DuWayne Steurer

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I'm not upset. just meh. Not disappointed. Just underwhelmed. But we shall see!

I'm definitely not whelmed by this pick. One might say I'm a little underwhelmed.

His "rough outing". Counsell hung him out to dry. Do I want to see Alexander on the team? No, but Counsell has just been leaving guys in way too long lately/this season.

The Brewers close out the first half of the season with a four game set at the Giants. After dropping a series to the Pirates and splitting a pair with the Twins, the Crew look to head into the break on a high note and hang on to first place in the National League central division. Image courtesy of © Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports The Brewers close out the first half of the season with a four game set at the Giants. After dropping a series to the Pirates and splitting a pair with the Twins, the Crew look to head into the break on a high note and hang on to first place in the National League central division. Game 1 -- Brewers 3, Giants 2 (10) https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN202207140.shtml Corbin Burnes took the hill for the Brewers and threw 7 1/3 innings, throwing a season high 115 pitches, and topping 100 pitches for the sixth time in the last seven games. Burnes wasn't super sharp tonight, walking three, but minimized the damage, allowing only four hits and two runs in the third inning. One of the runs was unearned, resulting from an earlier Victor Caratini passed ball. Run support was at a minimum for Burnes again tonight, as the Brewers offense struggled to scratch across runs. The Brewers loaded the bases in the fourth with one out, but managed just one run on an Andrew McCutchen sacrifice fly. WIth the Giants holding on to a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning, Willy Adames roped an RBI single to knot the game at two. With two men on and only one out, again the Brewers could muster no further offense the rest of the inning. The game stayed 2-2 until the tenth inning, when Jonathan Davis came up with Christian Yelich stationed at third base and tapped a slow roller down the third base line that died on the grass and drove in Yelich. In the bottom of the frame, Devin Williams protected the lead with a three up three down inning and leaving the Giants ghost runner stranded at third. Trevor Gott struck out two batters in the ninth to pick up the win and get to 2-2, and Williams gets the save, his sixth on the year. Game 2 -- Giants 8, Brewers 5 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN202207150.shtml Brandon Woodruff started and really worked to get through 5 2/3 innings tonight. Woodruff threw 112 pitches in less than six innings, and at times it looked like four innings was all manager Craig Counsell was going to be able to tease out of his starter. This was the first start since Woodruff has come back from the IL that he's really showed command issues, but he battled through and gave the team almost six innings of two run baseball. The Brewers trailed by two until the fifth, when a defensive blunder by LaMonte Wade Jr with two outs extended the inning. Two batters later, a bases clearing double by Andrew McCutchen gave the Brewers their first lead of the game. A bases loaded walk to Luis Urias ended the scoring and the Brewers were up 5-2. The Brewers entered the ninth inning up by that same score and closer Josh Hader coming in. Seven batters, three home runs, and six runs later, the Giants were walking off an 8-5 win, and the Brewers and their fans are left wondering what's going on with the all star closer who was all but unhittable for the first 2 1/2 months of the season. Hader's E.R.A. has risen to an unsightly 4.50, and he's surrendering home runs at an alarming rate. The Brewers and Hader will have to figure it out, and hopefully soon, as the team's dwindling playoff odds definitely hinge to a degree on their massively successful closer. Hader's loss drops him to 0-4. Game 3 -- Giants 2, Brewers 1 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN202207160.shtml The Balk Game. That's what this game is going to be known as from now on. If the Brewers turn things around and win the division walking away, this one probably just recedes into nothing, and gets forgotten. If the Brewers lose the division by a game, it could be one of those "that was a pivotal turning point" games that gets talked about (along with the walk off grand slam from the day before) for at least a few years to come. Brewers starter Eric Lauer and Giants hurler Alex Cobb treated fans to a magnificent pitchers duel for seven-plus innings, with Lauer giving up two hits and one run on a solo homerun, and Cobb surrendering just one run on a double and a sacrifice fly. Lauer went seven innings, and Cobb went 7 1/3, and then the game was turned over to the respective bullpens. The Brewers had an opportunity in the eighth inning to do more but with Jonathan Davis on second base and one out, the inning ended with a strikeout-throw out double play as Davis was caught stealing third base by plenty. In the bottom of the eighth, Brewers skipper Craig Counsell turned to Brent Suter to hold down the Giants, due to the majority of the Giants bench bats being left handed. With two outs and two on, Counsell handed the ball to Jandel Gustave, who hit Evan Longoria to load the bases. WIth Mike Yastremski up, the home plate umpire called a balk as Gustave appeared to step off to get a new sign, and give the Giants the lead run in what had been a 1-1 game. Decide for yourself. The Brewers got a runner to second base with nobody out in the ninth, but couldn't bring him around, and lose 2-1. Brent Suter gets saddled with the unfortunate loss and is 1-3 on the season. Game 4 -- Giants 9, Brewers 5 https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401355608 The final score presented here is one of those "it wasn't that close" scores. The Giants got a run off of opener Aaron Ashby in the first, a run off of him in the second, and then knocked around Jason Alexander for seven runs in five innings, building up a 9-1 lead. The Brewers opened the scoring today with a Willy Adames homerun in the first, his 19th, but that was, unfortunately, not a portent of things to come, as the Giants scored nine unanswered runs before the Brewers tallied two in the seventh and two in the eighth. The slumping Rowdy Tellez was able to sock his 18th homerun late in the game, and the Brewers have to hope that can be a jump start for his offense after the break. Tellez has put up just a .429 OPS the last two weeks, and for the last month is hitting just .157, with most of his .705 OPS coming from the streak of ten straight extra base hits he strung together recently. Connor Sadzeck made his season debut for the Crew, throwing two scoreless innings at the tail end of the game. Sadzeck pitched well for the Nashville squad this season, and appears in the majors for the first time since 2019. Aaron Ashby takes the loss for his one inning of work, and his record drops to 2-7. The Brewers head into the All Star Break at 50-43, holding on to a slim 1/2 game margin on the St. Louis Cardinals in the central division. View full article

Despite his recent struggles, unless he's got an actual physical injury that's hindering him, I think he's still going to get quite a haul.

