TheCrew07

I'm sorry Mass, guess I'm too hateful... and Cline was my beat the streak player today.. I hope he's alright, he's having a wonderful season.

LOL that ball bounced a good foot in front of the glove, how did they miss that?

Man what's going on with the pitching today? Cody who has been bad is the only Starting Pitcher thus far not to get shelled? I want a do over for the entire organization. Bush gives up 7 runs. Peralta gives up 8 but only 4 are earned. Arnett whom I'm starting to lose patience with gives up 6 already but at least he's still pitching.

It's too bad Bush gave up those lucky runs or we'd still be in this one...

There are plenty of ways to know without asking the athlete, experience, body language, performance... there's enough information to make educated guesses if you're into that sort of thing. Every athlete will be different, but I'll use Parra as an example. He regularly works 92-95 with his fastball, so when he throws his FB up there at 88 he's either hurt or he's thinking about it, it's not rocket science by any stretch. Look at how the situation got to Gamel last year, when he came up to MLB he was hitting the cover off the ball, when he went back down to AAA... nothing. I have a hard time believing he suddenly forgot how to hit. Sports is all about mind over matter, especially in MLB where ever player is talented, and it doesn't take a PHD in psychology to be able to understand how a production first environment can have a negative impact on inexperienced athletes.

Way off topic I know, but that's all I've done this afternoon, I just stumbled into it around 13:00. There was something to be said for these incredibly cheesy but simple video games.

I don't think a manager should be all buddy-buddy with his players, that's not necessary to be successful. I do think that getting a manager who's willing to let players develop would be a good thing. That last thing you want any young player worrying about is making mistakes when he/she is in the field of play. I'll use Escobar as an example, every time he slumps at all Macha sits him down for a couple of days. On the surface it looks alright, Macha is chasing productivity because he needs to win now, he doesn't have a 5 year contract and that kind of security. Essentially what happens is Escobar is being punished for being inexperienced because he knows if he doesn't get a hit he's going to be sat down for a couple of games. So instead of relaxing at the plate he's up there worrying about not getting a hit, and that's exactly what happens to him. The most important thing any coach can do is make a commitment to a young athlete so he/she knows that you have confidence in them, then the athlete can focus on the task at and advance their learning curve. If a player is always worried about what his/her coach thinks, chances are they aren't going to get any better or progress very slowly. I saw this with my own sister playing college basketball, she was so worried about what her coach thought about everything that even though she started all 4 years, she was essentially the same player as a Senior that she was when she was a Freshman. When you're dealing with experienced players, then you absolutely play the most productive player, regardless of talent, when you're dealing with youngsters you have to be willing to deal with inconstant performance in order for the athlete to blossom and get that elite production on the back end. There have been some fantastic studies on the mental side of sports and more to the point life in general. Amazingly enough we tend to get exactly what we are thinking about. So for example, take my high school football players. If I have a QB who worried about throwing an INT, he's going to find a way to throw an INT, regardless what pass we call. If I have a wide open receiver running a route and he thinks "I better not drop this one", he's going to drop the ball. How many of us have done that in our lives? I know I have, I dropped the first TD pass ever thrown to me because I was thinking about not dropping the ball. If we flip over to baseball if Escobar is up at the plate worrying about making an out, that's exactly what he's going to do. If Parra is on the mound worried about throwing strikes he's not going to find the zone. If Weeks is worried about making a poor throw to first base it's going to end up being a poor throw. There is a direct correlation between our mental image and what happens in our lives, we have a way of manifesting/projecting our mental image into reality. I'm sure there are many skeptics out there but if you're willing to expand your horizons anything by Dr. Wayne Dyer would be a good introduction into these concepts. It has the potential to make you a better coach, better managing employees, a better parent, a better spouse... basically a better person. I was introduced to these concepts at a very young age, my father bought many audio series to listen to while we went back and forth to school (35 minute trip each way) and did the stable work, we spent a ton of time in the truck. I got started with Personal Power, I'm not even sure that tape series is still around. If you're interested in the message but not the author there are plenty of other good people turning out quality products, Dr. Dyer is just the author I'm most familiar with.

Who's rotation slot is he going to take? Garza? Shields? Niemann, Price, and Davis all have less than 2 years service time. I'll take whichever pitcher TB doesn't want to keep.

Saunders and Ackley are interesting positional talents no doubt, but how would a deal like that help Milwaukee's rotation?

