Cool Hand Lucroy

I would LOVE to have Stephen Vogt back in the dugout. So many "I Believe" chants. And I do. I believe in Stephen Vogt.

Yeah, this is good. It really comes down to the role you want baseball to serve in your life. I really like the rhythm and routine of the regular season. I like having that nightly game to look forward to and track and mark time by. I like the background and the moments of surprise, and I care more about preserving that than having October success. I just like when the regular season matters. I also know that nothing delivers joy and pain like October, and lots of folks would be willing to let go of consistent, daily meaning for that big, World Series payoff. Good to have both approaches.

Every decision starts with 1A and 1B, Counsell and Burnes. I think everything you do depends on what happens with those two, and I do think they're largely independent of each other. I don't think Counsell staying means Burnes is necessarily more likely to, FWIW. I would definitely trade Burnes. I just can't see an argument for keeping him, given a) arb cost, b) contract expiring, c) no chance to re-sign, and d) massive need for immediate 2024 offensive production. I doubt Burnes is worth a huge haul, but he should net you something like a MLB-ready, league-average bat with a couple years of team control, maybe something more. Of course, this team got Contreras for basically Esteury Ruiz, so maybe there's some magic out there too. The starting pitching is going to be a massive question mark. How serious is Woody's injury? Is Ashby ready, or even healthy? Can Houser continue to be a consistent depth option toward the back of the rotation? Do we get first half Freddy or second half Freddy? Is 10 million worth it for Miley? Can we get anything at all from Misiorowski, Rodriquez, or Gasser? I have no idea on those questions. You're basically going into the offseason knowing 2 of your starting pitchers. That's....interesting. While I see the argument for trading Devin (and wouldn't be opposed to it on principle), it's going to have to be a huge haul. When baseball seasons go bad, a shaky bullpen is usually a big part of the cause. With all the question marks all over the other parts of the roster, I'd bet on Peguero, Payamps, and Williams being good enough to hold most late-inning leads. Williams is the safest bet of those three, with the longest track record. With a young team, I want no part of a bunch of deflating, late-lead losses. Offensively, Adames is a 3-win player who is probably more valuable to you than anyone else. Hope for a bounce back year, and accept your best case might be a QO and subsequent draft pick compensation. I'd bring Santana back if the price is right. Canha, no. Too expensive, not enough of a difference maker anyway. I'm not into the Donaldson show. Dude looks pretty washed to me, despite hitting a few dingers that stood out because nobody else was doing it. I'm all in on Black starting with the big club. Let's see what he's got. What do we do with all our outfielders? Yelich is going to get starts in left, but probably not as many. Mitchell, Frelick, Weimer, Taylor, even Perkins has some value. Chourio is coming. That's 7 guys for 4 or 5 roster spots. Probably can keep Weimer and Chuorio at AAA early, but for how long? You probably need a backup catcher unless you're ready to go with Quero. Basically, I think there are a lot of good ways to build on this roster, and I'm looking forward to the offseason. It'll be fun to see this take shape. The pieces are there.

It's funny. I spent about an hour postgame thinking we now had the longest active playoff losing streak in sports (at 5). Turns out, that's way wrong. The Pistons have lost 14 playoff games in a row. So, okay, I thought, longest in baseball? Nope, that's Rays at 7. Longest in the NL? Nope! Not even the longest in the division. The Reds have lost 6 in a row, and the Marlins and Cardinals (!) have also each lost 5. All of which is to say, we aren't exceptional at losing, even in our division! At least not lately. Plus, having actually won a playoff series in the last decade, we're in a better position than a lot of franchises. This series sucked. Baseball is cruel. We weren't good enough, didn't get some important breaks, and now we just hope the experience pays dividends for our young guys. I maintain that this organization (even anticipating a lot more uncertainty next year) is in the best shape of my life. We're a chronic contender, and as someone who actually celebrated after that 2005 Brewers won their 81st game, I cannot believe how much better the last 15 years of difficult postseason losses have been. In all honesty, sign me up for 5 more playoff appearances over the next 6 years, even if you also guarantee me they won't win a WS.

Fair enough. Like I said, I think the Brewers are in a better place, both in terms of talent and leadership. I thought the Twins looked a lot looser and ready than the Brewers did in big moments, but that's a subjective judgment. Brewers also got unlucky in important ways. On the other hand, they were also playing in a pretty friendly run environment (AmFAm w/ a closed roof) and couldn't get a big hit. One home run in two games doesn't cut it, so I'm with you. We need to balance out the roster in ways that help boost the offense. The other thing I'll add is this. Winning by run prevention is not a very fun way to win. It makes for a lot of stressful games, a lot of low-scoring games, a lot of really frustrating offensive half-innings and terrifying defensive ones. I'd like to see this team go down 4-0 on occasion and not feel like the game is over, even it means falling behind a little more often.

Not disagreeing. But you don't have literally no-chance. The Brewers were favorites in this game. Even down 5-2 in the 8th, the Frelick AB was a moment where you have to take a shot. You've got Weimer or Miller there to use. It's not that tough. When all options are bad, just seize the platoon advantage and hope. It's not the reason they lost. But I think CC was real shy about taking out Frelick and Turang this series, both in key spots, facing lefties. There's always hindsight involved there, but both times he let the kids bat. Both times it didn't work. It's all pretty minor in the scheme of things. I'm here for it if CC wants to come back. The prospects are going to make this team fun either way. But I'm ready for the next era because change is good, and after nearly a decade with one manager, it's maybe time to try something a little different.

