sveumrules

Rivera finished out the first with a pop out, two RBI single and double play running the score to 3-0. Edgardo Ordonez opened the top of the second with a walk and moved to second on an Antony Gomez ground out, but then had to jog all the way back to the dugout from there to put on his chest protector and shin guards.

Tonight’s lineup for the AZ Brewers at AZ Cubs… Alastre 2B Bitonti 3B Di Turi SS Holguin 1B Ibarguen CF Ordonez C Gomez LF Walther DH Pereira RF Rivera P Crew got off to a good start with a Luiyin Alastre single and Eric Bitonti walk but things ended at second base. Bryan Rivera is on the mound & is off to a rough start at single, walk, double. Already 1-0 Cubs with runners on 2nd and 3rd no outs.

Nutting bought the team in 2007, since then the Pirates have gone 1,225-1,465, the 3rd worst record in MLB. Since 2007 the Brewers have gone 1,403-1,290, the 8th best record in MLB. Over the 17 years before Mark A bought the Brewers (1988-2004) they went 1,242-1,444, the 2nd worst record in MLB among non expansion teams. The main reason the Pirates have been irrelevant for 14 of the last 17 seasons is the same reason the Brewers were mostly irrelevant for two decades before Selig sold the team…the owner sucks.

About a quarter way into the season and I'd say most would agree that the bullpen has performed pretty admirably between the absence of Devin Williams and making up for a bevy of short starts from the rotation. Here are their rankings as a unit among all 30 MLB clubs... 158 IP (7th) | 98 K%+ (20th) | 97 BB%+ (6th) | 107 HR9+ (22nd) | 91 ERA- (11th) | 101 FIP- (18th) | +3.14 WPA (3rd) Despite not excelling at strikeouts or limiting home runs, the Brewers relief corps has come through nonetheless largely on account of limiting walks and inducing soft contact (20.2%, 2nd). There are currently five staples who have come in better than average by all of ERA-, FIP- and WPA... Bryan Hudson (22.1 IP) 20 ERA- | 61 FIP- | +1.34 WPA Hoby Milner (19.1 IP) 46 ERA- | 93 FIP- | +0.58 WPA Elvis Peguero (17 IP) 91 ERA- | 63 FIP- | +0.23 WPA Jared Koenig (15.1 IP) 72 ERA- | 87 FIP- | +0.40 WPA Trevor Megill (9.2 IP) 23 ERA- | 61 FIP- | +0.92 WPA After that, Payamps has struggled keeping runs off the board (130 ERA-), but his peripherals have been much better (93 FIP-) and he's still on the right side of the WPA scale at +0.18. Vieira hasn't been particularly good (120 ERA- | 155 FIP-), but he's still mostly done his job of eating low leverage innings with his 20.1 IP second on the team out of the pen and has barely cost the team anything from a WPA standpoint at -0.05. As far as future options go Uribe is a wild card in more ways than one, but his upside is a legit late inning arm as we've seen glimpses of. JB Bukauskas looked pretty nasty before he went down with injury and should hopefully be an option again at some point later on in the season. And then that Devin guy too. Also have two out-of-options possibilities down in Nashville that have been dominating International League hitters to start the season... Enoli Paredes (17.2 IP) 13.75 K9 | 3.06 BB9 | 0.00 HR9 1.02 ERA | 1.57 FIP Rob Zastryzny (15.1 IP) 13.50 K9 | 0.59 BB9 | 0.59 HR9 1.76 ERA | 1.65 FIP Among pitchers with at least 10 IP in the IL this season their 1.57 and 1.65 FIPs rank 2nd and 3rd, sandwiched between Cubs reliever Richard Lovelady (0.61) and some dude named Paul Skenes (1.67).

Just put in my ballot, and man, making the calls for the last few spots was TOUGH. If we went out to 25 my next five would have been Yujanyer Herrera, Daniel Corniel, Daniel Guilarte, Filippo Di Turi and Eric Bitonti.

