Eye Black

That is sort of oddly awesome and depressing at the same time.

Game #19 - Phillies at Brewers - April 16, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 5, Phillies 2 The Brewers improved to 11-8 on the season fueled by a decent Freddy Peralta start (4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO) and a bottom of the order that combined to go 9-for-12 in Piña, Arcia, Urías).

Game #18 - Phillies at Brewers - April 15, 2020 - Jackie Robinson Day (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Phillies 4, Brewers 3 (10 innings) The Brewers had a 3-2 lead as late as the 7th inning, but couldn’t hold on for the victory. Brett Anderson did have one of his better outings of the year lasting 6.0 IP and only being charged with two earned runs. Eric Sogard (1st inning) and Omar Narváez (6th inning) each hit home runs to lead the way for the Brewers offense. Keston Hiura struck out twice more tonight pushing his season strike out rate over 40%. Yelich is still struggling this season, batting just .271 through the first 18 games. Regardless, this is one the Brewers certainly could have won.

Game #17 - Phillies at Brewers - April 14, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 9, Phillies 4 I had to do a quick simulation tonight so no highlights, but another Brewers win. The Brewers are now 10-7 overall and just one game back of both the Cubs and Cardinals. A few of the Brewers among the top ten statistical league leaders include: Eric Sogard - 4th in BA (.364); Tied for 2nd in 2B (7), Tied for 8th in OPS (1.017) Avisaíl Garcia - Tied for 2nd in 2B (7) Justin Smoak - 3rd in BB (12); 1st in OBP (.475), Tied for 8th in OPS (1.017) Josh Hader - Tied for 2nd in Saves (6)

Game #16 - Phillies at Brewers - April 13, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 4, Phillies 3 Game Recap: Brewers improve to 4-1 on the home stand as Lorenzo Cain reached base in all four plate appearances (2-2, 2 BB) and came up with a clutch 2-run home run in the 5th inning with the Brewers trailing 3-0. Woodruff pitched decent with his lone big mistake to Bryce Harper. Josh Hader finished off the one run victory while recording his 6th save of the season. At 9-7 the Brewers are in 3rd place in the NL Central two games back of the Cubs (11-5), and one game behind the Cardinals (10-6).

Game #15 - Mets at Brewers - April 12, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 6, Mets 3 Game Recap: Brewers came out hitting Jacob deGrom right out of the gate on Eric Sogard’s ground rule double to right field followed by two more hits in the inning. Sogard finished the night 3-4 with a double and home run, and is now batting .380 on the season (19-for-50). Eric Lauer qualified for the win after going 5.0 IP, and improved to 2-1 on the season. Devin Williams (2.08 ERA) along with David Phelps and Josh Hader have been the Brewers best bullpen pieces so far this season and each pitched a scoreless inning in this one. Happy Easter!

Game #14 - Mets at Brewers - April 11, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Mets 3, Brewers 2 Game Recap: The Brewers let one slip away against Rick Porcello with deGrom on the horizon for Sunday afternoon. The Brewers left 13 runners on base and couldn’t come up with a clutch hit most of the night. The hardest hit ball for either team was a Keston Hiura base hit into right field that left the bat with a 107-mph exit velocity. Freddy Peralta lasted just 3.0 IP and gave up 6 hits and 3 runs. The short starts have become a hallmark of the Brewers rotation thus far. One silver lining is the bullpen combined to give up just 2 hits, 0 walks, and 0 runs over 6 innings pitched (Suter - 3.0 IP; Claudio - 1.0 IP; Knebel - 1.0 IP; Feyereisen - 1.0 IP).

