valpocrewsader

Excellent. I'll start a spreadsheet to keep track of players and fees. Shoot me a PM with any details I need about upcoming meetings and key dates, etc.

Ohmygod, thank you. I've heard that guy's name two or three times over the course of the olympics and I think of Zevon each time. Thought I was the only one.

The WMLW games are worthy and salutary to the whole of the franchise. The team's place in the community is aided greatly by the fact that households without cable do not completely lack exposure to televised Brewers baseball. The problem isn't that WMLW carries games, it's that FSNWI isn't carrying these games in parallel. (And personally, ~100,000 cable-less homes in the WMLW viewing area helped pay -- and continue to help pay -- to keep the Brewers in this state, seems selfish to complain about anything related to such a small aspect of the overall TV coverage picture.)

Sorry, been avoiding the forums more now that DM has all but ruined my interested in the 2010 season with the blasted Wolf and Davis signings. Didn't see this thread 'til today. Anyways, my summer wouldn't be the same without Thursday night softball at Sijan. If necessary, I'd have no problem paying a higher player fee to cover costs until the rest of the team is rounded out.

By that logic, an individual who spills hot coffee on themselves and rejects the restaurant's fair and generous $200,000 settlement offer to pusue and win a seven figure payday in court is someone we cannot call greedy. I don't think it's very wise to set a precedent that persons can't be labeled greedy as long as an arbitrator or court agrees with them. In fact, there's nothing that stops a court or arbitrator from rewarding greed, happens all the time. I guess we'll each have our different takes on this. My opinion boils down to: player isn't very good, player got an offer for a generous and underserved raise and rejected it, player refused to do much negotiating, player expected (flawed) system to award an even bigger raise that is even more undeserved, player was proven right by silly comparisons of (flawed) system. Player is greedy.

$700K makes no difference to the same organization that threw themselves into controversy and risked losing community/fan support by squeezing $300 out of local bars that deliver customers to their doorstep? Gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there. I would love for them to cut Corey Hart. He swings over the top of pitches in the lower half of the strikezone (!), he can't catch a flyball and subsequently throw with his body into it, he takes stupid pills on the basepaths, his angles in the field are shakey. I already didn't like him, now I especially can't wait for him to no longer be a member of the Brewers. I'll have no sympathy for him regardless of how ruthlessly the fans treat him this year. His precious pile of 700,000 un-warranted dollar bills can dry his tears. Those who mention "jelousy" in this debate are out of line. Jealousy has nothing to do with it. We could be talking about $48,000 and $42,000 and the same principles would still apply. And no, not everyone in this forum, knowing he had a disappointing year for his employer the year before, would have stubbornly rejected the first raise offer and done everything possible to grab every last extra penny. Plenty of us here would have been respectful of, even thankful for, the plainly fair and generous raise and pledged to work hard and improve.

