xisxisxis

I agree with most of what you said, but the highlighted part is the key. The Brewers can compete if they are smart. Unfortunately, where big markets have an advantage is in that they can afford mistakes, while the Brewers have little margin to make mistakes. True but that can work to your advantage some times. You have a built-in excuse for not signing guys like Darvish or trading for Sonny Gray, whereas big markets are tempted to. Sometimes lack of access is the best thing to keep you off a drug. Very true, but our experience with not so smart management is that instead of going for the name brand drug (Darvish/Gray) the Brewers go for the generic brand (Suppan/Looper) and end up with massive side effects...

Go Blind Squirrel!!! GO!!!! And our Little Leaguer at SS had a couple of hits!!!!

I agree with most of what you said, but the highlighted part is the key. The Brewers can compete if they are smart. Unfortunately, where big markets have an advantage is in that they can afford mistakes, while the Brewers have little margin to make mistakes. As a recent example, the Schoop trade could be a mistake that we can't afford. If he doesn't return to the career numbers or exceeds them his 2019 salary makes it extremely difficult for the Brewers to fix other issues. If we non-tender him we've lost significant talent in the whole transaction. A big market team would have no issue with either keeping him and absorbing the salary or non-tendering and buying another 2B. Smart means evaluating whether you are getting average or above average performance out of instructers/scouts/etc. It's been brought up that Gleybor Torres and Ozzie Albies have been terrific in MLB while their miLB numbers weren't as impressive. Is that luck? or were they coached well? If you look at their advanced stats they are totally different hitters in the majors compared to the minors. Does that mean the Yankees and Braves have excellent hitting coaches? Didn't Aaron Judge exceed expectations based on his minors performance? Both players need to be successful past this year to be more than a fluke, but do we have the right personnel to be successful with developing our prospects. Because we absolutely have to be if we are going to be a smart team. Every indication is that Derick Johnson is a very good pitching coach, where's the data on Darnell Coles? Because, these deadline deals aren't going to be keys to the Brewers future if we can't maximize our player development pipeline. Sure, deadline deals are often necessary due to injury, but if that's not the case, then your patching up mistakes that were made the previous winter.

I agree. Most teams error on the side of the absurd when it comes to young arms. Maybe Stearns has data that throwing balls puts little effort on your arm while throwing strikes stresses the arm... Then it's clear the Brewers are instructing him to continue to throw mostly "balls" to save his arm... He doesn't have the pinpoint control of a blind pitcher by accident... it's intentional!

FIXED!

You mean the SF game where he pitched 1 1/3 IP and had 2 K, 0H, 0BB... That stress? what, he didn't K 3 so he was a basket case?

I get what you're saying but putting the lead runner on base intentionally with the bases empty is almost unheard of. You go from a homer losing the game to a double losing the game. I really don't blame CC for this one as Jennings has had success against LH hitters, but we can't rely on him to face RH batters, which means bringing him in to face Scooter makes the 9th a 3 pitcher inning in a time game and that means Knebel or wasting Jeffress to get out of the 9th.... I would have had Williams pitch around Scooter and if he didn't swing at any Balls then he's unintentionally/intentionally walked. Even if we get through Knebel in the 9th/10th we are running out of pitchers if the game goes into the 11th. Anyways, tough loss...

When the Brewers moved to the NL did they sign away their right to intentionally walk a batter? Because I could see a good reason in a TIE game, to maybe walk the LH with Williams pitching and have him face the RH hitter batting next, instead we switch pitchers and go with a better matchup, until the next batter and then Jennings isn't an advantage and we've blown through another pitcher... I guess since I'm just a guy posting on a forum, I don't have any idea why my idea sucks and Counsell's was brilliant...

The Blind Squirrel found a Nut!

I wonder what the 2 left-handed batters that hit HR tonight, did in a few handful, or infinitesimally small number, of PA against Bailey in the past...

