DuWayne Steurer

Ok......well, yeah this sucks but they still have a good, a really good rotation, especially if Woody keeps finding that groove he's had the last few starts. Sounds like Ashby or Small or someone else is just going to have to step up sooner rather than later. Next guy up.

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.

small is ready to face big league hitters. or at least fail trying.

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. Image courtesy of © MARK HOFFMAN/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL / USA TODAY NETWORK 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

And for all that, I'd consider Atlanta a "better" team than Arizona, despite the records those two teams have.

Arizona is .500. I guess it's semantics on whether a team is "over" .500 or .500.

If the Brewers weren't at least a "good" team, they wouldn't be 24 - 11 against teams below .500. If the Brewers were a mediocre team they'd be mediocre. The NL is super top heavy this year. The Dodgers, Mets, Brewers, Padres, Giants, and ......maybe the Cardinals. Maybe the Braves, but they better get their butts in gear. Everyone else is just fodder. That doesn't mean these other teams aren't trying to win games, it just means they aren't very good.

The Padres are 4-4 vs teams over .500. On top of that, the entirety of their run differential comes from their 6-0 record against the Reds. Using this data, I've concluded the Padres aren't good. At least not yet.

Gettin' our butts kicked

Cain's offense is beyond putrid. Nobody is trying to argue different. He's got a 0.4 Bref dWar. He's at a 0.0 WAR right now, so he's a replacement level player. He shouldn't be playing every day, but he's got some utility if he's used properly. Also, because we don't have another CF on the roster (or even the entire franchise) who's likely to hit until Taylor figures things out, Cain's defense means we're kinda stuck with what we have until a trade is made. SS, 2B, CF are positions that we really shouldn't be seeing guys come up and learn on the fly. I'm glad Stearns is a GM who places higher value than the previous regime on defense. I don't ever want to see a high-value game with someone like Mark Kotsay in CF, literally ever again.

If you IL Cain, you leave only Taylor on the team for CF's. Turang has only played 5 games in CF. Brosseau is displaying today why we don't want guys playing out of position.

This is why you can't just look at a guy who's played a handful of games in his minor league career at a position (or however many number) and plug him into the major league roster at that position. No matter how starved for offense you might be at a certain position, defense still matters, and quite a bit.

Third base will improve as Urias takes up more of those at bats as the season wears on. I'm not going to automatically say center field will improve, because none of us knows what's going to happen with Cain, Taylor, or a trade. I *expect* center field to improve, but I'm holding off on definitively declaring it until something happens. Other than that, every position group is top-half or better, and we have a lot of groups in the top 10 (whaaaaaaat?). Niiiiiiice.

Wiemer hasn't played 40 games at AA yet. The Brewers aren't going to push him that aggressively. Other than a few cases (Braun, for one), they just don't push guys through the system that fast. Unless or until the Brewers start losing games because of the CF production, the need isn't there to rush Wiemer. Let him develop at the pace that management feels is proper. We still have Taylor, there's plenty of trades to explore, and honestly, I'd rather see them try any number of things before rushing a guy who hasn't played a third of a season at AA to the bigs.

Let's be clear here. Milner didn't "not get out of the inning". He was pulled so Hader could get a save. The tying run was still only in the on deck circle. The Brewers have made it clear they'll get Hader his saves when the opportunity is there to get them.

Milner has a 1.00 WHIP coming into tonight. I don't believe there's an "uncomfortably" high risk he'll put 3 guys on base. Is there always a chance it can happen? Sure. Is it unattractively high? No.

I don't care about the terminology. I used it wrong as well. I'm arguing the actual usage of the guy. Milner has been fine this year in middle relief. He didn't have a great outing tonight. NBD. He's been fine for the most part. You can't just use Williams, Box, and Hader every single night. You have to trust these guys, and sometimes, they're gonna give up hits. Conversely, we can't afford a bullpen full of Josh Haders. We're gonna have a few Trevor Gotts and Hoby Milners. We're fine! We're 26 - 14, and Milner and Gott have filled their roles pretty well.

Milner is one of the middle of the pen guys. Right there with Gott and Gustave probably.

Really? He's 2nd on the team in appearances. He's not a fireman. But he's being used quite a bit. Perdomo and Urena and Mejia are back of the bullpen. Milner is pretty much "just a guy".

I don't think Hoby Milner is exactly a back end reliever.

McCutchen increased his line from a .629 to a .692 OPS with his 3 hit night.

I think the only reason Cain's still finding himself on the roster is the lack of a decent defensive option for CF. Taylor is 'meh' in CF, and he hasn't hit much yet either. Nobody else on the team is a CF, and if Cain were to (somehow) even get his OPS up around .600-ish, he's worth more than Taylor.

Ueck's comparing him on the radio to Altuve. I'll take that as a comp. Without the cheating. ?