HiAndTight

A "7th inning guy who struggled the previous year?" That's really an accurate depiction of Knebel to you? Is that really how anyone would describe Corey Knebel? Umm considering Knebel did struggle last year and would have been behind both Williams and Harder in the bullpen pecking order yes I stand by that comment. Not sure what else he would have been. Sure he could have gotten other late inning opportunities if harder and williams needed rest but with what he did last year and with what we had coming back he wasn't one of our top 2 options and he was going to cost too much Well he's been closing for one of the most talented teams in baseball history, so seems as though he's a big more than just some 7th inning guy. Is Walker Buehler just some "middle of the rotation pitcher" because he happened to be behind Kershaw and Bauer in the Dodgers rotation? Or would that be just a little bit mis-leading to frame him as such?

A "7th inning guy who struggled the previous year?" That's really an accurate depiction of Knebel to you? Is that really how anyone would describe Corey Knebel? Knebel would have lined up as our 7th inning guy & he pitched to a 5.78 xFIP over 13 innings in 2020. It's an accurate description. Of course the upside is there to return to circa 2017-18 form, but the Dodgers were just better positioned financially to accept the downside risk as the Brewers were working with about 150 million less in payroll & needed that five million elsewhere. I hope Corey has a great 2021 & is able to cash in as a free agent. I hope the players the Brewers spent that money on instead help lead them to the postseason & maybe even beyond. I hope Leo Crawford gets some outs for the Brewers at some point. Some of these hopes might be fulfilled & some may not...such is life. I try not to let it get to me. It's an incredibly disengenious description. He didn't just say the Brewers 7th inning guy, he said, "a 7th inning" guy in what seems to be an attempt to minimize Knebel as a whole, and the year he struggled he was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. So both parts are really intentionally, again, misleading. He had no chance to throw live innings anywhere but the big leagues. And by the end of the year, his stuff was coming back. I understand why they moved on from him, especially after Covid, I just think the way people are trying to bend over backward to argue that Knebel himself was just a guy who wasn't really that good anyway, so he wasn't worth the money...it's kinda silly. Just as silly as saying, "well, we don't know what Crawford will be, maybe he'll end up being more valuable." It was a financial move, that's it. It was a pretty good bet Knebel would throw well this year and the Brewers had a deep pen.

A "7th inning guy who struggled the previous year?" That's really an accurate depiction of Knebel to you? Is that really how anyone would describe Corey Knebel?

They have 20 games left, including a pair each against both Philly and Brooklyn - all in Milwaukee. Not saying it's gonna be easy but it's possible to catch one of them. Regardless, I'm assuming some of the electronic monitoring they do on these guys is showing they need rest and they deem that more important than chasing seeds and arriving at the playoffs with a worn out group. Face it, both Brooklyn and Philly have had their keys guys miss a lot of time and they're still ahead of the Bucks. Their guys have fresher legs and better records. May as well lessen the miles on our guys. And that's without mentioning the actual injury Giannis has. Yeah, that's my bad, 20 games left. I'd still like to have seen DiVincenzo out there vs a pretty bad Hornets team without Ball and Heyeward. Especially coming off one of his better performances, but with 20 games left, they've still got time.

Right...this started with,"I wouldn't be surprised if this was CTE." As though CTE is just why you shoot children(though, again, I don't think that's how it was intended). It somehow feels as though we're minimizing CTE AND these abhorent violent actions at the same time. Mike Webster bought a taser so he could sleep. He'd tase himself. He had super glue to glue his teeth back in. He duck taped pens to his hands so he could write letters without the pen falling out. CTE does terrible, awful things to you. Webster was as bad a case as I've heard of. I've never heard or seen anything about him taking out children. Maybe if you start with someone who's emotionally troubled and then you damage their brains, they're more likely to act on those violent impulses. I don't know and I don't think anyone does. So as you're suggesting, until we actually know if he even had CTE, we're making a lot of assumptions. But the worst one is just assuming that because some trash human being murdered a family, CTE played a role. And that's the only thing that's not an assumption at this point. This guy....was a trash human being. Doctor cut him off, he killed the Doctor(understandable though obviously not justifiable, but I can wrap my head around killing him in a fit of rage). Then the wife, then kids. I can't even reach to understand the wife and I won't try to understand killing children.