NL Central Standings PRIOR to tonight’s game:

Game #13 - Mets at Brewers - April 10, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 6, Mets 2 Game Recap: The Brewers wore pinstripes for the first time this season, and rallied past the Mets for their 4th straight win after a rough start to the season. The Mets scored two runs in the 2nd inning after Brewers starter Brett Anderson hit two consecutive batters including Mets pitcher Steven Matz who was down 0-2. The HBPs were followed by a 2 RBI Amed Rosario base hit. The Brewers were led by the hot hitting Orlando Arcia (3-4, HR) and also got a home run from Ryan Braun (2-4, HR). Keston Hiura has also been heating up of late. Josh Hader recorded the save and has yet to give up an earned run this season.

Game #12 - Mets at Brewers - April 9, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 4, Mets 1 Game Recap: Brewers are riding a 3 game winning streak and back to .500 overall on the season now at 6-6. Starter Adrian Houser only lasted 4.2 innings pitched, but the bullpen filled in admirably following his exit. Christian Yelich hit the go ahead home run in the 6th inning, his second HR of the season. One random thing I learned is the highlight package camera angles change every time you play it. I only uploaded one version (below), but found that interesting.

Game #11 - Brewers at Reds - April 7, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 10, Reds 3 Game Recap: With Christian Yelich getting his first day off the season the Brewers finished the series sweep of the Reds in Cincinnati. Facing Reds starter Trevor Bauer the Brewers bats got an early lead once again. Manny Piña led the Brewers charge including hitting two home runs and totaling 6 RBIs. Brandon Woodruff was inexplicably removed after 3.1 solid innings, but Brent Suter filled in providing long relief in the middle innings. NL Central Standings Cubs 9-2 Cardinals 8-3 (1 GB) Reds 6-5 (3 GB) Brewers 5-6 (4 GB) Pirates 2-9 (7 GB)

The regular game isn’t choppy (i.e. the brief abrupt pauses) at all, but for whatever reason that is how the highlights come out.

Game #10 - Brewers at Reds - April 6, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 4, Reds 1 Game Recap: Brewers improve to 4-6 on the season as the bats came alive in the first inning. Keston Hiura had his first truly outstanding game of the season which was much needed. Eric Lauer had a much more successful second start to the season despite not recording any strikeouts. I’ll let the photos and video below tell the story of tonight’s game including the game log account of the 4 run first inning.

Game #9 - Brewers at Phillies - April 5, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Phillies 4, Brewers 3 Game Recap: This was probably the toughest loss of the season thus far, and it dropped the Brewers to 3-6 on the season. Phillies starter Vince Velasquez warmed up on the mound pregame, but had to exit before throwing a single pitch in the game after the trainer came out and checked on him. It seemed like a great opportunity for the Brewers to get a big lead early, but they squandered several scoring opportunities against the Phillies bullpen. It included scoring rallies in the first two innings that both ended in double plays, and in the 3rd inning the Brewers had the bases loaded with only one out when Avisaíl García popped out and Keston Hiura struck out (Hiura has been dreadful all around and is striking out at an alarming rate). Despite these troubles the Brewers built up a 3-1 lead before the Phillies began to chip away in the middle innings. Corbin Burnes came into the game in relief of Alex Claudio in the 6th inning with two outs already recorded and one runner on base. Burnes proceeded to give up a home run to the first batter faced, Deivy Grullon who quite honestly is a player I had never heard of before today. The Brewers head to Cincinnati in hopes of turning their fortunes around soon. 


Game #8 - Brewers at Phillies - April 4, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Phillies 11, Brewers 1 Game Recap: Not much positive to say about this one and it was over almost immediately. The Brewers stranded a pair of runners in the top of the first inning and then the wheels feel off quickly. Before anyone had scored in the bottom of the 1st inning Justin Smoak fielded what should have been a fairly easy double play, but his throw to 2B was off the mark. The error loaded the bases and on the very next pitch Rhys Hoskins hit a grand slam to give the Phillies a 4-0 lead. The Phillies continued to hit Brett Anderson hard in the 2nd inning and he wasn’t able to finish the frame. Yelich had the lone RBI, but even after today’s game he is hitting just .241 through the first 8 games. 


