Ennder

His other best starts were against DBacks, Dodgers, Reds and 2 against the Nationals. When his curve is working he can beat even good offenses.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. Bellinger is on the DL so their offense is compromised and we miss Ryu and Hill and Wood and Kershaw are on the DL. Probably looking at Maeda who doesn't go deep into games, Brock Stewart and some rookie or Darvish coming off the DL for their rotation. The Dodgers are not going to be anywhere near 100% for this series.

I'm going to disagree, Josh Hader has been shaky as heck this season. Even protecting him against righties he has an xFIP over 4.5. He just walks too many guys and doesn't get any groundballs. I don't want him in big situations unless it is against a lefty. Don't let the low ERA fool you, that is meaningless in a small sample when someone else is usually coming in to clean up your mess, Hader has not pitched well at all this year. He obviously has dominant stuff and that can save a lot of mistakes but I think Counsell is using him exactly like he should until Hader shows some sort of command of his pitches.

Minor-league pitcher Jacob Rhame, who was considered the 28th-best prospect in the Dodgers system is what they got back.

It could certainly be a one year skills blip, those do happen. I'm just looking at what they have actual done this season alone. This season alone Nelson has been way better than Anderson even though Anderson has a better ERA. I hope Nelson can repeat it. I mean Anderson has shown growth as well, if he can get more ground balls to go with this new K rate he is on to something really good. I'm not sure why he is allowing so many flyballs this year.

When you use xFIP which is pretty much better in every way than FIP it looks bleaker. Kershaw 2.72 Nelson 3.12 Anderson 4.48 Anderson has combined an unsustainable low BABIP with a poor FB%, a likely unsustainable low HR/FB and an unsustainable high LOB%. If Anderson continues to pitch the way he has this year he is more of a 4 ERA guy than what he has shown with his results this year. There are pitchers like this every season and almost universally they fall flat the next year, I don't expect much out of Anderson next year.

Thames has been an above average offensive player every month but June, this is not a logical stance. Would you rather have Thames or Aguilar getting majority of at bats? Thames but only because of the platoon advantage and because Aguilar is really bad defensively and Thames is only somewhat bad defensively.

Thames has been an above average offensive player every month but June, this is not a logical stance.

Gotta be consistent, that was ball 4 right there. The awful umping again influences the game. That is at least 5 times in this game the ump blatantly blew it and that is more or less par for the course. It needs to change.

Hader hasn't shown anything that gives me confidence he is one of our best 5 starters. He has still walked over 6 per 9 and has an xFIP over 5. An insanely lucky LOB% does not a starter make.

I think Zach Davies is going to be really good once he turns 16. He looks like such a baby~.

Yeah this game is the reason why robot umps should be a thing. The strike/ball calls have been beyond awful here and have totally changed the game.

ERA is probably the 15th best stat to use when trying to describe how well a pitcher has pitched, it is simply awful. It is a team stat with a ton of noise involved. If Anderson had 0 Ks and 300 BB with a 2 ERA he would be having a terrible season with amazing beyond belief results that make no sense. He would be the worst pitcher in MLB.

Just depends on how you want to define close. Using batted ball breakdowns Anderson's xERA is 3.72 compared to Nelson's 3.39. Nelson looks like a clear #2 while Anderson looks more like a solid #3 type starter. Nelson has easily been the best pitcher on this team all season. Anderson has just had the best results. ERA is simply an awful stat for in judging pitchers in season.

Sure and that is fine because 75% of the time they take the division by a game or two most likely. It isn't an insurmountable climb to beat them. 538 has the Brewers playoff odds at 23% right now, with a 9% chance to take the division. I am totally fine with those numbers this late in the season. If roughly 1 in 4 times we make the playoffs I'm happy as can be. I'm just saying forget about the Pirates, they were always pretenders. They have sub .500 talent and haven't been in the playoff hunt outside of the one week the team was at its hottest. The Pirates are in a terrible spot, a bad team with its best player aging out and a bad farm system. Help isn't coming soon either as Meadows looks like he might be a bust and they don't have any other talent coming in the immediate future. The Pirates future just looks miserable to me.

