TheCrew07

He needs to be added this off season.

Volquez is coming off major surgery and a PED suspension. I wouldn't count on him yet. Bailey has not shown me enough to be scared of. Leake has pitched for a total of 2 months. Lets see how good they really are. I'll take a number #5 starter with Bailey's talent level 100 times out of 100.

Nope that's not true at all, and you took the extreme best case scenario as proof of your "all the time" statement. They backed into the playoffs finishing 83-78, however they played excellent team defense all year and into the playoffs. The rotation during the year was Carpenter (3.09), Marquis (6.02), Suppan (4.12), Mulder (7.14), Reyes (5.06), and Weaver (5.18). The rotation was obviously horrible but they played good enough defense and scored enough runs to get into the playoffs. Once in the playoffs, the entire team had a 2.36, far and away the best pitching in the post season. Carpenter started 5 games, 2.78 ERA Weaver started 5 games, 2.43 ERA Suppan started 4 games, 2.49 ERA Reyes started 2 games, 3.0 ERA In the bullpen: Wainwright, Flores, and Kinney didn't give up a single run. I don't see how it's reasonable to assume that any team will ever get 2 guys who are 4+ ERA pitchers to pitch at such a high level for 3 straight playoff series. It certainly can happen, but that's the extreme best case possible once every 50 years type thing, not the reasonable expectation of a playoff team.

I don't think it can be overstated enough so I'm going to do it again. Cincy is a year away from a rotation of Volquez, Cueto, Bailey, Leake, and Chapman. Yikes. St Louis already has Carpenter and Wainwright, Garcia is up already. Carpenter is old so who knows how long he'll be able to maintain but they always seem to field a competitive rotation regardless. Chicago has a veteran pitching staff that is better now and legit prospects from AAA through A+. Cashner, Jackson, Carpenter, and Dolis. Pittsburgh has Lincoln in AAA, Alderson in AA (depending on what you believe about his recent struggles) and just drafted the 2 best HS arms in the draft in Taillon and Allie. Pittsburgh isn't an immediate threat, but in 3-4 years they could be very formidable. We have Yo at MLB and I'm still holding out hope for Parra. Between AAA and A+ we currently Rivas and Rogers preforming well in AA, Butler has started slow following rehab, Peralta has been uneven, Scarpetta has been poor, and Fiers has pitched well. To compete from in house next year we will need Parra, Rogers, and Rivas to maximize their potential immediately. Peralta and Scarpetta are farther away than I would have hoped, and Bulter/Fiers could make nice back of the rotation starters. Jeffress was activated today and assigned to WI and the T-Rats also have Odorizzi and Heckathorn performing very well. I'm most worried about the Cubs and Cincy long term at this time, but I won't count out the Cards and Pittsburgh's new regime is also on the right track. Houston's Scouting Director used to be in Milwaukee under Jack Z. He's done a nice job adding talent to their system as well. Without adding talent I don't see how we aren't the 4th best rotation again next season, and looking beyond it's going to be a dog fight pitching wise to be at the top of the division.

The first time I read that line I was kicking myself for not putting in that way, I've been talking about working to be average for a long time but I really like how that statement is phrased.

Yep that's exactly what I've been saying... I guess maybe we sit around and hope to get lucky because we've been so unlucky. The Milwaukee Breweers - the most snake bitten franchise in the history of professional sports.

Well Hunt has a timely piece on this topic for tomorrow's paper. First of all, you can't draft Strasburg or Leake if they aren't available when you pick, that part of the article rubbed me the wrong way. No pitcher in this draft was comparable to Strasburg and the pitcher who could most likely pull a Leake in Pomeranz went #4, the Brewers drafted 14. I do not believe a full rebuild is necessary, we need 2 good pitchers and we're right back in the hunt, 1 if Manny Parra finds himself. If we address the top of the rotation everything else will take care of itself with or without Fielder.

Me too DHonks, I'm really into a couple of the hitters, but I would have expected a more even split, my hope is that they were going BPA, but I'm having a difficult time with the Jimmy Nelson pick being BPA. Maybe it's the Suppan comparison, but there's no upside with this pick at all... Arnett and Heckathorn still had room to grow. It strikes me like a sabermetric pick that a bunch of organizations were making through the mid part of the decade when they were running their farm systems into the ground. Every year I seem to have one pick that gets stuck in my craw for whatever reason. edit. I should add that the conflicting velocity reports really bother me in regards to Nelson. The Brewers said he works in the 90s,. MLB says he touches 94, everyone else says he's best 88-90 because his FB has more life.

