Fatter than Joey

but Coors field is in an absolutely gorgeous place to watch a game, the skyline immediately to your east and the sun setting over the foothills to the west--awesome. I love Coors Field, and its accessibility. Like GAME said, the fans aren't baseball nuts -- but they are hardly drunken morons either. I like the Ballpark in Arlington as well. I hate the Metrodome.

Fair enough

Fair enough

Capuano and Suppan have a career long history of pitching poorly from pitches 76+. No they don't -- at least to the degree that they did in 2007.

Capuano and Suppan have a career long history of pitching poorly from pitches 76+. No they don't -- at least to the degree that they did in 2007.

Well no one can say that Shaq isn't doing his part to stimulate the economy.

But yea, getting Jack Zduriencik may have been one of the top 5 things to ever happen to the Brewers. This could very well be true -- I would say though that getting Harry Dalton needs to be on that list, as there would gave been no 1982 series without him.

FTJ - thanks for the update. My pleasure, I'm just tickled someone is taking me up on this discussion. On the other hand, this mostly quashes the widespread criticisms of bullpen overuse, Yeah -- I will not pretend I am objective about Yost, but I guess I want to see if I can better understand what I am hating him for. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Yost didn't really have much of a choice but to burn his relievers up Right, but Yost did have a choice to hook his starters sooner. I think there are cases when a manager needs an out, and he has 2 options -- starter or BP, if the starter fails, then he has to go to the BP anyway to get that out and the manager would have been better served to just put in the reliever initially. I'd hesitate to forecast a repeat performance for this year The thing I have a hard time wrapping my head around is how 4 pitchers could have such remarkably bad and similar numbers, in the same season, when none of them had ever a history of doing that in the past. I can think of 2 things that could consistently affect 4 pitchers. 1. The rigid nature of Yost's BP transition strategy 2. Defense -- If the defense improves, perhaps pitch 76 will happen later in the game, and Yost won't have to squeeze his starters so hard.

FTJ - thanks for the update. My pleasure, I'm just tickled someone is taking me up on this discussion. On the other hand, this mostly quashes the widespread criticisms of bullpen overuse, Yeah -- I will not pretend I am objective about Yost, but I guess I want to see if I can better understand what I am hating him for. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Yost didn't really have much of a choice but to burn his relievers up Right, but Yost did have a choice to hook his starters sooner. I think there are cases when a manager needs an out, and he has 2 options -- starter or BP, if the starter fails, then he has to go to the BP anyway to get that out and the manager would have been better served to just put in the reliever initially. I'd hesitate to forecast a repeat performance for this year The thing I have a hard time wrapping my head around is how 4 pitchers could have such remarkably bad and similar numbers, in the same season, when none of them had ever a history of doing that in the past. I can think of 2 things that could consistently affect 4 pitchers. 1. The rigid nature of Yost's BP transition strategy 2. Defense -- If the defense improves, perhaps pitch 76 will happen later in the game, and Yost won't have to squeeze his starters so hard.

Brawndo Thanks for taking the time to read my crap, and put together what you did. -- The "study" was something that largely caught my eye, and I thought noteworthy. BAbip --- I really didn't do a good job explaining my thought process for including those columns. I have always understood extreme high BAbips, to be a sign that a pitcher is pitching unsustainably bad. I expected the BAbip to be uniformly high, because I thought our pitchers were pitching in a compromised state. I suppose I didn't consider that someone would see 4 pitchers at ~.400 BAbip as an event of luck -- but that conclusion is as valid as any. FIP -- Is really hard to breakdown for this, as we are dealing with a pitch range which could span innings, that is to say I don't know how to flesh out IP in pitch range data. As per your request here are the HR BB K rates per Plate appearance for 2007 Cappy 1-75 .025 .079 .201 76+ .049 .089 .179 Bush 1-75 .030 .048 .185 76+ . 042 .075 .101 Suppan 1-75 .019 .069 .126 76+ .022 .087 .119 Vargas 1-75 .030 .086 .198 76+ .064 .100 .107 Hope that helps, and thanks again.

