And That

My fiance and I are taking care of her parents' house while they are away working in Japan. The house works well for the most part, except for that the kitchen sink faucet has been losing water pressure for the last 2-3 months and is now to the point where the most you're going to get out of it most of the time is just a small trickle. I say most of the time because occasionally (usually when it's a little warmer outside) you can get a flow of water just enough to fill a pot or do the dishes. This drop in water pressure has equally effected the warm and cold water lines. When you can get a bit of a stream of water, if you turn the hot or cold nozzles past a certain point of "on-ness" the stream of water stops completely. There seems to be a point to where if the faucet is trying to draw too much water, it just stops drawing water altogether. I've checked the screen in the faucet and nothing seems to be blocking it. The sink is near the end of the plumbing lines in the house, though not at the very end. The only thing after the kitchen sink on the lines is the clothes washer and wash basin downstairs (the kitchen is on the first floor and the sink is almost directly above the washer). The pressure for the washing machine/wash basin is just fine, no problems. The water pressure for the sink is independent of the washing machine - it's low whether the washing machine is drawing water or not. My fiance's dad did the plumbing himself 8-10 years ago and I guess they've had intermittent problems with the water pressure in the kitchen faucet before, but nothing like this where the water just isn't flowing at all for the most part. As he installed it himself, I have no idea whether it's up to code or something is blatantly incorrect. If it is, I can't see it. I've checked everything I know to check, turned on and off all the water pressure valves in different combinations, and nothing seems to effect the water pressure in the kitchen. I'm trying very hard to avoid calling a plumber - does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Link to TH's blog post. Not terribly exciting - no salary details given, but most of them got major league deals of around $400K (Stetter probably got a little more) and minor league deals of a lot less than that. By my count, they still need to sign DiFelice, Gallardo, Gwynn, Iribarren, Morlan, Parra, Pena, Periard, Rivera, Rogers, Rottino, Scarpetta, Swindle and Villanueva to similar deals. Hart and Weeks both of course still need to get their contracts sorted out, too. All in all, the Brewers have signed 23 of the 39 players on the 40-man roster.

In his brief stint with Milwaukee, he threw a cutter 81.1% of the time. He's sort of a cutter specialist to be sure (sort of like a knuckleball guy or a sinker guy), but saying he has only one pitch is 100% not true. I would guess that if he were a starter at the major league level, his pitch type percentages would gravitate closer to those of Doug Davis'.

This is not true. DiFelice throws 4 pitches. His fastball tops out in the high 80's. His cutter, the pitch he throws most often and the pitch I'm assuming you are referring to, sits around 82-84. He also throws a changeup and a curveball. I think he'd be an alright starting pitcher if he can effectively spot his fastball and changeup against lefties. Back to CV, I agree that it depends whether you think it's more important to have him in the rotation with a ~4.50 ERA or in the bullpen with a ~3.00 ERA. Our rotation could use some depth, but his innings at the end of the bullpen have some value. I'm going to guess that the Brewers will add at least another starter to the mix, even if said starter isn't a great pitcher, and keep CV in the bullpen. I think the bullpen could be a strength of this team in '09, and CV will be an integral part of that strength.

Besides Pena, any one of Aguilar, Smith, Dillard, Bateman or Mike Burns could close (and I'd take them in that order).

If he were right-handed, I could see why he's never gotten a shot, but since he's left-handed, it is all the more strange. He's a very soft tosser, topping out at around 82-83 MPH. Can't argue with the results though. He's a non-roster invitee to Brewers' camp, so we'll see. I hope 2009 is his year.

When asked what the things he needed to work on were, the first (and only) thing he answered was "plate discipline" - this gave me the warm fuzzies. He increased his walk rate every month last season and if the guy can just walk 60-70 times a year, he'll be one of the top couple corner outfielders in baseball over the remainder of his contract.

I've always taken the song to be about alcoholism, or maybe just about addiction in general, but I think it could work on some different levels depending on your point of view. The next to last video is very well done - the girl has a Jolie Holland thing going for her.