Well this would be the steal of the draft if they could get him signed, but it seems highly unlikely.

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/ohwell.gif... When I brought up Lee it was a for instance type thing. I think we're better off trading for impact pitching prospects if possible than signing Lee. Signing Lee we're paying a premium for wins and hoping the contract doesn't blow up on us, I'd rather buy wins at a discount prior to free agency whenever possible. I honestly don't believe Melvin will trade for impact prospect pitching, and contrary to what others have posted, most any prospect pitcher with a full year in AA is MLB ready. So if my choices are another Wolf clone or Lee, I'd probably vote for option C, neither... but for this exercise I'd vote Lee.

Sounds Drop Series Finale To Express, 5-1 ROUND ROCK, Texas - The Nashville Sounds dropped their third straight game on Tuesday evening at The Dell Diamond, falling 5-1 to the Round Rock Express in the finale of a four-game series. With the loss, Nashville (32-26) fell out of sole possession of first place in the PCL American Conference Northern Division for the first time since the second day of the season. The Sounds, who have dropped five of their last six contests, are now tied with the cross-state rival Memphis Redbirds atop the division. Round Rock took a 2-0 lead in the home half of the fourth when Brian Esposito ripped a two-run double to left against Sounds starter Chris Waters. Waters (4-3), who was ejected by home plate umpire Angel Campos at the conclusion of the Round Rock fourth, took the loss after allowing two runs on five hits over four innings of work. The Express added a run in the fifth against Sounds reliever David Johnson when third baseman Chris Johnson belted a two-out solo homer to center. The infielder's seventh longball of the year made it a 3-0 contest. Round Rock increased its lead to five in the eighth with a pair of runs off recently promoted Sounds reliever Brandon Kintzler, who made his career Triple-A debut. Johnson greeted the new Nashville right-hander with a single before Matt Kata legged out an RBI triple to center to up the lead to 4-0. Kata later scored the final Express run on a double-play groundout. The Sounds broke up the Round Rock shutout bid in the top of the ninth, when Mat Gamel drew a one-out walk from Express reliever Roy Corcoran and later scored on a two-out double off the bat of Brendan Katin. Round Rock starter Shane Loux (2-1) tossed five innings of scoreless, two-hit ball to earn the win for the Express. The Sounds join the entire Pacific Coast League for an off day tomorrow before wrapping up their road trip with a four-game series in Omaha beginning on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. It will be Nashville's final visit to Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. Left-hander Chuck Lofgren (6-4, 5.49) will man the bump for Nashville in Thursday's series opener to face rehabbing Omaha lefty John Parrish

Final: Round Rock (Houston) 5, Nashville 1 Nashville Box Score A nondescript pitching effort in this one. Tim Dillard was the only sounds pitcher not to give up run, Brandon Kintzler gave up more ER today (2) than he had all season. Offensively the Sounds like the Stars only manged 4 hits in the game. Brendan Katin had the only XBH, a 2B to score Mat Gamel. Mat was 0-2 with a BB tonight. Former Sound-for-a-year Jason Bourgeois was 2-4, and is hitting .352/.399/.495/.895 his best OPS since 2007 Nashville Play By Play Round Rock scored 2 in the 4th and 2 more in the 8th to seal the deal. Round Rock Bottom 4th Chris Johnson strikes out swinging. Matt Kata singles on a line drive to center fielder Josh Anderson, deflected by pitcher Chris Waters. Oswaldo Navarro hits a ground-rule double (8) on a fly ball to right-center field. Matt Kata to 3rd. Andrew Locke walks. Coaching visit to mound. Brian Esposito doubles (1) on a line drive to left fielder Adam Stern. Matt Kata scores. Oswaldo Navarro scores. Andrew Locke to 3rd. Shane Loux strikes out swinging. Jason Bourgeois pops out to catcher Patrick Arlis in foul territory. Round Rock Bottom 8th Pitcher Change: Brandon Kintzler replaces Tim Dillard, batting 9th. Chris Johnson singles on a ground ball to right fielder Brendan Katin. Matt Kata triples (1) on a fly ball to center fielder Josh Anderson. Chris Johnson scores. Oswaldo Navarro walks. Coaching visit to mound. Andrew Locke grounds into double play, second baseman Johnny Raburn to first baseman Joe Koshansky. Matt Kata scores. Oswaldo Navarro out at 2nd. Brian Esposito flies out to center fielder Josh Anderson.

WOOOOHOOOOO! DIE Cubs DIE!

Spike that slider for a WP Marmol!

