DuWayne Steurer

Celtics Twitter is not a fan of Marcus Smart right now.

Smart pinwheeling for 7 steps after Holiday stole the ball (with NO contact) at the very end of the game is just hilarious. Dude, he didn't even touch you. There's no contact. Watching elite athletes do stuff like that is just straight cringe.

I don't like him at all. Him and Brown are up with Lebron for floppiest floppers of the year.

We're just taking that one back that we blew in game 4.

They played poorly in the 2nd quarter, and then played bucket for bucket until about the last 4 minutes of the game. Boston's not clearly superior. It would help if the Bucks could get a consistent third scorer with Midds out. FOr some reason I keep thinking Lopez will step up and be that guy but he's not doing it.

Jrue has some stinkers on offense from time to time but he brings the defensive intensity all the time. He's one of the best defensive guards in the game.

It's definitely debatable.

2/20

Right? It's almost like professional ballplayers know there's an ebb and flow to a 162 game season, and don't let the emotional low of a bad loss get them too down.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2022-starter-pitching.shtml The Brewers are at 5.3 IP per game started The Dodgers are at 5.3 IP per game started. I wonder if the Dodgers have world series aspirations? THe league leaders, the Padres, are at 5.6 IP per game started, so their starters average exactly one more out than Brewers starters, per start.

The league average IP per game started is 5.0 The Brewers are at 5.3 IP per game started. This is the new reality for MLB. Not just the Brewers, but for everyone.

Giannis and Holiday shot 18 - 53, the rest of the team shot 20 - 40.

53 shots for Giannis and Holiday to score 48 points. That's atrocious. Not having MIddleton hurts, obviuosly, but someone else needs to be a decent scoring option with Middleton out.

Getting annihilated by Al Horford (again).

Allen's -10

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. Image courtesy of © Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports 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

I don't know who else is listening to the radio, but Lane Grindel with this Josh whatever-his-last-name-is is a seriously bad radio team. Like, really bad.

Lane Grindel said that inning was a positive because they made Morton throw a lot of pitches.

Adames is hitting like we thought and knew he could. Yelich is hitting better, and a deeper dive into the data and numbers suggests he could hopefully be an .800-ish OPS guy the rest of the year going forward. If we get that, I think everyone would at least be satisfied. Not ecstatic, but satisfied. Hunter Renfroe is going to be what he is, a low on base blunt force object that hits about 30 dingers and a fair amount of doubles. Is Rowdy a .950 OPS masher? Probably not. What's encouraging is that for the majority of his 1000 or so MLB plate appearances, he has almost completely neutral splits, so as long as he doesn't fall off a cliff, we're going to be ok at 1B. Urias looks good. Wong's been hitting better the last two weeks. The area of concern is obviously CF. Let's see what happens there, but overall, I think we're ok almost all the way around the field.

Also fair. A .700 - .750 OPS 2nd baseman (which I hope Wong will still be this year) if he's playing great, gold glove level defense isn't a problem at all. If he's hovering .675 -ish and playing, frankly, sub-par defense, he's hurting the team. Lots of season for him to turn it around, but the defense is a lot more alarming than the offense. Offense goes through a lot of ebb and flow/ups and downs. Defensively, he just hasn't looked good, and that is (usually) something that should be counted on to be a lot more steady.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=wongko01&year=2022&t=b .837 OPS the last 14 days. He's been heating up recently.