Fear The Chorizo

Oh really? Yes, the ball is right in front of you, what the hell are you doing running on that?? Contact play or not, you HAVE to be smarter than that. You have to smarter to know that the contact play doesn't give a runner time to interpret which infielder or pitcher is going to field a grounder...if its hit on the ground the runner goes no matter what. That being said, if the contact play truly was on in that situation it's a terrible baseball play. Not just for the baserunning - part of it is arcia not taking an approach to try and hit the ball anywhere but to 3b.

The brewers have played like dog scat for almost two months - who cares what any other team is doing now? Also, why in the world did they take Hiura off this roster back in early June? The k rate will look bad the rest of this year I'm sure, but damn that kid can hit. At some point he needs to be in front of yelich in the lineup

Kind of been that way pretty much all season, especially since early June it seems...

I watched Counsel talk about this today...... he said at one point " you don't get better by not pitching" so you could tell this wasn't the Brewers making up an injury. Burnes says he is hurt.....doesn't sound too serious but it sure didnt sound like this was the Brewers idea.... That means nothing...he can't come out publicly and say hey, we made up an injury so we could get a fresh arm in from AAA faster. "You don't get better by not pitching" is as cliche as "you take them one game at a time"

He hit 99mph yesterday...every pitcher's shoulder can be classified as irritated the day after pitching, there's about a 99 percent chance this is a made up IL stint because their bullpen roster between AAA and mlb stinks. He could have gotten a break just by being optioned and not pitching - they pulled this IL stint crap because they know they'll need to make another pen move or two soon and want to keep roster flexibility. I don't know if there's anything mlb can do about it, but this is for sure gaming the rules...

I wonder... time to flip Ben Gamel for some prospects, and select Grisham's contract, maybe? No, it's time to either use Grisham as a headline prospect in a deal for impact pitching if you think this would be selling high (more would also be needed, too), or if Brewers' brass has confidence he's turned a corner and will continue to be deserving of a MLB callup he's a candidate for coming up during the 2020 season. He's not yet on the 40 man roster and they don't need to add him there until the offseason. Gamel is perfect as a 4th OF in his role, that's not what Grisham will be best at doing. IMO Grisham or Ray (if he can ever get back on track following his injuries and crappy 2019) fit in well as LF replacements after Braun is gone - plus both could play the other OF spots in a pinch. Grisham's overall offensive profile really would give me pause trying to deal him at this point - he's always been young for his league and he's always gotten on base despite generally poor BA numbers while in A, A+, and AA up until this year. He has seemed to get selectively aggressive and do damage on hitters' pitches much more this season - if that ability is something he's developed by improving his pitch recognition and it isn't a 4 month long fluke, he's an everyday MLB corner OF that fits perfectly in the #5 or 6 hole of a lineup.

They need to be among the handful of teams who take a wait and see approach on buying/selling for the next ~10 games - if they play well and rattle off a stretch of winning baseball with the guys they have, it's worth bolstering the roster for the stretch run (particularly bullpen). If the guys on the roster right now can't get it done and the team continues its fade in the standings, then DS has to switch course and see what he can get for guys like Grandal, Moose, Albers, Davies, Chacin, Anderson, Thames, etc to try and bolster the farm. It wouldn't be a total firesale, but it would be a roster retooling in hopes of getting a jump on the offseason to give younger guys more opportunities to solidify roster spots for 2020. I anticipate a flurry of trade activity starting around July 24/25 for many teams, including the Brewers. There are too many NL clubs within a couple games of a playoff berth to suddenly have them all become buyers or sellers. On paper the Brewers are talented enough to still be considered a playoff club, but if the onfield results don't match what's on paper they can't just sit on their hands.

This current bullpen situation is what happens when you don't have multiple shutdown guys in late innings, and the horse you need to ride 1+ innings to get saves (Hader) gives up a lead late in the middle of it. Total train wreck, because he's unavailable for several games after a loss and CC is forces to send other relievers out there in late game situations that have no business toeing the mound in those situations for a team that thinks it can contend. Burnes was great last year in this role because he lived on the corners - this year he occasionally pitches there, but far too often he's in the hitters' happy zone with everything. And he doesn't have near enough movement on his fastball or even slider to get MLB hitters out when they can make contact. He either strikes guys out or gives up rockets.

