BruisedCrew

Today was a disappointing loss given that, unless they run into a team in September that is seriously tanking, this was the weakest lineup the Brewers will face all season. But, it’s hard to win games with only two runs so, from that standpoint, they were lucky to win the series.

Still too close to take. I think there’s some nitpicking going on here if we think hitters are going to only swing at balls in the strike zone.

I don’t think so, but it was way too close to take. Though the result wasn’t good that was a good AB. He didn’t chase and put a good swing on the 3-2 pitch but just didn’t pull it enough to get into the hole for a game tying single.

Pinch hit Frelick for Vaughn now?

Maybe we won’t have to worry about Chourio playing LF (or hitting) for awhile. Hopefully he’ll be OK after that blow.

Get used to it.

The best chance for the Brewers to win today was to shut down the Guardians B Team offense. Now to pull it out they’re going to have to score against a strong starter that has settled in or one of the league’s best bullpens.

Kuhnel is an example of why I’m concerned about pitching depth over the next 4 weeks. Heres a guy who wasn’t in the organization until recently and, because of injuries he is forced into high leverage situations.

I don’t know. He’s 22 years old and you can’t teach old dogs new tricks

That’s a pretty tiny fraction of the plays a LF has to make. With his general speed and athleticism it would be a waste to just use him as a DH when that spot can be filled by someone who can’t play in the field at all. I’m willing to give him the opportunity to learn the position. I also remember the HR that he stole that saved a game against the Twins last year. Maybe with some more experience he’ll be a better LF when he’s a grizzly old veteran of 24. It would be a waste of talent and potential to use him as a DH.and put someone in LF that can steal a HR 2 or 3 times a year but can’t hit a lick.

Come on.

For those of you who saw Pratt in the minors, does he always swing that hard.? Seems like it might help him to dial it back a fraction.

You are getting to what I think is a key point. First, to be clear, the concern I have been raising is not about the rest of the season, but just the period between now and the All Star break. So much can happen between now and the end of the season (including players returning from injuries, new injuries, deadline pickups, etc.) that it’s hard for me to think that far ahead. I have to question the relevance of some of the season to date stats about games started by pitchers other than Misiorowski and Harrison. Those numbers include starts made by pitchers now on the IL (Woodruff, Henderson, and Crow) and Patrick, who is no longer starting.. After last night we can’t be sure about Sproat’s status either. The other big factor is that a lot of the games won with the other starting pitchers involved a lot of help from the bullpen, including multiple inning stints from Ashby, Patrick, Hall, and Drohan. With Hall on the IL and Drohan starting the long relief corps has been weakened. I know now that Woodruff will be starting a game next week, so maybe he will help. He still has to be considered a question mark. Then there is the important fact that the Brewers are just starting a stretch of 27 games in 27 days, with just one off day. For the first two months of the season the Brewers had an off day every week, meaning fewer starting pitchers needed and more opportunities to reset the bullpen. Maybe I’m signaling a false alarm, but the pitching staff is going to be tested in a way that it hasn’t been tested before this season. Today’s game is a good example, with both Ashby and Patrick likely unavailable. It would help if the offense could put up 5 or more runs again

Wheeler seems to be doing pretty well.

That’s a prototype for how the Brewers are going to have to win some of these games with the bottom of the barrel starters.