TheCrew07

I'm too irritated to comment rationally.

I'm too irritated to comment rationally.

I'm too irritated to comment rationally.

I'm too irritated to comment rationally.

I'm too irritated to comment rationally.

I'm too irritated to comment rationally.

Money. There just isn't the fan interest to fill arenas like there is on the men's side. Even playing on home courts in many cases the attendance looked to be about 1/3 capacity on the wide shots, and there aren't many, they really stick to the court for obvious reasons. 2 of my family members coach girls basketball so I've seen quite a bit of the ladies tourny over the years. I only watched the UWGB game though this year, I've always had a soft spot for Harty having watched her since High School. edit. I believe they said during the game that the women's tourny had 16 sites for the first round now. It's the pod system I think? Something about team playing regional to keep the costs down if I recall correctly.

Hmm.... after he was drafted After 2002... BA and BP After 2003 BA and BP Geez, does that remind you of anyone? I was dead on accurate about his bat, many people argued for Hall over Hardy, and many people said last year he'd never hit 20 HRs again. JJ was a defensive prospect first and developed his offensive game as he moved up the chain, he had 2 disappointing campaigns with the bat, it's all there at baseball reference. He really came on when he repeated AA and was hitting well at AAA before the shoulder injury... sounds exactly the career path of a certain latin SS up to this point, I just hope Escobar stays healthy. As far as Fielder goes, I understood that endaround meant above replacement level, isn't that a given? If he hits over 50 hrs he's probably a 4 win player, but he wasn't last year, and there's simply no way to quantify the negative impact of his defense on the players around him. A 5 gallon pail on a stick might scoop more balls... I'd like a track record of at least 2 consecutive years before I'm willing to qualify someone +X wins, in Fielder's case a 1.1, 4.9, and 2.6 don't exactly make him a 4... I'd agree he's worth 3ish, but he's still getting more credit than he deserves defensively.

I haven't directly bagged on the training staff in over month, I'm due... why is this waiting game so popular with the Brewers? 4 months and it appears that it didn't heal properly, then he continues to play hurt... It sort of reminds me how general practitioners treat athletic injuries... "it doesn't look too serious, no activity and come back and see me in two weeks..." At least when that happens to us the parents were dumb and didn't follow instructions so we can't even have our trainer work with the kid to rehab, once they have a note specifying a length of time, our hands are tied. A professional organization really has no excuse, this muscle group should have been a non issue for 2009.

Where's Woogie? We need a reverse Riske tracker like we had for Braun, Yo, and Inman

That seems to be the prevailing notion around here, that these guys aren't as good... why? Our system was rated #1 because we had Weeks and Fielder... what has the hype done for Weeks? Hardy was never an offensive prospect, in fact this time last year many people around here were claiming that he'd never hit 20 HRs again in a season, actually people were making that claim into June... Hart was never highly thought of, even though he was the Southern League MVP, there was a minority percentage of posters on his bandwagon. 2 years ago people had written off Parra, he wasn't on anyone's radar except for the stalwarts on the Minor League forum. Is anyone going to replace Fielder's bat? No... so what? We've never had 2 C prospects like we have, Cain is as talented as they come, Escobar is very talented, Gamel and Green aren't as toolsy as Cain, Escobar, and Brewer, but their bats will play. With a little good fortune for the organization Jeffress and Braddock could break out and this time next year we would have 2 pitchers with top of the rotation potential in AAA. We're due, due more than Parra making it back for all of the arms that have flamed out the last 10 years, the law of averages has to swing back in our favor at some point. I really like 6 of our SPs in the 2 levels of A ball, we have some solid relief propsects in the pipeline, there's another wave of position talent coming in that A to A+ group as well. There's plenty of reason for optimism. Cain may never be better than Hamilton, but to start drawing conclusions and making comparisons before these young men even have a single MLB season under their belts seems misguided to me. There's no way Fielder is a 4 win player unless he makes tremendous strides with his defense this season.

That phrasing was rather excellent and made me chuckle even though Riske's suckitude this spring isn't funny.

