Fatter than Joey

Hitters are just way better than they used to be, they work the count more, they are stronger, they have studied the pitchers more. I am not sure that this is all of it -- Mounds are higher, fences are closer, most newer parks have less foul ground in them. etc... Plus the bullpens are much deeper than they used to be -- the pitching has become more specialized as well -- Back in the day, a starter at 75% was probably a better option than most of the pitchers in the BP.

I think at some point you probably want your pitcher to focus on the batter and not worry about the baserunner. Not having your 1b hold a runner on, and not having your middle IFers running around to cover 2b makes it easier to retire the batter. Regardless if the run is meaningless -- I think that they should count as SBs. I am not sure I understand why a distinction should be made.

Tombstone, Red Baron and the regular national brands. Tombstone when I was young, used to be made in Medford Wis. exclusively.

I don't want this to turn into a Yost-bashing thread, so please bear with me because I really do like Yost...but there have been a couple times where I just questioned why Spurling was sent in in the first place. This is a good point -- If Yost misues (potentially) in a sucky fashion, that doesn't mean Spurling is sucky

As a reliever -- in the NL (20 or more IP) -- Spurling ranks 69th out of 105 in OBP (66th in OPS), just about every (if not every) team has a couple of relievers below Spurling. He really is not bad for a 12th pitcher.

My question is this: Would you trust him to pitch in a one-run game? If the answer is no and I am sure it is for all Brewer fans then it is time to replace him. Really if this was the case, I would have to replace all of our BP except for Cordero and Villy. This is like saying our 5th OF should be able to hit 35 HRs a year --- Spurling is our mop-up guy -- I think he has done very well considering the situations he has been brought into -- I would have cut Capellan before Spurling -- and I can guarentee you Spurling would not survive the waiver wire if we tried to send him to Nashville.

Happy 4th to every here -- Be safe, don't hurt yourself with fireworks -- unless you are videotaping it, in which case get it to youtube ASAP. Best!

In the case of Hill and Marshall -- I don't think that their "historical" (essentially one season, that being their first) means much of anything. I think Lilly is right about where he should be -- if you figure he had a 4.52 ERA the last 3 years in the AL East -- I don't think a 3.84 in the NL central is that far of a deviation. I expect Zambrano will pitch better. I think that Marquis is pitching way better than his historical data indicates he should -- and I suspect he could get shelled a couple times here and there -- but should it be something the Brewers should be excited about -- probably not.

I'd definitely prefer the Jack's, that's actually a pretty decent pizza. We rotate between Jacks and Tombstone for our family -- typically one of them is on sale at the store. When the Digornios go on sale -- I will buy them from time to time as well. If nothing else, I think they forced Tombstone, and Jacks to think outside the box a little. I prefer the take and bakes these days.

Question - isn't it possible that the team picked a generic looking picture for the cover? That way, if a player was traded mid-season, they wouldn't have to re-design the program. Yeah -- This is definitely the case -- In years past they would use pictures/photos of specific players -- but these are generic -- for example "#18" on the first yearbook is supposed to be from 1978 -- The only guys I remember wearing #18 from around that era were Bob Galasso and Danny Darwin -- neither were LHed African Americans. I think if they wanted to have used a specific player -- they would have used a photo -- Like : Larry Hisle I think on the second one -- they purposely covered up the # so people could not claim with certainty it was Yount or another player. For auction purposes I would not list any of them having specific players on them, that might get you into trouble.

I'm not sure it's even necessary to set sights that high. Of course you are 100% right, and I would be thrilled to get a replacement for Mench. But on my "Bargain Bin Wish List" I would like to see Jenks+Mench replaced http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

