TheCrew07

I'll take Vegas's opinion every time. That's saying the Brewers have a 48% chance of winning. And if it was so obvious that Marcum was "toast", he would have been shut down already. Im not happy with his performance so far but it could just as easily just be a momentary blip. Everything is just so obvious to people around here, until they are wrong and find something else that is obvious. And disregarding small samples while focusing on individual matchups.... My goodness. People act like the playoffs are magical. Once again you fail to understand the other side of the coin. This isn't the regular season where we have 162 games, hot and cold matters in the playoffs. 1 bad defensive play, or 2 in the case of tonight's game is all the difference in a game and sometimes a series. Baseball games have never been won in any player or teams' cumulative stats, they are won and lost in individual match-ups between pitchers/hitters and fielders making plays. Either our team makes the plays or they don't, and there's no time for performance to normalize to career norms, the sample sizes are just too small. If you feel good about Marcum in game 6, all the power to you, I'm certainly in no position to tell people what they should or shouldn't believe. He's pitched poorly for a while now, I personally don't feel good about that game at all. Like I said, coming into the season I would have felt good about Marcum late in a series but as it stands right now coming back to Milwaukee for game 6 with Marcum on the mound makes me uneasy at best. As I said, because of the format of the 7 game series St. Louis did exactly what they needed to winning 1 of 2 in Milwaukee and switching the power dynamic. They made it a 5 game series where they have 3 home games in a row, it seems pretty reasonable to suggest that St Louis is in the driver's seat. As I'm typing this the Brewers just lost again... I don't believe the Brewers winning 1 of the next 2 games is going to be enough. It's not doom and gloom, the Brewers simply are not in a favorable position by any measure at this point in time.

It's reasonable to be concerned about this series, so far the Cards did exactly what they needed to do. They took 1 game in Milwaukee and now it's a 5 game series in which the Cards have home field advantage. It's one of the reasons I don't like baseball's 2-3-2 format. It is certainly plausible that the Cards will come back to Milwaukee up 3-2 and the Brewers will have Marcum on the mound. Given that scenario last Feb I think many of us would have taken it, however when taking recent history into account, I don't feel very good about that scenario at all. Part of it I'm sure is that I hate losing to the classies almost as much as the Cubs, but thus far in the post season the starting pitching isn't exactly inspiring confidence. Throw sample size out the window now, it's all about success over a short window and individual match-ups. Career statistics don't mean squat now... is our pitching locating or not? if not, plans B, C, and D better be ready to go. Will we play clean defense? Is it reasonable to expect the offense to score 6+ runs a game? I'm not handing St. Louis the series, but even the most casual fan should be willing to admit that if the Brewers don't win 2 of 3 in St. Louis the series might not make it past game 6. Unfortunately the Cards have tilted the pendulum in their favor and I'm not sure that winning 1 of 3 games in St. Louis will be enough for the Brewers to take the series.

The best reasons for optimism are... 1) So far this season every break has gone the Brewers way 2) The Brewers are playing at home 3) Gallardo is pitching 4) The 2 best teams in the post season might be eliminated prior to the Brewers having to face them, creating the best possible match ups for Greinke who thrives on getting hitters out with pitches out of the zone. I don't believe he matched up well against the Phillies or Yankees at all. The Yankees are currently losing 1-3... I'd much rather face St Louis and Detroit than Philadelphia and New York. After having good fortune all year the Brewers have a realistic chance of getting even more good fortune in the post season, the stars are aligning perfectly for a WS berth that I didn't think was possible given the paper thin depth of the organization and quality of opposition the Brewers were expected to face all season.

The first 15 picks are protected, Fielder would need to sign with someone in the upper half of the standings for the Brewers to get a 1st round pick for him.