Please do something Braun, please.

Final: Tennessee (Cubs) 3, Huntsville 0 Huntsville Box Score I'm filling in for Brewerfan's very own king of social media who's been busting his hump covering the draft today. I have no idea what's been going on with the 1st inning this year, but we've had our fair share of these in trouble early, settle down late starts. After the first Rivas was great, he was never in trouble while I was listening and he left after hitting his pitch count with nobody on and 2 outs in the 6th. The Stars only managed 4 hits and didn't have a hit till Lo Cain legged out an infield single in the 4th, Cain would finish with 2 hits. Poor Steffan Wilson, hitting .273 over his last 10, and still only batting .186 on the season, keep plugging away Steffan. Have I mentioned I hate losing to the Cubs at any level? Huntsville Play By Play I had the game time wrong so I didn't tune in until the 3rd. Here's the woeful first inning, Gindl bailed out Rivas gunning the last out at home from RF. Tennessee Bottom 1st Tony Campana walks. Nate Samson strikes out swinging. Ty Wright homers (9) on a fly ball to left field. Tony Campana scores. Blake Lalli strikes out swinging. Robinson Chirinos singles on a ground ball to shortstop Zelous Wheeler. Coaching visit to mound. Brandon Guyer singles on a bunt ground ball to third baseman Taylor Green. Robinson Chirinos to 2nd. Josh Vitters singles on a line drive to center fielder Lorenzo Cain. Robinson Chirinos scores. Brandon Guyer to 2nd. Tony Thomas singles on a line drive to right fielder Caleb Gindl. Brandon Guyer out at home on the throw, right fielder Caleb Gindl to catcher Dayton Buller. The Stars fake rally in the 9th. Huntsville Top 9th Pitcher Change: David Cales replaces Ryan Buchter, batting 7th, replacing Matthew Spencer. Brett Lawrie flies out to center fielder Tony Campana. Lorenzo Cain singles on a ground ball to shortstop Marwin Gonzalez. Lorenzo Cain advances to 2nd, on throwing error by shortstop Marwin Gonzalez. Caleb Gindl walks. Coaching visit to mound. Zelous Wheeler grounds into a force out, shortstop Marwin Gonzalez to second baseman Tony Thomas. Lorenzo Cain to 3rd. Caleb Gindl out at 2nd. Zelous Wheeler to 1st. Taylor Green grounds into a force out, second baseman Tony Thomas to shortstop Marwin Gonzalez. Zelous Wheeler out at 2nd.

Halton's power tops Marauders again BC first baseman hits third homer in three days By Frank Longobardo / Brevard County Manatees VIERA - Sean Halton hit what turned out to be a game-winning two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth as the Brevard County Manatees took the second seven-inning game in a doubleheader from the Bradenton Marauders 4-3. The Manatees swept the twin-bill from the Marauders and took three out of four in the series to knock Bradenton from first place in the South Division. For the second time in three games, Halton turned out to be the hero for the Manatees. He hit a walk-off homer against the Marauders on Sunday afternoon. The game started off slow with both starting pitchers struggling to find the strike zone. Brevard County starter Dan Merklinger walked three in the first inning and gave up a two-run double to Quincy Latimore and the Marauders took a 3-0 lead. Bradenton starter Nathan Adcock didn't fare much better as he walked three, including a bases-loaded walk, as the Manatees plated two to make it a 3-2 game. Both Merklinger and Adcock would settle down as both teams put zeroes on the board until the bottom of the sixth. Melkin Laureano came in for Adcock in the sixth and allowed a lead-off single to Sergio Miranda. Halton would then step up and deliver his third homer in three days with a high fly ball that landed in the visitor's bullpen past the left field wall to give Brevard County a 4-3 lead. Daniel Meadows would then shut the door on the Marauders to get the save and complete the doubleheader sweep for the Manatees and the series win. Up next for the Manatees will be a two-game road series against the Daytona Cubs before the All-Star Break, beginning on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m. Brevard County's next home game will be on Monday, June 21 as they take on the Clearwater Threshers at 7:05 p.m. Erik Komatsu, Sergio Miranda and Matt Cline will represent the North Division in this Saturday's Florida State League All-Star Game, which will be hosted by the Manatees at Space Coast Stadium. Tickets for the All-Star Game are still available by coming to the Space Coast Stadium Box Office, going to manateesbaseball.com or by calling (321) 633-9200.