On average the pitchers in AA actually throw harder than the pitchers in AAA. AAA is a step up, but it's a step to entirely different pitching, you have rotations full of players like we have in Nashville... some hard throwers struggling with command but many finesse pitchers who know how to locate and pitch. These guys are pitchers, not throwers getting bye on ability like you tend to see in AA. Think Rogers vs. Cappy. There is certainly an adjustment period for most players, last year Escobar went for 1 for 4 just about every day till the middle of May and then took off. I wouldn't make too much of his stat line at this point, if he struggles for the rest of the season I'll begin to get worried.

I concur, if that kind of deal was made for Fielder I'd be on my way down to Miller Park to give Melvin his beat down.

My first thought is that they can only 5 pitchers in the rotation so Hellickson could find himself in a Niemann situation where he uses up all his options waiting for a rotation slot to open up. I like Matt Moore's stuff, loved his K rate last year as he K'd 176 hitters in 123 innings. The bad, he also walked 70, and so far in the FSL he's fairing similarily to our own Cody Scarpetta even though he throws harder. I'm not interested in rotation help this season, but I would like an impact arm besides Rivas to be available for next year, but I don't think Moore or Scarpetta will be close. Love the K rates, hate the BB rates, they'll both need a full year in AA. For those that don't know who Matt Moore is here's the good part of his scouting report from BA, I won't post the entire report because it's subscriber's content. Alexander Colome could be an absolute stud, but he's so far away as he's just hitting full season ball for the first time this year, though he's absolutely tearing up the Midwest League. I actually like him more than Moore and I have a an affinity for lefties being one (hence my Dell Howell man crush), but again he likely won't be ready to help for 2011 and maybe the second half of 2012 if he would experience a Yo like rise through the system. I'm absolutely fine taking back a high upside stud like Colome in A ball, but I feel we do need impact talent for the 2011 rotation. Here is BA's strength report on Colome. So I guess in summary I really like the players you've chosen, but I'm hesitant because neither one will be MLB ready next season, though both could help in 2012 but more likely 2013 for Colome. If the Brewers are trading with the Rays I think Hellickson is a must, if we have to take a lesser prospect like Jake McGee back I could live with that just to get Hellickson... In fact I could probably be sold on Hellickson for Fielder straight up but that's not Melvin's MO. I guess basically what I'm saying is to get Hellickson I'd take less projectable pitchers like Alex Torres, Jake McGee, or Nick Barnese (also an injury risk). An as aside, I love that TB's prospects are in all the same leagues as our prospects, it makes it very easy to follow the prospects of my 2 favorite organizations that way.

From a 40 man perspective it would make sense to DFA players like Heether and Cruz since they are just sitting in Nashville. From a making room perspective, good bye Vargas? Then again maybe they option Stetter back down and make Braddock the LOOGY just so we have something else to complain about.

and just like that I'm tuning back out.

No way, the same thing happened to me, I just noticed they came back and tied the game and tuned in.

Wow that slider is tough when Axford locates it for a strike.

Already Posted Here

Yea but somehow the score is tied at 7s. Odorizzi had a rough 4th but otherwise he hasn't walked a batter and has 6Ks thus far. edit. The score isn't tied any longer, Fiers came in and gave up 3 of his own runs.

Yes CJ posted it on the MiLB forum, and he's a solid as they come. Yes there would need to be a roster move as well.

Gamel is in the lineup, 0-1 thus far.

Well in Narvy's defense, all Braun has to do is a catch a lazy line drive and the Brewers are out of the inning. All 3 runs have come with 2 out.

McCutchen hit a line drive straight at him off the end of the bat. He slowly backed away from it and the ball landed about 10 feet in front of him. Bill claimed he didn't see it.

I have no idea how Braun can read baseballs off the bat so horribly after doing it his whole life.

the scouts are all in section 100, easy to spot

As logan pointed out HRs aren't part of BABIP as they aren't technically a ball in play because a position player doesn't have to field the ball because it left the field of play. We argued this a couple of years on the statistical forum and I was the only one who thought it was dumb that HRs which are essentially the ultimate line drive were not taken into consideration when trying to determine "luck". That's one of the major reasons Escobar will have a higher BABIP than Fielder for example, because the HRs (which would push the BABIP number higher) are not counted by the metric. Just about every hit for Escobar counts, while Fielder has 30+ positive results removed from his line every year. Generally I think BABIP analysis is pretty worthless but I'm in the minority there as well.