Well many of those guys do have low ceilings, see Cole Gillespie... they just have relatively high floors, there's a good chance they'll at least be bench players. The point is that you need a certain percentage of impact talent in your system, simply put you need a good mix of different types of talent, a Gamel type for every Green type. Some low ceiling guys might over achieve, certainly some high ceiling guys are going to fail, but I prefer a good mix of production vs raw talent in the system. Lopez might never make majors, but you can't field a pitching staff comprised of all 4s and 5s and compete either. Free agent pitching is far too expensive for the Brewers to ever consistently fill holes there, they will have to draft and develop pitching if they want to field legitimate contending teams. And while Lopez may never make the majors, Zach Jackson, Dave Bush, and Gabe Gross were never going to special and likely never good enough to be everyday regulars. All 3 of those guys were productive college players, high draft picks, but severely limited from a talent standpoint. People didn't like when I said Gross was just a better version of Brady Clark because I didn't see anything when he played that made me think he was an everyday starter. Every argument that was made for him was statistical in nature, the McGehee discussion has been similar. When you watch him play you realize he's just not special, he's barely average athletically, and that's being generous. I've never said he can't be productive, what I've said all along is that he's not very gifted compared to his peers, I don't trust him to remain productive long term, and he has always been replaceable if the right deal came along. I won't get into all of the different reasons I favor athleticism, that idea should sell itself. The kind of talent one can draft depends largely on where you are drafting and how well you are scouting and lets be honest, the Brewers scouting dept hasn't been the same since they lost all those people in a 3 year span. Once you get into the teens very few college players, especially pitchers, have amounted to much of anything, there's decades of drafts that bear out that fact. If you want legit talent in that range you're going to have to go after HS players, it's just incredibly tough to get Braun type talent that late in the draft. The Brewers system is incredibly thin, the reemergence of a favorite of mine like Green doesn't change that fact, he's just not a super talented guy. Systems are rated on the depth of potential impact talent, we're very thin in that area after the 2010 winter trades. We have plenty of nice depth in the system, but we have very little at the top which projects to be even above average in MLB. Fiers has been fantastic, but his pure stuff is fringe average, he's a pitchability guy, and he's not going to turn many heads prospect wise. I cringe whenever I see comparisons to successful MLB pitchers that get by purely on pitchability, they tend to be the exceptions to the rule... like Marcum for example. I would love it if he turned out that well, but I have very difficult time projecting the best case scenario for players of that nature. That's why I never jumped on the Ross bandwagon early this season... let's see how guys like that do after every team has had an opportunity to see him in person and scout him before we get excited. Once teams have a chance to form a game plan then we'll see how good he is.... even in the low minors if you aren't able to make adjustments you aren't going to have much success and teams figured him out in a hurry. I would rather the Brewers take a shot with a super athlete every year in the second round than start drafting pitchers like Jackson or position players like Gross.

