MessiahRp

I suppose next year is mostly a question mark of whether we're pumping all of our cash into the lineup or if we will ever pay for a big arm. I was thinking that if Cleveland is tanking by the trading deadline they might be willing to move Sabathia for some prospects. If we're still in it and can still use an ace, maybe we could deal for him, make Sabathia the long term resign and basically make Sheets the rental for the rest of the year if you get my logic. I like Gallardo a lot and have high hopes for Villy but at some point we're going to have to pay for a top level rotation guy and not just re-up position players while hoping for pitching prospects to pan out during their arby years through our system. Rp

I know PTI and Around the Horn are basically shouting matches rather than reasonable debate but they are entertaining if only because you want to see how ludicrious the arguments will be (and how far that person will go to defend them). I liked the format of the show although I think they tried to cram too many segments in because the last panel sort of had no time to talk. Will Leitch was in a no-win situation. Braylon Edwards isn't going to defend blogs that use sarcasm and satire to mock athletes, That Buzz guy is just a bitter old dude who like many old people, hate new technology and Costas didn't do a very good job evening the playing field of that argument. I think also we should remember that for every one truly great columnist in the papers every morning there are probably a dozen that stink and use shoddy information and a serious lack of objectivity to make their points. How many times have false rumors or easily debunked stories come out of newspaper columns as well? There is seriously no infallibility amongst the print columnists but somehow because most are more interconnected with the players due to the connections their media gives them access to, they feel superiority to other sources and thusly look down on anything different or new. I do believe that Will was close to making a good point but backed off of it a bit when he was discussing how close these reporters are to players and blogs are more the perspective of the fan. Taking that one step further, while being close to the player gives insight as to the person involved, many of these reporters become chummy with players and use their pulpit to defend them from criticism. See: Ric Bucher, aka Kobe apologist. There is a value to blogs in that it gives fans a place to speak their mind (not unlike certain message boards) but also it is a faster way to report a lot of news.

I just noticed this myself. That just seems ridiculous. From Yahoo: Apr 27 3B Bill Hall was out of the starting lineup Sunday despite collecting five hits in the previous two games. Manager Ned Yost wanted to give either Hall or 2B Rickie Weeks the day off to let INF Craig Counsell see some action. Yost put the names of Hall and Weeks in a baseball cap and had Hall pick to see who would be out of the lineup. Hall picked his own name, and thus had to sit.

The Rays can easily finish in second in this division. I don't know that they can overtake Boston for the length of an entire season but the Yankees are relying on some really young and really old arms to carry them and they seem to lack the depth to do too much this year. Toronto is always a middle of the pack club and I don't see them being much better this year and Baltimore's improving but they're still on the lifetime rebuilding track that Peter Angelos has had them on for awhile so it might take some time to get enough pieces to contend. The Rays have an incredible wealth of young talent and remind me of the D-Backs of the AL. They could easily finish 2nd in the AL East and should some of the AL Central teams struggle they could very well contend in the Wild Card race. Rp

The only question mark to me is why they didn't at least wait until he had more ABs before going to this level. I have no problem buying out Arby years to offset costs later but he hasn't even logged 25 ABs in the bigs yet. Plus if a player tears it up you're still looking at year three before Arby numbers jump so why not wait a year or two before throwing that much money at them? If Longoria were to come up this year and have a Ryan Braun-like year it would make great sense (just as it does for us) to lock him up long term for as cheap as possible. Without any serious time facing Major League pitching, to me, that's the risk. Again, I don't mind the whole buying out Arby years concept as a whole but usually you want at least one season to make a determination like this. Otherwise you're going to have agents like Boras looking to exploit this for all of his top prospect clients to eliminate Arbitration years altogether. Rp

I think Gallardo and Villy will be great, not good once they get rolling this year. My personal opinion is that you's have Sheets, Gallardo and Villy being more than solid (and sometimes spectacular as Sheets has been so far), Suppan will be his average self and then it's up to Parra and Bush to solidify and hold down that last rotation spot (and I think Parra will win out personally). I am not worried about our rotation too much as long as we're getting past the 5th inning more often than last year when we burned our bullpen out by the midway point of the year. Frankly I'm a little more concerned about not having a solid LH bat to put in the lineup with the way we struggle against Righties. Rp

