DuWayne Steurer

that was some hard baseball to stomach for sure.

Welcome Brewer Fanatics to a guest addition of Forum Friday. I'm happy to fill in for Chris this week and recap the week for the Brewers faithful, and faithful we must be, after the week the Brewers have been through. But with Adames and Renfroe back from IL, and Narvaez coming back soon, maybe the Brewers luck will turn around soon. As the Brewers round the one-third stretch of the season, hanging on by a thread to their one-half game lead in the NL Central division, the busiest topic of discussion this week is undoubtedly the Brewers offense. With so many key pieces of the Brewers hitting corps sidelined for various reasons, the Brewers have struggled to put up runs. With Renfroe back and Adames finally returned, there's reason to be optimistic, and Narvaez should also return from the Covid-19 reserved list soon. As @nate82 pointed out in the offense thread, the Brewers key bats have outperformed most of the high-dollar free agents that were signed this off-season, aside from perhaps Trevor Story. However, there's not much debate in Brewer land that Andrew McCutchen shouldn't be playing every day and hitting cleanup, and a look in at any game thread the last week will show you that there's almost a clear consensus that the Brewer Fanatic faithful all roundly agree that McCutchen should be sitting versus righties and hitting deeper in the order. As contributor @monty57 points out, some trade targets that could be available, and have been discussed both in the "offense" thread and the trade forum, are Andrew Benintendi, Josh Bell, and Trey Mancini. (Shameless plug for Tim Muma's Trey Mancini article here). As the summer wears on and the trade deadline nears, trade talk will definitely heat up on the forum and potential targets will be tossed around. With a lot of the forty man roster banged up, a lot of the forum chatter has been devoted to keeping up to date on player movement and injury updates. @BruisedCrewdropped a tweet from Adam McCalvy today with an update on injured starter Brandon Woodruff, who has been surprisingly, ably replaced for a pair of starts by Jason Alexander. If Woodruff is to be out for any period of time, hopefully Alexander can continue his run of success. Over in the minor league forum, the Dominican Summer League and Arizona Rookie League started on Monday. @damuelle has a thread with all the news, roster moves, and more to keep us up to date with what's going on there. A couple of great posts from @Smichaelis9 and @CheeseheadInQC that provided some great scouting reports on some of the fresh new faces we'll see and hear about down on the farm. Thanks posters! And if you haven't heard yet, Jackson Chourio is putting up PlayStation numbers down in Carolina, giving us another week of talking about how he may be the next "Soto, Vlad Jr., Acuna", in the words of @Brewcrew82 (among others!) He's quickly made the leap up Baseball America's Top 100, and along with Joey Wiemer, Brice Turang, and Sal Frelick, the Brewers now sport four players in BA's top 100. Thanks to contributors like @Mass Haas and @Julio Muchacho who put a lot of time and effort into putting together a lot of quality minor league reading. It's appreciated. We're at the one-third point of the season, and despite the recent setbacks, the Brewers are still in first place, heading to Washington to take on the Nats for three games. As @RoCoBrewfan (that's me) said in a game thread just a few days ago, "any day with baseball is a happy day". We're all Brewer fans here. Except that one guy. He's a Cardinal fan, but we let him post here because he seems like an alright guy. Thanks for reading. Go Brew Crew. View full article

