Eye Black

[pre]Brewers Lineup Astros Lineup 1. Lorenzo Cain ® CF 1. Josh Reddick (L) RF 2. Christian Yelich (L) R 2. Alex Bregman ® SS 3. Ryan Braun ® DH 3. Michael Brantley (L) LF 4. Mike Moustakas (L) 2B 4. Yuli Gurriel ® 3B 5. Yasmani Grandal (S) C 5. Yordan Alvarez (L) DH 6. Eric Thames (L) 1B 6. Robinson Chirinos ® C 7. Travis Shaw (L) 3B 7. Tony Kemp (L) 2B 8. Ben Gamel (L) LF 8. Tyler White ® 1B 9. Orlando Arcia ® SS 9. Jake Marisnick ® CF[/pre] Justin Verlander: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

Ned Yost: "Soup pitched great."

I think there are some decent to good SP trade options, I just don’t know if the Brewers have the resources or desire to deal what it will take to acquire any of them. Here is a quick list of starters that will likely be shopped to some extent at this year’s deadline... Trevor Bauer, RHP, Cleveland Indians Madison Bumgarner, LHP, San Francisco Giants Robbie Ray, LHP, Arizona Diamondbacks Zack Greinke, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks Marcus Stroman, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays Caleb Smith, LHP, Miami Marlins Matthew Boyd, LHP, Detroit Tigers Mike Minor, LHP, Texas Rangers Aaron Sanchez, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays Tanner Roark, RHP, Cincinnati Reds

And to get that kind of production out of the catcher position seems so rare. It is going to be hard to see him go next year (assuming they don’t re-sign him).

I’m happy they are putting up a fight, but it also makes some of the missed opportunities this evening harder to stomach.

Ryan Pressly has been thee best reliever in baseball since Houston acquired him. Five (5!) earned runs in 53.2 IP. He makes a lot of guys look like that. This is exactly right. I am quick to get on Arcia’s case for terrible at bats, but Ryan Pressly has a way of making a lot of good hitters look very silly.

Our record is so good because two dozen teams are even worse than us. I think this year the eventual World Series champion should just be referred to as “the least bad of the bunch.”

I think that does happen in some cases, but it differs by team/coach. During the season, starting pitchers are pretty regularly on a once a week schedule. Not to say it will be exactly the same this year, but last year Mississippi State played in the College World Series as well. They ultimately played 4 games in 8 days (Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday). Looking at their starting pitchers at the CWS, Ethan Small pitched the first and the fourth games (so both Saturdays). They won their first two games, but had they been in the losers bracket Ethan may have pitched on slightly fewer days rest.

Well the Brewers gave up 16 runs to the Marlins last Tuesday, so by comparison this Tuesday isn’t so bad.

Brad Peacock: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

On May 1st the Cardinals were in 1st place in the NL Central a with a 3.0 game lead on the Cubs and a 4.0 game lead on the Brewers. They had the best record in all of baseball at 20-10. Since that date they’ve gone 11-22 and now trail both the Brewers and Cubs by 5.5 games.

Max Muncy’s response to MadBum while he was nearing home has already been transformed into a tee shirt...

It appears SCRUBS is still available if anyone wants to incorporate an endearing alternate moniker for the Northsiders.

This is anecdotal, but the fact that the Brewers drafted a lot of college performers would lead me to believe they will have some mature rookie ball teams that will win more than their share of games as well. I know you don’t include rookie ball teams in this record tracker (and understandably so), but I am predicting the winning carries over the the lowest levels this summer.

The Brewers are now 10 games above .500 for the first time this season (yesterday was the first time getting to 9 games over .500 this year). With the Phillies loss today the Brewers now have the second best record in the National League behind only the Dodgers. The Brewers are 7.0 GB of the Dodgers for the best NL record.

My new favorite forum post... well done!

I’m really impressed the Brewers were able to sign Terence Doston. He’s incredibly athletic and a very good student, I thought for sure he was headed to West Virginia to compete in football and baseball. He has run the 60-yard dash in 6.48 seconds. If you don’t believe me he is fast, here is a video of him hitting an inside-the-park home run (Twitter Link).

Explanation can be found in the Issues & Events forum, here’s a LINK.

I am really intrigued by the whole taking less time between pitches thing. Counsell seemed to really believe it made a big difference in Freddy staying ramped up and throwing harder throughout the outing. Looks like Freddy touched 97 mph at least once, but was consistently in the 94-96 range. He averaged 94.48 mph on his heater per Brooks Baseball.

