TheCrew07

The thing is, and the Pack finally figured this out, is that hiring former players from the glory days to coach does not put a winner on the field. I cringe every time someone suggests a former Brewer to coach, all I think of is Forrest Gregg and Mossy Cade... Just because some one was a great player, or a role player on a great team, doesn't mean they can motivate young men. The best players usually have the hardest time coaching because the game came easy to them. Your best coaches end up being guys like Brady Clark that really had to get the most out of what they had (In no way is that an endorsement for Brady to come and coach). I would hope the next coach had no playing ties to the Brewers at all, and was hired for what he's done as coach, rather than who he is. Kremblas wouldn't bother much at all. The SABR crew would probably despise him if he kept with his ultra aggressive style on the basepaths, but somehow he's always managed to get the most out of his guys. I've been fine with Ned for the most part, but after 2 huge collapses and the team going in the tank after 1 injury, it just seems to me like this team just sort goes about it's business and whatever happens... happens. Blaming Yost for every little thing that goes wrong in a game got old 2 years ago... but this team is regressing over the last 4 months of baseball and while some of that is "coming back to the mean", I'm slowly starting to lean towards something drastic changing with this team. I'm not going to jump off a bridge because they got swept 2 straight series, but they've played with so little life that it's hard to watch the games... I knew when Hall and Braun misplayed those balls that those runners would score, that's just the way things are going right now. This team needs a bench clearing brawl or something to tick everyone off and have them play with some emotion.

I'll give you that Gillespie had a similar OPS, which as you noted was supported by his OBP, which was very good becaus of 70+ walks on the season. However, he is 2 years older than Salome. On pure numbers I give Salome the nod because of his age, but I also wonder if Gillespie will maintain that BB rate, he's on pace for 60 this season, and I see that number declining as he advances. However based on last years stats for the sake of arguement I'll call this a push. Errecart profiles like more of a classic slugger, without the eye popping power numbers or the walks thus far. Salome is again 2 years younger, has better plate discipline, and better numbers all the way around. Salome has outperformed Errecart at every level being younger, he's the better hitter of the 2. I don't think any intelligent arguement could be made for Bell or Rodriguez at 2B being superior hitters. Brantley is obvious choice for the 1 hole with that OBP, Escobar makes sense in the 2, Gamel and Laporta are definately the 3 and 4, even if Gillespie is the 5, Salome should be the 6. In terms of all around hitting talent, Salome gives you Average, OBP, and SLG... which in my mind makes him the 3rd best hitter behind Gamel and Laporta. I'm a Brantley guy, but he's only hit for average and OBP thus far. and I've already compared him to Gillespie and Errecart. Again it's not that any of this matters, they'd score runs no matter how the batting order was configured, but it just doesn't sit well with me that Salome is batting 8th, but I also admit that I've always been very high on him and I'm completely biased.

I know he got the day off today, but this has been bugging me for a while... Why wouldn't Salome bat 5th instead of 8th in that line up? No offense to the other guys, but Salome is arguably the 3rd best all around hitter, why not have him follow Laporta. I know I'm nick picking as that lineup will score runs with Laporta or Gamel batting lead off, the lineup really doesn't matter... but I feel like I should take up for Salome.

I think Laporta would get the call, but I'd rather see Gamel, get some more left handed power in the lineup.

So I finally looked at a WV boxscore after 2 weeks... it's been killing me... Brewer still has more Strike Outs than Hits on the season, in fact it's really not even close yet. 26 Hits, 35 Strike Outs. On a positive note, he's on pace for 155 if he equals last year's number of ABs, which is a slight reduction from the 170 he had a year before. The only guy with more in the entire system is Chapman with 42 who's on pace for 172, which is 35 more than last year's campaign. Following Brewer are Errecart 34, Ford 31, Branyan 27, Katin 27, Cain 27, Gindl 27, Houin 27 (in only 70 ABs), Wheeler 26, Gillespie 26, Caufield 25, Fermaint 24, and Haydel 24. Certain names jump out at me by the position they play as people who have no business on this list. WV as a team has 246 BC as a team has 228 HV as a team has 184 NV as a team has 196 This got me thinking about BABIP... min 70 ABs a very small sample to be sure at this point, but I wanted to see where the SO leaders ranked. I was going to compare them to last year's season, but I didn't want to excel spreadsheet all those numbers up for comparison's sake. Also, it's been bothering me for a long time but BABIP should include HRs, the ball was put in play, it doesn't seem right to remove HRs, a Hit from the equation. I never understood the logic behind that one, Laporta's BABIP is actually lower than his BA because of this, Gindl's is as well... If a Sac Fly is included, it just seems to me that a HR should be as well. Branyan .466 Parejo .433 Houin .419 Gamel .415 (21 SO) Green .405 (19 SO) Wheeler .389 Errecart .386 Katin .356 Brantley .354 Chapman .338 Haydel .330 Brewer .321 The only real surprises on this list are Gamel and Green, they've been pretty special hitters and have very reasonable SO rates around 1 for every 6 AB and BB rates better than 1 for 10. Brantley's average is so high that his lack of power actually helps him with this index. Sorry EDR, but Fermaint's BABIP didn't break .300. I'm just bored and don't feel like going to bed so I thought I look up and play around with some numbers.

