Fear The Chorizo

Saladino is a plus defender at 2B, SS, and 3B - if he actually gets used in the role the backup MIF should be used on a 25-man roster (late inning defensive replacement, occasional spot start to give an everyday player the day off), then he's a better option in that role than just about anyone else the Brewers have because the focus of that role should be defense. Frankly he should've been the callup over Franklin yesterday if they aren't comfortable with Orf. However, if CC wants to give him 3-5 starts a week like he did with Sogard at 2nd / SS and take away consistent playing time from Arcia and Villar, then I'd rather have Orf up.

Wouldn't be surprised if the roster move to activate Knebel is just DL-ing Franklin or Miley for today's game, particularly with their longman (Suter) and super relievers (Jeffress / Hader) all getting significant work last night. Go pitching heavy today in case Guerra has another uneven start and force CC to start Villar at 2B - although it also wouldn't surprise me to see Perez somehow start because CC didn't want to roll out a LH-hitting 2B too many games in a row regardless of the opposing starter being right-handed. edit: guess it's already sorted out that Knebel is taking Miley's roster spot after he's getting DL'd.

I'd much rather go shopping for veteran rentals at these positions not tied into longterm deals as the deadline approaches - they can probably be had for similar to less prospect value and won't hamper long term payroll flexibility. Kinda hoping the A's crater over the next 1-2 months, making Lowrie and Lucroy available...

Would be really nice to know whether Hiura's removal from the game after turning that double play in the 6th was simply a planned exit as he works his way back towards playing the field, or if it was prompted by discomfort in his throwing arm.

Didn't fully realize it until Cleveland came to town tonight and I checked the standings - man is the AL Central a dumpster fire of a division this season...I fully expect Cleveland to take off and win the division easily and the Twins are probably decent, but the rest is atrocious.

Never want to wish a player injured or make fun, but franklin getting hurt tonight has a whiff of the baseball gods telling Stearns in their own way that he picked the wrong scrub MIF to call up.

This isn't Nintendo - as awesome as Hader has been mlb hitters are going to occasionally square him up. Particularly rh hitters when they get a slider strike to hit. Hader developing a better change up would be great to combat that, but honestly a third pitch would be gravy for his role at this point.

Meanwhile saladino sits down in aaa, who happens to be a superior defensive player at 2nd, 3rd, and ss. But because he stands in the right handed batters box he should get called up after franklin? Middle infield roster management has been maddening this year...

Obviously Franklin is up to give their hottest hitter some protection in the lineup. Sheesh...

Damnit....I was about to post that I was pretty sure it wasn't Broxton, either Awesome that Knebel's back in Milwaukee! About a month ago I think we were all expecting the worst...

Gotta be either Lopez or Williams going back down + Sogard getting DFA'd, right? I mean, it sure as heck better not be something else that winds up with 4 2B options on the roster that all probably aren't any good. The board may need to go offline for a few days to prevent excessive cursing if Sogard is still in the dugout for tonight's game...

Any word from Brewers' brass on Vogt's doc appointment? Or are they taking a day-to-day approach with issuing the statement saying he's essentially done for the season similar to how they employ that strategy to almost always play games with a 24 man roster that still includes 3-4 players not even worth still being on this team?

With Hiura not playing defense everyday, regardless of how well he's hitting there should be no discussion of him as a MLB solution to 2B for 2018. If surgery winds up being the best option to solve his arm woes (may not be the case, if there's not structural damage requiring surgery it's not the solution), then I wonder if he gets that done at the end of the Carolina league's 1st half, which is late June I believe. That would hopefully have him recovered and ready to go for Spring training 2019, likely opening the year at AA with the opportunity to wind up in Milwaukee in 2019 or most likely opening day 2020. It's fun yet frustrating for me to read the Link Reports and see Hiura raking right now - Hiura is off to a Braun-like minor league start to his professional career offensively, but he's got to at least be able to put a glove on and play a below average 2nd base defensively for me to be over the moon excited at what he could add to the MLB Brewers as soon as 2019 / 2020. Without being able to play the field due to his arm, it just feels like the Brewers are prolonging the day when he'd be called up to the Brewers for good - I fully expect there to be most of a season lost for Hiura due to resolving the arm issue, and my hope is that process starts as soon as possible. I'm also still holding on to a strand of optimism that he can get back on the field every day without surgery and could potentially wind up this year in AA with a legit shot at the opening day 2019 Brewer roster. That seems the least likely scenario considering Hiura has barely played any games defensively for 2+ seasons going back to his sophmore year in college because of that arm problem.