With several key players on the IL or unable to take the field, the Brewers play a four game set against the San Diego Padres. The Brewers are looking to hang on to first place as the St. Louis Cardinals stay hot, winners of seven of their past ten games. Game 1 -- Brewers 5, Padres 4 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL202206020.shtml Adrian Houser started game one for the Brewers against Sean Manaea for the Padres. Houser was only able to work five innings, as he ran his pitch count to 100 pitches in those five innings. He gave up just one run on five hits and three walks, working around danger and keeping the club in the ballgame. WIth the game knotted at 1-1 after five innings, the Padres punched in two runs of struggling reliever Brent Suter in the sixth inning. Peter Strzelecki made his major league debut for the Crew in the eighth inning in relief, and pitched two innings, giving up a run on two hits, two walks and striking out three. The Brewers headed to the bottom of the ninth down three when the offense came alive, so to speak. Keston Hiura lead off with a single. Taylor Rodgers then hit Kolten Wong and Victor Caratini to load the bases. Jace Peterson came up and provided the big hit. With the score still knotted at four, and the winning run at third, Andrew McCutchen came up, mired in an 0-32 slump. With that, Strzelecki was made a winner in his big league debut. Game 2 -- Padres 7, Brewers 0 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL202206030.shtml Corbin Burnes went up against Joe Musgrave, and Burnes just didn't have it, right from the start tonight. Burnes gave up a run in the first, a run in the second, and three in the third. His command wasn't there, and it took him 95 pitches to get through 3 2/3 innings tonight. Hopefully it's one of those games Burnes can put in the rear view and come out next time and dominate. As for the Brewers offense tonight, to say Joe Musgrove had it working would be putting it mildly. Musgrove no hit the Brewers through 7 2/3 innings until Kolten Wong socked a double off the wall. Corbin Burnes record falls to 3-3 on the season. Game 3 -- Padres 4, Brewers 0 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL202206040.shtml Another day, another shutout. Aaron Ashby took the ball and the mound for the Brewers as the patchwork lineup continued to look for offense. The Brewers were able to get some men on base today, scattering six hits and drawing three walks, but just couldn't scratch any runs across for the second day in a row. With Renfroe, Adames, Brosseau, and Narvaez still on the IL, and Urias being held out, players like Pablo Reyes being pressed into every day action really puts a dent into the offensive capability of the lineup. It's tough when a team's best offensive starters are out, but Brosseau has been one of the Brewers best bench and utility bats. Aaron Ashby pitched well, striking out nine, and walking none. He gave up a short-porch homerun to Jake Cronenworth in the fifth inning that really sealed the deal for the game and the struggling offense. Ashby's record drops to 1-4. Game 4 -- Padres 6, Brewers 4 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401355047 Eric Lauer took the mound for the Brewers in the series finale. Lauer pitched well today, but was saddled with two unearned runs in the fifth inning off of an error by Pablo Reyes. Lauer was given an early lead by the Crew today as Kolten Wong launched a solo home run in the bottom of the first, and that held up til the fifth inning, when the Padres pushed three across, due in part to a fielding gaffe by Reyes. It looked like the Brewers were headed for another miserable offensive day until the bottom of the eighth when Reyes got on board with an infield single and Kolten Wong provided all the offense again with a two run shot off the facade in right field. Brad Boxberger, Devin WIlliams, and Josh Hader pitched the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings in succession without allowing a baserunner, and striking out six batters. In the eighth, it looked like the Brewers might break through and take the lead and somehow secure a series split when Jace Peterson flew out softly to the shortstop with the bases loaded to end the inning. In the tenth, Jake Cronenworth struck again, hitting a three run home run off of Trevor Gott. The Brewers scored once in the bottom of the tenth, but failing to score again, falling for the third time in a row and dropping the season series to the Padres, four games to three. After playing eighteen games in seventeen days, the day off tomorrow comes at a much needed time, and gives an extra day for a few of the key offensive performers to get healthy. The Brewers will still be in first place on Tuesday, and have the roughest part of the schedule behind them. View full article

