KeithStone53151

Nice piece of hitting by villar there. Get the lead here and turn it over to the pen for 9 outs. Jeffress, hader, knebel in some order

This doesn't really provide an argument as to why he's better as a reliever than starter, simply supports that he's an extremely effective reliever. Virtually every top starter with elite stuff would be extremely effective in relief, but those guys provide more value starting.

I'm sure Kershaw and Scherzer would make dominant relievers as you said. The problem is the same argument doesn't necessarily work in reverse. We always compare Hader to the best of the best as a possible starter. The reality is probably less than that. I guess I'm not sure what you're saying about his effectiveness vs. RHP. Surely no one is arguing that he's a LOOGY. It's all about his effectiveness as a starter vs. as a reliever. You're right on it not always working in reverse. But simply saying "since he's so good in relief, he should stay in relief" is a silly argument on it's own. If they added other supporting facts, fine. But they don't, hence it's a lazy argument. And they don't necessarily say he's a LOOGY, but they mention how CC can kinda target certain areas of the lineup for him to pitch to as a reliever...and site how devastating he is against lefties. Since he's in relief, you might as well try to line him up against lefties...but with how good he is against both it's fairly trivial and his numbers against RHB are not a good argument for him staying in the bullpen. I guess I generally wish the beat writers would at least try to know what they are talking about on topics, and not respond to people on twitter with their half-assed arrogant comments as often. Their comments on Hader spell it out pretty clearly. Regarding Hader, I don't think under virtually any circumstances should he be put in the rotation this season. If he comes into ST in 2019 having focused on the changeup in the offseason and with it as a legit 3rd offering, that's a different conversation in ST next year. With how significantly his slider improved(mostly consistency/command, it's always been that nasty)...it's not something we should rule out.

I've come around a bit to Hader as a reliever going forward, at least until/unless he develops a better changeup. I think it's very clear that mastering the slider was a focal point this offseason and in ST. That said, does anyone else think the beat writers reasoning for keeping Hader in the pen is lazy at best and flat wrong at worst? The most common comments/arguments I see from them include "he's been so good in the pen" or "baseball is a bullpen game" or "he can be used more specifically against lefties". On the first point, I bet Kershaw or Scherzer or Strasburg all would have been lethal relievers had they started that way...that's not a good argument to keep someone in the pen. I'll add Chris Sale and David Price as reference to 2 guys who actually started in relief and shifted to the rotation with great success. On the second, high end starters make double what high end relievers make. I don't care that this offseason relievers got snatched up much more quickly than SP. The SP crop wasn't that good and the best SP still got way more than the relievers. The money SP over RP proves they are more valuable. On the 3rd point, Josh Hader is probably better against RHB than every other pitcher on our team is against RHB...except maybe jeffress. Just because RHB post a 350 ops against and LHB post a 200 OPS against him doesn't mean he's not effective enough against RHB to face them consistently.

Only the Cubs have that type of luck, can you imagine how terrible that team would be if they had 3 injuries at the top of their rotation and 3 or 4 bullpen injuries? They might be sub-500. I can understand your thought process on Peralta. I personally think he'll be much better in the bullpen where guys only see him once...especially considering he's a high k/bb guy. If you can tick up his deceptive fastball a bit in the bullpen, dare I say he could be RH Hader? All that said, as of now we need SP and in my opinion he ranks ahead of Suter/Woodruff on the pecking order for starts until the injured guys come back. Guerra has been very effective so far, and Chacin ranks ahead because $. At the moment, those 5 are our rotation though so I suspect we'll see more Peralta.

If it meant Suter never started another game then I’d be fine with it... Suter won't have to start much once guys get healthy, regardless of what they do with Freddy. Personally I think they should send him back down when they can because I think he could get hit pretty hard once teams have more film on him and have seen him before, and the Brewers can't afford to endure the "bad Fiers" stage with him. I think you're right on Suter, he's like the 9th or 10th option in relief and 7th option in the rotation right now(roughly)...but with injuries he's logged quite a few innings in both spots. When we are fully healthy, he's not on the 25.

