Fear The Chorizo

He's also been very good this season, but up until a month ago Stroman had been their workhorse and had better #'s than Steele besides W/L record...and that workload appears to have caught up to him a bit as his last 4-5 outings have been pretty short.

Their bullpen continues to be a mash unit, even after trying to add to it during the trade deadline to fill holes. Seems like a roster-filler until one of their endless list of righty relievers gets back healthy.

There's comparing apples to oranges in terms of legality/ethics, and then there's comparing apples to a grown man with essentially celebrity status having a relationship with a minor.

and they have some pitchers who seem to have success against the Brewers. Based on how most of the season has gone for the Brewers offensively, I think the above statement is true for every team. I've felt since very early on this season that the Cubs would be the primary competition for the division if they got more consistent pitching and decided not to sell at the deadline. Their pitching has been better of late but their recent good stretch of baseball is largely due to Bellinger's return giving their offense a boost to take them from pretty good to really good in terms of run scoring. Their pen still has holes and their rotation leans awfully hard on Stroman, a guy who hasn't been good for over a month, now. I still think the Cubs can hang close based on their schedule, but part of me feels like it's just their turn amongst the Pirates, Reds, and Cubs as the team closest to the Brewers in the standings as this season has progressed. If Burnes, Woodruff, and Peralta stay healthy along with a few key guys in the lineup staying healthy and productive enough, the Cubs won't be able to pass the Brewers up in the standings.

try as soon as they're mathematically eliminated from the playoffs this fall. No way would I want that front office trying to fix the mess they've created at the start of the offseason.

Shades of Vazquez from the Pirates if true... In case anyone wanted to know if there was any downside of guaranteeing an early 20-something almost $200 million over 11 years, here's one. Although I would think there may be some sort of out clause in the contract if the player proves to be a felon.

I'm fairly certain 1 of Burnes/Woodruff will be in the Brewers opening day 2024 rotation, and I actually think it's a coinflip that both are...so we'll get to complain about the Brewers not doing enough to win with them under team control for at least another calendar year or so, even though the act of paying them via arbitration to keep them Brewers as long as their organization can expect to flies in the face of typical small market team operations - fun! Another ironic thing - despite both of these guys being named Brewers' minor league pitcher of the year, neither were viewed as a surefire top of the rotation starter until several years into their MLB careers...and now they're suddenly once in a generation talents an organization can never recover from after they walk in free agency in a couple offseasons from now as 30 and 32 yr old pitchers, and the only way to try to capitalize on that is either throw hundreds of millions of dollars to them to stay or trade the entire farm system away for better hitters for the rest of 2023?? Some of this has to be the dearth of homegrown pitching talent many Brewer fans lived through during the Melvin years, and the thought that they won't ever have any other prospects that will turn into good MLB starters. The cupboard is far from bare.

I'm certain that if the Brewers got randomly hot and win the WS in a couple months, there will be posters who still bash them for not winning a title convincingly enough. This is a game threat on a night the Brewers won, right?

So what about Stearns'/Arnold's approach on how to build rosters in Milwaukee that you apparently don't think is enough to win a WS do you see him changing to make that difference in Gotham?

Aside from 2021, the Brewers' starting pitching production has been the definition of average despite the perception it's generationally great...their bullpen and specifically late inning relief in close/winnable games has been the X-factor that has given this team an extended competitive window. That has coupled with decent offensive teams in 2018 and 2021, which to date have been their best shots at winning a WS. 2018 they really didn't even have a starting rotation to speak of - they just leaned on a slew of multi inning relievers that actually included young Burnes, Woody, and Peralta...Chacin was their "horse", and their rotation was made up of journeyman who could at least get them through batting orders twice.

I think it's pretty ironic the same people mentioning "needle moving" players apparently being traded, shopped, or at minimum made available for trade on the Mets this deadline fail to also acknowledge the fact that the Mets basically followed their approach to going "all in" last offseason for the sake of winning a title...and they were the largest trade deadline sellers.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for clearing the deck and putting Chourio on the opening day roster next year if he proves he's ready - generational talent shouldn't sit in milb longer than it needs to. But I do think calling up Jackson from AA after having a white hot 1.5 months hitting is probably a little soon in the heat if a division race - I'd actually be more open to it if the Brewers weren't contending and planned on him being in MLB to start 2024, similar to what the dbacks did with Carroll last September to get his MLB feet wet.

