Fatter than Joey

He sort of reminds me of Dana Carvey -- who has never been successful outside of SNL. Dana Carvey though had a lot of original material -- Church Lady, Hanz/Franz, Choppin' Broccoli etc.. I think this Frank guy should just do segments on NFL and NBA where his material is understood by sports geeks.

Sorta wondering why the Mets didn't just sign Kendall instead of having a short-term solution with a shakey history in a deal that required giving up a player. I'm sure there's lots of reasons, but it makes me think that one of them is that Kendall is going to get a lot more than $3.2 million a year. Maybe they don't offer Estrada arby -- and effectively get Mota off the books.

Seth McClung throws hard (and poorly) too, and he doesn't cost $3 million. Now hold on Robert -- He did manage to hit Pujols http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif I'm with you -- I'd rather get Max St. Pierre than have a salary swap with the Mets. If Melvin signs Kendall for $5M+, I am going to start thinking Yost is the brains of the operation.

well Estrada is gone -- that is good. that's all I got.

yeah -- good job Ennder. I half expected Dave Bush to be on your pitching leaders http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

yeah -- Lowell did the smart thing here.

Relief pitchers, many of them, seem to like having a certain inning or situation to pitch in. They like to know what their role is. I won't argue this, but I do think a lot of managers like having a bullpen template to work from as well.

FTJ, you described the Bullpen Ace theory. I like it too. It's the "FTJ Bullpen Theory" -- I predate baseball/saber theory http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif The other thing that is pissing me off is assigning pitchers to innings with no regard to matchups, as if they are running a baton-type relay race. Saying "Matt Wise is our 7th inning pitcher" makes no sense to me.

I generally feel the closer role is overrated and it's a dumb stat, but i'd be very leery of entering next year with a possibly shaky closer situation given i suspect the Brewers will be in a tight race again this year. I agree that the closer rule is overrated. As far as the save stat -- I think that there are dumb stats, like RBI -- but the save stat managed to change the way baseball is played, that makes it worse than dumb in my book. As far as Cordero -- I sort of see what you are wrestling with. I think the Brewers have to spend money on their bullpen if they want to keep on pace with the Cubs -- I don't think we can find our relievers off the scrap-heap any more. Signing guys like Choate for AAA depth is one thing -- but we can't expect to find a closer that way like we did with Turnbow. I like what the Cubs with their BP, --- that is, when their starter gets in a jam they bring in Marmol, let him put out the fire, and let a clown like Dempster pitch the 9th with no one base. Marmol was the Cubs bullpen "anchor", Dempster may have been the closer but Marmol was the pitcher that converted starter jams into wins. Now -- If we are letting Cordero walk, and find a younger/cheaper option -- I understand/support that. If DM plans to mine the scrapheap (Choate) or turns the BP anchor position over to Turnbow -- I would be pretty nervous. Of course I think a GM has to consider the manager as well -- Some mangers can take BP lemons and make lemonade, other managers will just wreck the lemons.

But if you consider Joe Krabbenhoft as a guard, or at least going to get a lot of minutes at guard, there isn't going to be any time left for Jarmusz this year. He should have redshirted. Yeah -- I agree. He won't get tons of minutes

Who's a team that overvalues grittiness, etc.? A Ned Yosted team.

Thats seems very unlikely to me. Braun can't hit LHP like he did last year -- It is unsustainable.

What would happen if they signed both of them? Would we get their 2nd and 3rd? (plus supplemental picks for both). Yes -- Thats why it would suck to lose both of them to the Astros

The Turnbow-Lidge comparison is clear enough and a just another reason why Melvin, intelligently, stayed away from pursuing Lidge. Too bad he wasn't as intelligent when he extended Turnbow.

Dude pitches in Major League Baseball, and he shouldn't have confidence? Yikes. Well. He can have all the confidence he cares to have. My point was that, it wasn't the "Brewers' fans" or even "Turnbow's fragile mental makeup" that made turned him into a bad pitcher. He has always had a lot of problems, and is just not a great dependable pitcher. Turnbow is a classic example of "you can take the pitcher out of the scrap-heap, but you can't take the scrap-heap out of the pitcher." -- All of these types of pitchers (Kolb, Helling, etc.) are able to string together a good season here and there, and can be effective when used sparingly -- but at the end of the day, they just are not Grade A relievers. I don't think Turnbow is as good as a pitcher as Lidge, and I think if Doug Melvin could have traded Turnbow for 3 Phillies, he would have -- my guess is that the Phillies valued Lidge way more than Turnbow. The move makes a lot of sense to me from the Phillies perspective -- They improve their BP and rotation, Geary is replaceable. If Costanzo makes it into a MLB 3b, then this trade makes sense for Houston as well -- but that seems like a long shot. Bourn is like TGJ to me, he is probably a suitable 4th/5th OF. As I think about it more -- I think it is very likely that the Stros have Cordero and/or Linebrink in their crosshairs -- with Lidge gone, they could certainly use both. I think trading Lidge this early could mean that they have an inside track to one or both of these guys. In the unlikely event that they get both -- that would suck for the Brewers, as they would only get 2 comp. picks a 2nd and a 3rd. (at best)

No. I don't think it is a good deal at all.

Well the Astros suck and have a lot of holes, and a lot of money. I suspect they could make one of the biggest splashes this off-season

Pinella's fit will be shorter I guess I disagree -- I don't think Lou has a lot of rational/problem solving hit points. I'm sure he'll just scream at the replay official from the pitcher's mound. Do you remember when the Cardinals lost a championship in 1985 because of a blown call? Don Dekinger and Jorge Orta -- I don't think the replay will ever be used for plays at 1b.

Bourn is a pretty good prospect Bourn seems like a different shade of TGJ to me. Brewers fans seem to have pretty much destroyed Derrick Turnbow's confidence Here's the thing -- Turnbow is a pitcher who had one good year (2005), I am not sure Tbow should ever have had loads of confidence. -- That is to say, Turnbow was pretty suspect before he heard his first boo. Turnbow has never been the leverage situations that Lidge has. Houston signing Linebrink and/or Cordero makes a lot of sense now.

Wow -- Welcome home Scott Linebrink.

Some people have suggested that replay will actually speed up the game because they won't need to waste time arguing with umpires. I doubt this will be the case -- If Derrek Lee hits a 3 run HR late in a game, and it gets reversed -- Lou Pinella is still going to throw a 10 minute fit.

If Houston got both -- we'd get suck(ier) picks. That would free up some Astros relievers, who were very good, if memory serves. I seem to recall the Astros bullpen being pretty awful -- I think about the only pitchers worth much were Qualls and Lidge -- I would imagine they will hang on to Qualls. I think they could absorb Linebrink, and Cordero and maybe only have to move Lidge.

I am more concerned that they are thinking about running LaPorta out there in 2008

Chuck needs some new pants. -- He was lanky though, he had a couple of very solid seasons -- but never really developed ace-iness.

I think the biggest thing that Selig and the 5 owners that voted No are worried about... It was the GMs that voted, i.e. DM not MA. I think its pretty unlikely to have a borderline HR call in a game. I could see perhaps in the WS or playoffs, but I can't imagine another official showing up each game for this sort of thing