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Blogs from our Community

Minor League

Early Musings Before the Official Start of the 2025 Brewers Minor League Season

For those of you who 'joined' Spencer and I for our recent five part 2024 Minor League recap Opus, congratulations. You made it through the gauntlet ye brave Brewers baseball souls! It was a cathartic letting go, oddly - to last year's storylines and the majority of last year's baseball thoughts. And, though our videos ran on the longer side, the overwhelming feedback was the Minor League die hards didn't really care. You all are too kind. I thank each and every one of you for tuning in. No
Joseph Zarr

Joseph Zarr in Minor League

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Minor leagues

Do The Brewers Actually Have the Best Teenage Prospect Group in Baseball? Part 1

A while back, one of the posters made a simple statement in the forums: The Brewers must have the top group of teenage prospects in baseball. I thought, well, that sounds likely given the number and quality of teen prospects the Brewers have. It’s tough to know for sure, though, if you don’t look at all the other systems. So that is how I started this monstrosity. I’m breaking it up into three parts. The first, this one, will focus on the American League. The second will focus on the N
CheeseheadInQC

CheeseheadInQC in Minor leagues

6
Minor leagues

A Dose of Perspective Ahead of International Signing Day

Almost four years ago, Major League Baseball teams embarked on the opening of the annual international signing period. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, it had been more than 18 months since the opening of the previous signing period, but finally the top Latin American prospects could sign on the dotted line. Since that day in 2021, the Brewers have witnessed the rise of a potentially franchise-altering star. The results for the other 29 players who made MLB Pipeline’s top 30 international p
CheeseheadInQC

CheeseheadInQC in Minor leagues

2
Minor leagues

What Statistics Perhaps CAN Tell Us About DSL Pitchers

It is almost impossible to tell how good of a prospect a Dominican Summer League pitcher is by stats alone. Stuff is king, and great DSL ERAs don’t always equal great stuff. So why am I, who focuses almost entirely on statistics, writing about DSL pitchers? Because while statistics can’t tell you a DSL pitcher’s ultimate upside, two stats in particular can tell us something else interesting – which pitchers are most likely to be brought stateside, survive the pitching nightmare that is
CheeseheadInQC

CheeseheadInQC in Minor leagues

3
Brewer Fanatic Features

It's The Offseason So That Means "You're The Brewers GM!"; The 2025 Payroll Blueprint Tool Has Released

Every offseason, we offer our You’re The GM! tool (formerly the Payroll Blueprint) to build your ideal Brewers roster. This year, we’ve updated and streamlined the tool a bit to improve the experience. The idea behind this feature is to give fans a chance to play the role of General Manager (or CBO or PoBO… you get the idea) for their favorite team, the Milwaukee Brewers. It’s meant to give fans the opportunity to discuss (and, let’s be honest, argue) how they would approach the long, dark
Minor leagues

Which DSL Hitters Will Be Coming Stateside? Potentially a Lot

The headline for any story about the Brewers 2024 Dominican Summer League season has to include Jesus Made and Luis Pena. Their seasons were that absurd and they are consistently regarded among the top prospects coming out of the DSL this year. Dig a little deeper, though, and there is another story, one that will create some tough decisions for Milwaukee heading into the 2025 minor league season. Simply put, the Brewers’ Dominican Summer League squads had offensive depth that, in its produ
CheeseheadInQC

CheeseheadInQC in Minor leagues

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Team Analysis

Team Payroll and Winning the World Series

The 2024 Brewers season ended with a bite from the Big Apple, and as the playoffs roll toward the concluding World Series, one thing is apparent--while money cannot buy happiness, it does seem pretty good at buying championships. The one last hope of all the small-market teams is the Cleveland Guardians, who currently trail the New York Yankees in the ALCS, 3 games to 1. Depending on where you look (Baseball-Reference, USA Today, spotrac, the remaining teams rank 1st/2nd (New York Yankees),
Stealofhome

