Official Silver Lining Thread

[foamboy1]

Despite the struggles over the past several weeks, Prince Fielder is establishing himself as a top shelf professional. He is not only matching expectations at an awfully young age, but he seems to be rising to the role as emotional team leader, something we have lacked in Milwaukee for awhile.

 

 

This thread is to serve as a haven....a reason to not hang out in the Official Vent Thread for three hours a day.

 

In this space, we encourage positive observations, and discourage conversations about Turnbow, Yost, platooned-platoons, Vargas, etc.

 

This is our zen-den. Please be seated on the floor, breathe deeply, and respect the space.

[Pointer1VB]

Cricket... Cricket

[foamboy1]

Well....attendance looks promising as well!

[Mr QL]

No. There is no silver lining, we most wallow in how pathetic this team. No more sugar coating things, this team is not a playoff team. We might make it but it's just because the lack of a legit playoff and the division being god awful top to bottom. The whole national league is bad. Doug Melvin won't do anything though, neither will anyone, because winning isn't the number 1 priority of the team. How far do you have to fall to do something?

[brettac1]

No. There is no silver lining, we most wallow in how pathetic this team. No more sugar coating things, this team is not a playoff team. We might make it but it's just because the lack of a legit playoff and the division being god awful top to bottom. The whole national league is bad. Doug Melvin won't do anything though, neither will anyone, because winning isn't the number 1 priority of the team. How far do you have to fall to do something?

 

Was this supposed to be in blue?

 

If not, I missed this stuff from years past! That is the silver lining: we get to hear how the team doesn't want to win. The invention of the time machine is definitely a silver lining.

[sbrylski]

Silver Lining

[Oldcity]

Dave Bush looked good again.

[foamboy1]

No. There is no silver lining, we most wallow in how pathetic this team. No more sugar coating things, this team is not a playoff team. We might make it but it's just because the lack of a legit playoff and the division being god awful top to bottom. The whole national league is bad. Doug Melvin won't do anything though, neither will anyone, because winning isn't the number 1 priority of the team. How far do you have to fall to do something?

 

This was supposed to be something of a haven....a reason to not hang out in the Official Vent Thread for 2.5 hours a day. You message is "vent-like;" please deposit accordingly.

 

I'm trying to create a zen-den where thoughts other than Turnbow, Yost, platooned-platoons, Vargas, etc. come to mind.

 

Please be seated on the floor, breathe deeply, and respect the space.

[pogokat]

the brewers have a big lead in the central, and if they could just win a few games, they'd resume cruising to the playoffs...this has been a painful stretch, but this is still the best season to be a brewerfan in 15 years...

 

i'm not going to spend all of it texpecting ruin...april was incredibly fun...

[igor67]

I agree the steady climb of Prince is certainly reason to be positive. Is it too early to talk about him taking the season HR crown? Probably, but Prince developing into that All-star caliber player is one of those things that needs to happen to make the playoffs.

[Ennder]

This is a young inexperienced team, without making any moves I expect it to improve as the season goes on more than any other team in the NL except maybe Arizona.

[naivin]

I just saved money on my car insurance.

[logan82]

We are 13-15 in May right now. Most people thought going .500 for the month of May would be pretty good.

[RU Rah Rah]

Ryan Braun has 14 chances without an error.

[cooprules]

I've never run into Sergio Mitre in a dark alley.

 

Someone please post his Gameday pic.

[pitchleague]

my silver lining is that I live in AZ so I haven't had to waste money going to watch them play for the past few weeks (yes, I know they've been on the road). Also, agree about Prince Fielder. He seems to be taking over a leadership role with both hands.

 

Also, Yost made the right moves today, the bullpen just blew it. It happens.

 

Finally, silver lining is that I'll love the team and follow them into battle no matter what happens. I'll take the good with the bad. Granted, we'd all like to see more good after watching so many years of bad.

[logan82]

At least it should be easier to move to better seats.

 

EDIT: I would also like to add I have never before taken much time to look at what other teams are doing. Since we have started losing many, many games I find myself looking at the scores of other teams to see how many games they are gaining on us. So I guess teh Brewers losing has made me more interested in MLB and not just the Brewers.

[hawing]

The Onion's giving the Brewers a chance! (I think.)

