Playing Catch

He's certainly justified the team's faith in his potential contributions when they signed him to that deal. Even if he's been hurt or ineffective at times, the quality of his stuff is apparent, and shows why they wanted to lock him in. In terms of his contributions to this year's team, he's a huge piece to the bullpen, especially in a playoff series with multiple off days. He can really bridge the game to the backend, "leverage" guys.

If by, "sins of the past," you mean the frequency with which you resort to condescension in your posts, then I think we'd all appreciate your atonement... You do get that, right??? That sometimes you are condescending? I mean, it's not that hard of a concept to understand.

I feel like two months is a long time for a shoulder contusion... Luke Adams to AFL?

Yeah, I said last week that I'd be happy with 4-4, and I am! Today's game, and the series as a whole, I think probably ends up a bit disheartening for Cubs fans merely improving by a game in the standings.

Backgammon is a great, great game. Highly recommended for anyone that is looking to take a break from cribbage or some other game. This has been an awesome series. Brewers have played winning ball, and lost a couple games where they had a chances in the last at-bat or two.

Brewers are going to beat them by 6 or 7 today.

It didn't look good at the time. But it seems like it was just a little "dead leg" after fouling a ball off his knee.

I can imagine there's a handful of voters out there that feel nostalgic when watching the 2025 Brewers and decide to vote for baseball's Win leader for Cy Young, just for old times' sake. Freddy may not be as brilliant, individually, as the other candidates, but he does represent the Brewers and their amazing run as a franchise. Manager of the Year is really just a "Team of the Year" award, but does Freddy get an artificial bump as the guy to represent this remarkable team?

It would be just like this team to have a 2-game losing streak that only lasts 1 day.

Well... he wouldn't want to dry hump him.

Watching Marquee. This is delicious.

My guess is they plan to pinch-hit for one of them based on the Cubs bringing in a lefty, and wanting to manipulate that decision for the Cubs.

Brewers throw speed chart (I ranked by max throw, but I'm not sure it will link that way). No real surprises here. Part of it is the opportunity to max out. Outfielders can get opportunities to gather momentum for their throws. I'm not sure I trust average velocities, as an infielder's internal clock specifies how hard to throw in order to maximize accuracy.

Why does Vaughn need to sit?? Half the time he's jogging around the bases. He hasn't played meaningful baseball like this for years. I think he's fine until his play proves otherwise.

I find the number of MLB outlets as frustrating too. With that said, I think Apple has done some good things (and bad things) with their production. Over the years, televised baseball has become a bit staid for my tastes, and I appreciate efforts to mix things up a little. I think I'm in the minority on this, but I would like more variety of camera shots during live action. I would like more behind the plate, full-(in)field shots now that there's so much more happening on the basepaths. I also really appreciate full-stadium shots with no talking for short stretches during the game. Let us take in the atmosphere a little bit. I feel the same way about other sports. I hate that we can't get full-field shots of football games these days with our big, beautiful, Super-HD TVs, and I love the behind-the-backboard views of basketball.

Considering the Brewers winning percentage versus teams above .500 is better than their overall winning percentage, I'm not worried about SoS at all.

I just can't believe how few guys this season have had tough seasons. Nearly every single one of these guys are having "plus" seasons. ALL of them are candidates to promote based on production, not just pedigree.

Probably the best 1-2-3-4 we've seen come through here, in terms of sheer prospect-power, when considering the confidence we have in their floors, and the faith we have in their ceilings. Maybe the 2004 Huntsville Stars with Weeks, Fielder, Gwynn, and Brad Nelson has a claim? 2009 Huntsville squad had Lucroy, LoCain, Taylor Greene, and Brett Lawrie 2005 West Virginia Power featured Braun, Alcides Escobar, Salome, and Hurricane Irribarren. 2022 Biloxi Shuckers had Chourio, Frelick, Mitchell, Wiemer, and Corey Ray, but I'm pretty sure Chourio didn't play with most of the others, who had been promoted to Nashville.

I was more disappointed with Made's hustle out-of-the-box on the dropped swinging strike 3. The catcher bobbled it, and Jesus would have made it safely to first had he been running instead of walking back to the dugout. But there is plenty of time to mature both on and off the field. These are kids playing thousands of miles from home, with a bunch of strangers staring at them, watching their every move after they just woke up early for a day game. I can't even imagine what that must feel like when you're younger and richer (and frankly, more important to the organization) than nearly every teammate, coach, or individual fan. You have every right to be disappointed about the autographs, but let's just let them settle in a little bit. Not every player is going to be Sal Perez right out of the gate.

The reigning NL Rookie of the Month, and NL Player of the Week. About to become a father for the first time. Collins is living life right. When Chourio comes back, do the Brewers try Collins in the infield? I'm guessing there will be times when we'd prefer to have all of Yelich, Collins, Perkins, Chourio, and Frelick in the lineup?

Big Woo mentioned to a reporter that the Burger Streak was important to him, and reading between the lines, he wanted the Burgers in part to eliminate the promotion as a talking point/distraction. Having today off, too, is a great opportunity to reset. I will be happy going 4-4 during the next 8 games versus the Reds and Cubs. I really, really love having the Chourio Wildcard in our hand. I just can't help but believe in the kid -- especially because he can see that this team doesn't need him to win games. He doesn't need to press to perform. His performance in last year's wildcard series was special, and I'm convinced that had Turang not hit into that double-play to end the game, that Chourio would've come through.

The trade deadline is rife with our collective armchair psychology. For example, I'm convinced that leaving the White Sox for the Brewers has revitalized Vaughn's season, and perhaps his career. But I don't think it does justice to what it means for the guys that are not replaced at the deadline. Perhaps Ortiz felt a boost of confidence, as well as positive peer pressure to truly give his at-bats to the team? His resurgence certainly seems to have come after a run of terrible ABs, and subsequent one-way conversations with Murph. He has to feel more relaxed knowing that the organization effectively told him that he was their starting shortstop through this season, and almost certainly to begin 2026. Based strictly on my reading of body language, he's always seemed to be more worried about the results of his ABs instead of his process (e.g. throwing a helmet after a lineout or hard groundball out). During this run, his ABs have been much, much better. To his credit, Ortiz's defense has never wavered regardless of how he was hitting. This is a young team, and guys like Frelick (~1,200 MLB PAs) and Turang (~1,500) have blossomed. Based on prospect pedigrees, guys like Ortiz (~1,000), Chourio (~1,000), and Durbin (~350) are still developing, and they are developing with an eye on what they will become as big leaguers, slowly evolving to eliminate the weakest parts of their game while maximizing their strengths. I have a lot of hope that the individuals on this team can continue to improve, or at least become more complete, consistent ballplayers. A month or two ago, I imagined these guys blossoming like Frelick and Turang, and right now, that's exactly what we're seeing.

The organization seems to believe in positional redundancy as to avoid fielding replacement level players (and coaches/front office, too).

I think it depends on 2-strike counts. Do the Brewers take strikes on the edges? Do they lace shots down the line? Do they butcher-boy Skenes and co. into chucking fielded groundballs into right field? The Crew are pretty committed to sacrificing their quality of contact for ANY contact on 2-strike strikes. That could be Skene's kryptonite(?) Gotta turn him from a FIP pitcher to an infielder, because the Crew aren't hitting any dingers with Skenes' HR/FB rate.

I haven't heard anything, but I don't think it means anything. I think they are merely accommodating Anderson's moonlighting and Rock's semi-retirement. I don't think they have a firm transition plan in place, so you get a patchwork team each series. I don' t mind at all. I like that I know the different voices, and I like the variety.