Against the Brewers = 0.600 Against the rest of baseball = 1.105

Getting a lot of bonus points for hard hit balls... too bad we can't trade 10 of them in for a run...

I always think there's hope for the future. I just don't have any confidence in the future. Right now this organization doesn't have the talent necessary to be a contender. Sure, we might get into the playoffs with this talent, but it isn't likely. Most projection systems had us a near 0.500 team for 2018 and guess what we've been since the end of May. To make the playoffs with this talent, we would need a little bit of luck and to make a dent in the playoffs we would need a LOT of luck. You know the kind of luck we've had since... never... And what if the luck we were going to have this year was our performance in April/May... As fans we tend to overinvest in the positives and to ignore the negatives. Based on projections and performance this team is a 0.500 talent. So how do we get better? Dumpster diving - sure there is always value in picking up players who didn't have success in their organization and need either more time to develop or a change of scenery. But lets not fool ourselves that this is the next big untapped talent pool. All teams do it, some teams have more success, but it isn't a difference maker. Draft/Develop - we are still not a top organization and, this is really the crux of the problem for the future. As the smallest market in baseball we have to have a successful farm system to ever have any chance at being a contender - we can't outspend anyone, we have to outsmart them. The Brewers have been so bad for so long that Stearns should have cleaned house completely on the draft/development side (fire everyone). I don't think he has so we are stuck with some of the same poor performing parts of this area. Sure, Stearns drafts seem to be better and some indications are positive, but being better than horrendous just makes you not horrendous. We are stuck in development hell, we won't have top ten picks because we are so mediocre we aren't bad enough to get into the elite part of the draft and we aren't good enough to actually get to the playoffs. Where we need to be smart is identifying talent that will become elite. When have the Brewer ever done that? Braun, Fielder & Weeks were top 10 talent. Hart was the closest to being a "later" pick that ended up having a decent career. Hardy was a 2nd round, so not really an unexpected result. Until we start developing some diamonds in the rough we are toast as an organization. Free agency - we only have the ability to compete on fringe talent. And that's the most likely best bang for the buck as elite talent is an overpay at this point. We need pre-FA/Arby players in their prime and relatively valuable (lower contract to production). So not a lot of hope here for the long term. The only way we add talent this route is if the owners reduce their vast profit. Really the future is completely in the control of the owners. If they insist on continuing to take huge profits while the team has a below average farm system, below average international presence and average major league talent then their isn't much hope. The fact that the major league talent is average is either an accident at this point, or planned to make it look like the team is better off than it really is. I really think Attanasio needs to commit to making the team at least average across the board before he milks huge returns out of his investment. But that's my opinion and it ain't likely he agrees (remember he doesn't own the whole team, he is the majority owner and he brought along a lot of the Selig partners - who I imagine are loving the returns after so many years of pumping money into the Brewers). They need to invest to make the Brewers at least somewhat competitive across the board, but I don't see that investment. Sure there's a bit of money here and there, but there still isn't enough progress to ease up. Was the Maryvale investment necessity or a grand plan to increase our farm system/development pipeline? Have they hired the right people and gotten rid of the crap from before. I am not a slash and burn believer in leadership transitions (I've been burnt enough myself), but the development and farm system was so bad for so long that it needed a housecleaning. We need to stop being mediocre, in both directions. If we really don't have the talent to be a contender for the playoffs then don't waste money to be 0.500, sell off the talent that have value and won't be there when the next talent pool, that can contend, comes around and go for better draft position. There's nothing worse than a mediocre team that isn't young, which is what we have right now.

I'm so depressed I'm pouring salt on everything just to get my blood pressure up... I don't recommend salted Banana...

Adam, you missed a ton of seasons of Theo moves, but yeah I guess that axe you got is really dull... Grind on...

Welcome to Milwaukee Wade Miley... Today you officially became a Milwaukee Brewers Starting Pitcher...

Blasphemer!!!!! Stone him!!!!!

