TheCrew07

I'd be a hypocrite if said none of my friends ever smoked pot and such. I personally never tried it because I know I have an addictive personality, so I tend to keep myself away from anything that could lead me down a path I don't want to go down. As far as it being stepping stone drug, it was for small portion of my circle of friends when I was living in MN. They started with weed and eventually went looking for a better high, I'm not sure if they were emboldened by how easy it was to smoke up or what, I never cared to ask them, I just listened to them talk about it. Cocaine started out as a birthday present for one of the guys, and it sort of took off from there. Once it escalated to cocaine for that segment of my circle of friends, our group sort of split into 2, those guys going a different way than the rest of us. Is weed a stepping stone in every case? No, not in my experience, in fact it was a rather small percentage of a pretty good size group that moved on to bigger drugs at the time. Gradually I've lost contact with all of those guys as we spread out across the states, I have no idea what happened to most of the rest of the guys. As for the guys who started snorting... that was a world I wanted absolutely no part of and it was an easy decision to go a different way, I simply made a personal choice. I've heard arguments on both sides about weed and I tend to be cynical about reports of studies from either side that seem to have an agenda from the start, so in the this case I prefer to go off of my limited personal experience. The political rants and whines... irrelevant to the discussion, I'm not interested in justification of stupidity. Personally, the weed in itself isn't a big deal to me, but a 2nd positive test is, because it hints at character and commitment issues. I want players that are committed to becoming major league ball players and have the mental fortitude to stay the course. On the job, when people do things that are against the rules, generally speaking the job doesn't mean very much to the employee, they don't care enough about it to follow the rules. What the rule states is immaterial, we've all seen people who didn't care about their jobs do stupid things and get fired. It doesn't matter to me if it's weed, breaking curfew, sex with a female employee (fraternization), whatever relatively minor infraction... If they are willing to repeatedly risk their career for fleeting pleasures then how committed to their careers were they in the first place? Whining about the rules, how ever frivolous they may be, is a poor excuse for failure. The rules, which are a condition of employment, are known to all up front, and either you follow them or don't, but you aren't entitled to keep job regardless of what you do. I have a hard time believing he got down on himself and started smoking again over despair from his demotion... chances are he wanted to start smoking again and thought he could mask it somehow, maybe he was masking it all along, maybe his circle of friends he spends time with in the off-season are big smokers... the variables here are pretty litmitless... the point is that Jeffress seems like a bright kid in his interviews, so to think that he'd just light up without considering the consequences seems like quite a stretch to me. I could be wrong, but my gut impression is there's more to the story than a kid who made a couple of poor choices, this wreaks of deliberate intent to me.

I almost went down to Appleton, after looking at the box score and game log, I'm pretty glad I changed my mind at the last second.

Why is it that certain people are so selfish they don't comprehend simple basics like traffic jams? I'm talking to you, the person who drives all the way up to the lane closure, trying to force your way in, creating a traffic jam for everyone behind you. Is it so difficult to understand if that everyone would move over in a timely fashion traffic would continue to flow? There's many of you out there... I've always been one to let people in where ever I am, sporting events, concerts, what have you... but you people that pull that garbage out on the highways, never again will I create space for you, rot in that closed lane.

I too was at the game, it was looking bleak a couple of different times, but was an entertaining game with an excellent result.

I was wrong about Salome... I guessed he'd finish the season around .290 earlier this month, but he's already there. How does Wright have such a sparkling ERA with mediocre at best peripherals? He's not even getting DPs to bail himself out... Nick Green isn't exactly tearing up R ball is he? That's somewhat disappointing, rehabbing or not. Garfield is pretty exciting... He's doing what I thought Lawrie would do in WI from the start. Lawrie had a nice game with 2 doubles, I'd like to see him assert himself in the second half. If I didn't who he was I wouldn't know he's a top prospect from watching him play, he's obviously not head and shoulders above the competition at this point. I really like BK's power potential, but he strikes out way too much, I was hoping he'd become a legit 1B prospect. 3 Ks on the night, it seems that he's always looking fastball and swinging over the top of breaking stuff. I don't think I'll say Vitters isn't impressive again... that hasn't worked out so well since, well at least at the plate. Scarpetta did not issue a BB in the game... fantastic! Keep that train rolling, with Jeffress out until May next season there's some opportunity for the younger pitchers to take advantage of.

No!!!! I hope Dennis isn't seriously injured, like a an ACL or some such, we've had our fill of significant injuries and suspensions for the year already.

