Brewers (Sproat) vs White Sox (Kay): 3/29/26, 1:10pm

[Snoebird]

The icing on the cake was Joey Wiemer tormenting the Cubs for the second time this weekend as a late addition to the Nats' roster. The Cubs couldn't get him out. 

[Dragonbait]

[Outlander]

I can't recall ever leaving a Brewers game early and the Brewers ended up winning but today was that day. Left after 7 as it was a pretty miserable performance all game and we already saw Saturday's win. Listened on the way home and amazed they were able to pull that off based on what we saw prior.

[brewmann04]

Glad I decided to watch the whole game great comeback and bullpen 

[RobertCrawley]

1 hour ago, Dragonbait said:

WIEMER

[long ball]

Caveat of it being the white Sox, but it’s great to see this team show the same fight they showed so often last season. 
 

real bummer of a start for sproat. Couldn’t reign in any semblance of command. Hopefully he bounces back next start. 
 

heck of a job by the B bullpen and defense to keep the white Sox down long enough to give the offense a chance and megill to close it out. 
 

a little surprised Contreras didn’t challenge the potential strike three call in the top of the 9th to the first batter. Glad it didn’t end up hurting us. 
 

fun way to start the year! Looking forward to the next series. Harrison is the newcomer in most interested in seeing. 

[jay87shot]

Couldn't have asked for a better scripted 1st series.

 

[BarremlensTSSC]

2 hours ago, long ball said:

Caveat of it being the white Sox, but it’s great to see this team show the same fight they showed so often last season. 
 

real bummer of a start for sproat. Couldn’t reign in any semblance of command. Hopefully he bounces back next start. 
 

heck of a job by the B bullpen and defense to keep the white Sox down long enough to give the offense a chance and megill to close it out. 
 

a little surprised Contreras didn’t challenge the potential strike three call in the top of the 9th to the first batter. Glad it didn’t end up hurting us. 
 

fun way to start the year! Looking forward to the next series. Harrison is the newcomer in most interested in seeing. 

I was very surprised by the lack of challenge to that pitch call in the 9th as well.  Not sure why you wouldn't to be honest  but maybe there are things about the system/rule I still don't understand.

[wiguy94]

2 hours ago, long ball said:

Caveat of it being the white Sox, but it’s great to see this team show the same fight they showed so often last season. 
 

real bummer of a start for sproat. Couldn’t reign in any semblance of command. Hopefully he bounces back next start. 
 

heck of a job by the B bullpen and defense to keep the white Sox down long enough to give the offense a chance and megill to close it out. 
 

a little surprised Contreras didn’t challenge the potential strike three call in the top of the 9th to the first batter. Glad it didn’t end up hurting us. 
 

fun way to start the year! Looking forward to the next series. Harrison is the newcomer in most interested in seeing. 

I hope Contreras just thought they didn’t have any challenges left. If not then that was a pretty bad miss from him not challenging a 1-2 ball call in the 9th inning up 2 runs. You try to preserve your challenges literally for that exact moment.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, RobertCrawley said:

WIEMER

He has so much going for him--power, glove, throwing arm, speed---but a ton of guys with impressive tools never see those tools translate. Maybe a late bloomer?

From the Former Brewer files-----I take no glee in this b/c I liked both of them, but through the first 3 games for their new teams Caleb Durbin & Isaac Collins are a combined 0-20.

[RobertCrawley]

22 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

He has so much going for him--power, glove, throwing arm, speed---but a ton of guys with impressive tools never see those tools translate. Maybe a late bloomer?

From the Former Brewer files-----I take no glee in this b/c I liked both of them, but through the first 3 games for their new teams Caleb Durbin & Isaac Collins are a combined 0-20.

Yep. Sounds like a late bloomer. Baseball's a funny game that way. Guys sometimes bounce around and then at some point get it figured out. And some guys who have a great season or two and then fall off and never make it back. 

[BrewerFan]

9 hours ago, BarremlensTSSC said:

I know the White Sox don't look dramatically better than last year, but this team, man....

They're... talented. They're not a well run team and they don't have the culture yet, but the talent they have?