I think what TLB is getting at, is that many posters around here will trade any minor leaguer, no matter how much potential they have, for proven MLB talent 100 times out of 100, and that's no way to build an organization or sustain success over a number of years at MLB. As far as the the standard unsupportable hyperbole regarding prospects who haven't proven anything yet, I've addressed my disdain for such throw away comments over the years. Bring a legitimate argument regarding why a prospect won't ultimately succeed or don't say anything at all, most of the posters on the MLB forum don't follow the minors enough to possess a well informed personal opinion on a prospect, regardless of the name. Honestly, that's always bothered me because there's a wealth of analysis on a daily basis just a click away on the Minor League forum. Yes prospects will fail, but that's actually an argument for building a strong farm system and having more prospects, so the organization has multiple options, it's not an argument to drain the well dry like Melvin did to address a decade's worth of inactivity/ineptitude in acquiring/drafting/developing young starting pitching. I've written it many times, Marcum is one of the few tossers I've ever latched onto, but many people just aren't being objective about the relative talent acquired in this deal or the Greinke deal. Marcum is an over achiever for the course of his career, getting a ton of milage out of 1 very good pitch. Greinke has the stuff to be an ace but has only managed to pitch at that level for 1 season in his 9 year career. In the case of Marcum, Lawrie was at the time of the trade, still is, and forever will be a more gifted player, he was the only potential impact position player in our entire organization at the time of the trade. Melvin did not trade for equal talent. Marcum has pitched like he always has, but his good results do not reflect his natural talent as a baseball player, in the same way McGehee's success doesn't represent his true athletic talent. Not to mention he'll be 30 years old next season and becomes a bigger injury risk with each passing year. I would have traded for Marcum in 2006, I wouldn't have traded him for in 2010 as a 29 year old coming off TJ surgery with 2 years of arbitration left. I compared Lawrie's attitude to Braun on numerous occassions and I believe that to be a fair comparison. It's seems to me that people are grasping at straws as justification or in support of Melvin. As far as Greinke goes, I've been steady in my opinion of the deal since the day it happened, we overpaid. Odorizzi cooling off has nothing to do with anything, it's about the amount of talent given up for the talent acquired. Greinke simply doesn't pitch like a #1 year in and year out, despite having the talent to do so, but Melvin paid for him as if he was a #1, and many posters on this expected him to pitch like Sabathia, which just wasn't going to be the case. Everything has broken the Brewer's way this season, especially health wise as the starting pitching stayed healthy. The only significant loss was Weeks and his loss coincided with the best pitching stretch of the season. Very few teams can afford to continually buy MLB talent with prospects and sustain success, especially a team like the Brewers who isn't able to spend market value financially to retain proven talent they've drafted and developed, while at the same time haven't been drafting the same quality of player since Z left for Seattle. A team like Boston has made it work by continuing to draft and develop quality talent with those comp picks. Yes high compensation draft picks can potentially help the Brewers as well, but the Brewers haven't exactly hit homeruns with those picks over recent years, the talent well has been steadily running dry. Heckathorn is probably the best supplemental pick of the bunch at this time, and he's looking like a back of the rotation guy if he makes it. The combination of moves Melvin made with prospects has worked out wonderfully for the 2010 Milwaukee Brewers, they might even make the WS though I personally don't see it. However those moves came with a price, the organizaiton is not positioned well to sustain success. Melvin paid a steep price to acquire Marcum and Greinke, but then offset those relatively expensive moves with deals for Morgan and K-Rod which were relatively cheap and added productive talent. For example, I never viewed Loe as a black hole as a reliever, I always felt the problem was RR's use of him, but adding K-Rod for essentially peanuts was a wonderfully cost effective move especially given the way Braddock's career has panned out. Trading Marcum for Lawrie would have made little difference for the 2011 Brewers without the moves that came behind the original deal. I'll give Melvin his due, he's certainly had his best season as a GM this year, but I don't agree with his overall team building philosophy. I will always believe that the Brewer's pitching situation didn't have to become as dire as it did coming out of 2010, Melvin bungled said situation horribly from about 2005 through 2010 which backed him into the corner that ultimately led to him making the Marcum and Greinke trades... but there were plenty of young, cheap, and productive pitches available over the years that Melvin never made the move for. Off the top of my head Cain, Niemann, and Buccholz were all on the block in successive years, 2 of those 3 guys would have made a huge difference in our staff from 2009 till now, and wouldn't have cost us a total of LaPorta, Brantley, Bryson, Escobar, Cain, Jeffress, Odorizzi, and Lawrie to get there. I've always maintained it's much easier to find a cost effective position player to fill a hole than a pitcher, and I'd feel a ton better about a combination of Lawrie+Gamel together replacing Prince's production next season than I do hoping McGehee bounces back or a McGehee/Green platoon gets the job done with Gamel. I'm not a huge fan of platoons to begin with, though I do understand the relative necessity of them, but neither McGehee or Green is especially athletic, and I'm always looking to become more dynamic athletically as an organization. I want to build on youth and mix in veteran talent to fill the holes, I realize that's different philosophy than many posters on this site and Melvin himself. I wouldn't have ever traded 8-9 years of Lawrie (assuming a deal that I want to make with all young impact/core players from the system to buy out 2 years of FA) for 2 years of Marcum. Simply put, it's not a deal for equal talent or equal production... in the short term it can be, but over the course of their tenure with their respective teams it won't be. I tend to favor a longer term view of the organization which is one of the reasons I tend to despise rental player deals by default. I'd rather be the seller than the buyer, cycling talent back around it on itself acquring prospects, rather than selling any prospects of value for short term solutions and draft picks as the value of the draft picks is just impossible to quantify. Value wise the only way this trade works out in the Brewer's favor on it's own merits is if Lawrie ends up being a below average MLB player, which seems unlikely at this point in time. The combination of trades that Melvin made have worked out wonderfully, but both the Marcum and Greinke deals on their own were significant overpays. It's difficult to separate the various deals and view them independently, especially given the success of the MLB team this season, but it's not impossible to be somewhat objective and evaluate the deals on their own merits. I believe the sum of deals is better than the individual parts, the Morgan trade was at least as important to the MLB club as the Marcum trade, and it was infinitely more cost effective.

