Fatter than Joey

It almost looks like there is 2 Bob Ueckers... one against the brick section of wall.

it's more a stats/probability dilemma anyway.

I think it would work as well -- provided that a coach would play 3rd down knowing that they were going to go for it on 4th down... i.e., if it is 3rd and 10, perhaps run a 5-8 yard play so the 4th down is more manageable. On the same token, I think (especially in NCAA) teams should go for 2 after scoring a TD on every possession. I think overall you would end up scoring more points as well.

so I have Rock Band 2 for the Wii -- If anyone is up for a holiday beatdown online from me and my offspring, let me know...

so.... It's Xmas... I got a clogged up toilet. My wife went to the Mobil to pick up some drain cleaner -- the kids walked in the house with 3 huge sodas and no drain cleaner. My wife is either really dumb or really mad at me. Still, it beats the handmade crap from last year.

It's my son's 10th birthday -- I bought him a box of baseball cards.... Here is a transcript of his first pack. "Alright, a jersey card!!" "Oh crap, it's Estrada" "Ooh, ooh, a Brewer!!" "Oh crap, it's Mota"

I've heard Mario Kart is awesome, but impossible to find. Huh, I waddled into Wal-Mart and found it rather easily... Resident Evil 4 for the Wii is perhaps the best game I've ever played in my life. Agreed, RE4 is the greatest thing since Ryan Braun went skinny dipping in a tub of stadium sauce. For Wii, I really like their gun games like Alien Syndrome (I think). Maybe your boyfriend could stuff your stocking with RE4? It is a crazy good game.

The only problem with that thinking is that Looper is better than Suppan and will be much cheaper. He'll probably come at a fair price in this current market, unlike Suppan who we got in a ridiculous market with a bloated contract. Fair enough -- all I was saying, is that I would rather pass, and reload this time next year for a 1/2, than get tied down with someone who helps the back end of our rotation.

In the current market, I seriously doubt that Looper makes $24 million over 3 years. I guess we could bet a soda on this http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif -- I don't think Looper will get $8M in 2009, but I do think that he will get close to $25M I think he'll be somewhere in the area of two years for $6 million per. He just came off a 3 year deal, where he made $5.5 last year -- I don't see him treading water. Looper also should be a better pitcher than Suppan Probably, but Looper is not going to replace Suppan in the rotation. We could sign two #3's tomorrow -- and Suppan would still be in the rotation. As long as Suppan is a Brewer (and not hurt), he is going to be in the rotation.

What does that leave us? Who could we sign to an affordable deal that will be that #1 or #2? I will still hope for Johnson, but if we can't get him Looper seems as good an option as any. Looper is coming off a 3yr $13M deal -- I don't think he needs to take a paycut -- He made $5.5 last year -- He is probably inline for a 3yr $24M deal at least. The problem is, is that while there may not be a good 1/2 this year, there may be one next year. Getting into another Suppan contract would not be a good thing.

Man, it was cold these last 2 days. Almost all of the country roads are drifted over in the R10.

Definitely invest in some rechargeable batteries... If you like driving games, Mario Kart is a blast. We have Madden 09, and that is a lot of fun. If you want an adult/shooter game -- Resident Evil is very well done. The Wii has been a good investment for our family -- the games are pretty strong for the "non-gamers" and younger players --

