Fear The Chorizo

Wind is blowing out like 15-30MPH, and Wrigley Field's construction doesn't block the wind at all. Just about anything hit in the air will be a HR today.

The Cubs Pirates game will take 8 hours to complete

Ive said they got to get to 88 wins to be a lock for the postseason. 10 wins in their last 16 games. That's doable. But you still need to play well. They have to win 2 games in everyone of their last five series to do that. it wont be easy. Now if they figure out a way to sweep another team, that changes things dramatically. Same as if they got swept Need one game at the minimum this weekend Based in remaining schedules of the competition and the cubs dropping 5 games in the standings since 88 wins seemed like a good barometer for wc2, I think the wc2 winner could wind up with as few as 86 wins, and there is a pretty strong chance of ties leading to play-in games. Going to be fun to watch.

Ideally the Brewers win this weekend's series against the Cards and the Braves win their series against the Nats - that would basically set up the Brewers with a solid chance to wind up taking 1 of 3 available playoff berths to them (WC1, WC2, Division title) with a light remaining schedule and all their other competition playing each other. If the Brewers simply would play above 0.500 to round out the season following this weekend in this scenario, they're basically a lock for the postseason.

Pitchers occasionally win MVP, and I have a hard time believing they pitched all 162. In all honesty, the mvp is still based largely on counting stats, so if you miss a decent chunk of games it disqualifies you more than it should. If the award was determined based more heavily on player value, then guys like yelich could easily win the award. Case in point last season - who was the 2nd highest rated NL position player in terms of WAR behind Yelich? Lo Cain, who finished 7th in the NL MVP balloting. Yelich won comfortably last season primarily because he damn near won the triple crown, not because he led NL position players in WAR. I'm not saying he isnt deserving even despite missing close to 25% of the season when all is said and done based on his value, but yelich won't win mvp this season. I think Rendon or Acuna stand a chance at taking the award away from Bellinger - both play premium defensive positions and could easily put up counting stats similar to bellinger's by season's end. Acuna could put up a 40 40 season and rendon could win two legs of the NL triple crown. I think Yelich winds up in the top 3 or 4

will be interested to see whether Hiura returns to the lineup against a lefty starter today, or if he's going to be limited for a bit longer screw WC2, aim higher - win today and let that seed of doubt start growing in the Cards' mindsets headed into this weekend's series!

I would never call what they've accomplished over the past 5 seasons a dynasty - 1 WS title, 2 NLCS appearances, and a wildcard game exit sprinkled in with 2 division titles. That's a really good stretch for most any organization, but it's not a dynasty. Let's not kid ourselves, they still have alot of talent on their MLB roster and will continue to do so for a few more seasons, and I'm sure they'll find ways to continue bringing in more in the future. The Cubs still have the advantage to try and buy themselves out of problems. However, moves they've made starting at the 2016 trade deadline in effort to "go for it" have severely depleted position player talent in their farm system, and their pitching is an organizational wasteland behind a group of expensive veteran starters who are really starting to look long in the tooth. Following their WS win, the Cubs really did have a chance to put together a dynastic run, but it hasn't happened due to prospect quality/depth vanishing due to trades, most of their young homegrown position players they retained not becoming yearly silver slugger finalists while they made peanuts, and the expensive pitching acquisitions not being healthy enough and/or good enough to churn out 100-win seasons at will.

Soler makes ~$4M per year, Heyward makes ~$22M annually....through 2023! As a Brewers fan, I'd argue Heyward is right where he belongs, too!