That's a laughable defense of Melvin... the best players on that list weren't actually prospects anymore when they were acquired... Overbay, Cappy, Moeller, Obemueller.... the only potential impact player on that entire list talent wise was JDLR., the best performer stat wise was Cappy. Pointing to trades of incredibly midling prospects as proof that Melvin does indeed trade for young talent is disingenuous at best. It's like pointing to Wolf as proof his FA pitching acquisitions have been successful on the whole. It's as silly a claim as when Chase Wright was acquired to provide quality starting pitching depth. I really like Villy, always have, he's one of the few soft tossers I've ever gotten behind, but he overachieved his prospect status by a wide margin, look who we traded for him. I've basically said all I've had to say about the way Melvin cycles talent in 100s of previous posts. I think acquiring Morgan for Dykstra saved the season, and he basically stole K-Rod for peanuts. Short of that he's usually overpaid talent wise to acquire the name the players he's gone after, people will try to circularly justify the trades, especially if they happen to like Melvin. Objectively, there's simply no way Marcum and Lawrie was an even deal talent wise, I posted it at the time, and I still believe it now, and this is coming from a poster that always thought Marcum should have been the focus of the Overbay deal with Toronto. Again, he's one of the few soft tossers I've ever latched onto, though when I latched onto him he was throwing significantly harder than he is now. People are going to believe what they want to believe, but trading for warm bodies or players with high floors isn't the same as trading for young talent.... to trade for young talent the player actually has to possess talent, he has to have a high ceiling. We haven't traded for any young impact talent since the Sexson deal and 1 player in that deal had the talent to be an all-star caliber player year in and year out, that was JDLR. All the rest of the players were league average stop gaps just pushing the club towards respectability while we waited for the cavalry from our minor league system to arrive.

I think that anyone who believes Jungmann will start high in the system and move fast is sipping the organizational cool aid a bit much. Nothing I've seen suggests that he'll move fast. Yes I only saw him pitch in the NCAA tourney (regionals and College WS) but there was plenty of video out there on draft day to confirm what we were seeing wasn't a fluke, at least delivery wise. I like his frame and I like his competitiveness on the mound. I despise his mechanics, especially his short stride... In my opinion it hurts his command and his velocity. Pitch wise his 4 seam is straight, as all 4 seam FBs are, but he doesn't have pinpoint command with the pitch which topped out around 94. He doesn't control his 2 seamer very well either, I deleted both games off my DVR long ago but I don't recall many if any being thrown for strikes, and it sat 88-89. He locates his curve well, but it's not an impressive pitch, it just kind of loops in there without any bite. It's on the opposite side of the spectrum of a Sheet's hammer for example, it's a very average MLB pitch, maybe even slightly below average. He didn't throw enough sliders for me to get any kind of feel for the pitch, but I did like his change, and he located it well the couple of times he threw it to LHB. If he could fix his mechanics in the AFL and spring training he could hit the ground round running with better control and velocity next season, but all of his secondary pitches need a ton of work. The only way I know of to fix those pitches is repetition, someone might teach him a new grip or different release for the various pitches, but even so he'll have to learn to throw them consistently. There's no easy way, just hard work... I'll be shocked if Jungmann starts higher than WI, as is I'm not sure his total package is good enough to dominate Midwest league hitters at this time. He looks to be a decent athlete, so hopefully he has the capacity to adjust and refine rather quickly. He seemed to have success when I watched him because he located the curve fairly well in the strike zone, but college hitters had no problem tracking the pitch when they were looking for it. If he's going to continue to feature that curve, it needs to be tightened up significantly or located out of the zone because it's going to get crushed as he moves up as is. Pitching and pitching mechanics have been a hobby of mine over the last 6-7 years on this site. Anyone can find a plethora of information with just a simple google search. There's probably as much bad information out there as there is good, but I would encourage people to read as much as possible and form their own opinions. For example, I don't think there's much value in discussing worthless metrics like PAP that are based on a flawed premise from the start. There's much more that goes into fatigue than 100 pitches, how you get to 100 pitches is just as important, and there's no proof that 100 pitches is the threshold all MLB starting pitchers should be held to. It's just a nice round number... I would recommend people focus more on the mechanics and pitch f/x, the velocity differentials and movement. There's not a single consensus on what's good form mechanically, Lincecum is a poster boy for that kind of discussion, but there are some common themes that lead to problems like the inverted W and such. To sum up, Jungmann's top heavy motion with little leg drive just looks awkward... he's made it work, but I'm certain it's affecting his control and sapping his velocity, nor does he have a secondary pitch that's above average MLB wise. He has all the tools, but he also has some serious work to do to be an above average MLB starter.

