MessiahRp

I agree here... not to mention the entire weekday day games thing needs to end. Most people work during the day and can't get to the games when they're scheduled this way. Make Saturday and Sunday games day games and make weekday games night games. After all they're losing money when these day games are only half sold. Not to mention I have never been in a ticket package with someone who actually wanted those tickets. I think Braun is correct with what he's saying even if he was impolite in how he was saying it (and honestly Melvin should have handled it better). Every single Brewers fan knew we needed pitching and only those willing to turn a really blind loyal eye were the ones thinking that somehow losing Sheets and CC was going to be made up for with a healthy (but unstretched out) Gallardo and Manny Parra who struggled bad at the end of last year. While Bush's injury hasn't helped any, you had to be naive to think that this staff was playoff caliber. We got pretty lucky early on and this team's record reflects that as far as pitching goes but Looper and Suppan are back end of the rotation guys and Burns and McClung are 'never should be in a rotation' guys. That doesn't bode well for a playoff run this year if Melvin doesn't show some urgency and make a move. Not to mention, I think getting a player we're going to let go after the year is not smart. We don't have a ton of great arms ripping through the system right now (like Boston does)... We need someone long term to help anchor the front of the rotation. A front of the rotation starter with Yo and Bush in the #3 spot allows you flexibility with the back end of the rotation maybe not being so great. Rp

Ouch. That's rather harsh and dare I say, shallow. I wear Affliction (and Xtreme Couture) shirts all the time. They are pricey yes, but they are very comfortable and feel really nice. And I happen to like the skulls, etc. I don't see the issue here. If Braun wants to market his own clothing line, great. If he wants to design them to his own tastes, great. It just so happens that a lot of young men 18-35 wear Affliction shirts (or similar styled brands) and this is a good market for a guy his age to get into. I don't get the criticism here at all. Rp

No worse than Shawn Merriman being in the NFL Pro Bowl after he tested positive. Rp

I might be wrong because I am at work and it's difficult to follow but I believe the ban was for something on the banned substance list, not a steroid specifically. That could encompass a bunch of different medications. Rp

True, but after Cam drilled that Giants pitcher with a line drive and stopped at second, imagine if he had tried to go to third or whatever... That player now has a completely negative public perception to battle. Sometimes just because it's not against the rules, doesn't make it right. Rp

Boy I am surprised. I knew this dude was a roider from day one. Rp

Personally I think we should have made a play for Peavy. Or even spending some money on Derek Lowe. Don't tell me Braden Looper was the only option out there because that's insulting the intelligence anyone who remembers this offseason. Let's not do the whole revisionist history thing. Melvin wouldn't even consider Lowe and Lowe is better than anyone on the Brewers staff right now... possibly even Yo at this point (obviously Yo will get better and be better than Lowe in the future but I mean right now). I know Suppan's contract is an albatross but Melvin needs to remember that was HIS albatross and worse he was the person who made the completely insane decision to backload the contract and ruin the team's chances for the last two years of the deal to acquire any further help. Peavy is better than CC, IMO... if CC is considered a special case and Peavy was cheaper than what we offered CC, we should have gone after Peavy. Rp

With that knowledge, why then does Melvin choose to not bid heavier for a pitcher BEFORE the season instead of praying they'll be in the chase in July and giving up way too much for them then? For instance, does anyone think Jake Peavy will be cheaper in July than he would have been this past offseason? And worse, if we don't go acquire front line pitching, will we even be in this thing in July? You're pretty much betting on and risking throwing the first half of the season away by not really trying to spend any money to upgrade the team. The chances that the team will still be in it in July with this pitching staff doesn't seem very realistic to me. Rp

I'd like to be included in on this opportunity if possible as well. Thanks!

Gagne did get pulled from the Closer role but they kept giving him chances in the pen even when he was giving up a ton of runs. Sure towards the end of the year he started to look somewhat better but he had a multitude of chances to do this... same as Turnbow and in both cases I truly believe it was out of justification of their salaries. The Tigers released Sheffield and his $12 million salary. I don't think we would ever do that. I think our team would play the big salary guy until they had absolutely no other choice. No we don't have a stud starter in the minors (wish Jeffress would get it together already), but if you're giving up 6 runs in 4 or 5 IP, it's not hard to find a scrub who is above replacement for that. Rp

This sample shows pitchers that had at least 160 IP not every pitcher in every rotation. I would wager that a lot of the pitchers towards the bottom of that 45 got pulled from their rotation spot at some point, or a lot of pitchers not in that 45 won rotation spots over these bottom guys because they were better but don't qualify under the 160 IP yardstick for this stat. Either way a lot of MLB teams would not be starting Suppan at all with the way he has pitched and worse yet we have to watch our team accumulate losses under the crappy argument that as a small market team we need to keep and play someone we made a horrendous judgment on and overpaid. That's a loser of an argument to me. If there's a scrub on the waiver wire who can pitch and win more games than a $27 million albatross, then I dump the albatross because it's supposed to be about winning not hanging onto your pride because you made a very poor and costly decision in the front office. Rp