Ethan Small has now thrown a season high 117 pitches through 6 innings. I can’t imagine they will bring him back for the 7th inning, but in college baseball you never know for sure. His line so far is 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 SO (74 strikes, 43 balls). He has thrown a lot more off-speed pitches tonight than he did during the season (threw 79% fastballs during the season). His fastball has been mostly 89-91 mph. Only a couple of years removed from TJ surgery, I’m guessing it will be a while until he is throwing a 110+ pitches in pro ball. I’ll be happy for him to move on to the College World Series, but I really hope they don’t ride him into the ground in the process. Edit: Small did not come back for the 7th inning. They had a lengthy delay after a Mississippi State player collapsed in the dugout with what appeared to be a seizure. Edit #2: They announced the player with the medical situation was LHP Jack Eagan from Wautoma, WI (also played at Madison College).

That is great, here’s hoping they can get to double digits over now! Brewers begin the season series at 5-1 against Pirates after only winning 7 games against them all of last season (7-12 in the 2018 season series versus the Pirates).

Bullpen retires 12 of the last 13 batters faced over the final four innings. Great performance locking down a tight game.

The biggest piece of transaction news that broke while the site was down. MLB Trade Rumors Link... FRIDAY, 9:07pm: The Braves have announced the agreement. To make room for Keuchel on their 40-man roster, they transferred reliever Darren O’Day to the 60-day injured list. Atlanta plans to activate Keuchel after he makes two starts in the minors, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets. FRIDAY, 6:32pm: Keuchel has passed a physical, per Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). The signing is expected to be announced tonight. THURSDAY, 9:02pm: Keuchel’s contract is indeed for one year, reports Yahoo’s Tim Brown (Twitter link). He’ll be paid $13MM between now and season’s end, which is a bit more than the $11.16MM he’d have made on a prorated deal worth the same amount as the $17.9MM qualifying offer. (ESPN’s Jeff Passan adds that his base salary is technically around $20MM, and the $13MM represents the prorated version of that sum.) Keuchel will take a physical tomorrow, and he’ll jump right into the fray with Triple-A Gwinnett when he makes a start there on Saturday. THURSDAY, 8:18pm: The Braves have agreed to terms with left-hander Dallas Keuchel, reports David O’Brien of The Athletic (Twitter link). It’s “likely” a one-year deal, O’Brien adds. Keuchel is represented by the Boras Corporation. As was the case with Craig Kimbrel, Keuchel will see his prolonged free-agent saga come to a close just days after the draft-pick compensation that has hung over his head was lifted. The terms of the contract will surely be only a fraction of what the former Cy Young winner had eyed when rejecting a $17.9MM qualifying offer from the Astros back in November, but but a short-term arrangement will allow Keuchel the opportunity to once again test free agency — this time without the burden of a qualifying offer and likely with some lower expectations; Keuchel and Boras reportedly sought a contract of five years and more than $100MM in the early stages of free agency.

Jonah Keri picked the All Star Game teams for The Athletic, Let the virtual brawls begin: Jonah Keri picks his early All-Star rosters. The article from Keri is full of analysis of each pick and I recommend subscribing for those considering it. Below are the players in his National League squad. STARTERS C Yasmani Grandal, Brewers 1B Josh Bell, Pirates 2B Derek Dietrich, Reds 3B Nolan Arenado, Rockies SS Javier Báez, Cubs OF Cody Bellinger, Dodgers OF Christian Yelich, Brewers OF Joc Pederson, Dodgers SP Max Scherzer, Nationals RESERVES C Willson Contreras, Cubs 1B Anthony Rizzo, Cubs 1B Pete Alonso, Mets 1B Freddie Freeman, Braves 2B Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks 2B/3B Mike Moustakas, Brewers 3B Anthony Rendon, Nationals 3B Kris Bryant, Cubs SS Paul DeJong, Cardinals SS Trevor Story, Rockies OF Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves OF Bryce Harper, Phillies P Hyun-Jin Ryu, Dodgers P Mike Soroka, Braves P Stephen Strasburg, Nationals P Kyle Hendricks, Cubs P German Márquez, Rockies P Caleb Smith, Marlins P Luis Castillo, Reds P Zack Greinke, Diamondbacks P Kirby Yates, Padres P Will Smith, Giants P Josh Hader, Brewers He referred to Padres starting pitcher Chris Paddack as his biggest snub.