Why does this cause people to slow down? Will never understand it. - The signs that tell you your speed. People, you have one of these in your car, it's called a speedometer. Are you worried that there is a cop crouched down behind the sign that's going to run after your car? Do you really not know how fast you are going? ..and my newest one.. - water dripping from an overpass. Zoo interchange construction has an overpass that is dripping water. This, for some reason, brings east bound traffic on I94 to a halt in the morning. As soon as you get by the dripping water, traffic is moving again. I didn't list accident on the other side of the free way because that's too obvious.

Get rid of Wang

If he wouldn't have cheated, he wouldn't have lied. When Braun gets a big hit and helps the team's cause I stand up and cheer just like I would for any other player. If he makes a big play in the field, I cheer for him and will probably cheer for him if he comes up to bat right away after making that big play. The initial discussion of this thread revolved around giving him a standing O on opening day. If none of this had happened, I wouldn't have a thought of given him a standing O...so I don't see a reason to give him a standing O now. If maybe he won the MVP last year, or if he had some personal tragedy that happened to him that was out of his control..yes, I could see myself giving him a standing O on opening day. I know people have argued that the reason for the standing O was to show that we still support him as Brewer fans. That's fine. That's your choice to do that as a fan. Time heals all wounds. I guess some people, like me, just need more times than others.

Ok...yeah...those are really, really funny. However, in one of the games the score was 5-2. Not exactly a blow out. Not sure how happy the manager would have been if the pop up would have been dropped and that started a rally.

My son wanted a Gennett t-shirt and my wife purchased one from the Brewer team store at Miller park when she was there for a work function in May for a day game. However it wasn't a "Gennett" shirt it was a "Scooter" shirt. My son appreciated his mom's gesture, but was a bit dissapointed and I don't really blame him. He wanted a shirt that showed "Gennett" on the back..like his game Jersey shows. I wouldn't want a "Scooter" t-shirt either. So, I went to exchange the shirt yesterday for a "Gennett" shirt. I was told they don't sell "Gennett" shirts only "Scooter" shirts. When I mentioned that I thought that was odd since that is not what is on the back of his Jersey, they looked at me like I was crazy.

Tell that to Mickey Cochrane. I don't remember all the facts (or many of the facts at all!). I think it was when Macha was coaching (or Yost?)? However, the Brewers retaliated by trying to hit someone and basically lost the game because of it. I'm sure someone on this thread will remember the game I'm talking about. I guess I just don't get all the chest thumping. A Mickey Cochrane situation is rare and the "eye for eye" mentality does nothing to help avoid situations like that. I don't agree with the thought of "If I react this way they will think twice next time about throwing at me". No they won't. In fact, it just increases tensions and increases the likelihood of some sort of ill tempered reaction (which increases the chances of some unfortunate injury). The ultimate revenge is winning the game.

I prefer the route of letting your bat and glove do the talking. Not sure what all this tit for tat retaliating accomplishes. If you want to throw at me after I hit a HR, fine...my HR still counts and now you just put me on base (or fell behind in the count).

Was not sure where to post this or ask this. Is there a good site to see all the draft picks, sorted by State?...and if they are picks out of college, is there anywhere to sort further to see where they went to HS?

My son has been caddying for 3 years at Merrill Hills in Waukesha. Last year they were purchased (or merged?) with Legends which controls Brandybrook and Bristlecone (which I'm assuming also have caddies). Have not really noticed a big change in the caddie program because of this. Edit: Should add also that one of the nice things about the program at Merrill hills is that you fill out your availability online and then you are generally notified a day or two before the job (and asked to confirm your availability). So, you don't go to the course and wait for caddie job. Although, maybe this is how it is everywhere now.

So, knowing what you know now, you would rather have a unknown commodity that may or may not help the Brewers in 3,4, or 5 years than someone who is clearly helping the Brewers right now? I could understand this line of thought last year when the Brewers were not in contention with or without Lohse. However, this year is a different story and Lohse has definitely been a big part of the Brewers success.

Along the same lines...Grandview ave. in Waukesha. No construction, but they have made changes to the traffic light patterns over the last year that are ridiculous. Grandview is fairly heavily traveled, especially during rush hour. Some of the lights for side streets that cross or feed on to Grandview are clearly way too long for the amount of traffic on these side streets (compared to the volume of traffic on Grandview). I know exactly the area you mean. It really is a pain to try to get anywhere around that time. I had to stop by the Batteries Plus down there a while ago, and I'd swear the horrible traffic tacked on about an extra half hour to what should have been a simple errand. Seems like there is way too much traffic in that area for what the streets were designed to handle. I actually called the city of Waukesha about Grandview Avenue on Friday. The person I spoke with stated that they were going to be upgrading the lights at Northview and Grandview but he thought the current light pattern was safe. I didn't say anything, but I was thinking ok, it's safe, but it's not logical? There is at least 3 times the traffic on Grandview that there is on Northview. The green light on Grandview should last longer. He also said that they were aware of the issues with the lights at Meadow lane (and the other smaller road 2 blocks north of Meadow) that crosses Grandview. He said that there is basically a malfunction with those lights where they are operating as if someone is constantly hitting the crosswalk switch. They are researching it, but get this, they may not get it resolved for a year or two. Ok???

