Madison's 12U softball team plays better defense than the Brewers.

I like what diaz and hazelbaker jave brought to this team.  They push for that extra base and seem to openly be playing like they have something to prove (which they do).  That sort of keep your foot on the gas type attitude has been helpful.

forsberg_us wrote:

Hey look, a gratuitous shot of Ballpark Village. Welcome to the 2016 regular season.

Holy fuck, did Molina get a 5 step jump?

Molina is on pace for a 45 steal season.

APIAD wrote:

These teams are bad (braves, brewers)

It feels like we're playing against their September call-ups--in April

How do you try to sell this shit to your fans if you're the Brewers?  They shouldn't draw a million fans.

APIAD wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

APIAD wrote:

These teams are bad (braves, brewers)

It feels like we're playing against their September call-ups--in April

How do you try to sell this shit to your fans if you're the Brewers?  They shouldn't draw a million fans.

Baseball has to do something about tanking.  It isnt good for the game.  It isnt good for the fans to watch their team tank and it really isnt that meaningful to beat a tanking team.  I think you have a draft lottery.  I think the nba takes the bottom 13 teams and draw for draft position?  I think that would help teams resist the urge just to give up and field a pathetic team. 

I will say beating bad teams is better then losing to them and hopwfully these slugfest get guys confident and going.

There's rebuilding and there mismanagement. Teams like the Astros, Cubs and currently the Braves have rebuilt their teams by selling major league talent for prospects and by using the draft to add additional talent. Then you have teams like the Brewers that are just bad and really don't have any prospect of getting better, at least not anytime soon.

The thing with sports like the NBA or NFL is teams can improve immediately through the draft because those players step immediately into the league. In MLB, the players drafted go to the minors. If you draft a high school kid, they might be there 5 years, even if they're really good. Organizations have to be smart, and they have to be smart over time.

I don't follow the Brewers that close, but I bet if you went back and looked at the couple of years when they did well, you'll find trades where they traded prospects for someone at the deadline to try to get over the hump. If you win it all, you don't mind those trades so much, but when you don't, they come back to bite you.

I wouldn't waste my time or money on this crap if I lived in Milwaukee. This is terrible.

My point is that if you tank and get a high draft pick like kris bryant, mike trout, bryce harper or stephen strasburg you have a player that is a year or two away from the majors and can make an immediate impact.  It isnt a science but there has to be different between searching for competitive balance and tanking.

APIAD wrote:

These teams are bad (braves, brewers)

 
Wait til you see the Phillies.

forsberg_us wrote:

Did Hazelbaker learn the catch and dive move from Edmonds.

 
I thought the exact same thing.

I hope the cardinals are not stuck in between rebuilding and attempting to be elite.

The mlb draft is a complicated mess.  I still like the nba draft better then mlb or nfl.  Losing should never be rewarded.

At the risk of jinxing it, yesterday's lineup was probably the best baserunning team the Cardinals have put on the field since the glory days of the MV3. Not fastest, but the best. I think it's been since 2004 since I've seen a Cardinals team this good at taking the extra base.

The lack of a salary cap in baseball makes a huge difference. It's accurate to say the Cubs have drafted well, but they've also paid a premium for Lester and this off-season spent a ton of dough on Zobrist, Lackey and the douchebag who's now playing right field. In a salary cap league, you get one of those guys.

artie_fufkin wrote:

The lack of a salary cap in baseball makes a huge difference. It's accurate to say the Cubs have drafted well, but they've also paid a premium for Lester and this off-season spent a ton of dough on Zobrist, Lackey and the douchebag who's now playing right field. In a salary cap league, you get one of those guys.

The luxury tax is a salary cap of sorts.  Im sure there would be other spending rules impossed other then total payroll, but the cubs are not far ahead of the cards in terms of payroll.  Not yet anyway, theirs will inflate alot in the next few years i would assume.  For conversation sake, what would you impose as the payroll limit?

http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/

artie_fufkin wrote:

Unless the landscape changes profoundly, we'll never see a salary cap in baseball. The players' union will never go for it, and the players' union always beats the owners at the negotiating table.
It practically took an act of Congress for the players to agree to submit to tests which detect drugs that literally shrank their testicles. I can't imagine them even considering a policy that reduces the width of their wallets.

Agreed but my point was that if they did sumbit to a salary cap it would have to be set pretty high.  It would have to incorporate most the teams current payrolls.  Most the league is sitting between 100-180.  A cap of 180 wouldnt change life much