Raw Biz

Alright, that just about does it for me. Done with the Brewers for a couple of days.

Apparently Nyjer has 89 ABs (98 PAs) this year without an RBI. Jamie Moyer has 2. The next closest in ABs without an RBI is 36 ABs (38 PAs). The record to start a season for the Brewers was previously held by Keith Osik with 71 ABs. Wow, just wow.

June. He has a career .781 April OPS and .772 May OPS, jumping to ..857, .872, .906 and .833. Hopefully that trend continues.

Well, at least Braun is still trying. edit: and Lucroy.

I hate this team right now. Glad I'm going to watch the T-Rats play tomorrow and sold the Brewer tickets.

Good to see Ishikawa, who is mainly in because of his defense, making an error on an easy play. Nothing is going right for this team.

Frickin Roenicke and having the team run into outs. Just ridiculous.

Geez, Weeks would've killed that pitch last year. I honestly don't know what his deal is.

I agree. Yes I know the options aren't great to replace him but at this point, he has looked so bad I don't think it would do any harm to let Green take over 2B and Ishikawa have 1B. Have Weeks (hopefully) destroy minor-league pitching for a week on a rehab assignment and bring him back up. I know Weeks would never agree to it but even he has to realize how bad he's been. He just looks defeated after every AB. I also honestly can't believe he hasn't taken it upon himself to ask to be moved down in the order. ARam basically told Roenicke he was sucking and should maybe be moved and ARam seems a lot more hard-headed than Weeks. I know there are other problems with the team right now and Weeks batting 2nd or 6th/7th might not make that much of a difference. But having him flail away up there just looking awful only magnifies how bad they've been. To add to the redundancy of this thread, moving him down couldn't really do any more harm. He's hitting .156. Yes he's walking a lot but I would trade some walks if it meant he'd be a little more aggressive on strikes down the middle so he can actually get some hits. It's just depressing to watch.

Today I played a good game of ball with my dog. He stands about ten meters from me and I bounce him balls to jump and catch in his mouth. It's kind of like basic infielder fielding practice. I wonder if a shepherd dog can hit as well as our SS's... Where in Canada are you?

There's no reason why Conrad should be starting over Green and Ishikawa. If you want to get him PT, play him over Weeks. But Green and Ishikawa have both shown to be better hitters than Conrad. Also, what does Lucroy have to do to hit 2nd? I understand the argument that if he hits higher, he won't be driving in the runs. That would be valid if ARam and Hart were getting on to begin with. I'd rather have Lucroy get on for Braun and move Weeks to 6th. Maybe moving down will take some pressure of Weeks. Regardless, something different needs to be done.

Sometimes I think you say stuff just for the sake of saying something. It's actually not all that uncommon for guys to "luck" into a really good year. Obviously everyone in the bigs has some talent. But sometimes guys have an unreal season or two out of nowhere and then are not able to replicate it. Hall and McGehee are two Brewers who had such seasons. The key in determining whether it was "luck" or whether it was likely to happen again would be to look at a combo of past track record (amateur career, minors, previous MLB seasons, etc.) and scouting (has their approach changed, what "tools" do they have, etc.). Weeks had the track record and the tools. Hall/McGehee didn't. And your argument about holding a draft after a period of time doesn't make any sense. If you held a draft after the first few weeks of 2006, Chris Shelton would have been a top 5 pick. So what? Also, your point about Ian Kinsler doesn't make sense either. Pujols lasted until the 13th round and Piazza until the 62nd round. Sometimes scouts are wrong, yes. Especially when you are looking at high school/JUCO/foreign players, there isn't as much (and perhaps not as reliable) data available compared to guys who went to major colleges. Hindsight is 20/20, there is really no point in comparing Weeks to Kinsler and where they were drafted.

No, just no. The answer is not to trade away good, young, cheap pitching for old, expensive, coming-off-an-injury pitching. If a team is in rebuilding mode, they usually trade away expensive players for good, young, cheap players. They don't trade a bunch of those players for expensive stars.

And Lucroy continues to show why he should be hitting higher in the order, at least for now...

No, he hasn't been as bad as Suppan, it just gets me when I hear people talk about what a fantastic FA value he has been. He has been about what was expected (til this year), a middle of the rotation pitcher, which is not a great investment for $10M a year, particularly for a mid-market team. Strong pitching-rich farm systems generate middle of the rotation pitchers so you can better invest that $10M a year elsewhere. Well $10 mil/yr is pretty much the going rate for a 3-4 type pitcher, which is what Wolf is. Actually, when he was signed, he was probably considered a 2-3 for us. Whether a 3-4 should be paid that money is another argument but I think his contract was fair.

Wolf managed a 4.17 and 3.69 ERA in back-to-back 200+ IP seasons. Call them fluky or whatever you want but he performed well. In no way should he be compared to Suppan.

I know this game is probably pretty close to out of reach but Hart needs to call of Morgan there. Yeah Hart's defense isn't great but his arm is a lot better than Morgan's.

What the hell kind of catch was that Hart??? He was there in plenty of time of just over-ran it. Yeah it's not a routine play but that looked just awful.

Weeks back to looking at strikes down the middle again.

I don't know what it'd take but if they want Kottaras, like I said, greatest trade ever. Even if Trumbo isn't the future at 1B, he makes the team better now than a backup catcher.

Yeah he went in hard but he still needs to be aware of his surroundings. A guy can drop the ball at any time. He had time to realize he dropped the ball and get back.

Nice smarts there Ish.

Except Ishikawa is what he is at this point and Green probably has more potential. Ishikawa will hit more home runs but Green will hit for a higher average and probably get on base more. Ish will have games like this every once in awhile but thats about it. I disagree. Green finally registered his first major league walk last night, more than 50 AB's into his career. I don't see him being all that patient. Ishikawa's only regular playing time at the big league level was in the NL West's pitchers havens He's got a pretty good stroke for a guy noted for his glove work. He could be a late bloomer with the bat. Don't get me wrong, I like Green. But he's not a first baseman. Yes he can play there, and given the contract status of Weeks and Ramirez, they are forced to find a place if he's going to play, but he's really got to hit to stay there and I'd give Ishikawa a shot there first. The next best option is to move ARAM to first and Green to third. I'm not even going to bother looking at Green's MLB stats since the sample is so small. I was just comparing what each did in the minors at each level/league and at what age. Last year in the hitter-friendly PCL Ishikawa was only able to manage a .750 OPS as a 27-year old. Yeah he had a 1.1 OPS in the same league as a 24 year old but then he was called up and has been around a .725 OPS in the majors. I'm not saying Green needs to start every game at 1B but I think he should be getting the majority of starts there. I'll take the potential of Green (and already might be better offensively) over the upgrade on defense from Ish. Green has looked plenty fine on defense so far.

Except Ishikawa is what he is at this point and Green probably has more potential. Ishikawa will hit more home runs but Green will hit for a higher average and probably get on base more. Ish will have games like this every once in awhile but thats about it.

Conrad actually isn't bad as a RH off the bench. Unfortunately he's been starting. And I don't even know if he's hit RH yet. edit: Apparently he's 0-6 as a RH. But he's got a .762 career OPS RH.