Matt Breen

Thank you.

Thank you.

Speed kills. You can't teach speed. Everything else in the game can be taught, but speed is a gift from God.” - NFL Owner Al Davis Speed was Mike Felder's game. When the Brewers drafted Felder in the 3rd round of the 1981 draft out of Contra Costa Junior College in California, they were getting one of the most exciting, albeit one dimensional, players in team history. From the moment he arrived in the Brewer organization, the diminutive Bay Area native (nicknamed Tiny) hit the base paths running. Felder led the minors in stolen bases for four straight years from 1982 to 1985 with an astounding 92 stolen bases with Stockton in '82. In addition to stealing truckloads of bases, Felder's hitting improved with each minor league stop. He took his share of walks, and his batting average climbed over .300 in 1985, leading to a cup of coffee with the Brewers. However, what the 5'8" Felder lacked was some thump in his bat. And thus, while Felder's impressive wheels would bring him to the majors, his lack of slugging would limit his upside and playing time; pitchers simply were not afraid of his bat. For parts of six seasons, Felder was an outfielder for the Crew. He appeared in 455 games for the team, hitting .247 and producing a .624 OPS while stealing 108 bases. But Felder never became more than a semi-regular player with Milwaukee (or his subsequent teams). While he didn't strike out often, he simply did not get on base enough, as evidenced by a career OBP of just .301. Felder was a classic one-tool player - all speed. He only hit nine home runs for Milwaukee (in over 1,200 ABs) and only 14 for his entire career. Felder's best season in Milwaukee was his last - 1990 - when he hit .274 and had a .330 OBP in 272 at-bats. But Felder wanted more playing time and at the end of spring training in 1991, he asked for and was granted his release. Felder played another four years with San Francisco, Seattle, and Houston, performing pretty much the same role he had in Milwaukee. He then spent a few more years in independent ball and the Mexican league before retiring after the 1998 season. After retirement, Felder remained in baseball, coaching in the Giants and Expos organizations in 1999 and 2000. He was an assistant baseball coach at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco from 2009-2013. In his career with Milwaukee, Mike Felder was a versatile reserve, playing all of the outfield positions. However, his inability to develop any skills beyond his speed (which was sensational) kept him from being anything more than a part-time player. Still, it allowed him to play 10 years in the majors, a claim few players can make. Please share your remembrances of former Brewer Mike 'Tiny' Felder. View full article

The early 1980s featured one of the most explosive lineups in team history - the famed Harvey's Wallbangers. Yount, Molitor, Cooper, Oglivie, Thomas, Money, Simmons, and others headlined a lineup that was one of the most feared in baseball. But there were other guys on the Brewer roster that contributed to the success of that era - which included the team's only World Series appearance. One of those players was the hard-nosed 3B Roy Howell - who would spend four seasons with the Crew (1981-84). Roy Lee Howell was born in California in 1953. A left-handed hitter, he was selected in the first round, fourth overall, by the Texas Rangers in the 1972 MLB Draft. Howell quickly moved up the minor league ladder, displaying a combination of impressive physical tools, good power, and on-base skills. He would reach the majors at the age of 20, getting a cup of coffee with the Rangers. Howell would spend the next six seasons in Texas and Toronto. His bat never quite emerged as the force many had thought it would, but he had some solid seasons, hitting over .300 twice. He was selected for the all-star team in 1978. A free agent after the 1980 season, Howell signed a five-year deal with Milwaukee. The idea was to have him take over for the aging Sal Bando and Don Money. Unfortunately for Howell, his fielding skills - never great to begin with - were eroding due to a variety of injuries. And after another injury in 1981, he was never the same and was reduced to a part-time player. Howell spent four seasons with Milwaukee, playing first base, third base, and DH during that time. His teams made two postseason appearances, reaching the World Series in 1982 (he went 0-14 in the postseason that year). He hit .253 as a Brewer and produced an OPS of .684, unspectacular numbers for the corner infielder. Milwaukee released Howell after the 1984 season. He spent 1985 in the minors before retiring. During his career, Howell produced 9.3 fWAR / 10.9 bWAR while hitting .261 with an OPS of .710 which included nearly 1,000 hits and 80 home runs. Howell was recognizable during his playing days for his red hair and thick mustache and beard (although he was much better groomed during his stint in Milwaukee than in Texas and Toronto). He played the game hard and endeared himself to his teammates and the fans. Sadly, injuries sapped Howell's abilities at an early age. Instead of being a core member of the great Brewer lineups of the early 1980s, he was a minor figure, still contributing, but not in the manner the organization had hoped when he had signed with them. After baseball, Howell stayed in the game as a coach and manager, working for the Padres and Mariners and in independent ball. Please share your memories of former Brewer Roy Howell in the comments below! View full article