I agree with most of this. To me Soup is almost to the point where we might be better cutting our losses and eating the contract because I seriously feel every time he takes the mound we are going to lose. Looper is solid if unspectacular and probably would do nicely in the #4-5 role so I am not concerned about his signing... and he was cheap/short term so those things make him far more tolerable. As for Julio, we knew that most of this bullpen was made up of retreads that had been dumped by other teams for a reason... someone was not going to hold up their end at some point. I would think we'll avoid Turnbow/Gagne level disasters but certainly I expect someone to struggle enough where we need to change the pen up during the season at some time. Kendall at this point scares me a little because I think his hitting skills are gone (not unlike Varitek but Tek at least has power still) and he's going to get ABs just because of the reputation has has defensively and with handling the staff... that's a lot of automatic outs in the lineup. Anyone else think Macha came off completely insane by even suggesting he might play Kendall at lead off? Rp

The difference is Jordan Zimmerman didn't turn down a substantial (even if it wasn't the largest one out there) offer from the Brewers to sign with the Cubs. Tex turned down offers from the O's AND the nearby Nationals to sign with the scourge of the earth Yankees. For any fan of an AL East team not from New York, the Yankees are the enemy. So it feels like a slap in the face when the hometown boy turns down hundreds of millions of dollars to play with the enemy. And that's why they are booing. Rp

The Miami team had a gator in its logo IIRC. And hey if it takes until 2015 for the Cubs to win their first World Series since 1908, that is a pretty good losing streak. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Rp

Yeah I saw them in Boscobel last year and was thinking, "That's one heck of a ride for Terrace Reserved seats". If I'm making that trip I'm getting good seats. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Rp

Haven't seen it posted here but this is hilarious (emphasis mine): Attractive Offer, After All By Chico Harlan Washington Post Staff WriterMonday, March 16, 2009; Page E04 The longer Julián Tavárez thought about the Nationals, they better they looked. The team first contacted Tavárez in November, inviting him to spring training on a non-guaranteed minor league contract. Tavárez said no. He kept waiting. He played earlier this month for the Dominican WBC team, throwing 1 1/3 innings. But with spring training just around the corner, Tavárez was still very much unemployed. The Nationals called again, offering the same deal. "Why did I sign with the Nationals?" Tavárez said on Sunday. "When you go to a club at 4 in the morning, and you're just waiting, waiting, a 600-pounder looks like J-Lo. And to me this is Jennifer Lopez right here. It's 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. So, Nationals: Jennifer Lopez to me." Tavárez joined his new team on Sunday, and is scheduled to pitch for the first time in an intrasquad game on Tuesday. While Tavárez awaits completion of his work visa -- something that should require only a few more days -- he is unable to compete in games.

That really is the most ludicrous save ever recorded. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Rp

Hmm, I wonder what the odds are that Suppan gets DFA'd before the end of his contract? Honestly if he has a bunch of bad outings it would be hard to see that the Brewers would be able to justify having him on the roster and pitching solely because of his paycheck versus wanting to win. Also if Suppan and McClung are only 4.5-5.25 ERA pitchers, is there anyone on the market that would be an upgrade over that? Pedro Martinez maybe? Rp

You can find those Home Run Derby episodes on DVD now. I found a boxset of all three DVDs at Mega Media Xchange for $12 but you can get the discs individually all over the place for fairly cheap: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=Home%20Run%20Derby%20%20%20&tag=swoggle6808-20&search-alias=dvd

Man, Orza and Fehr are complete tools. They couldn't look any worse in all of this... although we all sort of suspected how idiotic they were when they were stonewalling steroid testing originally. Rp

I liked Rijo when he pitched with the Reds. That being said this whole skimming thing combined with the one prospect they found to be 23 instead of 16 or whatever... it's been a horrible week for the Nats front office.

I actually would love more games from the 80s. I think they could show a ton more old games then they do. They seem to show 1-2 a week and repeat it the entire week. I don't think the station is nearly as Yankees-Red Sox biased as you guys do... it seems people on this board hate those teams so much that they see any coverage of those teams as bias. Rp

Cameron is not overpaid by last year's market rate. He's overpaid by this year's market rate. I also disagree that Corey Hart in CF would be the disaster he believes it would be. Hart is not a horrible fielder, he just tries to hard to make catches sometimes that he should probably sit back on and allow the one hop. Braun looked like a great fielder statistically because he usually wasn't going to try to make a crazy catch... he'd let those drop and throw it back in. I think there should have been more of an effort to get a front of the rotation starter. If you lose Sheets and CC and your best options are one guy who has ace potential but hasn't pitched a full major league season and another who burned out 3/4ths of the way through last season I think you need to try harder to acquire a front end guy. I sort of wish we'd have taken a shot at Peavey. I know Milwaukee was not his destination of choice but even if it were to keep him out of Chicago (not to mention he'd be cheaper than what we offered CC for similar numbers) we should have made some sort of effort to acquire a lights out front end guy. Not to mention if the Cubs were interested in keeping him out of Milwaukee at the very least it would have driven the asking price up for them. Rp

Okay so now that all of the arby stuff has been figured out do we know how much the payroll is going to be? I'm interested to see how much it was last year vs. what it will be this year. Rp

Hmm, the poll on that page is a bit strange. I highly doubt Griffey picked the Braves to be a backup CF or a platoon player. Rp