He apparently binge-watched passed seasons and took notes on how Trebek reacted to correct answers and incorrect answers. Which was probably a mistake. The best thing you can do is just be yourself, not imitate someone else. I agree...except for you're really threading a needle there. You're taking over for a legend. You want to be yourself, and I thought there were a few times he was a little different than Trabek, but you also don't want to try and pay homage to the late, great host of the iconic show. I think over the long haul, Rodgers would do pretty well.

I thought that was funny. I don't think that was done with any malicious intent.

He was sent down for a couple weeks and then came pack and was dominant for the Brewers the year they took the Dodgers 7 games in the NLCS. He was one of the key players in that run. If they were worried that the 2018 Knebel was coming back, that would seem like more a check in his column, not against him. They didn't want to commit 5 million dollars to another BP arm when they had Hader, Williams and a number of other power arms out there. They got something rather than nothing for him and I'm guessing they're not shocked that his stuff has come all the way back....and they probably knew there was a good chance he'd be a dominant BP arm.

I feel like we're going to see one at some point this year. I know the odds are against that, but Woody and Burnes are so nasty when they're on(Peralta as well). Of course we could see a couple in Milwaukee that aren't quite so favorable to the home team...

That's why I'm almost more excited for Minor League Baseball to start than I was for opening day. It'll be interesting to see what seeing more advanced pitching did for Turang for instance. Could this maybe even speed up his development? Can Small maintain his reported increased velocity...if so, how high can he rise? He was dominant in spite of a big fastball, but due to his location and delivery. If he can keep all that but sit at 94, he could be nasty. It's not unrealistic to hope to see Ashby and Small making starts this year. That means...it's conceivable the Brewers could have a rotation of Woody, Burnes, Peralta, Small and Ashby. How long have we been praying the likes of Mike Jones or Mark Rogers or whoever could actually make it through the system and contribute. Now we could have 5 homegrown starters. But...first they've actually gotta starter playing some games.

I agree...and I agree with the following posts that are simply saying we can learn more about it and help treat it, try to prevent it(which I don't think we'll ever actually do, but it's something to work toward). Some people just break and some people are ticking timebombs. I just really don't like how CTE is thrown in at the end of a story like this as though that may explain it. I believe it does some horrible things and that guys like Junior Seau are so horribly affected by this that they take their lives when they otherwise wouldn't have. But he didn't take a family along with him...he didn't snatch a couple of children's lives on his way out.

He had other employment opportunities. The Yankees traded for him. But sure, you probably shouldn't give up millions over a beard. I think the larger point is that it's an antiquated and ridiculous rule in the first place. It's Baseball. Don Mattingly wore his hair too long...so they changed the rule. Showing just how arbitrary it was in the first place. They're the Yankees. It is funny just how seriously they take themselves...but it's nonsense.

Not quite sure why they're just throwing in the towel at this point. As of now, they'll get Miami in the 1st, Philly in the 2nd and Brooklyn in the ECF if they wanted to get to the finals. I guess after the Dallas loss they thought they were too far out. Now they're 4 with 10 to play, so they're definitely too far out.

I'm sure he'll have some level of CTE, but I also don't just flatly buy the CTE excuses(which I am not suggesting you were making). I don't believe good people who just suffer concussions over the course of their careers end up killing children in a massacre. At least I sure as hell hope not. I ended up missing my Soph year in Coll due to a concussion and then had to stop after getting one early as a Jr and have had at least 8 or 9 good ones in all. They tried to kinda suggest that Aaron Hernandez was a thug because of CTE. I'll buy headaches and other side affects, but not these manic fits that send you into these psychotic shooting sprees. The man shot little children. So I guess something was wrong with his brain, I just won't chalk it up to playing FB.

