Cubs (Gausman) vs Brewers (Henderson): 09/09/26, 6:40 PM

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Can we just rejoice in the fact that we got three Ortiz 3B starts in a row after Sunday's Hamilton debacle?

[hoosier]

This might not be a popular take, but rewatching the ninth this morning, I didn't feel like Sproat was quite as bad as he looks on paper. On the third walk (Busch) Contreras missed an easy ABS that would have been strike three. A lot of his misses were close misses. I'm not making excuses for Sproat, he clearly failed in his reaudition and now we can say with 100% certainty we won't be seeing him till next year. But if William challenges that 3-2 pitch to Busch, things might have taken a very different course. 

[Team Canada]

10 minutes ago, hoosier said:

we can say with 100% certainty we won't be seeing him till next year.

I'm not sure that's even true. Once we clinch the bye why wouldn't we? That's the whole point of the remaining games - put in the players you wouldn't normally play to rest up the others. Maybe he's optioned right away, but even then he could be brought back up for the last week.

[HarryDoyle]

40 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

I hate to say it, but Sproat reminds me of Manny Parra.  Lots of arm talent, but he gets rattled easily and struggles to recover.  I wonder if they have coaching for handling pressure and keeping focus?

He needs Ricky Vaughn's therapist.

 

[TURBO]

10 hours ago, trwi7 said:

Corks went on a journey in the 9th inning tonight.

Corks?

[adambr2]

37 minutes ago, Team Canada said:

I'm not sure that's even true. Once we clinch the bye why wouldn't we? That's the whole point of the remaining games - put in the players you wouldn't normally play to rest up the others. Maybe he's optioned right away, but even then he could be brought back up for the last week.

It will be interesting to see how they approach things once the bye is clinched but still being in a race with the Dodgers for HFA. Will they aggressively chase HFA or basically go full rest mode once the bye is clinched?

[adambr2]

11 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I think that pretty much hits it on the head.

I know people don’t want to hear this, but there’s a lot more Johnny Hellwegs than Corbin Burnes out there. 

I’m rooting for Sproat to be the latter, of course, but I wouldn’t be taking that to any Vegas sports books.

[igor67]

At this point I like thinking of it as aiming for that 100 win mark. Which means going 9-6 now. Good but not amazing. The Braves have no shot at that point to over take us, and LA would still need to go 12-4 and get to 101 wins. Tough even on the soft schedule

[Brian]

1 hour ago, CheezWizHed said:

I wonder if they have coaching for handling pressure and keeping focus?

"Sproat" There has to be when everything from Olympic downhill skiing to gymnastics involves pressure. 

[Pugger]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

They’ll try to spend all offseason fixing whatever he’s got going on and he’ll get a chance next spring with no guarantees. We’ll see. 

For now, Stallings has to get the call for Sproat. Your “save the pen” guy has to actually be able to do that. Having to use Uribe last night I’m sure really ticked Murphy off, 

I hope his issue is mechanical and not between the ears.  If it is the latter I don't  know if that can be fixed.

[hoosier]

1 hour ago, Team Canada said:

I'm not sure that's even true. Once we clinch the bye why wouldn't we? That's the whole point of the remaining games - put in the players you wouldn't normally play to rest up the others. Maybe he's optioned right away, but even then he could be brought back up for the last week.

I am assuming they won't want to waste one of the two extra ML roster spots on a guy who has shown himself time and again to be too combustible to be usable in meaningful gametime. Sure, he could eat a few innings in a blowout loss, but there are other guys--Stallings and Crow are the most obvious candidates--who can do that and aren't meltdown prone. The Brewers would have to have an extraordinary amount of faith in Sproat's ability to believe he can fix his problems on the fly. I think he has shown that is not going to happen and that his spot would be better used on a pitcher who still has a chance to contribute meaningful innings this year. Try to build Sproat back up from the ground during offseason but move on for now. 

[willie key]

Ortiz is really the only one that people wanted gone.    And that was everybody.    He sure told us to shove it where the sun don’t shine though didn’t he

[tmwiese55]

Yea I'm confident Sproat is back next year, unless a trade for a star type comes up.  Like at the deadline if he'd have been in the Skubal deal. I don't think they're gonna 'dump' him.  Otherwise, with his clear arm talent and years of control. I think they give it another try and will have the whole offseason to help him (if they're allowed in the lockout).   They essentially fixed Miz's control issues in one offseason.  But my idiot on the internet eye test it seems his mechanics/delivery are less repeatable than Miz so it won't be as easy with him.  But he only need to improve it a bit to be a contributing ML pitcher

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, Team Canada said:

I'm not sure that's even true. Once we clinch the bye why wouldn't we? That's the whole point of the remaining games - put in the players you wouldn't normally play to rest up the others. Maybe he's optioned right away, but even then he could be brought back up for the last week.

He may be optioned right away due to last nights' struggles & that he won't be available for a couple of days. If the latter is a factor, Coleman Crow wouldn't be an option as he started last night for Nashville. In that event you might be looking at Stallings. I don't think it would be Koenig because that would make 4 LH in the pen & that's not even counting Gasser/Drohan.

