sveumrules

Patrick Dorrian saves Nashville from getting no hit as they fall 4-0. Tyson Miller threw three scoreless frames with 1 H | 2 BB | 3 K while Thyago Vieira had 3 K over 1.2 scoreless IP.

Wisco prevails 9-5 with Moore (2-5, 2Bx2), Miller (1-3, 2B, BB, SB) and Doston (1-3, 2B, BB) leading the way while Matthew Wood picked up his first A+ hit.

The top seven players by plate appearances - Adames, Yelich, Anderson, Tellez, Wiemer, Contreras and Turang - have registered positive WAR ranging from 0.5 to 1.3 so far with Wiemer (73 wRC+), Turang (81 wRC+), and Adames (91 wRC+) getting most of their value from defense. Wiemer and Turang should hopefully improve at the plate as the year goes on, while Adames is lagging behind his projections by around 13 to 29 percent up til now so should be due for positive regression as well. Miller (120 wRC+ | 0.7 WAR) and Caratini (124 wRC+ | 0.4 WAR) have also provided positive value in reserve roles. Between Taylor, Urias, Frelick and maybe even Black we should hopefully have reinforcements for that eighth position player spot coming shortly, which just leaves DH. Hiura injury is a bummer there, but otherwise it is the easiest spot to fill so I would expect at least one bat to be acquired at the deadline if Winker doesn't start doing something besides walking. On the pitching front it gets a little dicier. Now down to Burnes and Peralta as our only "legit" starters. Houser rounding back into form, would imagine Lauer gets moved back to the rotation with Miley's injury, then the questions begin. Getting Woodruff back should be a boost, but would guess at least one starter is targeted at the deadline (or maybe even before if they want to get a lil extra proactive) as well. Bullpen (along with the defense) has been the saving grace of the team to this point with their +3.18 WPA topping all of MLB after last night's gutsy performance. Williams, Strzelecki, Payamps, Milner, Peguero and Wilson have six spots capably filled which just leaves a couple spots at the back for roster churn with a number of intriguing arms in Nashville to cycle through for MLB looks. Either way would not be surprised if another relief arm is acquired come deadline time.

Shuckers fall 2-1. Seminaris had his second nice start (7 IP | 2 R | 6 H | 1 BB | 5 K) in a row while Campbell (1-1, BBx4), Black (0-3, BBx2) and Murray (1-1, BBx2) were the only batters to reach base multiple times in another four hit effort. Chourio was 1-5 with no Ks.

Mudcats prevail 7-0 with a third consecutive strong start from Will Rudy (5 IP | 0 R | 3 H | 1 BB | 4 K) while Yerlin Rodriguez made his 2023 debut striking out one in a scoreless ninth. Every batter except Jesus Parra reached twice with the top four in the order Lara, Guilarte, Avina and Adams notching a hit and walk each, while the next three Chirinos, Areinamo and Perez each collected a pair of hits and Sibrian had a pair of walks.

Always cracks me up when people still cling to Bickford like he was the one who got away. There are 129 relievers with at least 100 IP since 2021. Here's where Phil ranks in various categories... 98 ERA- (101st) | 94 FIP- (84th) | 0.7 rWAR (86th) | 0.9 fWAR (72nd) | +1.80 WPA (38th) The Win Probability Added is decent, but everything is else is pretty non-descript. Even then, Bickford's WPA is only fractions ahead of Hoby Milner (+1.43) over the same stretch.

Exciting to the 28th out.

Mudcats also got a coreless relief work from Nick Merkel (2 IP | 2 H | 0 BB | 1 K) and Tanner Shears (1 IP | 0 H | 1 BB | 3 K) who lowered his ERA to a nice 0.69 on the season. Wisco shutout out 7-0 with doubles from Eduarquai Fernandez and Robert Moore the only XBHs among four hits on the evening while Russell Smith (1 IP | 2 H | 0 BB | 1 K) threw the lone clean frame.

Nashville loses 7-2. Darrell Thompson had 2 K | 1 BB in a scoreless frame, Jon Singleton bomb, Blake Perkins stays hot at 2-5 with a SB. Biloxi falls 12-6. In addition to the aforementioned Quero explosion, Chourio went 3-5 with a bomb of his own. Black (1-4, BB), Zamora (2-4, BB), Sparks (1-3, BB) and Ethan Murray (1-3, BB) all reached multiple times as well.

No doubt, those three teams should all finish the year with more runs scored than the Brewers. If they don’t with their respective payroll advantages it would be a pretty big failing.

Think I saw they got permission to interview Heat assistant Chris Quinn who has a pretty good reputation, or maybe it’s just the Spoelstra connection. Obligatory mention of former Bucks Sam Cassell and Jerry Stackhouse whose names seem to come up every offseason but have yet to land an HC gig. Don’t believe either has been connected to MKE this go round though.

