SB Nation User Blog: Marty McSuperFly

It's Suppan v. Lincecum to Start the Season

Marty McSuperFly — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:52:59 -0000

It's Suppan v. Lincecum to Start the Season

God help us all.

You don't count on jsonline for information, do you?

Marty McSuperFly — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:13:27 -0000

Ah, access. It's what makes the sports reporting world go 'round. It's why guys like Haudricourt and Witrado are considered point men on the Brewers, and why blogs are just guys shooting off their mouths in front of a computer. Never fear, TH is doing his best to bring uninformed fanspeak to the pages of the JS, without contaminating his post with any information he could gather by virtue of his "access."

This morning, I stumbled across this post on Gallardo's performance yesterday. Notice that TH throws a little red meat out there for the fans:

Gallardo's pitch count climbed when leadoff hitter Joey Gathright worked him for a walk and so did No. 3 hitter Milton Bradley (who, by the way, exited after that walk. Guess they don't want to overtax the new guy).

Ha! It's funny because it's Milton Bradley, and it's always fun to take a shot at Milton Bradley. Welcome to the blogosphere, Tom!

Unfortunately, those wet blankets over at the AP decided to ruin the punchline by doing some actual "reporting" (whatever that is). Via the Brewers page over at Yahoo! Sports, I discovered that maybe there was something more to Bradley's quick exit.

Milton Bradley’s spring training debut was cut short by an injury.

Well, jeez. That's not nearly as funny as making something up. I don't know how those guys at the AP sleep at night.

Brewers sell one million tickets

Marty McSuperFly — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:53:41 -0000

Brewers sell one million tickets

Just because the Brewers have sold 1 million tickets faster than ever before, I don't expect Doug Melvin to change his tune about paying players. After all, there's a recession on, and those 1 million early buyers don't care about free agents, or new scoreboards.

How to pass the time on Monday

Marty McSuperFly — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:32:11 -0000

How about if we see how well we know Dale? According to a headline which points to the always-broken JS blogs, the postseason roster should be announced today. So, let's put forth some guesses!

Disclaimer - I don't know nearly as much about playoff roster rules as some other people. I'm assuming Dale can insert Stetter by taking advantage of someone's spot on the DL.

Position players

C Kendall
C Rivera
IF Counsell
IF Dillon
IF Durham
IF Fielder
IF Hall
IF Hardy
IF Weeks
OF Braun
OF Cameron
OF Hart
OF Gwynn

Pitchers

Bush
Gagne
Gallardo
McClung
Mota
Parra
Sabathia
Shouse
Stetter
Suppan
Torres
Villanueva

Sheets pitching Saturday

Marty McSuperFly — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:56:37 -0000

Sheets pitching Saturday

"He's pitching tomorrow," Sveum said. "As of right now he's our starting pitcher for tomorrow's ball game. We'll see how things go. He said he's feeling as good as he has in a month, so we'll see what happens."

Gagne Giving Away Tickets to Thursday's Game

Marty McSuperFly — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:57:47 -0000

Gagne Giving Away Tickets to Thursday's Game

Hard to have hard feelings for the guy when he does this.

Gallardo to start on Thursday

Marty McSuperFly — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:15:09 -0000

Gallardo to start on Thursday

"It's a matter of how we're going to use him," said Sveum. "If we put him in the bullpen, we might not get to use him.

Riding the FNY Publicity Wave

Marty McSuperFly — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:34:22 -0000

Riding the FNY Publicity Wave

Someone actually wanted to interview me.

UPDATE: Apparently, the direct link to the article broke their server or something. New link to the main page, where the article may eventually work.

Nothing I haven't already spouted about on BCB, though.

Dawn of the Gerald Ford...er, Dale Sveum Era

Marty McSuperFly — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:18:07 -0000

Dale doesn't have a lot of time to pick out new curtains for the clubhouse, or have that industrial coffee maker removed. He's not even at Miller Park for his debut; he's dodging the rats at Wrigley Field. He seems like the kind of guy who prefers the trough, so maybe it'll work out.

The very first managerial task that we get to critique will be Dale's lineup. I know Jeff is going to be excited to see a post on lineup construction, so let's get to it!

Regular Lineup, post-ASB OPS

2b Weeks .804
ss Hardy .807
3b Braun .951
1b Fielder .850
rf Hart .724
cf Cameron .887
3b Hall .621
c Kendall .637

Melvin and Attanasio made a point yesterday that the onus is now on the players to perform, so Sveum won't want to get too crazy with the lineup. However, based on the post-ASB numbers for the regulars, there is clearly room for improvement. Also, it wouldn't hurt to get some lefties in there against Dempster.

Dempster 2008 OPS against
vs RHB .606
vs LHB .669

Who are the possible substitutions?

Durham .824 post ASB, .805 season
Counsell .653 season
Lamb .596 season
Gwynn

These guys don't have enough PA to go on post-ASB numbers, and Gwynn just got called up, so I'm not looking at their numbers as much as I am trying to get some lefties in against Dempster. Even though it's a new era, a few of the regulars need to sit. It's a no-brainer to bench Hall and Weeks, and Hart has been circling the drain for a while now. Maybe a day or two off will help these guys.

2b Durham
ss Hardy
3b Braun
1b Fielder
cf Cameron
rf Gwynn
3b Counsell
c Kendall

And Kendall sits tomorrow. No excuses.

The Plot Thickens

Marty McSuperFly — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:31:37 -0000

Prince Fielder is the leader of the Brewers clubhouse. The broadcasters repeat it ad nauseum, the sports writers throw it in there for color, and the manager and coaches talk about how important it is. So, why is the new guy off message on this?

And I wouldn't call Prince Fielder the clubhouse leader. That's a label a lot of people who aren't in the clubhouse put on him because they want him to be that. But he is not. Guys like Ryan Braun, Mike Cameron and Jason Kendall are.

Media coverage of Fielder began to shift in the off-season, with a lot of the focus on his agent as the bad actor. Then, he told a reporter that he was upset about the Brewers renewing his contract for roughly $600k instead of $900k, and hardly a week goes by without someone dredging that up. And, of course, the vegetarianism. He might as well be Communist.

Ryan Braun signed the big contract and he's going to be the face of this team going forward. Even if Fielder were to stay, and if he were able to continue to play at a high level, the Brewers wouldn't have him as long as Braun. So, we can look forward to this perception shift all season. In the long-term, Fielder is going to play in the AL, where his defense (and conditioning) won't be an issue. Maybe the Brewers keep him through a year of arbitration or two, but the smarter thing is to trade him to another team that can benefit from those arbitration years, and thus take advantage of the extra trade value that provides.

But, before any discussions of moving Fielder can happen, the public image of the team needs an adjustment, because the past two years have been spent describing Fielder as the "heart and soul" of the team. The fans are already adjusting to the Ryan Braun storyline, and if Melvin can lock up Hardy or Hart, it will become that much easier.