Eye Black

According to Newton’s Third Law the Brewers will now never go below .500 throughout the playoffs!

Brent Suter: Batter (Dodgers) vs Pitching Stats Walker Buehler: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

Ironically, manager Sandy Alomar, Jr. actually sort of insinuated something along similar lines in his post-game press conference. Alomar said, “It says to me that he’s a young kid. It says to me that he was too excited.”

Yes, I was going to post something similar in the game thread tomorrow. He has actually only pitched 5 more innings than Brent Suter this year and by most statistical metrics Suter has been the better pitcher. I think he is a very good pitcher, but similar to how they’ve had success against Jack Flaherty, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Brewers find some success against Buehler.

Starters for Wednesday’s National League games.

Regarding Lauer, here are a few thoughts... 1) Baseball is a match-ups game. The Dodgers hitters are incredible, and have very few weaknesses. It's nearly a roster full of All-Star hitters. Among the few things they aren't incredible at are hitting against pitchers who can throw with their left-hand and sliders. Eric Lauer has the ability to do both of those things. In the past Lauer has successfully induced some uncharacteristic swing and miss out of the Dodgers' batters. 2) Eric Lauer pitched 11.0 innings over 4 outings this year. The batted ball results haven't been good for three of those outings. Actually, they've been terrible. It's been a combination of things he can control (location, lack of command, sequencing) and things he can't control (some bad luck as evidenced by an unsustainable high BABIP). 3) As noted, he had one not-so-terrible outing. If you go back and watch his outing against the Cubs (2.2 IP, 6 SO) it will give you reason for hope. His command on the outer half of the zone looked good, and the Cubs hitters were having trouble picking up his cutter. Not one of the 10 hitters he faced that day put his cutter in play. In normal circumstances I would agree that Lauer has no business pitching in the postseason this year, but there is enough reason to at least consider it given the alternatives. Maybe I'll be wrong, but I would be surprised if a pitcher like Lindblom has any success whatsoever against the Dodgers hitters. I would put a bet on him giving up more runs than innings pitched against them. If I had to guess, I think the most likely usage for Lauer (if he makes the 28-man Wild Card roster) will be to come into a game where the Brewers are already down 3+ runs and eat a couple of innings.

That 9th inning error with two outs in a tie game leading to 3 runs has to be sickening for Twins fans. They might be on the verge of a rally here in the bottom of the 9th. Edit: No rally.

If there was ever an offense that could put them to the test it's the Braves. Should be a very intriguing pitching versus hitting matchup. I think Castillo will be great, Bauer will have a decent outing but give up 2-3 runs, and Gray will get shelled.

My County Stadium seats have served as great shelves for boxes in my office. (that said, I really like them and just need to clean up) I watched the USA play in the 2013 World Baseball Classic at a bar in Champagne, Illinois that had modified old stadium seats from County Stadium into actual chairs (I think it was like 8-12 total) that were being used at some of their dining tables. I thought that was sort of a cool use for the County Stadium seats.

Mock drafts will start to come out now that there’s an assumption the order is set based on this year’s records. Although they will change significantly between now and next July, it seems apparent there is going to be a lot of talent in this year’s draft. The Brewers should be able to snag an exciting prospect with the #15 selection. Here’s the first mock I’ve see with the actual draft order: Prospects Live 2021 Mock Draft - Version 1.0

Wow, not a big fan of the NL Central's chances, huh? Actually, I kinda agree. All four teams kinda suck. The Cubs in particular looked terrible to end the year. I’m going to say two NL Central teams advance... NL Brewers over Dodgers Padres over Cardinals Cubs over Marlins Braves over Reds AL Rays over Blue Jays Yankees over Indians Twins over Astros White Sox over A’s

This series matchup makes me really wish Pomeranz would’ve had one more year of control when the Brewers traded for him last year.

Speaking of reverse splits, although his career numbers have only been slightly “worse” against LHP, this year Mookie Betts has been quite a bit worse against southpaws. In 2020 he’s had a 1.061 OPS against RHP and a .505 OPS against LHP.

This is what I'd do. Start Lauer and have the bullpen on high alert, particularly Suter. Cody Bellinger quote on facing Lauer: "He has a (bleeping) weird heater. It's hard to hit. You see it. Then you swing and it's by you."

I’m looking forward to seeing how the Twins (Maeda starting) fare against Greinke and the Astros today. Granted this doesn’t really mean much for the current crop of players who weren’t around for the majority of their postseason failures, but the Twins have lost their last 16 straight playoff games. They have also lost their last 7 postseason series dating back to 2002, and only won three games total during those 7 series (3 wins, 20 losses). It’s been well documented, but 5 of those 7 series were against the Yankees. I am guessing Twins fans are happy to see someone other than the Yankees in the playoffs this year.

Would this comment be taken as throwing some of the current players under the bus? I read it more as he was acknowledging the disappointment and taking the blame, but I can certainly see how it could be construed that way. Normally when he talks about acquisitions or roster moves he uses “we”, but in this case he used “I”. Either way, it gives me some hope that we will see a bit of a shakeup this offseason on the offensive side.

