Austin Tatious

Lol that was awkward. I could see that happening to me. I like where the Phillies are heading. And they’ve got cash to deploy as needed.

Justin Verlander second overall and Casey Mize first overall. That’s almost an unfair transition. Mize’s Stats are unreal. Two top five picks at catcher going from Buster Posey to Joey Bart. That’s an organization that knows what it is doing in the draft. Interesting stat by Peter Gammons. In the last All Star game, 75% were first rounders or international players. Two areas that hopefully the Brewers are turning around.

Turang is interesting, as he had been projected at the top at one time. A number of sources have claimed there is a concern about his frame, with the thought that he’s narrowly built and may have trouble getting stronger.

Swaggerty does seem like a surprise. I will believe it when I see it. Larnach could be our first baseman of the future. Seems like a legit hitter. Like Hiura, I think he will produce.

Good interview. Thank you for pointing it out. I’m surprised they didn’t discuss Parker.

We could get an urban legend going that Jared Kelenic will only sign with the Brewers a la Jose Fernandez. It might be the one time that scenario works in our favor.

It will be interesting to see if the Brewers are willing to spend if somebody slips to 21. In the past, the Brewers have been thrifty in an attempt to spend down the line. Shane McLanahan or Ethan Hankins look interesting if they fall. I’d like to see us get great value at 21 even if we pay to do it (leaving less to entice players later). Jordyn Adams is reminiscent of Monte Harrison, maybe not as strong though. Some of these high schoolers down here are like throwing darts at a dart board. Noah Naylor, for example, looks like he could go either way. The draft is more interesting up in the top ten and with high supplemental picks as we have had the last few years, obviously. This year, the game plan is to be smarter, let the draft come to you, and out-draft your position. The Dodgers (Corey Seager, Walker Buehler), Yankees and Cardinals have done a great job drafting down here, and frankly outsmarting a lot of the teams with higher picks.

Trenni is in Boston and does work with WEEI over there. That station can be a real cesspool but she’s talented and bright, no doubt.

I’m very high on Aguilar. I think he’s a legit, well rounded hitter. I think he should be afforded the opportunity to get 500 AB’s and let’s see what he’s got. Thames can play some left and Aguilar can survive here and there at third against tough southpaws. They can make it work, and I think they will.

Kudos to Adam for calling Boone out before anything happpened. Taylor Williams needs to go down to work on the BB. It’s his only real bugaboo and I’m high on him. He just needs some work to do. Barnes is not perfect, but sending him down was one of the more surprising things to happen this season. In any event, for a team relying on impact relief pitching in a lot of toss up games, we can’t afford a weak link like Logan. At least see if he can rehabilitate himself in the minors.

I’m excited about Coach Bud. I haven’t seen a ton of Hawks games, but he got a lot of hype when they were doing so well with Horford and company. His resume speaks for itself. I’m feeling good about his player development and X’s and O’s. The biggest problem is the handling of contracts and renewals. I think you look at contracts like Snell and Henson, and you value them about half of what they got. That’s what good teams do. If they move on, you get replacement value for those minutes at that half value budget. The big commitments only go to core players. I’ve said it like ten times, but you’ve GOT to draft better than DJ Wilson. I watch a lot of Big Ten basketball and I posted that Anunoby was a much better pick than Wilson. I was positive. It proved to be true. You cannot ever let your fans know better than you on something like that. If Bud can use his knowledge and experience to help our immature front office, that would help as much as anything. If he could get us a president of basketball operations who is legit, that’d be a major plus. I don’t know if the owners could agree on that, though.

I am very intrigued by Swihart but I wonder what our personnel department thinks about his abilities as a receiver. If “adequate,” I’d try to work something out. Catchers that can hit really add a lot to a lineup as we saw with Lucroy.

I’d take Hamels if the cost is small. He’s a veteran presence that can produce and lead. He can give the younger pitchers a role model.

Sophia is extremely likable in my mind. I have no idea why anyone would want to pick on her. RWeeks: you’re entitled to your opinion and that’s fine. People understand your right to your opinion but that doesn’t mean we get it.

