Good morning. Just getting around to the day of posting.
I'll post this now and leave it at the top because, it will probably be of interest to some of you.
New posts will be below over the next hour or so.
The moves:
RHP Cody Scarpetta has been transferred from Wisconsin to Huntsville.
INF Mike Brownstein has been transferred from Wisconsin to Huntsville.
INF Brandon Sizemore has been transferred from Arizona to Wisconsin.
Rattlers roster is at 24 for now.
8 comments:
Outstanding!!! And what good timing...
I was listening to WSCR yesterday and they were talking to a Brewer writer (OnMilwaukee.com or something) about call ups 9/1 when MLB rosters expand.
The writer said it wouldn't be fair to Huntsville or Nashville who are both in the playoff hunt.
HA!!! (and that's a curse laiden bitter ha, not a happy laughing out loud ha)
We were three games out of the wild card when they started to purge our roster...now we're 8 and out of it.
I'll dispense with another disertation on Melvin's speech a year ago this time (cause even i'm growing tired of it) and just say that if this year is any indication and we are going back to the Mariner way, the coaches better have the players ready to go out of the gate next April and secure a first half playoff spot.
Thank goodness TENNESSEE SATURDAY's start up again this weekend at 11:21 CT
Obviously, not getting to see some of these guys in Appleton for longer is disappointing, but can you really blame the Brewers for valuing the development of talent over a playoff appearance four levels below the big leagues?
And it's not like the Brewers are replacing these guys with nobodies. Maverick Lasker was a top pick two years ago, and looked pretty good last night. They've also given Appleton a chance to see one of this year's early picks, Josh Prince, along with a pretty significant portion of the next generation of pitching prospects.
If all you care about is winning in Appleton, then I can see why you're disappointed when the Brewers don't delay the progression of minor leaguers for your benefit. But the Brewers have bigger fish to fry.
I’m sure Mehring is shaking his head while uttering, “For the love of Mr. Mister…here we go again.”
KL, taking a peek at your bio I can understand where you’re coming from. Hopefully with a little explanation you can do the same for me.
The Brewers are not my team. I don’t wish them any ill will, but if they win I don’t take fan credit (so to speak) and if they lose I don’t get worked up. I am however a staunch Rattler supporter and by virtue of the new player development contract I now have a vested interested in the Brewers system.
While I knew it would (and has) be financially better for the Timber Rattlers to be a Brewer affiliate, I was not all too excited about it last fall.
I moved to The Valley in 1996 and the Mariners system is all I’ve known. I knew how they operated and they made no bones about the fact that they pushed prospects. Kids didn’t stick around here too long (short of that magical 2005 season where they kept them together) if they showed promise.
That and the fact that I knew it would bring out a lot of Johnny-Come-Lately fans who didn’t know the first thing about the Rattlers, MiLB or in some cases this year, baseball in general…but sure would crow about what they thought they knew.
I may sound like an elitist, but I’m really not. Call me crazy, but I actually enjoy watching the baseball game in front of me.
It’s great that the Rattlers as a business have benefited and I’m sure the players enjoy a more full stadium, but I just find it incredibly sad that it took a Brewers affiliation for this many people in our area to come out and support the Rattlers.
As the seven regular readers know, my angst comes from Doug Melvin stating last September, while up here, regarding how the Mariners did things, that that is not how the Brewers do things. They keep their teams together and develop winning attitudes.
I’ve said it before, I know how minor league baseball works and what it’s for. And I know Doug Melvin and the Brewers don’t owe me or the other dozen diehard Rattler fans anything. I just wished he’d have been honest. We were used to honest and the path the Mariners took. We dealt with it.
It’s just disappointing when we’re painted this picture up here, get all pumped up, we climb within three games of a playoff spot several weeks ago only to have our players plucked and tumble from there.
That’s all I’m saying.
I think there's a flaw in your argument: I'm not sure this current group of Rattlers was "building a winning atmosphere" by sticking together.