X stole my thunder... I'm not big on depth for depth's sake... I argued against the concept all winter. I'm all for stashing unpolished talent as depth, but I don't see how Lamb and Gwynn should be kept because they can't be optioned... they aren't very good to begin with, what does the option matter? By that logic the team should have kept Vargas last year. This seams reactionary to me... the Brewers had horrible luck cutting Vargas and then losing 2 starters for the season out of the gate last year and now were over compensating by creating roster spots for players that aren't very good for the sake of depth? I say BOOOO! Put the best 25 players on the active roster and let's see what happens... If all our 3B get hurt would it be so bad to give Gamel a shot later in the season? How does he not qualify as depth? The same can be said for Cain or Gillespie? How are they not depth?

Okay, but you didn't answer the questions I asked... people keep proposing deals but aren't following all the way through, how does the team make the deal work? It would be nice if people would make the move fit with the roster moves that appear to be inevitable and the salaries that the team would be on the hook for. Right now to me most of these ideas are throw away ideas... someone says lets acquire Peavy or Halladay for prospects... other posters agree... however no one takes the time to make all of the pieces fit. It's easy to say lets go get a guy, but it's not so easy to make every piece fit. Peavy is under contract for multiple seasons, so his value is greater than that of Sabathia. Cleveland had pitching so they were willing to take positional players, Peavy would probably command 3 top prospects in return and one of them has to be a SP with top of the rotation potential. Jeffress is our only pitching prospect of consequence at this time and he may end up a RP. If we acquire Peavy, Suppan and Bush will still need to be replaced in house, because there's not going to be much money left for a FA SP of any kind. Escobar... that's been beat to death, my gut feeling is that he's not going anywhere because Hardy isn't going to be resigned. Gamel isn't going anywhere, he's left handed and hits for power and average, fit nicely at 3B, if he doesn't stick he also fits nicely in the OF or 1B, as Prince will not sign here. Salome who's potential is vast is far more valuable to the Brewers than other clubs do to his defensive issues. Cain will replace Cameron next season if things go well. If not, how do we adequately plug the hole left in CF? Lucroy... I'd be furious if the team moved him, he's not as offensively talented as Salome, but he's a better C and he's a very good hitter, no way should he moved until things with Salome sort themselves out. Brewer might be expendable, but he doesn't have much a track record yet so the team would have to be in love with his tools... he'd be like the Bryson of the Sabathia deal. If he keeps developing he might make a very nice 3B if Escobar were to stick, or maybe 2B with Lawrie moving to 3B. Gillespie is solid depth, he does many things well but his only real asset is his fantastic eye at the plate... his trade value is probably similar to Brewer. He's a RH Gabe Gross but he doesn't have anywhere near Gabe's arm strength. Green is 3B insurance if Gamel doesn't stick, 2B insurance if Lawrie develops slow, and is currently hurt and won't start playing till the AS break best case, they couldn't trade him if they wanted to since he's injured. The "etc" doesn't exist... Braddock has injury issues, Periard has a shoulder problem, SPs like Cody have gotten excellent results but lack top of the rotation talent. Anundsen is probably the best of the rest, and he's a 3 if things go just right for him, there's no way he's the headlining pitching prospect in the deal. The pitching outlook may be vastly different coming out of 2009 than it is going into the year, Braddock could emerge again, Periard's shoulder might hold up and he might finally be dominant, some of the young kids might excite us... however as it stands today, we just don't match up well with SD's needs. Sooner or later Peavy is going to hit the DL for an extended period of time, all pitchers eventually do. I'd rather not be on the hook for 18 mil while he's rehabbing from Tommy John surgery... If the situation was reversed and we were looking to move Peavy and weren't getting Escobar, Gamel, Jeffress, and 1 of Scarpetta/Odorizzi back we'd be furious. All those players have their warts, but they all have tremendous potential... again we'd be looking to 1 up the Sabathia deal because Peavy would be controlled for a much greater period of time.

I might be missing something here but what pitching prospects can we possibly afford to move in this deal? Which position players would we give and why? Hardy + Peavy on the payroll is 20ish mil in the first season and escalating from there probably into the mid 30s by the time Peavy's deal runs out, how does the team afford that? What if Peavy gets hurt and we're on the hook for his salary? The risk is definitely not worth the reward here...