After taking two out of three in San Diego to start their eleven game road trip, the Brewers stop into St. Louis to battle the second place Cardinals in a four game set. The Brewers come into the series with a 3 1/2 game lead, so this could prove to be a crucial early-season test for the Crew. Game 1, Brewers 4 -- Cardinals 3 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN202205260.shtml The Brewers sent Eric Lauer to the mound to square off against Adam Wainwright and the Cards in the first game of the series. Luis Urias got the scoring started right away for the Brewers, knocking a solo shot to left center with one out to put the Brewers up 1-0. Tyrone Taylor added a two out run scoring single up the middle to continue his hot hitting and give the Brewers a two run first. Eric Lauer struggled with command most of his start, and gave up two runs to the Cards in the first as well. Christian Yelich knocked in a run in the second inning with an RBI single, but Lauer continued to struggle in the bottom half, allowing two singles and a walk, loading the bases before getting out of the jam, getting Harrison Bader to popout. With the Brewers holding on to a 3-2 lead going into the third, and both starters pitch counts running up quickly, it looked like we were going to have a high scoring, back and forth game for the series opener, but things settled down after the second. Andrew McCutchen would knock in a run in the fourth with an RBI single, but that would close out the scoring. Lauer worked through the fifth after a rocky first two innings, walking just one more batter for his final three innings of work. While his final stat-line looked pedestrian by the high standards he's set in this early season, it was good to see him settle down after the ugly first two innings where he was really scuffling to throw strikes and work an almost completely clean three innings through the fifth. The bullpen held things down until the ninth when Josh Hader, freshly returned from family leave came on to nail down the save. Hader uncharacteristically walked a batter and allowed a single, but ultimately worked through the ninth for the save and the series opening win. Eric Lauer is now 5-1 on the season, and Hader is 16 of 16 in save opportunities. Game 2, Cardinals 4 -- Brewers 2 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN202205270.shtml In game two of the series, Brandon Woodruff started, going after his sixth win of the season. The Brewers were getting on base early and often, getting five hits and drawing four walks off of Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson, but failed to cash in any of their early run scoring opportunities. The Crew loaded the bases with one out in the third inning, followed by an inning ending double play by Andrew McCutchen. In the fifth inning, the Brewers had the bases juiced with two outs, and McCutchen again grounded out to end the threat. On the other side of things, Brandon Woodruff was cruising along until a two run home run by Paul Goldschmidt in the third put the Cardinals on the board. Throwing warmups in the bottom of the fifth, Woodruff tweaked his ankle, and came out of the game. He gave up just two hits and a walk, one hit being the homerun to Goldschmidt. Woodruff pitched well, so the hope is that the ankle won't keep him out long. Luis Perdomo again pitched well in relief, going two scoreless and striking out a pair, and lowering his E.R.A to 1.74 on the season. Brent Suter pitched the seventh and eighth inning, giving up a pair of runs, putting the Brewers down 4-0. The Brewers mounted a rally in the ninth. Keston Hiura socked a two run homer to dead center field to pull the Brewers within a pair, before Mike Brosseau and Kolten Wong were retired to end the threat. Woodruff's record dropped to 5-3 with the loss. Game 3, Cardinals 8 -- Brewers 3 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN202205280.shtml Adrian Houser just didn't pitch well today for the Brewers. In four innings, he surrendered nine hits and eight runs, five of them being earned. His defense didn't help him out, but Houser wasn't sharp today. The Cards jumped on Houser for a run in the first, four in the third, and three in the third, with Paul Goldschmidt homering for the third time in three days. After Houser fought to get through four innings, Hoby Milner, Trevor Kelly, and Migael Sanchez finished the back half of the game scoreless, providing a bright spot for the bullpen. The Brewers offense came alive late in the game, with a solo home run by Keston Hiura, his second home run in as many days, and a two run shot by Victor Caratini in the ninth. In the end, it mostly served to make the final look "not quite as bad", but it's good to see Hiura's bat heating up and providing some serious pop. Houser's record drops to 3-5 on the season after taking the loss today. Game 4, Brewers 8 - Cardinals 0 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354947 The Brewers and Corbin Burnes repaid the pounding from the day before with one of their own in the series finale. Burnes was absolutely filthy early, striking out six of the first nine batters, and not allowing a runner on base in the first three innings. Burnes finally allowed a basehit and a walk in the fourth, but snuffed the rally out, and allowed one more base hit in the sixth. On the day, Burnes struck out eleven in seven innings, allowing just two hits and a walk. The Brewers offense helped Burnes out in a big way today, putting eight runs on the board. Omar Narvaez started it out with an RBI double in the second inning, plating Tyrone Taylor. Narvaez had a day, going 3-3, with a double, a triple, a walk, and raising his OPS for the season to a healthy .801. With the Crew hanging on to a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning, the Brewers put a pair of men on base, when Jace Peterson blew the game open. At 4-0, with Burnes on the mound, the Brewers looked like they were in pretty good shape. But the scoring wasn't over. Rowdy Tellez golfed a low inside pitch for his team leading tenth home run of the year. Lorenzo Cain added an infield RBI single in the sixth to make it 6-0 Brewers. On the day, Lorenzo had 3 hits and raised his OPS to .523. Cain's batted ball metrics this season backs up that he hasn't been hitting well. Zero barreled balls, career lows in hard hit percentage and an OPS that had been hovering around the .440 mark for most of the first quarter of the season. With that being said, lets take a look at how the scoring was wrapped up in the four game set today. With the win, Corbin Burnes ups his record to 3-2. WIth the split, the Brewers maintain their 3 1/2 game cushion on the second place Cardinals. After three games in San Diego and four in St. Louis, the Brewers are standing at 4-3 on the road trip, with four games remaining in Chicago against the Cubs. View full article

