Playing Catch

Two buttons. One for laughing, one for "interesting". Not up/down, like/dislike, but one button that suggests interest in the topic. It would encourage explanation, but not necessarily demand it.

Get Ashby a nice comfy lead in the first 3 innings. Hand it over to Patrick, who goes 6. Done.

Yep. I didn't feel that either trade meaningfully took away from the present value of the team enough to ignore the obvious future value-added. But for fans that typically want to "go for it," they will always have gnawing questions.

The silver-lining is that the Brewers are getting a good look at Sanchez at first and Lockridge in the starting lineup, but there's no hiding from the fact that replacing Chourio, Vaughn, and Turang with our bench guys is neutering the offense for the time-being. Let's hope Chourio's IL-stint is short, and that Turang doesn't need his own IL stint. I haven't been liking all of Frelick's body language, either. He hasn't looked "right" since August of last season to me, even though he's been productive so far this season.

It's waaayyy too early to try and dissect the values of the players traded, but for fans that felt that keeping Peralta is better in 2026 than trading him, The only way this trade will work out is if Peralta/Myers are terrible, or that the Brewers win a World Series with Sproat and/or Jett. Because just like we'll never know if the Brewers would have won a world series with Hader, we won't know if Peralta would have been the missing piece in 2026.

I like a lot of the elements you suggested, @nate82. I think tiering baseball would offer more exciting regular season baseball if games/series represented opportunities beyond adding a game in the win column. I don't think MLB will go this direction, however, choosing instead an easy, boring, flattened 32 team/8 division set-up like the NFL. But there could still be some fun elements. They could have 8 "divisional" all-star teams that compete for divisional playoff advantage, or as I've mentioned before, have small-scale weekend round-robin style tournaments with 4 teams facing off with each other at special venues. I think that whatever Manfred's vision is, it is going to include big changes that not all of us will like.

I stated earlier that I liked them. I would say that it would be improved tremendously if instead of "Wisco," it said "Forward," which would actually be cool. Also, I should clarify a couple of things. I am minimalist-traditionalist, by nature. I love that baseball's uniform traditions maintain things like stirrups, road grays, and pinstripes. But I've heard great moaning from those with different aesthetic tastes, and have come to appreciate the monotony of baseball's staid ways. If MLB wants to promote the sport through things of this nature, I'm fine with it. As I've seen the variety of City Connects across baseball, I think the Brewers could have done much, much worse.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I hope they either put him on intentionally, or make him chase outside every pitch, because I have zero interest in him charging Miz, and this is the last time the Brewers will see him all season, so let him have his series, I don't care so long as anything stupid is avoided.

The Brewers are consistently pushing pitchers past their comfort-level in terms of high-stress pitches. They are routinely pushing managers into the yellow-danger zone in terms of pitches per inning. Often these pitches are taking place with guys standing on 2nd and 3rd, where mere contact can score runs. Talk about a miserable series to be looking forward to if you are any other team, (or fanbase, teehee) in baseball. Front offices must break out into sweats about covering innings before, during, and after a Brewers series, and the everyday players aren't looking forward to the picnic, either.

They looked good when they played the Crew last year. If Alcantara is back to his old ways, and some of those kids grow up, they'll be in the hunt.

Matthew, I should publicly apologize. I'm afraid I piled all of my gall onto your article, and that isn't right. I can imagine myself laughing along with the article in a different context. I allowed all of the public vitriol placed at the feet of Bucknor to get me fired up, and your article bared the brunt of my admonition. It really isn't about you or your writing. I'm just tired of negativity or fear driving clicks in every corner of the internet, and I don't want Brewerfan to fall victim to it. In addition, I love baseball so much, and it pains me to see umpires get so much heat. We NEED umpires at every level, and the public shaming does no favors to the sport. So again, I want to publicly apologize for my self-righteous rants. You don't deserve it.

I'm not defending Bucknor from anything. I am, however, attacking your hit piece as an example of what many of us come here to try and find respite from. A world where runner's-up are losers and trash, and it is the public's role to tear these people down in order to draw guffaws from the those that couldn't sniff Bucknor's jock in terms of professional acumen. Brewerfan has always been better than this. But by all means, double-down on the humor you derived by artificial means. Decency be damned. Be irritated at me for calling you out, instead of yourself when you look in the mirror after that piece. But I'm guilty, too. I'm guilty of using your article as an example, and that's not fair to you. I get that it's a grind, and you took a shortcut, and it was just meant to be funny. But if more people like me find the courage to take a reputational risk in communities that we care about, perhaps the content we crave will find the right balance between low-hanging fruit, and the rotten, poisoned apple found under the tree. I would predict that those that laughed along with you, and the thousands of other baseball people laughing at a humiliated CB Bucknor, will sneer at my responses. But I would also predict that there will be 3 times as many lurkers and would-be clickers that agree that they are tired of the public shame put on anyone who is merely bad at their job, as if being the 76th best person in the world at what they do is something undignified and unworthy of respect. Poking fun at ineptitude. How does it feel?

