LouisEly

Bickford is on a roll. Hasn't given up a run or earned run since June 30th.

Houser's last four starts: 23 IP, 17 H, 7 R/ER, 5 BB, 25 K, 2.74 ERA, 0.96 WHIP 3 of those 4 starts on the road, all against teams with winning records at the time (TEX now 60-62). I think some underestimate how difficult it is being yanked back and forth between starting and relieving and the majors and AAA.

I think there is too much young talent at WR to only keep five, and if Tonyan has made strides then I think Lewis gets cut. I also think they try to sneak Shepherd onto the practice squad. Maybe offer him a higher salary to stay. When other teams have inquired about guys on the Packers practice squad, the Packers have bumped their salaries up, sometimes to league minimum, to get them to stay. WR locks: Adams, Kumerow, Allison, MVS Competing for last two spots: ESB, Lazard, Davis, Moore, Shepherd I think the last two spots go to Lazard (special teams play gives him the edge) and one of ESB or Davis. I think we are seeing why they didn't draft a WR this year.

My guesses, in priority order, would be: 1) Braden Webb - missed time with injury, just starting rehab, needs more work 2) Clayton Andrews - might want to give him some more time in the field, and see if he can get better hitters out 3) Corey Ray - even though they sent him two years ago, after missing so much time they may want to give him some more ABs 4) Mario Feliciano - catchers are always in demand, and they may want to challenge him with tougher pitching 5) Tristen Lutz - like Feliciano, might want to challenge him 6) Cam Roegner - also missed time with injury, not a super high pitching prospect - the Brewers don't send those - but has been interesting 7) Luis Aviles - they'll need to send an infielder, and I don't know if Turang is ready yet Others: Phil Bickford - if they plan on protecting him, he'll go; if they plan on not protecting him, they won't risk other teams getting a look at him Justin Topa - same with Bickford, he's been throwing upper-90's and they may not want to let other teams get a look at him Max McDowell - if Feliciano doesn't go, he'll likely go Luke Barker - if he's not added to the major league roster in September he may go instead of Roegner Cooper Hummel - has been interesting this year, but if Lutz goes, he probably won't

Why, so the Brewers can strand even more runners in extra innings?

Bickford - 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R/ER, 0 BB, 5 K Hasn't given up a run or earned run since 6/30; his WHIP on that date was 2.85, but now is down to 1.30. He is starting to make things interesting. Maybe he's finally healthy. Jarvis and Lazar quite the tandem tonight as well.

Both camp FBs - Vitale and Johnson - are injured right now. Likely a camp body until one or both are healthy.

I seriously considered majoring in music (along with Mechanical Engineering) but multiple people in the music world told me that it wasnt worth it if I couldn't devote my life to it and even then it would be a crapshoot. Now that there's 10+ years between me and my graduation, I do play the what if game and wondered what Id be doing now if I went the music route. I have a very close friend who is in the music industry. He went to Nashville ~20 years ago, and when networking into the industry he was told, "If you want to be in the music industry, learn how to hang drywall." The music industry has been rocked by the internet. Now, 95% of the money is earned by 5% of the performers. If you're not one of the teenage "it" singers or early/mid 20's bands that are chosen by the record companies to be the next big thing, you don't make squat. If you haven't made it by the age of 25, you probably won't (with some exception, namely Country or EDM). It used to be that you toured to support an album; now you come out with an album to try to support a tour. Tours are the only way you make money now. My friends who are in the music industry have been moderately successful. My friend referenced above I've seen play at an awards show in LA and in a venue in NYC, and if you're a fan of the Bob & Tom show he was a founder of their favorite band and played at their birthday parties and at the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. Billy Ray Cyrus has recorded in his studio. He hasn't made a lot of money from that. My other friend has been more financially successful, but because he is one of the best guitar techs in the industry and has toured with a who's who of has-been rock and country stars including Def Leppard and Shania Twain. It kind of is a crapshoot, with fairly long odds. Best odds are to be behind the scenes, or as a song writer selling songs to the record companies who choose which next big thing band to give those songs to. (They don't like singer-songwriters. They make much more money when they choose who gets the good songs.)

Woody, Chase, and then three of Houser, Davies, Gio, Lyles, and Nelson depending on what Gio/Lyles/Nelson are willing to come back for and how Nelson looks in spring training. AAA depth is Burnes, Peralta (too early to give up on him as a starter), Supak, Brown, Bettinger. If they need more than 10, their season is toast. I do give some credit to the thought of moving on from three of Davies/Gio/Lyles/Nelson and making a big free agent splash. If they do, they'll need Houser and his pre-arb salary in the rotation instead of those four in order to afford it.

I can see why the Brewers brass may not think that Galvis is an upgrade. Yes, he has a higher SLG, but he has about the same OBP as Arcia, a higher K rate than Arcia, and makes 7x as much as Arcia with a $1M buyout of his $5.5M 2020 team option. Not enough of an improvement to justify the cost.

Biloxi scored 11 runs on only 6 RBI. I don't think I've ever seen more than two or three runs score without an RBI in a game before.

In 19 innings this year, Eddy Tavarez has walked 21 batters and hit four. He has a 1.89 ERA. This is because he's given up 8 hits in those 19 innings. He must have some crazy stuff.

I really hope he is hiding some type of non-major injury. Something is not right.

I am not in the "send down/DFA someone and bring Freitas up" camp, but my goodness is he on a tear right now. 1.391 OPS for the month of August heading into tonight's game, and he's 2-3 with a HR so far. September 1st can't come soon enough.

3 pitches. No problem.

So, does Houser still belong in the bullpen?

In a micro-small sample, Black has pitched in four games for San Antonio so far. He's completed four innings having thrown only 38 pitches, walking one and striking out five. He hasn't needed more than 11 pitches to get through an inning so far and has averaged slightly less than three pitches per plate appearance against him. For a guy who supposedly doesn't have a lot of control, getting 12 outs on only 38 pitches, with five of those outs via strikeout, is an encouraging sign.

Phil Bickford's last seven appearances: 12 IP, 5 H, 0 R/ER, 5 BB, 18 K

When you're a star player on a college football team, every campus is a small town.

Out of college and even through his first year, I thought he was going to be a solid lineman. Man, that ended poorly. Go back and watch the film of his combine workout and it will become pretty evident why they drafted him. It wasn't a Mandarich-like workout (Mandarich ran a faster 40-time than Jerry Rice), but his agility and athleticism was stellar. Looked great in position drills. Ran a sub 5.0 and put up 31 on the bench. Plenty of reasons to take a chance on him. He just didn't develop for whatever reason.

Anything else, Nostradamus?

Except for walking the pitcher with a 4-run lead. Cannot do that.

Gameday had the Stallings HR way out of the strike zone - high and above the outside corner. If so, that's a great job of hitting.

Another first world problem - they don't have the bench to pinch hit for every pitcher if it's a bullpen game.

For as bad as Pina started the year, he's now a 0.5 bWAR/0.8 fWAR player. Considering WAR is a counting stat and he's a backup, that's pretty good. Backup catching, league wide, is pretty bad. We have one of the better ones.