Cool Hand Lucroy

He just was late to get back. Didn't realize the 3B had snuck behind hi.

Yeah, you knew he was throwing a changeup. Can't be ahead of it

Here's my optimistic case. Joey's value is just something that accrues really, really slowly. That's less valuable as we get down to 30ish games left and even in a short series. Mona is perfectly fine as a short-term replacement. He'll miss some outs, but your other middle infielder is a genius with the glove, so I doubt it costs us a win. There's also some big gaps in the advanced metrics. DRS has Ortiz at -2 while OAA has him at +7. I don't buy Mona as in the same ballpark as Ortiz, but at least one advanced metric seems to think the two are very similar. Still, speedy recovery to Joey. When every base runner is a rally in the playoffs, that's the guy I want up the middle.

Thanks for the numbers. When I saw the initial post, I was wondering if I was missing something because Jansen seemed head and shoulders above Haase, even as a backup catcher.

I mostly agree with this, but any SS we play right now (other than Turang, and, for a guy who is mashing and who we really need in October and had some arm trouble when throwing from short, I think messing with his spot at the keystone right now is nuts), anyone we call up is going to hit ninth and start at SS. Makes sense to run Mona out there because we clearly trust him to give us decent PAs at the bottom of the order, which is probably not true of Zamora. I guess I can see wanting a lefty bench bat who can play OF too. Would I rather see a great defensive SS brought up with the idea that his ABs are VERY limited? Yeah. For sure. But I can squint my way around the logic and trust the FO too.

Rooting against Willy Is incredibly silly. If Mark A thought baseball was riggy He wouldn't be reaching in to the tilly To buy Benfica and Norwich City.

Especially after Mona's baserunning error. The Cubs gave us an out on the basepaths too today, which was helpful. I'm also glad Collins getting picked off second didn't bite us.

This is great. And I like when the computers align with the eye test. Sometimes, I look over there, and my mind thinks its Rhys when its Vaughn. They seem like pretty similar defenders in terms of range. Basically, solid enough first basemen.

That tracks. You lose a game (and a half) in the standings but take out 12 percent of the schedule. We just got a keep stacking wins.

Imanaga pitched great today, but our guys found a way. The Cubs only getting 1 in the fifth was huge. Mears had a massive role in this one.

Me too lol. Though not to Spring Training. Here's hoping we're all toasting a special baseball team by then.

Bingo! Bonus points for the .5!!! We're making fetch happen here, folks. We are making fetch happen.

Yeah, like to see that rare, big first inning today. Wind blowing in again, though not sure it's really going hard as it can be. Will be a factor, but probably not determine anything.

Been thinking a lot about playoff formats lately. It's obvious to me that expansion to 32 teams will come eventually, and, with it, another expanded playoff format. The more that I think about this, the more I'd just rather go to 16 teams. No byes. You have two sixteen-team leagues, and I would do two divisions. Win your division, get a top-2 seed. The next two best records are Wild Cards and are seeded 3 and 4. Essentially, my preferred format is that seeds 5-8 go to seeds 4-1 and must sweep a 3-game series. Winners play a five-game series in the divisional round, and the standard, 7-game LCS. That rewards your four best teams in each league, allows for meaningful division titles, and still creates drama and excitement. It gets a little dicey when you talk about the 5 and 6 seeds having to win three straight on the road, as there might not be a huge difference between being 5th and 6th, but I think that flaw is outweighed by the fact that you're increasing access and rewarding teams for the long haul, even if they were only just slightly better. I also think the minor league system of dividing things by halves might have some merits. Perhaps that could be incorporated. The other option might be to just shorten the regular season to 154 (or 150) and go full-on, 7-game series all the way through a la the NHL and NBA. A big part of the problem is this paradox that baseball is SO much about the long-haul, but American sports insist on a single, winner-take-all, open-access playoff. That system just doesn't fit our sport that well. Hockey attempts to solve this with the President's trophy, which gives the best regular-season team actual hardware, even if fans don't think it means that much. Still, it's something, and that's fitting given that the NHL is our most international domestic league. The soccer system of having multiple competitions happening at once during a season (and the NBA and WNBA doing these in-season tournaments) makes a lot of sense to me. It provides multiple ways of defining a successful season. For some teams, maybe it's just staying at the top level or qualifying for a minor European competition. For others, its winning a domestic cup. For others, only league and Champions League titles will suffice. Perhaps us fans have to just make that attitude adjustment because there's no doubt the Brewers have been an incredibly successful franchise over the last decade, despite little in the way of October advancement. Basically, I think, if baseball isn't going to adopt promotion-relegation or some meaningful, in-season competition or celebrate division titles and other things at a level closer to (NOT equal to) WS appearances and titles, then I'd just as soon open the playoffs up, balance the brackets, and not necessarily "devalue" the regular season, but just mark it off as its own unique thing, separate from October.

I think intangibles are meaningful, but I'd still bet on math. I do agree about the Cubs schedule being tougher in actuality than in theory. My take is: there's SO much baseball that most of it is meaningless. In order to make it meaningful, we pile all kinds of emotional narratives on top of it. Sometimes, this makes things joyful and borderline mystical (the 14-game streak, Uecker magic, etc.). Sometimes, it makes things stressful and gut-wrenching (the last three days). In both cases, the emotional narrative is valid and meaningful but missing significant parts of the underlying reality. This is why I find baseball to be a good teacher. It is constantly forcing you to evaluate your subjective experience against things more objective. That back and forth is very human.

We have outscored them this series lol. Baseball is a funny game.

Another way to look at it is that the Cubs have a three-city West Coast trip, and the Braves and Rockies are two of the hottest teams in baseball. Even the Nats are playing better. It's not a hard schedule in theory, but the timing is better for the Brewers.

On the bright side, I thought we were only up 6 before tonight. So, no harm no foul.

Hope you're right. I'll be shocked if anyone gets one out tonight, though. Mis had 4 bad ABs, the Cubs got one big hit, and our offense left a small village on the basepaths. Frustrating results, but we haven't been that bad these last two days.

Murph has faith in the offense, I guess. Hope he is rewarded.

Koenig 7th, Anderson 8th if we don't score? Or Anderson 7th?

Perkins can switch hit, but I'm with you. I like his ABs a lot better lately.

Folks, Siegler is going to bunt. He's a great bunter, which almost no one in baseball is. This is the brand of baseball we play.

Cubs making plays and stealing outs. We've done that to plenty of people this year.

Give Mears another methinks.