CheezWizHed

Glenn was a player that produced a lasting memory for me as a kid. I was at my first ballgame ever. We arrived early and I was able to be down by the fence as the players were warming up. I looked into the dugout and Glenn was sitting by himself, so I asked him for an autograph. He said he would after he went out and warmed up. True to his word, he came back to sign autographs. But as he came, a swarm of kids crowded the fence and pushed me back down the line. Glenn reached over the kids to grab my card (his Topps rookie) and signed it for me.

Yep, that was what I meant. They still need to waive him and resign him, but it doesn't take up a normal spot. Sounds like the NYG are doing the same thing with an international kicker.

One of my major skills is to read something the wrong way (intentionally) and run with it. 😉

Hopefully while wearing a Brewer's cap.

It is interesting for Hale though. I didn't realize they could just do that with anyone born outside the US. I thought it was only through that special assignment process in the offseason. Kind of shows their hand in what they will do with him after the cuts though...and maybe why he has lasted this long as a third kicker. PS target all the way.

I wonder if certain pitches are more taxing on your arm than others? Thus, avoiding those pitches gives you a bit more for your other pitches (on average over 6 innings).

How do we win more than one division in 2024? If we win the NL-Central and the NL-East Does that mean we play ourselves in the playoffs? Or if it is NL-Central and AL-Central, do we get two shots at the WS? 😂

Bowden might be a good long snapper, but he is very small for an NFL body. I do hope all other LS are being reviewed for cuts as several of Carlson's misses (and a few of his makes) had poor snaps. Out of curiosity, I thought I'd rate Carlson's misses last year. He had 13 misses (6XPs, 7 FGs) last year including the playoffs. I rated a bad snap as anything where the holder had to go above his head, twist his body 90 degrees (i.e. shoulders parallel to the yard marker) or below knee level. Here is how Carlson's misses rated: 7 were solely on Carlson 1 was blocked 1 was over 60 yards (I wouldn't hold that against anyone) 4 were bad snaps - including the playoff FG against the 49ers 1 was over the holder's head - arms fully extended to catch it. 2 were behind the holder 1 was behind and low Now of course all kickers have to deal with these things, so it is still hard to compare. But it satisfies my curiosity on the snapper's portion of the problem - about 25%

I'm talking myself off the ledge a bit with our kicking situation.... Last year, Carlson and Joseph were 2 missed FG away from being in the Daniel Carlson or Justin Tucker range. Carlson was good under 40 yards (100%) and over 50 yards (60%), but oddly struggled from 40-49 (50%) and XPs (87%) Mason Crosby averaged 75-79% in his first 4 years, so Carlson is above that already.

It is nice that we have that option (pun intended) to manage the pen. While I think Elvis was misused a bit with bringing him on with runners on base... it is hard to treat him special like that too. He is such an enigma as a pitcher. He stuff is just filthy, but he can't seem to find lasting results with it.

I see a lot of Z-Smith in LVN (the on the field play style and not the off the field stuff). Z Smith really didn't break out until year 4 with the Ravens and really big in year 5 with the Pack. I get the sense that in the pre-season, they are putting him in situations where he is uncomfortable to help him work on those issues (or maybe "see" the problem). Where as in the season, he will be used more to his strengths of inside pass rush (or at least I hope this is true). I missed the beginning and end of the game live... and didn't feel like going back to watch them given how poorly the play was (a rare occurrence for me). But I hear a lot of stuff about how Welch played on defense. I've advocated for Wilson as a backup LB more for a lack of options than anything... I wonder if Welch's development is enough to even the field between the two? Wilson is on the downside of his career, while Welch is still on the upside. If the two are rated remotely close to each other on D and ST, we might see Welch over Wilson... which I'd take as a positive outcome.

One thing that I'd hope we could agree upon after a joined practice is how much you play your starters. Doesn't have to be perfectly aligned, but it would be nice to mostly see #1s against #1s, 2s vs 2s, 3s vs 3s. Seeing some Denver starters playing into the 3rd quarter was pretty silly. I can't see how either side really learned much from that. Plus, Denver announcers were terrible. I get they are homers but wow... Oladapo also played well. No splash plays, but very solid tackling.

True. After Corbin and Woodruff in the offseason, I always assumed this would be a pseudo rebuild year (maybe a 500 team). But we are in first place while "rebuilding'. Chourio just became our top offensive player - perhaps sooner than expected. Frelick and Turang have stabilized as high D, decent offense players. Joey Ortiz looks like our long term 3B solution. Rea had developed as a strong SP. Myers came out of nowhere like Rea. Civale gives decent depth. Gasser looked like he was MLB ready. He and Woody coming back next year should really make the SP rotation strong. Freddie's performance has really been the only disappointment this year.

