Cool Hand Lucroy

Mis, Harrison, Gasser, Drohan in the rotation right now. Sproat about to go on the shelf. Crow and Henderson looking reasonably close to coming back. Woody was okay yesterday, I guess. It's getting a little bit dicey, but they may only have to hold on for a couple of weeks. I'm not as up on the prospects as some here. I know Hardin is probably the highest pedigree choice, especially with Letson struggling at AA. Could Pannone take a spot start? Or Stallings (the K numbers look pretty good, at least)? Throwing one of those guys in Cincy doesn't seem like the worst idea. I know that place is a bandbox, but that lineup has also been pretty bad all year. Sometimes, you just need to eat innings.

I feel like I have seen more banger goals from outside the box than I ever have. Austria just absolutely blasted one. "Goal of the tournament" is going to be very competitive.

Definitely agree with all the folks mentioning Rengifo to IL. As soon as he got that little knock (the World Cup has me talking in soccer terms), a whole lot of people were thinking the same thing I was. "This lets us call up a top prospect without DFAing him." Seems like the org is smart enough to have that thought too.

I remember a lot of talk after the draw about "Turkey is a bad draw for anyone, should they win the playoff." They might well be. But Australia looked solid in defense, aside from a late lapse or two, and incredibly clinical and athletic on the counter. They also looked completely unafraid. Should be fun. Totally agree about Pulisic as well. I don't really buy the "he has to be great" narrative. Chris Richards and Balogun seem to fit that bill more for me. Front and back. The middle, though thin, has been the cornerstone of this national team for a long time.

Balogun and Gio both delivered absolutely choice goals. Completely lethal. The way this groups of midfielders can dominate the center of the park, having competent finishers is such a big deal. Balogun was my one big reason for optimism. When you have questions at the back and lack a clear striker, it's really hard to get points for all your possession. But even with a 38-year-old as part of your central pairing and a largely unproved keeper, you're still alright if you put away chances. That will have to keep up, but you're absolutely right. That was a US team playing with all the tough togetherness of past editions AND with talent and athleticism all over the space. "What if our best athletes played soccer?" It would look something like that.

And none of this even mentions that he was throwing 102-105 (!) with regularity. I mean, the game score tells you how dominant he was. He faced the minimum. But HOW he did it? Other-worldly. Look, I have no idea how long Mis can keep this up. I have no idea if he can stay healthy doing it. But this is the most I've ever felt like "this dude is starting today, and you cannot miss it" in my life. He is a special player, and the only one I ever felt close to that with was CC Sabathia and, one full tier down from that, peak, throwing three innings at once, Hader (which of course was a whole different thing because who knew when he was coming in). Mis just put together the best year I've ever seen from a Brewer. The superlatives are not enough.

Really hard to see how the USMNT could have played any better. Great start for them. Honestly, I was equally unimpressed with Paraguay. That team looked utterly clueless. No sense of spacing. No ability to string passes together. Couldn't win a ball to save their lives. There was a lot of talk about how Paraguay was going to force us into a physical game, but we were BY FAR the more physical, more athletic, more tactically savvy team. And Paraguay knew it and looked like they would've rather been in Malibu than on that pitch. I think Australia and Türkiye will be tougher tests, but 3 pts (and the +3 GD and 4 goals) might well be enough, even if they slip to third. I will say this: I've been watching this team regularly since '94, and I've never seen them dominate a game like that. Some of that is down to an opponent that wouldn't have qualified under any edition not featuring 48 teams, but still. I don't know if it's Balogun making the difference or Poch, but, either way, it works.

I don't even know what to say about Miz. It just keeps getting more unreal. One of the best games I've ever witnessed from a Brewers pitcher. Right up there with CC's no-no in Pittsburgh ;)

We went 4-2 in Vegas and Colorado. Sproat pitched well. If this counts as a bad road trip, I hope we have a lot of bad road trips.

Yelich and Joe Mauer are very similar players, with the big difference being that Mauer played catcher. Beyond that, the offensive numbers are very close, as are the perpetual durability and contract concerns. Both had 2-3 excellent years, including an MVP and a lot of good years that fans didn't think were good enough. One guy's a HOFer. I doubt Yelich gets there--it's just so much harder as an outfielder. But the idea that he's been some kind of underperformer as a Brewer is quite hard to swallow.

I mean, what can you even say? $30 million guaranteed is nothing to sneeze at, and that's a steal for the Brewers. It basically assumes Lara is worth 2-3 WAR over the life of the contract (I know the dollar/WAR figure changes regularly, so no idea where it's at currently). Even if it maxes out at $80, that's like 1.0 WAR a year. Hard to not to be very excited about this. Even if it doesn't work out, it works out.

Agreed. I know folks are unimpressed by division titles these days, but that's always the number one goal for me. I imagine it's a Drohan-Patrick day, with Uribe and Megill and maybe Ashby around for leverage.

I figured we'd do something like this just in the name of depth. Easy call, especially since it only costs $$.

I definitely expressed some Bauers skepticism. I know there were long stretches where it felt like he was redundant on the roster. I was wrong. The Brewers were right. That's usually how it goes, and I'm happy about it.

Love Megill just coming in and zipping strikes. If he's gonna throw, nice to get out in 9 pitches or whatever it was.