Khrush Davis, Mister .247. During his four year run from 2015-18 his 160 HR were second in MLB behind only Nelson Cruz.

Whiting goes HBP, single, HBP to load the bases no outs bottom of nine then proceeds to strike out the next three batters. WOW. Carolina wins 6-5.

Whiting strands both runners going fly out, double steal, walk, pop out, fly out. 6-5 Mudcats heading to top nine.

Back to back three baggers from Kay-Lan Nicasia and Yhoswar Garcia have given Carolina an insurance run top of eight.

Mudcats two out rally top of six with a Kay-Lan Nicasia walk, wild pitch, Yhoswar Garcia single & stolen bag, and Miguel Briceno single running the score to 5-2 Carolina.

With Rhys Hoskins doing some major Win Probability Adding tonight (+.508) I was curious how that stacked up with some of the other top performances over the first not quite quarter of the season, so I clicked around and here was every instance I could find where someone posted a +.250 WPA or better for the day... 05/07 Willy Adames (+.645) 1-4, HR, 3 RBI in 6-5 win 05/11 Rhys Hoskins (+.508) 1-3, HR, 3 RBI in 5-3 win 04/25 Gary Sanchez (+.477) pinch hit two run HR in 7-5 win 04/19 Hoby Milner (+.443) scoreless 10th in 2-1 win 04/19 Freddy Peralta (+.385) six scoreless in 2-1 win 05/06 Bryse Wilson (+.373) six scoreless in 3-2 loss 04/19 William Contreras (+.370) 2-5, both RBI in 2-1 win 04/29 Sal Frelick (+.353) 9th inning lead off double, steal 3rd in 1-0 loss 05/01 Colin Rea (+.343) six scoreless in 7-1 win 03/30 Rhys Hoskins (+.324) 3 for 4, HR, 4 RBI in 7-6 win 04/14 Blake Perkins (+.307) 3-4, HR, stole home in 6-4 loss 04/26 Joey Ortiz (+.293) 2-4, HR, 4 RBI, walk off in extras 05/10 Robert Gasser (+.287) six scoreless in 11-2 win 04/13 Jake Bauers (+.286) 1 for 5 HR, 4 RBI in 11-5 win 04/26 Jared Koenig (+.266) scoreless 10th/11th in 7-6 win. 04/21 Bryan Hudson (+.250) 2.1 scoreless in 2-0 win So looks like sixteen individual instances from fifteen different players over thirteen different games with Rhys the only repeat appearance. He also had a just missed at (+.236) on 04/25 in the Sanchez pinch hit HR game. Nine position player games, four starting pitcher games, three reliever games and full season WPA contributors like Megill (+0.85), Yelich (+0.83), Turang (+0.42) and Peguero (+0.36) don't even show up on the list. Feel like that does a pretty good job illustrating the depth of contributions Milwaukee has gotten towards their current first place standing.

AZ Crew got trounced, but had a few standout performances on the afternoon… Aneuris Rodriguez went 3.1 scoreless with 1 H | 1 BB | 7 K. Thirteen of his sixteen outs have been recorded via strikeout on the young season. Luiyin Alastre (2-5, 2Bx2), Eric Bitonti (2-4, 2B, BB) and Filippo Di Turi (3-5, 2B) each doubled and reached multiple times out of the top three lineup spots.

Not too many highlights in the Nashville box. Owen Miller went 3-4 raising his average to .361. Rob Zastryzny threw another scoreless frame (1 K) lowering his ERA to 1.76 on the season (International League average is 4.90).

Carolina putting up a big rally top of six to go ahead 6-5. And it went a little something like this… Yophery Rodriguez double, Luis Castillo single, Blayberg Diaz double, Miguel Briceno single & steal, Reese Walling single.

Biloxi also marks the first tally of the evening on a trio of singles from Lamar Sparks, Mike Boeve and Brock Wilken in the bottom of the third.

