sbrylski

Let's say player A plays left field and can cover 250 square foot area, which we'll say is exactly average for left fielders. Now move him to center - he's still going to cover 250 square feet. So the position itself I would argue is not necessarily inherently harder to play. Its relative to other players in the league that makes it harder to be good at, which I think is a bit different, though admittedly splitting hairs. But I think that would explain why some fielders argue centerfield is easier - he'll cover the same amount of ground either place, but he doesn't have to deal with the more extreme slices.

This is the type of thinking I hope we are past as an organization. A lot of guys hit minor league pitching, and Dillon has next to no pop in his bat. They need that out of a 3B platoon. Dillon hit 20 HR in 94 games last year in AAA. Maybe he's not an Aramis, but he's not TGJ either. I guess I'm not thrilled with the idea of more "unproven guys" playing important roles on what is supposed to be a contending team. We've had enough of those. Well, I'm just trying to be optimistic with the players we have. What's your solution?

I think Gamel is a little overhyped due to his scorching start. He's a very good 2nd level prospect - he'll be an above average bat and probably always a little below average defensively. My unscientific upper-end projections would be a .290 / .360 / .480 type guy, mid to upper 800's OPS in his prime. Who knows, maybe touch 900 a time or two - but expecting that is fairly dangerous. The Garrett Atkins comparison in another thread sounds pretty good as a best case, though I'm not convinced Gamel will be a consistent .300+ hitter.

I think the other one is Johnny Estrada.

I guess I don't think KC would have any interest in acquiring expensive or arby-eligible players... Especially with Hall's and Hardy's stock, seemingly at their lowest points right now. Wow, I just about had that typed in verbatim earlier but it didn't post with the darn, recent hit-and-miss servers. Didn't bother to repost the one-liner. Take out "I guess" and "seemingly" and add "about" before "their," and I think I had it.

1) What in Russell Branyan's career makes people think he will be able to produce consistently. He wasn't good enough three or four years ago. Why now? In 2005, the Muscle played an integral role in a 3B platoon that combined for the top 3B production in the NL that season. Nobody's suggesting if we trot him out there everyday he will put up All-Star production, but he can be an asset to our team, no doubt. Career .809 OPS, .819 vRHP, is generally fine out of half a platoon. 2) What in Joe Dillon's career makes people think he's capable of more than starting Sunday JV games and pinch hitting. He is what he is. There's a reason he bounced around the minors forever, then retired before making the show. He's crushed AAA pitching forever, and now that he's finally got a chance, he's started off his big league career quite well, especially vLHP. Small sample, but I don't know why we couldn't be a little optimistic on an unproven guy here, a lot of good signs he'll succeed. Dillon+Branyan>=Bill Hall, IMO Side note: Branyan=God, right? Branyan+Dillon Does it follow that Dillon is the anti-Christ?

Personally, I have no doubt that any decent CF would be even better in the corner. But that's the reason they are CFers, because they are better at playing the OF, so you play them at the most important position. I think that's two different things. Carlos Lee doesn't suddenly become worse at fielding flyballs because he's standing in CF, but you don't want him playing there. So "harder," I'd say not much. I'm splitting hairs probably, but I'd say "more demanding/important," hence Junior Goldglove roaming the middle and Stumble Lumberking hiding in left.

I know most aren't, but I wouldn't make out Bill Hall as a bad person because of this. Put yourself in his shoes, it makes perfect sense from his point of view to get out of town now. His play has stalled, we just refuse to get him an everyday position (though we've tried), and sticking around here isn't going to get any better for him. He's beginning to stall professionally in Milwaukee. That said, I feel it would have been more honorable to stick it out the rest of the season, work hard for his PT back, and if he must, request a trade privately this offseason.

I would theorize that CF isn't really more difficult to play (other than the speed requirement noted above), but its relative importance is why the best defenders play the position, raising what is then the average level of skill for the position, and making it harder to be considered good at it. So would Braun be just as good in CF as in LF? Quite possibly, but relative to the other CFers in the league he might not stack up.

How about the 50 OPS point increase with RISP over 1000 PA's? Could be meaningful, 1000 PA is a very solid sample. That said, even with the 50 point increase, I want someone that OPSs better than .738!