On a Brewers fansite, you're going to find more apologists, homers, and people who try to be hopeful about a season than not. That's generally how it goes.

Aaron Ashby LHP 2-6, 4.37 ERA, 81 SO Logan Webb RHP 8-3, 2.82 ERA, 96 SO MIL Lineup SF Lineup Christian Yelich (L) LF Willy Adames (R) SS Rowdy Tellez (L) 1B Andrew McCutchen (R) DH Kolten Wong (L) 2B Jace Peterson (L) 3B Hunter Renfroe (R) RF Omar Narvaez (L) C Jonathan Davis (R) CF Austin Slater (R) CF Yermin Mercedes (R) DH Wilmer Flores (R) 2B Evan Longoria (R) 3B Joc Pederson (L) LF Thairo Estrada (R) SS Mike Yastrzemski (L) RF Joey Bart (R) C LaMonte Wade Jr. (L) 1B

My thing with coming out of the dugout "ass on fire" is this (Long-ish post warning ahead) Craig's always struck me as a thoughtful dude, who puts a fair amount of thought process into what he does, what he says, and he's not the type of guy to respond to a lot of things emotionally. He doesn't strike me as a "trust the gut" type guy who bases things on how he feels, but trusts the data and facts that he has at his disposal. I think those are a good part of the reason he's been a successful manager. I'm glad we have a manager who chooses to be thoughtful in how he reacts and responds to things. Counsell seems like (again..... I could be completely wrong here!) the type of dude that understands that 2-3-4 times a night, an umpire gets a close play, or a judgement call wrong, and instead of going and acting like a childish man baby and throwing hats and kicking dirt and screaming at someone, he (usually) reacts in a pretty calm manner. Do more umpires respect Counsell because of this? I honestly don't know. I have no idea. If I was an umpire, I'd have more respect for a guy like Counsell that someone like Tony LaRussa or the like. I'm sure there are those who think that the umps just abuse us because he "lets it go". I honestly doubt that to be the case. But, none of us know what actually goes on.... unless they have a mic'd up special that comes out sometime soon. If I were a betting man, I'm sure Counsell's feeling some pressure based on how the team is performing. He's not a fiery "RAH RAH RAH!" guy. Just because he doesn't look pissed about a balk call doesn't mean he's not. I think sometimes we all have a habit of drawing too much conclusion from facial expressions for the 2-3 seconds that the camera hangs on a guy, or what we want to think they should be feeling or not feeling.

I guess (and I said this before) my thought is we don't know what kind of relationship Counsell has with his players. Maybe (and this is obviously a hypothetical thought) that he's got a strong, tight clubhouse and his guys don't feel like he's the type of personality that going out and acting like Lou Piniella, throwing things and yelling and screaming is who he is, and they know that the type of personality he has just isn't "that guy", but who he is works for them. Maybe I'm wrong, but that yelling and screaming and arguing to argue works for some, and not for others. For the record, I was all for Craig coming out and at least asking the ump what the actual heck he saw at that point in time to warrant the call.

I think to call a balk at that point of a game it absolutely needs to be 100% egregious/obvious/blatant. It just......blah. You don't make that call unless the pitcher doesn't give you any other choice.

About the only time you'll ever actually see an overturned decision is when umpires confer as a crew and realize or understand they've misapplied a rule or incorrectly ruled something. They don't just argue with a manager and go "oh yeah, you're right and I was wrong, that ball was TOTALLY fair, my bad!" Umps will defer to the rest of the crew for rules applications and such, but I can't recall an ump ever just changing their mind on a whimsy of an argument. The problem with overturning a balk is that it's entirely a judgement call, and convincing an ump that his judgement was wrong is a fools errand.

They can, but it will have absolutely zero effect. It's basically just a formal way of saying "this sucked and we're mad about it". I don't even know if teams protest anymore.

He wasn't making any kind of motion that (by judgement) should have looked deceptive to the runners. He (appeared) to be trying to get a new sign. Balks are judgement calls, so it's really open to interpretation, and it was just a bad call.

I'm not a big fan of emotional, in the moment responses to things, but if there was ever a moment for Counsell to try to sell a call for tomorrow, that was it. I know the ol "show your guys you'll go to battle for them" mantra, and maybe they already know that, or maybe we don't. None of us know what kind of relationships these dudes have all forged over this season and prior. There's a time and a place for everything, and that was as good a time as any to go out and ask the ump if his lens prescription needs renewing.

Sitting slider and that was predictable.

Nobody gets calls reversed. But LaRussa would have been getting in the umps ear.

I understand the Suter usage, even if I disagree with it. But get out there and argue the balk call. That was terrible.

hard fought 1-1 game for 8 innings just decided by a random dude who's not even playing.

Why

given a gift there. make it count.

Davis doing all the things he is capable of doing. Playing good D, taking walks, and stealing bags.

That was a decent 2 strike swing to just put wood on the ball.

I was thinking "Renfroe isn't super fast lol"