TheCrew07

I'm thrilled by the news, but once again the media is blowing this out of proportion. I've been watching CNN and they are talking about this announcement being the most significant moment in American History in the last 100 years... really? Bigger than the Armistice that ended WW1? Bigger than VE day in WW2? Or bigger than VJ day that finally ended the war? I have a problem comparing the limited suffering we've experienced during the war on terror to the massive loss of life, personal sacrifice, and trauma experienced on a global scale during our World Wars or even Korea and Vietnam. While the war on terror has been expensive in dollars, in terms of casualties the war hasn't had near the impact of the wars that proceded it. While any loss of life is tragic, in 10 years we've lost 4,700 serviceman.... in the first battle of Bull Run (Manassas) during the civil war approx 5,000 Americans lost their lives, at Gettysburg total casualty figures are listed between 48,000 and 51,000 Americans (killed, wounded, missing) in 3 days. It seems like we've lost some historical perspective, our current generations haven't suffered anywhere at anywhere near the level of those that came before us. sbrylski06 nailed it, this war isn't over, and we continue to lose our personal freedoms at home. I fully support the military and military spending, just like I've always supported funding NASA, I believe it's important to keep advancing science through research and development, but I have a huge problem with our reduced freedoms in the name of national security. It's time to repeal the Patriot Act and other legislation that infringes on our personal freedoms.

At what point do we quit trading prospects? We're already in the bottom 5 farm systems in baseball, is the idea to trade anyone that has possible value so we hit rock bottom? I guess that at that point we only have 1 way to go, we would have that concept working for us. At any rate, when we did become a team that can afford to pay market value for impact players all over the field?

I like Kris, I believe his power is legit and have the since thehomerun he hit over the scoreboard last season, he's pretty much limited to LF or 1B defensively though. As such, that limits him to being fantastic depth as an injury replacement for the Brewers. Unless of course Braun moves to RF or 1B, then he's got a shot to be an everyday player. If Braun ended up at 1B and Gamel could be a good RF, then Davis would make sense in LF. That's alot of "ifs" though, the biggest if being that Kris continues to rake as he moves up the chain. It's too bad the Brewers have so many defensively challenged players, it makes it difficult to find room for all of the bats if they pan out.

His BB and Hit rates have been pretty bad in 32 2/3 IP so far on the season, his WHIP is nearly 2. However his strike out rate is pretty good, over 8, there's still reason to be optimistic about him.

Ruthless? There are just many around here that have witnessed his tools and hope he'll be given an opportunity to shine. Gamel may have personality quirks, some veteran players may not have liked him, the coaching staff under Macha may not thought have thought much of him, and certain beat writer certainly doesn't think much of him. However with Lawrie gone Gamel is the only legit impact bat in the upper minor leagues, and the best option to replace Fielder in house. I agree with others that he might be wasted playing 1B defensively, but after watching Fielder boot 2 relatively short hops in today's game I'm ready for a 1B who can pick it a little bit so the IF defense improves on the whole. It's ridiculous to spend significant money on a backup position, we've reached the point where it's necessary to give Gamel consistent playing time and see what he can do. The only reason he remains in the minor leagues is because he hasn't been healthy enough to beat out McGehee in spring training nor was he given an equal opportunity in 2009 to win the position. Since 2009 with Hart being signed, there isn't room for him to start in the OF either, he simply won't be given an opportunity to be an every day player until Fielder leaves. I have no idea about Gamel the person, but I've seen enough from watching and following him through the years to believe he has the potential to be an impact player for the Brewers.

Someday a TV will exist where we will be able to mute a specific announcer's audio and I will be a happy camper, maybe Bill will be gone by then. He's such an obvious homer it dives me nuts, at least make an effort to be a little bit objective Bill.

