laserbomb

In light of my question getting answered by Jim Callis in the Baseball America chat on ESPN.com this afternoon, I like how you included this when it had only a slim tangent in common with the rest of your post, and you didn't even tell us how Jim Callis of Baseball America responded to your thoughtful query! What did he say about it?

The "musical" introduction for Sunday Night Football on NBC: Pink. Also, their epic theme music definitely sounds important but it always reminds me of the chorus to that "gypsys, tramps and thieves" song by Cher. I hadn't thought of that song for at least a decade until NBC took over. I moved to east central Indiana for the year for work purposes and coming here from Madison was like stepping back from a 9 or 10 in the Restaurant category, to a 5 at best. We haven't figured out how to recreate Med Cafe in our kitchen yet so we bake a lot of cookies, and the first few months have seen some fairly rapid weight gain. And that's even considering that finding cheese curds and brats around here is out of the question. Also I've seen officers here border on abusing their powers to bend traffic to their will, on a couple occasions (siren on, drive through a slow clot of traffic, siren off a block later; and siren on, right turn from left-turn lane, siren off half a block later). There are definitely bright sides, among other things my rent is about a third of what it'd be for the same place in Madison or Milwaukee, but this thread isn't about the bright side.

The thought of an official release and maybe press conference regarding Suppan's signing made me smile. Not that it matters on the field, but that's the best way I can think of to ensure months and months of cheap shots from writers and casual fans. Maybe Steve Trachsel will be available after his playoff showing, I can't think of the last time we had a guy with "trash" in his nickname. The above was only a little joking, not a comparison and not intended to call anyone out. I flinched when I saw someone post that Bagwell made $19M this year. Can you imagine something like that happening for the Brewers? I know he's a long sight from Jenkins, but at 2 and a half times the cash it'd probably be enough for the miserable segment of our base to put a sour end on a Hall of Fame career. Even if we treated him right on the way out, the owner and GM would be burned in effigy, or at least repeatedly in consecutive Haudricourt chats and the general sentiment.

Most people would also tell you they'd rather not walk under a ladder or see the bride on the day of the wedding, it doesn't mean it makes them worse off though. My fiancee wants to take me dress-shopping, cause she says I got style! Hope we're not doomed. But as for Pierre, a lot of my favorite plays involve gunning guys out on the basepaths. I would hate knowing we've got a wounded-duck cannon out there when pitchers get in trouble and sac flies can do some damage. That's a painful way to lose, especially when guys like Turnbow and even Cordero pretty regularly put guys on before turning it on and getting out of it. Even if he were on the team I'd rather keep another player like Hart or Weeks in the leadoff role. Not that they're stereotypical 1-slot guys and they'd probably fit better elsewhere, but at least there's a possibility somebody like that could grow into the role and get on base more than a third of the time. Maybe Pierre could hit 8th, and then our poor-hitting pitchers might have a fighting chance to bunt him over more than half the time. Is there any way to compare the net loss from his weenie arm to the gain from getting to fly balls most others couldn't?

Did you just call out your week-ago self?

