TheCrew07

After thinking about how silly moving Gamel back to 3B is given all that's happened in his career I've convinced myself that Green is once again on a PTBNL list and thus isn't realistic possibility to replace McGehee until the Mets make a decision. If the second player is performance based like Sabathia, then it can't come till the end of the year in which case discussing him is a moot point. He's clearly not the player with the limited MLB track record that the Mets like in that first slot, but he does make some sense as the 2nd player in that deal. If he's not the on the list... well then for once I gave Melvin too much credit, but you'd think since he's such a patcher as a GM that he would have found a way to patch those holes by now. If Melvin truly wanted to make an impact he would have traded for someone who can contribute 9 innings every day instead of a guy who will only contribute 1 inning when the Brewers are already winning. Upgrading either SS or 3B to league average would have a much greater affect than upgrading 1 bullpen slot over the remainder of the season.

Pitching in AAA is better than AA. Talent is better in AAA then AA. Yes there are more prospect in AA but that's because they haven't failed at AA yet. I'd agree that mostly ever every pitcher at AAA knows how to pitch, but from a talent perspective by this point of the season most of the MLB quality plus arms are already up in MLB. The pitching in AAA is a completely different style than AA, but I don't think it's necessarily better, maybe a slight step up at best. Outside of some of the young TB starting pitchers, I don't recall a single top prospect who's spent an entire season in AAA. It must have happened, the closest guy I can think of is Buchholz who bounced between MLB and AAA for a while... I still have trouble believing the BoSox were willing to move him, that would have been an epic blunder. A hitter who doesn't have good pitch recognition or struggles with breaking/off-speed pitches will likely struggle to adjust to the league for a while, but it's a league of fringe average to below average fastballs mixed with power arms who have never located effectively. The hitting on the other hand is much better just to due to the type of players in AAA that round out the rosters. Look at the Nashville squad's position players... generally speaking they are quality depth type players or younger prospects blocked at the MLB level. You will find a couple of those depth guys down at AA as well, but not nearly as many as at AAA. It's much easier to be blocked as a position prospect than it is to be blocked as a pitcher, very few rotations are as good as TB and SF, and everyone's bullpen has somes holes in it. I think the jump to AAA is much tougher on pitchers than it is on the hitters.

I agree that the weapon demonstrations are the best part of the show but most of the time I don't agree with their outcomes because human decision making/training isn't taken into account the battle numbers typically are off. If you're going GSG-9 against SWAT and using 1 team of guys for each side that makes good sense, but when you're comparing historical generals I don't see how 4 soldiers is an accurate representation of anything. How is it fair to only use 4 soldiers to simulate battles between Washington and Napoleon? 1 used hit and run tactics, fighting on a much smaller scale, the other used artillery and flanking cavalry attacks in large scale (for the time) warfare. With 4 soldiers how do you know if Washington could have fended off, worn down, and eventually cornered Napoleon? With a much slower rate of fire how would the Continental army have stood up to one of those cavalry charges and overcome the greater range and power of Napoleon's artillery? Historically I'm not sure we can even give credit to Washington for Cornwallis ending up in Yorktown, he was heavily engaged against Howe/Clinton for most of the early part of the war, only slipping out of the north to help with the seige of Yorktown. While he was overall commander, he didn't have a direct hand in many of America's greatest victories during the war. He fought brilliantly at the end of 1776 pushing the British back into New York City for the winter. In 1777 Gates actually had the most success wiping out Burgoyne's army through a series of battles and poor British decisions culminating with the Battle of Saratoga which convinced the French to join the war. At the same time Howe had marced on Philadelphia eventually capturing it though Washington won smaller battles to keep the Briitish confied to Philly for the winter. Clinton then replaced Howe for the British and he abandoned Philly to go back to NY as the French had entered the war. Washington shadowed Clinton back to NY and won a strategic victory at Monmouth, but the northern armies would never square off again in open combat. Clinton sent a detachment of his army from NYC and captured Savannah, GA in the winter of 1778, then he captured Charlestown, SC while wiping out most of the southern Continental Army in 1780. Lt. Gen Cornwallis was appointed commander of the southern British army while Gates was sent down to command what was left of the American forces. Gates was soundly defeated at Camden by Cornwallis and was replaced by Greene, who was actually the general who kept the British occupied and wore them down. Cornwallis was ordered to secure a fortified naval base in VA and he ultimately settled on Yorktown. I think sometimes people think Cornwallis was beaten back and cornered at Yorktown which wasn't the case, it was a tactical move that backfired horribly when the French fleet managed to blockcade the port. Cornwallis lost some 7,000 men at Yorktown but the British still had over 30,000 in NY, however after the British defeat at Yorktown the British Parliament was no longer interested in war with the colonists. Much of the success in the south which utimately led to Cornwallis' defeat at Yorktown was due to Greene and Daniel Morgan, Washington never had the number of troops necessary to challenge the main British army in the north. He did a fantastic job keeping them at bay, but it's hard to say how well Washington would have fared in the large scale European warfare of the time period.

Maybe Green is on the list for K-Rod and it would be McClendon/Green going?

Maybe Yuni will try and steal third again? That would be a sweet way to the end the game. edit. Or not. Well the road trip has still gone better so far than I expected.

Generally speaking the ball carries very well in Arizona which is why I was very happy the Brewers left High Desert and went to Brevard County.

A competent thirdbaseman on the Brewers and Parra never reaches Well I'm tired of bagging on Betancourt and McGehee so I didn't say anything but point taken.

Well this isn't looking good now, Rickie and the bottom of the order coming up with 4 runs to make up.

A good throw and Lucroy had him.

Inexperienced players aren't capable of contributing to a pennant run, he should be DFA'd immediately.

Wow that was a horrible AB.

Well this would be an excellent time for a Prince HR given that double play.

What's his pitch count? He should be in good shape correct? edit. never mind, just saw 73

Wow nearly the same pitch as last night. edit. and that's what I get for hoping Hart would get on so Morgan had a chance with the bases loaded.

Morgan will get some RBIs here, book it.

He's pitching well tonight. He served up one solo shot and made a pretty good pitch on the second one.Of course he was 4 feet from giving up a 3rd HR as well. The D-Backs got a bunch of good swings that inning.

1 barely, about 10 feet further than Johnson's fly out in nearly the spot, the HR to CF was absolutely crushed.

Zach... my goodness... almost 3 HRs this inning already.

That looked like a Weeks home run...

Not exactly a banner day on the farm pitching wise.

I understand what Kranitz was trying to say about Greinke, but we just can't play the "throw the poor performances" out game. No one has a good explanation why he's struggled in spurts in most every game, but it's happened consistently, so it doesn't seem correct to just dismiss what he's done.

Wow, I thought the game was over in the 9th, big win, feels like we stole one even though we really tried to give it away in the 8th. Good win.

Sweet, just the "getting a batter on base" to get comfortable walk...

Hmm, was that the mandatory Axford lead off walk, or is he just struggling with his control that bad?

he is instant entertainment, no one can take that away from him.