KeithStone53151

I'm not going to say the Reds aren't hitting it well, becuase they are. But they are also getting a some breaks and good bounces as well...

On the outside the box line, I think piggybacking Hader and Burnes could make sense. 2 very different looks. I doubt they'd let Hader go 4 unless he was a 1 man wrecking crew. If we get a 4 run lead, fine go Chacin. If we get more than a 4 run lead, roll a different SP and plan on Chacin game 1. I'm mostly nitpicking this scenario because the Chacin one is the likely/boring one and the Peralta one seems like an unnecessary risk. I like this one the best so I'm mostly just adding my thoughts to it. I think the right bullpen manager could look like a genius going this route, but I do have concerns that CC will blow it if he goes this route. Have to idiot proof the bullpen management for this guy.

Honestly that's my thought too, definitely a chance Bryant deals with some rust though. Bryant initially might even be preferable to David "I'll never post an OPS over 800 again after the 2018 season" Bote.

Problem I see though is now they will have Murphy and Bryant to finish the season. Something they didn't have the last month (minus the last week for Murphy). I honestly don't see them having a rough time in those games. I think you seriously underestimate the difference between playing a good team that cares in August/September to playing a mediocre team that doesn't care. It's definitely possible that they in fact are heating up and will win 60% of their games down the stretch against good teams. But that absolutely is not a given. They also are at the very beginning of a pretty brutal road stretch. Let's see how they handle the trip to atlanta for 1 and then philly for 3 and us for 3. If they win 5-6 of their next 9 games(including the 2 against the Mets)...then yeah the division is probably theirs. If they take 1 from us, 1 from the phillies, and 1 from the mets(come on Degrom!) and go 3-6 while we go 6-3 or 7-2...it's a new ballgame.

I'd go Jeffress, Hader, Soria, Burnes, Albers, Jennings, Williams and Lyles. Jennings, Williams and Lyles are very replaceable with the way they are pitching, and Albers too if he hasn't righted the ship. Totally forgot about Burnes. 4th is about right for him. Jeffress and Hader are 1a/1b in some order...dealers choice. Madson and good Knebel would make us 7 legit arms deep in the bullpen for the postseason. Aside from the wildcard which will be something like 15 position players, I'm guessing we'll be rolling 12 pitchers and 13 position players with one of the normal starters will pitching in relief(Guerra).

I know that crushing the Reds in general = crushing their pitchers, but Thames is 0/3 with 2 Ks vs. DeSclafani. That's not something I would use to bench Thames necessarily, but I think that in the end, dominance over a team likely has more to do with a random set of success vs. various pitchers and coincidentally a lot of that is against a certain team. If Chris Sale was dealt to the Reds tomorrow, I doubt that Thames would own him because he plays for the Reds. He has some success against various relievers (Amir Garret, a lefty, randomly) but he'll be pinch hitting later in the game so that can still happen. CC didn't start thames against stephenson last time through, thames has either homered or walked against stephenson in 100% of his atbats. That seemed incredibly stupid...it's a small sample but man what a sample! I agree it makes way more sense to look at specific pitchers. Also at the moment, Thames is not likely to have productive atbats. He's been pretty bad lately. I'm also a bit surprised Braun hasn't been moved back to the 3 hole. I'll also point out that normally when Guerra starts, Schoop starts. Seems like a generally logical time to go to the goalline package. Maybe after that last start that Guerra got screwed against the Reds by crazy luck and a couple bad defensive plays...they decided to try and help Guerra out by at least providing a better defensive look.

It's relatively safe to say our new AAA affiliate will be welcomed by a majority of our very best prospects, and will likely be very good in 2019. I'm so curious how that shuffle plays out...

We should definitely try to make a claim, if anything to keep the filthy cubs from getting him. But we definitely could use him to replace Williams/Albers. Right now I'd rank our relievers Hader, Jeffress, Soria, Jennings, no trust whatsoever...Imagine if we got Madson and got Knebel right for the playoffs...