I've been making it a point not to continually harp on the lack of pregame audio. I realize they went a different direction and are trying to sell video for MiLB games, but why not offer an archiving audio package as well?

I saw that too. I know you mean Vitters not Votto. I know there were questions about his glove but most people seemed to think he would stick at third.Yea I did, I had just read TLB's injury thread in the Major League forum and had Votto on the brain.

I'm not sure the player's union has a say in MiLB, I don't believe players in the Minors are actually part of the union are they?

We've been hard but fair with Gamel in regards to his defense, but Votto had 3 errors today against the T-Rats, all fielding, in addition to his HR.

Does Wendt check out this site? He just mentioned diehard Brewer fans following the game on the internet hating on the peanut promotion... hmm. edit; Helena loses, the bats didn't get it going today, the pitching was good but not great.

Before switching to the H-Crew the Stars had gone up 7-3, I missed what happened as I was watching the end of the Brewer game at the time. edit. WI comes back to win as well. Wisconsin Bottom 9th Corey Kemp singles on a fly ball to center fielder David Macias. Brett Lawrie singles on a line drive to left fielder Josh Harrison. Corey Kemp to 2nd. Chris Dennis singles on a bunt ground ball to pitcher Chris Huseby. Corey Kemp to 3rd. Brett Lawrie to 2nd. Brock Kjeldgaard strikes out swinging. Jose Duran reaches on a fielder's choice, fielded by second baseman Ryan Flaherty. Corey Kemp scores. Brett Lawrie to 3rd. Chris Dennis to 2nd.

Is anyone listening to Wendt tonight? I'm wonder if Kendrick Field doesn't have a gun because I don't recall him ever dropping velocity hints during the broadcasts and I'm very curious about Rosario's velocity. Billings looks to be the starter for AZ tonight. Still no Huntsville box score, no score anywhere. I might have to tune in here.... Stars lead 5-3 in the 7th. edit. I meant Kindrick Field, by trying to edit this for an hour! I also forgot they were playing on the road today. I had totally forgotten about the Missoula peanut promotion, I didn't listen to much Helena baseball last season... at any rate normally minor league promotions don't bother me at all but this one does. Helena playing shoddy defense and Missoula pulling away as Herrera-Rusova continues to struggle. Pokorny was solid but I'm still waiting for word on Kevin James signing or not...

It looks like BC has come back to win in the bottom of the 9th. Aguilar is listed as getting a W but the rest of the box score hasn't updated.

Wow. I'm not even sure what to say, he's gone from hero to zero in a day.

Bah! I used to make fun of Bemidji State all the time when I lived in MN... in fact after watching the Badgers get hammered at Target Center in '94 or '95 my friends rubbed it in all night comparing UW to Bemidji State. How weird it is when things come full circle.

I don't see Salome and Lucroy splitting time in AAA, there's not enough ABs for either player that way, nor is Salome learning how to handle pitchers. I'm not sure why this game calling issue bothers me so much but it does, and I've been moaning about Salome's lack of prospect love for a long time, maybe it's because it seems like something one should just pick up overtime. For Bosio to be as involved as he is I'm lead to believe that it actually causes disruption between Salome and the pitchers. I can see where if they are constantly shaking him off it could disrupt their rhythm on the mound. It's really too bad because Angel seems like an excellent young man... he's well spoken and so engaging in all his interviews I find it very difficult to hold onto some measure of objectivity and not just passionately root for him like I did for players when I was a little kid.

Sorry for the slow response, I intentionally stayed away from this thread for a couple of days. I missed the piece, I don't watch much regular television anymore except for sports. Truth be told if I'm not watching sports or a movie, I'm probably watching the history or discovery channel. I'm not sure what exactly it is inside me but I've always been drawn towards military programming so I'm typically watching that type of program or playing a game similar in nature.

Linkification

every pre game audio with Don Money for the most part...

Wilson - He's got some versatility, I like his frame at 1B, I'm not sure where he'd fit quite yet. Projecting all the way to MLB is way too murky given that Gamel could end up at 3B, 1B, or the OF. At worst he's solid depth at this point and might have some trade value. Braddock - My feelings on him are well known and I hope after this season they think about putting him back in the rotation. Kemp - No I don't see him sticking at C for the Brewers, especially with some excellent defensive (Corporan) and offensive (Salome/Lucroy) catchers in front of him and Garfield behind him. I really like his bat, he takes the ball where ever it's pitched, I'm just not sure where he fits in defensively as he has a squatty body type (a better adjective is escaping me at the moment) and doesn't run well.