Jose Altuve is like 5'7" As previously mentioned, Luis Urias is 5'9" Mookie Betts is 5'9" etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Secondly, we're seeing mentioned that great players get picked later in the draft. Yes. But if they're available later in the draft, it's because at this stage of their development (either high school or a few years of college), we don't have enough information to see that future greatness. Nobody knew Corbin Burnes was a future Cy Young winner or he wouldn't have been available in the fourth round. Nobody knew Mike Piazza was even going to make a dent in a 40 man roster some day, or he wouldn't have hung around until, I believe, the 35th round, let alone end up a HOFer. Yes, there are great players that come from the late first round, the 2nd round, the 4th round, and the 11th round, but we don't know those guys are going to be great, or they'd be picked 8th, instead of in the 8th round. The MLB draft is way more of a crapshoot than any other sport (by far!) because of the amount of development these guys still have to go through to reach a point where they're going to contribute to the major league clubs. One can just keep saying "they need to pick a great player with the 27th pick", but repeating it over and over doesn't mean that the guy that ends up being there is going to be a known quantity, or will even sniff a 40 man roster some day. This is a super inexact science.

So, possibly one of the best players in the history of baseball is who we should be looking for at the end of the first round.

the only reason I had a hard time with the "this only counts as one loss" mantra was because Peralta left with an injury. hopefully it's minor and it's all a moot point.

the only reason I had a hard time with the "this only counts as one loss" mantra was because Peralta left with an injury. hopefully it's minor and it's all a moot point.

The Brewers come into a weekend set at AmFam field with the Nationals before heading out onto the road for an eleven game trip. The Brewers will send Eric Lauer, Brandon Woodruff, and Freddy Peralta to the mound in the three game series as the Crew looks to extend the four game lead they currently hold over the second place St. Louis Cardinals. Game 1 -- Brewers 7, Nationals 0 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL202205200.shtml Eric Lauer tossed yet another gem, going seven strong shutout innings, striking out five, scattering five hits, and walking none. Lauer worked efficiently, using just 83 pitches to get through seven. Nationals starter Erick Fedde worked through five scoreless as well, pitching into the sixth, until the Brewers finally struck for a pair of runs. Rowdy Tellez's eighth home run of the season put the Brewers up 2-0, which would be all the lead the Crew needed. Tyrone Taylor would add his second home run of the season in the eighth inning, a three-run shot, as the Brewers put a five-spot on the board. Devin Williams and Aaron Ashby pitched the eighth and ninth innings to finish the game for Lauer, who picked up the win and pushed his record to 4-1, lowering his E.R.A to 2.16 on the season. Lauer makes a strong case each start for "ace" status. He's cut his walk rate almost in half while seeing a significant jump in strikeout rate. The Lauer/Urias for Grisham/Davies trade can and will be dissected and debated further, but in 2022, the Brewers are seeing the better end of it so far. Game 2 - Brewers 5, Nationals 1 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL202205210.shtml The Brewers looked to break through against lefty starter Patrick Corbin, while Brandon Woodruff put together a pair of solid back-to-back starts for the Crew. Woodruff delivered, going six innings and allowing just one run on five hits and no walks. Unlike yesterday's game, the Brewers did not wait long to get the offense going. On the first pitch of the bottom of the first, Andrew McCutchen put the Brewers on the board. The Brewers tallied again in the first on a sacrifice fly by Hunter Renfroe. The Nationals struck back with a solo home run by Lane Thomas in the third, but that would be all Nat's offense would muster in this contest. The Brewers would put three on the board in the fifth, first with a solo home run by Luis Urias and with two outs, a two-run single by Keston Huira. Hiura has quietly pushed his line back up to a respectable .244/.333/.444 on the season for a .778 OPS. He's still striking out at a high rate, but if he's carrying an OPS around .775 - .800, the team must be willing to live with the lack of contact. He's handling first base adequately, and if he can fill in second base from time to time and spell McCutchen at DH, there's a role on the team for his power bat. After Woodruff worked through six innings, Trevor Gott and Brad Boxberger worked the seventh and eighth inning without incident. Hoby Milner came in to start the ninth. Josh Hader recorded the last out to rack up his fifteenth save after allowing two singles and getting the second out of the inning on a tapper back to the mound. Despite the uneven results experienced in the early season, today's victory moves Woodruff's record to 5-2. Game 3 - Nationals 8, Brewers 2 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354858 Freddy Peralta starts for the Brewers today. Mike Brosseau was given his first career MLB start at shortstop. He misplayed at least two balls and booted another, leading to multiple extra runners for Peralta early. Brosseau has done well with the bat off the bench and played a decent third base, but he looked completely out of place at short today. The Nationals tallied once in the second and third innings but seemed to be doing so on soft contact and fielding miscues. Going into the fourth, the first three batters reached base, and Peralta was pulled for what appeared to be a shoulder injury. This was later reported as "shoulder stiffness" and is concerning, so Brewer management (and fans) will wait to see what examination reveals Monday or later. The Nationals strung together seven straight base hits and scored six runs in the fourth, increasing the lead to 8-0 before Brent Suter could get out of the inning. The Brewers gave fans a brief glimmer of hope in the bottom of the fifth inning. Tyrone Taylor hit a solo home run to center. The Crew then loaded the bases with just one out. Andrew McCutchen grounded into a fielder's choice to drive in a second run, putting men on the corners with two outs, before Christian Yelich was retired to end the brief rally with a fly out to the warning track in deepest center field. The Brewers would threaten a few more times but grounded into three double plays on the day. The scoring would prove to be finished at 8-2, and the Brewers dropped the finale to the Nats and lost their starting pitcher. Peralta took the loss, dropping to 3-2 on the season. A minor bright spot on the day was Luis Perdomo pitching three quick scoreless innings in relief and soaking up some innings while hopefully proving he's capable of being a viable blowout time option for the bullpen. The Brewers take the series with the Nationals and head out on a three-city, eleven-game road trip, traveling first to San Diego. ETA: Per Lane Grindel on the post-game radio -- Freddy Peralta has been placed on 10-day IL as a precautionary measure. View full article

