Brewers (Sproat) vs Cardinals (Pallante): 5/5/26, 6:45pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

Ugh, losing to the Cardinals is the absolute worst. And how are they this far above .500? I mean, it likely won't last, but it's still unpleasant in the moment.

	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TOT
Trevor Megill	12	0	13	0	0	25
Shane Drohan	60	0	0	0	23	83
Jake Woodford	10	0	0	12	25	47
Grant Anderson	8	0	9	0	9	26
DL Hall	0	0	6	0	24	30
Brian Fitzpatrick	20	0	0	16	0	36
Abner Uribe	0	0	24	0	0	24
Aaron Ashby	0	45	0	0	0	45

[CheezWizHed]

Sproat has been an Ashby-like (circa 2021-22) enigma.  Totally dominant...until he isn't. Seems like the first time through the lineup has everyone befuddled (well except that first game), but once they get a look at him he is easier to hit.

I wonder if he has any "tells" on his pitches that people are picking up on? 

[Underachiever]

13 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

Sproat has been an Ashby-like (circa 2021-22) enigma.  Totally dominant...until he isn't. Seems like the first time through the lineup has everyone befuddled (well except that first game), but once they get a look at him he is easier to hit.

I wonder if he has any "tells" on his pitches that people are picking up on? 

I call that "The Manny Parra Experience,"

[CheezWizHed]

1 minute ago, Underachiever said:

I call that "The Manny Parra Experience,"

I chose who I chose... because there was a better result. 😉

I don't think Manny Parra had this much movement on his stuff either.  He had better "stuff" than his results let on, but it wasn't this much movement. 

[RedStickBrew]

 

[markedman5]

 

[wiguy94]

Of course instead of the doubleheader being tomorrow when there's no rain being projected the doubleheader is in July when the Brewers are in the midst of a 17 in 17 stretch making it 18 in 17.

[BarremlensTSSC]

I mean, it's asinine not to play the DH tomorrow but the upside is that, at least imo, the Cardinals will have faded badly by July?

I'd get mad about the fact that it loads another game into a brutal stretch of games without a day off but it's literally what MLB always does.  Player safety?  lol.  They don't care about that.  They care immensely, however, about building enough notice into the schedule that they lose as little money as possible on a cancellation, and that means playing it weeks later regardless of other considerations so there's enough time to schedule it as a day - night double header. sell seats etc.  That's MLB in a nutshell.

[markedman5]

On the plus side by the time the double header is played we should have Yelich and Woody back and hopefully a better situation …….one way or another…..to our issues on the left side of the infield.

[BruisedCrew]

5 games in 4 days in St.Louis during the hottest part of the year.High probability of thunderstorms on at least one day at that time of year to complicate things further. 
 

The Brewers should, prohibit any of their players from going to the All Star Game to rest up after the brutal schedule leading up to the break. 

[markedman5]

So skipping Sproat or giving Miz a few extra days to be ready for the Yanks?

I’m assuming they pitch Sproat tomorrow because Brewers usually look for ways to add rest throughout the season.

[BruisedCrew]

2 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

On the plus side by the time the double header is played we should have Yelich and Woody back and hopefully a better situation …….one way or another…..to our issues on the left side of the infield.

You have to be quite the optimist to expect that either Woodruff or Yelich will be available at any given time. Yelich isn’t going to be playing  18 games in 17 days even if he isn’t on the IL. 

[BruisedCrew]

1 minute ago, markedman5 said:

So skipping Sproat or giving Miz a few extra days to be ready for the Yanks?

I’m assuming they pitch Sproat tomorrow because Brewers usually look for ways to add rest throughout the season.

That is what they announced. So, the Cardinals get to miss Misioroski. 
 

[BruisedCrew]

34 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Of course instead of the doubleheader being tomorrow when there's no rain being projected the doubleheader is in July when the Brewers are in the midst of a 17 in 17 stretch making it 18 in 17.

I’m sure the fact that the Cardinals play in San Diego Thursday night was a factor in the decision not to play two games tomorrow.

[markedman5]

10 minutes ago, BruisedCrew said:

You have to be quite the optimist to expect that either Woodruff or Yelich will be available at any given time. Yelich isn’t going to be playing  18 games in 17 days even if he isn’t on the IL. 

I know for sure Yelich and Woody wouldn’t have been available in this series…..and Yelich played 150 games last season……sure he will get time off from time to time but I don’t mind having him back when we play them an extra game.

so glad we have a roof.

[BarremlensTSSC]

2 minutes ago, BruisedCrew said:

I’m sure the fact that the Cardinals play in San Diego Thursday night was a factor in the decision not to play two games tomorrow.

