Baldkin

Clearly, it's the same thing as the second half of last year, he's just tired. At least, that's what I was told over and over again when I questioned his horrible second half last year. His first half HR/FB% was 15.3%, second half, 2.3%, this year it's 4.9%. His popups have gone from 4.2% in the first half, to 7.6 in the second half to 9.8% this season. His IFH% was 16.2% first half of last year, 7.6% second half and 9.6% this season. Pitchers have adjusted, and infielders aren't playing him way, way, way back anymore. He's seeing way more pitches in the zone overall, and way more first pitch strikes as well.

I realize Hairston wasn't that great, and the collective think tank of Brewerfan.net always amazes me. He put up an above average OBP and played 6(?) positions for the Brewers. I love the Zobrist idea, I wonder if we could pry him away from cheap (and out of it) Tampa Bay.

They don't really have a big body like Jozy to take his spot. They will move to more of a 4-4-2 instead of a 4-5-1 and have the two forwards alternating runs and attacks on the wings up top with Bradley being the top of the diamond of the midfielders. They've always (imo) looked better with that formation anyway, as there is much more active spacing and ball movement (and ball control, which they totally lacked yesterday)

I've been wracking my brain and I'll admit, my non-knowledge of anyone but the Brewers hasn't helped me. I really feel as though that is what the Brewers need on the bench more than anything... someone who can play multiple positions and spell our guys and carry a .750ish OPS. Is that guy out there somewhere? Can he be gotten?

Plenty of other players have denied just as vehemently as Braun. It has to be just the tester side-story. Media coverage, media coverage, media coverage and media coverage. Approximately 8 words were written about Jhonny Peralta testing positive but about eleventy billion were written about Braun while his entire process dragged on for 18 months (the initial report in December 2011 to his suspension in July)

You have Henson, Miroslav and Zaza still at the 5. Talent is what the Bucks need. Young talent. You worry about filling holes once you look like a top-half playoff team.

They are the anti Brewers. 10th in BA, 21st in OBP and 10th in Runs Scored.

His .611 OPS in the leadoff spot says otherwise. Why can't we hit our 4 best hitters 1-4? Sigh.

People leave early for Sunday games, they leave early on Friday and Saturday games. The time the game starts has nothing to do with it. If games took 2 hours, people would still leave early. They all want to "beat the traffic"

If they get 3 lottery picks it needs to not involve next years pick as they will probably be pretty bad next year too.

Knight is a 2 guard in a PG's body, he has no vision, can't run the pick 'n roll and really only scored a lot because he shot a lot last year. The team as a whole was much better with Wolters on the court than they were with Knight. The rumors I've heard is that the FO is gone after the draft, they aren't making the pick, but the Bucks don't want their knowledge walking out the door to some other team before the draft (makes sense). Drew is as good as gone as well.

1) Garza has been every bit as bad as Estrada and he hasn't had the horrible luck with HRs (like the 3 run shot last night that was a foot from being foul) 2) Estrada is still striking guys out 22% of the time. 3) The walks are a bit of a concern 4) I cannot fathom him staying at a 19% HR/FB rate. The past 3 seasons it was 10.3, 10.5 and 11.9, which although it's high, is not that far from league average. 5) He won't have to face Giancarlo Stanton again this year (hopefully), who hit 2 mammoth bombs off Marco. Anyway, that's me playing devils advocate. I just don't see the value in changing things up when the team is still carrying dead weight Wang in the bullpen.

The Twins announcers said, "I think it hit the foul pole"

Best I could do on the PC replay without slow mo and no HD..... sure looks like it is in front of the pole there. http://i.imgur.com/G9JPc8E.jpg

The batter has to be in the box and time cannot be called as well.... so.... the onus is not just on the pitcher.

Someone (once again) fell into the bullpen from Friday's last night. Sounds like he was okay, but still taken to the hospital. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mil/a-male-fan-falls-into-the-brewers-bullpen-during-tuesdays-game-and-is-taken-to-the-hospital?ymd=20140603&content_id=78101410&vkey=news_mil

I hit him 4th. Davis 5th. Move Gomez back to leadoff and get our .280 OBP over his last 450 PA SS out of the leadoff role.