DiFelice is on the 40-man roster, and has 2 minor league options remaining.

Errecart really struggled after coming back from a wrist injury. With the next closest first base prospect yet to play a game in A-ball (Brock Kjeldgaard) and Thorman in AAA, there's no reason to bump up Errecart yet. Once he proves he's back and adjusted from his wrist injury, sure. If Capuano is able to start with a full-season club straight out of spring training, great. However I'll put that in the "believe it when I see it file" somewhere before Mark Rogers' entry. Matt Ginter could definitely make the AAA club over Gardner or Narron, or take DiFelice's spot should Mark make the Brewers' roster. Nelson's outfield defense isn't good. If he makes the club, it would be almost solely as a PH.

Starters C - Angel Salome 1B - Scott Thorman 2B - Adam Heether 3B - Mat Gamel SS - Alcides Escobar LF - Cole Gillespie CF - Chris Duffy RF - Brendan Katin Backups C - Vinny Rottino MI - Johnny Ash UI - Casey McGehee OF - Jason Bourgeois Pitching SP - Mark DiFelice SP - Chris Narveson SP - Brae Wright SP - David Welch SP - Sam Narron RP - Omar Aguilar RP - Luis Pena RP - Lindsey Gulin RP - Tim Dillard RP - Joe Bateman RP - Chris Smith RP - Richie Gardner Iribarren and Nelson are both lost via waivers or traded unless Hernan beats out Gwynn for the 25th roster spot. I'd be somewhat surprised if the Brewers push Cain up to AAA after 148 AA at-bats and his AFL campaign, though with a good spring it's a possibility.

I helped. Evil Eye, please.

Who exactly in the upper reaches of the Brewers' farm system could replace Counsell? Bourgeois? Justis? Ash? Heether? I don't know that any of those guys give you the plate discipline of Counsell, nor the defensive steadiness.

The other morning when it was -12 outside, I went to the grocery store in my undershirt and blazer (and pants and shoes). Cold is about the same cold once it gets under 20 or so, at least to me.

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It's possible that he's using a budget that contains all player-related costs in addition to salary (hotels, extra salary expenses they expect to incur later) and/or the salaries of minor league guys. Right now, going strictly by tabulating salaries their opening day payroll is definitely south of $80 mil. But the number Mark A. is using which I certainly think is valid by his standards might include any number of expenses the Brewers normally lump in to their payroll cost.

Josh Towers was signed by the Nationals. I'm on the Chuck James bandwagon, or Odalis Perez if he doesn't want more than $1 mil. Or both. The depth would be good to have, if not mind blowingly nice.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Pi-symbol.svg/600px-Pi-symbol.svg.png

69. Yah, I'm that guy.

What? That guy is terrible on the mic.

That was the second thing I thought. The first thing I thought was had to do with this: My seven month old daughter had been constipated until the night before the poop eating incident. I say until the night before because I don't know if it was the applesauce or the pears we gave her, but she pooped three pretty big ones over the course of about 20 minutes. The first one was a diaper poop. The second one was as she was standing half naked at the gate inside her room, she looked at me as I was washing my hands and pooped on the floor. The third one was when I was laying her down to put a new diaper on, she pooped on her bed, narrowly missing my hands. She also peed on my shirt as I was carrying her over to her bed. So my first thought was... if I had brought the dog up to her room, would he have cleaned up the floor poop for me? If only I would have known.

Yesterday morning after I got back inside from taking out the recycling, I saw that our dog had cornered our cat in the kitchen. While they were batting at each other (the dog thinks it is play, the cat thinks quite the opposite), the dog must have sufficiently scared the cat to make it poop on the floor. After the cat pooped on the floor, the dog ate the poop and walked away. I had to live with that image for the rest of my day.

Single cell shark.

Rush hour = KMFDM. Not rush hour = MDFMK.

I don't know that anyone is arguing that his defense completely negates his offensive value, which is indeed great. However, as you admit his defense is crappy, doesn't it make sense he'd be a much more valuable player if he played even average, break-even defense? His defensive shortcomings definitely do negate some amount of his offensive production.