Maybe he would take a shorter deal like 4/$130 making him 29 at the end of the deal and still primed for another contract and not burden the Brewers super long term. That's over $30M per year for four seasons - many of which would occur during periods when other players on the roster come due for arbitration raises or free agency. That deal would absolutely burden the Brewers for 1 player and would be foolish for them to do. And Machado won't sign a deal like that - only way he'd be a free agent again is if his 8 or 10 year free agent deal that he signs for that amount this offseason has an opt-out clause he an exercise when he's 29 if he thinks the market will pay him more 4 seasons from now. If he gets injured or underperforms, he wouldn't opt out and would continue saddling whatever monster market team he signed with for another 4-6 seasons as he coasts into the sunset of his mid 30's making $30M+ per season.

Sogard's career BABIP stinks because he can't slug, so the balls he hits in the air wind up almost always landing in the field of play, where they can be turned into outs much more easily than balls landing in the bleachers. He's also not the runner Villar is, so he'll naturally get fewer infield hits. BABIP needs context like every other stat - Sogard has nothing but negative factors that should always skew his BABIP lower than average. He's not unlucky, unless it's regarding him not being blessed by the baseball gods with more ability to be a better offensive player. Villar's done nothing to justify being the longterm 2B answer for the Brewers, however he's still a vastly better offensive option than Sogard is. The BABIP discussion over 60 ABs in 2018 makes no sense because of how overmatched Sogard has looked this season. In fact, aside from 50 ABs in May 2017 (OPS of 1.257, lol) and 95 ABs in June 2017 (OPS of 0.824), Sogard has been way below a replacement level player offensively for pretty much his career. Those two 2017 months saw Sogard's BABIP hovering around 0.400 - something that is also highly unsustainable. Not to beat a dead horse, but BABIP tends to even itself out with both lucky and unlucky outcomes - at least one of Sogard's SIX hits thus far this season was a gift, which likely offsets the 3-4 other hard hit balls he's had in 2018 that wound up being outs. And long, loud foul balls don't count towards being unlucky - gotta actually hit a ball fair in my book before determining if you had a few bad luck outcomes.

I think both Bethancourt and Nottingham need consistent AB's in the minors at this stage for their own benefit, so I'd be surprised if Vogt's setback means nothing more than Bandy staying in Milwaukee until midseason. After a few more months, I could see either Bethancourt or Nottingham replacing Bandy on the roster if Vogt has a shoulder issue that keeps him off the field longterm. I don't think C is the MLB roster's most pressing issue. Until the 2B / MIF pile of crap gets sorted out for the organization's longterm benefit I'd prefer they not tinker with any other area of the 40-man unless an injury prompts it.

Weird saying this with Aguilar's start, but this team really misses Thames' LH power bat and approach in the middle of the lineup - particularly with Shaw off to a poor start. Santana appears to be showing legit signs of being what he was last season - which was the team's best offensive player for most of the year. Will be tough to see improved results overall if the rest of the lineup underperforms, though. Pina has showed some signs, too - unfortunate that Vogt appears to have had a setback which probably means more Bandy than what we deserve... There needs to be some shakeup with the roster in order to get stability in the lineup - weird to say, but the current roster construction lends itself to having too many lineup variations that end up being nothing more than rearranging crummy deckchairs on a sinking offensive ship. If you want Arcia's defensive value at SS playing everyday, then you've got to find better offensive production out of 2B - to me at least taking baby steps is something, and frankly a move as simple as getting Sogard off the MLB roster so he can't crater offensive production at either 2B or SS would improve this team's offensive capabilities regardless of who takes his place. It's CO Springs, but Tyler Saladino is hitting over 0.300 there and is a better defender at 2B, SS, and 3B than Sogard - he's on the 40 man already, so just make the move and replace Sogard with him. Give Villar the 2B job essentially everyday, and when he needs a game once a week off have Perez or Saladino make a start. It's a travesty that Villar and Arcia have only 30 more plate appearances than Sogard at this point in the season simply by comparing their below average offensive production to Sogard's - Sogard is at -0.6 oWAR after 60 ABs, that's actually really tough to do. Arcia also has to at least provide some offensive value, too.