This brings me to my main point, it's sadly time to start cheering on the Cubs. 3 games against the phillies - Cubs winning helps the Brewers WC chances 4 games against the nats - Again, Cubs winning this series may eliminate the nats from being any sort of threat. 3 games against the Dbacks - Dbacks may be a team the Brewers fight for a wc spot against 3 games against the cards - By this time every Brewer fan will be wearing cubbie blue for a few days. And this has to make you nervous because the Cubs will have the division clinched before this series starts and will be preparing for the playoffs. Lester will not pitch in this series. Not saying the Cubs will go easy on them, but the Cards will not get the full strength of the cubs. So out of the Cubs final 32 games, 13 of them, almost half, are games the cubs winning helps the brewers chances of making the playoffs. What this tells me, is moreso that all of those are going to be very tough games for the Cubs. Too many people are waiving the white flag because the Cubs got to beat up on bad teams for basically an entire month. The Brewers are literally the only team the Cubs have played so far this month with an above 500 record. Kudos to them for taking advantage of it by going 16-8 thusfar, but I wouldn't say they are this incredibly hot team right now that we can't catch. The Cubs went 6-7 in July out of the all-star break including 8 against the cardinals and 4 against the diamondbacks...also 1 against pitt. This was before the Cardinals went on their crazy August tear too...so you can't argue the Cubs simply ran into a hot team as that is not the case. Against those teams listed above, it's not difficult to imagine the Cubs losing some of those series and letting us climb back in if we can get hot.

I wonder how aggressive they'll be with shuffling the rotation in September. Having every Thursday off would allow them to skip guys and insert in guys for potentially what they feel would be a more favorable match up. At this point I'm not all that confident in anyone outside of Chacin and Miley. I believe Craig has said they won't have a set rotation for September and will chose starters based on matchups. That generally seems like a good idea. Chacin and Miley out there pretty much every 5th day no matter what. Give guys like Anderson/Guerra a bit more rest so they are more effective when they start. Short leashes in general as quality innings will be far more important than simply covering innings...gotta try to stay within comeback range in every game as every game is critical in September.

I specifically noticed that literally nobody picked Aguilar to be AS or offensive POY. Many had Arcia including myself as an all-star. My 94 win mark is a touch optimistic but not impossible at those point. The most common prediction is probably 86-88 wins and I suspect we'll come in a shade above that.

Pretty much this, Murphy would have been preferable to Schoop...but once we got Schoop then Murphy made zero sense. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs ended up with Schoop had we not traded for him and put a claim on Murphy.

Unless they manage to pull a rabbit out of a hat that acquire someone nobody is talking about, I think Chacin likely takes the ball. Jordan Zimmermann is intriguing as a "bounce back" guy, but he's about the only potential August trade candidate that doesn't make me say "YUCK!" And that's only if the Tigers agree to pay a bunch of that salary. Derek Holland has put up some nice numbers as well, and I wouldn't mind taking a flyer on him. We could see someone out of left field, too, like Sonny Gray or Zach Wheeler. I highly doubt these guys made it to the Brewers on waivers. Most teams in the league would put a claim on these guys. Probably not Gray, but Wheeler definitely. Many teams would at minimum try to flip him to a contender by august 31 or in the winter.

I personally like bill hall's idea of starting Hader or someone similar and having him and other top relievers/SP pitch once through the order. You could take 14-15 position players and 10-11 pitchers into the wildcard game and be fine on pitchers. You'd never need to let a pitcher hit in this scenario. All would then be available for DS if we advanced.

I'm not ready to write off catching the cubs at minimum until the labor day series. A 3 game sweep would completely change the dynamic of the race. It definitely isn't likely, but big September sweeps have happened before and could happen this time. Despite the doom and gloom cloud, the Brewers are actually playing pretty well overall. Aguilar and Thames have cooled off but pretty much everyone else is playing pretty well right now, even Arcia is a bit better and more of a 700 ops guy right now. The Cubs are also nearing the end of their cupcake August schedule. Their last 3 series have been against the tiger, reds, and mets...and earlier this month they had the royals and padres. 2 more easy ones and that's about it, they'll have to do more to earn wins down the stretch.

