parkside21

19031 Nice job, Milwaukee. Real nice.

Hart seems to be hitting everything off the end of the bat. Is he possibly standing a little too far from the plate? Just a possibility. jloos, I was going to suggest the exact same thing earlier. I know, he's a professional hitter, I just pretend to be one on my couch, so I'll give him and the coaches the benefit of the doubt...but, before he fouled about 3 fastballs in a row off the end of the bat that he looked like he was reaching for, but they were just off the middle of the plate. A guy that is 6'5", or whatever, should not be reaching.

How about Jenkins just hits a HR here and inspires a group hug? edit: I'll take a single....now comes the tricky part...

Ta-da. That's how average teams win ball games that they maybe shouldn't have.

Estrada grounded out with the base loaded. No K or pop up. Is everyone happy? No.

A-Rod with his 6th HR of the season. He's pretty good I guess.

8:20 re-start time.

Are there any sites that show what actual gate attendance is? Specifically, what will be higher? The paid attendance at Miller Park tonight? Or the gate attendance in Florida?

I just don't think this team has hit it's stride yet and gotten into a groove on offense (that's probably obvious, just look at the individual stats, besides solo HRs), and once they do, I think they will be a decent team.....but right now, they're just not. When individuals are struggling, things like moving runners over have to be a premium, and while we're at it, avoiding bad baserunning is key as well. Right now, the team doesn't seem to be doing those little things that are needed to squeek out a couple wins, even when they're struggling.

Are ground outs better or something? Yes. I'll take a ball hit on the ground any day over a pop up to the 2nd baseman when the infield fly rule is in effect. How many times have the Brewers done this now this year? 3? 4 times? Even when the infield fly rule isn't in effect, I'd rather make them make a throw and have a chance of advancing the runner over instead of an overaggressive slap at a pitch out of the zone that gets popped up. Assuming of course they stay out of the double play. The point is, the team is making weak outs when we have runners on base. This seemed to be a problem last year, I hope it doesn't become a trend this year as well.

Please, not tonight. I'm tired of it. http://www.vividelements.com/flashsite/newsletters/images/nomorepopups.jpg

This game will again be on WMLW, however: It appears, at least on the Green Bay / Apple-ton Time Warner Cable guide, that Monday Night's game will be rebroadcast at noon on Tuesday afternoon on FSN. It should be noted that the game is given a 3 hour window, and so if needed, they will "fast forward" certain areas of the game to make it fit in this 12-3 window. This WMLW deal is actually working out pretty neat, as I assume if there were no WMLW to telecast it, we would all lose out on these broadcasts because of the previous Bucks commitment. I'll take a rebroadcast over no broadcast at all.

Ooof, another day off for Hart? If you need to give Hall a day off, fine, but why not just start Gross in CF then and leave Jenkins and Hart as is?

I kind of wish Darron was doing this game....I'd love to hear how many times he could use "easter eggs" instead of the pitchers putting up "goose eggs" before it got old...oh well

Capuano is 7-2 with a 3.75 ERA in 10 career starts against the Cubs, including a 3-0 mark with a perfect 0.00 ERA in 26 innings last season. Last season, Capuano threw a five-hit shutout against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on April 30 and a six-hit shutout on July 6 at Miller Park. He also scattered seven hits in eight scoreless innings at Wrigley Field on June 26. Here's to Cappy doin' his thang with some Easter swang...

edit: I mispoke. Tillman is rated as the Mariner's 8th best prospect. I was going to mention him being a 2nd round draftpick and mistakenly listed him as the #2 prospect. I pulled a Greg...I apologize. (I also left Alex Liddi off the list of players that will be on the T-Rats this year). Edits will be made above.

It should also be mentioned, though I'm sure many of you know this already, but Ryne Sandberg is managing the Peoria Chiefs this year (the team that the T-Rats will be facing tonight). So, even if it isn't the Brewers, feel free to watch and get your anti-cub feelings all geared up for this weekend, http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif I'll be at the game, at least for a little while, attempting to brave the 10 degree wind chill...I guess it could be worse, I could be hitting hard objects with a wooden stick...ouch....a strikeout might not feel so bad tonight.

