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Seems like the offense is too aggressive today. Probably because of opening day. They will be more patient tomorrow.

Great catch by Gonzalez. Really would have been nice to get a leadoff double. This game is going poorly but there is plenty of time to come back. Only down 2. Good test for the new bullpen to see if they can keep us in the game. Edit: What is Weeks thinking???

Gonzalez is slllloooww. Edit: same old Gomez

Gomez swings out of his shoes on his first pitch of 2013.

Glad that bad call didn't hurt us.

Happy Opening Day everyone! I'll be watching and on bf.net from my office in Miami. All of you that have the day off need to drink some beer for those of us stuck working. Only a little over 2 hours to go!!!

Oh, I completely forgot about catchers moving to 1B. That definitely makes a big difference.

Depends on what you define as "big". Clearly, $15-20 million/year isn't that much anymore, it used to be that only around 5 teams had the money to sign that type of contract, now it's getting to the point that almost every all-star in his 20s can expect $100+ million contracts.

I would simply insist on a change from using money as a metric for determining the health of the sport. Right now, several sports are making mistakes by signing deals for the most money instead of what is best for the fans and the game. Many of the other ideas in this thread are very good, but they would never be accepted without a change to the ownership culture. Many of these poor decisions are related to broadcasting. Specific changes would be: -An end to MLB.tv blackout restrictions. In-market viewers simply would be able to watch their local team for free online or on mobile devices by logging in with their cable or satellite TV information. -Get playoff games on ESPN instead of TBS. We are at the point now where it would be appropriate to move the World Series to ESPN, with a simulcast on ABC in local markets. -I would definitely pressure ownership groups to invest more money in their respective teams. Loria would be removed and the A's stadium deal would be approved. -Any team receiving revenue sharing from the luxury tax would be required to disclose a summary of its financial figures and prove that the money isn't being pocketed. Revenue sharing needs to have strings attached. -A huge increase in funding for little league and inner city baseball programs in both major and minor league cities. Local clubs would be responsible for assisting existing organizations in overseeing and promoting these programs. In terms of overall game play, I would like to see a more sincere attempt to speed up the pace of the game, primarily by restricting how often the time out can be called and when the batter can step out of the box. The way to do this is to have especially restrictive rules when no runners are on base. The catcher should also only be allowed to visit the mound between batters.

At first it looks like incredible money considering he is only 26 years old this year. However, this actually looks like a steal compared to the Mauer deal. From 2013-2020 he will make $164 million (including signing bonus). Braun will make $141.5 million over that same period. Posey is 3 years younger than Braun. Both put up comparable WAR in 2012, although Posey will likely be more productive in later years, justifying the additional salary compared with Braun. Another comparison: From 2013-2017, Posey will make $78.4 million. Lucroy will make $15 million. Mauer will make $115 million, plus another $23 million at age 35 in 2018. Posey is 1 year younger than Lucroy and 4 years younger than Mauer. It seems like it is better to sign these deals at age 26-27. Pay more for the prime years in exchange for the contract ending around age 34 instead of 35-37. The Brewers will have a tough call if they decide to extend Gallardo starting at age 30 since he will probably be looking to sign through age 36.

Gotta watch out when signing those exclusive contracts. Why would they ever do that with a port-a-potty company?

It's just nice to see Miller Park and hear BA and Bill again. Can't wait for Monday.

I think the franchise value is a better indicator of success than year to year profitability. The value has gone up by over $40 million annually. That is a very good return on their investment. The payrolls are another good indicator of success and they continue to rise across MLB. With projected TV revenues, I expect all 30 teams to be above the $100 million mark by 2020. The owners would not be signing all these record contracts if they couldn't pay them.

The cold air is coming for sure, there are a couple waves associated with that so they could end up being more intense than the current forecast. Right now it looks like all precipitation on Sunday-Monday will be very light. That is a good thing since it would probably be snow and not rain on Sunday night.

Here is the list of apps that I actually use: Twitter Facebook Instagram Google Maps MLB At-Bat ESPN Fantasy Football Tapatalk RadarScope MapMyRun+ GuiTune I would also be interested to know the apps that people use frequently.

Right now, the forecast is slightly above normal temperatures with average precipitation. I can't find any indicators that would suggest more or less rainfall than normal, but you never really know with those long term forecasts. Edit: see this story about central US drought--Wisconsin is no longer in a drought but other regions could be worse in 2013.

Judging by the latest models, upper 30s is looking generous for Monday. The game time temperature may be below freezing. It will also be very, very windy. Just a brutal day, one of the worst in a long time. At least there is no snow expected.

The ticket number was tweeted by TH, they sold 34,000 and the normal is 7,000/day. I believe it, but it's probably just mostly people who saw the Brewers in the news and remembered that they haven't bought their tickets for this year yet.

We will probably be welcoming Billy Hall or Russell Branyan back tomorrow...

Yuni fans rejoice!!! Wait...make that Yuni fan...I think I'm the only one.

Opening day: partly to mostly cloudy, slight chance showers, temperature in the 40s. Temperatures should crack 50 away from the lake this weekend, depending on how fast the snow cover melts.

He's not a bad pitcher. He was a very good pitcher for the last 400 innings. This is all based on our assumptions that he will be a bad pitcher eventually, hopefully not right away. If he puts up his 2012 numbers again, he's worth $15-20 million just for 2013, especially when you consider that he will be replacing Fiers or a similar replacement-level pitcher. It will be interesting to see what is available in July and at what price. I would have preferred that we go with a rental, although that would have required surrendering at least one prospect. We also might have been sellers ourselves by that point as well. This signing does make me much more excited for 2013, so I hope he does really well and earns his contract.

Basically what's going on is the reverse of last March: the pattern of longwave ridges and troughs in the jet stream is stuck in place. You may hear reference to the "Arctic Oscillation" or "North Atlantic Oscillation" which are just measures of the amplitude of this ridge/trough pattern. They are both highly negative which indicates persistent cold air over the eastern US. That pattern is expected to stay in place for at least the next 7 days. Unfortunately, a storm is also expected to move toward Wisconsin on Sunday-Monday with more snow accumulations possible and then another shot of cold air behind that. By then, we will be less than a week from Opening Day. The long range guidance has the cold air finally receding somewhere around 3/28-3/30. However, the transition is expected to be gradual so I wouldn't expect the high temperature on April 1st to be any warmer than 50 or so.

Was just checking the models and saw the same thing, continued cold with additional chances for snow in the next week. So far, this is only the 53rd coldest March on record in Milwaukee and 31st coldest in Madison but those numbers will probably be much higher after another week of well below normal weather.

Weather like last March was a once in a lifetime type thing. Spring will eventually arrive but the cold air looks to hang on at least another week. Back in the late 1800s the lakes occasionally stayed frozen until May so at least the climate has warmed since then.