Well, best of luck to you mr. Vogt, but unless the doc appt results come back shockingly pristine you probably won't see miller park in uniform anytime soon. Too bad, because him replacing bandy on the roster was one of the few no brainer moves that would have improved the mlb offense. Would it be that big of a reach to expect Nottingham to join the team at the break as a 33% starter? Until then I think we are stuck with bandy is the 2nd catcher. I'd say call him up now, but I'd rather Nottingham keep getting regular at bats in AAA for a few more months.

Can't count on hiura at the mlb level until at least 6 months from when he starts playing defense again at high A. He needs time defensively to be a major league option even more so than minor league at bats. He really hasn't played defense in a meaningful game since his sophomore year in college, so he's got to prove his arm issue is past him. Dh-ing the whole first month makes me think it's likely that his minor league 2018 season will end up with him getting a surgery that probably should have been done close to a year ago. And I'd hate to start hiura's mlb service clock too early by pushing him due to mlb suckitude at 2b and wind up having about 1 season of mlb control spent with him rehabbing an arm surgery - that issue has to get sorted out while he's in the minors.

That is a horrible looking lineup

Has there been any news as to when hiura is supposed to resume playing 2b or any other position on the field where the brewers' major league team can eventually use him? Has he been throwing at all over this past month? If not, then it appears more and more likely that regardless of his hitting hiura's development towards being a major league player has basically been put on hold since he started dh-ing his final year in college. Sure he can light up low level minor league pitching, but he is getting zero time becoming a viable defensive 2nd baseman. Something has to give - no question he can hit but if he can't play the field due to nagging arm issues this has been a wasted year or so since hiura was drafted.

Yelich's ball was fair, guerra struggled tonight, santana finally got off the hr goose egg, and Sogard is godawful.

I think that's why Bauer's suggested solution of putting a tar rag or other additional MLB-approved substance on the mound next to the rosin bag is acceptable - if the reason teams keep their mouths shut is because they know more than half their pitchers do the same thing, then it's an accepted practice leaguewide and MLB should do something to try and standardize the option. I get why there'd be a need to ensure a good grip on a baseball when it's 35 and sleeting or for that matter when it's 100 with 95% humidity - if rosin doesn't do the job in those conditions, then find something else that does. I think there should also be a league-accepted spot on a pitcher's uni and/or equipment for a substance to be on too. Part of the glove or cleat for example - that way you avoid things like Will Smith's shiny forearm or Pineda's muddy neck incidents that just look bad from a perception standpoint and seemingly force opposing managers to get the umps involved. HOWEVER, if pine tar or other substances essentially provide pitchers the ability to gain an unnatural grip on the baseball and artificially enhance their ability to spin it, then I'm not sure I'm good with just allowing it leaguewide for 162 games - perhaps MLB provides another acceptable substance on the mound at their discretion based on weather/game conditions? If the reasoning of players for using it is to ensure good grip for safety reasons for guys throwing 95mph+ when the weather's bad, base it on gametime temp and precip conditions (similarly to when umps allow pitchers to go to their mouth while on the rubber when it's cold to warm their fingers up).

Honestly, are any of our current mlb MIF options, starting or backup, capable of drawing a walk?

I wonder once Knebel returns, does he get cemented back in that traditional "closer" role to pitch the 9th when the Brewers are leading and he's available no matter what? Or, do the Brewers wanna go the the George Castanza route and get nuts with the bullpen - just add Knebel to the mix of guys like Hader and Jeffress and depending on the game situation have them continue going for multiple inning appearances and putting the emphasis on the best relievers pitching high leverage situations instead of having to wait for certain innings to arrive before bringing them into a ballgame. Had the back end of the pen imploded more following Knebel's injury, he'd definitely be back in the true closer role (1st week or so after he went down they couldn't nail a save down to save their lives) - but it's obviously stabilized and how they've been using key relievers has actually strengthened it.