Brewers (Sproat) vs Giants (Mahle): 7/27/26, 8:45pm

[Opening Day]

5 minutes ago, RobertCrawley said:

Chourio watches two strikes go by. We looked terrible at the plate tonight

I get the feeling he decides to swing or not before the pitch is thrown.  He watches a ton of strikes, and swings at a ton of balls.  When he swings at strikes he barrels them up.

[Opening Day]

3 minutes ago, RobertCrawley said:

Murph wasn’t swinging a bat, as I recall. I didn’t see the entire game though.   

If Murphy was up there swinging he wouldn't have been worse than their highest paid player.

[yourout]

Well I will say this much. If you're going to suck on a West Coast trip at least do it fast so we're not up till all hours of the night

[ReverendBrewmeister]

Must do better on this West Coast trip in the remaining games. It is far travel, but the opponents are well below .500.

At least the loss only burned two pitchers: back-of-rotation starter and basically last man on the bullpen roster.

[RobertCrawley]

1 minute ago, Bulldogboy said:

Murph didn't play the best players. That's his job.

His job is to win enough games to get into the playoffs over the course of the year. Players need their rest. It’s a good question whether this franchise is ready to sit down one of its most celebrated players and pay him to watch baseball games. 

[RobertCrawley]

3 minutes ago, Opening Day said:

If Murphy was up there swinging he wouldn't have been worse than their highest paid player.

True, but Yelich wasn’t the only one stinking up the plate tonight

[yourout]

Just now, RobertCrawley said:

His job is to win enough games to get into the playoffs over the course of the year. Players need their rest. It’s a good question whether this franchise is ready to sit down one of its most celebrated players and pay him to watch baseball games. 

If it cost them wins then the answer is yes he should be paid to watch

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, RobertCrawley said:

His job is to win enough games to get into the playoffs over the course of the year. Players need their rest. It’s a good question whether this franchise is ready to sit down one of its most celebrated players and pay him to watch baseball games. 

It’s perfectly reasonable to at least move him down to a lower pressure spot in the lineup and see what happens and start there. 

[wibadgers23]

Outside of Turang, the top of the lineup is killing this offense right now and it starts with Yelich in the leadoff spot. Something has to be done.

[Bulldogboy]

Just now, RobertCrawley said:

His job is to win enough games to get into the playoffs over the course of the year. Players need their rest. It’s a good question whether this franchise is ready to sit down one of its most celebrated players and pay him to watch baseball games. 

 

1 minute ago, yourout said:

If it cost them wins then the answer is yes he should be paid to watch

It's an easy call. Murphy likes to talk about accountability. Well let's see it

[RobertCrawley]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

It’s perfectly reasonable to at least move him down to a lower pressure spot in the lineup and see what happens and start there. 

After the first AB of the game, he could be considered the 9th. The downside is that he probably gets an extra AB. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

Usually when the Brewers get shut down the opposing pitcher(s) aren't given enough credit here. But this looked like one of those nights where the ABs just weren't there, whether due to first night of a west coast swing or whatever. I'll give the SF pitchers credit for being on the edges all night; they were good in that regard. And when they were off the edges we either chased or Doug Eddings added a couple inches to the zone. Just for good measure, Wild Bill spends a useless challenge in the bottom of the 8th, running us out of them for the 9th.

I kinda thought the game was epitomized by Lara's AB. He tries to steer one through the right side, Devers gets to it, then from a semi-prone position throws a balloon to Hentges (who is 6'8"). He has to leap for it & happens to come down right on the bag. Oh yeah, Lara reacts like he thinks the throw is going to hit him & takes a circuitous route to 1B which probably costs him an INF hit. Meanwhile Sproat gives up 3 in 6 innings, none of them involving walks. It was that kind of night.                         

[yourout]

11 minutes ago, RobertCrawley said:

After the first AB of the game, he could be considered the 9th. The downside is that he probably gets an extra AB. 

Unless he makes the adjustments that are necessary due to his declining bat speed and hand-eye coordination he will be almost unplayable as a DH. 

 The only reason his swing path worked back in the day was because he had exceptional hand-eye coordination at that stage in his career and that's gone now. 

He has one of the worst swing mechanics on the team right now and at this stage of his career he has no chance without reworking it.

[Jim French Stepstool]

30 minutes ago, Opening Day said:

I get the feeling he decides to swing or not before the pitch is thrown.  

As absurd as this sounds, many of Chourio's ABs look exactly like this. Pratt & Lara have that innate 'feel' for pitch/location recognition & discipline. You watch them, and you can understand why the organization wanted them locked up. Chourio does not, and it can be a hard thing to develop. With youth on his side I assume he will, at least to a greater extent than what he displays now. Otherwise the book pitchers have on him will never need to be amended & he'll be one of those guys with decent power numbers, a .275 avg with an OBP of about .300 and a ton of Ks.

[just_some_guy]

3, but yeah.

 

[wiguy94]

This makes a lot of sense after watching that performance 

 

[RobertCrawley]

17 minutes ago, yourout said:

Unless he makes the adjustments that are necessary due to his declining bat speed and hand-eye coordination he will be almost unplayable as a DH. 

 The only reason his swing path worked back in the day was because he had exceptional hand-eye coordination at that stage in his career and that's gone now. 

He has one of the worst swing mechanics on the team right now and at this stage of his career he has no chance without reworking it.

Great post. I agree that the decision will have to be made, sooner or later. The fact that the Brewers have been winning a lot has given the organization the ability to leave Yelich in the lineup in hopes that he finds some success. Last year, he started the season hitting below .200, but he kept at it and eventually had a good year.  This year, he started off well but now frequently looks overmatched. But sitting him would not be like benching Joe Schmo from Kokomo. This is Christian Yelich, fan favorite and face of the franchise. Not to mention the Brewers are paying him for two more years. Of course they want to give him a chance to find his swing. So it’s an easy decision for fans, but not easy for the organization. If the division race gets tight, and I think it will, the decision will be more pressing. 

[greenlawler]

1 hour ago, RobertCrawley said:

His job is to win enough games to get into the playoffs over the course of the year. Players need their rest. It’s a good question whether this franchise is ready to sit down one of its most celebrated players and pay him to watch baseball games. 

His job is to pick starters who win games. He has sat Vaughn, in favor of lesser players.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

3 hours ago, greenlawler said:

His job is to pick starters who win games. He has sat Vaughn, in favor of lesser players.

I think you meant he sat Lara

FWIW, Lara in the OF, Bauers at 1B, and Vaughn at DH is definitely my preference with 4-3 on the bench

[Frisbee Slider]

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

I’m definitely onboard with bringing back Freddy if it’s a low cost move.

[Turning2]

8 hours ago, Opening Day said:

Thats a soft mentality.   Instinctually, he should be getting to first by any means necessary.  Anyone who has ever played any sport has had to collide with someone bigger.  And there wouldn't even have been a collision on that play.  He avoided a small possibility of a collision by accepting an out.

It was odd to see him pull up so much. I thought he could have taken a more defensive approach to the bag without giving it up. Brewers weren't winning that game anyway, and I'm glad the worst-case scenario, Lara out with a broken collar bone or something, didn't occur. With Lockridge and Sal already out, losing Lara would have been tough. 

[Opening Day]

9 hours ago, Frisbee Slider said:

We'll see what the Mets get for Peralta, and if Sproat develops next year (Williams too, though he seems redundant).  But as of now, both teams lost that trade.