Fear The Chorizo

And if Lewis has another slightly above average season like this in 2022, he'll likely become a replacement level player in terms of WAR for his career. Right now he's at -2.0WAR, while Yelich has accumulated a 15.9 WAR tally from 2018-2021. Wouldn't surprise me in the least to see Yelich's OPS wind up much closer to that 0.822 total by season's end, too. If that is indeed the case, then Yelich would be back to being a middle of the order threat and the discussion of him becoming a terrible offensive player is just angst over an injury and pandemic-riddled year's worth of ABs that become the outlier in Yelich's career. But if you ask - who would you rather have for the next 4 years? - Yelich at his salary or Brinson at his, we are edging closer and closer to a reality where the answer might be Brinson. Maybe, but that also comes with the caveat of having Brewers teams in 2018 and 2019 that wouldn't have made the playoffs and have an organizational outlook that isn't nearly as rosy.

Avi with a blistering liner for an out...

Thats exactly what I posted the instant he got through that word salad of an initial presser a few weeks ago. Matthews at this stage in his career shouldn't take snaps away from anyone on this roster at OLB, regardless of what he is paid...the only fit I could see him at would be as a MLB, and thats a stretch because he's not best at that position.

If there's a team that will catch the Brewers for the division, it's the cardinals because they play them 13 times yet. The Reds only having 3 games left against the Brewers leaves them with a must sweep in that series to make things interesting, otherwise they are treading water or even losing ground with no more head to head opportunities left. A huge reason the Brewers were able to make up so much ground in 2018 and 2019...even 2017 when they made things interesting against the Cubs was they had 2-3 series against them down the stretch AND they won or swept those series. The Reds don't have that opportunity - the Cards do but are probably too far behind a Brewers team that isn't flawed enough to go in the tank with their remaining slate of games.

Probably seems worse for us as Brewer fans since everyone else in our division has no dome, plus the Twins have no dome and we do. Reality is that most mlb teams don't have domes, and this time of year rainy weather is too unpredictable.

It's no surprise to me that his best month offensively thus far this season was June (0.844 OPS - not MVP caliber but solid) - June was probably the one month were Yelich didn't miss games due to injury or COVID this year. Yelich got off to a solid start post ASB as well, then likely caught COVID and has been slow to get back into the swing of things. Extrapolate his June production across the full season and he's a ~25HR corner OF despite hitting well below his career batting average with an OBP over 0.400 - not all world but solid. Don't get me wrong, it would be awesome seeing him go full 2018-2019 video game mode at the plate for a few weeks to calm everyone's nerves that we'll get nothing from Yelich for the rest of his time in Milwaukee....while that would be a big surprise given his recent production, I do think him getting consistent ABs playing everyday is the key to him getting back on track as a productive middle of the order bat in this lineup.

That's who I was thinking as well....or they just broadcast an intersquad Cubs game with them and their AAA team from Des Moines to save on travel expense. That would probably be a more competitive game given what the MLB Cubs might look like next season.

I'd grab another historic team like the Red Sox or something. As much as I'd love to see the Brewers do this, I just can't see it happening. Yep, particularly from a big market club to help drive ratings....another thing that would be cool to add is having some of each team's all time greats (or their descendants) at the game in throwback uni's of their era. MLB would never do it - but it would be kind of cool to have the Reds play and then have Pete Rose serve as the Shoeless Joe Jackson role from the movie....great player who was blackballed out of MLB due to scandal. Not that I love Rose, but that could make for an interesting storyline that I'm guessing would be watched by alot of fans.

Cards also have 4 games left against the Dodgers, 6 against the Reds, and 3 against the Mets and Padres....Not to mention 13 against the best team in the NL. I can see them making a run at a wild card spot if the Pads keep scuffling and the Reds cool off, but they're not making up 11 games in the standings with their schedule. Not against this Brewers team.

I now realize why the Brewers have seemed to have a pretty light schedule compared to many other teams.. they don't have to play themselves. They are a damn good team and can win so many different ways right now.

Jesus....

I'd be interested knowing what Yelich's batting practice sessions look like right now - is the power still there to drive the ball out of the park at will that just isn't translating into game at bats due to timing/lack of consistent ABs due to injury/COVID, or is Yelich literally not getting consistent work in on the side because of the back issue? It just seems to me like he's in between at the plate and not attacking hittable pitches right now.

In all honesty, if the Brewers don't give Yelich the contract extension in March of 2020, I think the Brewers' front office would be wise to not exercise the $14M option for the 2022 season that was built into Yelich's last contract if he doesn't rebound down the stretch this season - that's how far he's fallen in terms of production since the day he signed his current deal.

Yelich has an OBP of 0.234 in the last 28 days (~50 plate appearances scattered across missed time due to injury and COVID) - pitchers are just attacking him now that it's evident he's a shell of his former self until he proves otherwise... He's had such a sporadic 2021 in terms of playing time because he can't stay healthy - his June was decent offensively but still way beneath what we saw from Yelich in 2018-2019, and it happened to be the one month where he didn't miss significant time. If he just reverted to what he was as a Marlin before the 2018 trade, he'd be a perfect fit at the top of this lineup right now.

If you can't throw strikes, you can't pitch Thank you Brent!

