CheezWizHed

Here is a good side-by-side showing a smaller step: And a good video comp showing the toe-tap is gone: https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ZigzagLikelyLadybug-mobile.mp4 Source: https://www.brewcrewball.com/2022/3/24/22994116/milwaukee-brewers-what-to-make-of-keston-hiuras-early-spring-training-success

Fernando Vina squints in the spring sun as he faces down Texas’ Ken Hill. Vina chops his bat twice, then readies for Hill’s pitch…fastball…just a bit outside. The 1997 season was the last time the Brewers had a regular DH. Dave Nilsson started that April 1st game and led the team with 54 games at DH that season. Now 25 years later as the Brewers prepare to re-enter the Baseball world where pitchers pitch and hitters hit, how prepared are we to maximize our offense? What will be the Brewers’ approach to filling this spot in the batting order? And how will Ben Sheets explain this to his kids? In welcoming back, the regular DH role, Brewer fans have been hoping that the Brewers would add a big bopper to fill that role; not to mention a homecoming for Nelson Cruz. However, the Brewer brass seems to be taking the same approach to roster building that achieved playoff appearances the last 4 years – less expensive, versatile, rotational players filling out the roster around the regular core. Players that might struggle in a daily role, but bring value playing in the right situations. Craig Counsel was asked about his preference for one player being the DH or utilizing several players and he responded, "It’s what’s available. Being able to go in the field and play positions, it helps everybody else out. More than anything, if there are positions that you can contribute at it helps the rest of the team out as much as anything. And then it helps the group stay healthier." So, while signing Andrew McCutchen doesn’t fit most people’s hopes of a 900 OPS regular designated hitter, it does fit the Brewers’ modus operandi for finding rotational quality while competing with the big budgets of the MLB world. A true “the whole being greater than the sum of the parts” philosophy. But isn’t having a regular DH the norm? In 2021, there were only seven players that had enough at-bats at DH to qualify; one of them being the incomparable two-way player, Shohei Ohtani. Thus, fewer American Teams had a dedicated DH than those that took the variety approach. Even back in the 1990s, the Brewers tended to use multiple players in the role - often finding ways to get a bat in the line-up for a player fighting injuries like Dave Nilsson, Greg Vaughn, or the consummate pro bat, Paul Molitor. You have to go back to 1990 to find the Brewers signing Dave Parker specifically to be their regular DH. What should we expect from the Brewers DH this year? Andrew McCutchen is clearly one of the options. His value mostly resides against left-handed pitchers, but can also be utilized as a backup in left or right field. With his recent knee and back injuries, Christian Yelich also presents a Molitor-like option at DH. Would minimizing the stress on his body by removing defense from his daily activities maximize his bat potential again? With Christian’s waning defensive capabilities, this might be his best long-term option anyway. DH also presents a way to maximize Omar Narvaez’s bat when he is getting a rest from the tools of ignorance. Omar’s bat faded late last season, so perhaps getting fewer days behind the plate might be part of the plan this season. Could the bat-in-search-of-a-position Keston Hiura find a home at DH? Keston needs to fix the holes in his swing first, but could eliminating his worries on defense ease his mind and help him bounce back to his 2019-esque levels? Of course, there will be times when other players fill in or take a defensive rest day at DH but it is unlikely (aside from injury) that they will log many ABs at DH. Getting ABs to players like Tyrone Taylor or a hot Jace Peterson will probably push the Brewers to shift lesser defensive players to the DH role instead rather than taking a regular role at DH. But whoever fills this new offensive position, the DH changes the focus of the senior circuit forever. Like or love it, it is here to stay. And with thoughts of Jimmy Nelson still fresh in our minds, it’s about time. Or as Ben Sheets said, "Who likes to hit? That's still what I'm still trying to figure out."

The of those QBs would become HOFers though...

Major overdraft of Woods. You could've gotten him in a simulated 5th round.

So what FA WR should we be targeting? Landry? Julio? Fuller?

Yet, his car remains parked in the major league parking lot...

Only when you have a ghost fielder! And yes, I have. Both as a kid and an adult (softball practice mainly).

These are non-splashy, but necessary moves. If TT did this, we'd have 2 more SBs at least. Seems like every year, we are killed by our weakest link (often filled by an UDFA that isn't ready for prime NFL snaps). This at least raises the bar on our weakest defensive link. Now we can draft OLB, DL, ILB, and Safety without pressure of a glaring hole.

@Samurai Bucky, I had the same thing. I had to clear my browser cache to get it to work correctly. Just cache, not cookies. For Chrome do this: Go to Settings Search for Cache Select Clear Browsing Data Select Cached Images and Files (Feel free to select or deselect the others - Keep cookies if you don't want to re-enter your passwords). That should do it! For other browsers the process should be similar. Hope that helps though. Now, I'm as sarcastic as I want to be!

Brandon sitting at home reading BF.com: Wait...everyone else got higher than projected arby agreements???

Sounds like Urias will be close to ready at the start of the season. I think we have people that can cover in emergency situations and have Turang or other backup called up for the next game as necessary. Better than having Turang sitting on the bench.

But El Caballo was a LFer... Maybe more recent Disney generation would get it better this way: ?