The Brewers conclude a three city road-trip with a three game set in Miami against the Marlins. After dropping two of three in both Atlanta and Cincinnati, the Crew look to rebound here and head home on a positive note. The Brewers kick off the series still holding a 3.5 game lead on the division rival Cardinals. Game 1 -- Brewers 2, Marlins 1 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354727 Corbin Burnes continued his streak of dominant starts for the Brewers in the early going of the 2022 campaign tonight against the Marlins. Seven innings, seven punch-outs, no walks, and again only one run allowed on a solo home run in the third inning. Burnes getting through seven complete today is a nice pick up for a bullpen that's been working extra innings over the last week-plus with some short starts. The Brewers jumped on the board in the first inning on a Kolten Wong lead-off home run. After a rocky start to the season at the plate, Wong has righted the ship, and has quietly put up some solid numbers recently, including a .942 OPS over the last fourteen days. Wong's defense remains a question mark. A -0.3 Bref dWAR at this point in the season is certainly uncharacteristic, and certainly when the Brewers signed Wong, a big part of the value in his signing was the defense. We'll see if he can tame that glove and get the defense turned around along with the bat. With former Brewer Jesus Aguilar tying the game with a solo home run in the third inning, the score stayed 1-1 until the ninth inning. Burnes gave way to lightning rod reliever Devin Williams, who worked a clean eighth inning, striking out two. The Brewers put one on the board in the ninth with a bases loaded walk by Jace Peterson to retake the lead. It looked like a further opportunity squandered as they scored just once after having the sacks loaded with nobody out. It was all academic however, as closer Josh Hader came in and finished the game on seven pitches and the Brewers took game one. Burnes didn't get the win, leaving his record on the season just 1-2, but more importantly, the Brewers did get the win in a game he started. Hader recorded his thirteenth save in as many tries. Game 2 -- Marlins 9, Brewers 3 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354742 Eric Lauer took the bump for the Brewers tonight and suffered the rare rough start as the Marlins touched him up for three home runs in the fourth inning. The Brewers once again jumped on the board first with a solo home run by Willy Adames in the first inning, but that would be all the offense they'd muster until the game was out of reach. Lauer worked scoreless through the first three innings, allowing just one base runner on a single. Holding a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, he surrendered home runs to Jesus Aguilar, Jorge Soler, and Brian Anderson, and left the inning down 4-1. It's now the second game in a row former Brewers all-star Aguilar has taken one out of the park against his former team. Trevor Gott came on in the sixth and failed to record an out as the Marlins tacked on another four-spot off of both Gott and Jandel Gustave. The Brewers got two back in the eighth inning on Hunter Renfroe's ninth home run of the year, a 428 foot shot to left. That was the end of the scoring for the Brewers Renfroe now has nine home runs and fifteen RBI on the season. https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354757 Game 3 -- Brandon Woodruff gets the start in the series finale and the Brewers look to get back to Milwaukee with a semi-respectable 4-5 road trip. The Brewers scored in the first again, just like each of the first two games of the series, this time on a Luis Urias sacrifice fly. The Marlins got two unearned runs off of Woodruff in the second inning, and struck again with a Jorge Soler solo home run in the third. Down 3-1, the Brewers looked to be headed towards a third straight series defeat. Then in the top of the fifth the bats came alive. Jace Peterson and Kolten Wong hit back-to-back solo home runs. Four batters later, a two-run, two out single by Rowdy Tellez put the Brewers up 5-3. Woodruff pitched through five innings and handed the ball over to Aaron Ashby who pitched brilliant in relief. Ashby went four innings, striking out eight, and not allowing a hit or a walk, picking up the save. Tellez picked up his eighth home run of the season in the seventh inning, and Luis Urias closed the scoring with an RBI single in the eighth. Willy Adames left the game in the second inning after tweaking an ankle. It was mentioned on the radio broadcast that he would be listed as day-to-day. It seems reasonable that the Brewers will give a more comprehensive status update on Adames on Monday, and hopefully any news that comes out about his injury won't include any kind of lengthy IL stay. Despite the rocky and inconsistent play, the Brewers head home with a 4-5 record on the road trip, and as of this writing, still holding a three game advantage over second-place St. Louis, who plays later tonight at San Francisco. View full article