I'm real excited about the prospect of having Mitchell and Turang atop our lineup in the near future. Both guys have elite speed, get on base, play premium positions and hopefully will set the table for Yelich, Hiura. I think Turang's a future leadoff hitter and Mitchell sounds at the moment like an ideal #2. If he adds a bit more power, then perhaps he becomes more of a middle of the order bat. But with those two, and then some of the young arms and catchers we've got, I think this system is underrated. We may not have a lot of surplus talent that would allow us to make the types of trades the Pads or Astros were able to, but still...I think we look back on this group in 4-5 years and all agree it's an underrated group. A starting SS and CF'er who should hit, get on and steal bases while playing very good defense, a couple of lefty starters and a few good pen arms...and that's not counting on the development of guys like Perez who have huge upsides.

He signed a two time all-star with 4000 MLB PA's to a minor league deal. And your problem with this is....?

Maybe the $5.25mil he is getting paid...$10mil would have been pretty steep. I was hoping they'd bring him back as well...the idea of being able to throw Hader, Williams, Knebel, Rassmussen, etc... in the pen could have given us one of the better pens in a while. But it's also not hard to understand why they decided that was a position they could afford to save some money on.

It must really be hard for Cubs fans to cry themselves to sleep knowing they only won 1 World Series in the last 5 years... Oddly, depending on the generation/age of the Cubs fan, that's actually true in some cases..... It's really not that crazy. When they won that WS, everyone was expecting them to contend for the next several years. They were young and extremely talented, Baez, Contreras, and Schwarber weren't yet full-time starters. There was no reason to think that'd be the last time they'd win a playoff game. As Packers fans know, you can both win a title and then be disappointed that you didn't win another one while you had the talent. When you're expecting a Dynasty and you can't manage 1 playoff win with your core....that World Series doesn't erase the future disappointment.

What??? I kinda get it. I grew up as a Cubs fan. They were my NL team. I know a LOT of Cubs fans. My College GF and their family had season tickets to the Cubs. There were endless stories of 90+ year old Cub fans wanting to see ONE WS, I could stomach it. But I've taken just as much joy in watching the franchise continue to underperform since then, and the Brewers playing a huge role in that.

I agree, I don't think wanting a women massage therapists or how many he's had is in and of itself very telling.

In the past 30-ish years of the NFL, there's a number of circumstances that clearly effect who becomes able to succeed as 1st rounders and those are destined to fail. Talent evaluation is certainly one of them, as some guys are absolutely overdrafted due to a team's desperation.... too many guys rocket up draft charts while ignoring red flags or because of combine stuff. The team they go to matters A LOT, as those that end up in situations where they have a good staff, good supporting team around them, and in a lot of cases, the ability to sit and learn a bit seem to have a much higher rate of success. In the end luck matters too. Is Tim Couch or David Carr a bust if they go a bit later in the 1st to better teams? Is Peyton Manning the same guy if he ends up going at #2 to San Diego instead of Indy? Is Aaron Rodgers the elite HOF QB he became if he was thrown into the fire in SF at #1 overall like Alex Smith was? Who knows. Darnold is probably viewed better if he ends up in Cleveland or Buffalo, as you note. I'd give this a re-post if this was twitter. That's is something so many people seem to ignore and rather than looking at how the franchises have failed them, they just put it all on the QB's. That's sometimes the case(Leaf could have gone to anyone, wasn't gonna matter). The one guy I always refer to is David Carr. Wilson is complaining about how often he is sacked. 48 and 47 times the past two years. And again, lets keep in mind 2020 rules vs 2003 rules. Can't hit a QB low, can't hit one high, can't drive through, can come CLOSE to the head, can't bump the head on accident after having your hands up trying to block the pass....etc...etc.. David Carr came, started with 8 other rookies on offense and a man who I believe is a great Defensive Coordinator, but not exactly someone I'd say is well known for developing Quarterbacks, Dom Capers. Add 2 more rookies the following years, and he was sacked an NFL RECORD 79 times a rookie, 49 times in his 3rd year and 68 times in his 3rd year. I think he was probably better than his brother, but he went to an expansion franchise that didn't draft very well, they had a defensive minded head coached and they did very little to get him help on the OL or elsewhere. In fact, in his 3rd I believe they had 10 picks, they used their top 9 on defensive players...and a QB as their 10th. Just going back and looking at the history of that franchise, they had some great drafts under Smith...who Bill O'Brien forced out and they were terrible before and since. The team you're drafted to is probably the biggest factor in the type of career a QB will have. I've argued that I think the gap between Rodgers and Smith would be much closer if they had flipped. Smith was thrown in too early, Rodgers got to sit and then had quite a bit of talent around him(and I think Clement and McCarthy did do a great job developing him). We forget how talented Couch looked coming out, but first two healthy years, he was sacked 106 times. Few QB's can overcome the type of abuse and lack of talent that Couch and Carr did. Peyton Manning was sacked 22 and 14 times his first two seasons. If you're going to invest a top 3-5 pick on a QB, you'd better be looking at building up your OL. Lawrence looks like he might actually be going to a decent situation with two solid young tackles and some nice weapons. Same with the Jets who just drafted their franchise LT last year and have another pick they're projected to use at tackle(Which is why I think they might be on the right track). And of course, whoever goes to SF is going to have a ton of talent with a HOF LT, a young, top 10 pick at RT, Deebo, Kittle, Aiyuk, and a great run game. Even the Bengals are in position to help Joe Burrow out a ton by drafting an rare talent at LT, or a WR'er like Chase at #5. Personally, I'd go with Sewell and hope he and Johnah Williams can give them two franchise tackles, then worry about WR'ers later on, but I suspect they take a pass catcher. Incidentally, IF the Packers decide to move on and start Love next year or the year after, he should also have the talent around him to succeed. Bahk, Adams, a lot of young OL, Tonyan should all be in place. Very possibly another 1st round OT from this draft class, plus, if they decide to do so after Rodgers has another monster season, they'll have a whole lot of draft picks to help build the team up and salary cap room after one year(not that I'd advocate this, just pointing out that Love is set up for success IF the Packers inexplicably move on from their MVP). You don't want your QB to be "seeing ghosts" out there when he's 20 years old and just trying to figure out how to go through his reads.

