fondybrewfan

From what I have seen Rivera is far from horrible behind the plate. And besides its not Kendall has been playing mistake free defense either and its also not like the pitchers are having awesome games with his pitch selection.

Well the Crew has moved Suppan up to tommorrow and Thursday is now a TBD, not sure if it related at all to the 40 man spot, anyone know, other than Parra, who has the rest to pitch Thursday?

Braun's statement By Anthony Witrado of the Journal Sentinel July 7, 2009 4:48 p.m. Ryan Braun came out and met with the media before taking batting practice today. He did not take questions after the statement, which lasted about a minute and a half. The statement, which wasn't prepared, addressed what Braun said Sunday after the Brewers lost to the Cubs. Braun said he wanted the team to make a trade and said the pitching in the series wasn't good. If you haven't seen the quotes, take a look at our blog from Sunday. GM Doug Melvin wasn't happy about the comments and publicly said so. For those comments, again, check out the blog from last night or today's story on jsonline.com. Here is what Braun had to say earlier, which he said was "from the heart:" "Doug and I met this afternoon as soon as I got to the ballpark. We had a good discussion. I think both of us now have a clear understanding of where each other's coming from. It's derived from being competitive. Everybody wants to win. That's the reality of it. "It's not going to jeopardize my relationship with him. It's not going to jeopardize my relationship with the organization. I know they're trying their best to do their job. They always have, they always will. It's basically a misunderstanding. I feel like my comments were kind of taken out of context a little bit, blown out of proportion. I was a little bit surprise that it became the story that it has. But with that being said, I take full responsibility for everything that I say, for all of my actions. At times I'm emotional, I'm passionate. It's derived from just wanting to win, but I definitely take full responsibility for that. "With that being said, Me and Doug are cool. Everything's good. I have no issues with anybody. I apologized if I offended anybody in the organization. That clearly wasn't my intent. I wasn't trying to disrespect anybody, wasn't trying to call anybody out. It wasn't a conversation that I initiated. I was just basically responding to a question. I try when I'm dealing with the media to be honest and sometimes I'm honest to a fault. It gets me in trouble. I recognize that. It's a strength and a weakness. It's something that I need to be more aware of at times. "We'll move forward. Hopefully it's something I'll learn from. It's definitely something I'll learn from, and we'll move on."

I am not sure your package is really any better than what was previously suggested.. You both list Escobar, IMO Green is a better prospect than LuCroy, Peralta is higher than Fredrickson, and Wooten at least right now is higher on my board than Gillespie My package(s) would be Hardy Salome (Much more valuable in AL) Taylor Green Odorizzi OR Escobar Salome Scarpetta/Periard

I don't mind saying that your monthly cost for RE taxes is more than the Principal, Interest, and RE tax escrow on mine. Granted my home is in a smaller town so the FMV is a bit lower but $8,800 is just mind blowing to me. In my area a house would have to be worth $500,000 minimum for a tax bill that high. That $500,000 in my neighborhood would probably be worth closer to $1 Million in Milwaukee or Chicago.

A baseball team is a little bit different that a normal workplace though, namely Braun makes a lot more money than his boss and is arguably more vital to the organization than its CEO (Assumed to be Melvin). Melvin may indeed be his boss but I don't think you can compare this to a normal workplace squabble. In a normal workplace there is probably a good chance that Braun would have been fired on the spot, however that isn't possible and if for some ungodly reason that Melvin traded him, he would get run out of town. What Braun said was truthful, but talking to the media was probably not a good idea, nor was it a good idea for Melvin to publicly call out one of his own players.

I keep expecting to come to this thread and see that Gamel was sent down. With McGehee & Counsell playing so well Gamel has virtually no role on this team and it makes no sense to be wasting his service time on 2-3 AB's a series. Gamel also does not strike me as a guy who would be good at fitting a pinch hitter role either, he needs his reps.

This is getting kind of ridiculous, Braun said his thing in the heat of the moment after a tough series in Cehicago. Melvin was obvioulsy building up his anger for a full day prior to spewing his guts to TH. In general I think it is a terrible idea to rip on your best player, especialyl one that is here for 6 more years. Melvin seemed to take it as an insult to his work ethic and his people's worth ethic and I am sure Braun didn't intend it to be that way. Instead of railing against Braun in the media I wonder if Doug even made an attempt to reconcile with Braun before he decided to completely embarras the Brewers organization evn further. I didn't mind Braun's comments at the time, I appreciated the honesty, and it was immediately after a really bad series. Braun is known for speaking up when the team is struggling. I guess you could say Melvin was also being honest but he went way over the top IMO. I agree with a post earlier in the thread where this seems to have Favre/TT potential. A little different scenario but also similar. Atleast TT in that case didn't say anything in public to demean the face of the Packers franchise like Melvin just demeaned the face of the Brewers franchise. I am going to guess that 90% of fans will side with Braun simply because everyone and their grandma knows that he was telling the truth. Most people aren't going to care if he hurt Melvin's feelings. It just seems like Doug doesn't even remotely like Braun at all, and maybe Braun dislikes Melvin. Conversations like these generally don'y play out in the media if the two parties actually respect and like each other.