I've said that's at team I'd love target later this year(or earlier). That reliever Taylor... he did us some favors by not just throwing 102 in the upper half of the zone and asking us to hit it. Dominguez is a good pitcher, but... I just think we'd make him better, and Hicks, his ball moves to much, it just feels like small tweaks. 

Still, certainly not the Dodgers, but power arms, good young players. They're a team I think could win 75 games if they have the right staff and could get these pitchers on track. 


-But, more importantly, I don't care what Sproat's actual results were today. He looked like he's got the stuff to be a top of the rotation type arm. A #2 or... even an ace. He gets good movement. If he can just get ahead in the count... I think he could be a really good arm this year. I'm feeling a LOT better about that Peralta trade after today... which I realize is counterintuitive and I felt good about it to begin with, but I'm wondering who was the priority from the Brewers side, Sproat or Williams? 

 

[BrewerFan]

8 hours ago, Snoebird said:

The icing on the cake was Joey Wiemer tormenting the Cubs for the second time this weekend as a late addition to the Nats' roster. The Cubs couldn't get him out. 

Well.... the REAL icing would have been if he was still in the system! I hated that trade, but the ensuing two years kinda vindicated that move(not that Frankie Montas was a resounding success or two games is proof of anything). 

A RHed power bat who can play CF/RF... would certainly be nice to have, though I don't expect that type of foresight from Marty McFly's Baseball Almanac. 

Maybe a bat we can look at later in the year when he comes back down to Earth a bit? One area we're not deep would be RHed OFers who can hit for power. Or maybe he just has a really nice story to start the year. 

 

Quote

 

@Jim French Stepstool He has so much going for him--power, glove, throwing arm, speed---but a ton of guys with impressive tools never see those tools translate. Maybe a late bloomer?

From the Former Brewer files-----I take no glee in this b/c I liked both of them, but through the first 3 games for their new teams Caleb Durbin & Isaac Collins are a combined 0-20.

 

He was certainly boom or bust. I thought it'd take 1000 PAs... but I also didn't think he'd be as bad as he was early on. He wasn't playable even at AAA until last year with the Marlins. 

It'll be interesting to see which way he'll go from here. Can he become a viable power threat or just a flash in the pan.

[Team Canada]

7 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

I don't care what Sproat's actual results were today. He looked like he's got the stuff to be a top of the rotation type arm. A #2 or... even an ace. He gets good movement. If he can just get ahead in the count... I think he could be a really good arm this year.

Seeing him for the first time, his arm action feels really extreme to me. It goes really far back behind his body so there's then a long whip around when he throws it - felt like it was hard for him to get a consistent release point and know where it was going. Compare to someone like Woodruff who has a very efficient motion.

[hawing]

I imagine many of you remember the game in early 2018 which got turned around in a hurry when Yelich and Braun hit back-to-back homers to tie and walk off the game vs STL. 

The vibe yesterday (once the Brewers went ahead) reminded me of that 2018 game.  We were at both.  😊

[Fear The Chorizo]

I don't care what Sproat's actual results were today. He looked like he's got the stuff to be a top of the rotation type arm. A #2 or... even an ace. He gets good movement. If he can just get ahead in the count... I think he could be a really good arm this year.

It's all about command - 98 with sink and a mix of offspeed is a dominant starter if he's got command.  He carried a no-no into the 6th inning of his MLB debut last September.  He's going to be inconsistent, no doubt...but you live with the growing pains to let the kid develop - doesn't need to be all in MLB, some AAA time may do him some good if the next few turns in the rotation don't improve.

What I saw yesterday was a kid too amped up for his regular season debut at home.  His power sinker didn't sink, offspeed was getting overthrown and pulled where it was either not close in the zone, or had no depth and it all looked like the same pitch.  His changeup in particular was not good - and he really needs that to be a good pitch against lefty hitters.  Not that he would've turned in a quality start otherwise, but the misplayed pop up in the 1st by Perkins and Frelick bouncing a ball that should've been caught over the fence in the 2nd not only took 2 outs away, they also cost Sproat giving up 3 of the runs that scored against him and at least 15 more pitches thrown early in the game, costing him at least another inning pitched.