I think that anyone who believes Jungmann will start high in the system and move fast is sipping the organizational cool aid a bit much. Nothing I've seen suggests that he'll move fast. Yes I only saw him pitch in the NCAA tourney (regionals and College WS) but there was plenty of video out there on draft day to confirm what we were seeing wasn't a fluke, at least delivery wise. I like his frame and I like his competitiveness on the mound. I despise his mechanics, especially his short stride... In my opinion it hurts his command and his velocity. Pitch wise his 4 seam is straight, as all 4 seam FBs are, but he doesn't have pinpoint command with the pitch which topped out around 94. He doesn't control his 2 seamer very well either, I deleted both games off my DVR long ago but I don't recall many if any being thrown for strikes, and it sat 88-89. He locates his curve well, but it's not an impressive pitch, it just kind of loops in there without any bite. It's on the opposite side of the spectrum of a Sheet's hammer for example, it's a very average MLB pitch, maybe even slightly below average. He didn't throw enough sliders for me to get any kind of feel for the pitch, but I did like his change, and he located it well the couple of times he threw it to LHB. If he could fix his mechanics in the AFL and spring training he could hit the ground round running with better control and velocity next season, but all of his secondary pitches need a ton of work. The only way I know of to fix those pitches is repetition, someone might teach him a new grip or different release for the various pitches, but even so he'll have to learn to throw them consistently. There's no easy way, just hard work... I'll be shocked if Jungmann starts higher than WI, as is I'm not sure his total package is good enough to dominate Midwest league hitters at this time. He looks to be a decent athlete, so hopefully he has the capacity to adjust and refine rather quickly. He seemed to have success when I watched him because he located the curve fairly well in the strike zone, but college hitters had no problem tracking the pitch when they were looking for it. If he's going to continue to feature that curve, it needs to be tightened up significantly or located out of the zone because it's going to get crushed as he moves up as is. Pitching and pitching mechanics have been a hobby of mine over the last 6-7 years on this site. Anyone can find a plethora of information with just a simple google search. There's probably as much bad information out there as there is good, but I would encourage people to read as much as possible and form their own opinions. For example, I don't think there's much value in discussing worthless metrics like PAP that are based on a flawed premise from the start. There's much more that goes into fatigue than 100 pitches, how you get to 100 pitches is just as important, and there's no proof that 100 pitches is the threshold all MLB starting pitchers should be held to. It's just a nice round number... I would recommend people focus more on the mechanics and pitch f/x, the velocity differentials and movement. There's not a single consensus on what's good form mechanically, Lincecum is a poster boy for that kind of discussion, but there are some common themes that lead to problems like the inverted W and such. To sum up, Jungmann's top heavy motion with little leg drive just looks awkward... he's made it work, but I'm certain it's affecting his control and sapping his velocity, nor does he have a secondary pitch that's above average MLB wise. He has all the tools, but he also has some serious work to do to be an above average MLB starter.

I brought it up because he had to approve the K-Rod deal. From the sounds of it, Melvin didn't do much except bring it to Mark to get approved. Probably a good thing because I doubt Melvin was creative enough to put that together.Regardless it has nothing to do with deep pockets, just a calculated risk. I realize this is a matter personal preference but I'm not thrilled about the idea of borrowing against the value of the franchise either, I'd rather they actively look to reduce the debt than operate right on the edge of profitability as they have since 2007.

I'm not sure I understand why people keep talking about Mark A's deep pockets all the time? He's not paying anyone directly out of his pocket, and if the organization ends up in the red he just borrows against the value of the franchise to meet payroll. He bought the team, but he's certainly not paying anyone out of his own checking account.

Why are we giving Toby props for the comments when Mass wrote them? Excellent work as always gentlemen and I enjoyed the comments Mass.

