Eye Black

If he played for any other organization I would say the chances are slim to none (literally any of the other 29 orgs), but I wouldn’t put anything past the Mets at this point.

I can’t believe Guerra got away with so many pitches down the middle of the zone. Time to exhale.

I wish I felt better about this game with a one run lead heading to the bottom of the 10th.

Please get the run in some how, some way.

Unbelievable

If the Brewers lose this game BF.net might get burned to the ground tonight.

Deolis Guerra on a major league mound for the first time in nearly two years (September 30, 2017).

I don’t think that hit him??

Have to give it to the Brewers, they’ve found new ways to be infuriatingly frustrating this week.

Also, why is Saladino still in the game with Brault pulled? Maybe he’ll challenge Counsell’s 45 at bat hitless streak at some point.

Career infielder Tyler Saladino now playing multiple meaningful games in the outfield. It’s sort of ironic that the Brewers seemingly had an embarrassment of riches in outfield prospects a few years ago and have either had every one of them traded, injured, or slow to develop. Yes, obviously I know Grisham is breaking out now, but that is a very recent development.

I will start with this 2014 trade (here is the original LINK to BF.net thread on this trade). Today marks the 5th anniversary of this A’s-Cubs trade (word of the trade agreement initially broke around 10pm the night before)... July 5, 2014: Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel traded by the Chicago Cubs to the Oakland Athletics for Billy McKinney, Addison Russell, Dan Straily and cash. This trade has always stood out to me for the following three reasons... 1) It was earlier than anyone expected a huge trade. Billy Beane got out in front of the typical window leading up to the trade deadline and swung a seemingly big deal. 2) Instead of acquiring a single starting pitcher, the A’s traded for 2/5ths of their new starting rotation. That seemed very rare at that time, and I can’t think of another example since. Samardzija pitched well with his new team, but Hammel struggled quite a bit down the stretch. The A’s made the playoffs, but lost the Wild Card game to Kansas City by a score of 9-8 in 12 innings (the A’s had led 7-3 until the bottom of the 8th inning). 3) I thought Billy Beane was crazy for trading away Addision Russell in the deal. At the time Russell was a top ten prospect in baseball. By pre-2015 he was a consensus top five prospect across MLB. Yet Beane flipped Jeff Samardzija in the off-season to the White Sox in a deal that included SS prospect Marcus Semien in return. Semien was far less heralded prospect than Russell, but at this point has developed into a more valuable player than Russell. Semien has really had an even greater breakout to start 2019. I enjoyed reflecting on this trade, so figured I would share some thoughts for those waiting in anticipation of this year’s big deadline moves.

One of my favorite times of year as it relates to the baseball calendar is the anticipation of big trades leading up to the trade deadline. I thought it might be fun to share thoughts on memorable trades from the past. They can be Brewers trades in July, or trades that didn’t involve the Brewers at all, but also occurred leading up to the July deadline. No trade is too big (CC Sabathia) or small (Jerry Hairston) to discuss.

The Brewers pitching staff has given up 3 or fewer runs in 6 of their last 8 games. That is coming off a stretch where they had allowed 4 or more runs in the previous 8 straight games. Good progress on the pitching side!

I'm pretty sure teams are usually happy with both. Even Kimbrel at his best didn't blow everyone away. If that was a Hader game, we'd be talking about how that wasn't on him at all. And if Hader had only thrown a few innings all year, we'd type out Relax in all caps. At his best Kimbrel had a 100-mph fastball and led all relievers in baseball in swinging strike rate (19.4% in 2012; 19.8% in 2017). His swinging strike rate this year (granted in only a few outings) is 12.3% which would be more than 4% below his career norm and the lowest mark of his career. That is still a fine SwStr%, but if he had enough appearances to qualify for the reliever leaderboard it would rank just outside the top 75 among all relievers. I don’t think Kimbrel is going to have a Greg Holland type implosion, but I also don’t think he is going to be one of the most feared closers in baseball going forward.

Zach Davies: Batter (Pirates) vs Pitching Stats Steven Brault: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

In 2017 the Dodgers lost 11 straight in September and ended up in the World Series. Still, I certainly wouldn’t bet on this Brewers team to make the World Series.

He is 25 years old and under team control for 4.5 more seasons. The odds are very small they would trade him unless they’re convinced they will receive a no doubt difference maker in return. That being said, I wouldn’t freak out if they traded him as long as they got really good value in return. Here are some very long shot (like to the moon) possibilities that would be tempting... ...to Twins for OF Alex Kirilloff, RHP Brusdar Graterol, and 1-2 more player. ...to Astros for OF Kyle Tucker and RHP Corbin Martin. ...to Braves for OF Drew Waters and RHP Ian Anderson.

Hiura had one of the 2 paltry brewer hits today and was on base twice...tough for any one player to suddenly make the rest of a mlb roster hit. I get your point but it seems like a reach when Keston is far from looking the worst at the plate for this club right now. Hiura needs to make more contact, but I think he will with time similar to how his season at Triple-A played out. The only Brewers player (among those with 50+ plate appearances) who is averaging a higher Exit Velocity than Keston Hiura is Christian Yelich. He’s 22 years old, I think Hiura could be a fine #6 hitter this season, but if other guys struggle he is unfortunately going to be expected to do more.

What a disappointing few days for the Brewers. The boat continues to take on water, unfortunately.

Dear Brewers hitters, please make the Yelich lead-off double count.

It is sort of amazing that the pitching has improved at the exact same time the offense has gone into a complete hibernation.

As the Brewers sit in a Fourth of July rain delay I thought I would take a look at how many wins each NL Central team is currently on pace for right now (not counting the Brewers game as a loss just yet)... Brewers - 85.7 wins Cubs - 83.7 wins Cardinals - 81 wins Pirates - 80 wins Reds - 77.1 wins Here is a link to our preseason NL Central Standings Prediction thread. The poster named ougiqbxy predicted the following in post #22 and may be in the running to win the pot...

“I’ve been told....” posts on this site have jumped the shark, IMO. Or should I say, jumped the “snark”?