Watching Cubs-Pads - the Cubs are playing awful, and it's amazing what pitchers/players are in their lineup at this stage of the season considering what their payroll is. Also took a look at some stats for a few players of note, and it made me smile. Had the Cubs not gotten so trade happy a few seasons ago hunting for pitching they couldn't develop or acquire for reasonable cost, their lineup would be crazy and their payroll would be much, much lower. Jorge Soler has 43 HR, meanwhile Wade Davis is pitching for the Rockies to the tune of 7.01 ERA and the Cubs have an albatross contract in Heyward in right. Soler was dealt largely because he was seemingly blocked by Heyward and his deal along with the Cubs needing to find room for Schwarber to play everyday after their 2016 WS win. In hindsight, the Cubs should have explored trading Schwarber instead of Soler when his value was astronomically high and before regular MLB playing time exposed him as a good/not great hitter who can't play a lick defensively. Eloy Jimenez has quietly put up a pretty impressive rookie season, hitting 26HR thus far in just over 400 MLB at bats while missing some time due to injury and struggling at times - the Cubs have Schwarber in left, but nobody would prefer Schwarber over Jimenez moving forward. Maybe it was worth it to trade Jimenez and Cease to have Quintana make 75 starts against the Brewers the past few seasons, but IMO that was far too steep a price to pay. Gleyber Torres sits at 36 HR - trading him for Chapman won them a World Series, so I can get behind accepting that as being worth it. Still, it was a steep price to pay for 3 months of a stud reliever. While some of us fret about losing the services of prospects the Brewers have recently dealt, I sleep much better knowing Cubs' brass managed to do a much better job at shipping high end, cost-controlled talent out of Chicago.

Brewers only 4 back of the Cards for the division as it stands tonight with a series against them coming up this weekend - the Cards could actually fall almost all the way back to the Brewers before any of their games against the Cubs even happen...with the way the Cubs are playing i don't see them controlling anything.

Not sure how one's hitting prowess factors into this. I'd love to see the study correlating rate of bone heal to one's ability to hit a baseball. I also don't recall Jeff Keppinger being a physical specimen. Please find a sense of humor during your research, too.

The post above yours provides an example of someone who returned to action in just over 5 weeks. Jeff keppinger couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper bag before he got hurt...let's be real, I want yelich to hit like yelich when he's back, not keppinger. All these are different, i just don't want to look at the rosiest of all possible outcomes

If there is no surgery, that is the timeline for recovery to get the bone to heal...but then rehab starts. 6 weeks basically with that leg largely immobilized, so he still would have months of rehab - but the offseason is a great time for rehab. No surgery needed means we are going to see yelich in spring training. Surgery would likely mean we would be speculating whether we would see him by memorial day or by the all star beak.

At a bare minimum, I'd think this development might cause Tom Brady to rescind his offer for brown to stay at his house...plus I'm sure roger Goodell just loves the thought of dealing with this situation from a league discipline perspective... I'd be surprised if brown plays a down for the Patriots if these allegations prove to have any shred of truth

I think the brewers wind up dusting the cubs in the standings down the stretch despite losing yelich - the cubs are also walking wounded and their pitching is in worse shape than the brewers. to me the question becomes whether they hold off the dbacks and phillies for that second wildcard spot. I now have a very difficult time thinking the division title is still up for grabs, though.

Do you not consider the Wild Card the postseason? Because if the scores hold up tonight, they are 1 game out of that. Hardly a miracle with 19 to play. I took it as it would be a miracle for this team to go on a run and actually win a world series - there's always a chance, but realistically I don't think any of us view the brewers as a dangerous postseason opponent even with yelich considering the pitching staff, particularly when they would have to go back to a 25 man postseason roster.

Bingo - sucks for yelich, this team, and us as fans for the rest of 2019, but if we are all honest there was a snowball's chance in hades this roster would make significant noise in the postseason even with a healthy mvp right fielder anchoring the lineup. Basically 6.5 months from opening day 2020, odds are that yelich will have plenty of time to heal and rehab and not miss much of any regular season games due to this injury next year - and if he does need extra time the brewers do have capable options of holding down the fort.

A broken kneecap is a bad injury, but I'd equate it to arod's broken collarbone...it will take awhile to heal but once it does the player is really no worse for the wear. Yelich will be ready for spring training next year - timing of this just sucks for any postseason aspirations. I mean, they may still find a way to get into the playoffs, but now it's a lock they wouldn't do anything once they get there.

I'm guessing much of Hiura's issues with throwing accuracy come from positioning in shifts - many times the 2B winds up playing shallow RF or directly behind 2B, which makes those throws much longer or from a different angle than where second basemen would traditionally field a ball and throw to first. I think his arm is strong enough to play the position, but he needs more work making the variety of throws the 2B position requires considering all the shifting. His glovework is ok, however Hiura's hands are like stones at times that lead to dropping throws on tag plays or struggling to field sharply hit balls. That can be improved over time, too. I doubt Hiura is in the running for any gold gloves at the Keystone position, and that's just fine. If he hits to his abilities and marginally improves defensively he's a 6-8 WAR player over the course of a MLB season, which is fringe MVP range for a second baseman.

