DuWayne Steurer

When I was a kid, I had a fairly strong belief that "prospects" like Billy Jo had statistics in AA and AAA that would translate rather simply to major league success. That being said, I had no idea that "park factor" was a thing, and that certain leagues in the minors were more hitter friendly or anything like that. I saw Billy Jo's stats for El Paso, and was CONVINCED he was going to be the next Don Mattingly, at the *very least*. Needless to say, I, like all Brewers fans, ended up with nothing but disappointment, but that never stopped me from using Billy Jo's mug for my avatar at the old site for like 5-6 years.

When I was a kid, I had a fairly strong belief that "prospects" like Billy Jo had statistics in AA and AAA that would translate rather simply to major league success. That being said, I had no idea that "park factor" was a thing, and that certain leagues in the minors were more hitter friendly or anything like that. I saw Billy Jo's stats for El Paso, and was CONVINCED he was going to be the next Don Mattingly, at the *very least*. Needless to say, I, like all Brewers fans, ended up with nothing but disappointment, but that never stopped me from using Billy Jo's mug for my avatar at the old site for like 5-6 years.

When I was a kid, I had a fairly strong belief that "prospects" like Billy Jo had statistics in AA and AAA that would translate rather simply to major league success. That being said, I had no idea that "park factor" was a thing, and that certain leagues in the minors were more hitter friendly or anything like that. I saw Billy Jo's stats for El Paso, and was CONVINCED he was going to be the next Don Mattingly, at the *very least*. Needless to say, I, like all Brewers fans, ended up with nothing but disappointment, but that never stopped me from using Billy Jo's mug for my avatar at the old site for like 5-6 years.

I think a lot of outlets reported (erroneously) that it was in the new cba. I know I obviously thought so. even so, baseball players take the cake for being the softest babies about the other team playing hard to the end of the game, and that's something that I feel like most people agree can go away any time now.

kapler mentioned rum differental being a factor. guess he was wrong. I still don't have a problem with it.

I get Kapler's point of view. Run differential is a tie breaker at the end of the year. There's a good chance his team will be in the hunt near the end of the season. There's no reason to leave runs off the board just to spare Alcides Escobar's feelings when those runs have a chance, even if it's by percentage a very small chance, of playing a role in his teams playoff chances. Do those odds run against the chances of someone getting hurt? Sure, but again, that's the factors they have to weigh and measure. Also, as I said in my last post, six runs is not at all an insurmountable total to overcome. It's kind of absurd that these teams are pitching a fit about opponents still "trying" in a six run game.

The Bulls are cooked. I figured they'd find a way to steal one in this series, and they did. Good on them. With 2 straight blowouts, Bud's been given a great opportunity to not have to play his starters 40+ to seal this series away. Hopefully, even without Midds, we can go into the Celtics series fresh and ready to go.

That pitch to Segura was easily 6 inches off the inside of the plate. Jean didn't even look mad.... he looked stunned that it was called a strike. Like .... "Seriously Angel? What are you looking at?"

That's the point Schwarber was making. It could have even been a bad call earlier in his at-bat. There's a tweet that I won't re-post here, but he said on the way to the dugout "All night, the whole night, on BOTH sides.... 'expletive expletive". If Hernandez had even come close to calling an "ok" game, I highly doubt this blowup happens. The amount of egregiously bad, blown calls he had tonight is stunning. And it's not like he had a couple "close ones" that could have gone either way, it's seriously questionable based on the evidence on hand if Hernandez was even watching this game, or playing Nintendo Switch.