Saito wasn't being depended on to be key contributor in the bullpen this season? That's certainly not was put in print at the time of his signing and that's certainly not the tone of his signing thread here on the site, some people were considering him the fall back closer option: http://forum.brewerfan.net/viewtopic.php?t=23960 I wouldn't exactly characterize the bullpen as "fine" either... apparently we're back to relievers who only pitch 1 inning at a time and Loe has been a rock thus far or else the pen would look pretty bad. Saito is the perpetuation of what's been a horrible trend in DM's tenure as GM, at least in my opinion... picking up players at the end of their rope and hoping for 1 or 2 more good years out of them. The cost really isn't the point, it's the risk of getting absolutely nothing out of a guy because his body falls apart that's the problem. Of course we don't have any way to predict when a player is going to be done, that's the whole reason why we shouldn't sign players of that type in the first place. Getting lucky with a guy here and there doesn't make it all worth while either. 1 good year from Hoffman and relatively good bench play out of Counsell doesn't make this continuing experiment a success. DM doesn't exactly have a glowing track record with his 1 year reliever signings either. At least with the 1 year signings it's easier to move on and forget, I will give him that. Just because our GM plays whack-a-mole with holes on the 25 man roster every off season doesn't make the signings "good" just because [expletive deleted by mod] is "plugged". It's somewhat humorous that the same people champion the same kind of moves every off season and then complain when the move doesn't pan out. A great Star Wars line comes to mind here, "Who's more foolish? The fool? Or the fool that follows him?". I used to be one those, "In DM we trust" posters on this site, I couldn't believe that Texas was dumb enough to send him packing. Then I took wider a wider of view of what was happening with the organization, some of the trends in baseball, the moves some organizations had made to get them to the level they achieved, and I realized that's he just a man who's great at building mediocrity. Honestly it irks me to no end that the GM of the 1 team in this state that can actually compete for free agents understands the concept of building a solid organization better than the GM of the team that has no hope of competing for marquee free agents. Thankfully Estrada has worked out wonderfully, you know the guy the team basically accused of faking an injury last year, or this team would have been in a world of hurt. He's pitched well enough that Greinke will only be a slight upgrade over him when he returns, not to mention the bullpen hasn't had to eat significant innings because of him, and so on.

The true problem here is that the organization has traded 2 MLB caliber SS in 3 years and ran out of options, there has been and will continue to be no long term plan for building this team. And no, extending Braun at this time isn't indictive of any long term plan, there must have been something going on behind the scenes that we aren't aware of because from the outside looking in there was no compelling or logical reason to extend him at this time. I agree that Betancourt makes sense in terms of, "he's all we have". However, I have no problem with people continually pointing out what a rotten player he is. It's a factual observation, and a 3 week stretch of a single season won't change that. Anyone can hit well or apparently field well if the sample size is limited to a finite enough amount of time. It has nothing to do with the balls in play that he gets to, and everything about those 2 balls he doesn't get to everytime I seem watch a game that become hits. It's no different than Braun's horrible routes to flyballs... sure the play isn't scored as an error, but the opposing team is getting extra outs and and extra bases all the same. McGehee is another player who just doesn't have a great defensive tools, so the entire left side of the infield has limited range which means too many balls are getting through. The team would actually be better off with Escobar's fantastic range and erratic arm than they are having 2 players side by side with such limited range. I'm not bagging on McGehee, but the situation is what it is. You have 3 players in the infield with extremely limited range, Weeks isn't going to make up for that all by himself. Extra outs and extra bases means extra pitches and unnecessary stress on our pitchers, not to mention unecessary runs given up. I would take the 2009 version of Escobar over most young SS in baseball... I'd still take Escobar over Betancourt now. Alcides may never be the player he has the potential to be, many players don't approach their full potential, it's the nature of the beast, and Alcides doesn't appear to be playing with the same confidence he did when he first came up. Actually I'm mostly referring to last season, I've watched him for a total of 3 innings this season, but stastically he's not exactly tearing it up. Escobar is playing his age 24 season, and he's always been extremely raw at the plate and still approaching his prime, Betancourt is in his age 29 season, I'd rather hang my hat on a young super athlete than I would some "never was" approaching the twilight of his career. WAR isn't the end all and be all of statistical evaluation, but it's an extremely useful comparison tool. I appreciate advanced metrics, but I tend to take more of a scouting slant in player evaluation. That's why I talk in terms of impact talent, I try to be pretty objective about a player's natural gifts and balance those skills against their statistical production. JB12's characterization of people with an opposing view point couldn't be farther from the truth from where I'm sitting. Once again Ennder and I have gone toe to toe on many statistical issues on this site, but in fairness he's pointed out on many occassions that he believe's WAR is flawed, especially in regards to pitchers. I may not agree with contrary opinions to my own, but at least I read them and make an effort to understand the opposing point of view. For the record, TZ is only useful for MiLB players simply because it's the only comparison tool we have at that level. A simple google search of Total Zone will yield plenty of information regarding the flaws in the metric. To me this is similar to the Gamel debate... there are people that continually post around here how he's a overrated prospect with the bat who can't play any defense. The truth is that's he's an impressive athlete capable of elite range with a cannon for an arm, he's just horribly inconsistent defensively and hasn't been given the opportunity to settle in at the plate. The stastical evidence simply doesn't do his physical gifts justice when discussing his defensive issues. Ultimately a player's production yields his true worth, but there seems to be an unrealistic expectation that all young players will take a career path similar to Braun and Fielder if they are going to be successful... but in my opinion most young players are going to struggle to find consistency, and will need to grow into their MLB career.