Keeping tabs on Brewers prospects has been a key part of BrewerFan since its inception over 20 years ago, now we're asking all of you to come vote for your favorites! To that end, we held our first Top 25 poll in the summer of 2014 (it was actually a Top 20 poll - but quickly expanded to 25). Jimmy Nelson was our first top prospect. Our yearly poll allows fans of the organization to learn about the team’s prospects and promote the players who they will believe will be a part of Milwaukee's future. You don’t have to an expert in the Brewers minor leagues to participate; feel free to look at other voters’ lists, plus there are links to established prospect analysts - such Fangraphs and the MLB Pipeline. The poll is all in good fun so give the link below a click and join in with the Brewer Fanatic community. The deadline April 4 and you can update your list right up to the deadline. So head on over to the minor league forum to find out more, just click the card below. Or, if you prefer to comment in this article section, here are the rules: Rules 1. Submit your Top 25 prospects (again, a list of 30 is best), in order, by end of day on April 4, 2022. Put the player's full name to avoid any confusion. I appreciate it you would number them. Also, please list your players from #1 to #30. 2. You MUST submit 25 prospects. If there are only 10 or 15 or whatever, your list will not be included. 3. You are encouraged to go beyond pick #25. 30 is best. This way if a player you vote for is released or traded, or you list someone twice, or whatever, we can just bump up your next player. 4. Rankings are determined by total points. The top prospect gets 25 points, second prospect gets 24 points, etc. 4. As noted above, if you submit your list and want to change something, just add the change to the thread via the edit function. I'll accept changes up to the deadline. 5. Within a week or so after the deadline, we'll publish the new BF.net Community Top 25. Eligibility guidelines Rookie eligibility is determined by the same standards as MLB: “A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has (a) exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues; or (b) accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the period of 25-player limit (excluding time in the military service and time on the disabled list).” Note: I have seen some conflicting information on Aaron Ashby. Baseball-Reference lists him as having 46 days of experience - and marks him as having 'exceeded' rookie eligibility. However, every prospect list people have him as being rookie eligible. Thus, I am making him eligible for this poll. - Players graduated from Top 25 list: Jake Cousins - Other players who have exceeded rookie limits: Ángel Perdomo, Miguel Sánchez - Eligible players with ML experience: Justin Topa, Alec Bettinger, Corey Ray, Mario Feliciano, Aaron Ashby - Ineligible players: Ángel Perdomo, Miguel Sánchez, Jake Cousins, J.C. Mejia Best of luck to you all! View full article

Excellent show. Kinda went off the rails Season 4 when they fired Dan Harmon, but Season 5 and 6 were pretty great again, even though they weirdly retired Chevy Chase's character. Chase kind of did that to himself. No one liked him. And then when he was asked to do some scenes toward the end of the season - he just refused - and left the set. Never came back. Everyone just kind of washed their hands of him at that point.

