DHonks

another perfect day (although abbreviated). not many this year

this is a typical awkward characterization we hear all the time. They didn't necessarily cut bait...they needed an open roster spot. With Taylor showing he's ready to be in MLB as a 4th OF and us needing roster space, Fisher was let go. Doesn't mean they gave up on him, it means they had a better choice. Just a pet peeve of mine, like when people incorrectly say we gave up on Grisham.

I think the idea was that Hiura could play a passable 2nd base, just like Rickie Weeks could. Both are among the worst defensive MLB 2b of the last 20 years. Hiura and Weeks both have decent arm strength, but terrible footwork and accuracy. Weeks scare me every time he tried to backhand a ball up the middle, or covered 1st on a bunt. Hiura only gave me slightly more confidence. If Hiura starts to hit, he'll find a position. But if he doesn't hit, there is no position.

Will be nice when he gets back. Urias at 3B, Wong at 2B, Adames at SS looks pretty solid. Defense is good. Urias has been steadily improving at the plate (.270 this month, .254 in the last 30 days), and if he can keep it up, looks like he can hold down the position. Even Vogelbach has been hitting a lot better of late (.281 in June, .250 the last 30 days). And both Urias and Vogelbach take a lot of walks. So even if they can just hit ..250-270 or so - they are serviceable. isn't .250 the same as old expectations of .280? And .270 more like the old .300? I've been trying to explain to family/friends how people--in this current era--can't hold players to the standards of even 4 years ago.

This is news to me. Small was an extremely talented multi-pitch lefty that consistently missed bats. Hiura was the consensus top college hitter available.

Rasmussen had terrible command. I’m guessing the Rays want him to develop fastball command and a passable 2nd pitch. I think he’ll have a great career, but he really didn’t belong in close games when pitching for us.

I said it about 10 days ago, but we may not lose two in a row until July. Next upcoming difficult series (on paper) is the Cubs June 25. Lots of low hanging fruit

Like the 5 ground outs, no fly outs as well

Pretty sure they held onto Vogelbach for the DH next year

I guess if there's a good thing it's that it's the left shoulder. The lead shoulder generates the power for hitting and is important for throwing.

...and visions of Hader and Burnes danced in their heads... Fair or unfair, I think expectations will be pretty high from fans. We saw success with top pitching prospects following that same multi inning role before. Excited to see what he can bring! Don't forget Woodruff. I've always felt Woodruff learned to trust his stuff and attack hitters thanks to his bullpen time

Man, watching some of those hitting clips of Keston really gets me depressed. How did he fall so quickly? That lightning speed bad and the way the ball just exploded when he made contact. Now, he constantly swings and misses at 90mph FB's right down the heart of the plate. Ugh....I know this goes without saying, but we really need this kid to figure it out. watching those highlights and it's obvious to see how he's being pitched differently. Pitchers consistently in 2020 and 2021 have thrown him high fastballs that he takes for strikes, high fastballs he swings through, and breaking stuff down and away. In those highlights, almost every pitch was a fastball down, slider mid-thigh, or changeup up. But the key is that he was spraying liners to all fields. I'm guessing he's worked to refine his launch angle for more list, and unfortunately we're finding that the newer pitching technique requires a more level swing and less focus on launch angle (see Kris Bryant's success with less launch). This should be correctable with working on the path to the ball.

From what we've heard of his approach, it could play well in this modern pitching era. I'd still take my time with him, and would like 150 plate appearances in Appleton at a minimum.

because buying high and selling low is the right strategy, right? The reality is that he has more value to us than to any other franchise. There's no way we swap him right now when he's got another option. He's young and talented, and--to be honest--currently the best bat we have in our farm system.

These don’t mean the same thing. You can be a 30th round pick and be a prospect. You can be a 4th round pick and a non-prospect

Looking at the schedule, we might just not lose until we play the Cubs at the end of June

I feel like this year for Kirby has a simple goal...just stay healthy. Everything with him this year seems primed to set him up for 2022. Have we seen any reports on his stuff? Is there any thought to returning him to starting if he has prolonged success this year? Who knows.

[sarcasm]I hope he does.[/sarcasm] sorry I couldn't resist. It's a pet peeve of mine when a sports announcer says "and (insert name) is out with an oblique." No he's not out with an oblique, he's out with an oblique INJURY.