The best part of a game day... when we still are excited and even after all the past experience with the team, we have that wellspring of hope... Then the game starts...

A Baseball manager is like an assistant director of a film (the person who often shoots the Titles/Credits and secondary/filler shots). The meat is the film and not the add-ons so if the Director (the players) doesn't do their job then the film is crap. If the assistant director is pretty bad, nobody really notices, and it doesn't really effect the quality of the film. In my opinion, a manager has 3 main duties: 1) Set the Lineup - Counsell seems to make a few mistakes by sticking with an underachiever (Eric Sogard Waves), while keeping better options on the bench. Overall, he doesn't do it a ot and he mostly gets it right (we don't see Yelich and Cain sitting too much). What annoys the living crap out of me is the surrender lineups. Why he chooses to give up on Sunday games is just mind boggling. Sure players need rest, but why rest all of the good ones at the same time. The argument in his defense has been that other teams do it, but why are we so bad compared to the rest of baseball if they are doing the same thing? Overall I give Counsell an average on Lineups. 2) Pitching/double switch changes during a game - Counsell seems to really have a poor ability to evaluate whether a player has it or doesn't. Early in the season he was heavily relying on the bullpen and pulling a SP at the first sign of trouble (which was often the first baserunner starting in the 6th inning). Yet when a RP walks the bases loaded in a high leverage situation, we get the vacant stare and maybe, maybe a call to get someone up in the bullpen. Overall, though the mistakes are not that major and there aren't that many of them. I am more concerned with the weird rules about bullpen usage, especially with off days and the team struggling to actually get a lead. It's almost as if he can't process more than 1 data input at a time... He isn't awful and he isn't great. Overall he overused the bullpen early on and is way under utilizing the good players the 2nd half, mostly based on some really weird conditionals. Average. 3) Keeping the players engaged/upbeat - by all accounts he hasn't lost the clubhouse and the team appears to be positive and hasn't given up. Good. He's just another former player (a pretty average to bad one) that over-values players just like him and doesn't understand the difference between a player like him and a player with real talent. He makes pretty standard decisions and like many managers who try to apply analytics often doesn't get it right as he just doesn't really understand the fundamentals. While I complain about plenty of decisions, baseball is stuck with the need to continue to run out former players who seem to have the right, historic qualities, and in the end Counsell is just like the hundreds of others with the same resume. Even heavy analytics teams haven't abandoned the former player model for manager so I doubt we see much movement in that area for years to come. Therefore, Counsell is no worse than RRR, or Ned Yost, or most past/current managers and unfortunately, not much better. Short answer to long post: 10%

Cole Hamels has a career WAR of 46.7... way better than any of the retreads and never beens the brewers have in their rotation. His WAR this year is 1.1 which is tied for 3rd on the Brewers with their duct tape and bondo starting pitching. These aren't small sample numbers, these are facts... I don't need to see 4 games of his performance since the trade to know he would have helped the Brewers rotation... Hamels Home/Away splits were clearly masking a decent pitcher under Arlington Park noise... Yeah 4 games because he pitched another gem last night for the Cubs, while our strike zone adverse rookie lost another game (of course we can blame the offense for only scoring 2 runs, but the next time he gives up 6 and they score 5 the excuse will be what? the Umpire screwed us, or the grass was too short in the OF where the other team hit balls, or the team ran out of midol....)...

Coming into tonight they were 4th in the NL with 97. The “top” 3 had 100, 99, and 98 and fewest was 71. If they had a playoffs for GIDP we'd be right in the thick of it...

Don't start with me...

Does anyone still really believe, gun to your head, that this team is making the playoffs this year? I've been so negative about the Brewers for so long that SOMEDAY they are going to prove me wrong... I really don't think this is the year...

Did he throw only fastballs in the first inning?

We go from Wild Freddie to throw multiple balls in the same location in a row, then boom.... really excellent pitching.... He's young and an exciting prospect but I don't want to see him again until he's figured out how to pitch...