Brewers (Misiorowski) vs Astros (Imai): 5/31/26, 1:10pm

[Jim French Stepstool]

54 minutes ago, folly412 said:

Ortiz and Hamilton at least do a lot of the little things right.  Rengifo does not.  Perkins did not there.

And as we move forward, this could very well be a deciding factor as the summer drags on. Perkins used to fit the 'little things' category but has been rough going back to midway thru last season. Today, you had a new pitcher & new catcher out there for the 9th. Trying to pick up 3rd base w/one out is a very solid idea. But he really telegraphed it. Rengifo needs to hit to stay, at least at the level he displayed in the past w/LA. He had the seven-hits-in-three-day stretch awhile back but cooled right back down. Plus, if/when Pratt and/or Williams gets here I get the feeling this staff really likes the idea of a Joey Ortiz around as someone to help ease them in.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

You're batting .095 and your one contribution for the day is that. 

Why is Perkins still on this roster?

Because Lockridge is hurt & they aren't going to bring Lara up here to play sparingly. He's also most likely better than Jones, and I'm pretty sure they don't trust Leonard's glove anywhere. I'm not trying to defend Perkins' play, I agree it's been pretty much indefensible. Just trying to answer your question.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

 

The offense needs to be better. If you’re going to have as many near auto outs as they do at the bottom of the order, you can’t afford to have several guys at the top slumping all at the same time.

 

Yeah. What sucked today, was Hamilton & Ortiz were both effective in their first couple trips to the plate & Yelich followed with two miserable ABs.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

If you can’t play in the field at all… you need to do your one singular job better than Yelich has done this season.

What's frustrating is before hitting the IL he played in a couple games in LF, so they were thinking that post-op he could go out there on occasion. It would really help the overall versatility of the roster but like you said it looks like that's back to a no-go.

[adambr2]

14 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Because Lockridge is hurt & they aren't going to bring Lara up here to play sparingly. He's also most likely better than Jones, and I'm pretty sure they don't trust Leonard's glove anywhere. I'm not trying to defend Perkins' play, I agree it's been pretty much indefensible. Just trying to answer your question.

 

I think you can find PT for Lara. The way Frelick is playing, he could use some more days off. Mitchell doesn’t need to play everyday. Chourio as you saw on occasion will need an occasional day. You can rotate days off between the 4 so they’re all playing between 50-90% of the time and rotate Lara in for Bauers for defense on some of his off days, for instance.

I'm not saying your logic is wrong, I just think there is more opportunity than we think for Lara to come in and get ABs.

[yourout]

Odd stat for the day...

Only 4 NL teams with losing records.

Only 5 AL teams with winning records.

[Jim French Stepstool]

8 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

I think you can find PT for Lara. The way Frelick is playing, he could use some more days off. Mitchell doesn’t need to play everyday. Chourio as you saw on occasion will need an occasional day. You can rotate days off between the 4 so they’re all playing between 50-90% of the time and rotate Lara in for Bauers for defense on some of his off days, for instance.

I'm not saying your logic is wrong, I just think there is more opportunity than we think for Lara to come in and get ABs.

If they did what you suggest, I wouldn't mind that. It just doesn't seem to be their mindset at this time.

What I'd do is check Lara's box scores & see if they slide him over to RF on occasion. He's only played there five times this year; if it starts to happen a little more often they might be considering something.

[sveumrules]

Frelick (87 PA of 47 wRC+), Rengifo (75 PA of 47 wRC+), Mitchell (75 PA of 38.7 K%), Ortiz (60 PA of 64 wRC+), Hamilton (59 PA of 53 wRC+), Sanchez (37 PA of 50 wRC+), and Perkins (23 PA of -67 wRC+) took 44% of the team's plate appearances combining for -22.6 batting runs during the month...and they went 19 W - 7 L with a +36 run differential anyway.

Guess that kind of thing will happen when the pitching staff goes for an MLB best (2nd in parentheses)...