Wednesday is going to be wild with all day Postseason baseball from 11am until after midnight. The following thread has been started for discussing the playoff matchups and results, 2020 MLB Postseason: AL & NL Wild Card Series

For each round of the playoffs we will have a discussion thread. Obviously we will also have game specific threads for the Brewers games starting on Wednesday, but in the meantime feel free to discuss any of the playoff matchups or results here. WILD CARD SERIES Best-of-three (Italics below indicate "if necessary") Hosted by each league’s top four seeds All times CT Tuesday, Sept. 29 • AL Wild Card Series Game 1, Astros at Twins, 1 p.m. (ABC) • AL Wild Card Series Game 1, White Sox at A's, 2 p.m. (ESPN) • AL Wild Card Series Game 1, Blue Jays at Rays, 4 p.m. (TBS) • AL Wild Card Series Game 1, Yankees at Indians, 6 p.m. (ESPN) Wednesday, Sept. 30 • NL Wild Card Series Game 1, Reds at Braves, 11 a.m. (ESPN) • AL Wild Card Series Game 2, Astros at Twins, 12 p.m. (ESPN2) • NL Wild Card Series Game 1, Marlins at Cubs, 1 p.m. (ABC) • AL Wild Card Series Game 2, White Sox at A's, 2 p.m. (ESPN) • AL Wild Card Series Game 2, Blue Jays at Rays, 3 p.m. (TBS) • NL Wild Card Series Game 1, Cardinals at Padres, 4 p.m. (ESPN2) • AL Wild Card Series Game 2, Yankees at Indians, 6 p.m. (ESPN) • NL Wild Card Series Game 1, Brewers at Dodgers, 9 p.m. (ESPN) Thursday, Oct. 1 • AL Wild Card Series Game 3, Blue Jays at Rays, TBD (TBS) • AL Wild Card Series Game 3, White Sox at A's, TBD (ESPN Networks) • AL Wild Card Series Game 3, Astros at Twins, TBD (ESPN Networks) • AL Wild Card Series Game 3, Yankees at Indians, TBD (ESPN Networks) • NL Wild Card Series Game 2, Brewers at Dodgers, TBD (ESPN Networks) • NL Wild Card Series Game 2, Reds at Braves, TBD (ESPN Networks) • NL Wild Card Series Game 2, Cardinals at Padres, TBD (ESPN Networks) • NL Wild Card Series Game 2, Marlins at Cubs, TBD (ESPN Networks) Friday, Oct. 2 • NL Wild Card Series Game 3, Brewers at Dodgers, TBD (ESPN Networks) • NL Wild Card Series Game 3, Reds at Braves, TBD (ESPN Networks) • NL Wild Card Series Game 3, Cardinals at Padres, TBD (ESPN Networks) • NL Wild Card Series Game 3, Marlins at Cubs, TBD (ESPN Networks)

The Brewers have a 25 year old pitcher with the following career stats versus the Los Angeles Dodgers... [pre]W L ERA G GS IP WHIP SO9 PA AB BA OBP SLG OPS 5 0 2.11 7 7 42.2 1.031 9.1 174 161 .199 .254 .354 .608[/pre]

Good question. I have no idea. Yes, its my understanding it was only instituted for the regular season, not the playoffs.

According to Adam McCalvy: Game 1 of the Brewers-Dodgers Wild Card Series is at 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday on ESPN.

This quote gave me some optimism that this upcoming offseason will be better than the last. David Stearns: "A lot of the moves I made last offseason didn't pan out the way I thought they were going to. But our team really hung together, overcame that, and now we get to play in our third postseason in a row on a national stage. That's something to be really proud of."

I don’t know about Vegas, but FiveThirtyEight now gives them 5% odds of winning the World Series and FanGraphs is at 3.4% which is actually higher than the Cardinals (1.6%) and Marlins (1.5%) combined.

The 2021 MLB Draft order is set (assuming they indeed go solely with 2020 overall record as was recently reported). [pre]PICK TEAM RECORD WIN% GB STREAK L10 1 Pittsburgh 19-41 .317 -- Lost 1 4-6 2 Texas 22-38 .367 3.0 Won 3 4-6 3 Detroit 23-35 .397 5.0 Lost 1 2-8 4 Boston 24-36 .400 5.0 Won 2 6-4 5 Baltimore 25-35 .417 6.0 Won 1 3-7 6 Arizona 25-35 .417 6.0 Won 1 6-4 7 Kansas City 26-34 .433 7.0 Won 1 5-5 8 Colorado 26-34 .433 7.0 Lost 1 4-6 9 LA Angels 26-34 .433 7.0 Lost 3 6-4 10 NY Mets 26-34 .433 7.0 Lost 3 3-7 11 Washington 26-34 .433 7.0 Won 3 7-3 12 Seattle 27-33 .450 8.0 Lost 1 5-5 13 Philadelphia 28-32 .467 9.0 Lost 3 3-7 14 San Francisco 29-31 .483 10.0 Lost 3 4-6 15 Milwaukee 29-31 .483 10.0 Lost 1 5-5 XX Houston 29-31 .483 10.0 Lost 3 4-6 (Forfeited) 16 Miami 31-29 .517 12.0 Won 1 5-5 17 Cincinnati 31-29 .517 12.0 Won 1 7-3 18 St. Louis 30-28 .517 12.0 Won 1 6-4 19 Toronto 32-28 .533 13.0 Lost 1 6-4 20 NY Yankees 33-27 .550 14.0 Lost 1 4-6 21 CHI Cubs 34-26 .567 15.0 Won 1 4-6 22 CHI White Sox 35-25 .583 16.0 Lost 1 2-8 23 Cleveland 35-25 .583 16.0 Won 1 8-2 24 Atlanta 35-25 .583 16.0 Lost 2 6-4 25 Oakland 36-24 .600 17.0 Won 1 5-5 26 Minnesota 36-24 .600 17.0 Lost 1 6-4 27 San Diego 37-23 .617 18.0 Won 3 5-5 28 Tampa Bay 40-20 .667 21.0 Won 4 8-2 29 LA Dodgers 43-17 .717 24.0 Won 4 8-2[/pre]

The Brewers did it, they thread the ultimate MLB needle! They made the playoffs AND earned a top 15 pick in next year’s MLB Draft!