Ennder

This stinks to be into the bullpen so early in a game where we scored so much early. This was a big fail for Woodruff tonight, hope it doesn't become a pattern.

This forum had Brett Lawrie in the HOF the day after we traded him. I'm sure those same people were sure he was going to be a star. There were also people who said Ben Hendrickson was a can't miss pitcher. He managed 58 IP of 7.41 ball in his career.

We never seem to do well against Quintana either.

Fair enough we will just agree to disagree. Burnes has a 3rd pitch but it isn't reliable at all. He barely threw it last year he has barely thrown it this year. That last comment is so ridiculous that I think I'll just put you on my ignore list because at this point I don't think you are capable of rational intelligent discussion. You seem to be a troll.

You can sit here and just insult everyone who doesn't agree with you and not add any constructive opinion about it other than I've seen them pitch I know what they are, but it just isn't a compelling argument. Major league history is full of talented pitchers who had some sort of flaw hold them back from showing their full potential. To use another trio that is as talented if not more just look at the Phillies with Pivetta, Ray and Nola. 3 years ago they were being hyped up more than this Brewers trio. Their talent is off the charts but Pivetta and Ray have never gotten their command down. Nola has turned into an ace, so 1 out of 3 turned into their potential. Freddy Peralta pretty much only has a fastball. What we've actually seen is that when his command is off he has absolutely nothing to fall back on and gets in a lot of trouble in a hurry. He also does not pitch very well from the stretch. This is probably because of his release point changing and a lot of the strength of his fastball is based on the deceptive forward release. Peralta has loads of talent but he also has flaws and they are flaws that could really be his downfall if he doesn't fix them. Corbin Burnes has a fantastic fastball with insane spin on it but he even admits that he can't control the natural cut on it. This means when he misses he usually misses by quite a bit. It is why when he did give up contact last year it was very hard contact. We only have a 1 game sample as a starter but in that one game he gave up 3 hard hit HRs. He is also just a 2 pitch pitcher which tends to mean he will struggle the third time through the order as we get a bigger sample on him. He really needs to develop a reliable third pitch. Brandon Woodruff is more of the middle ground. He has a deep arsenal and decent control. He is the safest one to pencil in for a sub 4 ERA for the year but also the one that probably doesn't have ace upside. There is a ton of talent here but there is certainly a lot of risk as well. In addition there is a serious question of season long pitch counts. How are they going to protect these guys innings in such a way that they aren't worn down for the playoffs. Woodruff probably shouldn't break 160 IP, Burnes can maybe get to 180 if we stretch it and Peralta is probably capped at like 170. They are all going to need at least a 15 day IL stint or a half month in the bullpen to make it.

I'd suggest you guys are just not taking any of the risk into account at all. It is just as likely that Acuna is out of baseball at the end of this contract as he puts up 37 million dollars of value for the final 4 years.

This ump is just awful at calling balls and strikes. Strike zone is all over the place batter to batter.

Definitely agree on this. If he had gotten the catcher out that is a completely different scenario and I'd be fine going with him.

He isn't stretched out for a full season of innings yet and it is early in the season so he isn't stretched out for 100+ pitches for a game yet, no reason at all to try to push him in this scenario. Very easy decision to use the bullpen.

Peralta catching a lot of the plate here, playing with fire.

Michael Brantley would have been a big help at a very low price for several years. Same goes for Cain departing in the Greinke trade. I personally think the Brewers lost more chances to make the playoffs than they gained by making those two trades, and I think what they're doing now reflects the fact that Mark A learned his lesson (he has even said this, in so many words). If it's a last-gasp effort to win a title, by all means pull out all the stops, but they were doing this stuff when they had a great young core and a chance to have sustainable success. They weren't terrible trades or anything, but I think they were kind of short-sighted. Now we don't see them giving up much value for short-term patches. Moustakas, Schoop, Claudio? Fine. But they aren't giving away excessive surplus value for short-term rentals anymore, and I'm very glad for that. The Yelich deal is exactly the type of opportunity you hold out for. From 2011-2014 the Brewers got 16.9 WAR out of Carlos Gomez. Brantley was 12.4 WAR over that time frame. Cain was 14 WAR over that time frame. We got better production by trading these guys and getting Gomez.