Put me firmly in the "collosal waste of money" camp. Beyond perhaps some initial boom of novelty, I think ridership of this line will be laughably low. There is no real call for this from residents of Madison or Milwaukee -- no demand at all. Maybe I'm missing something, but I can only think of two reasons someone would use this Mil to Mad line: - Ability to read/compute/nap? instead of focusing on driving - Feel like you're doing something good for the planet? Whereas, I can easily think of more significant reasons not to use this line: - No freedom. Stuck on the train with no option to stop to get something to eat or use the bathroom. At your destination, you can't venture to different places on your own whim or as the situation changes. When you're done at your destination, you're at the mercy of the train schedule dictating when you can come home. Being Wisconsin, where it's unpleasant outside five months of the year, you want to be able to deliver yourself as close to the doorstop of your destination(s) as possible -- train makes you jump through hoops of waiting for buses, walking, etc. No thanks. - Cost. Assuming it's like Hiawatha, this will not be cheaper than driving. At least with Chicago, you're up against sometimes horrible traffic and huge parking fees, but these two huge negatives don't really exist with Mil/Mad so there's even less reason for someone to swallow the cost. And we're not even talking about the extra cost of buses or cabs on either end of ther trip. And if you're driving yourself to the station and/or being picked up by a driver on the other end, that's not exactly free either. - Don't save time. Person A gets in his car in suburban milwaukee, hits I-94, and drives directly to the doortstep of his madison-area destination. Person B drives to the train station, waits some amount of time for the train, endures a few bedroom community stops, arrives in some centralized madison location, gets on a bus or takes a cab or waits for a ride to pick him up, eventually makes it to madison destination. Person B probably isn't saving time unless this train can reall, really fly. - Can't carry large/many items with you. Sometimes you might be traveling light, other times you need a trunk or your back seats to carry who-knows-what. People are talking about going to Miller Park -- only if you're not going to tailgate or you're going to depend on others to set up a tailgate that you crash. To me, the two "pros" are very measley compared with the cons. I don't want to be flippant and say "nobody will use this", but I really think it's only a slight exagerration to say nobody will use this. I think the only individuals to really use and benefit from this will be Madison-based government officials and employees who make frequent visits to the state's largest city. That alone is no justification for this massive project and ongoing expense. It will become extraordinarily expensive on a per-user basis to operate, just completely and utterly wasteful. We'll need a very strong and practical leader at some point down the road to shut the line down and stop the bleading. The waste we're talking about makes me want to cry. Or scream. Or be violent.

Wow, this thread got hijacked bad. Can we go back to talking about how exciting our rotation is now and what a joy it will be this year to hold game tickets for studs like Wolf and Davis?

Ugh. Quantitatively, this is probably a good decision and a solid move for the team. Qualitatively, I guess as a fan, I absolutely hate Davis being back on this team -- nothing interesting about the player, just boring and pedestrian. Now I have to worry that my 20-pack will be full of starts by this nondescript nonentity. Adding Wolf and Davis are the total nightmare scenario for me as a fan, totally bleh guys, absolutely no interest in going to Miller Park to see these guys pitch. I feel like my team spent good money this off-season to become epically dull. I know I won't convince anyone with these statements, but my heart gives this news a giant BOO. Rough 2010 a'comin for me.... Btw, I think this continues to make the Wolf deal look like a huge overpay. Wolf is twice the pitcher Davis is? And for three years instead of one?

To get his client more money, Gerut's agent should have asked for a league minimum base salary with an additional $1 earned for every weak groundout Gerut hits to second base. Ziiing! I know the consensus is that Gerut isn't as awful as he showed for much of 2009, but my word it was uncanny that for most of the year every at bat of his I saw was a tailer-made ground out to 2B. With an occassional popout to 2B sprinkled in.

Don't forget Nelson Cruz, he developed into a star last year. Jorge de La Rosa put up above average numbers for a COL pitcher last year, if he can repeat that success he should be in the discussion. Too soon know know anything abut Laporta.

Kip's Inn? I'm happy to crash that party....

Good ol' Nedly. Oh, what the heck, for old time's sake.... http://images.yuku.com/image/bmp/5b515c4997d8bc2cead77a68d15f6cf7efe53cc.bmp http://images.yuku.com/image/bmp/60925834e4936d14b2425891075ed2070800070.bmp

Wha?? Sheets and Bedard are yet to be seen, but this statement is already untrue for Harden and Duchs. (Duchs was probably a bit of hometown discount, but his true market value would've easily been less than the $10 million per that Wolf is getting ... probably less than the $7.5 million Harden got.) We can talk about the "injury guys" being more expensive than Wolf when it actually happens. And even then, it would probably come with the attractiveness of a 1-year deal. *bangs head*

Just because Option A is 10% better than Option B, it doesn't make it wise or worthwhile to pay 100% more for it. As more and more FA pitching deals are announced this off-season, it's becoming increasingly apparent that this is what the Brewers did -- paid double for a slight upgrade. (We need to be careful not to overstate the improvement Wolf represents compared to the likes of Penny, Myers, Harden.) When I look at Wolf's contract, I see about a 5% chance that he outperforms it, a 50-50 shot that he underperforms it, and 45% chance that he more-or-less lives up to it. To me, that's a bad deal for an organization like the Brewers. We need to be more bang-for-buck conscious, focused on players and skills that might be undervalued. And when we do splurge and spend serious money, it needs to be for short terms (Gagne, Hoffman) or for players a heck of a lot more talented that Randy Wolf.