As a Sox fan (who also likes the Brewers) I was happy the Crew signed Kapler. I figured at the minimum he'd be a very useful 4th or 5th OF because he's a steady hitter, good pinch runner and good fielder. He's not going to light the world on fire but he's a very valuable piece to have in a pinch hit or pinch run situation, or as we're seeing now, in an injury replacement situation. The interesting thing to me is how him being here and performing up to his capabilities makes Gross and Gwynn look like they belong even further down the depth chart totem pole. Gwynn is good for defensive reasons or pinch running but I'm not convinced he'll do much more for you. Gross while he has some power and hasn't had a lot of ABs doesn't seem to be a difference maker yet. Kapler's sort of taken ABs from both of them as he continues to perform and earn Yost's confidence. When Cameron comes back you can bet Kapler gets those spot starts or pinch ABs that they might have gotten before. And frankly I'm not sure that's a bad thing at all. Rp

In all fairness the Twins and Royals are not big enough rivals, nor top level teams to warrant such excitement. I think though that had this happened between the Giants-Dodgers or even a Brewers fan pulling this on a new Cubs stadium with all of the "jinxes" and "curses" that Cubs fans have gone through that it would have warranted a pretty good deal of attention as well. However it's not that they are both on the East Coast that causes such attention so much as it is that the rivalry is so big between the fanbases. In that respect it was a story that while insignificant in the larger scheme of things deserved at least a little attention. Rp

She plays for the WNBA and during the offseason she plays in a Russian Pro-Basketball league (let's remember that the cap for top WNBA salaries just went up to $750,000 and she's probably nowhere near that). She tried to make the American Olympic team but wasn't going to make the team. So what if she chooses to live her Olympic team playing for a country in which she resides and is a naturalized citizen in now? From ESPN:

LOL. Nikolai Volkoff was elected to office in Baltimore. I guess under the OP's logic Maryland turned communist. ;-) Honestly who cares. One good player with a bunch of Russian players who are probably not so good. So she'll carry a weak team and heck end up an ambassador to the sport. Remember Comrades of Summer with Joe Mantegna? Rp

Becoming a vegetarian has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he hasn't hit a HR yet. IIRC he started off 2006 a little slow as well. Doesn't mean anything. It's almost ridiculous to even feed into such logic. Rp -edited to add *nothing* which was what I meant and completely changes the context of my post.

Besides the fact that this was only the third series of the year this I'd say to the question that titles the thread a definitive no. Pittsburgh seems to own us every year, does that mean that they are a threat to win the division? No. Cincy has nice young talent, but let's get to at least the midway point of the year to see how those young pitchers hold up before annointing them as heir apparents in the division. Rp

Ennder - I like both of your suggestions. In addition if I were Commish: -I'd lift the baseball bans on Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson -Salary Cap with Payroll Minimums AND broader Revenue Sharing. It's not just a cap that helps a team like the Packers out in the NFL -I'd make the draft an International Draft where Asian and Latino Players are entered. If a player from another country wants to play here that's fine but instead of allowing the richest teams make out by paying an exorbitant bidding fee to stop mid-market teams from having a chance, I enter them in the draft and then raise the slot salary ceiling. If the player doesn't want to play for the team that drafts them, they get a first rounder next year... if a rich big market club picks them they lost a first rounder they would have had for a top young prospect. You shouldn't be able to go nuts and buy the international players off the market and then turn around and in addition to that get a top pick. -I'd lower the Hall of Fame voting requirements by 5-10%. Let's face it a lot of HOF worthy players get left out because of old school baseball writer politics. -I'd have the MLB Extra Innings package have alternate channels where you can hear the games synched with the teams' radio broadcasters voices rather than their TV announcers. Give fans a choice and make the package worthwhile. I'd also make sure every single game was on the package. No more paying $189 for some of the games. -I'd designate one interleague team a rival and then randomize the interleague play more often. It seems that the Brewers always find a way to play the Twins or the Royals but rarely get games with the Yankees or Red Sox. One team should be the interleague rival and then all other teams should be changed up as opponents every year for some fresh opponents and matchups. -I'd spend at least one game in every ballpark in the stands by the fans and open up the league commissioner's office to a bi-weekly chat with fans that would like access or to suggest things or just to express opinions. The game needs to be more fan friendly and seem like it cares more about their fans' opinions. -I know someone else mentioned this but I would make much deeper urban investments to get more fields and equipment to kids in cities nationwide. Currently the baseball league that's available for my son at school costs $175 to join (or $100 plus selling two boxes of candy bars). That's a lot of dough for poor parents to come up with. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting but that's what I have right now. Rp

