OldSchoolSnapper

Stearns, like Melvin, does not have the cash to get a Greinke/Sabathia arm. Stearns, unlike Melvin, does not have the prospects to get that arm either. When he did (arguably not as valuable pieces as the ones Melvin dealt), he used them to get five years of Christian Yelich. The Brewers are not a very great spot right now. Not much of a farm, not much at the major league level. Honestly, their best approach at this point is probably figuring what the H is wrong with Burnes, hoping Peralta continues to grow and letting Woodruff shine. Anderson/Chacin/Davies/Gio types will probably be what they have to use to round out the rotation for a while. Or find another Ben Sheets and hope he stays healthier. It's extremely hard to do this. I would say it is THE hardest thing to do in baseball. I suspect that Joey is correct, and they have probably figured out it's an unrealistic path to winning for them.

I think it's funny that people seem to think getting a great pitcher is simply a matter of will. Like if we REALLY want one, well then, we just have to suck it up and do it!

Weeks is a 12 WAR player for his career, made an all-star team (should have made at least two), notched 1k hits and lasted in the majors for a decade. He was a cog on two Brewers playoff teams. I personally never liked him all that much as a player and found him maddening to watch at the plate. But 66% of first-round picks never play in the majors. If that is the bar then our whole franchise history could be on this team besides like 10 guys.

Rickie Weeks and Ben Sheets? Those guys are on an all-time failed expectations team? I'm thinking about guys like Angel Salome.

I'll actually defend that move. If you want a sustainably competitive team, you need good controllable starters. The only way to get there for a team like us is throwing those guys out there. If Chacin hadn't flamed out it wouldn't have been such a disaster. And even so, they still wound up with semi reliable starters and found a decent place for Peralta. Really, Burnes was the only guy that tanked completely. Now, I'm firmly entrenched calling the Miley move the worst of the off-season, but even throwing those three guys into the fire still shouldn't have killed this team. They have NOTHING outside of Hader.

Again, I didn't say they were good. But if these were the numbers given to you in March for what the SP would be, that would've projected pretty well with this offense and what the bullpen was supposed to be. The bullpen is why this season fell apart. The offense is arguably more disappointing than the SP. The SP was never thought to be a strength. It had to be good enough to let the other two win games. That didn't happen, almost never happened at the same time, and that is how you get a .500 record on a team with 4-5 all stars.

That's because they got to play the Reds Hasn't helped us this year. IMO the Cardinals are better than the Brewers. Better pen that will serve them well in the home stretch. Brewers will finish 3rd is my guess.

I can accept they miss him, and I'm fine with it being a giant miss on the Brewers if they could have kept him. But I find the idea that the bullpen sucks solely because he left quite funny. What do some people think he was doing? I'm sure they remember most of the stuff he said. Jeffress was a huge candidate for regressing this year. He was probably the luckiest good pitcher in 2018. It's just kind of amusing. No coach at this level can explain this kind of drop off. I'm sure he's a factor, just not THE factor.

I've said this before but what's really going to bother me about this season is how not-that-good we had to be win the Central. This roster has too much talent to squander a season where the central champ might win 88 games or something. That's a big shame to me.

The SP was not that good last year either. The best teams lose 60 times. Everyone's SP has lots of bad days. Point is, their SP was good enough this year. With a bullpen 3/4 as good as last year's this team is probably coasting to a division title. Instead we have a train wreck. I recognize Davies buried us tonight, but we lost a lot of winnable games this year by blowing leads or just not keeping teams contained in games we scored plenty. For all the clamoring about needing SP, which yeah, we do...it was the pen that killed this year's iteration of the Brewers.

It wouldn't be the first time Anderson was our best SP. He's quietly put together a good season. The SP didn't do this team in. It stabilized. The bullpen killed them.

Choi is still there and he think he's kind of a 1B-DH tweener but I'm half guessing on that and don't know for sure. It would be funny if he and Aguilar platooned 1B. I'd trade Aguilar for a middling prospect. I couldn't care less if it someone who helps now. I can't imagine it would be.

Yeah that does kind of suck. It’s the definition of a .500 team. Win some games you shouldn’t. Lose some games you shouldn’t But since preseason prognosticators weren’t unanimously picking the brewers to be in the playoffs this year. This is supposed to be called a successful season. So be happy Be happy? This team was one game away from the WS last year. They released one of their best starters in Miley and dismantled their bullpen in an experiment to find starters. In doing so, they left themselves in a poor position to adjust if that experiment didn’t work (in which it didn’t). Add some significant injuries to their bullpen and now their best starter, and also factor in some significant regressions on the offensive side and some pitching, and this all adds up to one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history (considering the expectations for the team). I am anything but happy with this team this year. Woosh

Who was subbing in for DJ last night when Slamadino hit that dinger? Cincy should never let that guy substitute coach again.

