Forum Friday: Dodger Blues, Fading Frelick, & Lara Is Looming

[Frisbee Slider]

Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Milwaukee swept St. Louis and now enjoys a four-game lead in the division. Just prior to that, however, the Brewers dropped their series against Los Angeles. Are the Dodgers a mental barrier for Milwaukee? This week, Brewer Fanatic weighs in on our wealthiest adversary, a fading right fielder, and the prospects knocking on the door.

Brewers: Isn't it at least partially a mentality issue?

The Dodgers' payroll is nearly three times larger than Milwaukee's. The talent gap is not. Los Angeles has the resources to fill nearly any weakness with All-Star-level talent. Yet the Brewers compete well with the Dodgers in the regular season and have met in the postseason three times since 2018, losing each time. Wouldn't Milwaukee benefit from a clubhouse leader who simply looks around the room and says, "Enough is enough?"

Our forum community believes the Dodgers may be living rent-free inside the heads of Brewers fans, but probably not the players. Los Angeles is a historically great team operating under an unequal financial structure, and the Brewers have earned the right to face them. The next step is beating them.

One poster turns the thread on its head by suggesting a playoff series opening with Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison would be more intimidating for Los Angeles than anything the Dodgers could throw back at Milwaukee. Brewer Fanatic lives for the David versus Goliath matchups. It sure would be nice for Milwaukee to turn the tables.

---

Brewers: When will Frelick get benched?

Happiness is a product of expectations. For Brewers fans watching Sal Frelick, there isn't much of either anymore. Joey Ortiz can struggle with the bat because his elite defense keeps him above replacement level. Luis Rengifo can struggle with seemingly everything, and it hurts less because no one believed he was a core piece.

Frelick produced 3.6 fWAR last season with a 114 wRC+. This season, his value has plummeted to -0.4 fWAR and a 69 wRC+ over 192 plate appearances. Worse still, Sal carries a .375 OPS and a seemingly impossible .116 BABIP against left-handed pitching across 56 plate appearances this year. Pat Murphy keeps penciling Frelick into the lineup, even against lefties. The Brewer Fanatic community seems aligned that the time has come to at least play Blake Perkins over Frelick against southpaws. Better still, could we be just a few weeks away from Luis Lara's promotion from Nashville?

---

Minors: Thurs. 5/28: Between a Wichrowski and a Hard(in) Place

The best Brewers minor league coverage is on Brewer Fanatic, where our daily game threads are the perfect place to share and receive nightly prospect updates and game results. Last night, multiple posters noted that Luis Lara raised his batting average to .346 after collecting two more hits for Nashville. Even more impressive, Luis Peña reached base five times, pushing his on-base percentage to .492 on the season for the Timber Rattlers.

Our community has taken note that Lara's numbers are even more impressive against left-handed pitching, where he has produced a 1.215 OPS over 44 at-bats. Lara is a 21-year-old switch-hitting center fielder whose profile would look compelling in Milwaukee, even with expected regression at the big-league level. We can assume the front office will consider outfield changes next month, once the Super Two threshold passes.

 

It's a great day to be a Brewers fan on Brewer Fanatic!

View full article

[Jim French Stepstool]

Lara has been a revelation. But right now I think the FO is caught between wanting to give Frelick a chance to get going, not wanting Lara to come up here & sit more than he plays, and wanting to see Garrett Mitchell get all he can eat, especially with the couple big swings he had in the STL series. Throw in the Super Two considerations & here we are.

Unless the bottom drops out of Lara's offensive game (which I don't expect) we'll see him up here at some point, and it'll be interesting to see how things are managed at that time.