Playoff Roster

[Brewcrew82]

35 minutes ago, Bulldogboy said:

Did anyone else see that Murphy was asked about Yelich leading off and he said he was saving this until go time because he wants to ensure Joey Ortiz has protection!! I thought he has to be messing with everyone but nope he actually said that is the reason. He moved his overall best hitting player to leadoff because he's concerned about the pitches one of the worst hitter who is playing for his defense gets. I think my concern over Murphy in the playoffs is officially at 10. That is one of the most incredible things I've ever heard. He said Yelich is a team player and will do whatever it takes. 🙄 

It's really not that horrible of an idea. If you think Yelich is your best hitter, batting him 1st maximizes his # of ABs. There's a reason the Dodgers bat Ohtani leadoff.

And you theoretically force the opposing team to throw Ortiz more strikes. 

[RobertCrawley]

Some concern over Wild Bill's bruised hand. I'm pretty sure every single one of us questioned why Wild Bill played the next day after the injury. It made no sense, except that Contreras probably wanted to.

[RWeeksFan23]

People make way too big of a deal about Yelich leading off.

Whether it's Yelich, Frelick, Turang... who cares? None of them are really THAT different from one another in terms of talent, skillset, etc.

[markedman5]

31 minutes ago, RobertCrawley said:

Some concern over Wild Bill's bruised hand. I'm pretty sure every single one of us questioned why Wild Bill played the next day after the injury. It made no sense, except that Contreras probably wanted to.

My memory isn’t what it used to be but I’m pretty sure he got the day off after he got hit.

He told Murphy he wanted to play but I think they sat him the next day.

[Bulldogboy]

33 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

It's really not that horrible of an idea. If you think Yelich is your best hitter, batting him 1st maximizes his # of ABs. There's a reason the Dodgers bat Ohtani leadoff.

And you theoretically force the opposing team to throw Ortiz more strikes. 

Why should we care if Ortiz sees more strikes? If you want to say i want Yelich to get 5 ab fine. To bring Ortiz up in the conversation is insane. He can’t hit and it doesn't matter who is behind him.

[Outlander]

5 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

My memory isn’t what it used to be but I’m pretty sure he got the day off after he got hit.

He told Murphy he wanted to play but I think they sat him the next day.

Contreras did get the day off, Brewers clinched on a loss that Sunday to the Cardinals and Contreras did not play.

[RobertCrawley]

6 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

My memory isn’t what it used to be but I’m pretty sure he got the day off after he got hit.

He told Murphy he wanted to play but I think they sat him the next day.

Mine isn’t very good either obviously. 

[markedman5]

36 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

It's really not that horrible of an idea. If you think Yelich is your best hitter, batting him 1st maximizes his # of ABs. There's a reason the Dodgers bat Ohtani leadoff.

And you theoretically force the opposing team to throw Ortiz more strikes. 

Theoretically……but Bill James pretty much debunked the protection myth I believe. 
 

logically it makes sense but it hasn’t really played out that way. 
 

my guess is people aren’t afraid to attack Joey no matter who is batting first.

Getting Yelich another at bat certainly is a plus but the difference between him, Turang and Sal is pretty slight …….our record with Sal leading off was pretty damn good.

Not a big deal but I kind of like sticking with what was successful as opposed to changing it late in the year.

[Brewcrew82]

27 minutes ago, Bulldogboy said:

Why should we care if Ortiz sees more strikes? If you want to say i want Yelich to get 5 ab fine. To bring Ortiz up in the conversation is insane. He can’t hit and it doesn't matter who is behind him.

The Ortiz part is more tenuous I agree. 

End of the day Yelich batting first is a non-issue imo. Dodgers bat Ohtani leadoff for a reason. Get your best hitters as many ABs as possible.

[bm1090]

34 minutes ago, Bulldogboy said:

Why should we care if Ortiz sees more strikes? If you want to say i want Yelich to get 5 ab fine. To bring Ortiz up in the conversation is insane. He can’t hit and it doesn't matter who is behind him.

Because he’s the one guy on our team who doesn’t have the best plate discipline, so forcing them to throw strikes should improve him as a hitter.

But I don’t think it’s a great reason. I’d like them to roll with Sal at lead off 

[Brewcrew82]

49 minutes ago, RWeeksFan23 said:

People make way too big of a deal about Yelich leading off.

Whether it's Yelich, Frelick, Turang... who cares? None of them are really THAT different from one another in terms of talent, skillset, etc.

Agreed. Batting order, especially leadoff hitter, is perhaps the most overanalyzed thing in baseball. Leadoff is only ever guaranteed to leadoff once a game. 

[sveumrules]

Based on how everybody hit in each of the various line up spots this year best batting order would be…

#1 Frelick
(265 PA of 136 wRC+)

#2 Contreras
(172 PA of 127 wRC+)

#3 Yelich
(336 PA of 120 wRC+)

#4 Chourio
(42 PA of 219 wRC+)

#5 Vaughn 
(131 PA of 157 wRC+)

#6 Collins or Bauers
(133 PA of 124 wRC+)
(38 PA of 126 wRC+)

#7 Turang
(102 PA of 171 wRC+)

#8 Durbin
(190 PA of 122 wRC+)

#9 Ortiz or Mona
(339 PA of 88 wRC+)
(62 PA of 177 wRC+)

Couple random notes about league average wRC+ and batting order positions…

- lineup construction has shifted to the point that over the last three seasons lead off hitters (111, 109 & 110 league average wRC+) have slightly better results than clean up hitters (108, 106 & 108 league average wRC+).