It's not about power, it's about getting on base any way you can to score a run and Dillon has a better career OBP than TGJ. Please stop using MLB stats, there isn't enough data there to validate your arguments. I already posted how many careers ABs both players have and their isn't enough information there to drawn any definitive conclusions on their MLB numbers. Dillon is the superior hitter in any situation except a bunt, there shouldn't be any question, that's a statistical fact. Therefore, bases loaded and a pinch hitter coming to plate, it would stand to reason that you want your best pinch hitter to take that AB. Once again, Dillon is superior to Gwynn in every single offensive category... Ave, OBP, SLG, OPS.... Gwynn is fine as a defensive replacement, but offensively he's about as intimidating as Pierre, without the blazing the speed. Gwynn generally only takes ABs in platoon situations where he's getting the maximum stat protection because he doesn't face many lefties. Dillon has never been part of a platoon, which skews their MLB numbers. As many have pointed out, if you want to compare apples to apple then compare their minor league numbers, you can even include TGJ's college numbers and he's still not close to the hitter that Dillon is.

Using 2 guys stats who've never been starters and haven't aquired a full season's worth of AB yet is a little extreme to say the least. Dillon has a grand total of 122 ABs, Gwynn 217. A much more fair comparison is their minor league careers. Joe Dillon 10 Seasons 885 3162 566 934 215 23 152 569 423 597 .295 .379 .522 .901 60 28 68% 0 14 7 14 23 That's a .295 average, .379OBP, .522 SLG, and a 901 OPS Tony Gwynn 6 Seasons 480 1865 285 511 73 18 8 168 214 299 .274 .350 .345 .695 118 47 72% 10 6 2 8 22 .274 Ave, .350 OBP, .345 SLG, and a whopping 695 OPS Dillon is the vastly superior hitter, it's not even close. In fact if you take Dillon's injury plagued seasons out of the mix the disparity is even greater, but that's a different discussion. My 2 biggest gripes about Yost are how he used Corey Hart early and how Dillon is being used now.

No substance just wanted to thank everyone involved for some enjoyable reading.

What you didn't read was that the player can compensate for lack of joint stability with his/her muscles. You can tell that it's 'loose", but that could be one of 20 different things. The athlete has to relax enough for a proper test to take place, and I've never seen that happen on the field in the middle of the game. Personally when I shredded the tendons in my ankle, I let the trainer move it once.. and when I saw what my foot did there was no way I was letting him do that again. I was trying "to man up" and relax, but something inside me just wouldn't let it happen. Calling out the training or coaching staffs is just an uneducated opinion to me. If you aren't in sports medicine, I fail to see how you can offer any intelligent opinion about diagnosing or treating an injury on the field, unless you've experienced the severe injury personally. What seems to be straight forward and common sense to you while sitting on your couch, is in fact vastly more complicated than it appears. In fact, most people that posted their ACL experiences didn't get diagnosed properly right away either. It doesn't matter how good the trainer is, that's why in football everything is a "knee sprain" on the field, it takes an MRI to determine the extent of the damage. I have a working knowledge of ACLs because I've helped some of my father's girl basketball players rehab (it turns out females are at greater risk for ACL issues because different hip structure creates different angles at the knee) and we've had 2 football players tear their ACLs in the last 10 years. I keep up on ACLs, just like I read up on concussions, because it's far better to prevent the injury than to heal it.

