Playing Catch

The B1G decided years ago that they would try as best they could to call games the way the home team would prefer a game to be called... Meaning, play at the Kohl center, expect hand-checks to be ignored and moving screens and over-the-backs to be called. At Mackey? Play as physically as you want, there won't be fouls called on either end. Now obviously, the problem with the Mackey strategy on Senior Day with Zach Edey is that it will get out of hand if no calls are made, and that lends itself to inconsistency, and refs just making stuff up in order to maintain control of the contest without guys getting [too] hurt. Reffing at Mackey, on Senior Day, with Edey's last game ever at home... the refs are in a no-win situation. Considering all of what goes into it, I thought the refs kept the game from being too slanted in Purdue's favor, even though they were awful on many individual calls. As I've made perfectly clear when it comes to reffing in the B1G... I don't mind home-cooking so long as my team gets it too. And THAT is what I think made me upset this year, and THAT is why I agree that Gard needs to play the game a little bit. I think he needs to raise a stink every now and then. Make it a story. The problem for Gard is that he seems to have ingrained it into the team's head that the refs are always right. Over the long run, this is probably for the best, but in the case of the obvious contrast between stopping the game for Smith and not Chucky... well, you can raise a stink, and the players won't believe you are "blaming" the refs. That was simply apples to apples. Edit to add a tangential point: I also think that once or twice, early in the game, a Badger needs to LAY OUT the shooter. I believe one of the reasons that the Badgers have been so poor on 3 pt. defense is that the other team KNOWS there is no threat to block their shot attempt. The Badgers play physically in the post, they need to take a foul here and there on jump shooters that are getting too comfortable.

Even with the loss, they ended the season on a good note. Easy to talk themselves into some confidence in tourney season... ain't no more road games.

This is the deepest system the Brewers have ever had, that I can remember. I'm not sure how many stars there will be, but there are a lot of players that will get a chance to be a starter in the big leagues.

Failed mutinys have a way of being explained away as, "just kidding".

Yes. This is certainly a consideration. But the Crew's payroll is low enough where it leads one to believe that they have flexibility to add. It seems like a fair price for Davis, if he is the right fit for a roster/payroll. I'm not even sure I want him, perhaps preferring to give Black, and others a shot. But I also think he would make the 26-man better.

I like him more than Bauers... https://www.mlb.com/news/jd-davis-on-waivers-giants

Domingo German?

I'd be fine with Lorenzen. Not interested in Clevinger. It would be fun to sign Grienke. He threw 142 innings last year. Obviously not a world-beater, but he's an all-time favorite of mine.

This was an excellent article.

I'd take Crowl over Reuvers. Not even sour grapes. Optimist- This team is good but unlucky... F4 is possible with parity in NCAA and a lucky draw. Pessimist- I hate this team. They are hurting me so, so much.

At the risk of overemphasizing my previous point, I'll reiterate. How would you feel if you're Michael Busch, drafted by the Dodgers? You were the 31st pick overall, you mashed your way to AAA, and went on to play in over 200 AAA games in your age 24 and 25 seasons, before finally getting traded to a team that will play you. IMHO, that's a lot worse than delaying FA for a season because you actually value, and want to keep the player. If I were a top draft prospect, I'd make the big money teams pay through the nose to sign me. Dude has legit MLB dreams and never gets a chance because the Dodgers just sign superstars.

I agree with your thesis. My belief is that it is driven by the fact that "top prospect" lists get clicks and eyeballs. There are a lot of clicks and eyeballs to be had in the biggest cities in the USA. It also only takes a handful of "top lists" to color all of the other lists -- including Brewerfan's own! Fangraphs and some of the others try harder to tier the players and have more realistic outcome predictions, but if you are someone like Brock Beauchamp (no offense!), running a website for all MLB fans, and you are parsing through the 250 40-45 future grade prospects, wouldn't you simply add a couple to the "top 100" for the thirsty fans of New York City, or Chicago? No one from Bucktown cares if Brock Wilken is an incrementally better prospect than Matt Shaw. I don't particularly care about it too much, except when trades are being speculated about or assessed afterwards, and people feel like the Brewers "didn't even get a top 100 prospect!!". Edit to add: I also believe that certain orgs, (now including the Brewers!), get artificial "bumps," because of reputation, or perhaps even artificial downgrades due to the same. The A's are woefully shy of top prospects, for instance.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Even if one goes along with your first sentence, I would disagree with your 2nd sentence.

3 FTAs, 2 TOs... we saw the game... not sure what the coaches could do differently, or better. They missed some open looks and Indiana made them. The home team got the benefit of the officiating. But Indiana shot 62%. The defense needs to be better. I feel like so many poor outcomes this season have come down to how the officials call the game for Crowl. Either he gets into foul trouble for ticky-tack stuff or he gets dominated physically because he's afraid to get into foul trouble. He's the Rodney Dangerfield of B1G senior post players.

I went back and looked at All-star type catchers minor league stats at their respective ages/levels and compared them to Quero and came away feeling like I've been perhaps a little too cautious with my excitement about Quero. He really DOES have a really good prospect profile with the bat. Of course, any prospect can flop, but Quero is looking better than I thought!

I like Quero, too, but catching prospects flame out all the time, or become just regular players. I don't think Quero has shown nearly enough with the bat for us to be putting 10 time all-star speculation on the kid. Goodness. I just think he'll be an average starter -- which is a great thing!

I'm really looking forward to Pat Murphy's interviews this season. He seems like he'll offer great soundbites for media.

I don't disagree with the idea that the rules need to be changed, but this has been an open secret for years. And what about the big-spending teams? Are all of the Dodgers in AAA truly not "ready" for MLB? Or is it fine for them to not promote guys because they are blocked by better players? If Wiemer starts the year in AAA is it service time manipulation? Or is it justified due to performance? I just think that the whole service time manipulation problem is way overblown, and only affects a handful of players. Again, I think the system can be changed, I just don't think this is as big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be.

Today's Athletic piece from Ken Rosenthal (paywalled) is about how Counsell is really mixing things up in Chicago. The article doesn't go into any depth about his decision to leave Milwaukee. It seemed to me when I read the piece, though, that (A), Counsell was looking for a fresh, energizing challenge, and (B), wanted to have more front office decision-making power than what the Brewers front office was ever going to cede (and why would they, if they've been successful). But these observations are just my reading between the lines.

It's a get-off-my lawn level pet peeve of mine that there are so many court-storms. Maybe we could simply reduce them by making fun of fans that do it against a good, but not great, league rival. This is what should REALLY embarrass Wake Forest. I mean, they're T-Rank #24 beating T-Rank #12... NOT worth court storming.

He's one of my "picks to click," that I'm predicting will be in the Top 20 Brewerfan list sooner than later. If he adds a couple of ticks to the fastball, especially.

I'm not sure I believe what I'm throwing out here, but maybe the Brewers aren't that serious about IF. Maybe it's actually a way to force someone like Sal to take a "break," from baseball. Keep things fresh and fun. Kinda like playing multiple sports in high school.

Oh, I agree. I think he was procured as a hedge against not signing a better first baseman, but I think most of us would rather roll with a Tyler Black/Wes Clarke platoon at 1st than have Bauers enter the season as our primary first baseman anyway.

I never spent much time considering this part of the decision. It is a little underhanded. I can't imagine that David Ross doesn't have hard feelings. But it's also kind of the nature of coaching/managing high-level sports.

Honestly. Every time someone brings up Bauers, it just makes me more and more irritated that they traded for him. Just a waste of a roster spot. Perfectly fine as a minor league FA, or non-roster invitee, but a non-optional 40-man spot?? Just dumb.