2.62 ERA (PHI 2.96)
2.95 xERA (NYY 3.17)
2.76 FIP (PHI 3.15)
27.7 K% (PHI 26.0)
0.48 HR9 (NYM 0.74)
.197 AVG (LAD .205)
5.0 Barrel% (t-NYY 5.0)
33.9 HardHit% (TBR 34.9)
102.8 EV90 (LAA 103.4)
108 Stuff+ (t-PHI 108)
6.9 rWAR (t-PHI 6.9)
6.1 fWAR (PHI 5.3)

*all stats besides W/L record and run differential from before today's game*

[igor67]

So I'm guessing that Woodford is done once Koenig's rehab has gone far enough. And that would give them a pen full of guys with some reliability which as I've argued in a few other places with the number of options that can also go longer stints really gives you options for keeping folks fresh and managing workload while not having games like yesterday where you concede unless your offense has a day. Holding out for Lockridge works with the division lead, and much like the bullpen gives you some depth if you have an injury later in the season and then maybe Lara gets a chance.

Hamilton may have the options, but he is doing the little things that would make him a solid fit as a true utility guy, so I'm guessing we are going to see Pratt or Williams here soon . Putting it together those moves could start to add up to really solidifying the team

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Frelick (87 PA of 47 wRC+), Rengifo (75 PA of 47 wRC+), Mitchell (75 PA of 38.7 K%), Ortiz (60 PA of 64 wRC+), Hamilton (59 PA of 53 wRC+), Sanchez (37 PA of 50 wRC+), and Perkins (23 PA of -67 wRC+) took 44% of the team's plate appearances combining for -22.6 batting runs during the month...and they went 19 W - 7 L with a +36 run differential anyway.

Guess that kind of thing will happen when the pitching staff goes for an MLB best (2nd in parentheses)...

2.62 ERA (PHI 2.96)
2.95 xERA (NYY 3.17)
2.76 FIP (PHI 3.15)
27.7 K% (PHI 26.0)
0.48 HR9 (NYM 0.74)
.197 AVG (LAD .205)
5.0 Barrel% (t-NYY 5.0)
33.9 HardHit% (TBR 34.9)
102.8 EV90 (LAA 103.4)
108 Stuff+ (t-PHI 108)
6.9 rWAR (t-PHI 6.9)
6.1 fWAR (PHI 5.3)

*all stats besides W/L record and run differential from before today's game*

Wouldn't have thought Mitchells' K rate was that high in May. Seemed lower to me, I guess it was hidden by some of the loud ABs he's turned in lately.

Those pitching numbers---and NOT COUNTING todays' performance. Just wow.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 minutes ago, igor67 said:

So I'm guessing that Woodford is done once Koenig's rehab has gone far enough. And that would give them a pen full of guys with some reliability which as I've argued in a few other places with the number of options that can also go longer stints really gives you options for keeping folks fresh and managing workload while not having games like yesterday where you concede unless your offense has a day. Holding out for Lockridge works with the division lead, and much like the bullpen gives you some depth if you have an injury later in the season and then maybe Lara gets a chance.

Hamilton may have the options, but he is doing the little things that would make him a solid fit as a true utility guy, so I'm guessing we are going to see Pratt or Williams here soon . Putting it together those moves could start to add up to really solidifying the team

Good points, but I still think you'll see them have a true mopper-upper in the back end, whether it's Woodford, McGee, Rodriguez, whoever. When you get a game like Saturday or the middle game vs LA, I think they'd rather use one arm for 3-4 innings whenever possible.

Just going by what they've seemed to prefer. Filling the pen with people who are a little more proven but who you don't want to use for more than 7-8 hitters could also work.

[sveumrules]

13 minutes ago, yourout said:

Odd stat for the day...

Only 4 NL teams with losing records.

Only 5 AL teams with winning records.

Before today the NL was +34 wins on the AL for the season.

Looks like a big driver of the difference has been bullpen performance...

National League Relievers
93 ERA- | 96 FIP- | +23.19 WPA
186 W - 136 L | +341 Shutdowns

American League Relievers
103 ERA- | 102 FIP- | -3.34 WPA
169 W - 172 L | +193 Shutdowns

[willie key]

Yelich doesn’t aggravate me that much.   I’ve made my peace that he’s basically going to suck for like 3 weeks and then have one week where he basically wins games by himself.     And then the cycle repeats.     I just want him to hit in the freaking playoffs 

[LouisEly]

2 hours ago, igor67 said:

So I'm guessing that Woodford is done once Koenig's rehab has gone far enough.

I don't know about that.  It would make the bullpen very LH dominant:

LHRP: Ashby, Hall, Koenig, Drohan, Zas

RHRP: Megill, Uribe, Anderson

Have to assume Patrick is in the rotation for the time being with the injuries to Henderson and Woodruff.

I think Zas is the odd man out.  Drohan needs to stay to have a long reliever for Patrick's and Crow's starts.