FanGraphs Ben Clemens is managing the Brewers via OOTP 21 this season which includes allowing readers to vote on various team related decisions. This should also be a fun follow. Here is a sample of the articles (and various team management polls) thus far... We’re Managing the (Fake) Brewers! (March 27, 2020) An OOTP Brewers Update: Virtual Trade Targets (April 1, 2020) As a reminder, I am also linking all of these simulations in the original post to this thread.

The Athletic simulated the Brewers season (link below): We simulated the 2020 Brewers season. Will it be another wild September? It’s paywall content so I can’t copy and paste the article which is fun and goes through the entire season of ups and down, but the for those that want to know the final results I have included a spoiler below.

Game #7 - Brewers at Phillies - April 2, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 10, Phillies 4 Game Recap: The Brewers brought their bats to Philadelphia and spoiled the Phillies home opener in front of a packed Citizens Bank Park. The Brewers were very patient from the start and forced Jake Arrieta to throw 45 pitches in the first frame (to just 8 batters faced). Arrieta lasted just 1.2 innings total and was charged with 6 earned runs. Eric Sogard and Justin Smoak continued to be the story of the early season as both stayed very hot in this one. Keston Hiura was given the day off due to his recent struggles, but will need to bounce back soon for the Brewers to sustain offensive success this year. This was the first time this year Counsell elected to bat the starting pitcher in the 8th spot and it seemingly worked out okay for the manager. 
 Instead of ramble on much further I’ve uploaded the highlight video (which is still missing a lot of the actual highlights) and screenshots that help tell the story.

Game #6 - Cardinals at Brewers - April 1, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Cardinals 4, Brewers 1 Game Recap: A second straight stinker against the Cardinals as the Brewers fall to 2-4 on the home-stand. The bright spot was Christian Yelich hitting a double and a home run. The Brewers had multiple occasions where they had runners in scoring position with either zero or one out and couldn’t convert. This included Keston Hiura popping out to the catcher on 3-1 pitch in the first inning with runners on second and third and only one out. They had a similarly fruitless rally in the 7th inning when Corbin Burnes was left in to bunt the two runners over with no outs and popped it back to the pitcher. I’m not really sure why he was left in when that would have been a great situation for a pinch hitter. It has been a rough start to the year for the Brewers in this simulation. Keston Hiura, who had a bad fielding error in this one, is in need of a serious boost in offensive production (hitting just 2-for-22 to start the season).

Game #5 - Cardinals at Brewers - March 31, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Cardinals 5, Brewers 1 Game Recap: This one never seemed all that close. Brewers starter Eric Lauer lasted just 3.1 innings, and the Crew never mounted much of a threat. Eric Sogard, Omar Narvaez, and Justin Smoak all continue their stellar offensive starts to the season. Milwaukee now needs to get Cain, Yelich, Garcia, and Hiura going in the middle of the order, in this one they combined to go 0-for-13.

I’ll see what I can do later this week in terms of splitting up the game simulation thread into an OOTP thread and an MLB The Show thread. Game #4 - Cardinals at Brewers - March 30, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Brewers 6, Cardinals 4 Game Recap: The first inning was wild on both ends. With Freddy Peralta on the mound the Brewers got off to a rocky start with two outs and a runner on first base when Matt Carpenter hit an opposite field HR off of the left field foul pole. The Brewers’ bats responded in the bottom of the 1st with 7 hits off of Adam Wainwright the resulted in 4 runs. The Brewers had the bases loaded and had already batted around when Freddy Peralta unfortunately grounded into a double play to end the big inning. It was Brock Holt’s first start of the season and he was batting leadoff. Peralta lasted just 4.2 IP, but did strike out 8 Cardinals batters over that stretch. The Brewers bullpen management was a little strange in this one as Hader finished the bottom of the 8th inning, but was pulled prior to the 9th inning. Hopefully there isn’t an injury issue, I’ll have to watch for the post-game comments from Counsell. In the 9th inning David Phelps recorded a strikeout of Dexter Folwer to start the inning before walking a pair of batters (Goldschmidt and Carpenter). Devin Williams then entered as the 6th Brewers bullpen arm of the night. He got DeJong to pop out to Smoak, but then the runners advanced to second and third on a “wild pitch” that looked a lot like a simple misplay by Narvaez. Yadi Molina hit a ball down the right field line that went foul by less than a foot before being sent down on strikes by Williams to end the contest. Brewers moved to 2-2 on the season and in a tie for 2nd place in the NL Central. One minor note, the graphic above shows Sogard as a 2B, but he started on the left side of the infield and moved to 2B late in the game. I have included video of the game highlights below for those interesting:

