KeithStone53151

Apologies for causing you such hardship..

Regarding Wiemer, I get that he's not hitting and will probably not be a productive hitter much of the rest of the way. That said, he has a very viable role as a defense/speed guy. I'm not sure sending him down to AAA is the call. They also might wait until after Sept 1 so he's eligible for the postseason roster...then send him down for a little tuning.

You're making this a bit too serious, but at the end of the day his biggest blunder with splits involved batting Hiura almost exclusively against LHP despite being one of the best hitters in baseball specifically against RHP a couple years back. As for Turang, I will attribute a good chunk of his struggles against LHP specifically to barely seeing them. He's had 50 PA against LHP compared to 310 vs RHP. He was protected early on in the season from LHP, which made his struggles when he eventually saw them inevitable. He needed to play everyday and face lefties in April/May/June. We're quickly approaching the point in the season where only results matter...whereas development matters almost zero. Now CC is facing a dilemma of whether to put Turang in against lefties to keep his defense in the lineup, or roll the better hitting monasterio who is not the same defender. Worth noting, Turang had negligible splits in the minors against RH vs LH.

It boggles my mind that Steele is an effective pitcher, and nobody will change my mind about that. He's clearly getting it done, but it defies everything I've ever seen regarding successful pitching. With Burnes on the mound we definitely have a great shot to guarantee a series win tonight. I'm expecting a very very heavy RH lineup today. Steele has had reverse splits this year, better numbers against RHH than LHH. CC has shown a complete inability to comprehend reverse splits...so naturally Frelick/Turang/Tellez will all hit the bench today(unless Santana is unavailable).

I think I was pretty clear saying it probably would come down to the last week, but I feel it sends a bad message to the players regarding sense of urgency to say that publicly. And in your scenario if the Cubs go 20-10...if we aren't playing with a sense of urgency that probably means they win the division. Fortunately, it seems the players bypassed CC and had a players only meaning to instill proper urgency...and it seems to be working.

Our place in the standings allows us more room for error down the stretch. We can go 2-4 and probably still have the lead heading into September. I would hope we do better, we're certainly playing better baseball lately especially offensively. A true hot streak from Adames down the stretch would be massive. I haven't cared for Counsell's comments on the playoff race. He keeps saying it's going to come down to the last week. He's probably right, but it doesn't have to. We can close the race sooner than that, and we should instill that thought process and sense of urgency into our players.

https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds Brewers at 91.8% playoff odds. The most interesting thing I'm seeing, is that there are still 9 teams with over 25% postseason odds according to this site. Could be a wild finish to the season.

I have the game on gamecast. I question how major league baseball players miss middle middle 92 mph fastball. What exactly are these guys hoping for?

Looking at statcast data, the biggest change he's made appears to be pitch selection. He previously mixed his 4 seam, cutter, and sinker quite a bit. The cutter and sinker were regularly shelled while the 4 seam had been more effective. He went from throwing a 4 seam 37% of the time in July to 55% in August so far. So basically the Brewers should get ready for a steady diet of belt to shoulders fastballs...and hopefully they can hit em.

Some hits are luckier than others. The Dodgers had a lot of batted balls that are outs far more often than not, the Brewers had a lot of batted balls that are hits far more often than not. Luck is part of the game, and this isn't the first time the team with the better batted ball profile lost a game. If we play a game today with a similar batted ball profile, odds are the Brewers are likely to come out ahead.

It's not a stretch if you actually watched the game. The Dodgers had probably 5 soft hits fall in, the Brewers had 3 or 4 over 100 exit velo outs...one of which was an inning ending double play lineout. Add in the umpire having his head buried in the sand and letting JD Martinez stand outside the batters box and intentionally hit the catchers glove...the Brewers played better baseball yesterday and got unlucky.

We've outplayed the dodgers today with our 4th starter against what I assume is one of their top starters still. Bad luck today. I think the Brewers can hold their own against any team in the NL aside from probably the braves.

I mean, I hope nobody is complaining about the offense. Anderson has looked bad but aside from him it's been a lot of hard hit outs today...

What in the world is going on this game? The brewers have been pissing on the ball all game for hard hit outs, the dodgers are blooping in anything. I feel like our xBA is 200 points higher than theirs today yet they are up 3.

Ok twist my arm, we don't have to give the Cubs credit for this. The last thing we want to do is give their doofy fans more reasons to irrationally believe in their team.

I think the path you outlined for him to be an impact bat is fairly accurate, however I just don't think that's a path he needs to go down to be what we need. According to fangraphs, through 23 games Frelick is at 1.1 WAR. I don't think Frelick is an 8 WAR player, he will probably settle in between 3 and 5 WAR depending on the year. We don't need a squad full of Yelich's and Burnes's to compete for a World Series, nor is it realistic. I don't know that Frelick should risk significantly changing an approach that has worked for him to this point. Especially right now. That seems like a great thing to work on in the off season and maybe next March through May. In mid-August and onward, stick to what's working and grind out the wins.

