Tigers (Lorenzen) vs Brewers (Peralta): 4/26/23, 12:40pm

[Joseph Zarr]

1 minute ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I tend to not get that worked up about a single game. But frequent mis-use of a player gets on my nerves, like the way Hiura was constantly being used last year.

And when it comes to pulling, not pulling, or putting in a pitcher, the error has to be egregious for me to get mad about it... and while that happens, it's pretty infrequent.

That makes sense. I tend to agree with that, actually. Kind of like how the Packers kept trotting out Amari Rogers as a Punt Returner when it was blatantly obvious to anyone (oddly) outside the building it was a turrible idea. Anywho, my response could have been more nuanced. I guess, in the end, I actually agree with @willie key: I really don't care if anyone complains about anything. We all deal with the game and our viewing in different ways. I'm not going to tell a single person how to 'fan'. Nope. Carry on to the 'W'!

[wiguy94]

1 minute ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

And he did it against a change-up. Maybe not quite as impressive as a breaking ball but good to see he did that against something off-speed.

The double in his first AB was off a slider (granted it was a hanging slider) but still good to see.

[MrTPlush]

2 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

They debuted the 'Auto Balls and Strikes' in Nashville last night. OMG, it was glorious. The ump has an earpiece. The entire stadium sees the live Auto-Zone in real time. Any touch of any part of the zone by any part of the ball is relayed a strike. It. Is. Awesome. Can't arrive soon enough.

Good, then fans will finally learn what a strike is. Many people complain about calls and don't realize the ball just needs to scrap the zone...the ball doesn't have to mostly or be completely in the zone.

[Joseph Zarr]

I reallllllly want RHP Ryan Middendorf (Double-A Biloxi) to train with Strzelecki. Middendorf can be a comparable success story. He needs to polish up some things at Double-A - he's had a few hiccups in the early going. BUT, they have intriguingly similar movement and stuff. I think watching and learning from Strzelecki (his arsenal and his journey) could be a boon to his career.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Woof, Friday's game might be a rough one. It appears Ohtani has not pitched since the 21st so he's likely the starter.

[Joseph Zarr]

Back on track, baby. Thank you, Brewers for avoiding the organizational sweep today. Several close losses in the lower levels. Currently, the T-Rats are the toughest watch in the org (unfortunately). Hopefully, the Sounds can pull out another at home and Tyrone Taylor continues his smashing ways at Triple-A (he's a killer at Nashville, historically. It's pretty nuts).

[Joseph Zarr]

1 minute ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Woof, Friday's game might be a rough one. It appears Ohtani has not pitched since the 21st so he's likely the starter.

20 K day? We certainly have the potential for a record-breaking moment of futility😅

[MrTPlush]

3 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I was at that game! It was terrible so I left!

I bet it felt similar to when I waited years to finally go to a Brewers opening day, bought good homeplate seats, and then watched the Brewers get absolutely destroyed by the Rockies. It was like 10-0 in the 4th. 

[wiguy94]

2 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Woof, Friday's game might be a rough one. It appears Ohtani has not pitched since the 21st so he's likely the starter.

He's set to pitch tomorrow against the A's. We are scheduled to face 3 LHP in the Angels series though so not much better.

[Joseph Zarr]

Just now, MrTPlush said:

I bet it felt similar to when I waited years to finally go to a Brewers opening day, bought good homeplate seats, and then watched the Brewers get absolutely destroyed by the Rockies. It was like 10-0 in the 4th. 

Man, if that's not a classic Wisconsin sports story I don't know what is. That sounds awful.

[HarryDoyle]

I saw that Baez left the game after getting beaned then Yelich got beaned the next half inning. Was that a retaliation by Detroit?

[wiguy94]

Just now, HarryDoyle said:

I saw that Baez left the game after getting beaned then Yelich got beaned the next half inning. Was that a retaliation by Detroit?

No just a poorly located cutter.

[AKCheesehead]

53 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

Good, then fans will finally learn what a strike is. Many people complain about calls and don't realize the ball just needs to scrap the zone...the ball doesn't have to mostly or be completely in the zone.

Not to mention, lots of fans (and sometimes umpires, it seems like) think the strike zone is the same rectangle for all players.  In reality the high and low are both vastly different for a couple players like Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge, for example.

[wiguy94]

7 minutes ago, AKCheesehead said:

Not to mention, lots of fans (and sometimes umpires, it seems like) think the strike zone is the same rectangle for all players.  In reality the high and low are both vastly different for a couple players like Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge, for example.

I've been paying a lot more attention to his on the broadcasts this year. Sometimes those strike zone boxes are not remotely close to being the knee to the belt so the pitch doesn't hit the box and people complain about the call when it was actually a strike.

[wiguy94]

Regarding Contreras use, I will say this. He should absolutely be playing in all 3 games of the Angels series with 3 LHP on the mound for them. I think Counsell will have Contreras catch the 1st and 3rd game with Caratini catching Burnes in the 2nd game with Contreras DH'ing.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, MrTPlush said:

I bet it felt similar to when I waited years to finally go to a Brewers opening day, bought good homeplate seats, and then watched the Brewers get absolutely destroyed by the Rockies. It was like 10-0 in the 4th. 