Every year this topic of a big free agent signing comes up, and I really don't get it. Every dollar you give to someone you overpay to come here (Gagne) is another you don't have to pay one of the young core players. The key for Melvin is to determine who is expendable, and who isn't. Free agent pitching is not a good market for the Brewers, is Suppan worth the 10 mil with the no trade to this team? At least Gagne was a 1 year signing, but the early returns on that signing are not encouraging. Pitchers get hurt way too often for me to accept the Brewers spending money on them. If a big signing would take place I'd rather they spend it on a position player where something relatively freakish has to happen for the money to go to waste. Granted position players get hurt, Rickey's wrist, JJ's ankle, etc... but generally those injuries are not career threatening. I will agree that pitching is key, especially in the post season, but the Brewers will have to do it more the way Oakland has done, than the way Boston has done. Get em while they are young and spin them for more young pitching if you can. Again, I'd rather spend big money on position players than pitchers.

If I wouldn't have burned on Balfour and now Thatcher (X you were right about him, my apologies, he's had a forgettable year to this point) I would be pinping the hell out of DiFelice like I did those 2 and Dillon in the past. However given my recent experience I'll keep my mouth shut for a change and hope it works out for the best. Parra should come back down so he remembers that he can pitch effectively, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if he learned to throw a fastball with some movement either... that 4 seamer looks real fat for some reason...

Again, it's a fine idea. The only thing is that all of that information you could find is already in the draft thread, the link reports, and the "your 200x Team Name" threads. Mass does a phenomal job, and probably doesn't get enough praise as the link reports are my first and last read every single day. Your suggestion is basically asking the staff to completely reconsider the way things are done. Change isn't a bad thing, but maybe there is a better way? I believe what you're really looking for is consolidation? Since the profiles all have outdated stats on them, maybe this is something you could talk Brian into helping with? (or anyone who'd be willing to volunteer for that matter...) If the archived news clippings were in the player's profile (with the link to the original source of course) and the stats could be updated via a milb.com plugin or maybe manually if someone was willing to volunteer, then all of the current requests for the website would be taken care of no? Mass already does all the leg work, someone just needs to go the extra step. You could then click on the player's name and get all news, draft coverage, and current stats in one place. If football didn't eat all my time starting the last 2 weeks in July I'd be interested in helping out myself. If a manual process is required that's way too much to ask of the current staff, so maybe Brian would take additional help. If things like the stats can be automated (maybe as easy as a generic link to the player's page on MiLB.com), obviously the man hours involved could be greatly reduced. My 2c.

Through the first month of the season I find the relative lack of production of the young pitchers in WV particularily disturbing... I had such high hopes that a couple of those kids would have evolved into super prospects by now. It's not that they've pitched poorly every time out... I just didn't expect them to be so inconsistent. Some of those kids have pretty filthy stuff to be giving up as many runs as they are.

With modern rehab a full recovery is about 9 months, it's different for every athelete, and different for men vs women. The "full" recovery is pretty generous, generally it takes about 18 months for someone to get back to their old form. At the football clinic this year a strength coach suggested the extra 9 months was a mental recovery time, as physically there is wrong with the knee and an agruement can be made it's stronger than it was before, but I haven't seen a study verify that. My personal experience with high school kids suggests that it's probably true, it takes them a long time to trust the knee and get confidence back in it. Take that for what it's worth. I've personally seen 4 ACL (2 boys and 2 girls) in my time coaching, and on the field flexibility tests help you determine that it's "loose", but aren't accurate enough to let you know exactly what is wrong. An MRI is still the only sure fire way to tell... As far as the injury, with a hyper extension like that, he did the damage at the point of impact, and did not hurt it anymore by pitching. I would have thought it was the MCL, we've seen that quite a bit, I'm shocked it was the ACL, ACL's normally happen from a twist of some sort. As far as the lack of pain and lack of initial swelling, that my friends in adrenaline at it's finest. This is a shocking blow to be sure, but the season is far from over. How are the Brewers to remain competitive if they contuinally trade away their top prospects 2 and 3 at a time? You can make one deal, maybe 2, in a 4-5 year period, the Brewers cannot build their team through free agency, they need the farm system to keep things going. The Brewers will never be in "win now" mode, they must have one eye focused on the future to maintain success. The 2 best hitters in the system for Lincecum? NO FREAKING WAY. If the right deal came along I'd trade one of them, but definately not both. Laporta is closer to being major league ready so I could see interest in him, but once again the Brewers will not be trading from a position of strength, so they'll likely have to give up more to make the deal happen. In my opinion another Linebrink type deal is not what this team needs. If the Brewers don't make the playoffs, I can live with that, it just wasn't to be that Yo and Sheets would be healthy and pitching at the same time. If/when the bats get going there's plenty offense available to help carry the team. edit. FTJ, your little snipit posts are getting tiresome. The truth is that he could physically pitch on it, but it wouldn't heal properly, and it's likely it wouldn't heal at all. To fix the legiment it needs to be surgically repaired, any time you enter the knee, even for a scope, recovery time is necessary. This isn't a difficult concept and you seem like an intelligent guy... People have been tearing up their knees for centuries and somehow managed to live fruitful productive lives without the benefit modern medicine to get them through the day. Say what you want but successive post makes it more clear that you have a vendetta for Yost, as if any of us needed any reinforcement on your opinion of him. If you want to be pissed at someone, be upset with the trainer, because even in football at the highschool level, they have the final say. I find it highly unlikely that the coaching staff ever encountered a torn ACL in baseball before, they are extremely rare, not like football.

