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Playing Catch

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Everything posted by Playing Catch

  1. Playing Catch
    Many of us that have been around a long time (and maybe you have, I'm not sure), appreciate the tight ship. And I'm actually a MUCH looser "ship," IRL, but IMHO, the internet's loose-ness, if you will, contributes to the damage that it can cause society. Perhaps this site is a tad legalistic, but I think that keeping an eye out for the trivial things makes it much easier to police the more significant mis-steps. I wouldn't take it personally. There are plenty of times where I have policed myself, and rolled my eyes, but I think it's for the greater good.
  2. Playing Catch
    Awesome, awesome article. I just love the appreciation for defense. I decided to quit playing baseball my freshman year of college (D-III) when I realized that I didn't want to dedicate so much time to it, and when I quit, I knew that what I was going to miss the most wasn't hitting or pitching, but fielding 3rd base. I loved fielding. I hope that in the future, people that never played get to appreciate defense as much as those of us that played.
  3. Playing Catch
    There are different types of hate. I enjoy hating the Cubs. I don't enjoy hating the Cardinals. My Cardinals hate is more visceral. My Cubs hate is rivalry hate. Similarly, I "enjoy" hating the Yankees and the Dodgers. It's an obligatory hate all opposing fanbases share. The closest I have to my visceral, Cardinals hate, is the Braves. I hated Ted Turner for putting all their games on TBS. I realize many around here are still fond of the Braves site to the Milwaukee connection, but not me.
  4. Playing Catch
    There weren't many posters around here clamoring to resign Adames last season when he was batting .199 on June 30th. There probably will be posters hoping the Brewers non-tender him come November if he struggles down the stretch. I think the goldilocks zone is right where the Brewers have been with Adames. Love him while he's here, hope he leads them to a World Series, tender him a contract, watch him leave for a draft pick, and thank him for his service.
  5. Playing Catch
    I think some team will need to significantly overpay for Flaherty, as he is currently enjoying a career year. He's outperforming his past seasons by a significant margin --- not that he was poor in previous seasons.
  6. Playing Catch
    That's one of the most ridiculous hypothetical trades I've ever seen. That wouldn't even make sense if the Brewers were in last place and they were desperate to off-load a non-tender version of Adames. Why, on earth, would the Brewers send back prospect capital?? For a 27 year old pitcher that hasn't broke a 2.99 xFIP since his first season in the minors? Knack is a dime-a-dozen DFA candidate waiting to happen. Whomever would be drafted with a comp pick would already be a higher draft pick than Boeve. Would someone trade Adames AND Boeve for Evan McKendry or Garrett Stallings (who?)? Edit: Fine, a 2.99 xFIP would be a high bar, but still.
  7. Playing Catch
    I just went through current fWAR leaders at each position. The Brewers have the current divisional fWAR leader at EVERY position except for 1B (Adames tied with EDLC at shortstop). This includes Frelick in RF (for all of you Frelick-haters*). Now granted, the pitching has not been as good as the lineup. But on an every day basis, the Brewers have been so much better than the rest of the division, and it's not really that close. *It is only taking into account his playing RF, not CF, LF, DH, or 3B
  8. Playing Catch
    How about some positive vibes around here! Quit that talkin' about Reds sweeps or series victories! Brewers are better than them. How about the pressure the Reds will feel when the Crew sweeps them??
  9. Playing Catch
    Yeah, I think clubhouse culture, and overall organization culture takes a long time to turn around. It seemed like Hoyer suggested as much when they hired CC. That he was brought in to change the entire organization, not just the game-day 26.
  10. Playing Catch
    Pena's SB totals are wrong. I'm not sure how it happened, but I noticed it a few games ago. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, so I went back through every box score for Brewers Uno. On the 11th, he was credited for one SB, for a total of 12 --- which I believe was actually a correction from earlier, as I swore I saw 13 the game before (which was so crazy that I made a mental note). On the 12th, he didn't play... still at 12 Yesterday, with 2 more SBs, he should be at 14. But in the boxscore it says 15. On his MiLB page, it credits him with two SBs on the 11. All this to say. I've officially got too much time on my hands if I'm sifting through DSL boxscores for inconsistencies. Also! I had no idea KC Hunt was going to be a starter... Luke Adams is going .315/.500/.657 in June so far.
  11. Playing Catch
    I think that the idea that the Brewers are burning out their bullpen because they have the most total bullpen innings is a fallacy. Or, perhaps it's true, but that it isn't any more true for the Brewers than any other team. They simply don't seem to be treating individual pitchers any differently than any other team. Here is the fangraphs database for the Brewers bullpen, but toggle to the Cardinals... toggle to just about any other team, and I don't see there being a major difference in how they're using guys. Most of us acknowledged that the Brewers were going to need a lot of pitchers to cover a lot of innings. Starters, relievers, swingmen, waiver-guys, DFA a lot of guys, bring up kids like Myers and Rodriguez. Well, so far that is EXACTLY what they are doing. I don't remember times where I thought they were abusing guys by pitching them multiple days in a row, or for multiple innings. I think it helps a lot that they've enjoyed some blowouts to keep guys like Megill's IPs down. Conversely, all 3 high-leverage Cardinals relievers have 30+ IPs so far.
  12. Playing Catch
    Game 1 - Rea Game 2 - Freddy There's probably evidence to refute my theory on playoff matchups, but when a team knows it's out-gunned on the mound, I always think Game 2 is the most important game to win, as going down 0-2 is such a huge emotional hill to climb. Hope Rea can keep them in Game 1 long enough for the offense to squeak out a Game 1 win against an ace. Hopefully he can go deep enough to save some of the bullpen for the "must-win" game 2.
