TheCrew07

Online Bill Pay has made my life significantly easier. I'll gladly pay the fee not to have to run and get stamps, and write out checks, and mail bills away. If your bank offers it, I highly recommend it.

Lambertus... here's hoping he can improve his control and reduce the number of HRs he gives up.

perhaps...http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Official threads. I want to post a "The Official I hate Official Threads Thread" but I don't think it will go over very well. I would much rather the staff decide if a thread should be designated, than a poster proclaiming their own thread "official". I have no rational reason why it bothers me so much, it just does.

I can see your argument for Villy as a better option, but the DiFelice one is a stretch. If you just look at pure stuff, I'll take McClung and his 96 mph fastball with a decent curveball. Do you have a thing for players with success in the minor leagues on the wrong side of 30 or something? (I believe I remember you being a Dillon fan as well)What exactly is wrong with Dillon other than he got labeled as AAAA and it took him forever to get an extended stay with a big league club? It's not that the players are 30 somethings and having success, it's they are having success when other players aren't. Age has nothing to do with it at all. I don't necessarily agree with TLB's opinion on who's a better option, but at least he's not combative. I'm a stuff guy too, but I can also appreciate a pitcher who actually knows how to pitch and get people out. I'll also root for a good redemption story, I have quite a bit of admiration for people willing to relentlessly pursue their dream like a Clark, DiFelice, Balfour, Dillon... so many people will quit the first time they face a little adversity, I love guys that keep getting back up and force their dream to come true. They've done something I've only dreamed of, they got to put on a MLB uniform and be part of the team, no one can ever take that accomplishment away from them. Weaver is the first player I ever rooted against (though half heartedly) and I was actually somewhat relieved yesterday when he pitched poorly.

I would love it the Brewers locked up Hart, I've been on his bandwagon forever, and he's one of my favorite Brewers. I understand all the reasons why he wouldn't sign, but I still hope it happens.

No love for Hand?

Boo! I wanted to track another line from Mr Periard. Hutnsville is just getting worked...Wahpepah and Miller... ouch. The only good news here is that West Tenn is also losing. Cody with another decent outing gave up 3 runs but K'd 7 and walked none in 6 innings... I still don't get Farris batting up the in order for WV, but I don't get many things about that team. TGJ's BA is up to .370 as I post this, as Mass said the other day, keep upping your trade value.

Team chemistry matters, I've seen that first hand in football, I'm just not sure how much it matters in baseball. Baseball is the most individual of the team sports. In the field you make plays only on balls that are hit your way, and at the plate it's you, the pitcher, and the catcher. The guys still hustle and back each other up, and they are playing above .500 ball. I'm not going to dismiss his comments in his article entirely as bad journalism, even though it may be. In my experience there's a nugget of truth in these stories, regardless of how it's spun after the fact. I'd feel better about the report if our beat writers would ever come up with something like this, but they never will, because they'll get frozen out of the clubhouse. To Joe's point maybe that's why you always hear about what a bad guy a player was after the fact, then again, maybe it's all just posturing. It's tough to say unless you're a part of what's going on. I have wondered about the clubhouse myself quite a bit this year, with players underperforming, and I've also wondered about it on the minor league side as well given some of the things that have happened on the farm. Many of those underperforming players are starting to turn it around and climb out, JJ is hitting for a better average and power, Prince is hitting for Power, and so on. During the early part of the season the team went through stretches where it didn't pitch, didn't hit, and sometimes both. I'm not sure how you blame poor pitching on bad chemistry when it seems to me that the pitchers and catchers are getting along real well from the post game comments and quotes in the paper. We'll probably never know for sure exactly what this clubhouse was like.

If you're going to find yourself in this neck of the woods and interested drop me a PM. I was hoping you had something Jason, I really liked his brother Sean. Apparently Sean's advisor told him he'd be drafted in the teens last year and I know he was really disappointed when that didn't happen, so I was just curious how projectable Jason was in comparison to his older brother.

