Brewers (Drohan) vs Red Sox (Gray): 4/8/26, 12:35pm

[Team Canada]

Just now, wiguy94 said:

Ump needs to wake up and figure out the strike zone

If only the catcher could challenge...

[BruisedCrew]

I hope this team is not in a big hole before the end of May.

So far, so good, but the injuries are really piling up for so early in the season. 

[RobertCrawley]

Another strike.

[RobertCrawley]

Levering says not a lot of strikes. He is incorrect.

[markedman5]

That was the tightest zine I’ve ever seen……come on ump

[wiguy94]

Catcher being scared to challenge and ump having no idea what the strike zone is is not a fun combo

[Bulldogboy]

23 minutes ago, ReverendBrewmeister said:

The team has two rookie pitchers in the rotation--Sproat, Harrison--and two other second-year starters--Misiorowski and Patrick.

Both of Sproat's outings have been caught by catchers other than Contreras, with neither of them going very well. (Acknowledge that the rainout double-header in Kansas City made one of those starts basically unavoidable.) While Harrison has thrown twice to Contreras, with good starts in both games.

Don't know if Drohan working with Sanchez behind the plate will be more like the Sproat outings or the Harrison ones.

Contreras definitely needs days where he's not catching. But perhaps trying to plan those days off that don't line up with the rookie pitcher starts might be something worth looking at going forward. Having a good veteran catcher to throw to would seem to be a benefit for a rookie pitcher. (Today is a spot start for Drohan, so it wasn't exactly planned out.)

I agree. That said Woodruff probably has the cache to demand Contreras.  He isn’t going to work with the backup I'm guessing. 

[adambr2]

Just now, markedman5 said:

That was the tightest zine I’ve ever seen……come on ump

Sanchez had 3 opportunities to do something about it and passed on every one.

If we are going to be as efficient as Brewer baseball usually is, we need to get better at challenging balls and strikes. One of the worst in baseball at it. Too many bad challenges and non-challenges on pitches that should be challenged.

[Bulldogboy]

5 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

For me if you have a strikeout rate north of 35% you need to be hitting in the bottom half of the order even if you have good production.

One of these days Murphy will realize Mitchell should be hitting 6-7. He works best as a guy the pitcher forgets about at the bottom and he ambushed him. 

[wiguy94]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

Sanchez had 3 opportunities to do something about it and passed on every one.

If we are going to be as efficient as Brewer baseball usually is, we need to get better at challenging balls and strikes. One of the worst in baseball at it. Too many bad challenges and non-challenges on pitches that should be challenged.

For what it's worth our catchers have not been bad at it per savant.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/abs-challenges?gameType=regular&year=2026&challengeType=team-summary&level=mlb&minChal=1&minOppChal=0&dataCount=runs&sort=net_chal_gained_runs_total&sortDir=desc&page=0&pageSize=50

[bm1090]

Ump having a rough day so far 

[RobertCrawley]

Juuuuuuust a little high.

[RobertCrawley]

Drohan settling in.

[adambr2]

9 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

For what it's worth our catchers have not been bad at it per savant.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/abs-challenges?gameType=regular&year=2026&challengeType=team-summary&level=mlb&minChal=1&minOppChal=0&dataCount=runs&sort=net_chal_gained_runs_total&sortDir=desc&page=0&pageSize=50

True, it’s been more on the hitting side.

However, Sanchez was very gun shy in the 1st on three strikes that caught plenty of the plate.

I wonder if they’re getting instructed to avoid challenging unless completely certain when it’s early or not a big game changing play (3-2 pitch with RISP and 2 out, for instance.)

As I type this, Sanchez misses another one. To be fair that last one was really, really close.

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, RobertCrawley said:

Drohan settling in.

Even more impressive when you consider he’s had four of his strikes called balls.

[wiguy94]

Ortiz's swing decisions are somehow worse than they were last year in the early going. He's somehow swinging at fewer pitches in the zone and chasing even more than he was last year. His meatball swing % is at 40% which is 36 points below league average.

[adambr2]

Jake Bauers is back to looking like Jake Bauers.

[Jim French Stepstool]

For me the two most important ABs in the game were Mitchell in the 1st inning & the one Bauers just had, and those were probably our two worst ABs of the game to this point. Gray will do that. Gotta be better.

[RobertCrawley]

Should have let third baseman make the play

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

For me the two most important ABs in the game were Mitchell in the 1st inning & the one Bauers just had, and those were probably our two worst ABs of the game to this point. Gray will do that. Gotta be better.

Tough to win a series batting .100 with RISP.

[Team Canada]

So many 3-ball counts.

[adambr2]

Sanchez finally said “enough of this crap.”

[Jim French Stepstool]

8 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Ortiz's swing decisions are somehow worse than they were last year in the early going. He's somehow swinging at fewer pitches in the zone and chasing even more than he was last year. His meatball swing % is at 40% which is 36 points below league average.

He's had stretches---even last year, albeit rarely---where his approach is good. He had one the first 2-3 games this year. But they quickly disappear & I think it really gets under Murphy's skin that he can't seem to sustain.

[Team Canada]

Yes, let's work around Monasterio again to get to Contreras.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Tough to win a series batting .100 with RISP.

Or in the case of Mitchell, just touch the ball w/the runner on 2nd & no one out. Killer.