BruisedCrew

I apologize to anyone who is offended by my comments. Somehow I suspect it isn’t “we all”. I think there are several posters who appreciate some venting banter. I don’t think I misunderstood that comment as it was written in plain English.

I didn’t say you did make it, but you sure defended it vigorously when I pointed out how premature it was.

Would you really want to have all of the recent pickups lit up in one game?

And only a few days after being on the verge of the playoffs being a given.

While the Brewers recent pickups cough up another game to the Pirates, here is the Padres first inning against the Rockies: With one out: Soto walks Machado doubles Bell walks Croenenworth HBP Drury Grand Slam HR On the heels of Hader pitching a 1-2-3 ninth last night and picking up a win, the Padres seem to be inspired by their deadline moves. The Brewers seem to be demoralized by theirs.

Any requests for “Robots” on that strike 2 call on Mitchell?

Suddenly the Brewers are back to not playing like a team that’s a lock for the playoffs.

I also thought the long 3rd inning would be it. That was a lot of high stress pitches just to get through the inning.

Looks like this will be his last inning. 22 pitches already in this one after some long breaks, and he’s losing some command.

I’m not sure who it was, but way back in June when people thought that Hader was the best closer in MLB someone on the board referred to him as “superhuman”, or something similar. I think everyone knows that all players are imperfect humans.

The Pirates are a really bad team that had lost 8 of 9 since the All Star break and 7 in a row. That includes a 4 game sweep by the Phillies, who are quickly gaining ground in the playoff chase and added some useful pieces at the break while they wait for the return of Harper and Segura. Losing another series to this team is not a way to maintain the momentum that came right after the break.

You mean he isn’t “superhuman” like Hader is (or was).

I’m not going to expect much from Peralta tonight. He might be a little juiced to be on the big league mound again, and if he is at all erratic the pesky, patient, Pirates will drive his pitch count up early. One 25 -30 pitch inning might be enough for one night.

I guess Lamet was not a “sleeper” in this deal, but a corpse.

I agree wholeheartedly with 2 main points: 1. The Brewers offense is less potent or reliable than indicated by the raw runs per game number. I have raised this more than once on the ongoing thread about the offense. The Brewers run production has been propped up by runs scored against the weakest teams in the league, including some games with extremely high run totals in single games against the Reds and Pirates. I understand that it should be expected that teams will score more against better teams and better pitchers. But, I have presented evidence that the gap between the Brewers R/G against weak teams as compared to R/G against better teams is much greater than the gap for other playoff contenders. IMHO this leads to a legitimate concern that the offense will really have trouble scoring against the best pitchers on the teams they would be facing in the playoffs. 2. I recognize that it was going to be difficult for the Brewers to obtain a real impact bat that would significantly improve the offense. part of the problem is the price to acquire and pay the very top talents (like Soto) and the fact that the Brewers are loaded with average hitters, so the upgrade in obtaining a slightly above average hitter might not be that great. In that case, it still would have made sense to acquire a right handed hitter who would offer a better option than Severino or Davis if they wanted to pinch it for Wong or Tellez. That could have been done without coming close to "mortgaging the team's future". I've seen enough cases of players like Randy Ready, Matt LaPorta, Louis Brinson, et al who produced wails of despair when traded but never became impact major leaguers. I fully expected a deal like the Bush deal to prop up the setup portion of the bullpen. The Brewers do that every year and this team needed it. But, I look at exchanging Hader for Rogers to be a more significant downgrade than others seem to unless we assumed that Hader's recent troubles are a sign from a permanent fall from his position as the recognized best closer in MLB. And I don't see the erratic Lamet or the injured Rosenthal offering anything that will help this year's team. Maybe the prospects obtained in the Hader trade will make this a great trade when looked at a few years from now. But for this season I see the Brewers moves as signaling that they recognize that winning the weak Central Division is probably the team's ceiling for this year. Even that may be tougher than it looked as the deadline approached. ETA: I did not realize when I posted this that Lamet had already been DFA. So, as it affects the team this year, the Brewers traded Hader for Rogers.

The home run or nothing offense emerges again. Another brutal loss to the Pirates, who have suddenly become Brewer killers.

Especially now that the Cardinals have added a couple of competent lefties to baffle the Brewers.

Actually it was a ball that the CF dove for and missed and it rolled to the wall. Someone with “legs” probably could have had a triple, but with 2 outs the double was fine.

I didn’t say you did say that the Brewers improved their playoff chances. But, I was hoping for a move that might improve those chances and that did not happen, so I consider the trade deadline a flop as it relates to this season. I think even you have said that the team needed to add a bat or two, and seem to be agreeing that they didn’t improve their playoff prospects for this year.

The fact that Hader has fallen off of his pedestal to the point that he isn’t much better than a guy who has surrendered runs in 8 of his last 11 outings doesn’t exactly make the point that the Brewers have improved their playoff chances relative to the Dodgers, Braves, Mets, Padres, and Phillies, even if you think the Cardinals haven’t improved themselves either.

The Dodgers didn’t need to do anything so they probably belong in a different category. The Cardinals added Quintana and Montgomery to beef up their biggest weakness. It might not have been much, but it’s still more than the Brewers did. It puzzles me how people can go from touting Hader as one of the big weapons that would give the Brewers a puncher’s chance in a playoff series to thinking Rogers isn’t much of a downgrade

In terms of improving their chances to make and advance in this year’s playoffs, it could be an F. Did any of the serious NL playoff contenders do less, except for the Giants?

I realize that. But how does this trade improve the Brewers prospects for making or advancing in the playoffs this year. Rogers at his best has never been as good as Hader at his best and Lamet is nothing special.

I’ll leave the full analysis to the people who follow the minor leaguers, but it’s hard for me to see how this deal by itself improves the Brewers chances this year. Part of my lack of excitement comes fro having Rogers on a fantasy team and seeing him struggle the last few weeks to the point of losing the closer role. And that doesn’t even cover the comeback win he gifted to the Brewers in June. Maybe there will be another deal that will make this make sense.

This is an interesting situation. But, with 3 off days in the next 11 days, I wonder if it would make sense to keep Peralta on schedule with a couple more rehab starts instead of using him as an opener this week. The way things line up for the rotation now, these could be the Brewers starters for the next two weeks: Ashby Off Burnes Woodruff Lauer Ashby Fifth Burnes Off Woodruff Lauer Off Ashby Burnes Woodruff These last 3 games would be against the Cardinals, where you really want Burnes and Woodruff. Those 3 games are the first of 13 games in 13 days. The Brewers will need the fifth starter twice in the next 10 days and a few more times when they play 18 games in 17 days from August 26 to September 11. I might prefer using someone else as the fifth starter on Saturday and working Peralta into the rotation after he has had a little more time to build up on rehab