So his OPS+ is actually the highest of all RHB: Player (age) Adjusted OPS+ Bats Rogers Hornsby+ 175 R Albert Pujols (28) 169 R Jimmie Foxx+ 163 R Pete Browning 162 R Mark McGwire 162 R Dave Orr 161 R Hank Greenberg+ 158 R Frank Thomas (40) 157 R Dick Allen 156 R Willie Mays+ 156 R Hank Aaron+ 155 R Joe DiMaggio+ 155 R Manny Ramirez (36) 154 R Frank Robinson+ 154 R Ed Delahanty+ 152 R Gavvy Cravath 151 R Charley Jones 150 R Nap Lajoie+ 150 R Honus Wagner+ 150 R Jeff Bagwell 149 R

No, I think that's a common nickname for people named Russell, though rluz could shed more light on that. There are a bunch of radio DJ's nicknamed Russell the Love Muscle. I was wondering because Powell called him that on his HR call today.

Russell's middle name: Oles

Q: Is Russell the Muscle a widespread nickname for Branyan? That didn't originate at BF.net, did it?

I guess no trades should ever be made. A team can value his offense and feel they have enough pitching to part with an arm to improve their offense. I thought that was the point of trades. Use a position of strength to try and improve a position of weakness. I would say, unscientifically, a very high percentage of trades are vets for prospects or to clear salary. When is the last time young, established big names were swapped for each other? I also don't get how two years of a player is ever worth as much as three years of the same player. So what is a package we could get now that we won't be able to get a year from now?

I just want to add that we have a bit of an underrated 3TOer on our roster in Rickie Weeks - 43.1 3TO% in 2007. That's pretty decent, Rickie!

This is starting to eat at me a bit: Prince Fielder is not going anywhere this season, and in all likelihood he's not going anywhere this offseason. His trade value is going to be basically the same for the next 1.5 seasons and that following offseason. Why trade him before we have to? Why would another team trade us a starter or package of pitchers that will have more years remaining, and will be worth more wins than Fielder? If you're expecting us to get younger and improve and not willing to accept prospects, it is the Brewers that will need to send prospects with Prince. We could trade Prince for some hot AAA pitching prospects, but why, and why now? We still have a young core that we can extract more wins and value out of before their trade value takes a hit - with some of them hanging on longer could boost their trade value. We'd be essentially giving up on this season, and waiting a year or two for the pitchers we get to establish themselves in the bigs, just in time for the other offensive players to be up for free agency. Offseason post-2009 is a different story - Gamel, Escobar, Salome, and maybe some of our lower minors pitchers will start taking over major roles, and Hardy (1), Weeks (2), Hall (1), Fielder (2), Hart (2), all near the end of their six years of service time. Hopefully by then Hart and maybe Weeks are locked in, but it'll be that time to really make decisions on players, trade the ones that won't be around long-term, and quick re-tool for a new chapter. We're staying with the team we have until the end of 2009. Maybe try to hit on another 1 year contract for a vet or two next offseason. Prince will go on a little streak at some point, the Brewers will go on a streak at some point, and trading Fielder discussions will disappear.

Huh? The scorer has to follow the rules. I don't understand your example.

Well, no. Defense is more than just errors, obviously. Defense has a heavy hand in shaping a pitchers ERA, we've talked about this a lot with Suppan.

To backup your point: http://www.hardballtimes.com/images/uploads/sz_results2.png Study Link

I also never said that. Within great works, the tiny inventions are usually what make them great. For example, the buzzing on the low E string in Sister Golden Hair makes that song the coolest song ever. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

The NBA should do three 18 minute periods. Best two out of three periods. So the score starts over for the second period, and again for the third. If a team wins the first two periods, they win the game. I would roughly estimate the probability of a team winning the first two periods as 40% at the most, which would give the average game a length of 46.8 minutes, 72 seconds less than games are now. And if its tied at the end of the period, there is no buzzer - the shot clock keeps going and the teams keep playing - sudden death first basket wins.

This guy knows his stuff.

Incredible and well done. If you don't watch the whole thing, at least listen to conclusion, the last 3 min.

The source doesn't give the actual percentages, but here's a nice graphic: http://stat.wharton.upenn.edu/~stjensen/research/safe/safe.densities.jpg Very, very few of all triples are hit to left field.