(Some jabroni comes back to Section 118 in the middle of the fifth inning…obscuring the view of other fans just as Carlos Gomez hits a two-run double off Zack Greinke.)

It’s my understanding that at one time, fans attended baseball games in what we would now consider formal attire.  While few would argue we should return to the rigid customs of that era, there is something to be said for courtesy.

Without getting histrionic about how American culture is in decline because people use foul language in public, watch too much reality television, look at dirty pictures on the internet, etc., can we agree there are some behaviors that must not be tolerated?  If there is any conduct more vulgar and shameful than returning to your seat in the middle of an at-bat, it does not immediately leap to mind.

Bloody hell, would it kill you chumps to wait just one more blasted minute?  Your seat ain’t going anywhere, sucker.

I’m not even saying that no one should leave in the middle of an at-bat.  Sometimes the beer you drank in the parking lot creates a sense of urgency that won’t wait as a hitter fouls off multiple pitches, or the pitcher is working from the stretch and taking his sweet time.  If you have to leave suddenly, that’s forgivable, because the need to leave can’t always be controlled. 

But when you come back can be controlled.  Just wait until the at-bat is resolved.  It will only take a moment, and you can get down the aisle and back to your seat with plenty of time to spare before the next pitch.

I’m not even going as far as suggesting you wait until the break in between innings.  Waiting until the at-bat is over is almost nothing to ask.  This is baseball – every pitch is important.  If we’re sitting in our seats, we want to see all the pitches, because you never know when something really important is going to happen.  We don’t want your melon head blocking our view, even if it’s just a slider off the plate that doesn’t even get a swing.

It’s been said that good manners cost nothing.  Bad manners don’t usually cost much, but if you return to your seat in the middle of an at-bat while I’m sitting behind you…don’t be surprised if you’re approached by security about the anonymous text they received that said you were using audible racial slurs.

Recently, Diane Firstman, creator and curator of the fabulous Value Over Replacement Grit baseball site on ESPN Sweetspot Network and a favorite of mine, was kind enough to anagram the names of some current and former Milwaukee Brewers players and managers. She made quite a few for the Brewers Bar to use, so this will be split up into a series. Part One was posted last week.

Not sure what an anagram is? An anagram is created by rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once. Those good at constructing them can arrange things in a way that reflects somehow on the original subject.

Here's an example: (this is one I tried, so as not to waste one of Diane's) "Lad Afire Forgo" - would be the Brewers relief pitcher, Alfredo Figaro. Another helpful set of examples would be the answers, published also last week (Here)
- - - - -

This week's list features 7 anagrams (without answers). See how many of these you can figure out, and I'll have the answers posted sometime on Thursday! Have fun!

Fun With Anagrams – created by Diane Firstman (Value Over Replacement Grit)


Part 2

HUGE TIRED DAY

BROKEN PUB HEAD

PREFER NICE LID

OIL UP MORTAL

BROTHEL MENTOR

ROB BEGGAR, EMERGE!

RUN INTO BOY

Once again, many, many thanks to Diane Firstman for lending one of her great talents to The Brewers Bar in providing anagrams! For more on her work, here is her bio and other information. And make sure you check out her site, - where you will be welcomed by the phrase "We are the VORG. Replacement is futile." You also can find her on twitter (appropriately under the neame @dianagram). She's pretty famous.

Artwork by J. Lemont

(Look: this team's a fuckin' trip, man.  I think we got some bad shit.) (Photo: Timothy Leary)

Bad baseball gets me down. Bad baseball turns me round.

Bad baseball is depressing sometimes, discouraging. That's why I admire the tenacity of people like Tom Haudricourt of the JS and Kyle Lobner of Brew Crew Ball, to name just a couple, as well as all baseball scribes who manage to keep an even temperament and cover the team in times of harvest and drought. It helps if one makes a living covering the team, sure.  But regardless there are existential moments when calamity follows disaster and one thinks 'why am I doing this again'? Even the seemingly stable balance of being a fan can be lost when teams do little but fail. The Brewers are testing patience once again and it has me wondering how much patience the Brewers ownership group has with players and executives, as well as the coaching staff.