- league average #9 hitter had a 79 wRC+ this year, so Joey was actually better than average when batting ninth. His seasonal wRC+ was dragged down by abysmal results in other lineup spots…27 wRC+ batting 8th, -49 wRC+ batting 7th, 68 wRC+ batting 6th.

[Brian]

Brewers playoff schedule:

They didn't announce the game times yet, I'm surprised. 

Brewers playoff schedule:

NLDS Game 1 (at American Family Field): Saturday, Oct. 4

NLDS Game 2 (at American Family Field): Monday, Oct. 6

NLDS Game 3 (on the road): Wednesday, Oct. 8

NLDS Game 4 if necessary (on the road): Thursday, Oct. 9

NLDS Game 5 if necessary (at American Family Field): Saturday, Oct. 11

What channel is the Brewers playoff games on? How to watch Brewers in playoffs

All of the Brewers' NLDS games will air on TBS. 

[markedman5]

 

[OK4BrewCrew]

I’ve seen a lot of talk about Hoskins making the playoff roster. Personally, I love the idea of having him in the dugout for his veteran presence—but not on the active roster.

I don’t mind a strikeout if it comes after a quality at-bat, working the count and making the pitcher earn it. The problem is, if you go back and watch Hoskins’ recent ABs, they’ve been rough—lots of chasing and poor swing decisions.

If he brought plus speed or elite defense, I could make the case. But with Vaughn and Bauers both offering more in those areas (and Vaughn at least holding his own with the glove), it’s hard to justify a roster spot when Hoskins’ swing looks this lost.

It’s not an easy call, but I still feel good about Vaughn in that lineup. This is October—we’ve got to put our absolute best foot forward.

[owbc]

57 minutes ago, OK4BrewCrew said:

I’ve seen a lot of talk about Hoskins making the playoff roster. Personally, I love the idea of having him in the dugout for his veteran presence—but not on the active roster.

I don’t mind a strikeout if it comes after a quality at-bat, working the count and making the pitcher earn it. The problem is, if you go back and watch Hoskins’ recent ABs, they’ve been rough—lots of chasing and poor swing decisions.

If he brought plus speed or elite defense, I could make the case. But with Vaughn and Bauers both offering more in those areas (and Vaughn at least holding his own with the glove), it’s hard to justify a roster spot when Hoskins’ swing looks this lost.

It’s not an easy call, but I still feel good about Vaughn in that lineup. This is October—we’ve got to put our absolute best foot forward.

Welcome to the forum! Great first post. It's not surprising that Rhys is rusty, but I agree, he's unlikely to magically figure it out in high leverage postseason ABs. 

[CheezWizHed]

A few random thoughts on various topics through this thread:

Yelich leading off.  Probably the negative is that he actually has a lower OBP than Frelick or Turang.  While he has more HRs than anyone... he doesn't have the overall OPS or SLG to make leading off a negative impact to his value (compared to Frelick/Turang moving down).  

However, I do think Murph is playing a bit of a phycological game.  Put your experience bat at the top for the playoff experience... then put a bug in Ortiz's head that he is providing him "protection"... doesn't matter if it actually makes a long term difference if it gives Joey a mental "boost" for a few games.

Chad Patrick - he certainly has earned his spot on the team. Right now, I'd start him over Miz.  

Hoskins - he wasn't part of the team that overtook the Cubs, he wasn't playing overly well, and is redundant on the roster right now... I'd leave him off. 

[adambr2]

On 9/30/2025 at 4:05 PM, Brewcrew82 said:

It's really not that horrible of an idea. If you think Yelich is your best hitter, batting him 1st maximizes his # of ABs. There's a reason the Dodgers bat Ohtani leadoff.

And you theoretically force the opposing team to throw Ortiz more strikes. 

Yelich has a 121 OPS+ which is exactly the same as Turang and Frelick is at 111. The difference between the 3 is far too insignificant to think that one is going to make a marked difference in the number of strikes that the #9 hitter sees. All are massive upgrades over Ortiz offensively, who I’m not sure whether we want to be seeing strikes or not.

I also understand why Roberts has Ohtani leadoff, but I would argue that most managers probably would find that to not be optimal.

[Oxy]

One of Hoskins, Seigler, Black or Lockridge will be on the playoff roster.  If it were up to me I might actually keep 2 of those guys and go with 11 pitchers and 15 position players.  Sunday, Tuesday and Friday are off days-which means I have no idea how they could possibly ever use the 12th pitcher--particularly with long swing men like Miz, Ashby and maybe Hall in the pen.

[brooks_quichenick]

 

[Bulldogboy]

29 minutes ago, brooks_quichenick said:

 

This does not bode well for this roster management. Myers has been great out the pen

[Team Canada]

2 minutes ago, Bulldogboy said:

This does not bode well for this roster management. Myers has been great out the pen

It may be a function of the short series and the days off. They’ll be able to use the top 4 a lot. 

[Bulldogboy]

No Hoskins on the roster. Wild. Dude really must have been a net negative in the clubhouse. Grant Anderson instead of Myers isn't good. Hall out Gasser in is questionable. Gasser hasn't been very good since returning. Well gotta hope for the best. Lockridge back is cool. No Rob Z.

[Brian]

26 minutes ago, Bulldogboy said:

This does not bode well for this roster management. Myers has been great out the pen

If it hasn't been announced yet why are you assuming anything? Keep the Cubs on there heels as much as possible. Zero advanced notice is ok by me.

[Bulldogboy]

Just now, Brian said:

If it hasn't been announced yet why are you assuming anything? Keep the Cubs on there heels as much as possible. Zero advanced notice is ok by me.

It's been announced