Honestly I think you are right about the fans but wrong about Betancourt. Appearing to lolllygag isn't the same as actually lollygagging. The greatest player ever to wear a Milwaukee uniform "appeared" to lollygag. That's Hammerin Hank Aaron. Read his book "I had a Hammer". Aaron was crucified as a lazy player early in his career, for the simple reason his gait was loping and he didn't dive after balls. People contrasted that understated style to the flamboyant Willie Mays at the time. I've never seen Betancourt lollygag. A lot of guys fake effort. That's easy to do. Yuni isn't one of them. Betancourt doesn't dive after balls he has no chance to get to (by the way Hardy didn't either). He runs hard on the bases. Believe me if he were actually lollygagging, it wouldn't be accepted in the clubhouse. Betancourt by all accounts is very popular with his teammates. It was reported he spent a lot of extra time in the cage working on staying back on pitches. It's paying off. Fans need to give it a rest. Yuni is an incredibly lazy defender which is why he's not very good. He never bends with his knees, he doesn't play low to the ground, which in turn affects everything that he does on defense. His his range is horrible because he has to move vertically to get his body into position to move horizontally costing valuable tenths of a second, since he end ups playing so high his base isn't wide enough which affects his arm and accuracy. He's a waist bender, he's not fundamentally sound in any aspect of what he does, from where I'm sitting that's incredibly lazy, these are the kind of things that wouldn't be acceptable out of a high school SS being done by a professional. If you were going to teach a youngster how to play SS and have him watch a video, Yuni's half of the video would be the "what not to do"... Instead of merely accepting that he actually caught a ground ball, take a closer look at how he goes about it in the future and you'll see how bad he really is.

I'm not anymore concerned about him than I am about Khris Davis adjusting to AA. He's just got to keep working on his game, there's no teaching mid 90s heat. I liked his 1 inning from the futures game more than anything I saw from Jungmann this spring.

10Ks for Hall is very nice to see.

Betancourt and Lopez had nice plays for them tonight, and I have no idea why Lopez hits so well in a Brewer uniform, but I hope he keeps it up for the duration of his stay.

Some things don't translate well on TV, especially defensively if you don't have a camera on the guy for the entire play. Take Braun's angles to the ball, it was much easier to see him turn wrong and correct himself to run the ball down in person. By the time the camera got to him on TV he was already running to catch the ball and in most cases you couldn't see how bad a jump he got to start the play. He's gotten better over time, but that first season was pretty brutal, he turned the wrong way 3 times in one game of my season ticket package in 2009. If I'm scouting defensive SS I'm going to want to see that first step in person. Also, certain pitches don't translate well with the FSN view at Miller Park, sliders for example look much more filthy when you're sitting behind home plate (a good friend has season tickets in row 9) than they do on TV. Watching on TV you're wondering what the hell they are swinging at, but sitting behind the umpire seeing that ball coming directly at you yields a different perspective.

If Green isn't the list and wasn't called up simply because they really "wanted to McGehee going"... well that's just par for the course with Melvin as far as I'm concerned. Casey has looked much better in the last week (I should probably go check his stats before I say that), but that doesn't mean riding him out this long was the correct decision.

I looked at the career numbers over at fangraphs prior to posting, Weeks career UZR/150 is -4.9 not sure where the 3 win difference is coming from, if you're using BP I don't have access over there anymore. He's been positive since 2009, +24.2 runs over those 3 years. Lopez for his career is -1 at 2B according to fangraphs, his last 3 years (he didn't play there at all for the Rays) -7.7 if I did my math correctly. His defense at 3B is a -3.8 ove the last 3 seasons. The sample size is too small conclude anything, the fans certainly don't like his D anywhere and I've never been a fan of him in the field, though I've never seen him play 3B in person.