called it. rowdy is player of the week.

called it. rowdy is player of the week.

Friday I watched - The Gentlemen. I feel as though we've come to expect a certain *type* of film from Guy Ritchie. There's certain beats. There's a rhythm, and tenor to his films. There's familiar plot twists (or so you think) and even though it's familiar, it still feels well done. The dialogue is always so extremely well done that I never feel like I'm waiting for the next scene to get here. I never feel like I'm in a Tarantino movie, impatient for the exposition to end so I can actually feel the story start to move forward. Matt McConaghey was superb in this one. The twist was reasonably predictable, as Guy Ritchie twists are wont to be, but that doesn't make the movie any less good for that. Went to see Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness friday night. Gotta watch how I review this, as I want to keep it spoiler free. First off, it was good. It wasn't great, but it was good. There's a lot of reviewers calling this a "horror" film, and I'm going to say this. I don't know what kind of horror films these people are watching, but this isn't a horror movie. There's a few jump scares, and a few things that I'd call *creepy*, but I never got the feeling that this was anything even close to resembling a horror film. There's some psychological drama, but again, not horror. There's a few cool easter eggs splashed throughout, and the action sequences are (it almost goes without saying for a Marvel film) over the top fantastic. I have one gripe, and I'll be as careful as I can without throwing spoilers in here. I feel as though every single show and movie since Endgame has directly or indirectly been about dealing with the fallout of "The Snap". At *some point* the MCU has to move on from that event (I know it was huge! Half the universe was wiped out!), and start writing stories that aren't dealing with the consequences of that event. I think it's great that the shared universe of all these stories have very real effects on each other and that the writers haven't created planet-sized plot holes in each others' stories, but at some point, I think the "Because Thanos" storyline has to be left in the dust. (In my opinion, of course) That gripe aside, it was entertaining as heck, and it's an absolute "go see in a theater" movie.