QB - I really doubt we keep three. I'd assume Pratt stays and Clifford goes to the PS. Clifford has enough tape out there where people won't try to grab him for upside. He'll have a nice career as a backup QB, but I doubt anyone claims him for that. RB - We keep all 4 unless Lloyd goes to IR. Probably keep a 10th OL if Lloyd is on IR and use the PS if we need another. TE - We keep four. Not sure if we keep Sims (blocking) or Wilson (offense), but we use them enough to hold onto more. WR - Six sounds about right here. I'm not nearly the Heath fan that you are. He had a high floor for a rookie, but really hasn't grown. Looks like Dubose passed him and can block also. I don't see anyone grabbing Heath in waivers. OL - That leaves 9 for OL, which should be fine. The backend of the roster is littered with similarly skilled and unrefined players. If one is claimed, we have 2 others just like him for the PS (not really a great thing). I'm hoping for a waiver claim at backup T. DE - I'm going with 4 here. Cox pretty quiet this offseason. I don't see us holding 10 players for four spots on the DL total. And Wooden can flex over from DT to play some DE too. DT - Same 5. LB - As before we disagree on Wilson. I actually think he is more likely to be claimed than Heath or Clifford. If someone has an LB injured, he would make a perfect option to step in. Perhaps low probability, but we have zero depth if we lose him. I just think the risk is too much to screw around. CB / S - agreed. K - Really wide open between the two we have plus the waiver wire. Packers are clearly not comfortable with Carlson/Joseph since they brought in two third kickers this offseason. Of the kicks I've seen (Family night, Cleveland), I feel better about Joseph, but that is a small sample size of what the coaches are seeing. LS - I really hope we are looking at the waiver wire (or at least Bowden to the PS) because Orzech has been about 1/3rd of Carlson's kicking issues. Dude just isn't consistent. P - Same. I don't see the team doing much for roster hijinks this year. The make it/cut lines seems much clearer this year than normal. And with the ability to put someone on IR (hopefully it remains only Lloyd), they don't need to play that game either. I only see some potential waiver claims of our own to make that will shuffle after cuts.

So Bakhtiari is still a FA out there. I'm not sure what he is expecting or hoping for at this point, but given out backup Ts are bad right now, I wonder if he'd consider a vet minimum for a 1 year prove it year? Hard to be an LT icon for a team and come back as a backup, but... I'd happily give him a shot right now.

Wilson is what Wilson is at this point; he has no upside left. But who do you have at LB over him? Going with 4 LBers is too risky especially since Hopper is basically in a red-shirt year. Wilson isn't a great starter, but he is a decent backup and a good ST player. The last two years he was active every game he was healthy (or pretty close if not).

I think CB has some sneaky depth, but I can't see them keeping 7. Rochelle and Balentine are low ceiling players (though Balentine did fill in nicely last year). I doubt there will be much demand for either one. Keep one, put the other on the PS and if that one is claimed, grab another CB for the PS and move on. I'd imagine they will keep 4 TEs. There doesn't look like a FB/HB type player on the roster, so I'm assuming that will be rolled into a traditional TE. I'd prefer to keep Wilson as he is your best option for the 4th starter (when an injury happens). Hopper needs a year. Everyone else is a ST specialist. 4 LBs is just too light.

"Celebrate" and "Jeffrey Leonard" shouldn't ever be used in the same sentence. Ugh... my neck hurts.

Any more details there? Starting lineup is probably Walker, Cooper, and McDuffie which is pretty strong. Wilson has starting experience, Hopper is a rookie so hard to know what we have there, Welch is probably ST only. For a position that will have 3 players on the field 15-20% of the time, the depth isn't terrible. Especially when they typically keep the 6th LB for ST only normally. I'd prefer a backup T at this point if we trade a WR. I'm sure Morgan would slide out first for an injury, but the rest of that group has looked really bad this year.

DuBose vs Heath: DuBose put himself on the map last game by showing great hands on offense. Sounds like his run blocking was also strong. If he continues with any semblance of how he played in Cleveland, I guess he gets the 6th WR spot over Heath. Calson vs Joseph: I've been leaning towards Carlson for a while, but his tendency to make kicks just inside the upright continues to concern me. Joseph hasn't been perfect, but it seems like more of his kicks (especially the "easy ones") go right down the middle. Joe Wilson vs Ben Sims: Wilson had a statement game with his receiving. Not sure how his blocking compares, but he certainly put himself on the radar. Sims seems to be mainly a blocking TE with low ceiling. Clifford vs Pratt: Pretty neck and neck. Clifford stumbled early, but seemed to recover nicely. Pratt throws a nice easy ball. Hard to tell who has the advantage at the moment. Dillon vs all other RBs: As was said several times... the dude just dances too much. You are trying to get one yard and are a 250 lb back - drive through someone. The OL didn't give him much room, but other backup RBs seemed to find space. Wilson looked like his usual pre-season brilliance. Backup OL: Someone (especially at T) needs to step up. No one looked bullet-proof out there. Backup DL: Really the opposite. They looked very strong and deep. Safeties: Certainly, better depth than last year. Hard to know how well they will fit in when you are playing vanilla D against early offenses, but everyone looks pretty good now.

Great Game Rea! Take the rest of the night off (command was starting to wain there). And yes, I did like the Mon-Rae pun!

When I was in college (a year or two ago...), we had a program that would take any Word document and turn it into Valley Girl. Nothing like reading a Physics report in Valley Girl. 😂

Brewer bats are red-hot tonight. Even our outs have been screaming. If it wasn't for some bad luck by hitting hot shots right at defenders, we'd have many more runs.

That's so... w.., er... odd.