The Brewers traveled to Philly after sweeping the Pirates and played a three-game set against the Phillies. Image courtesy of Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK The Brewers traveled to Philly after sweeping the Pirates and played a three-game set against the Phillies. Series Recap Brewers/Phillies The Brewers came into the weekend series at Philadelphia to keep the momentum going, having won four games in a row after sweeping the Pirates and still trying to get the offense jump-started. Coming into the series, the Crew is still averaging just 3.53 runs per game and slashing just .205/.289/.338 as a team. Despite the anemic offense, the Brewers arrive at 8-5 and look to win in Philly, where they have struggled recently. Game 1: Phillies 4 - Brewers 2 Freddy Peralta put together an excellent start in his third go-round. He pitched five innings and gave up just one run on only three hits with six punchouts. Pitch count got the best of him, as he reached eighty-nine pitches by the end of the fifth and had to give way to the bullpen. Still, it’s encouraging to see Freddy put together an excellent start with six punchouts and limiting baserunners. Peralta struggled in the first yet again, giving up a run-scoring double to Bryce Harper and walking JT Realmuto, but he popped up Kyle Schwarber to get out of the jam. Peralta cruised through the next four innings, striking out the side in order in the second and only allowing two more baserunners overall. Aaron Ashby came in in the sixth and was called on to pitch multiple innings in relief. He allowed multiple baserunners in the sixth and walked a runner in the seventh. It can be questioned if he should have been brought out for the eighth with just a one-run lead, and after the first three Phillies reached base, Aaron Ashby struck out Schwarber, giving the Brewers the chance to turn a double play and get out of the jam. Craig Counsell turned to Brad Boxberger, who gave up back-to-back singles, and three runs later, the Crew were down two. Boxberger got out of the jam with no further damage, but this is an obvious situation where Devin Williams would be used if not struggling in the early season. Former Brewer Corey Knebel put the Crew down in the top of the ninth to finish the comeback for the Phils and end the Brewers' four-game winning streak. Game 2: Brewers 5 - Phillies 3 Adrian Houser got off to a rocky start, giving up three runs in the first three innings tonight, but the offense picked him up, putting up a four-spot in the fifth, and tacking one on later on a Hunter Renfroe solo home run. The bullpen pitched three scoreless innings, and the Brewers put the blown save from the day before behind them. Houser gave up a run in the first on the double to Nick Castellanos and two more runs in the third inning on an RBI single to former Brewers shortstop Jean Segura and a sacrifice fly to Castellanos. Phillies starter Zack Wheeler held the Brewers offense in check until the fifth inning when they busted through with three runs to tie the game on RBI singles by Jace Peterson, Willy nineAdames, and Christian Yelich. The Brewers weren’t done just yet, as they took the lead on a beautifully executed double steal with Yelich taking second and Adames swiping home on the delayed steal. Hunter Renfroe extended the lead in the sixth with his second homer of the still-young season. Renfroe’s hot streak has brought his slash line to a respectable .260/.309/.460, which is probably right in line with what most people expected of Renfroe when he was acquired in the Jackie Bradley Jr. trade. After his early-season struggles mainly looked like a small sample size, and batted ball data shows his exit velo shows he’s been hitting into his fair share of bad luck, hopefully, the extra-base hits start piling up, and we get the Renfroe we expected. After getting touched up a bit in the first three innings, Houser settled in and pitched well enough to work through six innings, giving up the three runs on five hits and just one walk. The bullpen combo of Trevor Gott, Devin Williams, and Josh Hader locked down the last three innings. Hader earned his seventh save in seven tries. Game 3: Brewers 1 - Phillies 0 Brewers get a prime-time game in the Sunday night ESPN slot in the series finale against the Phillies. Eric Lauer and Aaron Nola put on a stellar pitching duel, with Lauer notching a career-high thirteen strikeouts in just six innings. Lauer pitched six innings and didn’t allow a run, scattering five hits and a walk. Phils starter Nola was just as effective, striking out nine Brewers in seven innings himself, allowing just a lone double to Tyrone Taylor and walking one. After Brad Boxberger and Devin Williams pitched the seventh and eighth scoreless, the game went to the ninth without a tally. The Brewers put men on the corners with one out and finally broke through with a sacrifice fly from Christian Yelich. Both pitching staff seemed to benefit from the *generous* strike zone from home plate umpire Angel Hernandez over the game. Kyle Schwarber took issue with the zone's expansion in the ninth inning and was tossed for his protestations. Josh Hader nailed down the final out and secured the 1-0 victory for the Crew, getting the series win. The Brewers head home to play just one game against the Giants, now standing at 10-6 overall on the season. View full article

"I'm not condoning what happened but... ." when you add the *but*, you're about to excuse violence for words. there isn't one.

The Giants at it again.... scoring in the 9th inning of a 7-1 game and the nationals got mad mad and started yelling at the giants dugout. clearly no team has ever scored 6 runs in one inning before.....

Exactly. There's a huge difference.....HUGE difference between someone talking trash and someone throwing at your bean at 90+. I do not care if the batter said something about his dog, his mom, his sister, his wife..... you can't spear someone on the field. At the point he made a calculated decision to spear someone over words or because his feelings were hurt, it's assault, and should honestly be treated as such.

Astros fans in the 6th inning booing their own player! Trying to bunt his way on to break up a no-hitter. Astros down 6-0 and Niko Goodrum is batting against Shohei Ohtani and fans boo'd when he tried to bunt against the shift. DON'T SHIFT if you dont' want people bunting!! GOod lord the unwritten rules are so so so so dumb.

You forgot to mention the failure to sign Castellanos

He's talking about players running into walls chasing fly balls/foul balls, and how walls all around baseball are padded now for player safety. He then said "I guess all the stadiums have padded walls..... uhh.... except Wrigley Field, I guess", and when he said "Wrigley Field, I guess", his voice was dripping with sarcasm/disgust, and then kinda launched into a little bit about guys running into the brick wall, and once they hit the warning track at Wrigley "they know they're in trouble".

I don't know who else is listening to the radio, but the not even close to subtle shade Uecker just casually tossed out at Wrigley Field was hilarious.

If you guys are having issues with ads, Brock is responding to those issues and questions about those problems in the issue and suggestions forum. Let's try to leave the game thread for jibber jabber about the game.

Yup. Vogy's a character, and he had a few moments for us. For that I'm sure a lot of Brewer fans will remember him, but ultimately I think Rowdy has a little bit better upside for the next few years, and he has virtually no platoon splits.

yelich was pretty bad games 1-10... a homer and a double in game 11 gets that ops up over .850 and suddenly he's doing better than the last few years. while I'm encouraged, I'm also going to temper my enthusiasm yet. there were a few times last year when he looked like "vintage" Yelich, and it was nothing more than a tease.

bulls might snag one in chi. other than that .... meh.

Lauer at 75 pitches, I'd definitely get another inning out of him as long as he's not laboring. Bullpen had to do some work over the weekend with short starts by Freddy and Ashby.

To be fair, he was carrying a .390 OBP with almost no power whatsoever for the last year-ish, so it's fair for pitchers to challenge him and to stop nibbling around the edges and just pound the zone against him.

Yelich OPS up to .874 just like that. Early season stats swing pretty wild still.