I was hoping he didn't end up in SF or Chicago. Especially SF. But we'll find out if he can get his career back on the same track as peers Josh Allen, Lamar and Baker. Amazing how two QB's had the deck so completely stacked against them from the start, Rosen and Donald, while the other 3 had organizations who built up their rosters to really help the QB's. Pretty easy for me to see the correlation between the two who have already been traded and those who haven't. If Darnold would have gone to Cleveland with the talent they were assembling, I don't have much doubt he'd be ranked head of Baker at this point.

Yeah, it's some sick stuff, but that's kinda what I was alluding to. The type of psychopathy doesn't make sense to most normal people. Bill Cosby was the biggest Comedian in the world for a long time and one of the wealthiest. He'd been drugging and assaulting women for how many decades? I do hope that's not Watson...but I'm not so sure we'll find out. I'd guess this ends with a settlement, NDA's and no charges. The later just because it's gonna be next to impossible to prove anything at this point unless there is documentation and he's already been offered a settlement to make it all go away.

I think you're spot on here. I think it also helps when all three of those superstars are guys who play hard and do all the little things. They play hard, smart, shoot well, they're all well rounded while, as you inferred, compliment each other very well. It's not LeBron, Wade and Bosh, but they were beaten by Dirk,Terry and Marion and then by Duncan(37), Manu(36), Parker and a 22 year old Kawhi who scored around 12 PPG that year. Nobody scored more than 16 PPG that year for SA. Just hoping that Holliday doesn't disappear or become a liability in the playoffs would be an improvement over our starting PG last year. If he could actually play BETTER like he did a couple years ago, we'll coming out of the East and taking the King's crown!

I like the diversity. I think it'll bode well in the playoffs. Middleton is an underrated facilitator in my opinion. Not saying he's a Scottie Pippen point forward or anything crazy, but he's not just a Carmelo type who's bringing the ball up and taking a bad shot 7 seconds into the shot clock or dribbling off his foot every 3rd time he drives like Big Dog used to. I'd rather Jrue, DDV and Teague bring the ball up as well...not so much Giannis, unless it's off a miss or in transition. Then obviously that's exactly when you want the ball in his hands.