I noticed at County when it was so cold early and late in the season that I didn't want to go to the game, that I was content in watching it on TV. I also noticed when the games were rained out, or even snowed out as they were in Cleveland last year. I noticed that Cleveland decided to come up and play their games where weather was not a deciding factor in whether or not the game was played. I guess you can't please everyone. Well I actually enjoy Miller Park a lot. I was only mentioning noticing when the roof is closed because it's hard not to in the really hot summer days when they close it. Rp

JJ Hardy. 2nd inning, first game. He seems to be good in April. (and by default late March) Rp

My question has to be, why are you looking at the sky when there is a baseball game right in front of you? To be honest I never notice wether the roof is open or not. I notice when the roof is closed because it gets incredibly hot when it's closed in the summer and it's hard to sit and be comfortable. I love baseball and when I go to a game I rarely miss a pitch but if it's hot, humid and the roof is closed so there isn't a breeze to help cool you off then it is really hard to sit and have a good time. Rp

Without question I'd rather have our rotation. When Sheets is healthy nobody on the Cubs is even close (including Zambrano). Gallardo and Villanueva have bigger upside than any Cubs pitcher on their big league club and could be cornerstone pitchers down the road. Parra has tremendous upside and is comparable or better to what Rich Hill will be on his very best days and Bush is better than Marquis or Ted Lilly. And who the heck wants Jon Lieber at this stage of his career?

You're right. For some reason I tend to lump those two trades in together. Although I think the assessment that Gross isn't going to pan out is still early and speculative, his time in Milwaukee hasn't quite been spectacular even if it has been limited. With the Cordero/Lee point I meant in terms of what fans see currently. My overall point was that there's a lot less luster on the deals people used to frame Melvin as a genius as there was before the beginning of last season due to some poor performances by the players we received and also by the departures of a lot of the key figures to those deals. So that may be some of the reason people are judging him a bit more critically this year. Keeping Yost on might be his call as well, if so I would be in the camp that it was a bad move but I'm not entirely sure that doesn't go all the way up to Attanasio either so I'll withhold judgment on that. Rp