Brewers relievers have a +2.62 Win Probability Added so far, the 2nd best mark in MLB. All six relievers with at least 10 IP have an ERA- better than league average and only Milner has been worse than average by FIP-, splits in parentheses… Wilson (77/84), Payamps (65/95), Strzelecki (81/51), Milner (92/123), Williams (17/54), Peguero (37/78).

The Brewers have scored 180 runs so far this year. Real contenders the Phillies, Mets and Padres have scored 176, 174 and 165 runs so far this year,

About a quarter of the way into the season and the projections pretty much have the NL split into four tiers. Format is TEAM with the playoff percentages from BPro, FanGraphs and 538 in the parentheses following… Playoff Locks LAD (98% | 96% | 97%) ATL (93% | 99% | 95%) Playoffs Likely MIL (81% | 70% | 80%) SDP (84% | 65% | 63%) NYM (86% | 57% | 58%) PHI (74% | 54% | 53%) Playoff Longshots ARI (15% | 41% | 38%) STL (20% | 31% | 24%) MIA (19% | 24% | 19%) CHI (13% | 20% | 27%) SFG (11% | 29% | 17%) PIT (5% | 14% | 19%) Playoff No Shots CIN (1% | 2% | 6%) WAS (0% | 0% | 2%) COL (0% | 0% | 2%)

Of the name coaches on the market I’d prefer Nurse. Just seems like he’s a notch above the field from a strategic standpoint. I’d trust him more than any of the other candidates to devise a scheme that gets Giannis to maintain MVP calibre production via a more under control play style as he approaches his thirties and waning athleticism.

Bummer. Saw he got picked off in the play log and subsequently pulled. Was hoping it was just a jammed finger or something, but this sounds potentially a little more serious.

Sounds give up three unearned runs in the top of the ninth, but hold on for a 6-5 victory to stave off the affiliate golden sombrero. Blake Perkins (4-5, 2Bx2, 3B, SB), Andruw Monasterio (2-5. 2B, HR), Eddy Alvarez (2-4, 2B) and Payton Henry (2-4, 2B, HR) had the big days in the box. Thomas Pannone (6 IP | 1 ER | 4 H | 1 BB | 2 K) made a solid start while Clayton Andrews and Jake Cousins threw scoreless frames.

Biloxi loses 6-4 with a Chourio double and Noah Campbell triple the lone extra base hits on the day. Robbie Baker (1 IP), Zach Vennaro (2 IP) and Harold Chirino (1 IP) all had scoreless appearances while Cam Robinson, well, didn’t, giving up 3 R | 2 H | 3 BB without recording an out.

Carolina falls 6-3 with the batters drawing nine walks but only mustering four hits highlighted by a pair of Jesus Parra doubles. Miguel Guerrero surrendered the deciding run to raise his season ERA to 1.46, but had an otherwise decent line at 3 IP | 2 H | 1 BB | 3 K

Wisco falls 2-1 in an 11 inning pitcher’s duel with Eric Brown Jr (1-3, BB, SB) and Darrien Miller (2-4, 2B) the only guys to reach base more than once in the extended affair. Pitching lines were: Cam Wagoner (5 IP | 0 R | 2 H | 1 BB | 4 K), Max Lazar (2 IP | 1 R | 2 H | 0 BB | 2 K), Michele Vassalotti (1 IP | 0 R | 0 H | 1 BB | 2 K) and Ryan Brady (3 IP | 1 UER | 1 H | 0 BB | 2 K) with the rough luck loss.

Broom Crew going for the sweep with… Yelich Winker Adames Tellez Miller Caratini Turang Taylor Wiemer

Pretty crazy how much the defense has boosted both the position player group and pitching so far this year. Brewers are currently 18th in runs scored per game and 19th in wRC+, but the position players rank 11th in WAR on account of their league best defense. Pitchers haven’t been particularly good at the things they exert the most control over either with their K9 ranking 26th, their BB9 ranking 13th and their HR9 ranking 19th. Put it all together and their FIP ranks 20th, yet they are 8th in ERA on account of that league best defense contributing to a league high strand rate.

I only saw him for three games last year in Appleton, but wasn’t super impressed with his defense at 3B. Apparently he is a recent convert to the hot corner after entering college as a catcher so hopefully he should get better there with time. The other thing to keep in mind is that he’s five months older than Brice Turang, which makes him almost two years older than the average player in the Midwest League (or whatever it’s called now)

The Phillies won the 6th most games in the NL last year and went to the WS. The Braves won the 5th most games in the NL in 2021 and won the WS. We’ve gotten Contreras, Payamps and Gasser from the Hader deal. That’s closer to those heavenly roasted cashews they sell at AmFam than peanuts. Anybody paying attention already knows this isn’t a very good team who is only in contention because of a lousy division, well that and the Mets, Padres, Phillies and especially the Cardinals coming out even flatter than us through the first 25% of the season.