And That

What part of last years stats indicate it's "Eveland Time". I really like Dana as a prospect, but he was horrendous last year out of the bullpen and I'd like to see more than a handful of starts at Nashville before the Brewers decide to give up on 2006. If Sheets is out, your other choices are: Jared Fernandez Jorge de la Rosa Zach Jackson Justin Thompson Edit: I got hit with a migraine immediately after I typed that. And I suppose you could add Lehr's name to the list. Even better.

Where's Jeff D'Amico when we need him? But seriously, it's time for Eveland.

Groovy.

Jackson has walked 15 guys now in 33 IP. Not great, not horrible. I like that he's only allowed 1 HR amongst the 32 hits he's given up.

Gallardo and Inman are just sick right now. For fun, combine their season stats and gaze in wonderment. I agree with Colby that Gallardo shouldn't be considered for promotion just yet. I'd like to see him get about another 75-100 innings against A-level batters, and if he's still dominating then, move him up without a doubt. However, I sort of think that Inman should be moved up if he keeps this up until the end of May. While I agree that HS-drafted starting pitchers should be kept in A-ball for at least 150-200 IP, I'd have no problem letting Inman learn about slightly more advanced A-ball hitting with Brevard. If that means keeping him there into next year, fine, but at this early stage in his career, he's sort of actually a pitcher and not a thrower, and could use the advanced treatment IMO. Which dovetails into my next, which is that the 2-year A-ball program should be utilized for very hard throwers with less than good command, like Neugebauer, Jones, etc. However, for more refined pitchers like Gallardo and Inman (neither of whom have big strike zone problems at all), learning to get guys out in the zone is more important because they can't necessarily blow the ball by the hitters. A-ball hitters (especially Midwest/Sally League) as a group are free-swingers... that's why they are there. I don't know that a refined HS pitcher will gain as much as he should from facing those batters because they might swing at any old thing while more advanced hitters will challenge a pitcher to throw "good" strikes. With guys like Rogers and Neuge, all I care is that they are coming close to the zone with the heat; With guys like Inman and Gallardo, I want them to be throwing those good command strikes and getting guys out in the way the MLB pitchers have to. That's why I'm fine with pushing "command" pitchers a little faster than "stuff" pitchers.

The Brewers really should promote either Jeremy Lewis or Josh Alliston to AA. There's only so far Lewis can develop as a 25-year-old lefty in A+, and Alliston has a healthy month behind him, so I think it could be time to move him on and up.

Brad Nelson just struck out for the 6th time tonight... that's one step beyond the platinum sombrero, and I don't know what that is. 1 for 9 on the night. Ouch. Game will be suspended until tomorrow. Good night.

Mike Rivera now with shot #9 to extend his hitting streak. Hart is on first with two outs. Edit: Hart stole second, so they walked Rivera. Bunch of jerks.

With a runner on second, Rottino strikes out and Krynzel flies out to send us to the 18th. Edit: Nothing in the 18th for New Orleans. Clark-Abernathy-Hart in the bottom half of the frame.

Those are pickles on the cheese sandwich. FYI.

http://starbulletin.com/1999/01/06/features/artb.gif

JJ Hardy is a bigger liability than my student loan balance.

Brad Nelson with a K to end a threat in the bottom of the 16th, which drops him to 1-8 on the evening. Ouch. I'm guessing the fireworks are a no-go tonight. Edit: And on to the bottom of the 17th we go. Still 4-4.

Hardy should stick to golf.

Hall would have pitched a complete game shutout today... from SS.

HE CAN'T HIT CONSISTENTLY...it is troublesome That's why we should cut him. Or trade him to Japan for Gary Glover.

I agree. I think we should actually just cut Hardy and save ourselves the trouble.

Those Dodger Blues guys are weird. Funny, but weird.

Man, Chris Barnwell is on fire...2 more hits today...seems someone doesn't want to accept his "organizational soldier" tag and is threatening to become an actual prospect. Where did this come from? I was about to post this same thing. The highest OPS he's ever had was in rookie ball, a 755 mark. I'd give it another month before getting too excited, but Barnwell is a prototypical Brewers player: gritty, smart, and a battler. The reason I say wait another month is that Steve Scarborough did almost the same thing a couple years ago, and then petered out pretty quickly.