Villar had a hit last week that was probably the worst attempt at stretching a single into a double that I’ve ever seen in, what, 40 plus years of watching baseball. He was out by a mile. It was truly ridiculous. If management had enough after that display, you can’t blame them. From the TV angle, I couldn’t tell if he had a stop sign but it was unbelievably stupid. Yelich was next and doubled. It literally cost a run.

Regarding Dubon, the CS manager was quoted recently that Mauricio needs some work at CS. There are some mental errors they want to clean up. But, I think we have a keeper there eventually.

It’s time to get the monkey off the Brewers’ backs relative to Jose Quintana. He feels like Sandy Koufax against us. Gotta score some runs against the Cubs.

Watching this team play defensively is depressing and on offense the lack of team play is another annoyance. Taking turns going one on one is not good basketball. There are some nice pieces that are begging for coaching. But, I would not be averse to moving a nice player like Middleton if you can get a Hassan Whiteside. He’s not happy in Miami and the feeling may be mutual. You could have Bledsoe and Brogdon as your back court. Parker and Giannis at forward. Bledsoe gives the team needed quickness and Brogdon has size and glue value. Put a good coach with that, and the team has the potential to win 6-10 more games and, more importantly, be a credible team instead of the underachieving, clueless bunch that we see.

Pitchers are ahead of hitters this early in the season by a wide margin. But, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta at triple A have talent and could be factors the second half of the year. Luis Ortiz needs to get his innings up but he obviously has potential at double A and may be a factor by the second half of 2019. Zack Brown looks good and Thomas Hankins has some under the radar value. Brandon Woodruff did too once. I’d rather build up our homegrown young talent than get involved with middling pitchers. There’s more minor league hype than there ever was before, but it feels like we have more legit arms bubbling up than we ever had before. With the numbers we have, and with Jimmy coming back, I’m fairly bullish on our pitching into the future. We may not have that top end front line starter, but who knows, maybe somebody emerges.

Looking forward to seeing how Lutz and Harrison (especially behind the dish) do. I’m hoping Lutz is a prodigy and am hoping Harrison is a keeper at catcher, even if it’s as an average defender.

I don’t have time to watch every minute of every game or follow the team like I do the Brewers. But I watch enough, and here are some views. 1. If they hire a top coach, things can be corrected. 2. This team’s largest problem is the approach on both ends. On offense, I would not dismiss it as just NBA ball, but there is almost no continuity. They need a coach who understands team offense, ball movement, etc. Standing around taking turns going one on one is stupid ball. If they found the extra pass more often, this team has all the talent in the world on offense. 3. The defensive effort is pathetic. The lack of consistent energy on defense is unacceptable. You’ve got too many guys upright, not in a stance, flat footed, not anticipating, not playing hard. It’s ridiculous. You couple it with stupid ball on offense, and having even the record they have is a testament to some pure talent on the roster. 4. A new coach can address my points 2-3 and this is a 50 win team and a lot higher with some roster tweaks at the role player level. 5. Parker is a keeper. He’s a big time talent. He and Giannis are developing together and these things don’t happen overnight. As it kicks in, probably as a result of better coaching, but also via reps and time, they can be an all time tandem. You don’t give up quality and definitely not for quantity in the NBA which is a league about key players. 6. They need a rim defender and a pure shooter. Both can be found. The rim protector needs to be a physical deterrent and presence who’s not a stiff. A younger guy who’s got energy and is tough (unlike Maker) can be found. 7. I like Brogdon and Sterling Brown. 8. They have got to knock it off on eight figure AAV salaries for mediocrities like Snell, Teletovich and Henson. Give the big money to the big four, and then surround them with guys who play roles on more reasonable deals so you can afford the big four. 9. This next twelve months is key. A coach who gets ball movement on offense and coaxes better defensive energy will be pivotal, as will re-upping Parker. 10. This can be done but I’m not entirely confident in the thought process.