Hardy, Salome/Lucroy, and Cain would probably be a pretty decent start I would guess with a Scarpetta, Amundsen, or Odorizzi also in the deal

Wow Melvin has some really harsh words for Braun in TH's latest Blog entry. This seems to be getting a little ugly. Doug took Braun's very personally because he sounds pretty pissed off.

I wouldn't totally object to Davis, he would be a major upgrade over Burns/McClung. His peripherals have always sucked yet he has always found a way to minimize damage. If we are going to trade with the Dbacks I would rather get Sherzer but that would be impossible w/o Escobar or Gamel.

I have no problem with it, he is being captain obvious, I am sure pretty much every player on the team feels the same way (except for the guys who could possibly get shipped out) I think our offense would be fine if Hardy or Hart were traded for a starting pitcher. Obviously we would need to find someone to replace Hart but its not like he is ir-replaceable at this point. Escobar would bring less power than Hardy but a ton more speed and probably equal to superior defense. McClung is obviously better served in the bullpen based on his two starts and Burns appears to be nothing more than a AAAA starter. Getting Bush back will help, there is no way Melvin can possibly expect Parra to come back and be that difference maker either. I am hoping that he can trade for a starter that is also under contract for 2010 in order to bridge the gap to our minor leaguers who should be ready in 2011. We could really lose our entire rotation, san Gallardo, by opening day 2011, so we could use some stability for sure.

At this point I am just kind of hoping we can make it to the AS Break within a couple games of first. It seems like a lot of our players need a break. Our bench is so terrible (Especially in the OF) that Macha has no choice but to throw Cam and Hart out there even when they suck. I am also getting the feeling that the McGehee high is starting to come down as well. If Braun and Fielder weren't having MVP calibur years we would be one awful offensive team.

So yeah that pretty much sucked. Its times like these where I wished they allowed post game umpire press conferences because I would really like to know how that home play ump actually has a jbob the way he called the strike zone today. Macha or someone else is going to say something to get themselves fined. I am kind of happy I couldn't watch this one. One again terrible RISP kills us, based loaded no one out and we got lucky witha walk. What a joke.

Cameron has not looked too good at the plate today. Then again neither has anyone else. Now the Cubs have their big hitters up and the tables have turned and Defelice hasn't been as sharp lately.

I wish I could have seen that play? Description anyone? A diving play or a leap?

I hope Stetter is up in case he walks Bradley here

Que the Villanueva meat ball right down the middle of the plate.........

I have a really bad feeling. We have let to many opportunies slip away already. Koyie Hill is going to homer or something stupid like that

I am assuming that it really wasn't all that close? I doubt Casey would have gotten a hit anyways.

Why in the heck have their been so many foul bunts today. That was a huge blunder by Craig right there

Well make that three pop outs on 5 pitches. At least Corey of all people was able to show some semblence of patience

Didn't you hear? We are grooming every good pitching prospect we have to be a reliever. Every good prospect we have under AAA seems to be limited to 4 innings or less a game. They won't get stretched out until AAA and even then it will be 3-4 years before they can be counted on to pitch 180+ innings. I know that Mike Jones, Mark Rogers, JM Gold, Neugebauer, Etc, Etc, Etc has scared the front office a bit but I think they are babying everyone a bit too much. They are never going to know if Rogers/Braddock can handle a larger workload if they don't try. I say if they are 100% healthy that you let them go 70-80 pitches or so the rest of the year. There is just now way that either of those two guys can be part of the Brewers rotation anywhere in the next 2 years simply because they won't have the endurance built up.

I don't think Hall is/was a user. I just think he is a really expensive one-hit wonder that for whatever reason hasn't progressed/ad adjustments as an MLB player since his break out year. Pitchers figured him out quickly, and Hall is still working on adjustments 2+ years later. Hall was rushed up to the big leagues and was signed long term because after his good 2006 season Melvin was probably eager to build up some fan support by signing a "cornerstone player". The problem of course was that Bill Hall never put up super impressive numbers in the minors and wasn't regarded as a big time prospect. In hindsight Melvin should have just gone year to year with him, but I don't think too many fans were complaining about the contract at the time because he did had a .899 OPS and a 125 OPS+ in 2006. Melvin has an exceptional draft record but his decision making regarding long term deals has been questionablet although it is hard to fault him. The Sheets deal was a no brainer at the time and the Hall deal was probably pretty close to that. The Suppan deal is the only one that really stands out as being idiotic and it seems like Mark A had more to do with that signing than Melvin.

He is not in the lineup again today, just send him down already. He isn't going to learn anything else up here sitting on the bench. He can learn to play 3rd just as well in AAA than in MLB. Just send him down and bring Heether up. Heether probably doesn't have a prominent role in the Brewers future plans but the guy deserves a shot at least. Better to use service time on him than on Gamel.