Carlos Lee evidently has forgotten it is his contract year.

Cruz really isn't at that point yet. He has what, 3 months in AAA? Hart has around 11. The Brewers openly spoke of holes in his swing in spring training. To be fair about Cruz, he may only have about half a season's worth of ABs in AAA, but he still has half a season's woth of 900 OPS baseball in AAA. He'll strike out a lot in the bigs for a long time, but he'll be effective in the bigs. I intentionally didn't bring up Cruz in my initial post on the subject because he'll get slammed due a bit to his stike outs and relative inexperience in AAA, but I think he deserves to play in Milwaukee right now. What I'd do if I were Doug Melvin (which I'm not, so I'm probably wrong) is I'd trade Clark for minor league talent, demote Demaria and promote Hart and Cruz. Have a super-platoon of Hall-Hart-Cruz-Gross in CF, and rotate the guys that don't start in CF on a particular day around the field. Hall and Hart can play anywhere, and I'm sure Cruz and Gross could at least play 1st every now and again. The Brewers still aren't good enough to not be able to audition young talent. They should maximize what they can get out of the young guys now, because without them, they won't win in the playoffs a year or two down the road. It's quite possible that Clark takes on a role similar to Helms a last year. Of course, I think teams would rather acquire Clark than see Milwaukee not play him. I totally agree. Brady Clark has helped turn the franchise around, but his usefullness is almost at an end (to the Brewers). I think he still plays another 5-6 years in the bigs, but the Brewers need to grow past him. Someone will take him, and I think he could really, really help a young team like KC, TB, or AZ. I've been a Clark supporter from the beginning, and I still think he has MLB value. Unfortunately, the Brewers have about 5 other guys I'd rather see play in CF everyday.

The Astros are the better team until the Brewers finish with a better record than them, or are substantially better than them during the season. I don't know that there is a ton of argument about this. Ben Sheets' secondary numbers are stellar - I give him about 5-6 start until his ERA is about 3.00. He's been unlucky so far, and at a time when he's coming off an injury. A bad matrix to tread through, but he's so close to being dominate again. Unless he's injured, you shouldn't worry about him. It's tough to give too many props to Hendrickson tonight. He pitched about as effecitvely as possible, against a good Astros lineup. He's added the juice to his fastball that a number of us knew he had in him, and was able to locate his pitches for the most part. He went a long, long way tonight towards securing a roster spot long-term, and even starting in place of Ohka if that becomes necessary. Also a classic Uecker game. The Brewers were down the whole time, but he and Powell made it entertaining as heck to listen to. The quips about The Tonight Show and Edwin Encarnacion had me rolling in my seat. JP, if you're reading this, you are the perfect straight man for Ueck. Ueck, if you're reading this, you've upgraded you're pocket dopplar and I'm impressed.

Corey Hart has dominated AAA enough already. The Brewers need to find a way to get him regular ABs at the MLB level. If Hart stays in AAA for another month, he'll have a 1000 OPS. AAA no longer is helping the man. The Brewers are in an enviable position where they'd have to part with a good player to make room for Hart... as much as I like what Brady Clark has done for this club, between Hall and Hart and Gross, he's just not needed anymore. I'd let him try to get hot for another few weeks and then see what teams need a CF. I'll make a bold guess here and say that Brady Clark will never play CF in a Brewers playoff game, but his successor will. Good performance by Villanueva today, but I can't get excited about him at the AA level until he strings a few of these together. He still doesn't have the stuff to get excited about him on stuff alone. Luis Montanez sighting in AA. Remember when he and Gookie Dawkins were both huge SS prospects for the Reds about 3-4 years ago? Ouch. Ben Hendrickson graduated off the Power 50 today. Good luck to him in all his future endeavors. Maybe I've been playing OOTP a little too much recently, but I count about 8-10 guys whom the Brewers should very seriously think about promoting.

And Hendrickson had graduated off of the Power 50. Yay for Lil' Ben.

Hendrickson only needed 3 2/3 IP to graduate off the Power 50 coming into the game, now only 2 2/3 away.