[Jim French Stepstool]

17 minutes ago, tmwiese55 said:

Yea I'm confident Sproat is back next year, unless a trade for a star type comes up.  Like at the deadline if he'd have been in the Skubal deal. I don't think they're gonna 'dump' him.  Otherwise, with his clear arm talent and years of control. I think they give it another try and will have the whole offseason to help him (if they're allowed in the lockout).   They essentially fixed Miz's control issues in one offseason.  But my idiot on the internet eye test it seems his mechanics/delivery are less repeatable than Miz so it won't be as easy with him.  But he only need to improve it a bit to be a contributing ML pitcher

Agreed. At his age there is zero reason to treat him as some veteran you picked up & took a flyer on. That said, I agree about the repeatability of the mechanics. It'll be a challenge.

[Yaz]

1 hour ago, willie key said:

Ortiz is really the only one that people wanted gone.    And that was everybody.    He sure told us to shove it where the sun don’t shine though didn’t he

I think Pratt had something to do with Ortiz's transformation or body snatching.

[Jimbo]

I don't typically second guess managers, but I thought the PH for Kelly at the end was a head-scratcher.  And leaving Sproat in after three walks in the ninth.

 

[titanrick]

22 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I don't typically second guess managers, but I thought the PH for Kelly at the end was a head-scratcher.  And leaving Sproat in after three walks in the ninth.

 

I'm guessing Murphy's thought process was that the lead was large enough to take a chance there and see if Sproat could right the ship on his own.  If he can somehow reset himself, and get out of the inning, it would only help him in the future.  Obviously, that didn't happen.

But if Murph was taking that chance thinking we can still win the game, he was ultimately correct in that.  No way he leaves Sproat in that long if the game were closer.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

5 minutes ago, titanrick said:

I'm guessing Murphy's thought process was that the lead was large enough to take a chance there and see if Sproat could right the ship on his own.  If he can somehow reset himself, and get out of the inning, it would only help him in the future.  Obviously, that didn't happen.

But if Murph was taking that chance thinking we can still win the game, he was ultimately correct in that.  No way he leaves Sproat in that long if the game were closer.

Sproat is likely not in the game at all if it were closer. Probably would have seen Ashby in the 8th and Uribe in the 9th.

[Brewcrew82]

4 hours ago, adambr2 said:

It will be interesting to see how they approach things once the bye is clinched but still being in a race with the Dodgers for HFA. Will they aggressively chase HFA or basically go full rest mode once the bye is clinched?

It's simple for me: is there a meaningful difference in your WS odds being the 1 seed vs. the 2 seed? I strongly tend towards no. I certainly don't fear Dodger Stadium in a hypothetical Game 7 of the NLCS.

As for the quality of the NLDS opponent, I'd arguably rather face Atlanta or San Diego/Arizona vs. Philly or Chicago. 

They can do whatever for all I care once that bye, which enables you to skip over an entire round of the postseason, is clinched. 

[CheezWizHed]

4 hours ago, Brian said:

"Sproat" There has to be when everything from Olympic downhill skiing to gymnastics involves pressure. 

Clearly, they have this "somewhere"... I was referring to someone actively coaching players for this in the Brewer's org

[CheezWizHed]

5 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

He needs Ricky Vaughn's therapist.

 

Or we just shortcut the process and have Sproat dump his girlfriend? 

[owbc]

1 hour ago, titanrick said:

I'm guessing Murphy's thought process was that the lead was large enough to take a chance there and see if Sproat could right the ship on his own.  If he can somehow reset himself, and get out of the inning, it would only help him in the future.  Obviously, that didn't happen.

But if Murph was taking that chance thinking we can still win the game, he was ultimately correct in that.  No way he leaves Sproat in that long if the game were closer.

Yeah it was well managed and Murphy’s comments echoed that — basically “I gave him a super long leash and he still failed”. 

[owbc]

6 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

He needs Ricky Vaughn's therapist.

 

This comic was a meme on r/Mariners when Jarred Kelenic briefly had a resurgence:

https://www.ginawynbrandt.com/work/how-jarred-kelenic-got-his-groove-back-646rj

 

(warning — slightly NSFW and non-PC humor) 

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

57 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

It's simple for me: is there a meaningful difference in your WS odds being the 1 seed vs. the 2 seed? I strongly tend towards no. I certainly don't fear Dodger Stadium in a hypothetical Game 7 of the NLCS.

As for the quality of the NLDS opponent, I'd arguably rather face Atlanta or San Diego/Arizona vs. Philly or Chicago. 

They can do whatever for all I care once that bye, which enables you to skip over an entire round of the postseason, is clinched. 

I guess is completely disagree.  I think the advantage of having having Game 7 (at home) with Miz on the mound are MASSIVE.  Maybe moreso for the Brewers than any team in the league.

We've seen that teams are screwing around with the Mound and trying to get in Miz head.  Maybe the mound is less of an issue for Henderson, but we absolutely want Game 7 in Milwaukee.

Given we will have significant rest in the Wildcard Round, I think there is less value in resting our guys if there are still meaningful games to get that 1 seed.