I mean, Chourio and his agent would probably be a pretty big hurdle to instantly extend him for most of his MLB career before it starts. Those Acuna extensions aren't handed out like candy. I just don't think Chourio would be ready to make an impact that would push this team into the playoffs this year, because putting that on a 19 yr old isnt a good baseball decision even without factoring in service time concerns...and if I'm not mistaken players have to be on the 40 man roster before September callups to be eligible for postseason rosters. Doing that with Chourio may have longterm roster control impacts there isn't a reason to have to worry about right now.

Also, this tends to happen to younger teams leaning on inexperienced players to win ballgames. And, their schedule has been pretty brutal since the AS break

While all true, using a couple week stretch of ABs from last season, prior to the offseason adjustments Hiura made to his swing/approach in large part to try and get his K rate dropped, is not a good reason why Hiura has had 0 MLB at bats this year for this year's roster. Hiura was very good in August 2022, also very good in limited July action and in May...but that didn't stop the team from sending him down to Nashville multiple times during the 1st half of the 2022 season. The low 0.500's OPS he put up over 20 September games is a bad stretch of offense, no doubt (42% K rate over that time, not the 50% you mentioned, btw) - but many players go through extended bad stretches similar or worse than that at the plate while teams patiently wait for the hot streaks to come back that can carry them offensively. My problem with Hiura's usage the last 2+ seasons has always been that at the first weeklong or moderately extended stretch of struggles, he would get optioned back down to the minors - and even when he was hitting well enough to continue getting sporadic at bats in Milwaukee there were times he'd get optioned due to maintaining roster flexibility and/or not giving him an everyday spot in the lineup as the team's DH once it was implemented in the NL. Slumping with a high k rate sticks out alot more than putting the ball in play weakly 90% of your ABs when you do make contact, but the end results actually look very similar in terms of offensive production.

I also think that, despite his obvious talent level, Chourio isn't ready to be a steady MLB contributor at this stage and does need more time to develop....not necessarily more MiLB games, frankly just more time on the calendar for him to grow up physically and work on his current weaknesses that would be exploited at the MLB level if he were be called up in a few weeks. Namely, pitch recognition. Arozarena was 25 when he was called up by the Rays during that 2020 run, and had actually gotten a cup of coffee as a late season callup for the Cardinals in 2019 the season prior after 3+ minor league seasons of development. That's a an enormous age and experience difference compared to Chourio, who is essentially completing his 2nd MiLB season. It would be a mistake to call up Chourio in September, even if it would be an exciting one.

Carroll also would have just turned 22 when he came up last year, after already being held down in the minors a bit longer than his MLB readiness dictated for service time/ROY draft pick incentive reasons. Chourio will still be 19 and the Brewers will likely value that 40 man roster spot over the offseason to use on protecting other prospects from the Rule V draft. The day Chourio gets added to the 40 man is the day he makes his MLB debut, potentially sometime next season as a 20 yr old. This just isn't going to happen.

Boeve definitely has that type of polish to his hitting approach - I always try to refrain from making overly optimistic projections for a collegiate hitter getting his pro career started at the low minor league levels....but dominating those levels is a far better way to get started than middling to disappointing production.

With Misiorowski, to me it's all about just getting him work no matter where he's at as the minor league season winds down. I didn't ever think there was a shot at him winding up in Milwaukee this season no matter how he was pitching after the promotion to AA....he just needs continued work refining command, and it wouldn't surprise me if his recent struggles with location have as much to do with the schedule of pitching over the course of a 6ish month season for the first time in his life. As long as he's healthy, he's becoming a better pitcher after making every start no matter what the results.

Props to Lorenzen for his CG no-no last night....the beauty of being a baseball fan is there are so many games nightly that any given night has a decent chance of watching something special happen on the diamond.

Keystone cops win...I'll take it but yeesh, lol

#$%##$#$#%

If I'm the Rockies, Adames doesn't get a strike this whole AB to see if he chases...that 1st pitch was in the zone though

This is where you bunt...but I guess Frelick is that good he can swinging bunt the man over

That's a way to redeem yourself!