Owner Mark Attanasio added Kyle Lohse to a costly deal before the season to shore up the pitching, but the ugly picture we've seen revealed for all to see is a team with serious concerns in all areas of the game and no safety net in the minor leagues. The Brewers don't measure up in the pitching department, their homer-happy hitting fails at inopportune moments and they still look like a team that hasn't practiced enough catching the ball and making smart baseball plays. How long has the TERRIBLE DEFENSE of the Milwaukee Brewers been tolerated? They look like my softball team at times: booting the ball, misreading fly balls, and making bad decisions. My softball team hasn’t practiced much. Have the Brewers practiced enough?

This team ain't cheap and the poor overall attendance that could result this year would be yet another setback for the franchise. The Brewers need to be smarter, more proactive, more innovative. They need to be thinking one step ahead of most other teams, rather than three steps behind. Sadly, the future is ‘dark and full of terrors’, to borrow a phrase from George R. R. Martin’s well-written A Game of Thrones.

One person who rightfully has come under fire this year is Brewers manager Ron Roenicke. Many complaints have targeted his constant juggling of the lineup, his questionable use of bullpen pitchers and management of the starting rotation. Then there is the overall failure of this team to reach even the low expectations many fans had coming into the season.  Is Roenicke on the hot seat?  Or sitting on a seat that’s getting hotter? Surely accountability will reign in 2013 and heads will roll if the Brewers’ play does not improve, yes?

Here’s the rub: Roenicke and GM Doug Melvin were extended in May 2012.  Roenicke’s contract goes through 2014 with a club option for ’15, while Melvin is signed through ’15.  If they hadn’t been extended back then, perhaps the wheels could turn in another direction now. But for a team that’s already in tough spots financially, cutting Roenicke and/or Melvin with money remaining on their deals is financially prohibitive and therefore unlikely for the Brewers.

Ownership wants to win, but they realize that 2013 may be a milestone year on the road to a better team in 2014. Unfortunately, the team in 2013 is sinking beneath the floor rather than showing how high the ceiling may be. Brewers ownership has to be greatly concerned about the way the season has unfolded thus far. It’s not even June and many people are likely cancelling or have cancelled potential trips to Miller Park; thrown it off with a shrug. Unless the team turns things around, expectations and advanced purchases for next year will fall precipitously. I normally get to several games by the end of May but I’m not ashamed to say I haven’t even been to Miller Park yet this year. They really don’t deserve it, the way this has gone. Some of it’s bad luck, some of it’s just bad.

It’s sad that things have developed this way. Milwaukee’s fans want so badly to have some fun and see some success. Milwaukee gets shafted in pro sports. 2011 was a blast. Roenicke managed that team well enough but that team was set up to kick some ass and it did so. They could have won the Series that year, that’s how goddamn good that team was. It’s tough that ahead more darkness shows than light. The Brewers’ hands are tied. Roenicke and Weeks will stay more than likely. To make a change may signal more internal chaos than many fans would like to admit is present or possible. Harvey Kuenn isn’t available. If only the team could be average this year, just play to a .500 record or thereabouts, keep us meandering through summer rather than taking an elevator to baseball hell. Here’s hoping the team can help everyone save some face this summer, or perhaps fans will do like Timothy Leary and ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’, except without all the LSD.

Yesterday, I did a short piece about a feature that minor league analyst/writer/scout Nathaniel Stoltz published in Big Leauges Magazine that focused on some Nashville Sounds players. As it turns out, Nathaniel has a nice youtube channel featuring some plate appearances and pitching performances by the Brewers Triple-A players, as well! Really nice clarity, here, for seeing movement on the pitches, and swings taken by batters.