 

MLB Announces Acceptable 2007 World Series Matchups

 

MILWAUKEE?Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced the acceptable matchups for the 2007 World Series yesterday, insisting that the Fall Classic would exclusively feature one of six interesting, crowd-please scenarios. "Yankees-Cubs, Red Sox-Cubs, Yankees-Dodgers, Red Sox-Dodgers, Red Sox-Mets," Selig said, noting that, in addition, any underdog team from the National League is acceptable as long as they play against the Yankees or Red Sox. "Tigers-Mets will be allowed with the provision that Kenny Rogers does something illegal, but under no circumstance will the Cardinals be allowed to repeat." Selig added that Yankees-Mets and White Sox-Cubs are no longer an option, as those types of monumental, once-in-a-lifetime match ups have forever been ruined by interleague play.

 

Link

 

 

They also make it easier to laugh with this.

 

Experts Predict Man Who Plays Once Every Five Days Probably Won't Save Team

 

Just follow the link. It's good for at least a smirk.

[Brian the Automator]

The Miller Lite Crew, or whomever they were, made the mistake of asking me Brewers trivia at BW3's. A free hat, a freebottle cooler, and a free beer later, I am the better man.

[hawing]

What were the questions?

[brewizard]

The Chorizo is a regular this season. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[iluvlamp]

What question stumped you? And what Hawing said.

[jason21nl]

prince is a monster

[Brian the Automator]

The question that stumped me was:

 

- Who won what game of the '82 ALCS. Sinice I was only 5, this was something I was less familiar with than say the '82 WS.

 

Questions I got were:

 

- Which brewers pitcher won the MVP and Cy Young and the same year.

- What does JJ stand for (and they were absolutely shocked that I knew this)

- Which Brewers was 2nd in the '78 ROY balloting

- Some ROY question about YOunt

- Which city did the Brewers move from

 

I'm trying to think of the rest... but they were about as easy or easier than the ones above. They told me they had to "cut me off", because they were out of questions. I answered like 20 of them...

 

My buddy I was sitting with knew all of them except the JJ one. I'm sure we could have put together a much more comprehensive quiz. There was no mention of Marshall Boze or Greg Martinez.

[Herm]

As a chronic optimist, I see silver linings all over the place:

 

--youthful core of position players showing signs that each is a legit major league player with upper tier potential. Fielder - Hardy- Weeks - Hall - Braun - Hart - is an unbelievably talented, young offensive core with star potential all around. You don't often see any team develop that much talent internally that are all hitting major leagues around same time.

 

--5 games in front of a weak division after a couple weeks of pretty poor overall play during their toughest stretch of their schedule for this season.

 

--at top of division despite only a couple of players posting numbers well above reasonable expectations. Hardy is certainly performing well above anyone's realistic expectations. You could make an argument that Fielder is over performing vs. expectations but he seems intent on proving that is just a case of expectations being too low. Hall, Weeks, and Hart are not exactly tearing it up at this point. Bruan just getting feet wet, but early indications are he belongs. Jenkins coming back to more normal level of production after hot start, platoon role bringing out better production. Coredero couldn't possibly be doing any better, unless Yost decides to start using him for the most important outs (even if those don't happen to be in the 9th, but that's a beef for another thread)

 

--Weak division gives Crew a chance to take some lumps while staying at or near top of division for season. With youth they are likely to get better as season goes on, gaining confidence and consistency along the way.

 

--Pitching staff holding thier own, healthy, and deep. Sheets-Capuano-Suppan proving a capable and resonably steady core of starters. Cordero's production is without peer at this point.

 

--System still capable of providing significant help from within. Villanueva clearly looks ready to take on larger role, whether as a more prominent bullpen arm or moving into starting role at some point. Gallardo is dominating AAA and knocking at the door. Other bullpen arms available that offer some promise - Thatcher, Sarfate, Doghouse Capellan, Parra, Aquino, Bray......Lots of options from within. (My personal thought would be Gallardo up to start, Vargas to pen, Villanueva as late-inning complement to Cordero).

 

--Longer term still some great prospects on the horizon -- Inman, Gillespie, Braddock, Salome, Cain, Jeffress, etc.

 

--an owner giving every indication he's willing to write the check if needed to fill a hole. Extremely competent GM with track record of nugget mining.

 

--All in all I see a team having reasonable success already despite a minimum of guys playing way above their heads. Some serious inconsistency, but weak division and Brewer youth/talent has the look of a team on the rise with high likelihood of playoffs this year.