Because of Brewers-colored glasses? Otherwise, I don't understand where this conclusion comes from, your post doesn't really seem to lead up to it. Wolf is also coming off a career year, but is two years older and has more significant history of injury. And not only are we paying him 130% of Marguis' salary, but we're doing it for three years instead of two. Monumental. I still can't get over how much I hate this Wolf deal.

Maybe if she brings an airbrusher with her. I'm amazed to hear that anyone finds Misty May even remotely attractive. Wait, this is the off-topic forum, right?

Absolutely not! What could be better than brown, gold, and white?? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/3/8/6/0/8/ar122151615880683.jpg http://www.valpoathletics.com/media/football/2008-09/action_photos/RayAcevedo/KickoffTeam_MAR107.jpg I dig Wyoming's gold pants and the extra swooshes of alternating color down the sides. Maybe that's the key to not being ranked dead last in NCAA DI....

Getting one of the best pitchers in the game at a bargain price?I guess I just expected Jack Z to be more of a build-from-within guy, not someone who would go quantity for quality at the beginning of his second year to get a one-year rental. Maybe I'm just jealous that they acquired such a difference maker....

This is now being reported as a 4-team deal.... ------- ESPN.com ------- PHILLIES GET... RHP Roy Halladay (from Toronto) *RHP Phillippe Aumont (from Seattle) *OF Tyson Gillies (from Seattle) *RHP Juan Ramirez (from Seattle) $6 million cash (from Toronto) MARINERS GET... LHP Cliff Lee (from Philadelphia) BLUE JAYS GET... *C Travis d'Arnaud (from Philadelphia) *RHP Kyle Drabek (from Philadelphia) *1B/3B Brett Wallace (from Oakland) A'S GET--- *OF Michael Taylor (from Philadelphia via Toronto) * -- minor leaguer Very jealous of the Phillies. Not sure what the M's are doing. Blue Jays seem to accomplish what they wanted. A wash for the A's?

Pettite had similar surgery, right? He came back pretty darn strong.

As frustrating as he could be, I'll never forget the late-game play he made on a bunt last year ... pouncing out from behind the plate to make a flying-leap-throw over to third base to nail someone on a force out. His body was completely parallel to the ground as he threw, it was a play like I'd never seen a catcher make before. Also enjoyed the fact that he wasn't an Estrada/Rivera slug on the basepaths. That said, glad the Brewers are moving on to other things in 2010.

The wife will not be happy about this.

I'm fond of the career 3.39 ERA and 1.24 WHIP. Spectacular pitcher. The difference between a special player (Harden) at a team-friendly contract (1 year, $7.5 per) and a pedestrian player (Wolf) at 3 years, $9 per is such a monumental difference. It's like the deals happened in two totally different environments, yet they happened on the same day. I can't fathom it. Paying a premium for 200 innings of merely average/good pitching instead of much, much less money for 140 innings of very good pitching makes no sense to me. We'd be far better off right now if we had Harden at 2 years, $14 million than we are with Wolf at 3 years, $30 million. It's heartbreaking.

In 2004 and 2005, Davis posted 3.39 ERA / 1.3 WHIP, 3.84 ERA / 1.3 WHIP. I highly doubt Wolf pitches that well in 2010 and 2011. Wolf will also struggle to match Capuano's 3.99/1.39 and 4.03/1.25 from 2005 and 2006. So no, I would say Wolf is not likely to be the best non-Sheets/Yo/CC starting pitcher we've had in 10 years or more...