Fear The Chorizo

The Vikings look absolutely awful...especially their offensive line

All debate about no hitters aside, this Brewers team is looking damn scary for any potential playoff opponents with how they are collectively swinging the bats right now!

With all the players and people in society who have been vaccinated testing positive for COVID in the past few months, at some point I hope this line of thinking evaporates based on reality....but whatever. And didn't Burnes' positive test happen much earlier in the season, well before the 5-6 vaccinated brewer players missed time right after the AS break? Either way, I'm hopeful cy young voters don't feel the need to inquire about vaccination status when deciding who to vote for.

You forgot to add IP, which burnes ranks 32nd...Wheeler and Buehler rank 1st and 2nd in that category. That's going to make a difference at seasons end for cy young voters no matter what we as Brewer fans want it not to.

Phillies 7, Braves 0 -- Sept. 1, 2014 Cole Hamels (6), Jake Diekman (1), Ken Giles (1), Jonathan Papelbon (1) Hamels was dominant for six frames, holding the Braves without a hit and striking out seven batters. But five free passes brought his pitch count to 108, prompting the call to the bullpen. Philadelphia’s relief trio of Diekman, Giles and Papelbon combined for three perfect innings to finish off the no-no at Turner Field. Hamels would complete a no-hitter of his own the following season against the Cubs on July 25. Angels 1, Mariners 0 -- April 11, 1990 Mark Langston (7 IP), Mike Witt (2 IP) What a debut this was for Langston. Fresh off signing a five-year, $16 million contract with the Angels, Langston tormented his former team with seven no-hit frames in his team debut before handing off to Witt, who was making his first relief appearance in seven years. Witt was responsible for the Angels’ previous no-hitter -- his perfect game against the Rangers on Sept. 30, 1984. Braves 1, Padres 0 -- Sept. 11, 1991 Kent Mercker (6 IP), Mark Wohlers (2 IP), Alejandro Pena (1 IP) Mercker, who is the last Braves pitcher to throw a no-hitter (April 8, 1994 at Dodgers), started and held the Padres hitless through six innings on 82 pitches at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, walking two and striking out six. Wohlers and Pena took it from there, closing things out for the second Braves no-hitter since the club moved to Atlanta in 1966. A’s 5, Angels 0 -- Sept. 28, 1975 Vida Blue (5 IP), Glenn Abbott (1 IP), Paul Lindblad (1 IP), Rollie Fingers (2 IP) While the A’s ultimately fell short in seeking their fourth straight World Series title in 1975, they still capped off their fifth straight division-title season in style. It was the last game of the season, and Oakland let its ace Blue pitch just five innings before handing it off to its bullpen, which didn’t allow a baserunner the rest of the way. This marked Blue’s second no-hitter after he twirled one by himself on Sept. 21, 1970. Just a few examples of combined no hitters that didn't feature weather delays or pitcher injuries. How many of those 4 examples you listed over the past half century were the Brewers, which was the post I was responding to that stated the Brewers had never had a combined no-no? I know combined no hitters happen across the league, but they actually happen less frequently than complete game no-nos. The Brewers still haven't had a complete game no hitter since Nieves.

If combined no-hitters aren't anything special, how come the Brewers hadn't had one in the history of the franchise? The simple answer to that is up until the last season or two, if a starter had a no-no going he wasn't coming out of the game no matter what his pitch count was until he gave up a hit. The only opportunities for something like this previously would have been games delayed by weather long enough for a starter to give way for relievers to finish the game. I'm not discrediting this no hitter for the Brewers as a team by any means...but it just will have that disclaimer with it on Burnes' resume that he didn't get all 27 outs, and I wish he would have been given that chance.

This is exactly where I'm at....couldn't agree more

Also, isn't this like the 8th time the Indians have been no hit this season? I know its not actually 8, but I think its at least 3 now, right?

Remember when people were worried Burnes would struggle after he couldn't use spider tack anymore? Lol...

Again, Burnes was on cruise control the entire game, not really having to rack up a ton of pitches in any particular inning early....then he waltzes through a 10 pitch 8th and that's when you pull him?

I would be more worried if Burnes had multiple stressful innings that had high pitch counts where he had to empty the tank earlier in the game....he's been on cruise control, and its very tough to strike so many guys out without having the pitch count he's at. This isn't April when starters are still building up endurance - if there was ever a time to push the envelope a little its now.

Gotta remember how he hasn't had to worry at all about hitting this game, so he might have a bit more in him to go for it - I get the thinking of pulling Burnes at this point...but damn if I was in CC's shoes right now I just couldn't do it yet.

