bill hAll Star

Well, it depends whether or not his owner said, "sure, David, here's $5 million to block another team from acquiring a player that we don't really need."

Deadline already passed and it isn't happening.

When Bryant returns: Against lefties, bench bat. Against RHP, Baez plays SS, Murphy at 2B.

Fixed.

A 21-year-old prospect in high A ball with a .695 OPS. Boy, the Cubs are screwed in 2021. Yeah, anybody that can't crack the top 30 in that crappy farm system has next to 0 chance of making the majors. I'm a bit surprised and irritated that no other team jumped in. Not every franchise can pay $5 million for a good, yet old/veteran bat that will probably play 3-4 days/week.

For whatever it's worth, getting Moustakas is more of our 2B acquisition. Still point taken that those other 2 are in most ways superior to Schoop.

If that's true, the Dodgers will be truly screwed as far as luxury tax if the Nationals simply let him walk. They'd be over for sure. That would give the Nationals a ton of leverage to extract major prospects. We'll see. I don't think it's happening. The Nationals would probably prefer the comp pick on Harper so they're not letting him walk for free. The Dodgers probably aren't going to pay the prospects that it costs.

We need our best everyday guys out there today. Need to jump on Romano early since we don't have Jeffress and probably don't have Hader.

A 21-year-old prospect in high A ball with a .695 OPS. Boy, the Cubs are screwed in 2021.

Probably because everyone knows the Nats are going to ask for more than most teams would be willing to pay. It's a weird situation because they didn't decide to sell until after the non-waiver deadline, but now that they've decide to be sellers, they're still in a position to ask a lot. Kind of a perfect storm for blockbuster waiver deals. I love that the Cubs continue to be ridiculously all-in in a season in which they probably had an 80% chance of winning the division anyway. They're really slamming face-first into a wall of diminishing returns on their win-now moves. I'm not sure if what they're giving up for Daniel Murphy is going to factor into anything long-term. I totally understand that you can kill your farm system with death by 1000 cuts and it's harder to find that utilityman in July when you have some injuries, but the Cubs have the financial means to cover those things up.

Ugh, I was gonna suggest that as my guess (now I seem real smart after the fact). That would be a bit annoying.

I wouldn't say it's completely unlikely for the Rockies to do that, but with Dahl, CarGo, Blackmon, Parra, McMahon they may already have their share of lefty options. I know that McMahon doesn't necessarily have a stranglehold at 1B, but he's hitting pretty well and Desmond already plays there at times as well. Might not really be a need for them, either. I also know that Desmond isn't hitting that well but I think he's fairly likely to remain in the lineup.

Last year's AL was pretty close around this time. On August 18, 2017, the Twins and Angels were tied for WC #2, the Royals and Mariners were .5 out, Rangers 1.5, O's 2.0, Rays and Blue Jays 3.0. The divisional teams were not as close, though. Cleveland and Houston had nearly locked it up. Boston had the Yankees nipping at their heels but both were relatively safely above the Wild Card competition. The Nats may have a dumpster fire bullpen (improving soon with Herrera returning) but we are lined up to face Strasburg (missing Scherzer) and they have Eaton, Harper, Rendon, Turner, Soto...that team is arguably just as good as a team that is sitting at 72-60 right now.

Let's hope for the Dodgers to win the next 2. Would be the optimal series putting both teams back tied. Would rather have that than one of the 2 (Dodgers/Cards) sweeping and challenging for the division/Wild Card.

Eh, being a lefty that would truly take ABs away from Shaw and Mous and not create as much of a platoon advantage. I was fine with the Moustakas pickup because they've gotten plenty of at bats for those 2 regardless even with Schoop. Murphy would mean you're benching Shaw or Moustakas against a righty the majority of the time.

Actually, they were both used in the 2-1 win vs the Cards on Sunday as well. Counsel must be crazy to use them in two close wins instead of a probable loss. Yes, I was not suggesting they were not used at all. I meant that the Friday game everyone wanted them to pitch that they wouldn't have mounted the comeback in might've added up with the Sunday game and made them completely unavailable for Monday's close victory.

Which STL game are you talking about? On Friday, Peralta lost the game in the 3rd inning essentially. On Saturday, the Brewers were behind 0-3 going into the 8th. They scored 2 runs. It was 2-3 and he left Lyles out there to the "OMG HADER/JEFFRESS HAVEN'T PITCHED IN 10 DAYS" Kato Kaelin and twitter mob tweets. Well, we got shut out in the 9th. So it was in hindsight the correct decision in all likelihood. I was busy over the weekend so didn't really watch much of the games, only followed here and there so is there something that I missed? The first was the claw back within one game where Peralta gave up 3 early then held serve. That was the Hader JJ game. I also believe he should have went to them to hold it and see where the chips fall down one in the 9th. It is a different dynamic being down 1 or 3. Who knows either way. The 2nd game was the Miley game where CC got tossed right away. Anyone want to come on here and pat CC on the back for saving some Hader/Jeffress innings over the weekend for use in a close victory last night instead of using them in a game that they very, very likely would've lost anyways because we were desperate/mad? I highly doubt it would ever happen but just giving everyone the opportunity.

