Fear The Chorizo

Still early, but looking like some ground will be gained even if the Brewers can't get a game in tonight.

It may seem to us like the Reds have been on fire for 2 solid months, playing nobody but the pirates twins and dbacks... Even after all that, they are just 9 games over .500 and still not in playoff position....and as of right now they've lost ground since the all star break on the Brewers.

Would also be kinda nice to score more than 2 dang runs in a game this series to take some pressure off a decimated bullpen.

Would be nice to plate a few more runs, please!

It certainly looks better than it did a year ago at this time. As is typical with these trades there's a lot of other moving parts influenced by it as referenced by the Padres moving Davies to Chicago as part of the deal for Yu Darvish. Likewise, if the Brewers still had Grisham they probably wouldn't have guaranteed JBJ 24 million dollars across two years and could have signed someone else instead. Moreover, with Wong and Adames on the roster for multiple seasons, Urias won't be playing his natural middle infield positions for the Brewers, and at 3B his bat is merely ordinary. Whereas a gold glove CFer with a .782 OPS like Grisham will start every day for a decade in the major leagues. To your original point, I don't think it's a disaster anymore and if the Lauer of 2021 is a real deal it is probably a push at best all things considered. The other moving parts to this trade not being mentioned is the fact it was made before COVID hit in late 2019 and with the Brewers assuming they were going to have Cain playing center field through the 2022 season and MVP-caliber Yelich at the other corner OF spot for even longer. Grisham was just coming off booting a ball in the wild card game as well. If the Brewers had interest in Avi Garcia as a free agent that same offseason, which is proving to be a good idea based on how he's performing this season, Grisham would've been hard-pressed for consistent playing time the way things looked at that time. Urias was in the same boat in San Diego in terms of being a good prospect with limited MLB experience being largely blocked by other players at his primary positions. This was a very good trade for both teams - back when it was made and even moreso right now...doesn't have to be a clear winner or loser in my book. The fact they exchanged Davies for Lauer at this point looks like a win for the Brewers in terms of both payroll flexibility and years of team control for a decent MLB starter, as the biggest reason Darvish was shipped to San Diego was to get his salary off the Cubs' books longterm IMO.

While all true, these things do happen with a higher degree of frequency than fans of teams with big divisional leads at this point in the season like to admit - just ask the 2018 and 2019 Cubs;) What it takes is for the trailing team to just get on absolute fire and take full advantage of winning the remaining head to head matchups they have with the team they are chasing. The 2018 and 2019 versions of the Brewers did exactly that, largely aided by Yelich carrying those offenses and the pitching depth advantage they had once rosters expanded against Cub teams that had more talented 25 man rosters but nothing in terms of depth behind that for the September stretch run. I don't see the Cardinals catching lighting in a bottle and going off on multiple 8-2 stretches the rest of this year because they have shown no ability to score enough runs to maintain that pace against good teams. The Reds might get white hot at some point, but their best shot at a playoff spot remains a wild card should San Diego keep floundering and the NL West teams beat up on one another while Cincy plays the Pirates a ton. I'd actually be more concerned about the Reds catching the Brewers if they played each other more than 3 games down the stretch - without those head to head matchups, trailing teams feel like they are treading water even when they are winning at a decent clip if the team they are chasing isn't slumping.

Tellez not going cold

Brewers are 11-4 against them so far this season, which outpaces their overall win percentage...so it's not like they are actually their nemesis. I think it just seems that way every time the Brewers don't crush them - reality is they still have some guys that can win games for them if their pitching isn't getting shelled.

They have hit alot of balls hard today, with very little to show for it.

out!

It’s very hard to argue that that isn’t the case. The timing is quite coincidental otherwise. It's actually really to easy to argue it's not - mainly because so many people I know have started testing positive for COVID with symptoms during this same timeframe despite being fully vaccinated themselves, almost all of which were nowhere near the Deer District earlier this summer. Frankly I'm surprised more MLB teams aren't dealing with similar issues at this point - although some definitely are and we aren't paying as close attention to them than what we're seeing here daily. It could have started with Bucks Game 6 just as easily as it could have started with one of the Brewers picking it up just about anywhere else and bringing it back into the clubhouse. The timing of how we're seeing a symptomatic Brewer a day instead of 6-10 at once to me seems like it's being passed along here and there over time between teammates and not the result of all of them being exposed simultaneously.

I think there's a good chance the NL West doesn't produce both wild card teams - they are going to beat up on each other and the Reds are only 5 games behind the Padres in the standings with a charmin-soft schedule down the stretch. I still think the Braves and Phils get rolling a bit too so the NL East winds up with a pair of teams winding up ~10 games over 0.500 (assuming the Mets don't crater). If Tatis misses significant time or even the rest of the season with his shoulder injury, they are in trouble with 19 games remaining against the Dodgers and Giants, plus series mixed in with the Braves, Astros, and Cards.

I think the knock on Turang will always be that he doesn't hit for enough power....while he'll never be a 30HR MLBer, he simply doesn't need to be at the defensive positions he plays, and I think there will be enough pop from him during his prime years once he fills out a bit more and fully develops. He can fly, is a plus defender at SS and 2B, and isn't a strikeout machine at the plate. There's a reason he was initially viewed as a potential #1 overall pick the summer before his senior year in high school - his stock fell a bit that allowed him to slip to #21 for the Brewers to nab him, but he's shown that he's a MLB-caliber talent throughout his minor league career to date. Reaching AAA before his 22nd birthday is pretty impressive.

Yes, big problems with this current COVID-inflicted iteration of the bullpen tonight....but the Brewers still had bad luck/poor execution on 3 other key plays where had they had a bit better luck on any one of them they win tonight. That botched double play ball with Adames, the bases clearing double right afterwards that was barely fair, and Escobar getting robbed of a HR that needed to be 1' higher at the wall. Sometimes you lose games - tonight was one of those ~40 built in losses on every team's 162....stinks but it is what it is. I wonder if some of the hesitancy of bringing up guys in the minors during this COVID outbreak is to try and avoid bringing up guys who aren't yet part of routine MLB COVID screening protocols and potentially having them make the current outbreak worse. At this point I'm guessing we'll see some of those AAA arms brought up since the current bullpen is both gassed and not good at pitching right now.

dang it....Schroeder had to point out how deep Polanco was playing!

leadoff triple for the cycle would be pretty sweet, too

Like I said give this dude all the work he can handle. I don't think he was really shelved - pitched Saturday so wasn't used Sunday, then didn't get in last night's game because I think they view him as a key arm in their pen as currently constructed. Great job getting out of that jam in the 8th!

missed his spot by about 5 feet there...lol

Might have spoken too soon. I'm three steps ahead of you....was referring to a Brewer comeback win;)

Houser was just as likely to walk 5 more guys before getting 5 more outs the way he was going - this is mostly on Norris not getting his job done followed by an error at the worst time and a bases clearing double that was 2 inches from being a harmless foul ball.

When Curtis misses his spot, it's right down the middle - yeesh this is a tough inning. Gotta get out of this one without further damage. If Norris doesn't crap the bed against all the Pirate lefties in this sequence it's still a 4-1 game

That wasn't an easy play, but one Adames would surely want back there

Throw flipping strikes - everybody

well...at least we aren't losing ground to the Reds tonight

If he doesn't burn 20+ of his pitches walking guys, Houser would have had every opportunity to finish tonight's game.