  13. Playing Catch
    I'm not sure if this is "appropriate" or not, and it's possible, that Michaelis would prefer reserving his responses to his podcasts, so mods feel free to delete the thread, if you like. This also doesn't need to be specific to Michaelis, if there are other "experts," in the field that can answer certain questions about player development. The first question for the thread relates to Manuel Rodriguez's velocity, which was recently brought up in one of the minor league reports. How much velocity do pitchers typically gain from 18 to 25? Is it reasonable to expect that Rodriguez will one day hit 95+?
  14. Playing Catch
    I haven't looked deep enough to have an opinion on this, but there are 22 qualified hitters in the Southern League (AA) with an OPS better than .700. There are 42 such players in the Texas League (AA), and 47 in the Eastern League (AA). Now obviously, that doesn't help Misiorowski's case at all, but perhaps explains some of the offensive struggles. We'll all have to hope there is a mid-season turnaround for them. As for Misiorowski, does it seem like he's working on a new pitch, where is his velocity at? Is he working on his mechanics?
  15. Playing Catch
    Certainly the shift in leadership, both Stearns to Arnold (started last year, kinda), and Counsell to Murphy, Murphy to Weeks, is one of the storylines for the season. Just the overall upheaval and changes the club endured, the shift away from pitching and finding a different path to find wins... It really is remarkable, and if they are able to sustain this to 90+ wins and a division title, the rest of the league will need to stand up and take notice.
  16. Playing Catch
    In short, yes. There were a lot of thoughts that I had during the whole ordeal. My head was telling me that the most likely scenario was that managers, on the whole, don't make much of a difference in terms of in-game decision-making, and winning or losing on any given day, but that the good ones help lead a team through the grind of the season with the way that they respond to players behind the scenes, and how well they jive with the front office. I figured that Counsell was a good manager because he worked well with the players, kept a good clubhouse culture, and was of like mind with the front office and scouting. But I also felt that Counsell hired Murphy in his first season for a reason, and that Murphy probably had/has many of the same qualities. However, as it played out, I was worried that I was wrong about all of that. I mean, Jed Hoyer paid A LOT for Counsell. Hoyer knows the business FAR BETTER than I do. But as it's playing out, I'm feeling like my head was right all along. I had many of the same thoughts with losing Stearns. I felt like the entire Brewers operation has a lot of deliberate redundancy in leadership (and on the field), in order to not suffer big drop-offs when people leave. For all we know, the former Rays executive, Matt Arnold was fundamental in Stearns' success. For all we know, Murphy was fundamental to Counsell's success.
  17. Playing Catch
    On MLB NOW yesterday, Brian Kenny was highlighting the fact that the shortstop position is really, really deep in MLB right now. Perhaps the deepest it has ever been. EXCEPT for the Dodgers, what other team would be bidding on him? Maybe Seattle? I just don't think, even if the Brewers were inclined, that they would find a team that would be willing to part with even fair value, let alone the value we would want to see from trading a good starting shortstop.
  18. Playing Catch
    I'd be surprised if he didn't add about 5 mph in the next 5 years. By then he'll be... 23.
  19. Playing Catch
    Who? Chourio? I kid. But if Chourio starts looking like a good big-leaguer, perhaps trading for Robert makes less sense. Now don't get me wrong, Robert would still be a better player than the internal options, but at that price-point, maybe you just stick with the kids.
  20. Playing Catch
    I was slow to get to this point in thinking, mostly due to how great Turang is as a defender --- I had a hard time accepting that Ortiz could be as good defensively. But after seeing him get a few innings there, it looks like the Brewers have a really strong keystone-connection for the foreseeable future. The other thing is that for the Brewers, having a great defensive 2nd-baseman (hang with me here), may just be MORE important these days than having a great shortstop. The shift rules, obviously, made defense at 2nd super-important. And usually, your 3rd baseman is a stronger defender than your first baseman. I still think Turang is the rangier, stronger-armed defender. He converts so many outs (like last night's last out), by ranging far to his right, and still being able to make accurate throws from that spot. If your team features a decent 3rd baseman, he should be cutting off a lot of those tough throws from the hole for the SS. Sorry to derail the thread.
  21. Playing Catch
    I'm NOT advocating for this, but part of me is really, really interested in not trading for a starter at all. I just want to see how much further they can push this.
  22. Playing Catch
    I'm really intrigued by Patrick. To my untrained eye, he's got goofy fangraph stats, that I can't make much sense of. His BABIPs are all over the place, he's always stranding runners, It looks like he must live up in the zone with a good fastball, and gives up lots of flyballs, which, go out of the park a lot. Good K-rates. BB-rates are inconsistent, but have been decent this year. Like, maybe a 3TO pitcher?
  23. Playing Catch
    Chourio getting hot! His ROY campaign starts NOW! Let's gooooo!!!
  24. Playing Catch
    So is this "brace procedure," that a couple of guys have had, basically making a tendon that is totally normal and acceptable for most human beings a "super-tendon"? Making it bigger and stronger so that it can throw baseballs really hard?
  25. Playing Catch
    I was never really on Turang's bandwagon until just before his debut, and I read something that quoted one of the fangraphs scouts (Longenhagen, probably). He was asked what prospects he felt were "underrated," or maybe, "overlooked," by the rest of the scouting community, and he mentioned how much he liked Turang. It was then that I wondered if he was showing more on a day-by-day basis than what the underlying stats were revealing. Certainly, he's a stud on a day-by-day basis. He can go 0-4, with a BB, SB, 1-run scored. Doesn't look like much unless you are watching the game, and notice how his speed and instincts on the basepaths all but scored the run on their own. You watch the game, and his 2 or 3 gold-glove plays on defense saved runs in the later innings. He's such a good ballplayer.
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