I mean, he did get a $750K signing bonus when he was drafted way back in 2012 - there's not many fedex employees who received that kind of coin right after graduating high school. Hopefully a good portion of that got stowed away after taxes and he's got a solid nest egg once he hangs the cleats up for good - kudos to him for working his way through the minors and overcoming a few injuries and tough seasons to get to the show. And good for him looking into ways to supplement his income if he wants to keep playing. The amount of work these guys need to put in over the offseason to try and achieve a sustained MLB career makes it very difficult to find a gig that pays the bills - often the marginal prospects hit their mid 20s and the pocketbook drives them away from lengthy minor league careers moreso than being pushed out of baseball by younger prospects. Taylor would be a decent option at the bottom of the 40 man in 2020, and I think this roster is going to turn over enough in the offseason where they could easily keep him on it if they want. Doubtful he has a good opportunity at the opening day MLB roster unless Gamel or Grisham get dealt, which is highly unlikely IMO.

Lotta game left out there for help...

Damn right...my absolute favorite

Sounds like the exact same roster he inherited a few seasons ago. He turned that into an NLCS home game 7 in three years' tenure compared to one destined to win between 70-80 games for the next 3-5 seasons, and has fielded a roster competing for the postseason in September for the past 3 consecutive seasons - something no GM has done here in Milwaukee. Many of his trades have brought in MLB veteran talent at the expense of trading away little in terms of overvalued prospects who may actually become decent everyday MLB players. But sure, he's just a guy. Derek Johnson was hired by Stearns, so if he truly is a pitching savant that makes any pitching staff a full earned run/9 innings better it was Stearns who recognized that.

To get within a reasonable range, we for sure would need to sweep the Cards. And they haven't shown signs of slowing down yet, so that's wildly unlikely. The most likely outcome playing 3 in st louis is 1 win. Hopefully the guys aren't looking ahead and are focused on Miami. We really need to hit in this series, 8+ runs a game and make the pitching side of things trivial. I hear this alot, and it isn't really true even with just 20 games to go. If the Brewers win each of their remaining series, they are at minimum 88-74 at season's end. Assuming this means the Brewers take 2 of 3 against the Cardinals, meaning they'd still trail them by 5.5 games after taking out this weekend's 3 game set. We'd also need to assume the extra game the Brewers have is a win, meaning they'd need to play 5 full games better than the Cardinals over their remaining 16 games on the calendar. Sure, that's a tall order, but it isn't that far fetched for the Brewers to go 11-5 or better against the likes of the Marlins, Padres, Reds, Pirates, and Rockies while the Cards could go 5-11 against the Cubs, Nationals, Dbacks, and Rockies. The silver lining is if the Cards don't crater during this part of their schedule, they'll be helping the Brewers by beating up directly on their wildcard competition. Sure, sweeping the Cards this weekend makes a big swing in the division standings and really opens the door for having the division title in play by late September. Reality is that the Brewers still have a shot at the division if they are within 3 games of the lead headed into the season's last week based on schedules, and they have two weeks to make up 3.5 games in the standings with an extra game and a head-to-head series during that time to at least get to that point. By no means do I expect it to happen, but it's not that unrealistic if the Brewers play well.

Agreed that Hiura needs to stick at 2B longterm...his arm isn't good enough to "hide" him in the OF - but his bat is plenty good enough as a 2B to keep putting him there and hope his defense marginally improves. Regular time out there should help, and even if it doesn't I think they need to keep him there for a couple more seasons to exhaust the option of him as a 2B before exploring potential DH/1B roles. If the NL moves to incorporating the DH, hopefully it's within the window where Hiura could simply settle into that role as a Brewer. Until then, you shore up other IF positions defensively to try and offset any downside to having a 0.900+ OPS bat butchering things on occasion at 2B. To me it's obvious that 2B isn't a high value defensive position to Brewers' brass, since they've had 3B playing there more often than not since late July 2018 before Hiura got called up.