Haudricourt is a nice guy but there’s no pretense that he’s anything but a lackey for the organization. He’s not here to break news. I’m sure he knows or hears tons that he will not share. He’s not going to dig deep and provide angles on different thought processes either unless it is trivial in nature. There are numerous beat reporters who follow teams and actually press the team. The teams obviously respect said beat reporters’ jobs and don’t freeze them out. I’m sure there is off the record stuff too. But Tom is operating at a more facile level as a newspaper beat reporter. He overall defends the decision making. He doesn’t challenge the strategies and thinking. He obviously wants to keep a positive relationship with the key members of the organization, not understanding that they’d respect him even if he went off on different story angles that are more questioning in nature. It’s funny when he interacts with fans. Even if fans bring up legit questions, he will tear the fans down, sometimes even with contempt. I accept him for what he is. He will give info — the basics — but not push any criticisms or questions whatsoever and keep it extremely vanilla. He’s hardly a journalistic hall of famer. If he were, he’d be able to write about legit questions more forcefully and keep a good relationship with the key members in the organization who’d respect his job as the main outside beat reporter. Do we still not know the player? I guess he heard off the record in this instance. Maybe there’s a delay with the physical.

I didn’t watch every pitch because I had the NCAA’s etc going on. But, Karros was fine to me and I’ve heard him before. I have found him insightful and like hearing his outsider perspective and he brings decent knowledge. It’s interesting having the rare scheduled Sunday off.

1. Braun let us down in a big way. He embarrassed himself, and by extension, his fans, the people who cheered for him, defended him, etc. 2. I was a huge fan of his since the day we drafted him. 3. I’m out of town and most of the people around me are not Brewer fans. When his appeal worked, I defended him. Others shrugged. Since he was outed and was exposed for how he handled himself, I take jabs over it. That’s not my problem in the main, but he still put that on his fan base. 4. His representation is utterly incompetent, one way or another. He could have kept quiet when the appeal worked. They could have simply said “I’m happy with the result, which speaks for itself. I’m very disappointed that the initial result was leaked, and my attorneys will handle that with the players’ association. Beyond that, I’m happy, and let’s play ball.” I’m not taking the blame from him. But, good representation could have guided him on the better path. 5. Then when the Miami memos came out, he could have just said, “regretfully, I was having an injury problem and used a lotion for healing. I had limited use for a period as a healing mechanism. But, I regret what I did, I take responsibility for it. It was a lapse in judgement. It’s over and I will make it up to my fans who support me.” 6. If his reps gave him better advice, the backlash would be much smaller. 7. So, he handled it arrogantly, foolishly, and put his fans in a bad spot. Honestly, it will never be the same if people can even remember how we felt about him at one time. 8. I’m over it. Like I said, the feeling of pure golden boy is gone forever. He lied to US, the people who supported him the most. But, he’s human, made a mistake, and I’m not standing in judgement. That’s not my job. If he has to take grief, well he made his bed and he has to lie in it. But, I’m moving on and am supporting him. 9. He’s always been a hitting savant. I’ve never for a second thought he needed PED’s to hit the way he does. When you look at him as a hitter, he’s with Yount and Molitor and Prince. Rarified air. Average, power, XBH. He can hit in any situation. He’s been a phenomenal talent. 10. If his representation handled it better, we’d be talking about a cream he used on a limited basis for healing a muscle. But since he’s a proven liar, he has to live with the consequences and the loss of credibility for anything he says. I’m over it, but to each his own. Others may never move on and always resent him. For me, he will never be that same special golden boy, but I appreciate him as a pure hitting talent, a well rounded hitting machine and one of the best Brewer hitters ever. It’s really a shame that this had to happen.

This is how I saw it too. Try to get Arrieta. However, Lynn on a one year deal would have been fine. No risk and gives you another starter in a situation where Nelson is hurt for a chunk. Cobb, I wouldn’t have paid that amount for him. I wouldn’t have been ticked off if they signed him but, like Lynn, I’d only do a year for Cobb. At the end of the day, Arrieta is the one with upside. Guys like Lynn and Cobb, the hope is you pull up a Burnes, a Woodruff, an Ortiz, a Peralta, a Ponce, and a couple of those guys come through for the same type of production as Lynn and Cobb give you. We will see how it all plays out.