Jeez

honestly against this Cub lineup and a 5 run lead, just pipe fastballs until it's 6-4

With all of the money the Ricketts are making it's crazy they are in this shape. If you are referring to all the $ they make with their other businesses, sure. They've spent a TON of their own money buying the Cubs, and have financed a huge amount of Cub asset-backed debt renovating a stadium that would've been cheaper to demolish and rebuild from scratch and buying up a bunch of surrounding property for their Cubby playground developments - not to mention running a huge payroll the past 6-7 seasons. The timing of COVID happening basically shredded any gameday revenue they were expecting to use to help with debt payments on all those projects last season - the fact they can't sell the team to realize all the value the franchise has added to its balance sheet since they bought the Cubs forces them to pinch pennies until the projected revenue streams are realized. I'm guessing they won't take as long to rebuild as their last window, when they were horrid for about 4 seasons while they intentionally didn't try at the MLB level while stocking their farm system....but Cubs brass knew they were going to have to tear it all down this year if it didn't go perfectly. They're a financially hamstrung big market team, that now has to use gameday revenues and TV $ to help pay down debt before prioritizing player payroll.

There's a way to avoid the DP

Jimmy Nelson is who you are thinking of that is done for the year, and probably for good

I mean, Curtiss comes off the field and then just chills in the dugout with hands on hips and the trainer leaves him standing there on his own. What kind of potential injury doesn't just go straight into the clubhouse? Back maybe?? Also - score some dang runs offense!

Curtiss just has terrible command... Pretty sure the trainer just had enough of watching him that inning

Especially because the fat part of the OPS comes in the form of walks. Really need a lot more than that from him. The fat part of that OPS is OBP, which actually makes it more valuable than a SLG heavy .772 OPS. Roughly speaking 1.8 x OBP + SLG = Value. When we are dissecting whether which component of a platoon-advantaged sub-0.800 OPS is best for the hitter paid to be a perennial MVP candidate on this roster for the foreseeable future, we all know how awful that contract is shaping up to look....I'm as big a fan of Yelich as there is and loved the trade to bring him in from the moment it happened - however, from the day he fouled that ball off his knee in September 2019 it's been a trainwreck that was unquestionably compounded by giving him that massive contract extension way too soon and well before he proved to be the same player after that injury. I'm still pulling for him to get himself right and at least get back to being a factor in the middle of the order....but it's really starting to try my patience waiting for consistent flashes of 2018-2019 Yelich to resurface.

Yeah, that would be my recommendation too....at least get through 11 innings before starting with a runner on 2nd. With it going straight to starting with a runner on 2nd to start the 10th, it almost feels a bit like teams should be awarded points in the standings ala hockey, where wins count as two and getting into extras but losing still counts as 1. I get the reasoning behind trying to end extra inning games before they drag on past 12-13 innings....but then again I looked at a fangraphs article about this: During the 2019 season, only 8.6% of all games went into extras. 208 total games. 95 of those games ended after 10 innings, with 57 more ending in the 11th. That left just 56 out of 2,429 games that went 12+ innings. And thinking of how these revamped extra inning games go - I'm pretty sure they probably take just as long if not longer to complete each inning. So if MLB was hoping this was a way to reduce game times or wear and tear on players/pitchers, I think it has backfired. Sure, it's prevented marathon extra inning games from happening, but the format is how we go from a 2-1 score into the 9th with Saturday's game and wind up with a 9-6 final in 11 that still took 4.5 hours to complete. How did it backfire? Backfiring would mean that it made things worse, not that it hasn’t completely resolved a problem. The fact that extra inning games are now almost always completed in one or two innings that have action and scoring threats and don’t use up as many pitchers accomplishes something positive both for fans that don’t want marathon games and teams that don’t want to have to cover 15 or more innings. I’d rather have a 9-6 11 inning game that takes 4.5 hours than a 3-2 17 inning game that takes 6 hours. A lot more extra inning games now are like Friday’s with a quick resolution. The point I'm making is most of the extra inning games before this rule change were resolved before getting to inning 12 and beyond, and took less game time to finish than the new extra innings format. With the extra roster spot and ability to shuttle arms off the back end of a team's 40 man roster, the wear and tear of marathon games on players is overblown considering the frequency of such games is about 1 or 2 per season per team. Does the new rule help prevent 50 games that go 12 innings or longer? Yes. Does the new rule make all the 10 and 11 inning games take less overall game time? No.

Yeah, that would be my recommendation too....at least get through 11 innings before starting with a runner on 2nd. With it going straight to starting with a runner on 2nd to start the 10th, it almost feels a bit like teams should be awarded points in the standings ala hockey, where wins count as two and getting into extras but losing still counts as 1. I get the reasoning behind trying to end extra inning games before they drag on past 12-13 innings....but then again I looked at a fangraphs article about this: During the 2019 season, only 8.6% of all games went into extras. 208 total games. 95 of those games ended after 10 innings, with 57 more ending in the 11th. That left just 56 out of 2,429 games that went 12+ innings. And thinking of how these revamped extra inning games go - I'm pretty sure they probably take just as long if not longer to complete each inning. So if MLB was hoping this was a way to reduce game times or wear and tear on players/pitchers, I think it has backfired. Sure, it's prevented marathon extra inning games from happening, but the format is how we go from a 2-1 score into the 9th with Saturday's game and wind up with a 9-6 final in 11 that still took 4.5 hours to complete.