Brawndo Thanks for taking the time to read my crap, and put together what you did. -- The "study" was something that largely caught my eye, and I thought noteworthy. BAbip --- I really didn't do a good job explaining my thought process for including those columns. I have always understood extreme high BAbips, to be a sign that a pitcher is pitching unsustainably bad. I expected the BAbip to be uniformly high, because I thought our pitchers were pitching in a compromised state. I suppose I didn't consider that someone would see 4 pitchers at ~.400 BAbip as an event of luck -- but that conclusion is as valid as any. FIP -- Is really hard to breakdown for this, as we are dealing with a pitch range which could span innings, that is to say I don't know how to flesh out IP in pitch range data. As per your request here are the HR BB K rates per Plate appearance for 2007 Cappy 1-75 .025 .079 .201 76+ .049 .089 .179 Bush 1-75 .030 .048 .185 76+ . 042 .075 .101 Suppan 1-75 .019 .069 .126 76+ .022 .087 .119 Vargas 1-75 .030 .086 .198 76+ .064 .100 .107 Hope that helps, and thanks again.

when sports writers for the most part write about a guy striking out a lot they mean he is whiffing at everything which wouldn't mean he is taking walks. Yeah, this sort of thinking needs a paradigm shift. Generally when batters "work the count" -- they aren't getting walked on 4-5 pitches -- they probably end up getting 2 strikes a lot. Sometimes the pitcher makes a great pitch on a 2-2 or 3-2 count and the batter K's -- but it doesn't make his approach any less solid. On the other hand -- guys like Estrada get praise, because they never strike out, however, they are the ones flailing at everything, and usually are out in 2 pitches. I think DM's theory in getting Cameron is that he will work the count more, and give the Brewers more quality ABs than guys like Mench or Jenkins.

I love seeing that Cameron works the count. But I'll take the bait here...who was the umpire when he struck out on 1 and 2 pitches? Enrico Pallazzo? I noticed the one and 2 pitch Ks --- This seems to be a glitch in the BR reporting, as I noticed that when another event happens during an AB (like a CS or SB) -- the AB tends to get "split", so I would discard the "1" and "2" pitch K's

Just for fun --- here is Johnny Estrada's pitch count when he makes outs. 2 338 3 307 1 278 4 241 5 157 7+ 76 6 73 So you can see -- that there is some value when Cameron K's -- from a pitch count perspective.

I never said I would feel safe I just said that I'd like to see a cougar in the wild. Fair enough -- I would as well, -- in theory -- my guess is though, you aren't going to see one grazing or fishing for salmon http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Spring training is going to decide how things shake out, I'm guessing. Outside of injuries -- I really don't think so. If a pitcher's mechanics look off -- then you are probably right, but I'd hate to see Vargas win a spot because he had a 1.35 ERA in ST. (Unless he is doing something different)

Pierre will be the worst LFer in the game next season, Yeah -- I tried to think of something funny to say, but the thought of Juan Pierre manning a corner OF position made my inner child cry. The Reds could have a great OF with Bruce, Jr and Dunn. That could be a OF that hits over 110 HR's and drives in 300+ runs. Jay Bruce is for real, and while he may not break out in 2008, if he does -- the Reds could easily get the most production out of their OF than any other NL team. Didn't the writer contradict himself? If Cameron strikes out to much how is it he works the count deep and takes walks? It takes 3 pitches to strike out a batter -- A vet like Cameron, isn't going to strike out often on three pitches. For example -- count when MC strikes out 2007 1-2 55 2-2 51 3-2 35 0-2 19 Pitches in Strike out ABs 5 50 4 44 6 29 7+ 19 3 17 2 1 2006 Count when he K'd 2-2 50 1-2 41 3-2 33 0-2 18 Pitches per AB where he K'd 5 42 4 34 6 28 3 22 7+ 13 1 2 2 1 Career Count 2-2 488 1-2 449 3-2 333 0-2 215 Pitches 5 426 4 403 6 294 3 192 7+ 157 ? 15 1 7 2 6 I noticed the one and 2 pitch Ks --- This seems to be a glitch in the BR reporting, as I noticed that when another event happens during an AB (like a CS or SB) -- the AB tends to get "split", so I would discard the "1" and "2" pitch K's But you can see, that there is some value when a guy like Cameron K's, because he probably had a 2-2 count and made the pitcher throw 4-6 pitches, just like a walk. Here are his career "pitches when he walks" 5 198 6 193 7+ 162 4 108 From a pure pitch count status -- he pretty much sees the same amount of pitches whether he Ks or BBs. He works the count.