I haven't read a lot of this thread but the idea got me thinking and playing around a little. I don't like to speculate on trades or acquisitions because although I saw a lot of games this season, I haven't soaked up a lot of stats for players around the league as a whole. Beyond that it's only names, and really easy to be led astray by them. It's a really limiting ground rule, but with that in place, I looked at what we have. The outfield's the only thing I want to mention before dropping the big list. First, I've been a Jenkins apologist, but I underestimated Gross for most of the year until Yost mentioned his red-line/blue-line chart in August and Gross was something like one of two guys with a red line for the month. I disliked him because he's not much better than average defensively, for a while he was getting time while I wanted to see Hart play, and I remembered him cooling off after a torrid pinch-hitting start. I don't want to get too high on him because even though he compared pretty well to Jenkins (especially with salary considered), he only had half the at-bats. But really, Gross was proving it before Hart was, and it's kind of quiet on him now. Maybe because, like Jenkins, he had a tough time with lefties, who wants to get excited about that? But the cost and their similarities leads me to believe Jenkins is on his way out, even though it's not my first choice, partly because he'll likely take $3,500,000 with him. I don't like thinking about it like paying Gross almost $4M, but it's better than paying $7 and a half million to him and a better, more proven twin with the same key weakness. Next point isn't quite logical, it runs against everything we've seen. Yost seems to hate platoons, and it's possible a fair amount of lineup decisions were based on being able to maintain "we look at the numbers" instead of admitting to a platoon, answering questions about it, and putting a player like Jenkins through those questions. A lot of people have written Mench off already but his value couldn't be much lower for a corner OF in his prime, and he picks up where Gross leaves off anyway. The lefty hitter in a platoon deserves to take some flak as the one who can get the job done significantly less than half the time, so haters have my blessing but I think it's better to keep him than give him walking papers. I imagine if these two guys are around, Yost would avoid the clear platoon, give Mench first shot but without the long, long leash, and give Gross an increasing number of games until it approximates the closest thing to a platoon Ned Yost will dare approach. For these purposes, it was very convenient to trade Clark, although it's against my rules to speculate on the return. Nix as default 5th OF, because I want 13 on offense and we'd rather Gwynn reach for the ceiling in AAA, even though that speed off the bench would be appealing. Along with that I don't want to write Krynzel off yet - appealing speed and defense off the bench, poor hitting? That sounds like a luxury that a 13th man on offense can provide for a playoff team, and maybe Nix could share Gwynn's privilege of working in Nashville to maximize potential and results. I wasn't impressed with Anderson but haven't seen a lot of him, but at least Krynzel could have a niche beyond "doesn't do anything very well". I don't think Anderson's passed him. All that said, there's a good enough chance Kryznel's burned his last chance that I'll leave Nix here. All right: taking for granted that we'll lose a couple extra outfielders and keep the relative best pieces is a serious drawback to this method. But I wanted to see what we've got and what's left over. All other comments will follow the list. C - Miller: $2,250,000 1B - Fielder: $400,000 2B - Weeks: $550,000 SS - Hardy: $350,000 3B - Koskie: $2,000,000 LF - Gross: $350,000 CF - Hall: $4,800,000 RF - Hart: $350,000 2nd C - Rivera: $350,000 UTIF - Cirillo: $1,000,000 LH OF - Mench: $3,800,000 UTIF - open UTOF - Nix: $350,000 Offense subtotal: $16,750,000 with one open spot See ya, Jenkins: $3,500,000 eaten Offense total: $20,250,000 SP1 - Sheets: $10,000,000 SP2 - Capuano: $5,200,000 SP3 - Bush: $400,000 SP4 - Davis: $6,000,000 SP5 - Villanueva: $350,000 LP/SP6 - open LR - open MR - Sarfate: $350,000 MR - Shouse: $1,400,000 SU - Wise: $1,000,000 SU - Capellan: $350,000 CL - Cordero: $5,400,000 Pitching subtotal: $30,450,000 with two open spots It was fun while it lasted, Turnbow: $2,300,000 Pitching total: $32,750,000 Grand total: $53,000,000 As I added the totals, I had second thoughts about the reasons behind trading a good hitter and defender, and paying half his salary to leave. Someone else could look at us like we were looking at Toronto with Koskie. Gross is probably overqualified for the title of fifth OF, but hey, learn to hit lefties. Also, I don't want to completely disregard Mench's second half, and a continuation would project as a poor fourth OF. Anyway, enough about the outfield. You can see I took the optimistic track with the infield, partly because my guidelines dictated it and I couldn't go out and get a replacement, but also because I'm hopeful that another five months will be enough for Weeks, Hardy and Koskie. I don't see Graffanino coming back to this situation even with all the uncertainty, and it seems Cirillo will be happy to. There's a utility spot empty, and maybe speed and versatile defense with a small stick could hide here, although that's less likely knowing Cirillo couldn't play every day in the event of serious injuries. Really, that fact should slot Cirillo into the second UTIF position, not that teams ever label backups like that. One other point on offense, Hall's salary is unrealistic. He won't get that much in arbitration but would sign for more in an extension. I couldn't make up my mind, and am partly just hoping they can lock him up. Considering how unpredictable bullpen arms are, nothing would make me happier this winter than an extension for Hall. Finally, even eating half of Jenkins and taking a chance on Mench bouncing back, this is a $20M offense. I'm really impressed by that. The salary for Capuano's also higher than arbitration would allow, and I'm gunning for another extension here. I believe Davis is better than anyone we'd get at a comparable price, and that's why he'll make outstanding trade bait if the younger pitchers can pound the door down and push him out. Ohka walked. Can't make guesses about two potential long relievers. The relievers beside Cordero seem like okay guesses, although I'd like to see Shouse used less next year. He was the best thing going at times but that little drop-off at the end was inevitable. I was optimistic about the offense, but if I had to guess I don't think Turnbow will straighten it out, and with a demand for performance I had to bring the total sunk cost up near six million. I thought Maddux was supposed to be the wizard! We're all hoping an offseason away will give him the flow back but I didn't want to play it best-case across the board and this was one way to compensate. $47M for 22 players plus $6M more to see two more go. Leaves a few spots to fill and definitely a few more to potentially upgrade, but $7-12M to play with assuming a $65M max. All right, a little bit of couch GM work in closing: I don't like the Soriano idea without knowing there can be an acceptable return on the 4 other guys on their way out the door. I'd rather have Dunn than Soriano for the money but the same issues apply. I think Crawford is a less realistic possibility but I'd still give Dunn a small edge without having done any analysis or comparison whatsoever. Schmidt comes to mind, if he steps in at #2, Capuano and Bush bump down a spot and Davis catchs a plane, that would be really exciting, maybe second for me behind an extension for Hall. I have a feeling it would negatively affect the ability to keep the younger Sheets and Capuano. Haven't looked into that either but it would be enough to walk away, and if there's that much money left over I'd like to look into keeping Cordero past this year. 266 ERA+? That'll do. This may seem pretty weak given what I set out to do, but having roughly $50M committed (minus Mench) and a fair amount of flexibility to fix what's wrong is encouraging to me. Signings will likely seem pedestrian, at least without future hindsight, and the free agent crop may not be exciting for the most part but the big stuff will likely all go down via trades anyway.

