Never Outhustled

It's funny the extremes fans go to. A fake injury for Shaw? Not surprising, I had to call people out in Hiura's first year with the team because they wanted to give Keston TJ surgery. This despite the fact that his elbow wasn't a complete tear. What a disaster that would have been. Hiura is another Braun, I've said that from the beginning. We'll see him in about a month. Shaw is super exciting. When his numbers even out he'll carry us for awhile. With Shaw and Moose here, we'll be able to work Keston in as a 4-5 games a week starter, instead of just throwing him to the wolves. Shaw and Moose could then also be the reserve 1B. Thames is the obvious player to look to deal. It will also mean less IF starts for Perez, another positive. I agree with Reilly that Hiura can come up after Shaw and Jesus stabilize.

I would have been happy with any of these 3 in return for Broxton. We do need to add a 4th OF who can actually produce some offense, but that's a completely separate issue.

The only thing we should be talking about concerning KJ Harrison is how we made such a poor 3rd round draft pick. He had a nice season at the plate for a college freshman, but then never improved. His bat was a huge question mark, and should have knocked him out of round 3 even if he was a catcher. He bat turned out as bad as it projected.

Counsel would only look like an idiot if Villar wasn't in his doghouse. Villar was bad, and I'm relieved he's gone. Schoop will eventually get hot and those who don't recognize his talent now will be relieved.

It isn't like they can send Albers down, though. If he's gone, he's gone for good, as they'd have to DFA him. That would seem like a waste, at least to me. Albers was pretty great up until recently. Honestly, I think he would take Peralta's spot. The team won't really have a need for a fifth starter soon, and with the heavy pen usage, it would make sense to have another guy out there. Albers was good for 2 months. Now he's bad. That's been his career pattern. Brewers can't afford to keep hoping good Albers up. Since June 1st, Albers has allowed 16 earned runs in 5 innings over 7 appearances, just one of which he managed to not allow a run. Here's a summary of failures: June 1st: He enters a game in the 6th inning with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd and the game tied 3-3. He promptly gives up a triple and a single, allowing both inherited runners to score and he's charged with one run. Brewers lose game 8-3. June 3rd: He enters a 1-1 game with one out in the 6th and a runner on first. He promptly allows back to back HR before getting the final two outs. Brewers lose 6-1 June 8th: Manages not to be charged with a run but does allow an inherited runner to score on a sac fly in a 12-4 Brewer win. June 11th: Comes into a game against Cubs in the 11th inning with score tied 2-2. Allows a tape measure HR to Anthony Rizzo, the first batter he faced, followed by 4 more runs on 3 hits, 2 walks and a hit batter. Brewers lose 7-2. Then goes on DL Jul 29th. Comes into game to start the 5th with the Brewers trailing 5-3. Faces 4 batters allowing a single, a walk and a triple scoring two runs. Leaves game with Brewers now down 8-3. Gets charged with 3rd run, when Jennings allows sac fly. Brewers lose game 8-5. Aug 1st. Comes in for 10th inning of tie game and promptly allows a single and home run. Game over. Aug 2nd: Brewers down 7-2 with two runners on in the 5th. Once again the first batter he faced takes him deep. After a walk, he gets out of the inning with 2 strikeouts, and starts the 6th with another, before allowing a line drive single and yet another HR. Leaves game with Brewers now trailing 12-2. To summarize, he's allowed 6 HR in his last 5 innings. His failures directly or strongly contribute to 4 losses in those 7 appearances and he does not contribute in any way to a win. How is he still on the roster? Yeah, its crazy. It's almost like the team also takes into account the 84 games Albers pitched over the last 2 seasons when he was beyond dominant with a sub 2 ERA and an incredible strand rate?

I'll predict the Brewers get Sonny Gray, re-uniting him with Dereck Johnson.

Moose will get a significant Miller Park boost. KC's home park is brutal for lefty power. Don't be surprised if Mouse finishes the year with 40 Homers.

