2022 & 2023 Brewers: mediocre, “lukewarm” baseball

[edfunderburk]

 

It’s Sunday, so I will offer a Bible verse & contrast it with this Brewers team:

 

Revelation 3:15-16 - Jesus said: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

 

There is nothing worse than “lukewarm” coffee. On several occasions, I have spit such coffee back in my mug … yuck!

 

As a devoted baseball & Brewers fan, I would much rather this team be lousy than a middle-of-the-road .500 team. 

 

Ideally, I want them to be excellent (Rays, Orioles, Braves, D-Backs, Giants, Dodgers) … winning is fun! 

 

I can also handle losing IF it is part of a rebuilding plan. 

 

What is insufferable is mediocre … what we’ve been for two years now.

 

I’d prefer we sell off our players who might bring quality assets & top-tier prospects - future contributors to a winning club.

 

I’ve had about all I can tolerate of average, middle-of-the-pack baseball. 

 

I’m not a fan of the expanded playoff system because it allows Brewers-type teams to sneak into the playoffs - which (to me) is NOT the goal. Winning a World Series Championship is the only goal & this team has no chance. 

 

Please don’t rush to remind me of the few exceptions (2021 Braves, 2006 Cardinals). 😇

 

 

[rickh150]

Lukewarm water is less than favorable since it is not good for drinking, bathing, or washing clothes. Lukewarm in baseball keeps you in the race until September. Missing playoffs, however, will not get you the top draft picks.

[Brock Beauchamp]

It has been a rather uninspiring 15 months, that’s for sure. 

[82brewcrew82]

There is a lot of frustration among the fan base which can only exist if expectations were there for better performance over that time span.  If we accept that premise, should those expectations have been that high or has the team under performed?

[Jim French Stepstool]

So you're saying we should've picked up Jesus Aguilar when we had the chance?

[rickh150]

2 hours ago, 82brewcrew82 said:

There is a lot of frustration among the fan base which can only exist if expectations were there for better performance over that time span.  If we accept that premise, should those expectations have been that high or has the team under performed?

Largely, guys that were on this team in 2021 are either worse or hurt or both now……….Adames, Tellez, Houser, Woodruff, Burnes, Peralta, Williams, Urias, Taylor.   That is disturbing considering most are in a part of their career when they should be somewhat improving between MLB years 2 and 5. More concerning, several saw drop in performance last year and again this year,

Yelich and Milner both are doing better than 2021, thankfully.

 

[sveumrules]

3 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

It has been a rather uninspiring 15 months, that’s for sure. 

I thought the Brewers opening last year a franchise best 32-18 was pretty inspiring, especially after laying goose eggs in the 2021 NLDS.

Sure, finishing up the season 54-58 mootified the whole thing, but at least those first two months were exciting while they were happening.

Outrage over Corbin Burnes and the missing 700K dominated the ST news cycle, but turning Ruiz into Contreras was generally seen as one of the more inspired moves earlier in the winter.

Starting this season 14-5 was another burst of fun, going 26-32 since almost feels like deja vu all over again.

Add it all up and despite all that’s gone wrong, the Brewers are right about where we thought they’d be almost half way through the season…on pace for around 85 wins and battling for the division lead, even if they maybe haven’t gotten there quite the way we thought they would and are currently battling the Reds instead of the Red Birds.

No doubt this team has been doing more ebbing than flowing over the last 15 months but it hasn’t all been blah, and there is still plenty of time to maybe get that flow going again just in time for when it really matters.

@edfunderburk what does the Bible say about “ye of little faith”? 🙏🙏

[edfunderburk]

6 hours ago, sveumrules said:

I thought the Brewers opening last year a franchise best 32-18 was pretty inspiring, especially after laying goose eggs in the 2021 NLDS.

Sure, finishing up the season 54-58 mootified the whole thing, but at least those first two months were exciting while they were happening.

Outrage over Corbin Burnes and the missing 700K dominated the ST news cycle, but turning Ruiz into Contreras was generally seen as one of the more inspired moves earlier in the winter.

Starting this season 14-5 was another burst of fun, going 26-32 since almost feels like deja vu all over again.

Add it all up and despite all that’s gone wrong, the Brewers are right about where we thought they’d be almost half way through the season…on pace for around 85 wins and battling for the division lead, even if they maybe haven’t gotten there quite the way we thought they would and are currently battling the Reds instead of the Red Birds.

No doubt this team has been doing more ebbing than flowing over the last 15 months but it hasn’t all been blah, and there is still plenty of time to maybe get that flow going again just in time for when it really matters.

@edfunderburk what does the Bible say about “ye of little faith”? 🙏🙏

Touché 

It is wise to place your faith in things eternal 

Good reminders of a few highlights from the last few years 

The up & down - mediocre baseball - has been more challenging than I remember in past seasons

[sveumrules]

28 minutes ago, edfunderburk said:

The up & down - mediocre baseball - has been more challenging than I remember in past seasons

No doubt this has been the longest stretch of mediocrity since Stearns and company took over.

Since that franchise best 32-18 start last year they have gone 94-95, and that season plus of mediocrity we are currently mired in is only saved from being legitimately bad by this year’s 14-5 start.

