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Your 2007 Milwaukee Brewers - Running article tracker

Ando Calrissian
dannyjnoonan College Ball

dannyjnoonan

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Posted
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It was also little league night on Monday so there were a few thousand little leaguers and their families.

 

 

Also: Why was this post moved here? I like the idea of a running article tracker, but if people have to comment on articles in that thread, it'll get all overloaded and make for bad discussion, and make it difficult to go back and find an article. I think discussion of articles works better in seperate threads for each article. The running article thread should just contain links to the article. But that's just my two cents.

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bork First Round Pick

bork

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Posted
Posted

So Cecil finally speaks out and says Prince is the one with the problem.

 

Quote:
"I just don't think my son knows how to let it go," Cecil Fielder said Friday. "I don't think he's grown up yet. Until he can move on and talk to me like he's my son, we don't need to talk.

 

How about you act like a father and earn that respect? Take a good look in the mirror.

 

AP Story

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Pioneers3 Prep Ball

Pioneers3

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Quote:
And if he keeps it up, Fielder could earn MVP consideration.

 

I don't remember who said it (maybe Damin Miller) but said that Prince would be an MVP and asked when he said this year. I think it was during Spring Training or early in the season, can anybody refresh my memory!

 

Thanks

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Mass Haas GOAT

Mass Haas

Brewer Fanatic Staff
Posted
Posted

Link to New York Times while active, text follows:

 

www.nytimes.com/2007/07/0...ref=slogin

 

The Infield That May Make Milwaukee Famous

By MURRAY CHASS

 

The National League infield for the All-Star Game on Tuesday night will be Prince Fielder, Chase Utley, José Reyes and David Wright. What are the chances that in a few years Fielder could be joined by Rickie Weeks, J. J. Hardy and Ryan Braun?

 

Those four already make up the Milwaukee Brewers? infield.

 

?It would be a tough thing to get all four,? Doug Melvin, the Brewers? general manager, said, ?but we?re proud of the players we have.?

 

With good reason. All four players are young and talented and have played a role in the Brewers? presence atop the N.L. Central for the past two and a half months.

 

Actually, Braun ? a 23-year-old rookie third baseman ? has only been a part of the first-place run since May 25. But he made an instant impact, hitting .342 in 38 games with 10 home runs and 31 runs batted in, a .382 on-base percentage and a .645 slugging percentage entering yesterday.

 

?He?s been a monster,? Melvin said. ?He?s going to be a very good player. He will match up with David Wright.?

 

Braun came to the major leagues too late to be included on the All-Star ballot, but his infield mates did well in the voting.

 

Fielder beat out Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Derrek Lee, Carlos Delgado and Todd Helton at first base and placed second to Ken Griffey Jr. in the N.L. voting. Fielder, 23, led the league in home runs with 27, had driven in 66 runs and had a .376 on-base percentage and a .604 slugging percentage.

 

Second baseman Weeks (slumping recently to .223) and shortstop Hardy (.285, 18 home runs), both 24, placed second at their respective positions in the fan voting, and Hardy was elected to the team as a reserve in the players? balloting. The Mets, with Reyes and Wright, were the only other team to have two infielders elected by any means.

 

Besides their All-Star credentials and potential, the Brewers? infielders have an interesting history. All four were Brewers draft choices, as were the team?s three starting outfielders, suggesting that the Brewers have some all-star front-office people as well.

 

The Brewers drafted all four infielders and right fielder Corey Hart at the direction of Jack Zduriencik, their scouting director, who preceded Melvin?s 2002 arrival in Milwaukee.

 

?When you come in as general manager, you talk about a lot of moves you can make,? Melvin said. ?But one of the best moves I made was retaining Jack as scouting director. We studied the drafts and felt he had done a good job with them and decided to let him continue. You need some stability in scouting.?

 

The Brewers drafted Hardy in the second round in 2001.

 

?We were probably one of the few organizations that liked J. J. where we took him,? Zduriencik said. ?We had a huge debate in the room about picking him in the first round. Others didn?t feel that way about him. There were some issues about whether J. J. could run. We had a private workout with J. J., and I walked away saying he can hit, field and throw.?

 

Fielder was the seventh player picked over all in 2002.

 

?Some people thought it was a controversial pick,? Zduriencik said, alluding to Fielder?s XXXL size. ?Some people were scared of his frame. Our area scout, Tom McNamara, was convinced that his makeup was solid. We thought he was the best hitter in the country, and we thought he had the most power in the country.?

 

The son of the former major leaguer Cecil Fielder, Prince lost about 40 pounds from his sophomore year in high school to his senior year, Zduriencik said, adding: ?He was a much better athlete than people gave him credit for. Prince is a kid who has a lot of pride. He?s very comfortable with himself.?

 

Weeks was the second player chosen in the 2003 draft. His selection followed a change in scouting strategy by the Brewers.

 

?We had a tendency to draft high school guys,? Melvin said. ?Fielder and Hardy were high school. We thought it would be a good idea if we could get a college player or two to catch up with Fielder and Hardy. If we had continued drafting high school guys, they?d still be in the minors.?

 

Acting on that plan, the Brewers plucked Weeks from Southern University and Braun two years later from the University of Miami as the fifth player drafted.

 

Washington selected third baseman Ryan Zimmerman with the fourth pick in that draft, and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki went to Colorado as the seventh selection.