I use ACID Music Studio by Sony, it was reasonably priced about 3 years ago.

I sure had high hopes that Yohannis Perez would turn out to be an excellent SS but somehow lately I always forget about him. He still has time I guess, but it's a small window, and where exactly does he play? Brewer will likely start at AA, Escobar will be at AAA.. I remember him playing some 2B so he could slot at AA at that position, but his bat hasn't really come around the way we would have hoped even at A+ last season. Cline and Farris should move up to A+ this year so there's not really any room for him other than AA. Newly acquired Miranda will figure in here some place, I was thinking that Bell would have gone back to AA and Miranda would slide into that spot before I remembered Perez was in the organizaiton. Maybe Perez becomes the utility player at AA or A+?

How is this any different than what happens around the country in the business world every single day? Just because your employer doesn't have a strict dress code really doesn't mean anything. Yes my employer has a strict code on sock length, facial grooming, uniform appearance, and so on, I'm very familiar with how this works. Grown men? Maybe young men in the minors, especially with the number of foreign born players. It may be idiotic to you, but the employer has every right to enforce it's idea of image, whether you like it or not. If you don't like it, you're welcome to go find another job. I might have a problem with it but the debate isn't if they have a right to tell me what I should wear, it's if I'm willing to go along with the new standards or find other employment. You been given numerous examples of why but you can continue to ignore them if you wish. Some of the players are children, brought over from Venezuela, the Dominican, Puerto Rico... At rate, this isn't about being treated like children like it's continually spun, it's about uniformity in appearance, conveying an image, and becoming part of a whole. Why do you care if they have a standard length pair of pants? It doesn't matter what we think, the team and the league have every right to enforce uniformity, it happens in every other professional league in this country. Actually though I'm not sure about MLS, I was thinking about the NFL, NBA, and NHL. College teams have always had appearance standards... in fact Coach Wooden, who's generally regarded as one of the greatest coaches in any sport, would start the first practice every year by making his players take off their shoes and socks. Then he'd sit down and show them the proper way to wear a sock and lace a shoe, so as to prevent blisters from forming. His players thought he was a crazy old man, but he knew exactly what he was doing... Just because you don't see or understand the reasoning, doesn't mean there isn't a method to the madness. You've basically made this same argument in every post, including the children line... just because you don't like the answer to your questions doesn't make your opinion correct. Again, the team and the league have every right to enforce uniformity of appearance and this happens out in the real world every single day. Some of the players inside each organization are in fact children as they are acquired at 16-17 years old, coming from a background of extreme poverty in a different country... uniformity can help players like that more readily assimilate to the culture. While that may be a secondary objective, I believe the primary goal here is to promote an image and a certain level proffesionalism as is a common business practice in this country.

This is one of those issues where the farther away from the game you are, the less likely you are to believe it. This is about team and about promoting an image, and this is something that happens every single day to people who are paid much less than professional athletes. Most delivery companies have a strict uniform policy and grooming standard (what facial hair if any is acceptable) in the model of the same standards that policeman and soldiers are held to. I see just about every major company at least once a year in the area because of my job and all have some sort of appearance standards, and many have more stringent guidelines for their salespeople who end up being the face of the company outside it's walls. Most warehouses I'm in enforce steel toe footwear, a hard hat, and safety glasses... all safety measures to protect the employees, I'm even forced to obey those safety standards as a vendor, it's the way things work. I can see where teams would be tired of players wearing their hats crooked and to the side as example, that's not the image they are trying to promote. It's not stepping on the throat of individualism as much as it is cleaning up an image to make the product as marketable as possible. Again why does the employee have more righst than the employer? As far as sports go at my level we enforce a sock standard, because about 8 years ago kids started wearing socks that didn't match the uniform in any way... the school colors are orange and black... we had kids showing up on game day with socks that were green, yellow, blue, red... etc... colors that made no sense and even to a guy like me looked terrible. I'm not sure why the switch suddenly got flipped, but it did. We started buying gameday socks and selling them to the kids at cost, for $3 a pair. At practice anything goes and lets just say that I don't share their sense of style... I don't see how sacrificing a little individuality for the opportunity to a play a game as a career is going to hurt anyone. edit. I wanted to add that a friend of mine from the southern part of the state had to service a system in a clean room and the company he was at made him go through the whole routine... strip down naked, shower, put the on the clean gear, and only then he was allowed into the clean room to fix the problem with the system.