What's Scarpetta's story? I had almost forgotten about him...

How is that any different than here? The negativity has been front and center the last 2 years. Instead of enjoying winning baseball people post exactly how Rydogg pointed out, this guy sucks, cut this guy, fire the manager, fire the hitting coach, the 3rd base coach is killing us, etc. I enjoy reading nssb everytime the Cubs lose because I hate them so much. The whole idea of lovable losers has ticked me off going back to when my family first got cable and WGN. However, I would think that they would get the exact same satisfaction out of reading this website on a day after we lose. Our in game threads have been especially negative the last year or so, I didn't dare read any of yesterday's thread, and I can see where that would be great comedy for them. We like to think we're superior to Cubs fans, but if you read both sites objectively, we're pretty much the same type of community. In fact, Miller Park has the same idiots in the stands that don't know anything about the game, game ettiquette, the team, or the players in the minors. About all I can say is that at least we don't throw baseballs back onto the field or dump beers on opposing players... we save the beer for football season...

I like Brady, always had a soft spot for him. I tend to latch on to the players who aren't the must talented guys but still find their own edge and get the job done. Good luck Brady.

I stuck with it till the 8th, I didn't make it through T-Bow... I turned on the xbox and comenced dominating team death match in COD4 to make myself feel better.

The weirdest thing for me is Salome batting 8th.. I don't recall him ever batting that low in the order before? Errecart is having nice season thus far as well, he gets overlooked quite a bit, I've never followed him closely so I'm as guilty as anyone. The mind (the mental aspect of the game) is so key to sports, all it takes is a couple of guys to start the ball rolling, and things just kind of take on a life of their own. Hitting, Winning, Losing... it's all contagious. WV last year, Huntsville this year... It doesn't matter what sport, and it's so hard to define... Look at the Houston Rockets and their win streak this year, that team had no business winning 10 in a row, much less 20+ if you just consider their raw talent level, but something kept them going. I love the unpredictable nature that the "intangibles" bring to sports. I know it's cliche, but it doesn't make it any less true. In baseball what you did last season, so far this season, heck even on the last pitch has no bearing on what's going to happen with the next pitch.

It's a bit surreal to have prospects exceding expectations... more so than the more hyped guys that came before them in Fielder and Weeks. My question of the day would be is Mercedes always going to be an R++ guy or finally figure out how to guys out above rookie ball. edit. Here's hoping Cain breaks out again as well.

I always thought of AA as the top of the pyramid. Chances are if you have success in AA, at some point you'll get a chance at the bigs. I guess what I'm saying is that after AA it becomes more of a linear progression, where through rookie and A ball a couple of guys from every class get dropped along the way. Even the AAA vets (AAAA players) have all had a chance at some point with a MLB club.