I don't disagree with this overall. Believe me. I'd rather have our FO. But that team has an attitude and feel to it that matches the moment. I'd like the Brewers to find their way to that feeling. I think they will, but it has to start this offseason and be done without sacrificing long-term value.

If you need optimism, check out the ETAs on our MLB.com Top 30 prospect list.

We are mind-melding. The Twins did that this year. They looked so loose and ready these last two days. Everyone focused and locked it and yet still having fun. Brewers could use a Carlos Gomez on this roster. Somebody so gutsy he's probably a little bit foolish, but he sure as heck is confident. Credit to Tyrone Taylor. He played like that guy and has been for a while.

Dude, exactly! We are going to be INTERESTING in 2024. We're going to be FUN. Young, fast, frustrating, and with a new manager too. I have half a mind to say the org should hire Alyssa Nakken to manage and just like become the most fascinating follow in the history of pro sports.

It sure seems like the trend is to hire youngish, analytically minded former players, guys who started their careers in the pre-Moneyball era and ended when every FO was employing multiple Ivy league data analysts and game theory gurus. This is the David Ross, Rocco Baldelli kind of hire. You could argue CC was the first one of that batch! I still think that's the mold the Crew is going to draw from. I'd like to see an innovative hire. Someone a little off-the-map. Someone who's young but maybe not necessarily a former player. I don't know. There aren't a lot of names out there that make me say "Yeah, that's the right person."

I'm interested in the AL much more. Orioles are a fun story. Would love to see them in the WS.

I don't blame anyone either, and I like CC. Always have. He was bad this series, though. Not the reason they lost, and he didn't have a lot of good options offensively. But you've got to at least push a few more buttons when your team struggles so much to score.

That's a tough one. We took all the bad Twins karma on our shoulders, I guess. Here's to breaking our current 5-game playoff losing streak next year.

The fact that Caratini doesn't get one AB bothers me a bit too. That guy's a pro and he's been clutch, and in a two-game series, who cares that he's your only other catcher?

This is hilarious, or would be if it weren't so painful. Why is Donaldson not being PR for?

Agreed. Am I wrong in thinking that, other than pitching Counsell made three moves on the offensive side: 1) PHing Winker twice and 2) PRing Weimer when they brought in a lefty to pitch to Sal. When you type it out like that....yikes.

When there are no good options, I default to a platoon advantage, but that's just me. Especially one without any real defensive downside. I'm at peace with the outcome of this series because the DBacks sure look like the better baseball team. I also think this team may well need the big changes we all expect just because sometimes you need a change. Sometimes, things get stale. I am the weirdo who talks about how much I enjoyed watching the 2016 and 2017 Brewers, teams that didn't make the playoffs, but that had something compelling and were moving in an exciting direction. I'd love for the 2024 Brewers to be better version of that.

I did not like letting Sal hit either.

Unless something very dramatic and very unlikely happens, this era of Brewers baseball is about to end. I think it's been a good one, but it (probably rightfully) be remembered as one of tremendous regular season success and near-total postseason failure. Some of that is bad luck. We all know the playoffs are essentially a random exercise, but we also know that each of the Brewers playoff teams over the last 6 years entered drastically weaker than their opponents in at least one area. In 2018, it was starting pitching. We had great relievers and a decent offense, and we got a good matchup in the Rockies, who really struggled to hit, especially away from Coors. Since then, it's been the offense. We scored 3 runs in 2019, and it wasn't enough. Got shut out twice in 2021. Looks like we'll score 5 in two games this year. Most postseason teams, they have a plan B. They can win a low-scoring game with the right starter going. They can also scratch a few extra runs across and win 5-3. Even the 2018 Brewers could weather a bad SP performance or one bad BP inning because they had a reasonably balanced offense. With these teams, no plan B. They just cannot win a game where they give up 4 runs. And that sinks your whole ship. Now, the next era of this team does feature some really promising hitters (and some good arms), and I think there's a lot of balance headed our way if we a) make the right managerial hire and b) get the right return for Burnes (it won't be a haul, but it just has to include 2 young, controllable pieces who can basically be role players--2-win guys for a few years). Whatever happens, the future of this team looks both bright and different. It's time for that, even though I've loved this era of Brewers baseball, and I think CC has been the best manager in my lifetime. Was definitely the right hire, and I'd take him back in a heartbeat if he wanted to continue.

Freddy got a little rattled after the HR. Plus, the DBacks have some guys who are MLB hitters for real. There's such little margin for error when you just can't score. Teams have won playoff games with 2-3 runs, but it's really hard and really stressful, and to count on doing it for a whole series is going to make your life very very difficult.

More bad BABIP luck. You have to be kidding me with that. That's gotta find somebody's glove, right?

Is Pham yapping at Adames? ***?

He's out.

The DBacks are getting a TON of BABIP luck, but they're also just putting in good PAs. No panic. That ball Pham hit could not have been place in a better spot.