Another walk-off win for Brevard County Komatsu ties it, Miranda wins it for Manatees By Frank Longobardo / Brevard County Manatees VIERA - In the first seven-inning game of a doubleheader, it took the Manatees ten innings but they were able to rally twice to defeat the Bradenton Marauders 5-4 on Monday afternoon. It was two All-Stars for Brevard County who had a thrill of the dramatic. Erik Komatsu had three hits, including a game-tying two-out solo homer in the bottom of the seventh to send it to extras and Sergio Miranda had two hits and won it in the tenth with a two-out single to right to score Logan Schafer. Brevard County got on the board early in the first on a two-out two-run homer to right field off the bat of Angel Salome. The Marauders would get one of those runs back in the second as the first two Bradenton hitters reached on Manatee errors and then an Eric Huber ground out plated Calvin Anderson to put the Marauders on the board. Manatees starter Wily Peralta would run into more trouble in the fourth as Anderson led the inning off with a solo homer for Bradenton to tie the game at 2-2. Two batters later, Huber walked and then advanced to third on a ground out. Back-to-back RBI hits from Greg Picart and Robbie Grossman gave Bradenton a 4-2 lead. Peralta went 4 2/3 innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits and a walk, while striking out three. A sacrifice fly by Logan Schafer in the bottom of the fifth to score Komatsu cut Bradenton's lead to 4-3. Brandon Ritchie, who came in for Peralta in the fifth, ran into some trouble in the sixth as Bradenton had runners on second and third with two outs. But Grossman grounded out to Miranda at third to end the Bradenton threat. Marauders closer Noah Krol looked for redemption after blowing a save on Sunday, as he came in the seventh inning looking to close the door on Brevard County. He was one out away from doing just that, but Komatsu had other plans as he hit his first home run of the year to tie the game. Three innings later, with two outs in the bottom of the tenth, Schafer singled to right and then Solome walked to put two on. Miranda would then step up and deliver the Manatees second straight walk-off win as he singled in Schafer to win the game for Brevard County. Ritchie, Trey Watten and Andre Lamontagne combined for 5 1/3 innings one-hit scoreless relief against the Marauders in game one.

I have no idea why, but the Gomez bat flip regardless of where he hits the ball drives me nuts, why not just drop the bat like everyone else? It has to slow him down out of the box to flip the bat.

Rain delays Rattlers return to action at home By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers GRAND CHUTE, WI - The first Wisconsin Timber Rattlers home game since May 24 will have to wait. Tuesday's Midwest League game between the Rattlers and the Bowling Green Hot Rods has been rained out. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Field. Wisconsin ended a 13-game road trip on Sunday afternoon and was to begin a six-game homestand on Tuesday. But, a steady rain throughout the day would not stop and the game was called off about 6:45pm. Game one of Wednesday's doubleheader will begin at 12:05pm. There will be a 30 minute break between the pair of seven inning games. Tickets for Tuesday's game may be redeemed for a ticket of equal or lesser value for any Timber Rattlers game at Time Warner Cable Field during the 2010 regular season. Tickets are available for all 2010 Timber Rattlers home games and may be purchased one of three ways: On-line at www.timberrattlers.com, over the phone at 800-WI-TIMBER, or in person at the Time Warner Cable Field Box Office.

His curveball has more velocity than many of our pitcher's fastballs... depressing.

The T-Rats are rained out will play a double header starting at 12:05 PM tomorrow.

How does he lose 5 mph on his FB in a week? Back to back 40+ pitch outings?

I'll be surprised if the T-rats play tonight

They've certainly had their flame outs, but they recently drafted and developed Billingsly and Kershaw, and traded away Edwin Jackson. The Brewers currently only have Gallardo that's preformed on par with any of those 3. The starting rotation here is all that matters, bull pen guys tend to float around. Melvin does not draft players, he didn't do it when Jack Z was his SD, he's not doing it now with Seid. What Melvin has failed to do is address the rotation with any meaningful talent when then the farm system didn't produce it. His philosophy of "good enough" pitching has set the franchise back and his record in free agency is horrible. There are some pretty bad GMs around baseball that have some pretty good talent evaluators for Scouting Directors. For example Hendry has Tim Wilken who was very good in Toronto drafting Carpenter and Halladay, and as such the Cubs farm system isn't a joke anymore. Melvin has his strong points to be certain, but he's proven to be a poor evaluator of pitching by any measure. With his focus on the position players he needs to be able to buy pitching in Free Agency, but in Milwaukee he's never going to have enough money to spend to make his philosophy work. While his philosophies are great for turning an organization around, he's simply better suited to be the GM of a larger market team where he will have more financial resources.