I'm long past the point of getting upset over regular season games. I used to do it and wow did it impact my mental health and general well-being. It's also part of the reason why I'm less Twins-centric than I have been at times. If I'm not enjoying baseball, I shouldn't be watching it.

So I got a laugh out of watching the Twins go all Yakkity Sax on the field and then went home. In the end, they won the season series against the Yankees and it's just one game.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, wiguy94 said:

He's set to pitch tomorrow against the A's. We are scheduled to face 3 LHP in the Angels series though so not much better.

Ah, good catch. Without looking, I assumed the Angels have a travel day tomorrow.

[Brewcrew82]

3 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

Adley and Contreras have both caught 17 games this season. Seems like they both are getting plenty of games off behind the plate. Realmuto has been catching 140 games for over half a decade he is used to it. Contreras has never caught 100 games in his career and he only caught 68 games last season. He's on pace to catch 111 games this season.

Lol. You keep dancing around the point. You said catchers don't PLAY day games after night games. Adley Rutschman has literally played in every single game this year! 

Absolutely nowhere have you seen me advocate for Contreras to catch every game or anywhere even close to that. I have no problem with his rate of appearances at C so far. Rather my qualm stems with his rate of games played/at-bats. He simply needs to DH more when he's not in the lineup, given how valuable his bat is to this lineup. The Braves had no problem regularly DHing him last season...

111 games at C is fine. But you need to add about 25-35 games at DH on top of that. That can easily be achieved by DHing him against LHP when Winker isn't in the lineup. Instead, Counsell is giving him the "Narvaez treatment" where if he doesn't start at C (which has been happening every few games), he's out of the lineup entirely. That can't be the case when Contreras' bat is so much more valuable. 

 

[BruisedCrew]

3 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

Would be nice to have a single game thread this season where people aren't complaining about Counsell's lineups.

Yeah, it detracts from complaints about Yelich’s contract. 

[Brewcrew82]

1 hour ago, Joseph Zarr said:

I reallllllly want RHP Ryan Middendorf (Double-A Biloxi) to train with Strzelecki. Middendorf can be a comparable success story. He needs to polish up some things at Double-A - he's had a few hiccups in the early going. BUT, they have intriguingly similar movement and stuff. I think watching and learning from Strzelecki (his arsenal and his journey) could be a boon to his career.

If Strzelecki threw 95/96 instead of 91/92, I'm pretty sure he would be up there with Devin as among the best relievers in the game. Though, with his arsenal he might as well be starting at that point...

[nate82]

Just now, Brewcrew82 said:

If Strzelecki threw 95/96 instead of 91/92, I'm pretty sure he would be up there with Devin as among the best relievers in the game. Though, with his arsenal he might as well be starting at that point...

Strzelecki may only throw 91/92 but the way he hides the ball it makes it look like 95/96.  There is actual velocity and perceived velocity.  Perceived velocity can also come from a good change up which is why Devin's straight as an arrow fastball doesn't always get hammered like it should.  His change up makes his fastball a little less hittable and that fastball is not all that great.  Without the changeup Devin is not a MLB reliever. 

[Brewcrew82]

Speaking of Tyrone Taylor, how long we thinking he'll need to be in Nashville for? Haven't been able to find anything from CC or Arnold. He didn't play at all in ST, so I'm assuming a week and a half at minimum...

[nate82]

Just now, Brewcrew82 said:

Speaking of Tyrone Taylor, how long we thinking he'll need to be in Nashville for? Haven't been able to find anything from CC or Arnold. He didn't play at all in ST, so I'm assuming a week and a half at minimum...

Probably the full rehab assignment of 20 days or close to it. 

[Joseph Zarr]

30 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

If Strzelecki threw 95/96 instead of 91/92, I'm pretty sure he would be up there with Devin as among the best relievers in the game. Though, with his arsenal he might as well be starting at that point...

Middendorf touches 95-96 but generally sits 92-93 on his four-seamer. He has a really fantastic and active slider. He has an unorthodox delivery - which he has refined in the past year. He's currently sitting at about 15-16 K per 9 IP (to zero BB on the year) but he's finding too many hard contact bats in the early part of the 2023 season. IF he can fine-tune the little things, I still see one of the more unheralded relievers in the system.

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Lol. You keep dancing around the point. You said catchers don't PLAY day games after night games. Adley Rutschman has literally played in every single game this year! 

Absolutely nowhere have you seen me advocate for Contreras to catch every game or anywhere even close to that. I have no problem with his rate of appearances at C so far. Rather my qualm stems with his rate of games played/at-bats. He simply needs to DH more when he's not in the lineup, given how valuable his bat is to this lineup. The Braves had no problem regularly DHing him last season...

111 games at C is fine. But you need to add about 25-35 games at DH on top of that. That can easily be achieved by DHing him against LHP when Winker isn't in the lineup. Instead, Counsell is giving him the "Narvaez treatment" where if he doesn't start at C (which has been happening every few games), he's out of the lineup entirely. That can't be the case when Contreras' bat is so much more valuable. 

 

I said they don't catch. Not that they don't play lol. Brewers have a full-time DH on their roster in Winker. It's not as easy to just play Contreras at DH when he isn't catching when they need to get Winker consistent ABs.