Brewers (Gasser) vs Cubs (Boyd): 09/01/26, 6:40 PM

[Frisbee Slider]

1 minute ago, da swedish german said:

pretty......pretttayyyy.....prettttayyyyyyyy sure that's not Joey Ortiz........

I want to make a joke about teachers unions, but I will refrain......

That’s fair. This one is Joey, though.

[da swedish german]

which is why I don't understand why he plays half the time

[da swedish german]

sorry. my attempted criticism is at the club. joey should be playing almost every day. Hamilton is fine. though he seems to make an inordinate amount of 'great' plays and "dogs......" plays

[Outlander]

That Burnes trade is paying off this season. Ortiz the whole second half and though Hall's season stats are good he has looked even better after coming back from the IL.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, da swedish german said:

which is why I don't understand why he plays half the time

Murphy loves Hamilton’s hustle down the line on a 6-3 groundout

[yourout]

11 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

Murphy loves Hamilton’s hustle down the line on a 6-3 groundout

And he really flies when murph sends him to the training table for a fresh batch of PPCs.

[Team Canada]

2 hours ago, da swedish german said:

which is why I don't understand why he plays half the time

This is not true. It's not close to true. There was the early August period where he never played for some reason, but it's been nearly every day for a while now. I need to just save this screenshot since I keep posting it...

[TURBO]

3 hours ago, da swedish german said:

pretty......pretttayyyy.....prettttayyyyyyyy sure that's not Joey Ortiz........

I want to make a joke about teachers unions, but I will refrain......

AI nonsense...  God I'm sick of it...

Joke about teacher's unions?  I don't get it.

[TURBO]

3 hours ago, da swedish german said:

sorry. my attempted criticism is at the club. joey should be playing almost every day. Hamilton is fine. though he seems to make an inordinate amount of 'great' plays and "dogs......" plays

I'll go as far as to say JOEY should be playing EVERY day, relegating Bunty to pinch running, and starting only when Joey or Cooper need a day off.

This should not even be a conversation any longer...

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

37 minutes ago, Team Canada said:

This is not true. It's not close to true. There was the early August period where he never played for some reason, but it's been nearly every day for a while now. I need to just save this screenshot since I keep posting it...

I think the issue is the Brewers are treating Ortiz like a Hernan Perez-level utility infielder, splitting his time between 3B and SS. When most agree that he should be the everyday 3B, and not taking starts from Pratt at SS. An Ortiz, Pratt, Turang, Vaughn/Bauers infield is the best arrangement, with Bunty planted firmly on the bench, not starting the majority of the games at 3B.

[hoosier]

Ortiz and Vaughn both struggle against righties whose lower arm slots result in pronounced horizontal movement. I haven't seen the numbers that would support or refute that, but that is Murphy's position.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

6 minutes ago, hoosier said:

Ortiz and Vaughn both struggle against righties whose lower arm slots result in pronounced horizontal movement. I haven't seen the numbers that would support or refute that, but that is Murphy's position.

David Hamilton is currently OPSing .646 vs. righties. Ortiz vs. righties is .729. Basically, the numbers don't support Hamilton EVER playing over Ortiz at this point.

[tmwiese55]

2 hours ago, Outlander said:

That Burnes trade is paying off this season. Ortiz the whole second half and though Hall's season stats are good he has looked even better after coming back from the IL.

also the draft pick they got ended up being Blake Burke who tore it up in AA this year and I think just got up to AAA.  Obviously who knows on prospects, but he has a legit shot too

[cragi]

at the risk of piling on, this seems like Murph playing favorites. Hamilton brings speed and a LHH but a step down on defense and offense otherwise. But we know Murph has been talking him up for a while.

Ortiz was brutal first couple months, which i believed was tied to the expected call-ups of Pratt & Williams, and maybe pressing on offense. He is past that now and one of the hottest hitters in baseball.

One small gripe about Murph is that when he "plays the numbers", he doesnt seem to value someone being  on a heater or needing a reset. Someone can hit 2 HR and get benched the next day due to matchups. Someone can 0-for-August and get thrown right back in for 30 consecutive starts.

And bunty is really a great fit for the bench. His speed on the basepaths makes him a great late inning option.

[Playing Catch]

It's the known unknowns that cloud any discussion on playing time... None of us know what the "other" player will do with any given plate appearance. The team has acknowledged recently (when starting a number of left-handed hitters against a lefty) that it's about the pitcher's repertoire, and how it relates to the swings of different players and I think that probably even considers defensive alignment of the opposition, and where they anticipate hitting the ball against a particular pitcher. So even though I was pleased as punch last night that Vaughn got to stay in the game against Palencia, for all we know, some lefty may have been able to park that slider into the seats.

My point is, is that for all we know, Bauers has had a great season because they've been able to protect him from 15 more Ks, and 15 fewer walks by using Vaughn or Sanchez in different spots.

The posters that demand hot hitters regardless of platoon are disregarding this known unknown. We may not like it, but teams across baseball are either leaning into platoon splits, or suffering the consequences of disregarding them --- or more likely, the consequences of having a weak bench of players with the same skillsets.

[willie key]

Vaughn doesn’t have the wow spectacular game a lot but he seems to do something good every game.  He’s just consistent 

I think you are giving other teams a break by not playing Ortiz and Vaughn in the lineup.    I don’t care what arm the pitcher throws with

plus Ortiz is way better defensively than bunty.   I mean what are we doing here 

[markedman5]

Hall regularly hitting 97/98 now and not walking guys of late was not on my bingo card……..he looks great.