On Sale Today

I drove by a very busy Miller Park a few minutes ago and spotted the minions awaiting tickets and the hoopla that's about to ensue. I, for one, will maybe try to get tickets online (for at least the Ryan Braun bobblehead), but I'm betting on people realizing the economy's sort of bad and them changing their mind about tickets. Getting into the stadium is the priority, not where I sit ... and I assume at any point there is one of 43,000+ tickets with my name on it.

Game on!

Deep Thought

Would it be too much to ask Anthony Witrado to dress more professionally?

Bullpen Boycott

Over at BCB there has been a dueling of thoughts, parsing of words, and flinging of numbers about the Brewers' bullpen since Gagne signed. Much is over construction, some over effectiveness, marginal cost, and whatnot. My eyes glossed over writing those two sentences, so I'm doing the unthinkable: I'm not going to think or write about the bullpen until Macha misuses it during the season. Why? Because it doesn't matter.

Remember the fundamental concept about who comprises a bullpen: failed starters. No one grows up wanting to be a middle relief pitcher. NO ONE. In my mind, the only people of interest in the bullpen are:

• That rookie pitcher gaining experience
  
• That LOOGY
  
• That one guy who's decent enough to finish the game
  

Other than that, I don't care who is in the bullpen as long as they are used effectively and not too often. I view them as the 7-8-9 hitters in the lineup. Few GM's go into the winter meetings saying "Boy, I have to shore up the bottom third of that lineup or we're going to be toast." They are replacement level players, anything more would be a luxury and cost significantly more … and that fits the players who make up the bullpen.

I'll tell you how it will go as Spring Training winds down: the player with options is going to be sent to the minors, and those who are kept will be given a chance. If that chance is squandered, they will be cut and the more deserving player sent to AAA will be recalled. Easy.

I know part of the bullpen chatter online and at the heritage media needs to fill a gaping void of actual team news, so I understand this. However, the bullpen doesn't matter because they are more likely than not replacement level relievers who will excel if used properly by management. After Yost, that's all we can hope for in this team.

Elder Fielder Strikes a Conciliatory Tone (Sort of)

Each day I race home from the grain elevator to the nightly news DVR'd so I can learn the latest in the grain elevator industry to see if I'll have a job tomorrow. Sometimes I flip it to the MLB Network to check out the latest on the Hot Stove and see if there's anything I missed on Rotoworld 12 hours ago. Surprise, surprise, Papa Fielder was the in studio guest.

With Prince in the prime of his career and Cecil now managing an independent team in Atlantic City, I believe the big man will make the drive to Secaucus many times this year and spout his misgivings about his relationship with his son. Credit should go out to Matt Vasgersian and gang for talking about something other than the tenuous situation between the father and son, but the topic still came up nonetheless.

Cecil seems to have learned his lessons about speaking in public about his son and realizes that they both probably need the time apart to "learn to be men." Of course, nothing was said about Cecil's gambling debts and mistreatment of Prince's mom that lead to the whole situation, but I realize the MLB Network is a propaganda wing for the league. Vasgersian was befuddled about the difficulty of this particular father-son relationship, he must hug his dad each day. Cecil was cool about things, but, nary a hint of sarcasm, said Prince doesn't do anything better than he did. He added "Oh, he can run faster than I can."

Of note in the interview were the vintage videos of Cecil with a very young Prince and then an older Prince, batting righty, taking swings at Tiger Stadium. The long arm of the MLB Network would shutter any video I may post, but I felt a few screen grabs would be mildly interesting.

Speaking of which, with the talk of Prince being markedly thinner at spring training, one would think that would be a good photo to post on the internet. Apparently this is not the case as no legitimate photo of the vegetarian-but-eat-two-packs-of-Twizzlers-a-day Fielder have yet to show up on the web.

The Hot Stove program re-airs multiple times tonight, the money segment is about half past the hour and also features Cecil hitting his homer out of County Stadium off Dan Plesac.

I guess he's never going to stop doing this lip thing.

BRAAAAAAAINS

You thought he was gone ... but he's back for more!


Sorry, it's the first thing I thought of when I read the news. I think this is a good low risk/high reward move that small payroll clubs have to make. Obviously his time in Milwaukee wasn't completely awful since he was willing to come back.

Panic post about pitchers averted

A couple of weeks ago I was going to write a diatribe on the sorry state of the Brewers' starting rotation compared to last year. I held off, however, because I have a belief that Melvin is still one of the best GMs in the game and was reasonably sure he would come through with league-average talent to not only fill out the rest of the rotation, but provide depth in case injuries were to occur. My dream of a Jake Peavy trade aside, I think he did fairly well with Looper, Wright, and other randoms to compete, but eventually be sent to AAA.

Obviously Looper and Wright are not the droids we're looking for, but one of the general theories of starting pitching is that you must have plethora of arms because guys will get hurt (Capuano), and secondly you must get guys who can consistently give you 5+ innings each game. You may be able to skimp on the first theory because of a stellar staff, but I believe the second point is more important because that affects the bullpen, and unless you have a barrow-full of K-rods, a bullpen works better with more rest. More IP by starters = more quality bullpen appearances = more marginal victories. It's that simple.

I'm not a downer on Suppan, DiFelice, or McClung or whomever is vying for the remaining spots in the rotation after Gallardo, Parra, and Bush, but if they can't do that job, then that's it; the team needs to cut its losses and move them to the pen or AAA and give others a chance. The addition of Looper, a league average pitcher, boosted the Brewers three more wins in the early PECOTA projections. I think the Brewers were already going struggle this year without that stellar starter(s) and young pitching staff, but at least a projection of 86 wins gets them into the Wild Card conversation … about where they were at this time last year. Maybe the young offense will take that giant leap and carry the team much like the pitching did after Sabathia arrived in 2008.

My starting staff depth chart:

01 Gallardo
02 Parra
03 Bush
04 Looper
05 McClung
06 Suppan
07 DiFelice
08 Wright
09 Capuano (after July)

If it were up to me, Suppan would be in long relief and McClung would be in the rotation because he's the only starting hard-thrower the Brewers have. Alas, Suppan and his unfrozen caveman lawyer schtick will be veterany in the rotation until he has a quad injury just before his bobblehead day. I'm also bothered that the Brewers spent the same amount of money on Hoffman that could have gotten them Jon Garland, but that's a future rant.