Samurai Bucky

We could have a facepalm one, too... 🤦‍♂️

This is a byproduct of having a majority of your team having 0 or 1 year of MLB experience. This was celebrated because of the great farm system, but the inconsistencies and frustrations are a result of having a very, very young team. Were all of these guys ready to make the jump to the majors? Probably not. There still is (was) a misnomer that because the players in the farm system were so good, they would come up and consistently produce. That doesn't happen as often as we would like. The roster is going to be thin and, it is possible, that it has been thin for a while. The Brewers starting pitchers were able to keep them competitive. There is one "ace" left, one is injured, and one was traded for... young inconsistent players. They will (hopefully) grow and develop and in a few years, the team will be very good. At least that is my hope.

I tried to find some data to support this claim, but I was not able to navigate Baseball Savant well enough... Oh well... As I watch the games, it seems like the Brewers are not going with the pitch as much as they used to. Adames might be a good example. Typically on strike zero or strike one, you would take a plus-plus swing. That means you are trying to hit the ball hard. It seems like Adames takes plus-plus swings all of the time. Earlier in the year, he was focused more on getting good contact as opposed to destroying the ball. Recently this yielded a lot of rollovers to the left side or the patented whiff at the slider low and away. Of course, after finding a nice chart, it shows that his whiff rate is actually better than last year: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/willy-adames-642715?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb#yty Chourio is another example. His hips open a little more than they did when he was hitting better. He pulls off the ball and isn't as effective. I have a feeling this is a phase, and like @Brewcrew82 said, they are probably somewhere in the middle.

Eddie Gaedel might have disagreed... 😉 I'm not sure about MLB umpires, but a prominent high school umpire had told me the umpires are supposed to set up their eyes with the top of the zone. I'm not sure that happens.

Dunn's performance should not come as that much of a surprise. He is one of five infielders that have 0 or 1 year of experience. Of the six outfielders on the roster, four have 0 or 1 year (the other two are Yelich and then Mitchell with 2). During the offseason, there were many discussions about how we can not only get the young players up, but how we can trade our veterans to get more young players. Dunn's performance is part of the growing pains of being a young player. I'm not sure bouncing players up and down multiple times a year is always the best course of action. If there are other options that will beat him out for the spot, go ahead and send him down to get some work. Otherwise, accept that fact that setting a goal of having a boat load of young players on the roster will yield very inconsistent results. Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/teams/milwaukee/roster/

Hypothetically, if the same thing happens on first, second, or third, he is safe because his hand would come up, but the bases are not flush with the ground. Also, if he was wearing an oven mitt, that helps his cause. 🤔

Didn't know where to put this one... didn't want to start a new thread: No blocking -- wrong IMHO. He seemed to get his left hand in. How they missed this in replay is beyond me.

If Uribe lands a punch, he probably stays up. He has been having problems hitting his spots anyway. 😉

Something funny... Tyler Black was even late to the fight. Silly rookie 😎

You had asked about the tone -- I appreciate how the mods will get involved when some things get a little personal. Head on over to some Badger sites and it is a cesspool of jack wagonry. As far as technical? If there would be an option to go back to the forum list after marking the forum as read. The ads aren't intrusive. No worries there. Nice work, guys!

Umpires off the hook.

Look at the sign Contreras put down and it says everything you need to know. 🤔

Fortunately, there are a few top-down views of the at bat. Here is one that is rather telling: Pinto was a good distance behind the back line of the batter's box. I thought, at first, Pinto had come forward to block the ball. Based on the position of the umpire, he simply dropped and tried to block the ball (poorly I might add). The issue is that Bauers' follow through is well outside the batter's box. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I could find of the infraction: Pinto's head went down which is proper, but probably wouldn't have affected the outcome anyway. I know there are a lot of hitters that use the top-hand release method. Remember this guy? As mentioned, catchers didn't necessarily try to steal strikes back in McGwire's day. However, there is a risk / reward. There is a risk to the catcher that he might get hit by a bat. If you don't want to get hit, sit back six inches or don't meet the ball to frame it. Not sure legislating it would be the way to go. From the batter's standpoint -- if Walt Hriniak is your inspiration, then you might hit somebody on the backswing. Should you be able to have your bat go back 34" behind the batter's box? You don't see that with hitters who don't release the top hand. Did it suck the Brewers got the short end of the stick? Yes. Was it the right call based on the rule? Yes. Would it seem to make sense to have the catcher's feet stay behind the back line approximately 18"? That seems to be good, but I think Pinto was at least 18" behind. Here is another picture that shows where the 18" line might go (from https://www.valleyafs.com/resources/baseball-softball/baseball-field-information/diagrams/batterscatchers-box-layout/): Bottom line -- hit the ball, Brewers, and this isn't an issue.

