TheCrew07

Or don't know much about the player who's coming up. I didn't know anything about him until the Brewers picked him up, and I didn't research him at all until he was added to the 40 man, and I follow the minors very closely. He might be labeled a AAAA player, but he can be more than that... He just hasn't had much opportunity and struggled in very small MLB samples. His MiLB stats were linked, here's his career. www.thebaseballcube.com/p...llon.shtml He's had a grand total of 36 ABs, and never hit well enough in spring training to make the big club. However, he's not your typical 4A player.

Good for him.

Merklinger and Kjeldgaard together have been sporadic at best.

I must say, there sure are some hot tempered folks around these parts the last 4-5 months. I've yet to get so mad I couldn't type a coherent sentence on a message board... there might be hope for me yet.

I'm pretty indifferent about this, it would be nice to the Brewers land him though.

it depends how deep the draft would be, as to what we'd get with the picks.

Yes

web.minorleaguebaseball.c...pid=434525 Season stats above. I've followed him closely for a long time, I don't see how he fits in. Career Stats below. www.thebaseballcube.com/p...lson.shtml He's been good this year with RISP, but he still hasn't knocked in many runs.

What about Gwynn is so special that he's untouchable. He's like Dave Roberts, there's a ton of those guys floating around.

Most of the guys who led the Stars in the first have been sliding in the second, it's nice to see the other guys on the roster starting to pick it up. Palmisano, Heether, Sollmann have all had a tough time at the plate the last 2 weeks.

What about Joe Dillon as a LF? I've been kicking around the idea, he could get a shot he's earned... If he does well he could spin that into a perm gig elsewhere or at the very mininmum remove some of the pressure off the Brewers to push LaPorta. I know it's not a sexy idea, but he's inexpensive and I find him intriguing. Even his OPS drops to around .750 that's still very servicable, he'll give us some power, has a good eye, and should carry a decent OBP as well.

I was hoping Periard threw a bit harder, but that's not bad. I like guys who's fastball moves, but it sounds like he'll have to refine his breaking stuff as he moves up? Also how well did he locate?

Has Weeks hit a homerun since May 1rst? I don't recall one, in that regard is Gwynn's powerless swing that much of a downgrade? I'm no Gwynn supporter, not by any stretch, but I see what Ajay is getting at here. Not that I agree with him, but it's an interesting idea none the less. It's frustrating how we thought (well I did) we had all the offensive holes plugged when Braun came up, only to have others regress much further than we thought they would? If Joe Dillon could play a good 2B, I'd be all WOAH SOLVDD and be clamoring for him to come up. I just don't think there is much the Brewers can do when one of your key players just doesn't perform.

Well we could give Periard, Jeffress, and Gwynn and thus have no plausible starting pitching depth of any kind between Milwaukee and Helena. Yes I know people are high on Miller and McClendon but I'll be a believer when I see it.

That might be the single saddest pitching event I've witnessed in my life, and I've seen some pretty crazy stuff. A pitcher in a highschool game once through the ball all the way over the backstop, I never laughed so hard, I could hardly move my sides hurt so bad. All I could think of watching that was Wild Thing Rick Vaughn would be proud.

Awesome news... I think I'm the mood for some Helena tonight.

That's too bad, San Fran was always my second favorite team.

Sweet thanks Pogo.

It's just a ticket!... God I hate those shirts, and that town. Always hiding by the school on one side of town, or the bushes on the other. Every single Badger game I go to I see at least 2 people pulled over.

I agree with your points Geno, but the flip side is that how many nuggets did they really have to trade away? Hart maybe was the only one of the current young crop who there was some doubt would ever get the playing time in Milwaukee. Most of those guys got a chance in Milwaukee and failed. JDLR would be good here and there, but his numbers in the minors were never jaw dropping, just his stuff was. Eveland looked good early in Milwaukee, and faded... Enrique Cruz only spent any time in Milwaukee because he was a rule 5.. Nelson Cruz was pretty old for his leagues when he started to succceed, granted he was up there when he was traded, but he wasn't hyped by anyone I remember other than the people here at Brewerfan. Hendrickson was the only one who dominated most of his minor league career, but Melvin didn't sell high with him, they let him fail in Milwaukee before shipping him out. Inman is the first prospect of any significance to be traded by the current front office, it will be interesting to see how it turned out. I liked Thatcher quite a bit as well, but he wasn't a top prospect, it's tough for relievers to attain that status.

You just don't get it... "Talent" isn't just physical ability, it's everything that goes into a player to produce the end result of what you see on the field. The Brewers are as physically gifted as any team in the league. It's not just that easy that you can pencil in something on paper and it happens on the field, things aren't that black and white. Getting the players to play their best day in and day out is not an easy task, it's not as easy as "they are professionals who motivate themselves". Don't take my word for it, take the word of the players who played for these coaches, everyone from Wooden, to Herb Brooks, to Vince Lombardi. Sanchez is a clown, but he's physically gifted, he's the classic "million dollar body with a 10 cent brain". If your head isn't in the right place, you aren't going to be successful, and that is what slumps are baseball. Mini slumps where a guy hits the ball right at people I'll grant are mostly luck, but that's not where Jenkins was last year, or Weeks is this year. What do players talk about? Seeing the ball better and feeling good at the plate? What does that really mean, what are they really talking about? Again it's not like their eye sight suddenly improved. Villy hitting the corners and Villy nibbling too much are totally different things. His control was fine yesterday, he just wasted pitches and gave up a walk and a 2 strike hit. Again, talent wasn't the issue, pitch selection and location were. Go ahead and keep posting cryptic responses that completely dismiss the idea without posting anything of value or substance. I never said the books supported my opinion about the Brewers, but there's a wealth of information about improving performance, managing people, and becoming a better person. It doesn't matter if you're interested in sports, business, or teaching, there's something to be learned from these people. The common thread is that all of them feel or felt that "heart" and "competitive fire" were more important than physical talent. It may be cliche, but it doesn't it make any less true. Every year I see this with my boys, I could give example of player after player but it wouldn't mean anything to you because you didn't know the kids, and don't believe in the concept.