I think Safety is a sneaky need on the team. Sure, We have Amos and Savage, but not much for depth after those two. Plus, who knows if Amos or Savage is here after this year. ILB/S/TE is about the same need level, in my opinion and behind WR, DL, and OLB.

Then I'll go to Biloxi. Especially with this second lineup - Frelick, Mitchell, Wiemer, Gray, Zamora, Warren, Kahle... that is a lot of draft capitol plus our only two top 100 rankers...

My favorites:??️‍♂️??? But plenty of others that could be useful: Here comes the ump?‍? Useful for 17 inning extra inning games without the 2nd base runner:? Nice for Green Bay discussions on Matt La⚜️ Now we need to bring back Victor Santos?‍♂️

Nice post... doing what I was too lazy to do and look up the numbers. When I was referring to "out of the zone" swinging, I was specifically meaning up in the zone swing and misses, so I think we are essentially saying the same thing.

Just based on need, and typical Packer drafting, I'd love: 1st Round: WR and DL (Olave is really growing on me. - Love the route running prowress) 2nd Round: Safety and OLB 3rd Round: TE (Fergusen could fit in here) 4th Round: OL and MLB (why not Leo Chanel?) 5th-7th: RB, WR/PR, even a K or P wouldn't be terribly out of the question. Of course a 2x or 3x WR draft wouldn't surprise me either.

I think the concensus is that the needle movers are at the top 10-ish picks and then many similarly-skill level players for quite a few picks (like middle-ish 2nd rnd). Thus, I'd say we stick with multiple bites. Seems like a few WRs (Burks/Olave) and OLB (Mafe/Karlaftis) could be available in our 1st round pick ranges.

Now who will Rodgers throw all his passes to in the playoffs? /blue Hmmm... missing our sarcasm font It is a double edged sword. Seems like a decent return for Adams, but hate to see him go. A friend of mine and I had a debate on whether Adams was only because of Rodgers or actually one of the best WRs in the league. I do wonder if Rodgers might actually be better spreading the ball. He certainly has some issues with being stuck on Adams. But we also need people that get open too... And I'm hearing $10M/year for MVS? I'd pass. Maybe he earns it and becomes really dangerous, but more likely he catches 30 balls and misses 6 games.

The Brewers seem to be in the where else can we play SSs and CFers position? Both in their MLB aquisitions and in their drafting. ?

Will we ever see 2019 Huira again (138 OPS+)? No, I doubt it (not without big changes). His .402 BABIP was massively unstainable. Couple that with a 30%K and 7.2% walk rates, and he was certainly going to regress from an incredible rookie season. And did pitchers find his weaknesses and exploit them? Surely. Hitting is all a matter of milliseconds of timing. The difference from a foul ball and HR can be very small. Now it is up to Huira to adjust back to what people are doing to him. I think quieting his leg kick will help him load and trigger better in the past - it typically does with anyone that started with it (Rickie Weeks?). His bat is fast and now he can vary the start better with what the pitcher is doing to him. Secondly, laying off pitches outside the zone. He has poor judgment at this point because I think he got used to being able to catch up to anything, but can't at the MLB level. But when I say he can still be a good hitter, I mean that he has a natural abilty for the ball to jump off the bat that not everyone has. Honestly, after bringing up Rickie Weeks it isn't a bad comparison. Running in the 800-850 OPS and 110-120 OPS+ range is reasonable with his bat skills. But making those two adjustments is no picnic either. And a reason many players like him are sitting at home (or in AAA).

Clearly Bojo dropped off in the winter, but pretty much wouldn't anyone? I've not looked at the other cold weather kickers, but kicking at 20 degrees isn't a picnic... However, he did have some holding issues. Just glad we aren't going with a rookie this year.

The encouraging thing about Huira is that we know he can hit. And hit well. If they can fix whatever caused him to become Mr. Swing-n-Miss, he should still be an excellent hitter. And a quieter setup is always better.

While this wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for...he really didn't hit that bad last year. 778 OPS and 2.1 oWAR(Bref) isn't the worst add to the team. I'm sure they will leverage him against lefties to maximize his offense, but even his overal numbers aren't bad. Seems like only 5 players in the AL qualified (3.1 ABs/game) for enough ABs at the DH position last year. And not surprisingly, they are the biggest hitters. But that means everyone else was using a variety of players as their DH. Which we wil obviously be doing also. https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/player/_/position/dh RK NAME 1 J.D. MartinezBOS 2 Yordan AlvarezHOU 3 Giancarlo StantonNYY 4 Nelson CruzMIN/TB 5 Shohei OhtaniLAA With Yellich's back issues, I'm sure him playing DH heavily is in the plans. Plus days off against the big lefties. I'm guessing Taylor is going to get plenty of ABs backing up Cain and some LF/RF too. Or would this be the year he passes Cain?

People still know that the 1B still has to catch a ground ball, right? It isn't like he stands there and plays catch with the other infielders... you actually have to field the position. Huira was already doing that at 2B. I doubt Taylor has really even needed to try as his defense should still be in the OF. As for others... either they can't or don't want to try... playing D on the corners isn't for the faint of heart when those balls are screaming past you.