That's true, I'm still hopeful at some point during the stretch...the cubs lose 5 of 7 or something and the gap closes. But as for Atlanta/Arizona...I completely agree we are better off with those 2 teams beating up LAD/COL/Phil.

The general consensus seems to be virtually zero chance they throw in the towel, and I agree. Even if they lose every game up until the deadline, they won't do it. They have really nothing to gain by trading a couple rentals anyways, may as well try to go on a run down the stretch. Regarding the wildcards, the cards and brewers are probably the most likely at the moment but the lead is far too thin for anyone to feel comfortable. Even the Cubs shouldn't feel totally comfortable with their spot. If they maintain 4 or more game lead on everybody into mid-september, they can probably feel comfortable...but not yet. If anything, the phillies are in the easiest of the 3 divisions and could beat up on the marlins and mets on their way to a wildcard.

I'm generally on board with this. I'll add that Yelich would certainly listen if we wanted to discuss an extension. I just fully expect his asking price to be relatively sky high. If we are willing to tack on 4-5 more years and $25 million per...he'd be nuts not to at least consider it. That's probably what it would take to get him to listen, and at that rate I'm really not that interest. It is probably in our best interest to trade him in 2020 or 2021 for a massive haul of prospects...likely a haul better than the one we gave up for him. All that said, Yelich is the type of guy that will probably age pretty well at least offensively. Excellent mechanics and contact guy, if anything he's probably more likely to add power as he ages than lose it. It's still a much safer bet to trade him with 1-2 years left and restock.

If the Brewers are still 4+ games back in three weeks after the dust settles on the Cubs' current extended stretch without a day off that includes 6 games against the Brewers, then I agree. By then the Cubs will have made up most of the extra games they need to play compared to the Brewers, and the season series between the two clubs will be completed. If the Brewers play well the next few weeks and still find themselves a handful of games behind the Cubs, you tip your hat to the team everyone assumed was the class of the division and then focus on locking down a wild card spot to get into the postseason. That being said, it's nice that the Brewers still essentially control their destiny heading into september based on their remaining schedule and their position in the standings. I'm hoping the combination of them facing Syndergaard and DeGrom in their first two games this week coupled with thunderstorms in the Chicago forecast tuesday afternoon through wednesday afternoon leads to a couple losses and a very late plane ride for the Cubs to ATL to start their next road trip. ATL actually has a decent chance of storms this Thursday, followed by what looks like a stormy weekend in Philadelphia at this point, too. Let it storm like crazy, to the point where the Cubs get into Milwaukee at like 7am on the morning they start their 3 game set at 2:20 on Labor Day. Did you also notice that the cubs getaway game during the labor day series is a night game on Wednesday and they play right away on that Thursday? I have to think that's definitely retaliation for their shenanigans last year. Need to do that 4 or 5 times to get close to even with the nonsense from last year

Its fun to track how other teams are doing. But it's way too early to say we are out of it or it comes down to this series when we face them 6 times. Gotta hope other teams help us out for sure.

There comes a point when you are pot committed, to use a poker term! Yeah, I don’t blame people for going to bed. I just don’t have the internal discipline necessary to do so. +1

Looking ahead, I firmly believe we have better 9-12 bullpen arms than most teams in baseball. Some of Houser, Barnes, and Woodruff will be up tomorrow...I'm sure the Pirates will have AAA guys up but I doubt they are as good as those 3. Soria, Williams, Jennings, and Albers could all pitch tomorrow I think. Maybe Jeffress just because he's nuts. With the off day coming, I kinda expect Peralta and Burnes to go down for fresh arms. Other than those 2, I think the only optionable position player is Arcia...and I guess we could do that but man that leaves us thin in the infield for a few games. It will be very interesting to see the roster shuffle tomorrow.

I closed my computer about an inning before the pirates scored. Going back and reading 10 pages worth of brewer fan emotions in this game was really something. This has to be the most improbable victory I've ever seen. Go scoreless for 13 innings and score 3 runs to win after the pirates finally score 2...with lyles/kratz/arcia basically winning the game. So wild

That's not that tough of a hop, more of a long hop than in between...a good 1b probably gets that.

I'm enjoying it. This is stressful but more fun than being 50-83 right now