Cool Hand Lucroy

Nice win. Didn't read through the whole thread, but I'm guessing folks mentioned Patrick's usage? I figured he would get the 8th too, and maybe the 9th, in a kind of swing role. Are we trying to make him Ashby but right-handed? I think the guy can make it as a starter, so I was surprised to see him in a one-inning role. Maybe that's an innings-saving maneuver? I just kind of wonder what the plan is for Chad going forward. If he's a utility pitcher, that's potentially interesting, but I hope this doesn't presage a more traditional role.

Those are real close not to challenge with two left...

Wanted to mention this as well, glad you beat me to it. Mitchell had two really ugly ABs, but the sac fly in the 4th might have been one of the biggest PAs of the game, against a lefty really bearing down in a leverage spot. Don't know what to think of the guy. Would it shock you that he and Lockridge have almost exactly the same triple slash? Because they do. And Lockridge has been worth about an extra third of a win (bRef), basically via defense? I don't know what to make of that, but I'm tipping my cap to Mitchell for helping the team win today, even with a pretty mediocre game overall.

Fun series for the Crew. Fine margins, but have to appreciate the pitching work holding that lineup to six runs over 28 innings, one of them with a ghost runner. Obviously, the 4th inning today was the big one. Clutch hitting and taking advantage of walks, a hit batter, and a wild pitch. Very Brewers thing to do. If I'm not mistaken, we've now matched our high-water mark at 6 games over .500. Schedule is pretty tough the rest of May, but the quality of baseball has been a lot better over the last two weeks. One thing that really impresses me about this roster is the starting pitching depth. You look at our starters, and there just isn't a guy who you're like, "we'll probably lose this one." Obviously, Harrison, Sproat, and Henderson are works in progress, but to lose Woodruff and still be able to trot out that kind of rotation is awesome, and it's going to pay dividends as we get late into the year. I'm not expecting much from Priester or Woody moving forward, but you have to think any innings they do give are a nice bonus with this group.

And the bullpen has struggled too. I know it's driven by a few blowouts, but the fact that Pythag has us on the unlucky side is pretty stunning when you watch this team every day and feel stoked to be 21-16.

Kind of reminded me of that game we blew in Detroit versus Skubal, only this time we finished. The eighth inning was beautiful. 2 outs. Single, SB, single, and a tie game. Frustrating as the MacMahon single was, getting that out on the bases to end the inning was big.

Yup. Terrible throwing three sliders in a row there.

Been waiting all year for a walkoff win, I believe. Let's get it done tonight.

Definitely not shrugging it off. I really like Lockridge. And I sincerely hope it isn't career-impacting. It just looked really bad. I'm hoping we get a positive update from the team at some point tonight.

Underrated numbers from Lockridge. No slug, but already worth half a win this year on the strength of a .355 OBP. Puts up great ABs. Is elite at seeing pitches. Brewers can replace the numbers, but the replacement combo won't get them the same way. Hoping the guy didn't suffer ligament damage. I'd be shocked if there wasn't a fracture in there somewhere. Depending on the type, you can probably avoid surgery and be back before September. But that's maybe career-impacting if there's soft tissue stuff too.

That had broken leg written all over it. Ouch. Feel for Lockridge.

We'll see how I feel about this statement in July, but I think yesterday's postponement helps the Brewers. Let's take one game off the schedule while we're fielding a undermanned roster and give the returning IL guys time to ease back in. It's strange to see the Brewers UNDERperforming their run differential for a change. Not sure how much of that to chalk up to bullpen and how much to the three or four big offensive performances. Probably more the former. Even with all the talk about the offense, it's those bullpen arms that are going to have to be better if this team's going to be a factor. We can't be giving up late leads. Definitely feels like a treading water first quarter, but that was what we all we're hoping for after the injuries at the end of spring.

Nearly grabbed a sweep despite a pretty woeful offensive performance yesterday and today. As others have said elsewhere, it's hard to be too broken up about this start given the roster's obvious holes. Sure, it'd be nice to have wracked up a few more wins against some pretty soft competition, but I'm a big believer in the "not who but when" baseball schedule philosophy. I certainly don't expect the Cardinals, Reds, and Pirates to all keep up this pace. Heck, I don't expect the Cubs to keep up this pace either. I'd say we're probably underdogs in the Central, but that's the way it's supposed to be. And the Cubs came out on fire last year, too. The roster is only going to get better from here. Saint Louis has a good staff to get healthy against offensively. Let's get a winning road trip.