Nelson and it isn't even close. This looks like a true breakout for Nelson fully supported by peripherals. Nelson has actually been unlucky so far this year mostly driven by the one disaster outing. Anderson has a whole lot of luck in his profile, especially the low number of HRs he has given up considering he has turned into an extreme flyball pitcher this year.

Considering his career numbers this is like 99% likely to just be a random fluke at this point and has no reasonable chance to be meaningful. The walk rate and ISO look completely normal, just a BABIP blip.

The Pirates are out of it. This is a 3 team race and no single team is heavily favored. The Pirates were always the worst team and they aren't playing well atm to add insult to injury.

How do we know stearns didn't ask about Neshak and didn't like the asking price. When it comes to trades we have almost none of the details if they don't happen.

Villar was handled just fine. He struggled early, lost playing time to Sogard, got hot in June so recaptured some playing time, stunk in July so we traded for Walker and has been good in August. They sat him at the appropriate times and gave him more playing time at the appropriate times. Patience is very important in baseball because it is such a high variance sport. The biggest negative I have with him is they should have moved him down in the lineup much earlier than they did.

He is certainly fine as in boring as heck. I won't complain about fine but I won't promote it either. He is about as vanilla as you can get.

Yeah, it's absolutely nothing like that. I think that comment is about as relevant to this discussion as people talking about what would happen to them in their jobs if they made the same mistakes. These are the best in the world. Most people using the argument are not at the same level in their profession and their profession(speaking generally) are not a comparable level of difficulty. And hitting the ball deep into the OF is absolutely NOTHING like a pitcher getting a pitch just off the plate a strike because he's been able to command the ball regularly and hit his spots and a catcher is able to frame a pitch well. I think there's a group of people who like the game, enjoy the game but who think that virtually everything about the game should be driven by a computer. I'll leave it at this. I love the game. I probably played 700 games in my life(give or take) and I've hated the umps at time. I've caught pitchers who have pitched in the big leagues and this is just my opinion, but this game doesn't need to be called by robots. I find the idea just impossible to wrap my head around. Those who dismiss and laugh at the "human element" I just don't get it. Baseball is a game of error. You do what you can and do the best you can. You don't make it a video game with real players. I've already said I think they went too far with some of the new rules they've implemented with instant replay. And I've never considered myself an old school type of guy. I do know for a fact that the guys playing the game do not want a robot calling balls and strikes. Edit-I should only speak for the players I've known or discussed it with and that's a very small group relative to the entire MLBPA. I don't think this could even come close to passing the Players Union. He is actually completely right. Giving you a strike because you have hit the corner a bunch and you know the ball was outside the zone but you have established the corner is just bad umpiring. It is completely the same as 3 balls hit to the wall and the 4th one hit to the wall should be just an auto HR, it is just as absurd. People accept it because that is how it has always been, which is the worst rationalization for keeping something the way it currently is.

True, but are we ready for robot strike calls on big breaking balls that look rather low (or high)? We are at least ready for some sort of call assistance. It doesn't have to be pure computerized. It is just sad that the viewers get help knowing whether it is a strike or a ball yet the people actually calling the plays do not. Every game I watch as 4 or 5 completely clear cut strikes or balls are missed, you could at least assist them with those clear cut cases.

Votto is one of the least stubborn hitters in the game. He chokes up based on which pitchers he faces and the count and is happy to just get a single rather than strike out. He doesn't swing at pitches out of the zone because doing that is stupid, a walk is more valuable than contact on pitches that are balls.

Well hopefully he isn't commissioner long because this statement is just awful. Being right 90% of the time is failing and doing something because it is how it always has been done is the dumbest excuse out there.