Yup, and look at the location on those pitches - meatballs. If Burnes can't command his stuff he's not a MLB pitcher. He's got to work from the fringe of the zone off the plate on those counts, and instead his pitches drift back to the meat of the zone. Doing it once every so often makes them mistake pitches, doing this consistently makes him a bad pitcher.

The team has also stunk since the roster moves started getting confusing as well...

Who? Marcos Diplan? Jacob Barnes? Taylor Williams? Donnie Hart? I would say a big difference between this year and last is that we DON'T have the pen reinforcements in the farm to save us late in the year like we did last season. Devin Williams could be last year’s Corbin Burnes. Don’t rule out Rasmussen or Andrews or Perdomo either. September’s pen will be shutdown again. Or they could all suck and the pen will circle the drain even further...honestly at this point that is probably a more likely scenario

Switch away from Hiura and start with Grisham + Burnes - I'd think the Brewers would need to add another notable prospect in the lower minors and some filler, but this is the type of package that might interest the Mets if they are serious about dealing Thor and other teams aren't offering up crazy prospect packages the Brewers just can't match. Burnes has obviously had a disappointing season, but the arm and stuff are still there along with quite a bit of team-friendly control. Grisham has had a great 2019, but dealing him this deadline might wind up being the definition of selling high. 2.5 years of Thor is very intriguing for this Brewers team.

Runs/game are roughly the same as they were 10, 20, 30, 50 years ago. What's telling about that number is the runs/game are basically the same even though there's the perception that more HR = more scoring. MLB is turning into slow pitch softball with hitters' all or nothing approach at the plate - which is hardly entertaining compared to lineups that put more priority on contact and situational hitting, IMO

1) Nearly every contending team is in need of another quality starting pitcher. The competition to add starting pitching on the trade market is going to be very high this year. It also doesn’t help that there are also currently more teams still in the playoff hunt than usual. I actually think the pile of NL teams within earshot of contending may help to suppress the trade market this year - not nearly as many teams in true sell mode so there aren't going to be a ton of desired players on the market, and most teams with a shot may take a tepid approach to this year's trade deadline not wanting to sell off the farm chasing fool's gold. Case in point would be what the Pirates did around this time last year trading for Archer. I'm guessing alot of NL teams are going to hope improvement comes internally - either from prospect callups of their own or just having key players start performing better within their own organizations. There's going to be a flurry of trades the last couple days of July, but I'm guessing the market is pretty quiet across the NL until the bitter end. On the AL side, contending teams are much easier to see, which likely means they will be more aggressive improving their rosters via trade. Look for teams like the Twins and Yankees to short up bullpen holes soon - and the Indians, Rays, and A's are going to be players too. The Rangers are just close enough to contention that they could return to making more silly deadline deals chasing pitching, too. I don't think the Astros have much of a team weakness, but they may look to make a splash move and surprise people to try and separate themselves, while the Red Sox would probably like to upgrade but don't have much on the farm to do so. In the NL, the Braves may go after another starter or pen option, but they've already brought in Keuchel. The Nats are rolling while the Phillies have basically mirrored the Brewers in terms of a disappointing June - I don't see either of those teams getting too nuts via trade unless they are adding relievers, as their answers are more internal. These NL east teams are at a deadline disadvantage since they are in the same division as the Mets and Marlins - two obvious sellers that may gum up potential trades with the teams not wanting to bolster their chances in 2019 nor ship quality prospects to division rivals in any trades. The NL Central is just a blob of teams that are all going to have a tough time getting hot enough to separate themselves in the standings, so I think they'll all have a tough time being aggressive via trade. The NL West is the Dodgers and everyone else - and the Dodgers are so loaded they may have a tough time actually identifying roster upgrades via trade. However, if they want to go for broke this year they have the farm system to make a few impact moves in effort to finally win it all. Specific to the Brewers, I'd like to see them go after Wheeler - simply to get another reliable starting pitcher for the stretch run that's capable of a dominating couple months. Burnes and Peralta appear to have settled in a bit to their bullpen roles, but it'd also be nice to find one more stud reliever for the back end. I don't think they should meddle with offensive upgrades - they need their own guys to perform. That all being said, if they fall apart over the next couple weeks I think the Brewers absolutely need to become aggressive sellers this deadline - guys like Grandal and Moose, even Albers, Davies, Anderson, Thames, etc. need to be made available for prospects.