Game #3 - Cubs at Brewers (ESPN Sunday Night Baseball) - March 29, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Cubs 7, Brewers 5 Game Recap: The first ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game of the year was competitive and fun to watch for 8 innings. The Cubs hit Brett Anderson around, but the veteran southpaw was able to strand runners for the most part until the 4th inning. The Cubs hit their way to 3 runs in the top of the 4th. Facing Jon Lester the Brewers followed in the bottom of the 4th with a pair of walks from Hiura and Braun. Avisail Garcia then hit a double to left that was aided by a Kyle Schwarber misplay. Anderson lasted 5 innings, and Brent Suter was the first option out of the bullpen in relief. There were some defensive highlights in the game for the Brewers including a sweet double play where Arcia backhand a ball and sidearmed it to Hiura who made an unlikely barehand catch and throw to beat Schwarber by a half step. The biggest defensive highlight was a fully extended diving catch by Garcia in right field to end prevent a Cubs rally by ending the 6th inning. Hiura gave the Brewers a one run lead by leading off the bottom of the 6th inning with a solo home run that landed in the first row of seats above the Restaurant to be Named Later, and then in the top of the 7th David Bote brought it back even with a solo shot of his own off of J.P. Feyereisen. Things remained knotted up until the final frame, but the wheels than came off in the 9th inning with the game tied at 4 when Albert Almora Jr. led off the inning reaching on a routine ground ball to 3B Jedd Gyorko who had enter the game for Sogard on double switch. From there Devin Williams got hit around pretty good and gave up 3 runs. Burnes came in after Williams failed to record an out and he got out of the inning without any more damage allowing no additional hits and just one walk. Jedd Gyorko tried to make amends in the 9th with a monster solo home run to left, but it proved too little, too late.

Just realized that Baseball Reference is also running a daily simulation. So far in that simulation the Brewers are 2-1 after the opening series. I have linked it below and will also add the link to the opening post of this thread. Baseball Reference 2020 Simulated Season Daily Digest

I’m enjoying reading the posts from those participating in this thread. Unfortunately game two didn’t go as well in my simulation. Game #2 - Cubs at Brewers - March 28, 2020 (MLB The Show Sim) Final Score: Cubs 3, Brewers 2 Game Recap: The good news is Adrian Houser pitched a strong pitching six innings to start the season with the only damage being a pair of solo home runs. The bad news is Jason Heyward tallied three total solo home runs in the game which accounted for all of the Cubs scoring on the night. For the Brewers Lorenzo Cain had a two hit night and Omar Narváez hit his second home run of the season, tonight’s was off of Cubs starter Yu Darvish. Keston Hiura had another hitless game (0-4 with 3 strikeouts). Corbin Burnes gave up the decisive home run in the 8th inning, after two appearances this season he has allowed 5 hits and 4 earned runs over 1.1 innings pitched. After two games played every team in the NL Central is sitting at 1-1. [sarcasm]I guess this thing really is going to be a dogfight![/sarcasm]

Please do! This certainly qualifies as a “more the merrier” situation. Hopefully a fun exercise/distraction for a few folks.