jjfanec

Well the Reds can pretty easily figure out what cost them a shot at the playoffs this year. It is time for them to start selling off expiring contracts - Gennett, Puig, Roark - and then maybe a guy like Dietrick. The Pirates should really do the same - Dickerson, Lyles, Liriano, Melky Cabrera. Neither of those two teams are making the playoffs.

Sending down Hiura makes no sense. He is might be the second best hitter on the team. He might regress once people see him more but honestly his swing is so good and he has already shown the ability to make adjustments.

The AL Central has a combined run differential of -204. The NL Central has a combined run differential of +44. That is a 248 run difference!

I feel like that is true of him most years and then sometimes he has a nice last month. Last year he started out strong and flamed out hard around this time

Needed to make it a save opportunity for Hader...

All the balls hit this inning have been hit hard. Keuchel not fooling anyone. Counsel would have pulled him after the yelich home run

Yelich looked really bad his first two at bat's and then hit a bomb. Even when it seems like he might be struggling he is still great

You can tell it is a good game for brewers when there are more post in the IGT before the first pitch than through the first 4 1/2 innings

True on Miley to an extent but Miley actually started throwing his cutter at the end of the season before and worked on it all off season. That wasn't DJ who did that. In July Cincy has an Era right about the Brewers. They actually use a very similar pitching strategy. Starters don't go deep. Almost the exact same innings per start for both teams as a result both teams are in the bottom third of quality starts. This brewers tean was just crushed by Burnes being awful, Knebel getting hurt, and Jeffress injury/regression. If only one of those three happen I think they are OK. They just didn't have the depth and had too much faith in their guys to improve/repeat performances. I mean they added nothing but Claudio from last year and lost Miley, Soria and then Knebel to injury and expected the young guys to step up.

I haven't read anyone saying the pitching coach didn't matter. Just that there are a lot of reasons for the struggles and that is obvious that Hook is not playing with the same deck as DJ. How good would the Brewers have been last year with Knebel out, Jeffress hurt than ineffective and no Miley? They would have struggled. There are a few pitchers who are definitely pitching better under Hook for whatever reason. There was still people making the exact point just last page, whatever that was, page 65. I don't know how people can think it after this big of a sample. Cincy still holding on at #3 in baseball even after playing in COL last weekend. Side note, maybe there is someone we could poach of TBs staff this offseason. They're operating in the same forward thinking mindset we are trying and of course getting great results. Not necessarily pitching coach as I'm sure they'll value him a lot, but maybe analytics people, who knows. I have said I do t think it as big of deal as people have stated. My point is look at Cincy pitching staff. Their 3-5 starters are all producing right around their career norms. They have not been any better. They same is true for much of their bullpen actually. Gray has definitely improved. He is like the pitcher he was before going to New York. Castillo also took the step forward most people saw coming. So DJ has really helped the top end of the rotation. Some nice moves have solidified the back end of the rotstion but it isn't like their whole team suddenly got better. Really only 3-4 pitchers numbers have improved noticeablely. They just haven't had people fall off/regress which could totally be dj. The question I ask is how much better does Hook look right now if the Brewers bring back Miley (similar type numbers to Gray), add a dependable vet like Roark, and don't have Knebel go down? Again losing DJ hurt but there are just so many factors As for the Brewers starting pitching over each starters last 3 starts only Adrian Houser has given up more than 2 runs (he has done it all 3 times). The biggest issue by far is the bullpen which is low on talent, overworked (maybe in part bc counsel doesn't let guys go deep), and has been hit by injury and regression. This team is one starter short to do what Counsel really wants. If houser could be a multiple inning bullpen guy like Peralta the bullpen would not be quite as taxed by short starts. And then they are one back end of the bullpen guy away from having to pitch Hader multiple innings too often losing him for a whole aeries

Yet even though people see his ball well he still strikes a ton of guys out. The weird thing is he wasn't as big of a strikeout guy last year as he has been this year

I haven't read anyone saying the pitching coach didn't matter. Just that there are a lot of reasons for the struggles and that is obvious that Hook is not playing with the same deck as DJ. How good would the Brewers have been last year with Knebel out, Jeffress hurt than ineffective and no Miley? They would have struggled. There are a few pitchers who are definitely pitching better under Hook for whatever reason.

0-2 counts to two of the first three batters and it ends up in a double and single. Burnes strikes out a lot of people but in his last two outings he has been terrible with 2 strikea

If you are not concerned about the bullpen I don't know what to tell you. Right now it isn't good at all. Guerra is overused bc our options are bad. Burnes is terrible. Jeffress is not good. Jackson /Hart/other Guerra etc are all bad. Albers is ok. How is that not a problem?

Agree completely. Add in that this is pitching staff built to have starters go 5 innings or so and the have the bullpen close it down. When Knebel went down and Jeffress became ineffective this team's roster became an issue. Now they have starters who. Don't go very deep and a bad bad bullpen. Losing Knebel was so much bigger than I realized at the time.

Our starting pitching has been really solid for the last couple weeks it feels like. Our lineup with Huira up and Aguilar, Cain, and Braun hitting is scary again and gives a couple very good bat's off the bench depending who is starting with Gamel/Braun and Aguilar/Thames.

I thought it was easily the best Spiderman film to date. Cinemascore seems to agree. Definitely can tell they were trying to lighten the mood after Endgame. Edit: I take that back, Spiderverse was exceptional, but still thought this was great. Agreed. Thought it was a lot of fun. Not sure if it was my favorite but Tom Holland is so much better as Spiderman than Toby McGuire and Andrew Garfield. He is perfect for the part. Thought it had good twists as well

I think you are seriously underestimating the 76ers. Embiid, Simmons, Horford, Richardson and Harris is a very good starting 5. They just need depth. I could be missing some guys they have

Kawhi to the clippers is huge for the Bucks. The East is now wide open with the 76ers and bucks as the favorites. Pacers, Celtics are in there as well. Nets probably a year away waiting for durant

Aguilar, Arcia, Pina all with home runs. Also all guys who brewer fans have been asking to have sent down and waived

Only if they score more. It is still just a three run game with bell leading off

Jesus and Arcia with some big hits tonight and huira on base three times. Good to see

He threw a clean inning, just failed to get out #4. Sure he should have gotten out of it but after that he was not good. He hasn't been good all year.

I figured jeffress would regress some this year but this is way worse than I was expecting

Ya know what? Screw you for this reasonable take. You should be banned. Yeah what a waste of a post. Who cares if we are in first and have a wild card spot. We are terrible. In fact in the Nl apparently everyone but the Braves and Dodgers should be sellers