Listen, I've been the first one to beat on advanced defensive metrics and argue about the validity of certain metrics with Ennder. That being said, Betancourt doesn't pass any defensive test. You can tell by watching the game that he has horrible range, every metric says he has horrible range, and all of the scouts say he has horrible range. He makes the plays he can get to, but he simply doesn't get to enough balls in play to be considered average by any measure. He has enough history established where we can be certain he's not going to improve, while young players like Escobar still have the ability to take significant steps forward, not to mention Bentancourt isn't the even close to the athlete that Schroeder claims him to be. It's not like he has Gomez upside where if he harnesses his physical gifts he's talented enough to be in the top 5 players at his position. There is literally nothing to like about Betancourt except for limited power from the SS position, he's not a good baseball player. If you're tired of people of bagging on him fine... I understand that. Howerver, he's a bad MLB player, and random arguments to the contrary won't change that, no matter how they are spun.

I'd be curious about the biggest losing splits a divisional winner had against a divisional opponent all time... what's the point of no return negative split wise? Is there any correlation between extreme negative splits against divisional opponents and winning the division? Or can you cancel out one extreme split with another? For example can the Brewers lose 70% of the games to the Reds but make up the difference beating the Pirates 70% of the time? My hunch is that very rarely can you win the division with an extreme negative split against a team you are directly competing with, but I'd be curious what the historical numbers would say.

That play where the run scored is a perfect example of the issues the Brewers have on defense, but BA and BS will remind us that the Brewers have the fewest errors... Casey should have played the big hop, it doesn't make sense to back up and play the little hop. There was no reason to give up a run on that play as Cincy didn't have the contact play on. Fielder doesn't have a strong or accurate arm either which certainly doesn't help, but off the bat I thought they were going to save the run because the runner wasn't breaking home, then McGehee backs up and Prince makes a bad throw and a run scores. The fielding metrics won't even have a problem with that play because an out recorded, but from watching the play live and now the replay a couple of times, it was a preventable run in my opinion. I just hate to see them give runs away, especially against the better teams, and while giving away runs period is never a good thing, if we get to the playoffs the pitching is only going to take us so far.

I thought Gomez was going to fall between 1st and 2nd... I like that comment, "Gomez is like good and bad at the same time". I guess you can say that of Braun too... so good at the plate, but does so many puzzling things in the field. BA and BS will shortly remind us how few errors the Brewers have as a team again and all will be right in the world..

He doesn't seem to grasp the concept yet, you would think more experienced NL coaches would help remind him to double switch. edit. The more experienced NL coaches in the dugout I meant to say...

Brewer games are fun when they score 10+ runs... I might switch over to Camelot on the DVR, feeling pretty good about this.

For all his natural gifts, Gomez just doesn't have a good head for the game. I don't think it's correct to say he doesn't have good instincts, because defensively he takes natural routes to the ball. However throwing to the wrong base, missing the cut off man, making outs on the bases... he's certainly had a career full of silly mistakes.

The FB that struck out Hall was 96 on the FSN gun, nothing wrong with Yo's arm.

I'd boo Hall... I never liked him for a long term position in Milwaukee, he is easily one of if not my most disliked Brewer of the past decade. When Melvin extended him I was livid, and people around here only made it worse with the clap clap clap... the can Bill Hall pitch hit thread... and so on. By the time he left I couldn't stand the sight of him.

