LouisEly

Almost exactly what I was going to say. What they need is the guys who are underperforming to regress to the norm/expected production. The only person I'd add to that list might be Jeffress to become a little closer to what he was last year. Although, Aguilar is pretty much there already - over the last 28 days he has an OPS of 1.257.

Huh? The Clippers are in the West. Los Angeles Clippers.

Wisconsin residents have been downright spoiled in just about every sport. Uecker, BA, Matt Vasgersian for the Brewers; Matt LePay and Mike Lucas for the Badgers; Wayne Larrivee, Larry McCarren, Max McGee, and Jim Irwin for the Packers; Jim Paschke, John McGlocklin, Eddie Doucette, and Gus Johnson for the Bucks. Those are some of the best in the business.

I think the majority of those who do not like Bill don't spend a lot of time watching/listening to other team's announcers. He's not the best, but he's in the top 1/3rd. Come down to Chicago and listen to the Cubs and White Sox announcers. Yuck. There's a reason why Joe Buck gets as many gigs as he does - not because he's great, but because most of the rest of them are worse. Bill's a bit old-school on the stats department, but I know enough about newer stats that I don't need the announcers to be mavens on them. I prefer the color guy to fill me in on what I don't know, which is what happens on the field, in the clubhouse, behind the scenes, etc.

Range is a function of the hardware (i.e. wifi router) you are using and the structure of your dwelling (wood, concrete, brick, etc.), not the provider. Don't use the wifi routers that the cable company provides, they are crap - purchase your own. (You'll need to use the cable company's cable modem to decode the signal, but disable the wifi. Better yet, purchase your own cable modem and stop paying their ridiculous rental fees.) You want a wifi router that has at least three antenna and beam-forming technology. For something economical, this is what I use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IUDUJE0/ Ones with four or more antenna will likely cost over $100. The other thing you can do is use range extenders. They're kind of a pain because technically they are a different signal and you have to switch your devices to that signal when you need to use them, but they are easy in that they plug into an outlet. A decent refurbished one on eBay will run around $30 or so. Get the dual band ones (2.4GHz and 5 GHz) so you can take advantage of the faster speeds of the 5GHz signal. As for the structure of your dwelling, if you live in wood framed housing then the signal will carry, but if you have concrete/brick walls then it won't carry. I have a long, narrow condo flat with a concrete stairway in the middle and the signal does not carry from one end to the other because of that. Oh, also are you in a single family home or multi-unit building? If multi-unit, your signal may be on the same channel as your neighbors which will cut down your range. All you need to do is go into your wi-fi router and see what channels nearby signals are on and choose a channel that isn't used by your neighbors.

And they seem to be targeting OFs with their international signings.

I'm not certain what this is meant to suggest, but with those minutes, Brogdon was a much better player than Matthews this past year. Wes is great. He's not nearly as good of a fit as Brogdon was...but as long as we can keep Matthews numbers down, we'll be good. What it means is that Wes Matthews played more minutes than Brogdon each of the last three years. This is likely due to availability (a.k.a., injuries to Brogdon), but that's the point - Matthews has been available more. What might be implied is that, why spend $20M/year on Brogdon when you can spend a fraction of that on Matthews and Matthews has been available more than Brogdon.

Because Braun and Cain have been better? In avg, or obp or ops? I'm sick of treating Braun like a legacy. Took them forever to get Grandal and Moose ahead of him in the order. Hiura's next. Batting in front of the pitcher? Batting Arcia pseudo lead off? It's clumsy all around. My guess is that they don't want to put a lot pressure on Hiura right out of the gate. The Brewers are very aware of how challenging adjusting to the next level is, starting from when they draft them and put them in rookie ball. Let him adjust first and set him up for success, then put him in higher pressure situations.

If Dubon doesn't come up, he can be a PTBNL, correct?

Cubs down 18-5. [sarcasm]What's that going to do to their Pythagorean W/L?[/sarcasm] Being sarcastic there, as when teams are up/down big early they take their best players out, have position players pitch, etc., and the subsequent outcomes are not based on best players versus best players.

This aged like fine wine.

Hader only threw 16 pitches. He's good for 30-40.

This year his slider runs above average per 100 pitches is -1.08 and for his changeup it is 0.09. His stuff beyond the FB CB is plenty good enough.

The Cubs have a position player (Descalso) pitching in the 7th.

True, but he is 26 now and it is July. They were very diligent in structuring his TJ rehab to gradually increase his pitches/outing. I don't think it is that much of a risk, and if he can get through 5 innings on ~60 pitches he will be able to pitch a lot more innings.

He was a starter in the minors and made the majors at the age of 22, then lost two years to TJ. Why was he a starter before, but not now after TJ?

Nice job, Counsell. Way to leave Houser in too long. Second start, you think he's stretched out to throw >60 pitches?

And with this outing, Houser is no longer eligible for the Top 25 prospects poll. Helluva way to go out.

Trevor Williams melting down, about to give back a 7-1 lead.

3-pitch inning for Houser, now 56 pitches through 5. Thanks for helping out with the bullpen rest Cincy!

Through 4IP, Mahle with 70 pitches, Houser with 53.

Grienke is 35 and has two more years at $35M each left on his contract. If he was a FA after the season, yes, but not with $70M left.

I just realized we have had neither a Carlos Rodriguez nor Larry Ernesto sighting yet this year. Andres Melendez neither. Used the Search function in the Minor League forum but nothing. Did I miss something?

Joey Matulovich is back! Struck out the side in his one inning of work in 13 pitches.

I don't know, but I finally used the "Foe" feature