Can someone fill me in as to why The D-Rays would trade Crawford? I know they have Baldelli and young, but who is forcing them to get rid of one? and why get rid of a cheap young outfielder when they have use of the DH? I wonder, too, I know he'll be making a lot more very soon, is it because his value's even higher before he makes it there? And why keep Baldelli, the one who's missed 250 games in three years, over Crawford? Maybe it all comes back to the contracts and present values.

When Mass first posted I was glad to see balls and walks weren't the problem, I wasn't very familiar with Sarfate and didn't know he was potentially DD out of the pen until I looked at some numbers a few days ago. Sounds like Peoria had somewhere between 4 and 7 outs to play with in that eighth, still the only way Sarfate was overmatching them at that point was by getting everyone tired from running around the bases.

You should go to a game before you talk about the results. Hey, Director of Research and Minor League Link Reporter, you know this isn't the sport with the two peach baskets, right? Oh, so you know, but you just don't manage to attend every game in the Brewers organization? Everyone's replaceable, Mass. Teasing aside, thanks for the report, Baseball, it's good to know only Zumwalt got shelled fair and square. Any other notes from the game? I'd be interested.

I think we're all in agreement that Overbay had the superior year for seven times the money. To add to Robert's VORP numbers, where Overbay had a small edge over Bush, let's add on Gabe Gross at 16.0 (fifth-best Milwaukee hitter, Overbay's numbers would have put him in second). For a stretch late-summer before the wheels fell off, he was unfortunately the hottest hitter in town. But I know you're comparing these 1B straight up, and not talking about the trade. Based on Overbay's numbers on the year, maybe he could have had that same strong second half for Milwaukee and made a big difference during team-wide slumps. If we disregard that Gross's year was solid, maybe Corey Hart would have gotten more time earlier and that might have been another good thing. If we bring in that, though, it's also worth wondering for a second who else would have taken the mound every fifth day. Melvin wouldn't have gone into the year like that, but 6-21 is damning enough to suggest the team's record would have been even worse on the year. Watching all those doubles was a lot of fun while he was here, but I wouldn't want to hear about that 22-year-old mashing 26 homers for anyone else. Fielder seems to be the early favorite for first-to-move-on-from-the-small-market. But in 4 years when he's heading into his last year before free agency, maybe the team will need to look hard at shopping him and meanwhile Overbay will be 33. It'll take Fielder a couple more years just to get up to the $2.5M Overbay made this year. O had the noticably better, more consistent year but Fielder was a better value this year and will be through Overbay's prime, whether this was his peak year or not. I never heard exactly why Overbay to corner outfield wasn't considered more thoroughly, maybe his arm wasn't good but more probably it was just the roster make-up at the time. Who knew?

Remember when it felt good just to play spoiler? Enjoy it one more time before bigger things next fall.

Gotta say I enjoyed getting learned like that, what a smooth professional move.

Daron and Bill: Team Not Dead

Wooo,ooo, Who's excited about the new Bucks lineup, five guys that complement each other? Everyone's sleeping on them so far this year.

...I'm guessing 7 IP 0 ER 4-5 Hits from 4-5Ks 1 BB for Villy.... It'd be beautiful to get to the 8th without the bullpen. I'll guess 6 innings, 4 hits, 2 walks, 2 ER and 2K and a win, how many times can the same low guy beat the Brewers? With the way this year's going, though, do you really think we'll be able to head into this offseason unreservedly optimistic about Villanueva? Lot of bile around here, short's outslugging the world of short and he gets his turn to be picked on, just like everyone else. Edited: a caveat

6 RBI night from either Fielder or Hall will put them in the lead for team run-production. 5 will tie them with the guy who's been in the AL for almost two months. I think seeing Mench and Gross chase balls into the LF corner about as clumsily as Lee did (but without his bat) was like salt in the wound. If a guy can get comfortable out there, move around pretty well and maybe get to some balls we're not used to seeing caught, I know I'd feel pretty good. Although watching Carlos put his hands up to shield himself from a fly ball he couldn't get to was almost as satisfying as seeing him knock one in, and definitely funnier. I miss that even more than the team's offense.

And the Brewers are finally eliminated from the Central pennant.

That's no good, he's still the second-best thing they've got going out there in the pen.

This one got out of hand in a hurry!

Guess it can always be worse, Sheets' right arm could have detached and hit the backstop back in the sixth, a swarm of locusts could have flown in through the outfield window, another piece of the roof could have fallen off, Bell could be warming up.

This is only the worst thing that could have happened tonight...

12 games back in the division with 12 to play (13 remaining for STL), will Sheets let that struggling candle wink out? With the ace on the mound, let's take a night to relax and ease up on Yost, Bell, and especially the Vinny Rottino thing, that seems ridiculous and not worth the energy. I'd appreciate a little break for Jenkins, too, he's done a lot for the club in his time here, so give me a half hour if you can. I'll accept the half hour before the game starts and everyone shows up for business as usual. Another story to follow: Prince (76) and Billy (75) still racing to pass Carlos for the Cream City RBI crown. Lee had 81 in 102 games. Jenkins is third on the current roster with 67. And distant fourth you don't want to know: Bell's got 51 on the season. What a seasoned, experienced veteran run producer! He just knows how to help a team.