I had the opportunity to attend the Timber Rattlers fan fest on Tuesday afternoon. The weather was terrible, it wasn't particularly windy, but it was extremely foggy and the temperature hovered in the mid to upper 30's. However, it was a good time and the 150 of us or so that were there were treated to a free hot dog, soda and popcorn. Here are my impressions from what I saw. The T-Rats played a 5 inning scrimmage against the Lawrence University Vikings in which only T-Rat pitchers pitched. The "home" team consisted of T-Rat players pitching to Viking hitters, with T-Rat fielders. The "away" team consisted of Vikings fielders using a T-Rat pitcher and catcher that pitched to T-Rat hitters. The T-Rat pitchers were on specific pitch counts, as sometimes an inning ended with only two outs, if a pitcher had reached his pitch count (due to some poor Lawrence defense behind him usually), but other times the inning extended beyond 3 outs to get other T-Rats an at bat. All batters used wood bats. Anyways, these are the things that caught my attention: Tony Butler, 19, LHP, an Oak Creek, WI native and a 3rd round pick in last year's draft is rated as the #4 prospect in the Mariners system. He was very impressive. I don't think they had the mph gun turned on, but in the 2 innings he pitched (he started), he blew away the Lawrence hitters, as was to be expected. He struck out 3 and allowed 3 soft rollers for the other three outs. He looked very athletic as he covered first on two of them for flips from the 1B. The other one he threw over himself. For a big guy (6'7") he got off the mound and to 1st quicker and more athletically than I would have expected. On the downside, his control wasn't always great, though this could be due to the fog and very cold temperatures, he spiked a couple pitches before they even reached the plate, but if he can control his control, with just his fast ball and curve he should have no problem putting up a 2.80 ERA with 120 K's or so in 100 innings and earn an August call up. As with most Low A players, he was also a very nice kid, I talked to him briefly after his warmups while we were waiting for the National Anthem to start, and he was kind enough to sign a few balls. I'm sure it's just because of his physical nature, but he reminded me a lot of Colorado pitcher Jeff Francis on the mound...though Butler is actually a couple inches taller. The other player I was impressed with, though he walked a batter, but looked like he had good stuff nonetheless, was RHP Anthony Varvaro (#19 prospect), a pitcher out of St. John's drafted in the 12th round of 2005. Though he's 22, he looks like he could have a future as a bullpen guy and seemed to have the Vikings hitters off balance in every at bat. I really wanted to see SS Carlos Triunfel play (#11 prospect). The kid just turned 17 in February and the Mariners want him to start in Low A this year? Personally, I think that's a little crazy and the kid probably needs a year of rookie ball. He's out of the Dominican, but come on, if he were American he would be a junior in high school...Low A is asking too much if you ask me. However, according to one of the coaches, Carlos had some VISA issues and was not able to make it, but he should be there in time for tonight's opener. The other big name on the roster is RHP Chris Tillman, the 2nd round pick from last year's draft. However, if I remember correctly, he did not pitch because he is schedule to start tonight's opener. Gavin Dickey, CF, may also have a future purely based on speed, but he doesn't appear anywhere on the top prospect lists, but this year could change that. Overall, this team should have much more talent than last year's team, which was awful at times. The only prospect from last year that seemed to have a chance was Luis Valbuena, who I really wasn't even impressed with anyways. Top Prospects to at least start the year on this year's team according to BA including their ages, and ranks: LHP, Tony Butler (19), #4 RHP, Chris Tillman (18 ) , #8 SS, Carlos Triunfel (17), #11 RHP, Anthony Varvaro (22), #19 OF, Greg Halman (19), #25 3B, Alex Liddi (18 ) , #26 T-Rats won the scrimmage 4-0 if I recall, but the loudest cheers came in the 4th inning when Lawrence got their only hit of the game (a soft liner just over the SS's head). Lawrence struggled with defense and it showed, as they committed 4 or 5 errors. T-Rats open tonight against the Ryne Sandberg coached Peoria Chiefs in Apple-ton tonight at 6:35, it should be chilly, but I'm sure there are still tickets available, and as mentioned elsewhere, the game should be available on Time Warner Sports. Timber Rattlers Website Blog of the T-Rat Radio Announcer, Chris Mehring Mariner Minors Blogspot Fan's Guide to the 2007 Midwest League The Fan's guide used to be a very nice link with a lot of information, but it looks like the author may be taking a break in 2007 and not updating it...kind of a bummer With all that said.....GO BREWERS! edit: For whatever it's worth, I failed to mention, I was definitely not impressed with the Timber Rattlers' catchers, they had a couple passed balls and their throws to second were usually off by quite a bit. If it wasn't because of the weather, this could be a weak spot for the team in 2007.

Paul, I'm sure this has been their intention, but for a new channel, I'd imagine it takes a little time and a few hoops to go through to get the rights to broadcast live sporting events, more time than it takes to simply play taped rebroadcasts. But you're right, Time Warner Sports could be a very nice channel if they can somehow begin to regularly show live broadcasts of the "other" Wisconsin sports (Admirals, T-Rattlers, UWGB basketball games, UWM games, Gambers games, etc.).

Schlitz, that's a great find. Job well done!

bj, were you able to ask him anything about a replay? My Time Warner Cable guide in Apple-ton shows that a Brewers / Dodgers game is being replayed tomorrow at noon on FSN. Would that be tonight's game? Or would that be a previous day's game? Or is the guide just wrong and they will be showing the Bucks game replay? Thanks in advance if you can get any answers.

Sorry, I meant this was for Time Warner Cable. However, it looks like FSN will be replaying the Brewers game at Noon on Thursday, at least according to the guide. Usually FSN replays whatever was on the previous night at noon the next day, so I'm wondering if perhaps they won't still be showing Brewers baseball tonight, as if they were indeed showing the Bucks game, they would replay that instead tomorrow. Who knows though.

wibadgers, It shows the same in the Apple-ton/Green Bay area. FSN looks to be showing the Bucks game vs. the Celtics at 7.....I'll be at class anyways so I'll be DVRing it, but I hope to come home to a Brewers game...we'll see.

In other news, looks like they have a Ned people don't seem to like... For those that were confused at first thinking they were talking about our Ned, it refers to Ned Colleti, the Dodger GM.

Ooof, looking at those splits, I'm not too optomistic about tonight, though I would have been happy with a 2-1 series win anyways, so I guess a win tonight is just a bonus. My fear, if Brady gets the start tonight, he's the Brewer killer.