Brewers (Keuchel) vs Rockies (Feltner): 7/2/24, 7:40pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

Rough last night. Get a win.

[treego14]

We will Belt ole' Felt!

Our team will have Snap-Kuechel-and-Pop!

This losing streak will stop!

[Fear The Chorizo]

This feels like one of those 15-12 Colorado specials with these two guys starting.....hoping it's the Brewers with 15 tonight

[Brewcrew82]

I wish I had any confidence in Keuchel in this ballpark with our struggles against the Rockies to cough up any less than 5 runs. 

Score, score, and score some more is the name of the game tonight. 

[Jake McKibbin]

If he can somehow get those ground balls... if his sinker's drop is affected at all by the Colorado air this could be rough.

Please god no cutters tonight

[Outlander]

Keuchel had been bad at Coors Field the couple of times he pitched there in 2022 and 2023, would expect more of the same this time around. Feltner isn't very good either so will see what happens but I am gald the Brewers only play at Coors once a year. Always dred these games.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I feel like this Brewers roster is actually set up really well for Coors field - anyone can hit HRs there, but having speed all over the lineup with high contact rates leads to a lot of hits and a lot of runs.  Plus the defense should help limit the opponent from scoring as often - assuming the pitchers can keep the ball in the park.

[homer]

2 hours ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

I feel like this Brewers roster is actually set up really well for Coors field - anyone can hit HRs there, but having speed all over the lineup with high contact rates leads to a lot of hits and a lot of runs.  Plus the defense should help limit the opponent from scoring as often - assuming the pitchers can keep the ball in the park.

I was thinking about this during yesterday's game - what would be the optimal defensive team built for Coors Field? You'd need fast outfielders to cover all the ground and...pitchers that K a lot of guys? Could you get away with ground ball specialists? I don't know that they've ever cracked that nut.

[Fear The Chorizo]

6 minutes ago, homer said:

I was thinking about this during yesterday's game - what would be the optimal defensive team built for Coors Field? You'd need fast outfielders to cover all the ground and...pitchers that K a lot of guys? Could you get away with ground ball specialists? I don't know that they've ever cracked that nut.

I would think high K rate arms that rely on a combo of velo and deception instead of pitch movement would be the premium...guys with fastball/cutter/changeup arsenals instead of relying on sinker/slider/curve secondary offerings to get swings and misses.  I don't trust sinker arms in thin air.

And yes, rangy outfielders coupled with infielders who simply don't make errors.

Probably the equally important aspect is that group of position players having offensive traits that they can exploit at Coors, knowing it's going to be a pitcher's nightmare more often than not regardless of defense.

 

[Brewcrew82]

Remember all of the handwringing over Chourio's defense?

Also, there is zero reason to ever play him in LF in "deference" to Frelick. Might not happen until next year, but it's really only a matter of time until he takes hold of the CF spot. 

 

[Fear The Chorizo]

8 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Remember all of the handwringing over Chourio's defense?

Also, there is zero reason to ever play him in LF in "deference" to Frelick. Might not happen until next year, but it's really only a matter of time until he takes hold of the CF spot. 

 

Frelick should be trade bait....if Mitchell could stay healthy I think he'd already have been traded.

He just doesn't have an everyday position on this roster.  I don't dislike Frelick as a player, but his ceiling is just not in the same area code as what Yelich/Mitchell/Chourio can provide as a starting trio of outfielders.

[treego14]

15 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Frelick should be trade bait....

Frelick is Scooter Gennett II ... we will regret letting Frelick go if we do.  Sal is a stud!

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, Jake McKibbin said:

If he can somehow get those ground balls... if his sinker's drop is affected at all by the Colorado air this could be rough.

Please god no cutters tonight

That's exactly what I was thinking. IF he can keep the ball down w/sufficient movement & without walking folks, we have the inf defense to make that work. If, if, if.............

[Fear The Chorizo]

1 hour ago, treego14 said:

Frelick is Scooter Gennett II ... we will regret letting Frelick go if we do.  Sal is a stud!

Who regrets letting Scooter go?

[liveforoctober]

Is it weird to say this is already a do or die game for Keuchel? If he throws 4 2/3 and gives up 3 then whatever... give him another start. But if he pitches 3 innings and gives up 6 ... is that it for him?

[tmwiese55]

7 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

Is it weird to say this is already a do or die game for Keuchel? If he throws 4 2/3 and gives up 3 then whatever... give him another start. But if he pitches 3 innings and gives up 6 ... is that it for him?

could be and that's fine by me.     OTOH, pretty tough hand to be dealt if you're him. Show up after travel and have to pitch a few hours later, 2nd start at Coors, and if given another its at LAD.  Not like I expected much from him anyway but not too many scrapheap pickups would be able to do much with that. But hey, maybe that's what he'll give us, eating 3 bad situation starts so others don't and then go our separate ways.     