I disagree with a lot of this. The Central is better than the east. The Marlins offense is pathetic, their bullpen is awful and their rotation has inning issues. The Padres are going to be sub .500, they are a bad version of the Pirates. I can see their wins being padded by interleague, I haven't looked at it much to be honest. The two worst teams in the NL are the Giants and the Marlins most likely. The Dodgers are underrated, easily best team in the NL, the Rockies are insanely overrated, it is a bad lineup outside of Coors a bad bullpen and a seriously overrated rotation, I think they are going to finish sub .500.

Cards and Reds are both solid teams (Cards moreso than the Reds). These count the same as winning 10-2 They count the same but they take a much different toll on the team. Playing constant close games means you have to put your best players in more often and for longer and keeps your team less rested than you would like.

Who would you rather have pitch in this spot right now? Well the question is why didnt he pitch the 8th against the heart of the order? I guess Guerra was looking pretty good, but last year he was more of a "relief ace" who was used in the most important situation rather than just waiting for the 9th regardless of the situation. I guess the main difference was Knebel/JJ available to be the closer last year And Burnes/Woodruff in the bullpen. We lost most of the top RP in the bullpen, the roles are going to have to change.

If Arcia is going to be good that PA is an expression of how he is going to do it though. If he can drive the ball opposite field it makes him such a better hitter. He just hasn't shown he can do it consistently at all. Hopefully that's a start of good things.

I'm not sure he will. I never liked his bat in the minors. I know he is only 24 but usually by the time a player has 1500 PA in the big leagues he has shown his potential. He will cross that mark sometime this season and he really hasn't shown anything yet.

Yeah this Reds team seems odd because they are hoping to get to .500 this year but in a way that doesn't seem sustainable at all as a lot of what is supposed to get them there is off the team soon. This looks like a team trying to put themselves in a spot that teams don't want to be in, roughly .500 with almost no chance at a playoff run. That is the worst spot your team can be in.

Indians probably have the best rotation in baseball. Their lineup is really bad at least while Lindor is out but it should be enough to get them to the playoffs.

So much for that "un-hittable" Cardinal bullpen. I said it before but I'll repeat it. Players hit .318 with a 128 wRC+ off of Hicks' fastball last season. There is a path where he is a complete stud for sure but he has to improve to get there. Last year's version of Hicks is not anywhere close to an elite pitcher. His fastball is very fast but it is also very hittable, maybe because his slider isn't thrown for strikes enough so people sit on the fastball, maybe for some other reason I don't know about.

Collude isn't really a proper term. Teams have changed how they value players because data has suggested they should. Just because they all use the same data does not mean they colluded. Players have to change expectations at this point in certain situations. If they fail to it is completely on the players, not the owners. I agree but that also means the owners are keeping a larger share of the revenue pie. Players will probably ask for less service time to free agency or service time starts after you reach the majors or three years in the minors to keep MLB teams from starting guys like Vlad in the minors. And that is completely fair. The aging curves have changed and the value of young players is at an all time high. They probably need to do something about properly paying players earlier in their career.

It is important to note that spinrate itself is not a sign of quality of pitch. It is just as likely that a low spinrate is good as a high one. You do prefer to be on the outlier side though, the average spinrate fastball is generally the easiest to hit.

Williams looked terrible today. He got super lucky with hit location. That doesn't mean we have to replace him but I don't see today as a positive for him at all.

It wasn't a strike but it was a pitch he saw 3 or 4 times already in the AB, he was sitting on that pitch.

You named one good pitcher in here and he wasn't even good last season. It's funny what we can talk ourselves into if we really want to. If we had a 22 year old with Hicks stuff, a 24 year old with Reyes stuff and then basically an older Hader type pitcher, I think we'd feel pretty good. But on the Cards there not good pitchers. Very few 21 year old pitchers who throw over 100 are completely polished..and Hicks wasn't last year. That trio is still a pretty intimidating trio. Hicks gave up over a .300 AVG on his fastball last season, it is really hittable. He walked almost a batter per inning in spring. Reyes has been nothing but injured in his career. Sorry I'm not as shallow as you want to just randomly assume I am, I judge players on what they have actually done. Long term sure they will probably both be really good hitters but I was talking about now, right now neither of these guys are someone you need to fear as being unhittable.

Collude isn't really a proper term. Teams have changed how they value players because data has suggested they should. Just because they all use the same data does not mean they colluded. Players have to change expectations at this point in certain situations. If they fail to it is completely on the players, not the owners.