This isn't the MLB rulebook, but... https://baseballrulesacademy.com/backswing-interference/

What do the Bucks do with Doc Rivers if they lose? Personally, I don't know how you can hold him accountable. People forget -- the Bucks had the easiest record before Rivers came on board, and the toughest after. I question the use of some of the players down the stretch (would have liked to have seen more AJax and Beauchamp). I would not be opposed to brining him back next year.

Funny quip from the article: More of a discussion point: This cannot be true! A high EV is required to be a solid, high BA/OPS contributor! Does he get lucky sometimes? Sure. Hitting a ball at 75 MPH and having it magically find a hole could be considered lucky. He is only striking out at a 13% clip. Whiff % down to 11%. He puts the ball in play (I mean "Gets on Base"). https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/brice-turang-668930?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

For crying out loud -- these tickets used to be $4. That is a 25% increase! Oh the humanity!

Since I was hearing, "Rea has six pitches" all night, I thought a batting practice two seamer with no movement was not a good choice there.

As a related side note, Jackson Holliday is only hitting .059, https://www.mlb.com/player/jackson-holliday-702616

Github is the best way for people to share code. Very, very awesome.

Was at the game. Indiana had a great approach -- be physical and continue to be physical. The other thing was to get in the heads of the Bucks. One other thing that is very obvious in person if not already obvious on TV: the Bucks are old and slow. Lopez is good for some three pointers at the beginning of the game, but, for the most part, his shot blocking is negated by a good game plan. Middleton was hurt and it showed. Credit to him for gutting it out, but he is playing hurt... again. Beverly is a physical defender (probably the only one who matched the physical defending of the Pacers). He just doesn't score. He missed, at least, two bunnies from what I remember. Portis also missed a lot of bunnies. Jae Crowder added nothing. His demeanor on the floor isn't anything to write home about, either. AJ Green played pretty well defensively in the first half. He needs to make his threes, though. It is great that Lillard scores well in the first half, but somebody else needs to take the mantle over in the first half so he can do his magic against a tired team in the second half. The Pacers simply did not miss. At one point in the fourth quarter, they were shooting 58% from the field. 58%!!! It helps when the Bucks look tired and slow. I suppose that is what happens when you get beat up during the course of the game. Aside from that, the crowd was fine until they were down 12 in the fourth. It was a fun experience.

Fidler is going to Michigan State

I didn't have time to research this yesterday, but I wanted to see if I was on the right path today. Like @GasserFace mentioned -- Murphy is winning in a no-win situation. Last year's total quality start percentage was 41.97% (2023 ESPN Pitching Statistics - Quality Starts). This year, out of 20 games, there have been only 5 quality starts (25%) -- three of which are from Freddy. It is much easier to manage the bullpen when the starters are doing a great job. The Brewers lost two of the top pitchers in baseball and it is taking time to fill that void. While I agree that Murphy has left some guys in a little longer than feels comfortable, I'm not sure he has a choice.

Here are a few ideas: If a player leaves early and goes to another school, why can't there be some type of transfer fee paid to the original school? This is what happens in soccer. Yes, the player doesn't have ultimate control, but at least the host institution isn't left scrambling. If a player leaves early, either for the pros or for another school, they are responsible to pay back a certain percentage of what they were paid already above and beyond the standard college fees (tuition, room, board) the would have gotten. This would be similar to vesting. Perhaps they don't get the money all at once. So, if they get $1MM and they leave after two years, they only get $500K? None of these will probably work, but it is a thought, I guess.

Who would be the ones to implement and monitor the rules? I am constantly hearing about how the NCAA is terrible. First, they didn't let the players get paid. Then, they step out of the way and let the free market decide and you get the wild west. I wonder if we could look at a list of the highest paid public employees and start seeing college players listed in the top 10 after college coaches? Perhaps the thing that bothers me most is that the value of an education as these institutions has been diminished to an afterthought. Maybe it is because my kids were not skilled enough, or didn't have the opportunity to play anything higher than DIII. Wouldn't it have been nice if they could get some pocket money so they wouldn't have to work so much or take out a loan. Oh wait -- they got good grades in high school and were able to get academic scholarships, so that helped.