Also, it would be one more against WAS from him to get through the ASB. That was my guess when they got him, to try to get to ASB and hopefully others will be back by then to let him go. But yea, if he's bad tonight it could be enough is enough type thing, it would also allow for a fresh arm up for Wednesday on until needing to call a starter of some kind a few days later

[treego14]

36 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Who regrets letting Scooter go?

Scooter was an all-star with the Reds.  I do!

[BruisedCrew]

20 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

Is it weird to say this is already a do or die game for Keuchel? If he throws 4 2/3 and gives up 3 then whatever... give him another start. But if he pitches 3 innings and gives up 6 ... is that it for him?

It very well could be. It wouldn’t be the first time a team gave a veteran a look and let him go quickly. 

[folly412]

 

[yfinn6]

I like this lineup. I would like to see Ortiz over Monasterio but I understand Murph may be nursing him a bit with his neck. 

[KeithStone53151]

I hope Bauers starting is less platoon related and moreso recent performance related. Also, I wonder how much this is the start of Yelich getting a lot more time at DH. He's not only a worse defender than any of the 3 starting today, but having him DH saves his legs for the basepaths and acts to keep his body fresh. It's way way too logical of a move given current roster construction to have him DH over half the time until something changes.

The lefty stack 5-7 I find to be good strategy right now, but will annoy me if it's still happening in a month. Clearly we intend to pinch hit Perkins/Hoskins for Mitchell/Bauers as soon as a lefty reliever is inevitably summoned for them. I don't mind doing that for Mitchell now as a way to limit innings immediately off injury, it also helps to leverage the entire roster to get the best possible matchups. Mitchell, once he gets his feet under him and falls into a routine of hopefully health/production, needs to be facing both handed pitching to improve as a player and not become a platoon bat by design.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, treego14 said:

Scooter was an all-star with the Reds.  I do!

The Brewers let Scooter Gennett go heading into his age 27 season. True he made an All Star team with the Reds but despite being an All Star  his career was over a year later at age 29. Big deal. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, KeithStone53151 said:

I hope Bauers starting is less platoon related and moreso recent performance related. Also, I wonder how much this is the start of Yelich getting a lot more time at DH. He's not only a worse defender than any of the 3 starting today, but having him DH saves his legs for the basepaths and acts to keep his body fresh. It's way way too logical of a move given current roster construction to have him DH over half the time until something changes.

The lefty stack 5-7 I find to be good strategy right now, but will annoy me if it's still happening in a month. Clearly we intend to pinch hit Perkins/Hoskins for Mitchell/Bauers as soon as a lefty reliever is inevitably summoned for them. I don't mind doing that for Mitchell now as a way to limit innings immediately off injury, it also helps to leverage the entire roster to get the best possible matchups. Mitchell, once he gets his feet under him and falls into a routine of hopefully health/production, needs to be facing both handed pitching to improve as a player and not become a platoon bat by design.

Nice post. I think the Bauers start IS more performance-related. At least it should be. The quality of his ABs has been really good the last week or two, and Hoskins has been in the lineup vs RHP before but isn't tonight. That said, I don't see Bauers getting starts vs lefties. If his good ABs continue, heck yeah, roll him out there vs righties. If it starts to look like a platoon, so be it.

Yelich being in the lineup while getting off his feet is definitely a nice feature of the crowded house in the OF. 

Between the Yelich/DH option & the rest of the outfield there will probably be times when SOMEONE btwn Frelick & Mitchell has to swing it vs a lefty. I don't have a horse in that race, but you'd think Mitchell would at some point have a chance to prove he can do it. Maybe in a lineup like tonights' we'd eventually see Perkins hit for Frelick, rather than Mitchell? Right now it's anybody's guess.

 

[willie key]

Brewers might want to win this game tonight 

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, liveforoctober said:

Is it weird to say this is already a do or die game for Keuchel? If he throws 4 2/3 and gives up 3 then whatever... give him another start. But if he pitches 3 innings and gives up 6 ... is that it for him?

Unless he's flat out horrible, falls behind & walks people in addition to being hit hard I would think he'd go at least once more. But who knows?

FWIW Chad Patrick is kinda-sorta lined up with him in the Nashville rotation. He doesn't throw tonite but would be scheduled to tomorrow w/five days rest.