You want to talk about worker shortage, the teaching profession is in dire need of bodies... So much so, that they will hire almost anyone with a degree. We all knew it was going to happen after ACT 10 was triggered, but I don't think anyone saw it coming to this degree. My school used to have 40-50 applicants for job openings, now we are lucky to get 5. There is no reason for anyone to go into a profession that is high in uncompensated hours, disrespected openly, pays like crap, reduced benefits (depending on what district you work in, benefits are all over the map) and is a tough damn job mentally, especially since the pandemic hit in 2020. Burnout is happening at a severely accelerated rate. It's real, not just stuff you read, it's happening. I don't see what can be done in the near future to correct the problem, but the first step needs to be higher pay. Money always talks. I'm retiring at the end of this school year, thankfully. If I was in my 20's or 30's and was teaching currently, there isn't a chance in hell I would be able to stick with this job until retirement. So many are teaching for 3-5 years, then bailing. It just isn't worth it. I am 57, and have three friends who are teachers who have retired in the last year. Just fed up with it all. My sister-in-law is eligible to retire, but she stayed this year. Still loves the work. But she probably won't last more than another year or two.

I'm guessing that it's a combination of both of those things. And a lot of companies simply aren't nimble enough or willing enough to do what it takes to keep things running smoothly. The tight labor market is very real - at least in some sectors. Maybe not all of them - but a lot of them. A huge issue that a lot of people don't talk about it is the number of people who have retired in 2022/21. These are - generally - people 55+. Many still had a lot of good years left in them in the job market - but for a variety of reasons, they said 'enough.' As a 57 year old, I know many of these people. And it's contributed to a lot of open jobs, and a great market for job seekers.

Britbox and Acorn have a lot of good mysteries. The longer form than most US procedurals really adds something. My wife have really liked Britbox. She loves 'cozy' mysteries. Poirot, Father Brown, Death in Paradise, etc. - perfect 'fun' murder stories.

I watched Jungle Cruise this past weekend with my wife. It was fun. Sort of a cross between Pirates of the Caribbean, the Mummy, and Indiana Jones. Yes, it was silly. So many historical inaccuracies. But whatever. The leads were really likable (the Rock and Emily Blount), and things kept moving along.

If anyone has Britbox - really, really recommend Shetland. Great murder mystery show.

Yeah, this was really fun.

This would be awesome. I haven't had cable or anything for 5-6 years. I miss watching the Brewers - but such is life. Important games I can go to a friend's or a bar or wherever. I live with it.

Just finished the 2nd season of Peaky Blinders on Netflix. Enjoyed a great deal.

I love Archer. And she was phenomenal. The guy who voiced her husband - Ron Cadillac on the show - was her real-life husband - Ron Leibman. He died only about a year ago. Most people will remember him as Rachel's obnoxious father on Friends.

Season one and two were done by Syfy season 3-5 is done by Amazon. Season 3 and 5 are my favorite seasons I didn't like season 4 as much as the others and season 2 can drag a bit here and there. That's cool. I loved the world-building and crazy fun points of view the story provided. Kudos to the script writers for weaving in so many compelling story lines. Looking forward to more. And I don't mind a little slow burn on a story. As long as the payoff is worth it.

I watched the first season of the sci-fi show 'The Expanse' on Amazon Prime. Really impressed thus far.

People in USA watching Chernobyl when it came out May 2019, "lol Russia, we could never bungle something THAT bad." I remember when it came out the Russians were slamming it. And then it was announced the Russians were going to make their own version - complete with the CIA having a hand in the disaster. I don't know if they ever went forward with that version.

If you stick with just season 1 of True Detective you'll love it. Started this last night, and I'm absolutely hooked after 1.5 episodes. Is it truly best to just stop after Season 1? Are there any redeeming qualities of 2 or 3? Yeah, the first season of True Detective is great. Never watched the others -- everyone I knew who did was disappointed.

I agree. Good show.

"Chernobyl" on HBO was outstanding.

For those that like British Masterpiece Theater mystery types, I very much recommend 'Endeavour' - which is on Amazon Prime. It is set in the 60s at Oxford, and follows a young Inspector Morse. Great stuff. For those that don't know, Inspector Morse is a popular British mystery series (books and TV).