valpocrewsader

My cousin starts for the Franklin Sabers, so I've been following them a bit this year. They've had two televised "Thursday Night Lights" games on channel 24 in Milwaukee this season. Last week's game was pretty incredible, I thought for sure they would move up from #2-DII up to #1 after beating Kenosha-Bradford who was #1-DI, but it sounds like they only narrowed the gap between them and #1-DII Waunakee. Not sure why.

His letters are always excellent, this one is no different. Still, I was hoping for more fire and brimstone about getting better for next season.

If you're trying to project future performance, sure. But if you're just talking about what kind of year a player had, isn't this pretty relevant? "Player X struggled the whole year to convert RISP to RBIs, it was out of the ordinary and probably not an indicator of future performance, but it's what happened in 2010 and it hurt the team so Player X gets a B." I don't know, it just seems like a perfectly fine criticism to factor into a season evaluation. To another point in the thread, I think there are many aspects of the game where stats can't tell the story -- one of which is referenced just a few posts up. Someone looked at Prince's OBP with RISP and speculated that maybe he wasn't getting good pitches, thus the low BA/SLG in that situation. It's not fair having to speculate on this, and that's probably all we can really do without watching game tape of every Prince at bat from the season to see if he missed more hittable pitches than years past. (And hey, maybe the beat writers have a better mental game tape than most of us? Maybe not, but maybe....) If there's a "good pitches to hit not taken advantage of by the batter" stat out there, I'm not aware of it. I imagine it would have flaws, too. I think base running, especially first-to-third, is probably another example. If a player has X number of Runs, how do you measure how many more he could have had with better speed and/or instincts that would have put him on third instead of second? Or a player turning a single into a double to avoid a double-play on the ensuing grounder? Or a player who goes to bat in sac fly situations and plates that run with sacrifices vs someone who swings through a couple good pitches and doesn't plate the run. Or a player who's batting with a runner on second and successfully keeps the ball on the right side of the field vs one who does the same thing on the left side of the field? Or, how the speed of the runner on first and the threat of the steal affects the pitcher. For that matter, how the protection the batter gets by who's on deck actually impacts his numbers beyond his actual ability. There might be some holes in my examples, but I don't think it'd be difficult to come up with a healthy list of baseball nuances that stats don't fully explain. I'm sure the day will come where a few comprehensive statistics can summarize every single aspect of value a baseball player has, normalized and adjusted for all factors, but I don't think that day is here yet.

Link took me to the wrong story, but I think this link should work. The History Channel told me that there is a UFO sighting somewhere in the world every 3 minutes. I find that hard to believe and I'm not sure how anyone measures that.

1. Axford 2. Hart 3. Yo 4. Braun 5. Weeks LVP? 1. Hoffman 2. Gerut 2. Suppan 4. Kottaras 5. Gomez

I'm really bugged that the guy's fingers don't move during the "flute solo!" of the one version of the commercial. Overall, I don't mind the commercials, kindof like them even, but the stationary hand during the supposed solo just ruins it.

Fates Warning- Parallels (1991) Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane (2002) Marillion - Misplaced Childhood (1985) Dream Theater - Images and Words (1992) Savatage - Dead Winter Dead (1995)

Pink Cream 69 Gotthard Edguy Ten Eleven Toad the Wet Sprocket Drivin N Cryin Grand Funk Railroad T Rex Accept The Guess Who

Hmm, sounds better than the sub sandwiches we're planning to bring to tailgate. (Time crunch, no grilling. Sigh.)

I am really, really going to miss At the Movies. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

+1 Shockwave will always be my favorite, I was pretty upset when they tore it down. Raging Bull is probably my current favorite. (But am I the only one who feels like the name totally doesn't fit the ride? It'd make more sense if Viper and Raging Bull switched names!) I was surprised by how much I liked Superman. Dark Night is terrible.

I will never cheer for Dustin Johnson as long as he has a career. You could tell from the replays that he realized he screwed up when he grounded his club -- I think you can pinpoint the exact moment his heart sank. His interviews afterwards were weak and tending towards whiny. The one thing you gotta love about golf is the honor-system-like respect for the rules. Guy accidentally makes contact while addressing the ball, he cites himself with the penalty. Johnson sounded like he didn't want to upset the PGA, but didn't want to blame himself. Anyone watching from home knew he was in a trap and wouldn't be able to ground his club. They showed footage later after a thousand more people trampled that area to show it super matted down, but when he was approaching his shot and the crowd was cleared away, there was no doubt to anyone watching that it wasn't somewhere you'd want to ground your club. At least not without asking an official first. He just screwed up a pretty basic rule, probably due to the pressure and the fact that it was a slightly different looking bunker than is typical. But come on, you've been on the course for a week. Embarassing for him and his caddy, but obvious for the rest of us. Thread title change, please.