Since when was Corey Hart a prospect without holes in his game? When did magically become a can't miss prospect? He rotted in AAA much longer than he should have, there were quite a few people that didn't know what to make of him. He played 4 different positions in the organization by the time he hit Milwaukee, much like Iribarren is going to do. If you don't think Tulo is going to end up being in the top 5-10% of MLB baseball players at his position when all is said and done, I question your player evaluation skills, and you're making my point for me. Very few prospects are such well rounded players that they don't have a fairly obvious hole in one part of their game. Again, look at all the position players that recently came up through Milwaukee's system, every single one had a hole in their game on offense or defense. Look around the minor leagues at the top prospects in other organizations, how many don't have a major flaw to work on? The Brewers must suck at drafting if polished 4-5 tool prospects are everywhere... It wouldn't be difficult to go through all of the position players on the power 50 and knock one thing or another for all of them. Plate discipline, Defense, Power, BA, and so on. Players who are that polished don't spend much time in minors, and in the last 20 years it's very short list of players who flew through the minors in 2 seasons or less... and all of them that managed to remain healthy are Stars on their respective teams. I don't have the time for this right now but I'm going to do this quickly... Hart - Defense Fielder - Defense Weeks - Defense Braun - Defense Hardy - Offense Escobar - Offense Gamel - Defense Iribarren - A little O and D Salome - Defense, Height is a major concern for some Laporta - Defense TGJ - Offense Brantley - No set position on D, no Power, High Walk Rate Cain - at one point didn't look to have many holes, where has the O gone Brewer - SOs and D Katin - Offense Gillespie - Offense There is a rather large gap between being fairly solid all around, and being MLB polished all the way around... most of those guys had things to work on, no matter how minor the issues may seem to you. The Pujols' of the world just don't come around all that often, and even he had some questions defensively when he first came up. Was HOF stretching it some? Sure, I was trying to make a point, multiple type All-Star appearances is probably a more accurate.

You aren't seriously suggesting Braun play SS? Rivera play 1B for Prince? The chances are pretty good they'll need more than 1 infielder considering all the depth the Brewers needed on the infield to get through the last 2 seasons... It's not really about that, I feel Dillon was the best bat on the bench, and I'd rather have him up and at the plate when we need the runner to score from second than any of the current bench options. He was the best hitter on the bench, and now he's playing in AAA so we can have 2 backup CFs... Dillon can at least legitmately play a corner OF spot, and 2 infield positions, which is something Gwynn cannot do. I want no part of a singles hitting CF playing a corner outfield position.

He's 2 years away, why does there have to be a spot for him to be an everyday player today? If his bat ends up being "that" good, then someone is going to get moved for him, just like OOOOOO for Prince, the Brewers are very thin when it comes to LH power. Again, down the road I see Laporta at 1B and Gamel in a corner outfield spot. Defensively 3B is still the biggest hole in the system, though Green might plug that gap, one never knows this early. It's one thing to point out a flaw in someone's game, it's another to be overwhelming negative about kid. Could the Brewers trade him? Sure. Does it make any long term sense to trade him with the lack of LH power in the organization? Absolutely not. If he doesn't stick at 3rd, he definately has the tools to play either corner outfield spot, just like Braun. Laporta is the player more likely to be traded in my mind, as his skills are what the Brewers have the most of, RH power. If either player goes then we better be getting Lincecum or someone similar, another Linebrink type deal might push me over the edge. Yes Hall is very servicable as a 3B, but he's not special, his average to above average, and that really has nothing to do with Gamel. If your bat is that good, you will play... someplace. It's really that simple. The Brewers will never be in a position where they can afford to sustain the big league club through free agency, which means coaching up players like Gamel and finding them a home someplace. You do the best you can filling your needs from inside the organization. If the Brewers are giving up youth, they need to get youth in return, unless that one player makes the difference in a World Series run. To maintain success the Brewers need a yearly influx of cheap young talent, that's the only way they will be able to sustain success. People are so starved for a winner (even though we just had a winning season) that even though the team is finally winning people are complaining and whining about every little thing. Gimme bf.net in 2004 when there was actually some optomism around here. Continually trading away prospects does not make good long term business sense. I get the feeling many people would be satisfied with one World Series run and then 20 more years of suckitude. I'd rather win year in and year out and the World Series thing will take care of itself, there is no way to ensure any team will make it to the series... I don't see how the Brewers can ever be in "win now" mode, they'll always have to keep an eye on the future. Unless of course the economics of baseball change, then things have the potential to change drastically.

I quit checking the WV box score last week hoping I was the one jinxing them... it's been working, I haven't looked at Brewer, Gindl, etc at all... but sneaky Battlekow and his creepy pic almost got me to break discipline today. There's been lots of interesting happenings at the plate in Nashville this season thus far, I've been so desentized by Nelson that I keep waitng for the bottom to fall out, but the other half of me really hopes he's for real. He showed so much promise all those years ago... It's still early, but how great would it be if both Iribarren and Nelson settled in right around .300 keeping all of the secondary stats in line with what they are currently doing? What seemed to be a pretty thin system at the top would suddenly be prospect laden again, even if this isn't Nelson's first go round at AAA.