Possibly things have changed, I haven't posted over there in years, I dont' have time for messageboards once football season starts, my opinions were formed mostly on draft/free agent comments in the past. I just checked and I only have 5 total posts over there since 2008, so it's not like I've been actively following the forum. I do think that if people truly appreciated what Thompson has done then the forum's general perspective on Melvin would have changed around here because he operates in exactly the opposite manner. Thompson has had his share of stinker contracts to guys like Poppinga and Chillar (I never liked him much for some reason) who were never going to be anything more than role players, but he's done very well locking the proper impact players before their value has peaked. I'm not sure Crosby was worth his contract either, but it's hard to argue given the shortened window to try and find a replacement. Melvin may have bought his way to the post season and maybe beyond with prospects, but there's nothing behind this current team. I'm not minimizing Weeks' injury, but for the Brewer's sake it was much better he got hurt than Fielder, Braun, or one of the top starting pitchers. The winter trades may be enough to get home and get to a world series even though my gut impression was that they weren't, but it's just not the way a team like Milwaukee can sustain success, and it exactly the opposite approach I would have had Melvin make. If it happens I'll certainly have to eat crow. I would much rather roll an extra $5 million per year into signing bonuses/player development/medical treatment than be spending that money on FA players to plug holes, especially relievers. Even if it only nets us an extra MLB player every 2-3 years it's still worth it in the end. I found it interesting that the Packers had total gross revenue of $282 milllion but only profited $12 million in a Super Bowl winning season. I work pretty closely with the proshop and they didn't catch up on web orders until the middle of March, they were that busy all winter and ended up pulling in $11 million for the team, mostly the entire profit. The Brewers can't be taking in anywhere near that amount of money, and while their payroll is about 30 million less, I question how profitable the organization is with this level payroll? I just don't see how the Brewers can sustain the payroll without 3 million fans, but they won't get 3 million fans without wins, and they won't win without developing their own impact talent.

I wonder... with Lopez starting does this give Milwaukee the worst IF defense in MLB? UZR won't give us the answer but I'd be curious what plus/minus will say after the season about this stretch without Weeks. UZR/150 has Lopez as basically a stratch defender at 2B and he's pretty bad every where else except 1B, at 2B he's trending like you would expect as he ages.

I'm not sure that's true, prior to the superbowl run I think the vast majority of fans in WI thought Melvin was the better GM and still do. It's the main reason I quit posting over at Lambeauleap, I wasn't going to fight the same fight about organization building on 2 fronts with the same people. Thompson clearly understands how to build an organization as well as how little value there actually is to be found in FA. Generally speaking when signing a name player you're paying for what they've done and not what they are going to do.

I for one sleep horribly in hotels, I'm up every hour almost on the dot from when I fall asleep. It's horrible and one of the reasons I rarely overnight for work unless I have to or can go out drinking which helps.

Any chance to bash the Brewers highly (in MLB) respected trainers, right?Highly respected according to Bill? Because they won an award for least amount of DL time in one season which was entirely outside of their control and directly related to the youth on the team? There's been plenty of evidence over the last 6-7 years to suggest that Brewers have continually handled injuries to MLB and MiLB players in incredibly poor ways. All previously documented in many other threads. In this case the simple truth is that depending on which ligament(s) are torn the recovery time could actually be longer than a broken bone. A sprain is actually a tear, and fully severed ligaments don't repair themselves while slight tears take a very long to recover because there isn't much blood flow to them. Sprains never actually heal, Rickie will have a bad ankle the rest of his life. While they should have access to ultrasound machines and other advanced healing/therapy aids that will significantly reduce the recovery time, I'll be shocked if he's back in a month, from the video (which was incredibly digusting) he came as close to a catastrophic injury as one can get, he's very fortunate. He'll come back way before he's 100% but he'll need a rehab stint which will add another week or two to whatever his injury recovery time will be. Once again I don't believe that baseball lends itself to playing injured as defensively you're actually covering ground on the field, not positioning yourself between another player and some sort of goal, and there's no way to protect against the violent muslce torque that occurs during a swing. You can take my posts however you want but my intent wasn't to slam the training staff, it's common knowledge that I don't think much of them and I was posting an off the cuff observation as I always do. However it streams into my head is exactly how it comes out in a post.

I agree he's better than Counsell but not sold he's a better option than Farris, and I don't like Farris as a prospect. I liked him as a utility player but his arm proved too weak to fit that role. Lopez had a nice real nice 2009 but he's really only been a good hitter for 2 seasons in his career. How I feel about 2nd base depends entirely on how much time Weeks' injury will take to heal and what happens elsewhere. Some sprains are actually worse than breaks and yes I know the time frame the Brewers put out there for his recovery, but I don't put much faith in the Brewers' training staff, not to mention Weeks will need some sort of rehab stint to get his timing back, pennant race or not. If SS or 3B are upgraded I'd rather go defense with Farris if I have to choose to between Farris and Lopez. If nothing happens on the left side then maybe Lopez is the better option hoping to get better offense? The shorter window Weeks' is out the less it matters who plays.