Yep because the opinions of those that have had the most success managing people aren't worthy of your consideration because there might be a cliche or two involved. I find it humorous how someone that bemoans the lack of general understanding in sabermetrics would simply dismiss the works and opinions of people who actually were involved in sports without giving them their due consideration. It seems fairly hypocritical to me to ask people to consider your point of view while never truly considering an alternative to your own. For the record, you won't find many cliches in those books. You will find philosophies for success, what they believe in, experiences with different players and situations, and how they accomplished their goals. There's a large gulf between analyzing a sport, and playing and coaching a sport, that some people around here don't seem to fully appreciate.

I don't want argue semantics about talent and experience when it's pretty clear you're both missing the gist of my posts. I doesn't matter if you agree or disagree because you're going to believe what you believe in, and likewise for myself. I'm no writer and will probably never convince anyone of anything on a message board. I highly recommend the following books if you're interested in opinions of some greatest minds to ever coach their particular sports: Don Shula www.amazon.com/Everyones-...556&sr=8-1 John Wooden www.amazon.com/Wooden-Lea...235&sr=8-1 Actually, there are tons of good books about Wooden, click the related links and I've read at least 4 of those. His Pyramid of success has been copied by just about everyone who's anyone in basketball and football. Vince Lombardi www.amazon.com/When-Pride...298&sr=8-2 Vince Lombardi www.amazon.com/Essential-...778&sr=8-3 Brian linked Weaver's book earlier this year, and it's more about baseball strategy, but there's still nuggets about players in there. I get a coaching book or 2 every year for christmas, so I've read all of the above books in the last couple of years, sometimes twice. The Lombardi quote book will be getting quite a bit of work starting next week. While baseball lends itself to mathematical analysis, it's still a sport, and the players are pretty much the same regardless what game they play. edit. I'm lame and cut and pasted the Shula link to 3 of 4, fixed.

Raw physical talent is the most overrated aspect in sports. What is talent anyway? Brady Clark didn't have much physical talent, but he had a mental and work ethic edge which made him successful for a couple of years, he got the absolute most out of his ability. Alex Sanchez had all the natural talent in the world, where's he? He had confidence it seemed, but no competitive drive to get better. I'm sorry, but what about the game of baseball makes people think that all you need is talent to succeed? You still need leadership, you need character, you need desire, you need all those little things to be successfull, everyone needs an edge. You're telling me that the team is playing with the same confidence they did in April? Weeks looks exactly as he did at the plate and is playing exactly like he was in April? Coco? Hardy? Turnbow? Villy? Cappy? Suppan? Jenkins? Voodoo magic causes slumps I guess? They are just unlucky when they slump? Players talk all the time about seeing the bal better, I guess that means they're eye sight suddenly improved? We all played baseball (well maybe not), I know when I slumped I was trying to guess at the pitches instead of just going with the pitch as it came. Hardy still hasn't adjusted to being pitched away, he's a dead pull hitter, but he's going to have to make adjustments to pitchers as they have to him. Jenkins has never made an adjustment to that low and away breaking ball he always strikes out on. That's not a lack of talent, what player besides maybe Vlad can hit a pitch like that? Why is Villy nibbling more now? He started that way against Chicago, Yost visited the mound, and he took off and was lights out for a couple months. I was there on the 20th, he looked like his world was falling apart after the first 2 batters. He nibbled around the corners today and walked in a run after he was up in the count, it wasn't a great AB... it was shoddy pitch selection and location. Where's physical talent in that equation? It's easy to dismiss the mental aspect of sports because it's impossible to measure or quantify. I can understand where people wouldn't buy the notion if they haven't had the opportunity to be around many winning teams or in the locker room. Yea it's cliche, but it doesn't make it any less true. This team doesn't lack physical talent, talent wise they are as good as anyone else in the league in my opinion. They just haven't put it all together yet, and maybe they won't this year. If experience didn't matter players wouldn't get better over time... it's not as if their talent level somehow grows over time. I've never been on the "must win now" bandwagon for just this reason... every player and every team has it's own progression. A definite pattern has been emerging here on the road since the Texas series, and pretty much anyone should be able to see it. There has to be reason for it... I think in some ways the team just doesn't have a good baseball IQ. I'm not saying everyone on the team, but as much as I like the way Estrada playes the game with no fear, he doesn't do much for me behind the plate. I like Miller, but I don't think he calls a great game behind the plate either. Laugh at me all you want, but Moeller called a fantastic game behind the plate, he had a great baseball IQ, he just couldn't hit.

Character absolutely wins baseball games... what could be more important than confidence? It's the single most important aspect of sports, if you aren't confident, you won't win much.