Feels like this is going to be a fundamental disagreement and fault line for ABS discussions. There is such a thing as "always strikes" and such a thing as "never strikes." There is also, though, in my view, such a thing as "sometimes strikes." I don't think the strike zone is one thing. I think it is a negotiation between batter, pitcher/catcher, and umpire. That negotiation is rich and, yes, democratic. I prefer my baseball that way. The challenge system does support this "democratic" idea, importing a kind of Supreme Court that only accepts appeals within the rules and whose decisions are final. That feels good to me. I concede that the ABS zone is cleaner, easier, and more consistent. And it removes human biases (against particular players or teams or kinds of strikes). Folks are totally free to think that's a better way to watch baseball (I will admit that after a lot of initial skepticism about tennis going all-electric, I now think it's probably the superior way to experience that sport--line arguments there were more of a distraction to the experience, though I think the strike zone is a different thing altogether). Point is, I doubt we'll be able to convince each other. At the end of the day, I suspect that the "all ABS, all the time" crowd will win. That seems to be the direction these things are heading. Maybe it'll take a while. Maybe all the anti-AI sentiment out there will generate a backlash, and baseball will board the Luddite train. Who knows? I just suspect we'll go all-ABS at some point, and I believe we'll lose something important in the process. I won't make grand proclamations about it ruining the game or anything, but, just like with the anti-shift rule, we'll have lost a kind of human freedom that will make the game different. Not necessarily worse, even. But different, and speaking a different language than the one I grew to love. So it goes with getting older. I'll still speak the language. I'll still love doing it. But everyone will be able to hear my accent, and I bet it'll start to sound funny to a lot of people.

My ABS question is: will umpires now make more of an attempt to call the zone as it is electronically? I actually think it's a fascinating question, mainly because "yes" isn't necessarily a good answer. I don't really want everyone sort of conforming to the same zone regardless of context (for example, I've already seen a few of those calls where the pitcher misses his spot by a foot-and-half, but the ball lands in the zone, and it gets called a strike, even though it wouldn't have been in previous years--I don't like that much). Of course, "no" isn't a good answer either. We definitely want umps to consider the input the ABS is giving them. It just shouldn't be as simple as "ABS called this a strike, and I didn't, and I was wrong." The best outcome here is challenges as a useful check on umpires. I personally don't want hitters (or catchers) just saving challenges for late in the game just to challenge borderline leverage pitches. I think, obviously, your certainty level can go down as the game progresses, but if you're 90 percent sure a pitch is wrong in the second inning, you should probably challenge it. The worst outcome is everyone saving challenges until late, players challenging a bunch of borderline pitches, and ABS just becoming a late-game coin flip for pitches that can fairly be called balls OR strikes. I will say that I'm way more into this system than I was at the beginning of the year. It's interesting, adds a strategic element, and mostly has seemed less intrusive as I've managed to get used to it.

Great post. And I'm not going to pretend it was always better back in the old days, either, but you certainly lose something when you sell out to create offense and focus on "product." I really miss those Temple teams, too. Haven't seen a team really commit to the matchup zone in decades. It says something that teams with those signature styles are abandoning them. Badgers don't run the swing. Tony B is retired, and Virginia's less and less a pack-line team. Northwestern and the Princeton-offense coaching tree still runs a lot of backdoor action, but it's more about clearing space for shooters. Heck, Bucky Ball is the closest thing to "40 minutes of hell," and it was a little less Bucky-ish and A&M than it was at Samford. Honestly, part of me wonders if it isn't as much the youth sports structure as it is anything else. Kids play so many GAMES now, and games are actually a pretty bad way to teach basketball. The NBA is selecting for freakish height/athleticism combos, Michigan won a title with that approach, and, more and more games aren't about tactics as they are about personnel. Everyone has 5 guys who can shoot. Everyone's 6-4 or bigger. Roll out the ball and see who can get the rim and make triples, factoring in the whims of the whistle. CBB still has its pockets. I think the style diversity is still there by and large, and that, along with the atmospheres, will carry it a long way provided we don't go to full-on NBA or international rules. Re: the shorter shot clock. Sure, it helps good defensive teams, but it creates a lot more possessions. That means there's less incentive to play slow and defend than there was 15, 20 years ago, just by virtue of the fact that that style now has to succeed over 68 or 70 trips instead of 62 or 64.

