BuckyBrewer61

“Best pinch hitter on the bench has been Sogard this year” I love Bill...but really?

Still baffling that we waste 5+ minutes of game time reviewing inconsequential plays in the field while we aren’t using technology to instantaneously call balls and strikes, the most important calls in the game.

Thanks - didn’t see this thread!

MLBTR posted that the Brewers have interest in Merrifield. I honestly know nothing about him. Anyone with insight into his game, how he fits, what it’d take to get him?

It's probably somewhere in the thread and I apologize for not searching through the 10 pages... How is Hiura doing defensively? Any issues with his injury? Is he good/serviceable/terrible/screaming in pain with every throw?

Frankly, even if he felt great on Thursday, I'd still rather he take a trip to the 10-day DL. As soon as I heard it was bothering him, this is what I wanted. Wrists are not something to mess around with in baseball, but the Brewers tried to let him play through it and look what happened. Better to play it safe, miss a few more games, and be healthy the rest of the year than to have this turn into a year-long ordeal.

Woof, lineup is hard to swallow without Cain, Shaw, and Thames in there. And unless Keon is on one of his rare hot streaks he is often a bigger black hole than Arcia and Pina have been. So naturally...probably 9-2 Brewers today.

Also, the pendulum of today’s strategy will continue to swing, perhaps even more quickly in today’s world of analytics. While everyone has moved to the high strikeout, power bat, no running strategy...someone (perhaps even Stearns given the Cain/Yelich acquisitions?) will decide contact hitters, high OBP, and maybe even the running game are market inefficiencies that are now undervalued. The game will no doubt continue to evolve, this is not it’s final form.

Think MLB needs to stop trying to regulate the things that analytics have changed. Yes the strikeouts, decreased small ball, etc take away from some of the strategy of the game that many of us enjoy. But the game is the game, and changing rules of the in-game play to try to stop teams from strategizing isn’t the right move IMO. Instead, focus on the things that create so much dead time during a game: Why does a new pitcher need 10 warmup pitches from the mound when they come in? Isn’t that what the bullpen is for? Maybe a couple to orient himself to the surroundings, then let’s go. Why do we let batters step out, adjust their gloves, call timeout, etc? Let the pitcher throw the ball. If the batter isn’t ready, or even in the box, that’s his fault. We don’t let the D in football set them self before the ball is snapped, why does baseball?. More Suter vs Judge type at-bats would greatly increase the watchability of the game. And if you do the above, you could actually put a pitch clock in and enforce it if you wanted. Don’t throw the ball in 20 seconds? That’s a ball. Also replay...use it for what it’s meant for - getting obviously wrong calls right. Take 30 seconds to look at 3 good views of a replay. If you don’t know for sure if the call is wrong, call stands and move on. Yes, even if you could figure out with an ultra slow-mo replay that the call was wrong if you took a few more minutes. Close calls happen, and looking at excruciating detail to try to figure them out is a waste of time. None of this 5 minute BS. I don’t know which of the above I really like or don’t like, but I’d rather these than try to change the rules to regulate out sound strategy. Instead find ways to decrease the dead time that exists without significantly changing the live action itself.

Rain delay = time to talk about 1982/1987. Obviously.

This is obviously what is planned, but is anyone else concerned that we are taking this for granted? The guy had a major injury to his throwing shoulder and has already had his return date pushed back (we were told June at the start of the year) with no defined timetable to return. And even if/when he does return it’ll be with 2-3 months left in the season, with no spring training, and certainly a short leash for pitch counts and 10-DL stints. Just saying, while I really hope to be wrong, I for one am not banking on Jimmy Nelson to make a big impact in 2018.

Logan showed some life last night, and I think Counsell figured this was a way to spark Logan’s resurgence. If he gets out of that inning, maybe his confidence and effectiveness are back, which would be a great addition to the pen. That said, I hated the move and think Logan is done as a Brewer. He may very well go on to have success again elsewhere, but every time he takes the mound he looks like even HE expects to blow it.

Why hasn’t Villar seen any time at SS? He started an entire season there in 2016. Especially if/when Miller comes up, why not put Villar at SS and Miller at 2B? Or even Perez? Any option is better than a Sogard/Arcia platoon...

If we take the lead in the 8th, Jeffress better pitch the 9th

I’m sure it’s been mentioned or out there on the interwebs - but why isn’t Anderson calling the games currently? He wasn’t calling the Finals on the broadcast I was watching, was he calling it on another broadcast? Or doing something else?

With all the Statcast data now I wonder if they can examine how much a bat misses the ball by on a swing and a miss. If they could, I suspect Domingo Santana would be amongst the league leaders.

Can we be done with Sogard already please? Lack of range is the difference between bases loaded no runs in and one run in and man on 3rd with one out. But hey at least his batting average ha skyrocketed to .130. And he can play 2nd too, so...cool.

Lorenzo Cain says hi. But yes...I still agree with you that those deals will likely be the exception rather than the rule.

Big difference between spending money and spending prospects. I’m sure Mark and David wouldn’t hesitate to pay Machado’s salary this year if the team continues to contend. Losing the players they’d have to send to Baltimore to bring him in for 2-3 months is an entirely different story.

Just three weeks later and Baseball Prospectus now has the Brewers projected for 88 wins with 60.7% odds to make the playoffs which is the third highest among all NL teams behind only the Cubs (69.2%) and Nationals (64.5%). How does Fangraphs get to their projections? We are currently at 31-19, and they project us to finish 84-77. I get there is some regression expected...but how do you project a team winning 62% of their games through almost a third of the season to finish the rest of the season 53-58? Is it just based on their preseason projections and not taking 50 games of data into account?

You don't need to be all that patient with a 33 year journeyman with a career 4.48 ERA and 1.45 WHIP. At the very least, if you are going to be patient, be patient in games that aren't close. Not tie games in the 8th with a runner on when Albers is available.

That’s pretty much it...big difference between asking help to make a call versus asking to cancel out a call you’ve already made.

The defense can’t ask. Only the home plate umpire can. Catchers often point to the base umpire when they think a batter went around, but the base umpire will only respond if the home plate ump asks. Also, it may seem skewed because the only time a batter wants the base umpire to appeal is when the home plate ump has already said they went around...in which case they will never say “you know what, maybe I was wrong, let’s ask for help now.”

He was 15th in NL fwar going into tonight. This start is extremely flukey. The banked wins are nice, but relying on 1 run wins in not a recipe for success. They have played mediocre baseball and continue to be rewarded by sequencing and unsustainable late "magic". Eventually the bad pitchers who are inexplicably performing well will come back to earth, and it's going to be a struggle. The injuries negate some of the good luck they've had, but it's still been insane to watch the other teams constantly let the Brewers win games like these. Enjoy it while it lasts I guess. Fangraphs still only has them projected to 83 wins. Get out of this thread! I have the Brewers projected for only 103 wins!

Hader for Cy Young!!!! No, seriously. Hader for Cy Young.