I'm sure it was motivated by $ in that two months notice allows them to mitigate lost revenue in that they have 2 months to sell seats not held by those who were planning on going to tonight's game instead of 18 hours.  It also makes it far more likely that the rescheduled game will be broadcast via the existing media contract.  It's always the $ first, second and third.  I don't doubt that if they'd asked the Cardinals baseball people would have preferred a delayed reschedule but I doubt they even gave them the option.  Money 1st, 2nd and 3rd is the MLB way.  The Brewers playing 18 games in 17 days now in late June and early July?  Nobody in a position to make those decisions likely even noticed and if they did they certainly didn't care.

[BarremlensTSSC]

Also, regarding Zerpa's need for TJ surgery:  you can't convince me that's not related to the fast ramp up and participation in the WBC.  The WBC sucks.  I don't doubt that Zerpa would say it's not related and that he doesn't regret participation, so... so be it.  But I hate it.  

[BarremlensTSSC]

Ok so I'm bored without a Brewers game to watch and I ended up doing a dive into coverage of a 2009 brawl between the Brewers and Pirates that, as dumb as fights are, produced some of the best post brawl quotes in 50+ years of Brewers history.  A sampler:

Prince Fielder:  "Who the **** is Delwyn Young?"

Jason Kendall:  "I'm not going to get yelled at by Dave Kerwin.* (Actual name was Joe Kerrigan, which reporters pointed out to Kendall, who then continued to refer to him as Dave Kerwin for the rest of the interview.)  That one still makes me laugh almost 20 years later.

Ken Macha: (Tool, but I appreciated this:) "So there's not going to be any back and forth from me in the newspaper. You can ask me 100 more questions. You're not getting anything." And... "Some guys like to read what they had to say."

[Brian]

6 minutes ago, BarremlensTSSC said:

Ok so I'm bored without a Brewers game to watch and I ended up doing a dive into coverage of a 2009 brawl between the Brewers and Pirates that, as dumb as fights are, produced some of the best post brawl quotes in 50+ years of Brewers history.  A sampler:

Prince Fielder:  "Who the **** is Delwyn Young?"

Jason Kendall:  "I'm not going to get yelled at by Dave Kerwin.* (Actual name was Joe Kerrigan, which reporters pointed out to Kendall, who then continued to refer to him as Dave Kerwin for the rest of the interview.)  That one still makes me laugh almost 20 years later.

Ken Macha: (Tool, but I appreciated this:) "So there's not going to be any back and forth from me in the newspaper. You can ask me 100 more questions. You're not getting anything." And... "Some guys like to read what they had to say."

Brewers may gain ground on the Cubs by not playing tonight. 😉

[BarremlensTSSC]

OT:  It annoys me that MLB.tv excitedly tells me about "Price Drop!" for Brewers.tv when pro-rated it's actually more expensive per game and the "drop" is simply a reflection that 22% of the season is over with, so there are 22% fewer games I'd get access to.   The "price drop" is only 10%, not 22%.  

Time to go find something productive to do instead of posting into the ether on brewerfanatic. 🤣

[BruisedCrew]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Brewers may gain ground on the Cubs by not playing tonight. 😉

Nope. 

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, BruisedCrew said:

Nope. 

Gotta catch the Reds and the other division teams behind the Cubs before we can worry about the Cubs. 

Start working our way back in playoff position first. The division may not end up being in the cards this year.

[Brian]

25 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Gotta catch the Reds and the other division teams behind the Cubs before we can worry about the Cubs. 

Start working our way back in playoff position first. The division may not end up being in the cards this year.

The race is not swift, the season is 162-games and absolutely a marathon with 128 games still to go. 

[adambr2]

16 minutes ago, Brian said:

The race is not swift, the season is 162-games and absolutely a marathon with 128 games still to go. 

I’m not saying we’re out of the division by any means.

I’m just saying if the objective this season ends up being — let’s be in the top 6 — that’s okay.

[BruisedCrew]

13 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Gotta catch the Reds and the other division teams behind the Cubs before we can worry about the Cubs. 

Start working our way back in playoff position first. The division may not end up being in the cards this year.

At this stage of the season I’m not concerned about the Brewers catching anyone. But I am concerned about the Brewers getting straightened out and not digging a hole over these next few weeks.

Hopefully, getting Chourio and Vaughn back will  help break the feast or famine pattern that has led to too many games in which the offense is not competitive while piling up big numbers in a few lopsided wins. 

But the injuries to Zerpa and Woodruff have further shaken an already unsettled pitching staff that is going to be challenged in the next few weeks.

I said on another thread that if the Brewers can get to the end of the month at or a little above 500, and without more significant injuries, they should be well positioned to make a run at a playoff spot over the last four months, even if they are in last place in the division.