Regarding Sogard, it would be a terrible idea to cut him loose. I get he's not playing well, but it's also been 4 games in AAA. With Dubon down for the season, our SS depth is taxed a bit. There are other options we can cut loose if needed, Sogard isn't going anywhere anytime soon. As far as SP stability, we've had anything but stability in the rotation. Fortunately we have a lot of depth we can call on to cover starts. Hopefully Peralta hangs around for a few starts until some other guys get healthy. And if he pitches like he has this first start, it's going to be hard to send him down when Chase/Davies/Nelson get healthy. I would like to think this one good start has earned him another start over either Suter or Woodruff if it comes down to those choices.

No, this is Stearns. As I said before, I have no idea why he had to have Shaw in the Thornburg trade or Anderson in the Segura trade. You get those guys when you're ready to contend and have holes to fill, not in the middle of a rebuild. It's hard to know specifically what prospects Boston was willing to give up for Thornburg. Also Anderson wasn't very highly regarded when we acquired them. Both players have significantly increased their stock since coming to the Brewers. Those are very poor examples you are using to try and prove your point.

If you told me yesterday afternoon that we'd split a 2 game series with Suter and Guerra starting against Kluber and Carrasco...I'd be pretty thrilled. Great point. It is easy for us to be so negative because they are giving us a ton of reasons to be but they are still in the mix for most wins in the NL. Hopefully, this will get turned around and we'll all have a good laugh about all the stuff we have said about these guys. I tend to agree. Being on our A game right now isn't as important as it will be in August and September. Just scratch out the wins and put ourselves in a position to add at the deadline, and hopefully have guys get hot and make a run.

If you told me yesterday afternoon that we'd split a 2 game series with Suter and Guerra starting against Kluber and Carrasco...I'd be pretty thrilled.

That was truly impressive. In the 8th inning, 3 guys see 6 pitches combined and get themselves out. Well done!

Right, I forgot about him. Also Logan is getting activated Thursday or Friday and will be fresh. Bullpen is fine.

Not a terrible idea on a day Cain or Yelich sit out, but our top 4 are pretty much locked into their spots when healthy and playing...hard to justify replacing one of them with Santana.

I think it would have to get a lot worse for that to happen. Only Suter and Hader are likely unavailable today. Jennings pitched minimally and Williams/Albers/Lopez/Barnes haven't pitched since at least Sunday. Our pen is in OK shape, if this game gets out of hand and Guerra gets pulled early...Lopez probably pitches 2-3 innings and switches spots with woodruff tomorrow.

Carrasco has a nasty breaking pitch. Really easy to say "just don't swing" from where we are sitting. I'd like to think guys are smart enough to know "I just swung at 2 crappy sliders, odds are a 3rd one is coming...don't swing" but apparently for Arcia that isn't the case.

Junior doing his best Josh Hader impression...

We have Arcia and Perez for SS, with Villar having plenty of experience there and can fill in if needed. The upside of Orf at 2b over Villar/Perez/Franklin/whomever far outweighs the downside of slightly worse defense on the occasional offday for Arcia.

That ball was hit well. Lindor beat him to the bag by at least 2 steps. A large chunk of the league gets doubled off on that. Try seeing through your villar bias... Right back from the break Rock called it a baserunning mistake. Trying seeing with your eyes open by watching the game I'm at the game, I wouldn't call that a base running mistake. I'd call it tough luck. Rock calling it a base running mistake is meaningless...

Are we sure that he didn't freeze? I obviously only saw him diving back into 2nd. He may have had a big secondary lead. He took maybe 1 step, but as I noted... he wasn't getting back. Lindor didn't even run hard getting to second to double him off. It was routine...

That ball was hit well. Lindor beat him to the bag by at least 2 steps. A large chunk of the league gets doubled off on that. Try seeing through your villar bias...

Nothing villar could have done on that liner...tough luck there

I don't understand this move. I can only assume that the Brewers will trade for Kirk Nieuwenhuis if the is an injury to an outfielder. And if Arcia goes down, bring back Yuni B!!!

And Franklin somehow does? I just don't see that. As much as I think this is as stupid as just about everyone, I'm going to leave Franklins split vs RHP so far this season in AA. 326/423/535 with 8 bb to 2 ks. Let's see how that left handed swing handles kluber. I went and checked out of curiosity if maybe he had really good numbers against Kluber or Carrasco or something...0 for 9 combined between the two...though he is 2 for 3 career against Drake.

But Franklin can play some catcher, this way we are free to use Bandy in a PH role more often

That $14 million number, is less than what Chapman is making by himself this season and each of the next 3 years.