We are in Waukesha and had our trees trimmed about 2 years ago. We used Hoppe Tree Service. I think it was about $200 per tree? They did a good job and have great ratings on Angies list. They receive the Super Service award every year from Angies list...which is pretty good (most companies don't get them every year). Looks like they currently have a 5% discount for Angie's list customers. So you could save $40 if you joined Angies list. I think Angies list is $35 per year (so you would basically get a free 1 year subscription to Angies List plus $5). Edit: I may not be remembering the cost correctly. One of the reviews I just read on Angie's list stated that they had 4 trees pruned for $400 ($100 each). Not sure what the difference is between pruning and trimming (if there is one?).

Along the same lines...Grandview ave. in Waukesha. No construction, but they have made changes to the traffic light patterns over the last year that are ridiculous. Grandview is fairly heavily traveled, especially during rush hour. Some of the lights for side streets that cross or feed on to Grandview are clearly way too long for the amount of traffic on these side streets (compared to the volume of traffic on Grandview).

Just to emphasize Hammer, some travel baseball teams play in tournaments every weekend throughout the summer and some coaches of these teams can be pretty demanding (even at a young age). The costs and time commitments for these teams can also be fairly substantive (It generally cost anywhere from $400 to $700 per team to play in a weekend tourney - more for week long tourneys like Cooperstown and Ripken..not to mention travel costs). Not to mention the stress, bickering, and politics that often times accompanies such teams (worst part of youth sports). My wife and I both work full time, so even if our son was interested in doing that at a young age, it would not have been possible for us logistically (and we only have one kid...I don't know how some of these families that have 2,3,4 kids do it!). Not saying that your son should never play for one of these teams....you just need to be prepared for all the baggage that goes with it. Whatever decisions are made regarding baseball and your son, best of luck. The most important thing is that he's still enjoying the game at whatever level he ends up playing at. Oh..also...if your kid is still hungry for baseball after the summer season ends, look for a "Fall Ball" league. I'm not sure what there is in the Fox Valley in regards to this, but I know there are at least 3 or 4 options for Fall Baseball in SE Wisconsin. You usually can join as a team or an individual (and they will place your son on a team).

Personally, even at the young age of 8, I think your son needs to be a big part of the decision process. There are a lot of questions though. Sounds like he's a nice player. Is he passionate about the game? Can he not get enough of it? Is he more comfortable playing with his friends at the local level or would he be happier being challanged with a travel team? What kind of time and money commitment are you willing to take on (travel teams can be a big commitment)? My son loved baseball from the time he could walk, hold a bat, and throw and always showed some talent. I coached teams he was on from the age of 5-14. I had a few people tell me that he should try out for a travel team (like Hitters in Racine). I didn't feel like it was the right environment for him at an early age. He played on local "select" teams and did tourneys in Cooperstown and Myrtle Beach, but most of the playing was done in the Wisconsin State Youth League and local tourneys. He's now a sophomore and starting on his High School Varsity team. Will he play college ball somewhere?...who knows? He'll probably go to some "showcases" over the next couple of years and see what happens. I would suspect that if he did play somewhere it would be D3 (non-scholorship). Would he have had a better chance to play college ball if he played youth baseball on "higher caliber" national travel teams? I don't know...maybe? He took the path that made him the happiest and a path that more realistically fit into our schedule. He's having a blast this year on his HS team. Anything after HS is frosting on the cake. Alot of it also depends on where you live and what kind of local talent there is. If you are in a community that only offers Little League and your son really has talent, you may want to see what else is out there. Some of the select teams in the area are really good and play good competition. Some "dad" coaches are more qualified than other "dad" coaches. You don't always have to do a ton of traveling to play challenging competition. Assuming you live in SE WI, my personal opinion would be to get him on a team that plays in one of these two leages (at the higher level of these leagues): http://www.wsybl.com/ http://www.tocbaseball.com/page/m-a-j-o-r-ybl/about In the off season sign him up for group or individual lessons at a place like Hitter's in Racing (opening a brand new facility in Fall) or Stiks in Occonomowoc. My son did hitting sessions this past winter every Sunday morning at Hitters. I also hear rumors that Ed Sedar is also opening a place in Waukesha sometime soon. Then, at age 10 or so you and he can make the decision if he's ready to maybe try out for a team that does a little more national travel.

30 days in September when we have Minor League call ups means he only needs 60 total days prior to September. Oh, ok. Thanks. Sorry for being too lazy to scan through everything again to figure that out on my own.

Enjoy Balkin! I have always admired people that have no fear of being out in the "elements" like that. I'm sure that there is a lot of beauty to be seen out there. My idea of roughing it is a hotel with basic cable and slightly low water pressure.

I have zero problems with giving up a draft pick to get Lohse considering how he has pitched for the Brewers. If the idea is that we picked up Wang to compensate for the lost draft pick, then no, I don't think it was worth it. Whether we pick up Wang or not, we still get to keep Lohse. They really have nothing to do with each other.