Agreed. I think the institutional power of the NCAA makes it a little more egregious than any random player, but I certainly take the point. I'm already resigning myself to the day we move MBB to quarters. Honestly, I still miss the days of the 35-second shot clock. It opened up a whole world of style diversity and made college basketball a unique product. All that said, I will say the quality of play has probably never been better. And there's still a good deal of diversity in terms of tactics and strategy, much more so than the NBA. MBB is in a decent spot, and the tournament is a genuine jewel, which is why it's so frustrating. Watching an institution try to squeeze its main product for marginal extra cash, at risk to a lot of things, is tough.

You don't think a market exists for insuring baseball pitchers with an injury history? How would any pitcher ever get a nine-figure contract?

I don't buy this for a second. The idea that a team as smart as the Brewers are on the hook for the full amount doesn't hold water. I would bet every team is insuring every contract against long-term injury, and, even if not, Woody's contract definitely falls into the category of ones you'd insure. The primary concern here is Woody himself. Obviously hope he's okay. Have to feel, like others, that he might be finished as a big-league pitcher, but you hope that's not the case. Good news is the Brewers have depth for these moments. They'll need it.

It appears the tournament will be expanding to 76 teams next year. This is crappy for a million reasons, but I'm not sure I have the stomach to complain about it. I suspect it'll be choir-preaching here, and this was pretty much going to happen no matter what. I do wish the folks defending it (namely the NCAA and TV people) would just be honest about it. "We know people hate it, and that it will probably diminish the value of the regular season and help mediocre power conference teams, but it will allow us to make money on media rights deals, and that's what we care about." I'd actually respect that instead of the garbage that pretends this is about basketball. It's not. And we'll live with it, but they should at least own their greed and be called out for it.

Might be time to burn these uniforms.

Zerpa's struggled so far, but neither Collins nor Mears are lighting the world on fire. I guess we'll see. Been an extremely weird game so far. In the aggregate, I'd say the Brewers are lucky to be tied, but it's also felt like they should have 8 runs.

True, and the weather in central Illinois, eastern Iowa is importantly better than Wisconsin in April, though quite a bit more uncomfortable in the summer months, especially later on. I think the QC could probably support Double-A if not for the geography. Just not enough viable markets nearby. That might be a problem for Madison as well, though a Triple-A budget would help some and Madison is a decent enough fit in the International League West. Farthest road trip would be Gwinnett.

Always surprised Madison doesn't have a stronger history with minor league baseball, especially when you see places like Peoria, Cedar Rapids, and the QC doing a strong job keeping up teams and traditions. If the Fox Cities were a little more compact, that Green Bay to Oshkosh/Fondy stretch is a nice population center. T-Rats seem to do pretty well at High-A (I'm a Midwest League fan, I guess), but that's a big jump to AAA. Honestly? I almost wonder if somewhere in the western Chicago suburbs would be a good fit. Kane County used to play High-A. Lots of population growth out that way. Heart of Cubs country, obviously, so that'd be weird, but...maybe the Cubs move there eventually, and Des Moines is open. Typing that out it sounds crazy. Gary, IN had a robust triple A situation for a while. Just throwing out off day ideas at this point. Hard when so much of the population growth is in the Sun Belt. I think you're right. Madison is the obvious choice and by a long, long way. Hope it happens eventually. I do think it would be the kind of competitive advantage the Brewers are built to capitalize on..

I think this is right on. And one of the things about being a Brewer fan over the last ten years is that the whole organization is built to win on depth, basically. Sometimes it's bullpen depth. Sometimes it's having a bunch of "out-getters" who can all throw 3-4 innings. Sometimes it's having 9 guys who grind out ABs and all wear down the opposing starter. Sometimes it's taking every advantage of the Nashville shuttle (the Brewers would so love to be the Twins and have a AAA affiliate the next town over--you just know these nerds in the FO would salivate over shuttling guys while saving travel costs, both financial and physical, and I love them for it). The good thing about that approach is that it works. The bad part is that it works in ways that are really, really difficult to see. Perkins looks bad. Matos looks bad. Who is Greg Jones? I think my answer is: he's probably better than the guy in that spot on just about every other roster in baseball. The Brewers care about the difference between a guy OPSing .625 and one OPSing .640. For most teams, both those guys are worthless. But, for this team, the thinking is like "I'm going to have a below average player taking a lot of ABs this year; I might as well make them a little closer to average." We find out who most teams are in July and August. That goes double for the Brewers because that's when spreading out ABs and innings starts to add up on the margins. It's not great to watch sometimes, but it gets the job done.