Initially I was pretty excited when I read this. Then I started to reflect on it more and it occurred to me that the Brewers will be paying 20 mil per year for someone in their mid 30s and my enthusiam waned. I sincerely hope he stays healthy and productive for the length of the contract otherwise... ouch. edit. Missed the deferred money part, which I really don't like at all. I'd rather not be on the hook to players once they are done playing, but that's personal prefference.

Why wouldn't they test him for a concussion right away, as soon as they got him into the clubhouse? Or is that too obvious? Forehead tendonitis perhaps? Why wait overnight to have him see a doctor? You're only going to see a doctor if the concussion is severe or if you think the skull is cracked, either way it's an immediate emergency room visit. If he's got either serious injury then you'd logically want to make sure the swelling around the brain wasn't going to cause a more severe problem. This isn't a joint injury where swelling can cause problems with diagnosis, head injuries are the rest of someone's life... which is why we don't mess around with them at all and address them immediately. A ball moving that fast with a finite impact point... just yikes. I haven't seen the video but I hope for Josh's sake it was more of a glancing blow and I'm just overreacting. Yea I know I'm bagging on the trainers again, I just don't understand how the trainers the Brewers hire seem to be worse at injury diagnosis and treatment than our High School trainer is. I also understand concussions and head injuries have been more of a football thing, or at least that's the perception... but come on. It was reinforced again at this year's clinic that in terms of debilitating long term head trauma, Boxing is #1, Soccer is #2, Football #3, followed by Hockey and Baseball. Yea I know, Soccer is supposedly a "safe" sport but there's nothing safe about redirecting a ball moving at 90 MPH with your head, and a soccer ball has the ability to change it's shape and lesson the impact, a baseball is much more firm striking with a much smaller impact area, usually at a higher velocity than a soccer ball. I actually think hockey is worse than football, the helmets are gimpy and falling on ice is like falling on concrete, I just don't think hockey has done a good job diagnosing concussions. I've always wondered about Koskie... what should have been minor concussion ended his career. The evidence would seem to suggest a history of significant head trauma that was improperly treated over the years. Getting a concussion isn't the problem, continuing to put stress on the brain by playing again too soon or remaining active is the problem. For example, new studies have shown that kids who get concussions shouldn't even be allowed to watch TV or read a book, much less go to school... the idea should be to minimize as much brain activity as possible. I know that's unthinkable in this age of instant gratification, but they should lay in bed doing essentially nothing. The end result of coming back too soon or playing through head injuries is that a relatively minor fall ends someone's career... it's not the fall itself, it's everything that came before it. There is an exponential cumulative effect with improper treatment. I'm not trying to scare parents away from sports and I'm not talking about coddling/pampering every little owie, there's too much of that the way it is, but there can be grave consequences for certain injuries especially for significant falls. Peewee football, mite hockey, dirt bikes, snow mobiles, little league, bikes, skateboards, falling down the stairs... doesn't matter. If you're child isn't acting right and you know it, do something about it, don't wait for it to get better. /off soapbox

*sigh* At least the comments were entertaining. There are just so few impact players in the system... mid rotation arm, mid rotation arm, mid rotation/bullpen arm. As much as I've always liked Rogers and Braddock, with the velocity issues both are experiencing I'm concerned, not to mention Mark still doesn't throw enough strikes. The only hitter in the top 10 who intrigues me quite a bit is Gennett. The other position players profile more as average MLB/backup types and while I like them all I'm not going to sit here and claim they have a legit chance to be 4 WAR MLB players. I'll feel better about Perez once he has TJ surgery like all our latin pitchers seem too. There are lots of intriguing pitchers lower in the system, but they all have a long way to go to prove something.

I'd be okay with Mark A. moving on, I'm sure I don't have to elaborate as to why given my posting history. A new owner definitely could be worse, no doubt... then again maybe the Brewers will make the WS in the next 2 years and I'll then I'll have to eat a tasty serving of crow. I disagree about the timing being wrong, this would be the time to sell, the Brewers have been restored to legitimacy, at least for the time being... he would be selling high after buying low.

How many times can you post in a row saying essentially the same thing? This snow storm knocks out my Dish and miss the Brewers taking it to Halladay, darn it.

Tyler Cravy is making my prediction look bad early on...

Ha, Casey didn't look like he wanted to make serious contact at home plate, but nice job Lucroy getting another run in.

Geez, Philly getting a taste of what it's like for us to lose games this season. The Brewers need to take this game now.