I heard a lot about a lot of injuries while I was there and the talk to a new knee rehab client usually began with the phrase "the knee is a load bearing structure," followed by the admonition to trim down or stay that way. I think a lot of people are getting hung up on the word "fat" -- I think we all can agree that Prince is larger than most MLB players, and I think there is a historical precedence, that big dudes (athletes) don't get skinnier as they age (in the 20-40 age range) My question is, does the knee care if the mass is made up fat or muscle? If you had 2 guys -- same weight, same height -- but one has a higher body fat content, does the knee "as a load-bearing structure" care about the % of fat to muscle? -- Maybe someone with some physiology background can answer this. If there are 3 boxes on the ground, and I have to pick them up and put them on a shelf - and they all weigh 20 lbs, and one is 20lbs of fat, the other 20lbs of muscle, and the last 10lbs of each -- my back feels the same stress lifting each box as 20lbs = 20 lbs.

Ehh I've seen bears and stuff in the wild up close. It's obviously a risk but I'd be willing to take the risk. Not me. My folks live in Bend OR, (which is in the Eastern part of the state, i.e. east of the mountains), and every voting cycle they have a ballot measure to allow the hunting of cougars and mountain lions with dogs. It gets a lot of attention, as one side points out that there has never been a verified attack by cougars on humans in OR, the other side points to the attacks that people have suffered in other states and Canada -- and the attacks on OR residents livestock and family pets (lots of dogs and cats go missing). The thing I think that is different about bears and predatory cats, is that generally you don't get to see the cat, until their teeth are lodged in your melon. Here is a link and another that documents cougar and mountain lion attacks in North America -- this is not for the squeamish..

How many home games did the brewers have 9th inning at bats last year that also included a homer? The Brewers had 6 HRs in the 9th inning at Miller Park out of 123 ABs.

For anyone interested -- Curiosity got the best of me last night and I spent $5, to look at what happened to the Brewers in the 76-100 pitch range in 2007, I ate some nachos and then wrote an article. The article which can be found here, could be considered misoyostic, however, on the other hand, there is data in tabular form as well. Just some interesting numbers I found, nothing more, nothing less.

For anyone interested -- Curiosity got the best of me last night and I spent $5, to look at what happened to the Brewers in the 76-100 pitch range in 2007, I ate some nachos and then wrote an article. The article which can be found here, could be considered misoyostic, however, on the other hand, there is data in tabular form as well. Just some interesting numbers I found, nothing more, nothing less.

But from April until October, there wasn't a more consistent pitcher for the Brewers than Dave Bush. He was consistent in the fact that his ERA was always around 5.00 -- I think he pitched worse as the year progressed.

I am a skype whore -- I am always near my laptop -- oftentimes my cell could be in the van, at home, in the freezer, etc... I use it mostly when I am reading files, talking to co-workers, it also works great for conferencing. It's pretty hard to beat, but I don't use it to call the old man to talk about NFL or things like that.

Bruise Lee -- Hah! Yeah -- not for the squeamish.