The team went 11-19 in August, and is actually 2.5 games worse than the second worst team in the Western Division in the second half. You have to put together a lot of "ifs" to paint this team as a playoff contender in the second half. It's true they crept up within a few games of the Wild Card spot, but were still behind several teams and never much more than a long shot.
If this team had been leading the division when the Brewers took players away, that'd be different, and it might have been handled like September callups are being handled in Nashville and Brevard Co., where the Brewers have winning, playoff bound teams to consider. This team really didn't perform well enough together to merit the "let's keep them together and let them experience success" argument. If anything, they lost enough together to merit trying something new.
And, despite occasional lapses by the team on the field, the Timber Rattlers organization has still done a great job of making 2009 fun for both new and old fans, and the Brewers have still provided many significant prospects and talents to help with that effort.
I give up (that cheer you heard was Mehring).
Brewer fans far out number Rattler fans, I’ve grown weary, and I am unable to carry the flag any longer (at least not this year, maybe I’ll be re-charged while shoveling snow this winter…).
We’ll never know if they’d have made up those games and gotten in. They weren’t given a chance (and yes, I realize the argument can be made they were earlier in the second half).
We view this in a different light for one simple reason; I’m a Rattler fan and you’re a Brewer fan. So the outcome is understandable.
I do thank you for the most civilized disagreement and online exchange I’ve experienced this year.
Most of these (which I do enjoy) had taken place on the local fish wrap’s blog and end up with my opposition resorting to name calling, blaming Bill Hall and Jeff Suppan and solely basing their argument on the fact that the Brewers are great. I’m sure you must spend time on the JSOline Brewer blog, very similar.
Just wanted to say this was a very good discussion. I'm not sure exactly where KID was going in that last paragraph though.
Anyways, while I understand KID's disappointment, and I'm with him on just about any other topic (save for his music tastes), I'm gonna have to lean more towards the KL Snow. Yes, the Rattlers were 2.5 or 3 games back of a playoff spot, or whatever it was, but they were what, still 10 games under .500 in the second half? Or even worse if you count their full season? I forget the actual records at the times of the tipping points. Yes, it would have been neat to see them push towards the playoffs, but like KL said, I'm not sure if the team playing together to a record of 10 games under .500 is exactly creating a winning atmosphere.
Huntsville and Brevard (surprised we haven't seen more movement to Brevard, to be honest) are legitimate playoff teams and have the records to show for it. They have indeed created winning teams and winning atmospheres and while I'd love to see the Rattlers in a playoff game this year, I think guys like Lawrie and Scarpetta will get much more out of a playoff at the AA level than they will against MWL teams. Also, while it would be nice to see Lawrie stay with a team for a full year, let's be honest, he has nothing to gain playing with Marseco and McCraw and Vass and other guys that will likely never get a sniff of the majors. When Lawrie gets to the majors, he'll be arriving as the same time as guys like Cain, Green, and Anundson. I'd rather he begin playing with them and buildin a rapport with those players, than players that, if they even ever reach the majors, will be a few years behind him anyways.
Now, KID, I realize that's not your concern, when the Brewers prospects reach the majors, and who they reach it with, because as you said you're not a Brewers fan. I have no problem with that, and I understand you can come from a bit of a different perspective in that sense, but at the same time I think it's a little naive to think that Lawrie and others wouldn't be pushed more aggressively than others. By the way, I'm still unsure about how I feel about Lawrie's future prospects, but he's just the easiest to use as a poster boy example of the transaction movements.
Lastly, again while I usually agree with just about everything KID says, I think it's a bit unfair (maybe more than a bit) to call out KL and just pigeonhole him as a "Brewers fan" while you just got done ripping the casual Brewers fan. Does he sound like a Brewers fan to me? Yes. Does he sound like a Rattlers fan to me? Yes.
It's okay to be both, and it doesn't make him any less "diehard" in either sense.
I respect both your opinions, but I'll just have to disagree.