Stealofhome in Team Analysis

3
Rant

Gambling Gains and Player Pains: MLB’s Double Play

**I spent almost 3 months working on this research paper and figuring out how to explain baseball to non-baseball people.  I'm looking for feedback if anyone is willing to help me out while I rant.  If not allowed, I will remove** Sports gambling is a big part of American culture in the 21st century. Rather it’s on the side of a bus, billboard, or is sponsoring the event you’re watching, odds are, you’ve probably seen advertisements for companies such as Fan Duel, DraftKings and MGM.  Since
TheIrrelevantWriter

TheIrrelevantWriter in Rant

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Team Analysis

The 2024 Brewers and Speed Unit

Introducing Speed Unit I previously looked at how aggressive or not the Brewers have been this year at taking the extra base. But that doesn't tell the whole story, as it does not account for stolen bases. And I have a few more questions about some of these baserunning statistics. As mentioned before, the baserunning values listed on Baseball Savant are: More on the stats at Tom Tango's blog. Fangraphs has their own version of baserunning value which is calculated using wei
Stealofhome

Stealofhome in Team Analysis

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Recap/ Preview

Brewers at the Break: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Since it is the All-Star Break, I thought it would be fun to look back at first half of the year’s Good, Bad, and Ugly of the Brewers season.  Going into the break with a 55-42 record and a steady hold on 1st place in the division is probably the best that any of us could have hoped for.  My overall feeling of this team is through the roof.  That doesn’t mean the team doesn’t have opportunities for improvements.  As we’ve seen the past couple of series, the bottoms of the leagues like to go on r
Team Analysis

Isolated Slugging, Exit Velocity, and Bat Speed

Introduce ISO Last time, I looked at how well a basic calculation like Speed Unit can compare to an in-depth statistic like Ultimate Base Running. It turns out that it does pretty well. How about bat speed and exit velocity? I have been told that Isolated Slugging is a is a crude measure of ball speed, but that was before Statcast was around. Isolated slugging is calculated as (2B + 2x3B + 3xHR)/AB, or SLG - AVG. Is that true? How about some other hitting statistics? How well can we es
Stealofhome

Stealofhome in Team Analysis

2
Team Analysis

The Brewers are Fast but not Aggressive

Full disclosure: I'm not sure I have any real conclusions on this topic, I just had some analysis I wanted to share and virtually "think out loud." Raw data from Baseball Savant: Yearly Baserunning Value Total Baserunning Value Baserunning Value The Brewers have built an impressive and speedy roster, led by Garrett Mitchell, Jackson Chourio, Blake Perkins, and Brice Turang -- all with a sprint speed of over 29 feet per second. That value is calculated by Baseball Savant
Stealofhome

Stealofhome in Team Analysis

2
MLB Draft

My Long and Rambling Draft Preview Blog

A caveat: I am not a scout nor a coach nor anyone with any original insights to offer on any of the prospects who will be selected. I do, however, enjoy looking at history, at trends, and trying to see how it could project some of what the Brewers are going to do with their picks. So with that out of the way, here we go. This is, as the title suggested, a long, rambling blog covering everything from Brewers' draft tendencies to positions of organizational need to potential selections f
CheeseheadInQC

CheeseheadInQC in MLB Draft

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Introductions

Introductions All Around

After reading @TheIrrelevantWriter's introductory blog, I thought I would follow suit. My name is Chris and I'm currently living in New Mexico but grew up in southeastern Wisconsin. I was the only person in my family who was really interested in sports but somehow quickly became obsessed with baseball. I'd listen to the mid/late 90's games on WTMJ with Uecker and Jim Powell and collect the Brewers' cards from the local police officers. I only attended one or two Brewers games growing up and went
Stealofhome

Stealofhome in Introductions

3
Minor leagues

Mission Accomplished... So Far

Several years ago, the Brewers made a change in organizational philosophy to place greater emphasis on a prospect's hit tool when it came to scouting for the draft or international signing class. Statistically at least, the results have paid off. Led by the now-injured Juan Baez, the Carolina Mudcats have struck out the fewest times in all of low-A. Not just the Carolina League, but all of low-A. That is impressive, but nothing compared to what the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers have d
Introduction

Allow me to introduce myself..