I wouldn't say the Brewers have an obvious need. They have had very good relief pitching, and Lauer/Houser help add some stability when not starting. I expect that we'll add a reliever at the trade deadline. the AAA lefties could get a look as well.

I don't know why Love is viewed by some fans as a replacement for Rodgers. I viewed him as shoring up a major weakness and increasing depth. I've learned that while the starting QB is the most important player on the team, the backup QB isn't far behind. Having a projectable backup that could possibly start one day, fill in for injuries (Rodgers has had several), or be traded like Brunell, Brooks, and Hasselback. Even using a 1st rounder on a QB, then trading that player for a 2nd rounder 2 years later is a shrewd move. It gave you depth for 2 years, then was turned into a fairly high draft pick.

when I worked in the Fall League, we fed them one hot meal and one cold meal (breakfast or cold cut sandwiches) each day. We had yogurt, bread, condiments, cereal, etc available. The hot meal could be eggs, French toast, breakfast sandwiches, sloppy joes, macaroni and cheese, corn dogs, etc. At the time, that was considered a AAA-caliber meal, and the clubhouse dues were in line with AAA--I think $8-12/day to cover the meals, shoe cleaning, laundry, etc. I'm not sure if things are different now, but 15 years ago the organization didn't pay for all of that, instead it was the players. Now there's a greater push for nutrition, so I'm guessing teams have contracts with outside vendors rather than a clubhouse staff doing it all.

Interesting stuff. Hiura is the first Brewers prospect I've seen that epitomizes the post-analytics approach to hitting. He really only has one swing mode -- hard, all of the time -- and with an uppercut optimized for launch angle. Between that and the timing issues it makes him a one trick pony at the plate and he has shown zero ability to adapt his swing to hit the high pitches. Monty's Narvaez comparison makes a ton of sense in this context. I know it's not a popular opinion but if I were the Brewers I would think about trading Hiura at the deadline. Yelich...I'm worried like everyone else, but at least it hasn't hurt the team to have Yelich in the lineup the way that it does to play Hiura. -1.2 bWAR, 3rd worst in MLB. At least Yelich has been replacement level. Would Jenkins be able to hit .100 in MLB today with his violent one-handed uppercut? I think his swing was very close to the statcast/trackman ideal swing of 3-4 years ago. And he didn't have to deal with pitches above the belt being called strikes. The problem is that pitchers have learned how to tweak mechanics in-game and daily, but most hitters require a major overhaul. Go back to when Hiura started being exposed last year. He started seeing early count fastballs barely scraping the letters called strikes. This was happening every game. Then he'd try swinging at those and simply couldn't touch them, requiring him to guess pitches to speed up his bat. That left him exposed to low-breaking balls. Once he was caught looking up and down, he became such a mess that a fastball down the middle baffled him. I'm no hitting coach, but how might I try addressing this? Two things come to mind: -asking him to crouch more (at the waist), thus bringing the top part of his zone closer to belt-high. Think Rickey Henderson. Normally Hiura is VERY upright. This wouldn't be a hard tweak. -Ask him to focus on meeting the ball with a level swing, although this would be very had to accomplish in-season.

Just wanted to point out that EVERY player in history is awful for most of their at bats. That's why nobody has ever hit .501 or better. Baseball is a sport where we put someone in the hall of fame for succeeding in 3/10 of their at bats, and this year a player succeeding in 1/4 is looking mighty good. So Hiura is doing well in 1.5/10, that's not far off from 2.5/10

There was a great article the other day in the Athletic in which it talked about the problem for hitters these days, and Hiura fits the profile. Basically: -for generations, pitchers were told to throw sinkers down and away...focus on the bottom of the zone -until around 2000, the pitch above the belt wasn't called a strike, and definitely no breaking balls that high. Now the upper part of the letters is called a strike consistently. -hitters adapted by utilizing launch monitors and tailoring their swings with a healthy uppercut to crush pitches down low -teams adapted by scrapping sinkers and switching to 4-seamers, cutters, and high breaking pitches. -This results in pitchers having an extreme comfort zone from the belt-up, but hitters liking balls from the belt down. -Teams need to prioritize situational hitting and linedrive hitters to counteract this new strike zone and pitching analytical approach. guys like Overbay, Loretta, Cirillo, Mueller, Gwynn, etc would be spraying these high pitches to all fields for doubles, but guys with today's hitting mechanics simply can't hit these pitches unless they are guessing, which opens them up to looking foolish on low breaking balls

I think this might be our first perfect day for the organization this season....6-0