Carolina up 2-1 early with another Miguel Briceno bomb plus a Yhoswar Garcia single, stolen base, passed ball combo and Daniel Guilarte RBI single accounting for the runs.

Wisco first on the board with another Dylan O’Rae triple followed by a Gregory Barrios sac fly. Cornielle also strong through his first three IP going scoreless with 3 K | 1 BB.

MISIO at 4 K | 1 BB through three scoreless frames so far with 49 pitches, 30 strikes.

Jhoulys Chacin (35 GS), Chase Anderson (30 GS) and Junior Guerra (26 GS) were our primary starters in 2018 with a little Brent Suter (18 GS), Wade Miley (16 GS), Freddy Peralta (14 GS) and Zach Davies (13 GS) mixed in.

Not sure how reliable these numbers are at the lower levels, but FanGraphs has Pratt at 44.9% pull | 26.5% cent | 28.6% oppo so far this year. 18.8 BB% versus a 21.2 K% as one of only a couple dozen teenage hitters in the Carolina League looks like he is going up to the plate with some degree of a plan and/or pitch recognition skills.

Looks like Mitch's best stretch was 2021-22 with the Dodgers... 106 IP | 96 K%+ | 97 BB%+ | 91 HR9+ | 92 ERA- | 94 FIP- Essentially a little better than average at everything except striking guys out where he was slightly below average. His batted ball profile over that stretch was right down the middle at 100 LD%+ | 100 GB%+ | 99 FB%+. That's a pretty decent middle reliever if the Brewers can coax him back to that form.

Dear Pat Murphy, Turang 2B Contreras DH Yelich LF Adames SS Hoskins 1B Bauers RF Ortiz 3B Sanchez C Chourio CF Thank you, -sveumrules

Bauers thru 04/24 49 PA | .508 OPS | 43 wRC+ Bauers 04/25 onward 35 PA | 1.062 OPS | 198 wRC+ Jake's recent heater has brought his season line up to 84 PA | 108 wRC+ | 0.2 WAR. Obviously still super early on here, but thought it might be fun to see how that stacked up to some of the offseason 1B/DH options... Jeimer Candelario 128 PA | 86 wRC+ | -0.1 WAR Mitch Garver 132 PA | 86 wRC+ | -0.2 WAR Jorge Soler 134 PA | 94 wRC+ | 0.0 WAR JD Martinez 45 PA | 90 wRC+ | 0.0 WAR Brandon Belt FILE MISSING Justin Turner 135 PA | 119 wRC+ | 0.2 WAR Joc Pederson 108 PA | 172 wRC+ | 1.1 WAR Eloy Jimenez 107 PA | 74 wRC+ | -0.2 WAR Matt Chapman 161 PA | 69 wRC+ | -0.1 WAR Outside of Joc's scorching start we're talking about fractions of WAR over less than 40 games separating most of these guys so it's really no big whoop either way at the end of the day, but it does do a nice job of illustrating how the Brewers are able to unearth similar production without paying free agent prices.

McClain, Arroyo and Encarnacion-Strand are all out with injuries currently, not sure on their respective return timelines though. Also have Marte coming back from PED suspension after 80 games. Should at least get some kinda boost later in the summer, but don’t think it’ll be as big of an impact as they saw last year.

Cortez came back out for another inning and gave up a pair of singles which eventually both scored along with one more after he was relieved by Cristofher Carrasco. Luckily the AZ Crew had scored one run bottom of seven via Tyler Rodriguez walk, Eric Bitonti single and Filippo single so the AZ Mariners barrage only evened the score to 4-4. AZ Crew then bounced back bottom of eight with a two out three run rally consisting of an Edgardo Ordonez single, Johan Barrios walk, Luiyin Alastre single, Tyler Rodriguez reach on error and Bitonti single. Brailin Rodriguez then went three up three down striking out a pair to save it in the ninth.