Soria would look like Satchel Paige right now

They are two games out of first but they don't exist in a vacuum. Being two games out with an all star pitching staff, I buy. Two games out and two games behind the Dodgers, I buy. Two games out of a horrible division with a clustered NL where half the teams are .500 and my second best reliever has an ERA over 4...I sell. Problem is, they really don't have a whole lot to sell. So while I would be selling, I understand why they won't.

Of course it's debatable. They can't get people through the doors fast enough because they don't have resources committed to doing so. They could have double the screeners and screening machines. They could do a TSA precheck style of speedy walk through for designated people. They could send transport carts out to the parking lot and screen people there and then drive them in. But instead, they're using their leverage as a hot ticket in town to force fans to make alterations without exception. They run the stadium operations in a way that makes sense to them, and if we don't like it, too bad. They screwed up entrance to the Ed Sheeran concert last year, too. There have been times when it has taken more than an hour to get from my house in Brookfield to my seat inside the stadium, less than 8 miles away. You can give the company a pass and blame their customers if you want to. But I never thought being a fan of a team meant that I had to silently accept every inconvenience they impose on us. This isn't really true for the same reason people think if everyone follows traffic laws to a T there will never be jams. It's false, and they still happen regardless. The Brewers can resource all day and night but if half the capacity shows up in a 15-minute span beginning 5 minutes before first pitch there is going to be a log jam at the gate. It doesn't matter how many guys they have checking stuff. IMO they have plenty of staff and metal detectors per entrance. At a certain point your returns diminish on spending money for that kind of thing. It's not like they can just pack each entrance with 300 ticket attendants and then you'll breeze on through. I'm only saying this because I've seen you mention it a few times in this thread now and I don't really get it. They're still being more than reasonable with the fans here.

With the increased competitiveness of the NL this year what you wanted was a pipe dream. The odds of the Brewers cruising to the division title & not having to fight it out for 162 games (& maybe even more) were always extremely low. We are currently 1/2 game out of the Wild Card & 2 games out of the division with 2 months to go. Sounds like the perfect time to throw in the towel, or maybe this was just the most likely outcome all along so why stop fighting now? I think that's pretty dishonest. I think most people knew the Brewers would win fewer games. I don't think anybody thought their bullpen would be atrocious. I'll be honest - if they were winning the same amount of games but had a lights out Hader, Knebel and Jeffress I would think it would still be worth it to get in. With the guys they are trotting out there, I simply don't. Saddest thing about last night's game is that I probably expect something similar to happen about 60% of the time if anyone not named Hader is pitching. I have no confidence in that pen to get the best hitters on the best teams out when it matters.

The return on both is zero when they go somewhere else. The Brewers are doing pretty much exactly what I didn't want. Middling well enough by the deadline that they're "in it," but still losing games the way they have all year with a bullpen that is terrible. Most likely is that they finish the year out like this. I would've preferred just losing a bunch of games and getting some lottery tickets than winning 84 games and claiming a WC if that's going to be their fate. Or worse, being the first or second squad out completely.

I'm not of the opinion the Dodgers are automatically in the World Series. I am of the opinion the Brewers don't have the talent to win the NL. The Braves may get there, the Cubs may get there if they get hot, hell the Cardinals have done it with teams similar to theirs. But I'm just not seeing the Brewers with the bullpen that can do it.

I agree with above, but think they should unload Moose and Grandal for anything remotely good. It won't happen because they are definitely in the thick of it, I can't deny that. But there is just far too big a talent gap between the Brewers and the Dodgers or anyone in the AL. Last year you had a fighting chance. They were right there with LAD, this team is not. The instant Hader's arm is tired and they need to protect a lead or just stay in a game with ATL or LAD it will be open season on whatever scrub we have out there.

I'm with you. The Brewers should sell. Last night was my tipping point, but you posted this before the game. Jeffress is totally unreliable and this team just does not have anything remotely close to a bullpen that can be counted on in October. There is one guy that can get outs. Absolutely devastating loss that is pretty dang representative of this team's glaring problem. Edit: Totally not with you, lol, misread that, but I cannot buy into this bullpen. I just can't. I think they can make the playoffs with the right amount of luck, but would be a quick and easy out for anybody.

I mean the only time I've ever had congestion is when I show up at 1:08 for a 1:10 start on Sunday. If I show up at 12:50 I am usually in pretty fast. Some gates are much worse than others. I'm almost always coming in from right field and it's usually dead. They do stop the line for the anthem, which I've never seen anywhere else. It's just the rush of people coming in at start time - 2nd inning that causes the logjam of folks. And many of those people are drunk, setting off the detectors, etc.

Long overdue. There are people that bring their kitchen into the game. This is fine. A drawstring backpack is enough space to pack lunch. If you read the policy, they are still being quite generous with what you can bring in. But whiners hate change, so I assume everyone on social media is crying loudly about it.

I was using steal more tongue in cheek, not meaning it was malicious.