Just goes to show that the silent majority doesn't really care about steroids.

This is, for me, the one & only determinant as to whether or not a 'contact play' worked. I HATE the 'contact play'. It's bad strategy. Trust a professional baseball player to use his instincts and judgment, & read the ball off the bat to determine whether or not he tries to score on a groundball in the infield. Imo the 'contact play' is the equivalent of telling a runner on 3B to attempt to tag up & score on any flyball, no matter how deep or shallow it is, and without considering if the OF throwing the ball has an arm like Khris Davis or like Carlos Gomez. http://media.tumblr.com/33a00d5d0fa1500b4bc5d5ee69ffa345/tumblr_inline_mp9hhkPFjS1qz4rgp.gif

I don't like giving one of our 3 worst hitters the most plate appearances. I'd rather Segura hit 7 or 8, Lucroy lead off, and everyone else move up a spot. I just think the team has 4 really good hitters, I want them hitting 1-4 in some fashion.

Well, that's simply the incorrect assessment. Reynolds, over the past 3 years has hovered under a 5% HR rate. So, we'll just go with 5% to make the math easy. Gallardo, OTOH, has had a 5.9% XBH% over the last 3 years. So, in that alone it's a bad decision. That also doesn't include Gallardo getting on and it not being an XBH and the next guy coming up to the plate.

True. They suck all around. But they were also missing their best post presence in Sanders for most of the season. He would have almost certainly improved their defensive and rebounding numbers. I can throw out horrible offensive stats too: 95.5 PPG - 28th overall 43.8% FG% - 26th overall 35.3% 3PT% - 20th overall IMO, we are a better defensive team than last year assuming Sander is healthy. Problem is, he doesn't help much on the offensive end. I'm not saying Embiid can't be good or won't help, I just think Wiggins or Parker would be much better options. In a team as talentless as the Bucks, you draft whomever the best player is at #2, and then fit the roster around them. You don't draft a lesser player based on need. Drafting on need is how you draft Joe Alexander instead of Lopez.

If they pass on Olajuwan to to get Todd Day it will also put the franchise farther behind. Emdiid is not the huge project some of you are saying he is. His game will be solid on both sides of the court from game 1. He will be better on the offensive end than Larry Sanders immediately. Yea, not saying much I know, but it seems like some of you are saying that's the level he's at offensively. But again, doesn't matter because he is the #1 pick- period. Finally, you say the Bucks picks have been mixed results. Not really. Hammond has gone with raw talent guys that need development as you said, and they've all pretty much performed above where they've been drafted. Joe Alexander is an exception, but everyone else was a good pick. Jennings, Sanders, Harris, Henson, Giannis. Not to mention how well he's done in the 2nd round. That's why I'm confident the Bucks will get this right. As horrible as Hammond has been managing the roster, he's been very good on draft day. You mean like passing on taking Klay Thompson to trade down and acquire Stephen Jackson (and eventually draft Tobias Harris)? I want no part of Hammond running anything. As for scoring, you score in the NBA by running the pick and roll and with ball movement. You don't score in the NBA by letting Caron Butler and Brandon Knight hold the ball and hope they can throw up a shot at some point in the shot clock (aka, the Larry Drew offense). They are still going to be bad next year, but if they upgrade their coach, run Wolters as the starting point guard, and give Giannis more touches to create on offense, there could be a huge improvement on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.

Really? Old? Ramirez, Overbay, Lohse and....??? We are a bit thin on the offensive side, but I'm not sure how you could say that we are old. Even our bullpen is young, which is kind of amazing. Braun is a little injury prone I guess, but that is different than old (even if it has the same affect). We have a bunch of other guys who are in their prime or nearing the end of their prime, but that certainly isn't old. Those might be concerns for the direction of the franchise, but they aren't concerns for "this year." Yes, when you list our #2 starter, and half the opening day infield.... I'd say age can be listed as a concern.

Embiid is by far and away the best player in the draft. If he's there, you have to take him. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/ryen-russillos-nba-draft-confidential-real-scouts-on-wiggins-randle-embiid-and-parker/ I will not understand the desire to draft Parker, a guy who in college was being pulled for offense/defense substitutions with a top 5 pick. That's how bad he is defensively.