I don't think that is what this team needs the most right now. Unless they complement the signing of someone like Looper with the signing of someone like Brian Fuentes, which would strengthen the entire pitching staff from the bottom up (instead of from the top down, which is how CC strengthened the team), I'm not a big fan of the team adding Looper as it stands by itself. I think this is the best post in the thread with regards to how I feel about this signing.... Looper is statistically very similar to Bush, and you already mentioned Suppan and McClung. Suppan given the $27M he is owed, will not get booted from the rotation. I think that this is an important point in this discussion... Unless Suppan is hurt, he is going to be a part of the rotation as long as he is a Brewer -- the Brewers may push him down to #5, but they aren't going to move Suppan out of the rotation unless they move him out of Milwaukee altogether. I don't see Looper as an upgrade from Bush -- perhaps McClung, but probably not a very substantial one. Of course this deal could give us some SP depth -- but I would rather see that depth come from adding to the top (or near the top) and sliding everyone down, rather than adding to the bottom. If this is a one year deal, or a 2 year deal for $11M, I like this signing a lot more... If we add an arm to the BP (like Patrick mentions Fuentes), then this makes a lot more sense as well. I guess to me, it all depends on how much money we spend. I just think Doug Melvin does a very solid job at managing a mid or small-market team, Even the bad Gagne deal was limited in risk at just one season. Jeff Suppan says hi! -- While I certainly, do not disagree that DM does a fine job overall, He has made some FA boners.

But if he even has an ERA close to 4, and misses so much as a start or two, New York will eat him alive. I think Milwaukee would be as bad, if not worse. I think CC will never be the primary scapegoat as long as A-Rod is in town -- Here though, CC would be scapegoat #1.

Sheets is probably the slightly better pitcher, but not that much better that it would outweigh the benefit of the two high draft picks. If we signed Sheets to a one-year deal, we'd still get the picks after next year (in all likelihood)

Should have fired Yost a LOT sooner.

I think our rotation (today) is a place for serious concern. We don't have a lot of AAA depth, and if someone like Parra or Bush gets scratched from a couple of starts we have big problems. Given our shaky defense, I don't feel real good about this group.

Melvin agrees with you, that's why he offered one Probably for the comp. picks.

it just seemed a little bit of a let down after making a point of saying a LH outfield bat is nearly signed. Yeah -- I guess I understand this, I don't understand why DM would use the word "nearly" -- unless Trot Nixon signs his name really really slow. A minor league deal should be a slam dunk. As for the Melvin bashers, and yes, that's what you are doing, give the guy a break. Who do you want him to sign? Manny Ramirez? Mark Texiera, who's price just went above and beyond BOSTON'S budget? Let's look at the math.... Mark Texiera > Most every other dude in baseball > Trot Nixon > Kevin Costner. I think a lot of DM bashers are hoping for someone in between.

yeah -- that's where I keep getting hung up -- maybe they burned their bridges with each other -- at least at this point in the off-season.

It is frustrating that Melvin is not considering Sheets as an option. I keep thinking something bad happened between DM and BS. It seems like both parties would benefit from a 1 year deal -- yet they seem miles apart.

Any thoughts about bringing back Gary Glover as a long man/6th starter for 2009? I think this would be a terrible idea. Glover hasn't started a game since 2005, and hasn't pitched well for even a longer period of time. Glover at best, seems to be an emergency type of player.

Yeah -- Fair enough. That's a good angle as well.

I don't think we're the Taj Mahal of intelligent baseball discussion or anything, but I think it is ok to strive to want to be a little more intelligent, a little more objective, to understand the game a little bit more. Agreed. And FWIW, I would have closed the vent thread in question because it was labeled "Official Vent Thread" or something similar. This is a great point. I am personally ambivalent about the future existence of the vent thread, and only really for it to keep as many "OMG THE SKY IS FALLING" posts (especially by people whose venty posts are repetitive) out of the other threads as possible. I rarely need to "vent" -- however I must admit, that there were some pretty funny posts in the vent thread that made me chuckle after the Brewers were sucking it up. I think the vent thread did a lot more than let people blow off steam, and there were a lot (if not the majority) of well-written and creative posts in that thread. Good posters rarely make bad posts, and bad posters rarely make good posts -- regardless of the thread's title.

Brewerfanswhodontpostkneejerkreactionsbutwritewellthoughtoutposts.net didn't fit on a t-shirt. This is reactionary. There are very many places on the internet to engage in highly subjective, semi-rational biased baseball conversation. Including this site. -- This site is cleaner and more articulate, but ultimately subjective and semi-rational.