Hey there, I’m Irrelevant.  After creating a couple of blogs and participating in the live thread a little bit, I figured I better do a more formal introduction to give some context.  I grew up in Wisconsin and my first love was baseball.  My dad would take me to as many Sunday day games as possible at Miller Park. We used to sit behind the 1st base dugout where we watched Ritchie Sexson, Lyle Overbay, and Prince Fielder for years.  I’ve cheered on the Milwaukee Brewers since before anyone knew
Instant Reactions

Instant Reaction: 7/1

On a dry, mostly sunny day in Denver, the Brewers were visually flustered by the Colorado Rockies for the 6th consecutive game at Coor Field. The Brewers' bats were clicking.  Unfortunately, so were their offensive miscues.  Listening to Pat Murphy's response on the controversial Joey Ortiz out call, I feel it's clear the ump's logic was sound.  I could see the change in directions. Rather it was right or not, may be another question.  I don't believe he changed direction by 3 feet though.  That
Recap/ Preview

2024: Halfway to Last Call

Throughout the first half the 2024 season, the Brewers can be described as one word: electric. I have been a fan of the Brewers for almost 30 years, the last time I saw this much excitement without expectation was when we were cheering Ryan Braun on for ROY in 2007.  The young pieces are coming along. Turang, Chourio, and Ortiz are going to be superstars in time.  Frelick scared me at the start of the year, but he's coming around since June 1st.  The leadership of Contreras, Yelich, Hoskins, and
Player Analysis

Sal Frelick and the High Strike

@Outlander  mentioned the possibility that umps are calling higher strikes than normal against Sal Frelick as a reaction to a particularly impactful missed call against him in Wednesday's game against the Angels. The Ump Scorecard: I couldn't find a quick way to visualize strike calls against Frelick that were mapped to his personal strikezone, so I decided to make one. Using Baseball Savant's search, we can pull the data from strikes called against him this year. The x-axis shou
Player Analysis

Rhys Hoskins and His Struggles Against Left-Handed Pitching

The Brewers signed Rhys Hoskins last offseason to be a power bat in the middle of the lineup. It was a bit of a gamble by the team, as Hoskins missed all of last season with a torn ACL, but a measured one because of his consistent ability to hit. Coming into 2024, Hoskins had over 2,800 plate appearances with a 125 wRC+ and turned 31 toward the end of spring training. By all accounts, he is great in both the clubhouse and community, and was clearly a fan favorite during his six Major League seas
Promotions

FOCO Releases Christian Yelich Milwaukee Brewers Field Stripe Mini Bighead Bobblehead

FOCO is a partner with Brewer Fanatic and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts. In honor of his great start to the season, FOCO has released a brand-new Christian Yelich Milwaukee Brewers Field Stripe Mini Bighead Bobblehead. This Christian Yelich Milwaukee Brewers Field Stripe Mini Bighead Bobblehead features everyone's favorite Brewers star, in bobblehead form.
Brock Beauchamp

Brock Beauchamp in Promotions

0
Major Leagues

Where Have All the Good Outfielders Gone? Hint: Not the National League

With all of the hype that the current young crop of Brewers outfielders got as they moved through the Milwaukee system, it is easy to look at the production that the Brewers have gotten from their outfielders this season and be, well, a bit underwhelmed. Joey Wiemer hasn't hit. Garrett Mitchell has been hurt. Sal Frelick is struggling to get his OPS above .700. And as for Jackson Chourio, well, I guess at least he's been better than fellow hyped rookies Jackson Holliday and Colt Keith.
Promotions

Bring a Legend of The Brew Crew to Your Home with FOCO’s Robin Yount Bobblehead

FOCO is a partner with Brewer Fanatic and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts. An all time Milwaukee Brewers great is now a part of FOCO’s illustrious Milwaukee Brewers bobblehead collection.  The power hitting shortstop and center fielder, nicknamed “The Kid,” who played all 20 years with the Milwaukee Brewers, is known as the perennial offensive weapon of the
Brock Beauchamp

Brock Beauchamp in Promotions

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