This might be my doing, I don't recall ever seeing Taylor Green bounced around as our second baseball of the future before posting it yesterday, and it was more an idea that's been bouncing around in my head as I try to project where players best fit long term. I didn't mean we should replace Weeks with him next week or anything like that. I really see him as a capable solution at 3B, I doubt he'd be elite statistically, but he'd be above average. However with Gamel starting to settle in nicely, I don't see why he couldn't move back to 2B where he has the potential to be a monster statistically... I don't necessarily think that 3B is easier than 2B, the requirements are different at the hot corner as the ball gets on you faster, fielding bunts, and so on. Would Green have great range at 2B? I doubt it, but he'd be a capable defender. I like the idea of him playing 3B until the players above him in the system shake themselves out. I wouldn't mind him breaking in to the bigs in a utility role for a season or 2 either. It's a good way to get your feet wet, if they can find him enough ABs. It's all conjecture at this point though, I just hope he continues to play well and progress. edit. Wasn't he a draft and follow? I think they knew exactly what they had but were trying to find a home for him.

You need a self cleaning litter box my friend, it deposits all of the waste into a plastic container with a lid, very handy. I could do without the litter the cats somehow seem to be to able to track all over the house though.

People who are too lazy to return shopping carts and leave them all over parking lots. Seriously people, what's the deal? You can't take the extra time to put a cart in the corral? It's way better that they blow around and ding other people's automobiles... In the same way litter still annoys the hell out of me. Why is acceptable to throw garbage out onto roadways and your neighbor's lawns? How lazy are people that they won't clean up after themselves? It's like smokers who throw their cigarette butts out the window on the highway, or into my bushes when I lived in a first floor apartment just out of school. I literally had 100s of butts to clean out of the landscaping when I moved out, and I had 1 cigarette when I was like 13 years old.

Anundsen and Jeffress just dealing. 10Ks thrugh for 4 for Jeffress, 7Ks through 5 for Anundesn. The young pitchers are starting to come around, the've all thrown well lately with the notable exceptions of Bryson, Tyson, and Seidel. Rivas got lit up a bit the other day but he's been solid all season. A couple of years ago there were maybe 2 intriguing pitching days a week, now it seems like we have a good prospect or 2 pitching everyday, and hitters raking at every level. This is a fun time to be following the minors.

The difference in Gamel's case is that I believe Money has helped him tremendously... I don't mind him sitting in AA all year while he works on improving his defense. I know the young man can hit, his glove is going to determine his ultimate value. LaPorta on the other hand, I don't think it makes a difference where you work on your OF skills. Looking down the road I don't think sitting in AA hurts either player's status at all, depending on what happens with the big club, both could realistically make the jump and hit MLB pitching, both could spend next in year in AAA, or both could sit in AAA until they are passed super 2 status and get the call. This is going to be interesting off season for sure, I'm as intrigued by this situation as I was with Yo and Braun last year. I think the likely scenario is that LaPorta gets bumped and Gamel works all year with Money in AA as the Brewers desperately need him to stick at 3B.

I like the idea in principle, but I'm not sure how you apply sit since every team has young bats that aren't getting enough ABs the way it is. When they hit AA, most of the "fluff" is gone, so they wouldn't be taking ABs from an Angel Salome, Taylor Green, and so on. Typically your better hitters DH on their "off day".

Geez I'm dumb, sorry Bambis. I went right to the last post.

TLB. I'm not glossing over his injury, but he did hurt himself in the dugout, which admittedly does irritate me some. He's shown flashes of brilliance, but that's exactly what all talented players do, even if they never reach their potential. It's like what you said in the Yost thread, they show you just enough that you keep believing... I went from enthusiastic about his talent on draft day to guardedly optomistic when he struggled in AA, and I remain so to do this day. I have a hard time with people who seem to claim that his wrist was magically healed when he went down to AAA and that's why he started raking... I dont' buy it, not at all... If you're healthy enough to play, you're healthy enough to produce... what does his wrist have to do with horrible pitch selection and not being able to hit a breaking ball? His bat speed was still there, it looked to me like he played with 0 zero confidence and was up there getting fooled when he was looking for a different pitch. One hot month won't change my opinion of him anymore than it changed my opinion of Jenkins... If you choose to believe that an injury is hiding his true talent, that's fine. I simply do not believe that, the same way I think that when JJ gets all slappy with defensive swings it's in his head, and not that he's hurt. I'm not a professional scount, but I do have a fair amount of experience reading the body language of athletes, and to me it's more an issue of confidence than anything else. Could the injury affect his confidence? Maybe last year, but it certainly shouldn't be this year. At his current level of production he is expendable, that was a present tense reference. I should have cleared up any questions about my opinion when I said I was willing to wait and see how it plays out. The 2 ideas are not in conflict as you seem to suggest, one is an extension of the other.