Zooming out for a second, what we’ve had as Brewers fans since 2017 has been more good than bad, the 7th most wins in MLB over seven seasons.

But there are all kind of truisms that describe where we’re at now…all good things come to an end, and normally with more of a whimper than a bang.

But it ain’t over yet either. The Brewers are still division favorites by both Vegas & the various projection systems, and this next month of games leading up to the deadline will be huge in determining if they’re going to keep whimpering along or maybe flip the script and set themselves up for a better chance to go out with some kind of bang.

[Brock Beauchamp]

8 hours ago, sveumrules said:

I thought the Brewers opening last year a franchise best 32-18 was pretty inspiring, especially after laying goose eggs in the 2021 NLDS.

Oh for sure, I was just kinda grading 2022 as a whole. The first two months were a lot of fun that was followed by four months of very little fun.

[SF70]

45 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

No doubt this has been the longest stretch of mediocrity since Stearns and company took over.

Since that franchise best 32-18 start last year they have gone 94-95, and that season plus of mediocrity we are currently mired in is only saved from being legitimately bad by this year’s 14-5 start.

Zooming out for a second, what we’ve had as Brewers fans since 2017 has been more good than bad, the 7th most wins in MLB over seven seasons.

But there are all kind of truisms that describe where we’re at now…all good things come to an end, and normally with more of a whimper than a bang.

But it ain’t over yet either. The Brewers are still division favorites by both Vegas & the various projection systems, and this next month of games leading up to the deadline will be huge in determining if they’re going to keep whimpering along or maybe flip the script and set themselves up for a better chance to go out with some kind of bang.

If the bang I think you’re referring to is winning a WS, Fangraphs has us at a 1.7% chance, currently. 

Those odds scream sell to me, so accumulate as much prospect talent as possible and develop that talent over the next 2-3 seasons to a talent-laden, half-decade controlled team that would during a majority of that time period, have the financial-flexibility to add key veteran talent to finish-off the team.

 

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

25 minutes ago, SF70 said:

If the bang I think you’re referring to is winning a WS, Fangraphs has us at a 1.7% chance, currently. 

Those odds scream sell to me, so accumulate as much prospect talent as possible and develop that talent over the next 2-3 seasons to a talent-laden, half-decade controlled team that would during a majority of that time period, have the financial-flexibility to add key veteran talent to finish-off the team.

World Series odds are close to useless. The important thing is to reach the postseason; that's the number to track.

[sveumrules]

11 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

World Series odds are close to useless. The important thing is to reach the postseason; that's the number to track.

Yeah, at this time last year the Phillies had 1.9% WS Odds, in 2021 the Braves were at 0.8% WS Odds on June 26, Nationals were a little higher at 3.4% on 6/26/19.

On 10/20/2018, entering Game 7 of the NLCS, the closest the Brewers had been to the World Series in almost 40 years. FanGraphs had their odds of winning the World Series at nine percent.

[Brock Beauchamp]

5 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Yeah, at this time last year the Phillies had 1.9% WS Odds, in 2021 the Braves were at 0.8% WS Odds on June 26, Nationals were a little higher at 3.4% on 6/26/19.

On 10/20/2018, entering Game 7 of the NLCS, the closest the Brewers had been to the World Series in almost 40 years. FanGraphs had their odds of winning the World Series at nine percent.

Yep. When you're looking at a bunch of teams all sitting at 5-15% to do a specific thing, it's the statistical equivalent of

[rickh150]

9 hours ago, sveumrules said:

I thought the Brewers opening last year a franchise best 32-18 was pretty inspiring, especially after laying goose eggs in the 2021 NLDS.

Sure, finishing up the season 54-58 mootified the whole thing, but at least those first two months were exciting while they were happening.

Outrage over Corbin Burnes and the missing 700K dominated the ST news cycle, but turning Ruiz into Contreras was generally seen as one of the more inspired moves earlier in the winter.

Starting this season 14-5 was another burst of fun, going 26-32 since almost feels like deja vu all over again.

Add it all up and despite all that’s gone wrong, the Brewers are right about where we thought they’d be almost half way through the season…on pace for around 85 wins and battling for the division lead, even if they maybe haven’t gotten there quite the way we thought they would and are currently battling the Reds instead of the Red Birds.

No doubt this team has been doing more ebbing than flowing over the last 15 months but it hasn’t all been blah, and there is still plenty of time to maybe get that flow going again just in time for when it really matters.

@edfunderburk what does the Bible say about “ye of little faith”? 🙏🙏

Little faith sounds right for our fan base…. Not no faith.! Brewer fanatic is evidence of that.

[Oxy]

On 6/25/2023 at 1:10 PM, edfunderburk said:

Please don’t rush to remind me of the few exceptions (2021 Braves, 2006 Cardinals). 😇

 

Since you asked me not to, I won't name any more.  But there are more than a "few exceptions," to the point where it isn't exceptional at all. 

Get in and get hot.

[j.swim]

When was the last time you saw a Brewer actually bunt a ball? Do the guys even know how? Come on man when the long ball isn't working,  lay a bunt down to move the guys around the bases instead of stranding them all the time. Every guy has to get up to plate and hit a home run - NO they don't! I hope Counsell reads these posts.  GO Brewers! - wheeldoctor