*Researches Mike* Darn, I was hoping he was somehow related to Lloyd McClendon. Like Bo's brother or something.

I had a blast watching him play 1B that one time this year. He was great out there, looked way more natural than Prince. I was all set for half a season of Edmonds at 1B following a deadline deal for Fielder.

....And right in the midst of this thread banter, Braun wins NL Player of the Week: "Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun has been named ... National League Player of the Week for the period of August 2-8, 2010. ... Braun led the Majors with a .538 (14-for-26) batting average and a .586 on-base percentage in six games last week. His 14 hits also led the big leagues while his eight runs scored were tied for first." (brewers.com email) He's boosted his BA from .273 to .290 over the past nine games. 'Atta boy.

Quoteth the game notes: "Brewers C Jonathan Lucroy wasn't in the lineup, but made it to the ballpark after the birth of his daughter, Ellia Elisabeth, earlier Friday."

You can't compare a SS to a corner outfielder this way. God bless Pudster for his excellent post. Three or four months ago essentially no one liked Hart's 1-year / $5 million contract, many outright hated it, but now almost everyone loves his 3-year / $27 million dollar contract? Sigh. Why must Melvin always freak out over career years and start writing checks!? Hall, Turnbow, Suppan, Wolf. I feel the odds are about 90/10 we'll be adding Hart's name to that list. It's so disappointing that a GM who was so good at doing much with very little can be so bad at doing more with more.

Ugh, Melvin is really doing everything possible to no longer make me a Brewers fan. Davis and Wolf in the off season, and now three more years of watching Corey pretend to be an outfielder. A Weeks deal will be the icing on the cake. It's almost enough to not even want to go to the ballpark anymore.

There's a STRONG CHANCE we'll be moving this to Saturday. Weather looks awful tomorrow, great on Saturday. EDIT: Game on for tonight. Sounds like some of you couldn't do tomorrow, so we'll hope for good weather the rest of the evening and I guess move things indoors if we must! 8:00-ish start.

Just starting a thread for this while I'm thinking about it. I just looked theough the six-page league rules document and I don't see anything about makeup dates. I don't see anything on the schedule either. If it's next week Thursday, unfortunately I won't be able to make it -- I'll be out of town. I can conctact Mike and if he's back in, you'll be at 10. I will also need to get the game ball to someone.

Cancelled. Very surprised, but according to the recorded message tonight's games at Sijan fields #2, #3, and #4 are cancelled. We're field #2 on the schedule. It hasn't rained here in Milwaukee since noon and there's been hints of sun and bright skies. EDIT: I'm going to check the message again later and maybe even call the field. I'm just that surprised, our sidewalks are dry here. Obviously they won't un-cancel something, but I'm going to keep checking anyways.

There's an afternoon recorded message for manager's to call, I'll stay on top of that and post any updates here up until about 5:00. After 5:00 (or maybe it's 5:30), the field can be called directly 414-486-1613. FYI- I won't have much internet access between about 6:00 and gametime. Since this morning, the rain has pretty much all stayed north of the city, and it looks like it's expected to remain that way until about 8:00 tonight. Definitely have a shot at getting this one in....

My TimeWarner guide showed a rebroadcast Sunday at 4:00 PM. I don't think it was ESPN, though, maybe MLB Network. Channel 1324 stands out in my mind, if you're Milwaukee area TimeWarner.

I had a nightmare last night that all my team rosters got erased. Woke up in a cold sweat. Anyways, the weather for Friday is forecasted to be pretty crummy and this event is best conducted as an outdoor affair. As it gets closer we might need to cancel/postpone as necessary, or perhaps just decide to move it indoors.

Am I crazy, or did the FSN trivia question in the 4th-ish inning erroneously refer to 2003 as the year of the PNC Park all-star game (instead of 2006)? My answer about who the two Brewers pitchers were was way off, and I think it's because they cited the wrong year.