I didn't realize the Cubs had a good farm system. I wonder how much of it is real vs big market bias. I'm guessing they finally got smart a good decade after the Dodgers did and flexed their financial muscle a bit to hire better development staff. Based on this chart, and considering young talent that graduated from these lists, the Cardinals are in a bad way and could be bad for a while.

One thing I've seen quite often regarding Burnes and Woodruff, is that we should let Burnes go because he's too expensive but give Woodruff a big fat extension. I really don't think that will happen nor is it a viable strategy. While Burnes is probably looking at $35M per year, Woodruff is older and probably still looking at $25M per year minimum, and probably a 4-5 year investment. We'd be tying up over 1/3 of our likely payroll in 2 players. Woodruff specifically I anticipate could age poorly as well. I don't view his off-speed stuff as THAT good. I'm concerned he becomes a back of rotation starter if his fastball velocity drops from 96 to 93. It's certainly risky to make that level of investment in a pitcher that will be 32 when he pitches for the first time beyond our team control. As far as what to do with Burnes/Woodruff, I think the Brewers will listen to offers but I don't know that we NEED to trade them this offseason. Next year we could go for a boom/bust type year with Mitchell and Chourio hitting the majors and hopefully sparking the offense. Frelick/Turang/Wiemer will have a year of experience at the MLB level and hopefully will be better hitting in 2024. I think we could make moves around the edges at 3b, 1b, backup catcher, relief, etc...and make another run with effectively this squad in 2024. If we start poorly, we can firesale at the deadline. Looking at what guys like Verlander and Scherzer got at the deadline this year are good comps for what Woodruff/Burnes could get next year. If those 2 go, I think Williams goes too and would fetch a quite massive haul

The Brewers have 3 days off over the course of 11 days during this current stretch, followed by only 3 days off over a 38 day stretch to close the season. We'll have a couple extra bodies in September, keeping guys fresh and occasional off days will be important down the stretch. I also wonder if we'll go back to a 6 man rotation once Rea/Teheran are healthy(despite their struggles).

Now, for the Cubs site article. I believe Brock once said the guys over there are quite reasonable. I opted to bite my tongue at the time, but it's a bit tough to take these guys seriously with this writing. Quoted below is the worst of many eyeroll sections from their version of this article. The Cubs have won 6 of their last 10, hardly the hottest team in baseball. The Brewers have a better record over their last 10 and have increased their division lead over the last few days, so the Cubs are hardly on the precipice of usurping the division. Fangraphs still projects the Brewers at 69% to win the division with the Cubs at 24%. Also, the contract piece is completely irrelevant to the argument. So many factors go into whether a contract extension happens that it just shouldn't be a consideration here.

It would have been a hilarious add to a serious article if it was in blue. I hope players never miss these for baseball/business reasons, it's a truly can't miss experience. How in the world is it that these 2 guys battle for an MVP 5 years ago and finish as clear cut 1 and 2 in the voting, both guys fall off a cliff for years, and then both guys bounce back 5 years later and are a clear cut 1 and 2 for comeback player of the year? These guys eventually should retire the same year...possibly even plan a joint retirement party when the time comes.

Get tickets now, and don't sell them on stubhub. $20 profit per ticket can't be worth letting an extra cubs fan in the door.

I'm not disputing anything in here, the alcohol thing seems a bit silly though. For alcohol I imagine the US simply doesn't care if a 19 year old has a beer in Germany, whereas statutory rape....wee bit different.

I saw "Wander Franco 14" trending on twitter a day or two ago. If this is another country, I wonder if there will be any legal considerations or strictly an MLB suspension on the table.

Contreras ranks 8th in wRC+ for catchers with over 100 PA at 123...out of 58 catchers. One of the players above him(Mitch Garver) isn't really a catcher anymore. It's tough to say there's something wrong with what he's doing. I've looked at the videos you've provided, in all 3 he has a different starting point...but around the time the ball is getting thrown he's in a similar place in all 3 videos. The hands come to the same spot, front foot action is pretty similar. I personally am just not going to make much of the initial setup of a hitter(especially one that is hitting). Mechanics to me don't really matter too much until the ball is about to be thrown...that's when you see hand position and the start of the load and can get a feel for the actual mechanics that matter. You're talking to a team with a manager that was trying to touch the clouds with his bat during his initial setup...no hitting coach in existence would recommend that setup, but it worked because he got everything to the right place when it started to matter. If anything, the fact that Contreras can have success with a variety of different mechanics should be viewed as a good thing at speak to his hitting skill. One other note, you point to the fact that he's barely walking lately because pitchers are grooving strikes in one paragraph...then in the next you point to a 65 point gap between his avg/obp since July 1st. Without checking, that's probably roughly an 8-9% bb rate which is about his bb rate on the season. Owen Miller is an example of a guy that gets grooved pitches because he has no power. He has a 264/303/375 slash line and that's a 5.2% BB rate. A 39 point gap between avg/obp is 5.2% bb rate. A 65 point gap by contrast is pretty solid and doesn't really line up to a guy that's getting grooved pitches because he has no power.