My opinion of Doug is he's a solid "B" GM. Yes he inherited a lot of the talent that are on the big club now but he seems to have handled them well and not panicked when he could have moved any one of these guys for veterans to make us more competitive sooner. By not doing so we're set up with an affordable, competitive young team for the next few years and are not saddled with a ton of high salaried veterans who might not be living up to their contracts right now. As far as Free Agency goes I think we're limited just because of our market status but I think Doug's been a little hit and miss here. The Gagne deal, while only for one year, could backfire quickly if he plays like he did the second half of last year in Boston. The Suppan deal was horrible. I had made the case when it was between us and Pittsburgh that if we couldn't outbid Pittsburgh for his services that it said something about how much money we would spend and how much Milwaukee's prestige as a place free agents want to come to has not increased. However I can't recall a single person, myself included, that thought he was worth $42 million. Especially since most of us were of the assessment that Suppan = Doug Davis basically. I also think Craig Counsell is a close second in terms of worst free agent signings by Melvin. On the flip side personally I think the David Riske signing will be the best signing of the offseason as I am of the opinion that of everyone in the pen he will end up being the most reliable guy we have. The Villanueva trade was a gem and personally I think he's the most underrated pitcher on the team. IMO, the guy would be a very solid #3 behind Sheets (when healthy) and Gallardo. Overbay was a good guy and a solid producer but he didn't have a place to play here and so we took Koskie (a salary dump), Bush (a guy with high upside) and Jackson (a prospect with some upside). Bush has been a good enough backend starter (I would probably make him the #5 on this team) and Jackson could pan out, even if the likelihood of such seems more difficult to ascertain as each year goes by. Koskie didn't pan out but he didn't cost us much either. Considering that we had to move Overbay, the haul wasn't bad. Usually you get less when your hand is so obviously forced as ours was. You could make a strong case that the Davis for Vargas/Estrada trade flopped bad and unless Cappy comes back strong it will look like in the long run all we got for Richie Sexson was whatever Bush makes of himself (since we peddled Overbay who we got in the deal to Toronto) and one and a half good years from Cappy. Not to mention that we gave up Will Inman and Joe Thatcher for Linebrink who didn't pan out and we may well be kicking ourselves for giving up Thatcher even considering whatever pick we get out of Linebrink signing with the White Sox. Not quite sure why Melvin and the organization had such a low opinion of him. We traded him at a time when we had tried just about everyone imaginable to patch up a broken pen. How many innings did we give to Chris Spurling? There are still some acquisitions to be determined in terms of value here. Mora will need to bounce back and have a good year, as will Cameron. Neither has been particularly valuable recently and both have had drug suspensions. The aforementioned Gagne had serious injury issues and doesn't seem to be the same guy who was the best closer in the game a few years back. Torres may not have a whole lot left. Kendall seemed pretty washed up when the A's gave him up for peanuts to the Cubs last year. Melvin's succeeded at getting a good year out of a retread in Turnbow but he's self destructed since. Shouse seemed pretty much washed up before Melvin picked him up and now he's a pretty solid situational lefty. Graffy was good when he came over from KC and though he had struggled early in the season he was coming on before his injury ended his time here and considering how little we were getting out of De La Rosa it was a worthy acquistion. He gave up an overrated Scott Podsednik for a legitimate power hitter in Carlos Lee and then moved Lee for a solid year and a half of one of the game's best closers in Cordero. Cordero might not have stayed and Mench may have sucked but that's a pretty good turnaround for Scotty Podsednik. The opinions a lot of people had on Melvin before last year may have changed because no longer do the Sexson (18 game winner Cappy), Davis (high era pitcher for solid hitting catcher) and Overbay deals (Koskie was seen as a solid hitting 3B and Bush a solid starter) look as pristine. Not to mention we have nothing to show for Carlos Lee now that Cordero has moved on. I still rate him a B. Theo Epstein may be the best GM in the game right now and he has made his fair share of mistakes (J.D. Drew/Julio Lugo). Nobody's perfect. Rp

Bob Uecker's hosting a baseball movie marathon this week on WGN. He's cracking some funny lines between commercial breaks and then I look at his hat. It's blurred. If you look closely it's clear it's a Milwaukee Brewers cap, but the Brewers logo is blurred. Is it blurred because they don't have MLB's permission to air that logo even if it's on someone's hat? Or is it blurred because WGN is home of the Cubs and the Brewers are rivals? Either way the concept of blurring out hats is pretty lame. Rp

Each station has it's drawbacks. Cliff and Sparky are annoying as all hell on WSSP but Homer is flat out the worst. In fact the national ESPN programming is the only reason I ever listen to WAUK. Mike and Mike in the Morning is by far the best morning show and Tirico is pretty decent. Replacing him with the charisma-less WAUK guys is suicide. Also who's the guy on WAUK with the horrific lisp? No offense but when you're on radio it's probably not a good idea to have a speech impediment. Plus since they switched to 540 the signal is weak as hell. I lose it quite frequently on my way back and forth from my home near 27th & Layton and my work in New Berlin. I'll stick with WSSP's Brewers' show. Rp

LOL What a dumb prediction. It keeps sticking in my head that Dusty was telling Reds hitters that they hold the bat on their shoulders too often and he wants Adam Dunn swinging more. The guy strikes out a lot now but if you take even a third of those walk totals and turn them into strike outs and the Reds offense would be in tremendous disarray. Rp

5 years $90 million seems to make a lot of sense. He'll make $18 mil a year for the final two years of Arby when he would probably get $10-15 million tops and $18 million seems to be near around the top level paydays anyway and he only loses 3 years of free agency during that period when he is making that kind of money. Seems to me it would be win-win for Prince to take it because 5 years would not eat up his entire prime and he could still make big money on his next contract. Rp

IIRC couldn't Raul at least hit decent? I thought that the prevalent thought was he could hit but he was slow and a subpar fielder... of course it's been years since he was with Milwaukee so he could suck at the plate too.... Rp

If it isn't gone already I'd love to be in the drawing for the Robin Roberts ball. Also would probably take any baseball card sets you haven't found a home for... (have a 9 year old that seems to enjoy these cards) Thanks! Rp