Or we could use data. Pitch count: 1-25: .818 OPS-A; 26-50: .662; 51-75: .673; 76-100: .703; 100+: .929 (n=20 PAs, one HR) Innings 1-3: .730 OPS-A; innings 4-6: .669; innings 7-9: .865 1st PA: .785; 2nd PA: .585; 3rd PA: .736 So that data suggests that he is good through 100 pitches or 6 innings or three times through the lineup, which is all the Brewers need. Also, in interleague play this year: 3.51 ERA, 1.130 WHIP, .734 OPS-A - and interleague this year is against the NL Central. Shields has been a good - maybe not great, but good - starting pitcher through 6 IP, 100 pitches, and against the NL Central. Junior Guerra is good the 3rd time around the order and pitches 75-100 as well. (.691 OPS 75-100, .700 OPS 3rd time around). Chase Anderson is good in those situations. (.764 OPS 3rd time around). Yes, Shields can go 6 just like the rest of our rotation (save for Peralta). I would imagine 90% of pitchers in the majors even in this "they're babying the pitch count" and heavy reliever usage era can go 6 innings and 110 pitches if they want to. Many of them that feature a 3rd or 4th pitch aren't that much worse the 3rd time around when they are allowed to go that far. I think you missed my point - the Brewers are going to pull the pitcher regardless if it gets to the 5th and they need to pinch hit or get out of a jam. Just like Guerra or Chacin or anyone else we trot out there, those pitchers are just as good and "innings eater" pitchers as James Shields. We take them out by choice. People are trumpeting Shields as if he is a special beast that can pitch further than Chacin or Guerra. He wouldn't pitch that far on the Brewers unless the game situation presented itself.

Oh really? Guess I assumed that since this is the Cole Hamels thread and all, that we were using the Cole Hamels trade to justify how much better Theo is than David and how David missed out on his big opportunity. Didn't realize we were going back and evaluating Theo's every historical move here. I was really just stating the obvious; That when a move needs to be made that Theo would make the better one. You can’t possibly argue that Stearns is anywhere near Theo, right? I'm an Epstein fan but it's hard to say. I think if Epstein was tasked with being GM of the Rays or Brewers he would not be going out and paying $50 million/year to put a band aid on the pitching staff. That said, I don't fault any of the moves he's made given how he set up their big picture to do so. Stearns might've gone out and gotten a pitcher like Hamels if he was the Cubs because with each move where you toss $5 million to fix something, there is still more money waiting in the coffers. Epstein is a good GM but if Stearns got aggressive with pitching before this season and they still had to get a 5th pitcher, he probably wouldn't have the leeway remaining to make a Hamels move (and I'm not even sure he could've this year anyways).

I could probably find 20 pitchers that haven't "been there" having excellent months down the stretch for contenders.

No, he's on the 40-man roster currently so he's eligible.

We might have a bunch of leads in September against lesser competition and (hopefully) playoffs to worry about. It's possible that both of those guys throw 5 innings/week the rest of the way. I wish we'd have pulled Guerra early against the Cubs last week, but several of these other teams...the proof came out and we didn't make the comeback regardless. I personally believe CC doing something like leaving in Lyles to give up 2 runs after we trim a 3 run deficit to 1 run has a negative affect on the mentality of players. You approach your atbat with a 3 run deficit in the 9th much differently than 1 run. Heck who knows, maybe we can scratch one out if that's all we needed. I admittedly haven't paid as much attention the past week, but I saw that blunder and it was infuriating. That specific move almost seemed like CC was trying to lose...not trying to win. It can go both ways, though. I don't really believe the mentality thing much, but even if you do, one can also argue that Counsell pushing more on Jeffress/Hader in August in games to keep the guys "in the game" mentally and hopefully sneak one out could be negative when they're pitching their 90th inning of relief in late September and are running out of gas.

The Brewers' bats have been pretty good since the Moustakas trade...and we're facing Homer Bailey and Sal Romano to open the series...the Brewers bats should have a nice start to this series.

People are bringing up his H/R splits, which is valid but those might even be a bit drastic. But I will also point out that in 4 games, Hamels has basically gotten out of some jams, mostly against mediocre offenses. If one or two of those bust open, we're talking about a 3.50 ERA or something like that instead of his dominant numbers.

We might have a bunch of leads in September against lesser competition and (hopefully) playoffs to worry about. It's possible that both of those guys throw 5 innings/week the rest of the way. I wish we'd have pulled Guerra early against the Cubs last week, but several of these other teams...the proof came out and we didn't make the comeback regardless.