The Brewers head to Atlanta to rematch the Braves, who knocked them out in the NLDS last season. At 18-8, the red hot Crew hold first place in the NL Central while the Braves at 12 - 15 are hanging out in fourth place in the NL East. Getting third baseman and super utility man Luis Urias back was a boost for the Brewers bats, and they’ll look to continue the hot hitting in Atlanta. Game 1 – Brewers 6, Braves 3 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354633 The Brewers sent freshly minted ace Eric Lauer to the mound to square off against Jesse Chavez and the Braves. Continuing recent trends, the Crew struck early, scoring two on a double by white-hot Rowdy Tellez in the first inning. Over the last seven days, Tellez has carried a sizzling 1.562 OPS with four homeruns and 15 RBI. Player of the week incoming in 3, 2, 1… Lauer continued his recent streak of stellar pitching, holding the Braves down for 6 ⅓ innings, allowing just two runs on two hits. Lauer didn’t reach the ten strikeout plateau for a third straight start, but he did strike out eight, walking three. On the negative side for the lefty hurler, he did give up an mammoth solo homerun measured at 450 feet to Ronald Acuna Junior in the fourth inning, but limited the damage beyond that to an RBI sacrifice fly. With the score knotted at two, the Brewers struck for four runs in the sixth the unconventional way (for them) with no homeruns. An RBI groundout by Lorenzo Cain, a bases loaded walk by Willy Adames, and a two run single from Christian Yelich gave the Brewers a four run lead heading into the late innings. Jandel Gustave surrendered a solo home run to Dansby Swanson in the eighth, but Josh Hader came on in the ninth inning to nail down the save and remains a perfect eleven for eleven in save opportunities. Hader retired the side in order to preserve Lauer's win, moving him to 3-0 on the season. Game 2 – Braves 3, Brewers 2 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354648 In game two, the Brewers put Corbin Burnes on the mound against Max Fried. Fried has been tough on the Brewers in three career starts. In 14 career innings against the Crew, Fried has a 2.57 ERA, allowing just 9 hits and no home runs. Both aces worked through the first four innings relatively quickly. In the fifth inning the Braves broke through on Burnes first, with Ronald Acuna Jr. smashing his second home run in two days, putting the Braves on top 1 - 0. The Braves tallied again in the bottom of the sixth on an Ozzie Albies single pushing the lead to two. Overall, Burnes pitched well again, going six, striking out seven, scattering six hits and a walk. The Brewers put one back on the board with a home run by Hunter Renfroe, number six on the season, in the seventh inning. With the Brewers within a run, skipper Craig Counsell turned to freshly called up bullpen arm Luis Perdomo to work the next two innings. Perdomo gave up a run in the bottom of the eighth on a Travis d’Arnaud single, giving the Braves a 3-1 advantage moving into the ninth inning. Counsell will surely be questioned for his use of Perdomo for two innings in a one run game. It’s a fair question to ask. The answer or answers certainly won’t be black and white. Josh Hader, Devin Williams, Trevor Gott, Brad Boxberger, and Hoby Milner all have ten or more appearances early in the season and the team is less than thirty games in. It’s also important to remember they’re working with a short spring training schedule and there’s fewer days off worked into the schedule, and that’s going to have an impact on how managers use their bullpens throughout the season. It's going to be interesting to see how these dynamics play out over the course of the full season, and how managers and general managers handle both their bullpen usage and roster management throughout the full course of 162 games. In the ninth, Christian Yelich doubled and scored on a Tyrone Taylor single, pulling the Crew within a run. The rally was snuffed out on a strike out-throw out double play when Rowdy Tellez struck out and Taylor was caught stealing to end the game. Burnes' ERA stands at a stellar 1.86 ERA after six starts, but he's standing on a 1-2 record right now. Through those six starts the Brewers offense is averaging 2.89 runs per game. Of course run support is random, and not a skill or anything a pitcher can influence, but with Burnes continuing to pitch so effectively, and averaging over six innings per start, the team and Counsell have to find ways to put themselves into position to win those close contests more consistently. The win-loss record of the pitcher doesn't matter nearly as much as the team getting the W, and the Brewers are 2-4 in Burnes' starts. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=burneco01&year=2022&t=p#all_rs Game 3 – Braves 9, Brewers 2 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354663 Aaron Ashby took the mound for the Brewers in the rubber match against the venerable Charlie Morton. Problems with control plagued Ashby in his start today, to go along with several softly hit balls falling in or finding holes in the second inning that produced a four run rally for the Braves that put the Brewers behind a big number early. The Brewers threatened a big inning in the top of the second, with two walks sandwiched around a Tyrone Taylor single, but a Lorenzo Cain strikeout, followed by a Jace Peterson fly out to center snuffed out the early rally. The Braves loaded the bases in the bottom of the second with one out, but didn't fail to capitalize like the Brewers did. A bases loaded walk, followed by an RBI ground out brought two runs in. Matt Olson blooped a shallow fly to left that managed to find a hole for a double and bring two more runs in. Nothing in the inning was hard hit, but Ashby struggled to find the plate, walking two, and free runners on base when the bloops and bleeders found those holes put the Crew in a 4-0 hole. The Brewers put two more runners on base with one out in the third, and again failed to move runners around to score. Solo tallies in the third and fourth would finish Ashby's day. The Braves tacked on a three run home run by William Contreras off of Jandel Gustave in the fifth inning, putting the Brewers in a massive 9-0 hole. There was to be no Mother's Day magic this day however. The Crew scored twice in the eighth inning, with Mike Brosseau knocking in a run with an RBI single and a run scoring when Christian Yelich grounded into a double play. Unfortunately, that was all the scoring the Brewers would muster today as they dropped the series to the Braves and drop to 19-10 on the season. The Brewers move on to Cincinnati in the middle stop of a three city trip starting Monday night with Brandon Woodruff on the mound. The Reds are hanging out at the very bottom of the standings at 4-23, so hopefully a trip to Cincinnati can reignite the bats and end the short two game skid. View full article

Bauer also harrassed a college age girl on Twitter for 72 hours because she said he was her "least favorite athlete" to the point she was getting death threats from his followers. like adambr said, there's almost certainly past behavior at play when MLB made their decision.