[cragi]

Who is the Chris Hook of batters? Maybe we need THAT guy...

[sveumrules]

9 minutes ago, cragi said:

Who is the Chris Hook of batters? Maybe we need THAT guy...

The Brewers hitters have been getting better and better since Murphy took over...

2017-23
4,693 R (17th) | 100 wRC+ (16th) | +17.4 BsR (9th)
w/RISP
9,611 PA (17th) | 3,034 RBI (19th) | 106 wRC+ (11th)

2024-yesterday
1,849 R (4th) | 105 wRC+ (10th) | +35.2 BsR (1st)
w/RISP
4,047 PA (1st) | 1,348 RBI (2nd) | 120 wRC+ (3rd)

since May 18th 2025
5.14 R/G (1st) | 110 wRC+ (3rd) | +7.8 BsR (3rd)
w/RISP
1,878 PA (1st) | 652 RBI (1st) | 124 wRC+ (1st) 

[BarremlensTSSC]

Might be wish-casting, but I expect to see a callup this week from someone who is going to get regular playing time.

[wiguy94]

11 minutes ago, BarremlensTSSC said:

Might be wish-casting, but I expect to see a callup this week from someone who is going to get regular playing time.

Williams was not in the Nashville lineup today for whatever it’s worth. Could just be an off day but if he was getting called up, he probably would have been headed to Milwaukee today and not playing.  

[yourout]

32 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

The Brewers hitters have been getting better and better since Murphy took over...

2017-23
4,693 R (17th) | 100 wRC+ (16th) | +17.4 BsR (9th)
w/RISP
9,611 PA (17th) | 3,034 RBI (19th) | 106 wRC+ (11th)

2024-yesterday
1,849 R (4th) | 105 wRC+ (10th) | +35.2 BsR (1st)
w/RISP
4,047 PA (1st) | 1,348 RBI (2nd) | 120 wRC+ (3rd)

since May 18th 2025
5.14 R/G (1st) | 110 wRC+ (3rd) | +7.8 BsR (3rd)
w/RISP
1,878 PA (1st) | 652 RBI (1st) | 124 wRC+ (1st) 

How do this seasons numbers compare?

[DesertBrew52]

1 hour ago, willie key said:

Yelich doesn’t aggravate me that much.   I’ve made my peace that he’s basically going to suck for like 3 weeks and then have one week where he basically wins games by himself.     And then the cycle repeats.     I just want him to hit in the freaking playoffs 

I agree with you about Yelich and the playoffs. He’s not a superstar anymore. He’s just a fan favorite. We need an actual  big bat threat that doesn’t SO so much. 

[sveumrules]

Just now, yourout said:

How do this seasons numbers compare?

Entering play today for 2026 as a whole they were at...

4.84 R/G (6th) | 98 wRC+ (15th) | +0.6 BsR (14th)
w/RISP
620 PA (4th) | 214 RBI (3rd) | 133 wRC+ (1st)

It's basically the same formula they've been running out since Murphy's arrival with a runs per game rank that outpaces their overall batting line because they hit a lot and hit well with runners in scoring position.

The big differences over these first two months are that they haven't been nearly as good on the bases and the dregs in the bottom three four lineup spots have dragged their overall batting line down from what they managed in 2024 (105 wRC+) and 2025 (107 wRC+).

I'd imagine with personnel changes eventually coming for those black hole spots, plus guys like Chourio, Yelich & Vaughn continuing to get a higher percentage of the team PAs, that they'll end up closer to that combined 106 wRC+ mark from the last two years than the 98 wRC+ over these first two months.

[Jimbo]

Man of the Match: Jacob Misiorowski (WPA = +0.43).

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, LouisEly said:

I don't know about that.  It would make the bullpen very LH dominant:

LHRP: Ashby, Hall, Koenig, Drohan, Zas

RHRP: Megill, Uribe, Anderson

Have to assume Patrick is in the rotation for the time being with the injuries to Henderson and Woodruff.

I think Zas is the odd man out.  Drohan needs to stay to have a long reliever for Patrick's and Crow's starts.

Drohan has been announced as the starter for game 1 vs SF.

It appears the role you mentioned above for Drohan (long man for RHP) would slide to Hall.

Even if Drohan continues to start you don't really NEED four LHP in the BP, so we'll see what they want to do once Koenig gets added.

[brewmann04]

Yoho is doing well down there and might be the next RHP called up. But the crew really needs to find some offense