He's replacing Mike Bell who was released in a surprise move, he's not MLB ready.

It's a little early to be worrying about the postseason... because my first thought was exactly "meh", this means he'll go 6 innings and give up 2 run or less and I'll have to eat crow.

Why is this such an issue though? If you have a pitcher struggling why can't you pull him and have him finish his day in the pen? The Brewers have had many of their pitchers go to the pen to get the rest of their work in thus far in spring training, I guess I don't see why it would have to be any different for the WBC team. The hitters don't seem to need as much work, I just think the team was flawed. Dunn can barely play LF and they put him in RF where Japan hit most of their balls? We just don't take it as seriously as the other countries, the sheer number of injuries alone was embarrassing and has given people against the WBC enough ammunition... instead of guys like Jeter, I'd rather see a much younger team, guys that aren't as established and maybe a little bit more team orientated. Herbie Brooks said it best... all-star teams fail because there's no team, just a bunch of individuals. USA basketball has taken a different approach since their recent embarrassments, maybe MLB should look at doing something similar. Then again, maybe playing for your country doesn't mean as much to us as a whole? Instead of making excuses for our players who performed badly and/or got injured, lets own up to the shortcomings in the process and come up with a better way. Morgan basically said this is how it's always going to be, which doesn't suprise me... the other commentators did think the process could be improved. As far as the "World" Series issue, that's actually occurred to me in the past, and I never liked it when people involved in professional sports use the phrase "World Championship". You can define world liberally like above, but the intent clearly has a different meaning. Maybe in the future the games will actually be global and the phrase will apply, but there's nothing global about any sports league at this time. I have no use for soccer, but the World Cup is about as global as it gets outside of the Olympics, and those are tournaments, not leagues.

All it would take is for Braddock to emerge as a dominant player again and 2-3 of last year's picks (I'm lumping Scarpetta in that group) to have good seasons and the system is strong pitching wise again.

I realize we're delving into the subjective here... but many people that posted that they had a problem with the way Macha was handling Villy was actually in my opinion more a reflection of Witrado's interpretation of what Macha said, and not actually what Macha was quoted as saying. Again Macha was wrong about a single multi appearance, nothing else... I guess a poor outing is pretty subjective as well but generally speaking I'm not a fan of 20 pitch innings either. It doesn't bother me as much with RP as SP, but when Villy gets himself into trouble he nibbles, and from the broadcasts of the game, that's the impression I've gotten. I haven't been fortunate enough to see him pitch yet this season, and generally I'd like to see what's happening for myself without relying on someone else's impressions of what is taking place. However, Villy pretty much agreed with exactly what Macha said and Macha actually did exactly what he said he would do which is why Villy is starting his next time up. The fault here lies more with how the comments were reported than what was actually said and done about the issue. As far as Kendall goes, he does give the team a pretty good AB, he's just not very good anymore, so the offensive results aren't there. I'd be curious what the motivation here is... if it's to move Weeks farther down in the order to see how he performs I don't think it's a terrible idea given the roster limitations, Hart might actually make more sense than Kendall, but we're talking less than 20 runs difference over the course of 160 games either way. I find it hard to get worked up over such a minor issue when I personally would like to see if Weeks would be more aggressive at the plate batting someplace else in the order. I agree that the position in the order shouldn't matter, but it matters to the players, so it does make a difference. If they believe they'll struggle or thrive in a particular position, they will... it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, so it matters. I wonder if Green would have been the player traded for Sabathia if Melvin would have declined Cam's option so the team could have moved up Brantley, which would have freed up more money and provided an alternative to Weeks in the leadoff role. Too bad we'll never know. As an aside... both Brantley and LaPorta have hit well this spring.

I wondered what scoop would have had to say about Hart's elbow in September last season... his I told you he couldn't hit would have been good humor. Why hasn't Geno weighed in on this topic yet? This seems like a thread he'd thrive in.