We've already seen Shaw play 2B a bunch of times in defensive shifts. He's fine. This would be a shocking move 10 years ago, but is no big deal now.

I've seen national writers say Phillips had no path to playing time here. That's only because he can't hit. Couldn't even hit in AAA. Good to cash him in now, much like Ryan Cordell last year.

I think Schoop will continue his 2nd half surge. He could be a monster pick up. As long as we keep Hiura, I'm cool with any package. It would also be cool to get a strike out machine like Gausman. He needs Dereck Johnson to take the next step.

Has any rhyme or reason to this surfaced yet? Were they just celebrating with Burnes maybe? That's what I was thinking. Possibly, or might even be discussing sending Burnes down for a fresh arm. A lot of different directions are possible.

Being fat, out of shape, injured, and unproductive often leads to disrespect in baseball. If having the Futures Game moniker attached to him boosts his value, we should cash it in before he is hit with a serious injury, or his velocity disappears.

With a 40 man roster crunch coming in the offseason, I think acquiring Machado should be great use of our depth. I also wouldn't be surprised if the Brewers get the O's to also throw in some in international bonus pool money in the deal.

Alvarez is completely wild. They might prefer a pitcher with some level of actual pitchability. The O's really struggle at player evaluation. They might accept offers that others would consider weaker, but to them it's a good offer. In the end, they will likely accept hyped but flawed prospects, and get burned le they do on a regular basis.

Poor Villar? He's been ice cold lately, and his OPS is back under 700. He's simply not good and has been gifted too many opportunities.

I still think he injured himself on that slide opening day, and is finally getting healthy now. Like others have said, great to have the real Chase back, he's a dominant pitcher.

It doesn't have to be long term, just long enough to send Arcia back to AAA to get bat together.

Gennet credits Brewers assistant hitting coach Jason Lane with fixing his swing. He said it just took him awhile to get comfortable with planting his back leg. The Red's didn't due squat for him. Maybe they'll due him a favor and deal him back to Milwaukee.

Instead of focusing on Gennett vs Villar (where everyone would have chosen Villar in the spring of 2017), I like to focus on Gennett vs Aguilar. When setting the roster in 2017 they weren’t going to keep two players who could only play one position, and they chose Aguilar over Gennett. I assume they tried to trade Gennett but had no takers and released him instead of paying him $2 million to play in the minors. Even the Reds didn’t expect what Gennett has done. It took a month or so for them to work Gennett into their everyday lineup. Why versus Aguilar? Gennet was released to keep 30 year old Kirk Newenhius. Horrible move. That's Stearns worst move. The Davis deal was solid, both Nottingham and Derby will be big leaguers. Nottingham will be our catcher for a long, long time. Stearns best move was hiring Dereck Johnson.

Miller. He's similar or better with the bat, but plays a few premium positions. Smart move for the Brewers. Easy deal to make. The Rays are dumb.

That is almost all on the backs of relievers. Our starters are middle of the pack in ERA with advanced stats putting them in the bottom 10 of pretty much everything. And now our bullpen is starting to give up runs because they typically have to cover at minimum 4 innings every night. We have a ton of holes on this roster. Starting pitching is one of them. So you'd rather lose 2-1 than 3-1? The offense is bad. I don't care about the make-up of the pitching staff. I just care about its results.

The Brewers are sixth in MLB in pitching, and they should empty the farm for a pitcher? No thanks, not in an organization desperate for offense. The pitching has been top 10 in the majors since mid season 2016. The offense has been bad since mid season 2016. We need a bat, badly.

Turang changed his swing, increasing the uppercut to try to increase home runs. It hasn't worked. Scouts loved his previous swing. I'm guessing the Brewers will convince him to go back to that level swing, and he becomes a draft steal.

I think the Crew will employ the same strategy in day 3 as they did last year. I think they have a little money to spend. They've done absolutely great so far, hope they keep it going.

I'm totally happy with Turang. Good value here, and SS is an organizational weak spot.