I'd pull for the Reds, particularly if the Dodgers don't overtake the Giants. I'm of the opinion that even if the Pads may be best equipped to beat the dodgers in a 1 game wildcard round, I'm looking to limit teams with the best pitching for series the Brewers would have to get past. I view that 1 game wildcard round as a dice roll game regardless of who the dodgers would face, simply because its just one game. A Padre team with a resurgent Snell and Darvish would be tougher to beat in a 7 game set than the Reds.

I think the biggest improvement with the Brewers farm right now is depth in projectable prospects across the system. Bottom feeder systems hope for a couple ready made draft picks that require no development to bump the system rankings up temporarily as they progress to the majors. That normally happens after the mlb team goes in the tank and they get to select one of the top 5 players a few years in a row. Good systems are able to develop talented but raw players selected in rounds 3-10 of many drafts and turn them into big league talents, particularly if a team drafts players in those rounds who aren't finished products. Finding international prospect talent also is equally importent to improve a system - the Brewers appear to be on the verge of realizing some of their efforts to improve that part of their organization with what we are seeing in lower levels of their system right now. I think what the Brewers have built is sustainable to build a solid system at developing talent compared to previous runs where extended stretches of mlb futility led to consistent picks in the top 5 that created 2-3 year waves of talent that pushed their minor league system towards the top, only to see the system tank as soon as those players reached the majors because their was no prospect talent behind them.

Baseball is fun when the team you root for is really good in all phases of the game collectively...

I think recent Brewer teams that have a bunch of players who can play multiple positions has lessened that advantage....their roster seems like it's pretty deep with their bench, and they can play platoon advantage with the DH depending on the handedness of the pitcher rather than just run out their everyday DH like most AL teams do now.

I sure hope so

Look at it this way, the Reds went through an extended hot streak just to get marginally back into contention - in large part to riding a crazy stretch by Votto and improved starting pitching. Their bullpen and any regression from their starters was going to prevent them from sustaining that run regardless of the competition they were facing. The Brewers separated themselves from the rest of the division with that insane June winning streak followed by consistently playing better than 0.600 baseball since then - there's no way they were getting caught with that level of play. Looks like the Giants are about to at least go temporarily 4 games ahead of the Dodgers in the loss column with a win at the Cubs this afternoon....the inevitability for the Dodgers eventually passing them up for the division and avoiding the WC round altogether is pretty shaky with just over 3 weeks of schedule left.

Stearns and company have turned the Brewers' organization from one that needed to either trade tons of prospect capital for quality starting pitching or shell out large portions of their payroll budget for middling veteran starters to fill out a serviceable rotation surrounding a homegrown core of hit first position players into the exact opposite. It wasn't long ago when we as Brewer fans lamented the organization not being able to develop or acquire even average pitching talent that would reach Milwaukee with multiple seasons of team-friendly pre-arbitration control. One thing to add to the Braves comparison is having a good defense behind that pitching staff.

So what you're saying is according to Fangraphs, the Brewers currently have zero top 100 prospects? And this is based on recent rankings that take into account current production/development this minor league season?? Looks like they had Ashby at #127 preseason through his performance through high A - good on them for bumping him 24 whole spots after he progressed through 2 more minor league levels and is currently pitching pretty well at the MLB level. Maybe just maybe he'll creep into their top 75 prospects next spring after he solidifies a rotation spot in Milwaukee.

I mean, a big reason for that in general with Milwaukee's recent approach is that drafted collegiate arms that are already pretty polished climb through the low levels of the minor league system very quickly - Small, Ashby recently and Woodruff/Burnes had a similar progression. It seems to me that if the Brewers feel pitching prospects are developed enough to contribute at the MLB level, they don't stockpile them at lower levels of the minor leagues to use their bullets down on the farm and wait for their system rankings to reflect guys who dominate in A ball when they should be 2-3 levels up or even pitching in Milwaukee. I get that prospect rankings are all just snapshots in time and often struggle to quantify overall value comparing raw but talented teenagers to high floor/moderate ceiling polished collegiate players, but the fact that Ashby is considered the Brewers' #5 or 6 prospect in their own system and nowhere near any recent top 100 list by any of these prospect tracking services tells me they really aren't worth worrying about too much. IMO, the Brewers' system is consistently underrated because of how they operate it since Stearns arrived.

Big W....hoping Hader gets a bit more routine work the next few weeks to knock the rust fully off. This team is fun to watch!

wow what a play

Or a quick dp. Great to get two outs on that one pitch....but he's all over the place

buckle up