I get your point about a #1 pick and still being young....but I stop short of trumpeting this as a fine campaign. I agree -- This season has been a disappointment for Weeks -- However I am not going to use 2007 as a data set for projection. Give me Crabbe or Graffanino at this point and send Rickie either to rehab for awhile or to play in AAA. Ick. You lose me here. I am all for using Graffy for spot-starts at this point if Rickie needs time off to heal, get himself calibrated better, but I can't imagine a trip to Nashville will help him at all. Hart didn't produce until he got regular playing time. He started producing last year when he finally got regular playing time. Yep. This is spot-on, I think Yost should have been horse-whipped last year for not getting Hart regular ABs earlier in 2006, this is a good illustration of how a manager can have an impact on his team beyond in-game decisions and into the following years. I can only speak for myself,but i'm certainly not anywhere near ready to say Weeks will never become a top secondbaseman, You can speak for me on this. I look at how well Weeks improved his defense in a short period of time, and I have to think that he can make some adjustments on his approach as well. Really our core group (Weeks, Prince, Hall, Hart, Braun, Hardy) are all young players, and in some regard are benefitting from pitchers not having a "book" on them at this point. JJ Hardy is a great example of this -- Early in the year, after missing much of 2006, pitchers were challenging him with fastballs in and over the plate, as they did not think he could hit for power. After JJ torched them for 2 months, they started pitching him off the plate and in June, JJ's numbers have even been worse than Weeks (OPS wise). s JJ slumping? -- no, not really, -- pitchers have adjusted their approach to him, and JJ has yet to see this on the MLB level. Once JJ shows he can do something with the off-the-plate stuff, you will see his numbers rise again. Both Weeks and Hall have had to work on their defense and from time to time their offense has struggled. I suspect that the best pitching minds in the NL are on red alert now looking for that hole in Hart's swing -- and I suspect they will find something that will cool Hart down and force Hart to adjust from his approach today.

Do you really think the Brewers are in the "searching for nuggets" mode? Not like we were in the "scrap heap era" when we acquired guys like Doug Davis, Dan Kolb and Brady Clark -- but even Claudio Vargas has helped our team, and will likely improve our investment in him this season when he is traded. I think there are 2 trades I would like to see be made. 1.) A major type of trade that would get us a non-platoon LFer, now I am not sure who that player would be, but something like Jr. for Jenks + Vargas. (Disclaimer: I only use this as an illustration, I realize that there are salary issues, and I am not endorsing the acquistion of this specific player, etc.) 2.) Assuming Cordero leaves us after this season, I would love to see a trade for someone like Otsuka, which while would give us insane BP depth for 2007, would really be a move more for 2008. If DM thinks he can sign Cordero past this season, than this sort of move does not need to happen. Losing Cordero will be the biggest potential loss we will have at the end of 2007, and I am not real hot on moving Villy or Bush to the closer role.

The worst loss has to be the Philly loss or the one where the Rangers were down 3-0 with two out, no one in the 9th and an 0-2 count to their (Potential) last batter...and they came back to beat us. I agree with Rydogg 100% -- That Philly loss was horrible. Miller should get some love for his performance last night -- tying the Brewers alltime RBI mark. My Cy Young would be Cordero -- He was incredible earlier this year. MVP -- Prince I think the roster move of the year was Braun not going to the MLB club out of ST -- He was dinged up (missed some games in ST), he got some ABs in AAA, he got to work on his D w/o having the pressure of performing at the MLB level. Plus, if this dude is going to improve, it is really smart to have waited 1-2 mos to get another year out him when he is peaking. I don't think Clark/Dessens was a bad move at all -- not sexy or anything -- but reasonably sensible. I really do not think that any player should be call "best defensive" I think that is something that the team has really struggled with across the board. PREDICTION FOR 2nd HALF -- I am declaring that the 2007 2nd half is "must sweep". 81-0

Glenn Braggs vs. Rickie Weeks Glenn Braggs could break bats by just swinging them. Of course in retrospect, if you are breaking your bats while you are swinging that probably isn't going to help you hit better. It's pretty cool nonetheless.

did they announce player of the month Soriano I believe. Hart got robbed!!

If a person is using painkillers, taking antidepressants, injecting testosterone and then throws recreational drugs in there, it wouldn't be completely far fetched to suggest that it may have contributed to his incredibly insane behavior. Agreed -- plus you throw in all sorts of bumps to the head, I think you have a very potent problem brewing.

I was really expecting Hart to get POM -- glad for Sheets and Braun -- but really wanted to see Hart.