Might be an initial conversation for DS to better understand the middling prospects the Mets are interested in, then switching gears and use those prospects as centerpieces for a Wheeler trade while leaving off the headliners. I know the Mets are a weirdly run franchise, but you don't make all the offseason moves they did last year only to trade away a power arm with lots of team control remaining. Wheeler will be dealt, no question about it - Syndergaard would cost too much in prospect capital.

June was supposed to be the softest portion of their schedule, and they missed a golden opportunity to take control of this division by playing their worst baseball so far in 2019. While none of the team stats you listed are godawful atrocious, all of them point to middling/below average results - they really didn't have any aspect of their team performing consistently well enough to lean on for sustained success, and that showed in a meh month recordwise against teams they would have beaten up on if they were playing better.

I guess we should just dfa Dubon...we already have proven he sucks without him even getting off the AAA plane

What's pointless is essentially saying that one needs to be a Top 25 overall prospect at some point to validate their success. Sure, I'll go back to my fantasyland of not being over the moon impressed with a 23 yr old OPS-ing 0.950 in AAA considering he's repeating a level there, and not lamenting the loss of a corner OF who is OPS-ing mid 800's as a 23 yr old in that same level...that's nowhere near comparable to being the universal best prospect in all of baseball as an 18 yr old regardless of what level Franco is at. Since neither Harrison or Diaz are 20 yr olds tearing up AAA, and none have near the ceiling a guy like Franco has based on his talent level, the post I was responding to in my prior post was just a straw man argument I was calling out. 20 yr olds tearing up AAA are basically limited to generational talents like Trout, Harper, Machado, Vlad Jr., eventually Franco, etc. If age truly does matter, then you can't say a 20 yr old tearing up AAA is the same as Diaz and Harrison having good seasons at AAA. I never said that no prospect is truly a prospect unless they're rated in the top 25 - I'm glad Diaz and Harrison are having nice years for the Marlins' AAA affiliate, and hope they develop into everyday MLB players that are above replacement level. I'm also glad to have Hiura instead of Diaz in the organization playing 2B, and the reigning MVP of the National League as well playing a corner OF spot.color me crazy, I guess

Exactly, age matters. If a 20 year old is tearing up AAA, every evaluator is going to be more impressed than if a 26 year old is doing it. Wander Franco isn't the best prospect in baseball because he's hitting .341/.410/.560 between A and A+. He's the best prospect in baseball because he's hitting that well (in addition to being an average at worst defender at the most premium defensive position) as an 18 year old. And putting too much stock in a small sample size of anyone's minor league performance at any level and age is foolhardy, particularly when there is a larger track record tied to a prospect or player that indicates they aren't likely to be as good as a two month stretch of at bats indicates. Guys like Diaz and Harrison have been pretty good this year, but both are coming off relatively poor 2018's, and neither were ever considered even top 25-ish prospects even during their best stretches. And it's not like either are 18 years old. Including wander franco in this conversation to make a point is pointless.

I get that its disappointing the brewers aren't 20 games over 500 and they have plenty if warts, but they are still a 1st place team in a deep division. For what they did over the offseason, it would be foolish at this point to sell, particularly with Hader. Ride it out, if they tank over the next few weeks then they should look long and hard at trading guys like Moose and Grandal, maybe some other relievers who are actually having good years like Albers...Hader has too much team friendly control left for the brewers to ever actually get equal value in return by dealing him now - maybe they revisit that option 2 offseasons from now. Odds are much higher that they add, not sell, by july 31st.

If I'm the brewers I ask the mets about adding Diaz to the wheeler trade and then seeing what the cost would be - they could use both and Diaz has 3 years left of team control

This week before the AS break is notorious for the brewers playing like a dumpster fire, so any win in my book is a bonus...but yeah, it would be nice for them to start playing consistently well pretty damn soon. Nice start from Davies and it's nice to see the bats at least wake up for a night

Because the brewers won a series opener?

Never a doubt!

Hiura had one of the 2 paltry brewer hits today and was on base twice...tough for any one player to suddenly make the rest of a mlb roster hit. I get your point but it seems like a reach when Keston is far from looking the worst at the plate for this club right now.