There are pictures of the women he beat into unconsciousness easy enough to find on the web, and he freely admits doing it, and the face of the one woman clearly exhibits quite a bit of physical damage. I won't re-post those pictures on this site.

Brewers break out the sticks in weekend tilt vs. Cubbies. Yelich and Renfroe lead the charge to nine home runs. Game 1 -- Brewers 11, Cubs 1 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354539 Do you want home runs? We have your home runs. Six, to be exact. The Brewers launched six big flys against the Cubs in the series opener, including two by Hunter Renfroe. The Crew had a comfortable 4-0 lead with Adrian Houser cruising again and Jace Peterson and Andrew McCutchen both hitting home runs in the early going when Christian Yelich came to the plate in the fifth inning. 447 feet. That's a bomb. The Brewers continued to pour it on, with the two aforementioned home runs by Renfroe and a blast by Willy Adames in the eighth to close out the scoring for the Brewers. With Houser pitching six scoreless, it was all over but for the bullpen to manage three innings and for the Wrigleyville faithful to run that L up the pole on the North Side. https://twitter.com/Brewers/status/1520244138297688065?s=20&t=S3QRh8-ldXbNHJtQr-ny9w Game 2 -- Brewers 9, Cubs 1 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354554 Eric Lauer continues to make his case that he's another in the pack of aces in the Brewers rotation. Lauer struck out eleven in seven innings, giving up one run on a solo home run and lowering his season ERA to just 1.93. On the other side of the coin, the Brewers' offense continued the run-scoring onslaught from the day before, scoring three runs in the first and pounding three more home runs, bringing their two-day total to nine. Home runs from Rowdy Tellez, Hunter Renfroe, and Christian Yelich powered the Crew. Yelich and Renfroe went back to back in the eighth, Yelich knocking one just over the wall in dead center field. Yelich had many of these teaser moments last season, where many fans and pundits alike thought, "ok, maybe this is it! Maybe he's back! Maybe he's heating up!" It feels like he's hitting the ball with authority, lifting it, and the deeper numbers suggest this is the case. His launch angle, barrels, and hard-hit percentage suggest that he's hitting more authoritatively recently, and if this is a trend and not just a short tease, Brewer fans would certainly breathe a massive sigh of relief. Getting a productive bat back into the middle of the order would be a huge boost for what has been a run-starved lineup for large parts of the season. https://www.fangraphs.com/players/christian-yelich/11477/stats?position=OF#statcast After an eleven-run and nine-run outburst, the Brewers hang just above the league average of 4.15 runs per game, at 4.27. It's still early, and even a few big games can swing the average a lot, Game 3 -- Cubs 2, Brewers 0 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354569 The Brewers and Corbin Burnes went up against Marcus Stroman, and while asking the offense to be average, ten runs per game for a three-game stretch might be asking a lot; getting Corbin Burnes some run support shouldn't be. Burnes was brilliant (again), but he needed to be perfect today. Going seven innings and striking out ten for his third start in a row, Burnes gave up single tallies in the fifth and sixth innings; that would be all the Cubs needed. As good as Burnes was, his counterpart Marcus Stroman was just as brilliant today, holding the Brewers scoreless on two hits through seven innings. The Brewers couldn't break through against the Cubs' bullpen and fell to the Cubs in the series finale. Josh Hader had been used a lot (ten appearances) through the first nineteen games, so a three-game stretch where he's not used at all is a nice rest for his arm and will save some of those innings for later in the season and hopefully, the playoffs. Winning any series from a division rival is a big get, and blowing out the Cubs twice in a row in Miller Park......er, American Family Field, feels doubly nice. Losing the finale with a whimper and wasting an excellent start by Corbin Burnes leaves that feeling of wanting more. Next up, the Brewers get a day off on Monday, followed by a three-game set against the Reds at Miller Park......er, American Family Field. View full article

We already got one character guy in this draft. I think there's actually a team rule about taking two guys with character concerns.