Ned Yost - F We haven't clinched our playoff spot yet. I plan on giving Yost a Pass/Fail based on playoffs.

I wonder if the toxicology report will show a cocktail of drugs in his system? I dont know -- I think people need to take a harder look at the long term deterioration of these dudes' melons and not try to call it a "roid rage incident". (generally speaking)

Nice post Russ -- I will try to have some fun with it -- http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif 1. The first thing that jumped into my mind was contracts -- let me expand on this. I know that contracts are determined primarily by 2 things past performances and the FA market. However I think a lot of fans think that they are buying future performances from their pitchers. E.g., we paid this guy $15M that means we should get 15 wins from that guy. 2. Bush v. Vargas -- One thing that occured to me when you made your comparison to Bush v. Vargas and how they pitched about the same # of innings and gave up the same amount of ERs and how Bush was perceived to be bad and Vargas was good. I have to admit -- I thought Bush was "bad" compared to Vargas -- and then when I thought about it a little more, I think Bush getting hit harder (warning track outs) probably had a negative impact on me I found myself thinking "Bush was lucky that didnt go out of the park" -- so I think fans do not see all outs as being equal. If you give up more FB outs -- you are probably going to be viewed as worse than a guy who gives up equal GB outs. 3. Doug Melvin Nugget Syndrome -- If you are a throw-in pitcher in a Doug Melvin trade -- you will have off the chart expectations relative to your actual talent. (This is specific to Brewer fans) 4. Parks -- I think fans rarely take into account pitchers coming from places like OAK may see a regression because they got a lot of foul outs that they won't get in the new park. 5. Fantasy Baseball -- I think more than anything in recent years fantasy baseball has skewed fans' grasps of baseball realities. A lot of stats are overvalued in reality because they have great fantasy value. I think a lot of fans who are good at fantasy baseball think they have a better grasp on the game, when in fact I think that they are jaded.

Now why he wanted Dan Kolb.. My guess is that he did not want Dan Kolb anymore than we wanted "Random Detroit minor leauge Pitcher" -- Dan Kolb was probably the highest offer.

like the Superbowl I don't think that the World Series is at all the event that the Super Bowl is anymore. I bet if teams like the Marlins made the WS, you would not get a local (neutral) fan attendance at all, nor can I imagine a lot of Marlin fans traveling to a neutral site Also the SB is really not neutral -- it is predetermined -- a SB could actually be a home game for some team one of these years. Generally the FB sites were chosen because of the warmth/vacation destination advantages. I know you are not comparing the SB to GM 1 of the WS -- but I just thought I would run with the comparison.

You have to laugh a bit when you see this thread. Why? (77) -- The intial post wondered if Week's struggles were due to wrist injuries or bad plate approach, I find that a perfectly reasonable talking point. Ned should be fired because he was playing those guys. You are the first person to mention Ned in this thread. No poster thought Ned should be fired for bringing Counsel/Graffy out when our regular 2b was on the DL. Now Weeks is back and there is talk about how bad he is and what are we going to do with him. Then you say this: He has been pretty bad lately I agree I would expect him to have a good stretch either this week or just after the break. I disagree -- I tend to think his problem is with his wrists -- I think that from the beginning of the year the Brewers pretty much stated that Weeks would have a rough go of it in 2007 -- If the problem is wrist-related -- I don't think it is something that is going to be helped by a week's rest, and I would rather see the wrist heal completely as a compromised Weeks is not doing better than Graffy at this point. If his wrists are OK and it is his approach/mechanics -- my guess is that his wrists goofed something up. If that is the case then perhaps he will work out of it -- but in either case I don't think this is a typical "slump" -- I think that this slump is injury related, and Weeks' production is not going to get much better sooner than later. I was really impressed with how Weeks improved his D -- I don't see any reason (barring injuries) he can't improve his plate approach at this point.

I love the neutral site idea. Perhaps -- however, it seems to me that the big fish is the TV ratings. I don't think the neutral site does anything to help TV ratings at all, and I think a nine game series is only going to weaken the TV ratings -- baseball would probably join the NBA where playoff games are shown primarily on cable.