Here's a video of Sacramento River Cats LHP Andrew Werner pitching to Sounds outfielder, Caleb Gindl. The fun thing about this is that Stoltz noticed Gindl looks quite a bit like Matt Stairs! Referring to body-type, of course...no one is Matt Stairs. I still wish Stairs hadn't retired : /

There are a lot of really fun prospects to watch. Check out Sonny Gray, the former Vandy pitcher drafted in the 1st round of the 2011 draft by the A's. Here, he's striking out Khris Davis. And Josh Prince... - can't wait to watch Gray in the future!

Here's Brewers RHP prospect, Tyler Thornburg, getting right-handed batter Grant Green to whiff on a nice curveball, in this segment. I really can never see too much of Thornburg. One of the difficult things with the Brewers signing Lohse is that Thornburg and others like him could really have used this season to try and earn spots on Milwaukee's roster, and face some more major league hitters.

Here's Hideki Okajima  (yes, that Hideki Okajima!) pitching to Scooter Gennett, who slams his bat down in frustrations (edge of the screen). Knows he should've done more with that. There is plenty of other footage of Scooter not slamming his bat down. Just really wanted to link this. : )

I could just go on and on, here! There are hundreds of video's on Stoltz's channel, and I hope you enjoy checking them out! He's done a great job with them.

I'm not sure if anyone here has read Big Leagues Magazine - this is actually my first time! - but, my friend, Nathaniel Stoltz, went to Tennessee recently to watch the Birmingham Barons/Tennessee Smokies series (Double-A affiliates of the White Sox and Cubs organizations, respectively), and then a series involving Milwaukee's Triple-A Nashville Sounds and the Sacramento River Cats (Oakland A's Triple-A affilate). Here's a link to the latest issue. Stoltz's article, 'Scouting Notebook: Road Trip Through Tennessee' is on p. 35 (you will need to page through and/or a bunch - it's a digital magazine).

Here's an excerpt on 2B prospect, Scooter Gennett:

 "He's patient enough to work walks occasionally, though his approach and pitch recognition still need some refinement."

further down:

"Gennett has good speed and plays an above-average second base with good hands and range. What sort of utility he has to offer a major league team will depend on how much he can do beyond simply make contact and run."

(after mentioning Gennett hasn't hit a HR yet this season in a hitter-friendly PCL)

"He'll have to to show he can rip enough doubles to keep pitchers honest, and he'll have to supplement his hits with enough walks to post a solid on-base percentage. There's a chance he could prove himself worthy on both counts and evolve into a solid leadoff hitter, but it's more likely that he becomes a Darwin Barney-style player who contributes with his defense and hits well enough to stay in the bottom portion of an NL line-up." 

Stoltz also writes about Tyler Thornburg (who pitched 22 innings with the Brewers last year, with a 20/7 K/BB ratio).

"He's off to a good start in Nashville this year repeating the level (41/14 K/BB in 38 ⅔ IP, 3.33 FIP), and he has the stuff to back up those numbers, with three pitches that all rate at least average."

Thornburg throws 91-94 mph with some life on his fastball from a steep downhill plane, and complements the heater with a big-breaking curve and a deceptive sinking changeup. He's around the zone with all three pitches and projects to have average to solid-average command.

Some have suggested that Thornburg should move to relief due to his unorthodox mechanics and small stature, but he repeats his motion well, throws strikes, and has a diverse and effective arsenal. That leads me to believe he can be an effective midrotation starter, and he's not far from reaching that ceiling."

In addition to these, there are some passages written on Kyle Heckathorn and Khris Davis. Check it out to read more! I've been a fan of Nathaniel's work at SB Nation's Beyond The Box Score ever since I read his fantastic profile of Mike Fiers at Beyond The Box Score, last year (after Fiers had already joined the major league club) called Mike Fiers Versus the Radar Gun: How is He Winning? If you haven't read it, go back and check it out, along with his other work.

I'm hoping to catch up with Stoltz and ask him some more questions in the future about his work, and if there are some other things he saw to supplement his report on Nashville. Hope you enjoy his work! You can follow him on twitter, here: @stoltz_baseball.