Looking forward to seeing him get starts with Bill and Sanchez behind the plate...and eventually Quero once Quero settles into MLB.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

I don't care what Sproat's actual results were today. He looked like he's got the stuff to be a top of the rotation type arm. A #2 or... even an ace. He gets good movement. If he can just get ahead in the count... I think he could be a really good arm this year.

It's all about command - 98 with sink and a mix of offspeed is a dominant starter if he's got command.  He carried a no-no into the 6th inning of his MLB debut last September.  He's going to be inconsistent, no doubt...but you live with the growing pains to let the kid develop - doesn't need to be all in MLB, some AAA time may do him some good if the next few turns in the rotation don't improve.

What I saw yesterday was a kid too amped up for his regular season debut at home.  His power sinker didn't sink, offspeed was getting overthrown and pulled where it was either not close in the zone, or had no depth and it all looked like the same pitch.  His changeup in particular was not good - and he really needs that to be a good pitch against lefty hitters.  Not that he would've turned in a quality start otherwise, but the misplayed pop up in the 1st by Perkins and Frelick bouncing a ball that should've been caught over the fence in the 2nd not only took 2 outs away, they also cost Sproat giving up 3 of the runs that scored against him and at least 15 more pitches thrown early in the game, costing him at least another inning pitched.

Looking forward to seeing him get starts with Bill and Sanchez behind the plate...and eventually Quero once Quero settles into MLB.

 

All this, and long story short I expected his ball to have much more movement than it did yesterday. That's quite likely a byproduct of overthrowing & being too amped up, as you mentioned.

A handful of pitches that just missed, too, that he might gotten swings on had he not started out wild. Didn't get any borderline calls. Didn't deserve to, all things considered. Looking forward to his next time out.

[BrewerFan]

6 hours ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

I don't care what Sproat's actual results were today. He looked like he's got the stuff to be a top of the rotation type arm. A #2 or... even an ace. He gets good movement. If he can just get ahead in the count... I think he could be a really good arm this year.

It's all about command - 98 with sink and a mix of offspeed is a dominant starter if he's got command.  He carried a no-no into the 6th inning of his MLB debut last September.  He's going to be inconsistent, no doubt...but you live with the growing pains to let the kid develop - doesn't need to be all in MLB, some AAA time may do him some good if the next few turns in the rotation don't improve.

What I saw yesterday was a kid too amped up for his regular season debut at home.  His power sinker didn't sink, offspeed was getting overthrown and pulled where it was either not close in the zone, or had no depth and it all looked like the same pitch.  His changeup in particular was not good - and he really needs that to be a good pitch against lefty hitters.  Not that he would've turned in a quality start otherwise, but the misplayed pop up in the 1st by Perkins and Frelick bouncing a ball that should've been caught over the fence in the 2nd not only took 2 outs away, they also cost Sproat giving up 3 of the runs that scored against him and at least 15 more pitches thrown early in the game, costing him at least another inning pitched.

Looking forward to seeing him get starts with Bill and Sanchez behind the plate...and eventually Quero once Quero settles into MLB.

 

Yeah, he was also constantly behind in the count. The pitch to Montgomery was almost a get me over FB. 94 MPH sinker that... didn't sink IIRC. 

Yesterday was a bad outing, but I'm not going off the results. Skenes went 2/3rds. It's the stuff... which I think we're in agreement. 
The upside is clearly there. He needs to refine it, but I'd really rather have the young arms we have than a Quintana as the #3/4 arm. And he's really the #4/5 with Woody throwing 5th. 

[Fear The Chorizo]

39 minutes ago, BrewerFan said:

Yeah, he was also constantly behind in the count. The pitch to Montgomery was almost a get me over FB. 94 MPH sinker that... didn't sink IIRC. 

Yesterday was a bad outing, but I'm not going off the results. Skenes went 2/3rds. It's the stuff... which I think we're in agreement. 
The upside is clearly there. He needs to refine it, but I'd really rather have the young arms we have than a Quintana as the #3/4 arm. And he's really the #4/5 with Woody throwing 5th. 

Not to mention Priester....Sproat or Harrison are fighting for the 5-6 rotation spots plus Gasser factors in there.  Doubt they all ever are healthy at the same time, nice to have depth in the rotation!