I didn't see this posted yet. Last week's Hot Sheet was a review of the first third of the season. Familiar Faces at 2 and 11.

TLB, I yada'd over the details because I had no interest getting into a circular and lengthly debate about his career. I should have known better, as people love to debate Rickie, and I believe you over reacted somewhat. There is no right answer... there is a segment that will believe his wrist injury has held him back because of his potential, and there is another segment that will look at performance and be skeptical of the effect of the wrist injury. How can an opinion be irresponsible? Because it's different from what you believe? Irresponsible is leaving your child unattended at a ball game, not posting on a message board, we aren't curing cancer here. You compared Yo to Weeks... Weeks was the second overall pick in the draft, Yo was a second round pick, I think it's reasonable for people to at least have similar expectations given how hyped Weeks has always been. To be fair, he's not hit for average or power, so I guess he's still growing into both? Also to be fair, I didn't say I'd replace Rickie today, I said I'm willing to ride him out until a better option presents itself or he plays to his potential... either the way the position as it stands today is upgradable, which I believe to be a reasonable opinion. Week's MLB Career The best thing about his career numbers is that his OBP is a full 100 points higher than his BA, there's definately potential there for a special player. Hardy, Hall, and Weeks all have career OPS+ under 100, even with Hall's 116/125 in 05/06 he's only 99. Hall and Weeks have huge upside, Hardy does the best with what he has in the field, but I think he has more to give offensively. Many people will ride out talent indefinately, I simply will not, due to personal experience. I believe that talent get the first opportunity to succeed and then you take the best results and let the chips fall where they may. edit. fixed poor grammer

It's possible they could have aquired a 3B instead of Cameron and as far the defense goes... It might be tad better, but it's certainly not winning any ball games... No, the options at 2B might be worse defensively in Dillon or offensively in Counsell... but at this moment in time Bill Hall is not a better all around player than either guy. Hall has been pushed out 3 times now, Hardy at SS, Braun at 3B, Cameron in CF... time will tell, but to me that signifies that he's been a stop gap measure. They wouldn't have traded him last off season because they didn't have an adequate replacement at 3B, that would have left a bigger hole that is already there.

I know I'm in the minority, but why should every position be played by Bill Hall? What has he done the last 2 years to warrant continual playing time? He's got tools sure, but where are the results? Yes I know he was rushed which probably hindered his developement, but he cashed in on one super season. It seems that every positional topic comes down to Hall... Hall vs Gamel, Hall vs Hardy, Hall vs Weeks, Hall vs Dillon... Bill Hall is a very average baseball player, with nice power for a guy up the middle, but he's nothing special on the corners. While he has good power, he's not a good hitter, and he's an inconsistent fielder. My problem with all of this is that people make constant excuses for him... he's still a better player than so and so... even if it were true in every instance (I'd debate that he's not a better all around player than any of the guys I mentioned) that wouldn't change the fact that Billy has always been the odd guy out. I'm comfortable saying that if he was in the organization's long term plans at one point, he certaintly isn't now, as there is no way they sign Cameron if he was. The writing is on the wall with Billy, I'd be very surprised if he's on this team next season. He seems to be a great guy, who does good things in the community, but those things shouldn't overshadow what he does between the lines, or what's in the best long term interest of the organization. Weeks has obvious tools as well, but I've never been a huge fan of his either. It's much the same for him around here, he's never been healthy, yada yada yada... The bottom line to me is that he doesn't produce consistently, and he's expendable. I'm a results guy, and I firmly believe that you take results over talent.... Would the Brewers regret letting Weeks go? Maybe, but how long can you realistically wait on a guy? I don't think the answer is indefinately... I'm not sure what the correct answer is, but the guy I eye as his replacement, Taylor Green, is still a couple of years away, so I'm willing to ride him out till a better option presents itself or he finally puts his tools to use.

I see, if you came up this way I was going to hook you up with food and beverages for all your hardwork. On a related note, Jason Dovel, who's brother Sean played for the Bull Frogs last year and was hosted by one of my very good friends is coming up here and will be hosted by the same family. I heard some rumors that he throws 95 but looking at his freshman numbers at CSF he was pretty average, do you know anything about him?

Well half of his OPS is his OBP... but he's a found a power stroke lately, much like Escobar. Maybe LaPorta and Gamel are passing the secrets of a quick powerful short swing to all the boys.

Didn't you mean Rivas? You've been slippin! Good for Huntsville, a race to finish with a 1 one game lead.