I may (probably) be hanging too much on this, but again, for me it gets back to what Melvin said and then didn't do. And AGAIN, I know he owes nothing to any of us...but I hung my Rattler hopes on his words this year. It's that simple for me. Is it naive? Is it looking through maroon, black and white glasses? Drinking the Kool Aid (god how i miss Sprecher Rattler Brau) Probably, but that's the mindset I came into this season with.
PS21. Have never been on the Post Depressant on line and read the comments under each article? I shared thoughts early in the spring but the uninformed gradeschool commentary was just tiresome. So i stopped.
Then I was told the Prodigal Beat Writer was disappointed I wasn't jumping in any more. So I started again (I'm not writer, just a guy who has opinions...in case you didn't notice). But then gradeschool was back in session.
Hey, disagree with me all you want (I am wrong...from time to time...). But to name call and bash my opinion without offering one of your own. C'mon now. So I had enough. And while I told Brett I still read & enjoy his work, I just don't need that kind of interaction. And since then, zero comments on this Rattler Blog. It seems the readership doesn't have any thoughts of it's own on the Rattlers, they just need someone's to jump on.
And the JSOnline is the same way a lot of the time. Hardicourt gives an update on Kentrail Davis being unsigned and it turns into either a bash Suppan/Hall fest or a discussion between Vick signing and PETA. Madness.
I wasn't calling out KL. I was simply offering a reason for our differing views. And since he's a writer for BrewCrewBall.com, i didn't think I was going out on a limb assuming he was a Brewer fan.
And I meant no offense not referring to you KL as a diehard Rattler fan. So I'll ask, did you follow the Rattlers prior to the new affiliation? If so, my bad.
I tend to get a little more worked up over this stuff than I need to be, surely. I've just been a little irritated this year with the actions and verbiage of casual fan (do to the new affiliation) interrupting what was years of watching "my" Rattlers.
I was there through the losing. I was there with 300 other people on 40 degree April evenings. I didn't mind that when they were the Mariners not many people came or talked about them. I tend to not follow the crowd I'm in, so I suppose that appealed to me.
So this year has been a bit different than what I've been used to. And I'm a firm believer in, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." And it wasn't broke for me...but then again despite my carrying-on-ness...it isn't ALL about me...
But like I'd learned long ago, if you're not a fan of the home town, state, region team...it's hard to argue with the locals. Before it was never a concern with the Brewers around here...now it is. And I've learned, believe me.
As I said, I'm not going to carry the flag, fight the good fight (Canada's other power trio!), bang the drum (am I missing any?), etc. any longer. So that's why these next three nights and moving forward into next season I'm just going to enjoy the gem of a baseball club we have here for what it is, minor league baseball. One sun soaked (or cold and rainy) day at a time.
Again, no offense meant fellas. I might be THE KID, but you're all good kids.
Classy you are indeed.
You're right, it's just sort of one of those "agree to disagree" things. I will say though, that while I was thrilled when the Brewers partnered with our Rats...a small part of me died. I, like you, always enjoyed the games most when the attendance was sparse, and you could hear everything that went on and was said on the field. Maybe it's nostalgia, whatever, but I do sort of miss the obscurity (is that a word?) of it all. That said, in no way do I blame the T-Rats for their switch. Obviously, I want them to do whatever is best for them, otherwise I wouldn't call myself a fan. Though, I do like to pretend it's about me all the time too, :)
You're right about the newspaper comments sections. I avoid them at all costs. The Journal Sentinel ones are just as bad. The worst are perhaps the comments on the Yahoo Sports articles. I'm with you 100% on there. Good thing Papa Mehring keeps everything civil around here.
I'll be in attendance Thursday, and annoyed that I won't be able to be there tonight or Friday, and annoyed that we'll miss out on seeing THE MAVERICK live in action, but more importantly, I'm pumped for next year already. Bring on the 2010 playoffs! Cutter and Odorizzi as as playoff co-MVPs perhaps?
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