 

?We liked Ryan,? Zduriencik said, explaining the Brewers? decision to draft Braun. ?It made all the sense in the world. We had J. J. at shortstop. Ryan had converted from shortstop to third. We thought he was an outstanding athlete.?

 

The Brewers, Melvin said, felt that Braun was quicker than Tulowitzki and could steal bases. The scouting people, he added, ?saw the package of speed and power. Tulowitzki is a very good player, but the speed factor gave a little edge to Braun.?

 

In Melvin?s view, ?Braun probably could?ve made our club out of spring training, but defensively he didn?t play well in the spring. We wanted him to go down and work on his defense a little. His offense was ready. We felt also we were sending a message that defense is important.?

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1992casey Milwaukee Brewers

1992casey

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Posted
Posted

Quoth BrewCrewRising in the locked (and temporarily pinned) thread:

There's an article in baseball prospectus about J.J. and his rise to the majors.

 

It starts with the comment/question: "Hardy has more than doubled his career home run total with 18 shots so far this season, surprising many fans and analysts, but should it?"

 

What's interesting is that it seems like whereever J.J. goes, he struggles a bit at first, and then finds a way to adjust and often proves naysayers wrong. His defense and grace have long since garnered the praise of scouts and publications like Baseball America, and many of his stats have made fans out of Baseball Prospectus and other assorted statheads.

 

Anyway, sorry to not just put this in the running article tracker, but I wanted to make sure people who might not visit the article tracker all that frequently noticed it and got a chance to read it while baseball prospectus is having their free preview week (until July 15th). After Sunday it's paid subscribers only.

That’s the only thing Chicago’s good for: to tell people where Wisconsin is.

[align=right]-- Sigmund Snopek[/align]

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Jacob008 Prep Ball

Jacob008

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Posted
Quote:
Quoth BrewCrewRising in the locked (and temporarily pinned) thread:

Do you think this thread should be used to discuss the articles, or perhaps, in the interest of usability, it should remain more of an index of articles with links to discussions of the articles?

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TooLiveBrew Milwaukee Brewers

TooLiveBrew

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

interesting point, Jacob, but I can't resist this little bit of discussion -

Quote:
If his bat continues to progress and he gets the normal power spike as he ages, Hardy could be a perennial contender for the Brewers' token All-Star slot.

 

http://i2.tinypic.com/263tweb.jpg

Stearns Brewing Co.: Sustainability from farm to plate
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lukevan Draft Eligible

lukevan

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

The Brewers Cubs race for the NL Central is mentioned here as the "most fascinating of the division races" by Phil Rogers of ESPN.

 

LINK

 

 

4. Ned Yost vs. Lou Piniella, discuss

 

The most fascinating of the division races figures to be in the weakest division, the NL Central. Milwaukee is trying to get to the playoffs for the first time in 25 years and enjoyed a dream first half, with Ben Sheets and his fellow china dolls all healthy at the same time. But Bill Hall's turned ankle and the Cubs' 12-4 run down the stretch to the All-Star break have heightened the concern for the Brew Crew faithful. Piniella spent the first half of the season discovering guys such as Mike Fontenot, Ryan Theriot, Carlos Marmol and Felix Pie while trying to make a right fielder out of several left fielders and seeing if he can afford to play Cesar Izturis and Koyie Hill on the same day. The Cubs can make the 4½-game difference vanish in a hurry, especially if GM Jim Hendry adds a pure right fielder or a catcher who can hit and handle pitchers.

 

 

You can also vote here for what you think will happen in the 2nd half in the NL Central.

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Team Canada ACL Brewers

Team Canada

Community Moderator
Posted
Posted

Do you think this thread should be used to discuss the articles, or perhaps, in the interest of usability, it should remain more of an index of articles with links to discussions of the articles?

 

 

This kinda came up before, and I guess I would say that if an article is going to generate a substantial amount of discussion, it should have its own thread, but if it's just a post or 2 in response, I don't have a problem with that occurring in-thread.

 

But I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other, if enough people felt that it should only be an index. The only forseeable problem with that is then if people start new threads for each article they want to comment on, you're back to the original situation that the tracker was created to help combat.

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TooLiveBrew Milwaukee Brewers

TooLiveBrew

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Posted
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Quote:
Speaking of which, Milwaukee needs a veteran presence - a Reggie Sanders, perhaps - who can slide into the top of the order and produce amid all the talented kids.

-- Andy Baggot

EEK!

 

He also notes a "necessary adjustment" to move YoGa back into the rotation. Oh well, at least coverage in Madison is getting better...hopefully

Stearns Brewing Co.: Sustainability from farm to plate
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1992casey Milwaukee Brewers

1992casey

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

Here's a great article from a separate thread that's dropped pretty far without having replies:

 

Born slugger: Fielder's mother reflects as son's Major League fame soars

 

Adding to what TC said, as most separate article threads generate little response and tend to move other threads from the top pages, I think we should use this thread for discussion. If things become unwieldy, we can do a 'course correction' down the road.

That’s the only thing Chicago’s good for: to tell people where Wisconsin is.

[align=right]-- Sigmund Snopek[/align]

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1992casey Milwaukee Brewers

1992casey

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

For those interested in the logistics of the Running Article Tracker thread vs. individual threads, I think SenatorShriv has come up with an excellent idea:

 

Main page article tracker

 

Ideas posted to that thread, of course, are welcome.

That’s the only thing Chicago’s good for: to tell people where Wisconsin is.

[align=right]-- Sigmund Snopek[/align]

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