One big, beautiful, bullying article to rule them all. Was this Claude? or did you use ChatGPT? If someone is the worst of 76 employees in a niche career, should they be fired? Probably. Of course, once CB Bucknor no longer is around to taste the whip, there will be a new #76. Will that person then probably deserve to be fired? Probably. But if someone is the 76th best person in the world (I'm not claiming CB is), do they really deserve as much antipathy from the masses as to deserve the public shame? The incessant, over-the-top ridiculousness of social media conventional wisdom? The game thread is already licking their chops to get a taste of that red meat. Just waiting to pounce on the pariah that Bucknor has become. I'm not here to defend CB Bucknor's clear weaknesses as a professional. But I am here to ask... can't we be better than this?

I like them.

During this recent run of incredible success up and down the organization, I've put aside thoughts that the Brewers have simply become really, really good at scouting and development, and that their models are predicting player development and future performance at such a high rate of success, that it's dumb (from a risk/investment point-of-view) not to try to sign every guy their model says will hit. I'm suddenly hoping Emerson falls flat. Talk about re-setting the market.

I was as baffled as many of us here. On day 1, my instinct is to dislike this decision, but it probably doesn't really change anything substantially, other than you are putting pressure on the organization to possibly promote him prematurely, and it puts pressure on the player to perform at a big-league level this season for a playoff team. If he stops improving today? He's an overpaid, but effective weakside-platoon utility player that can probably play all seven positions. If he stopped improving today, his contract is an inconvenience, but not so disruptive to payroll and roster construction that it hurts a creative team's chances. If he continues to improve? A good deal that still has the chance of a GREAT deal, as we're all aware. Idle thoughts... - Does this make him more or less valuable in a trade scenario? - I just can't shake the feeling he's gunna outgrow his defensive utility at shortstop. - The whole deal just feels like one big hedge against unpredictable future events in terms of payroll, roster construction, and player trajectories. The Brewers are betting that Pratt continues to improve. If he does, it gives them tremendous flexibility on all of those fronts. Based on reports, that seems like a safe bet, so I guess I can get behind this deal.

First 3 games of a 15-game winning streak to start the season.

I saw that in the writeup for Quero in the Prospects 1500 top Brewers Prospects list. I guess we'll see soon enough.

Gasser looks like he hasn't skipped leg day in awhile.

Would you feel better if he got drilled playing a spring training game playing against some minor leaguer with control-issues? I think worrying about professional athletes "risking injury" to do pretty normal professional athlete things in the off-season is dumb.

Easier to post after watching the game, but this isn't the worst timing to give Chourio a few weeks off. The last year of his life would be quite the whirlwind for a 22 year old. Let him catch his breath, and give the bench guys some ABs and confidence, and get a better sense of the roster. It also shows off the depth of the lineup, when you go down the line, feeling good about the AB, even without Chourio in the lineup.

I'll take Juan Ortuno. His K/BB numbers are excellent, and the ISO is just right for the soon-to-be 19-year-old to breakout.

This is why we keep you around. A top-5 Sveum post, of which there are dozens.

Original Post - "Seems to me that the Rays needed another AAA pitcher this week, and bought KC Hunt with cash and a guy they planned on releasing. Later this season, the Brewers will probably use that cash to buy some other AAA starter after Nashville gets their pitching depth raided by the big club. I don't think Woodford pitches more than 7 innings with the Brewers before being DFA'd." Edited Post - I'm baffled by this move.

Record: 91-71 Playoffs: Yes. Cubs win the division with 95 wins. Brewers the 2nd Wild Card. Tough NL. Tough NL Central. MVP: Contreras has a huge season, finishing top-5 in MVP votes. Team Cy Young: Shared between Misiorowski, Patrick, and Sproat. They will be the top 3 IP leaders. ROY: None. Wilken will come up with the first infield injury and he'll struggle. BUT! Andrew Fischer will start at third base in the Wild Card game after a dynamite September. Most Surprising Player: Gasser will come up by May and will dominate June/July before fading late. Most Disappointing Player: The 3rd Outfielder. None of Mitchell, Lockridge, or Jett Williams will perform well enough, Perkins gets too much playing time. Brewers make a surprising deadline move for the Rockies' Brenton Doyle. Prospect Luis Pena will get reps in CF starting mid-August.