BruisedCrew

They pointed out on the telecast that, until tonight, the Reds bullpen had an ERA of under 2 over the last month or so. They haven’t been nearly as bad as they were earlier in the season. As their starting pitching has improved, they haven’t had to cover as many innings with the bottom of their bullpen. Between guys returning from injuries and late season moves I wouldn’t count on their bullpen being that bad the rest of the way.

It bugs someone else, too. Whenever I go to a game in another park I always wear a Brewers T shirt and cap. I think it’s fun to see other parks and teams without having a strong rooting interest. There’s nothing to get mad about. The last time I did that at the Mariners park in July of 2018 a teenager wearing a Rizzo jersey informed me that he wasn’t at all concerned about the Brewers because he only worried about big market teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, and Red Sox. Maybe he should have been more concerned about the Brewers.

Counsell got away with starting a pitcher against a team against which he had posted a WHIP near 2 and then proceeded to increase it. Thank goodness the offense broke out of its Reds funk to pull out a win. Would it be unsportsmanlike of me to hope that Castellanos has a bruised hand that will keep him out of the lineup for at least two days?

It would be nice if Mahle would hand the Brewers some runs on a silver platter like he did last Thursday because the Brewers haven’t hit him much in his two starts against this season. As I mentioned in the thread about the rotation, Houser has not been very effective in his 3 starts against the Reds: 10 runs in 13 innings and almost 2 base runners per IP. It was looking earlier like there was a good chance of rain delays or a rainout as Cincinnati is under a Flash Flood Watch. But now it looks like there may be a window to get the game in.

Sir, Brandon Woodruff didn't even pitch. Freddy Peralta threw 12 pitches, something he would have done between starts anyway. Not sure this has much of anything to do with their appearance at the AS Game. Sir, I know how much the pitchers were used in the ASG. Do you think Burnes would be pitching on Sunday instead of today if not for his ASG experience? Pitchers going with 4 days in between starts is pretty much the norm for most teams these days, and the 4 day ASG break gives everyone that much time.

Woody didn't pitch, Burnes pitched in 2 innings and Freddy one great inning so I don't think any of them will have to be treated with kid gloves in this rotation. I realize how much the Brewers starters did or didn’t pitch in the All Star Game, and that pitchers typically throw in between starts. That’s why I was hoping that they would take their best shot in this series against their closest challenger who has already won 6 of the last 7 from them. But, it looks like Counsell is giving them extra days to account for their ASG travels and experience. Burnes will have 10 days in between starts with just 2 ASG innings in between, and I don’t think pitching Woodruff again on 4 days rest would have been unreasonable, considering that he probably won’t be starting again until next weekend against the White Sox. Starting pitching is the Brewers biggest strength and they haven’t taken maximum advantage of that against the Reds so far this season. The one explanation for starting Houser tonight is that Counsell anticipates heavy rain tonight and doesn’t want to risk losing one of his top starters to a game that is burdened with long rain delays.

I don't know if throwing a guy with a 3.76 ERA is really a downside, though. Despite his rough-ish start last week against the Reds, Houser has been very good this year for the most part. They theoretically could have pushed Woodruff to tonight on 5-days rest, but that would likely move Burnes and Peralta up as well. This way Peralta doesn't need to see the Reds for the 27th time this year. Houser has not been effective against the Reds in his 3 previous starts this year with 10 runs allowed (7 earned) in just 13.2 IP. He has allowed 15 hits, 11 walks, and a HBP in those 13.2 innings, giving the Reds an OBP of a little over .400 against him. I would be going out of my way not to give the Reds offense another crack at him. We have to hope that Houser can keep the Brewers in the game for 5 innings and that the offense and bullpen can bring home a win. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Lauer in the game early unless Counsell plans to start him this weekend.

The downside of having 3 starters go to the All Star Game. I guess we’ll find out in September if this long game strategy with the starting pitchers pays off. Hopefully Mahle will hand the Brewers a couple of gift runs like he did last week because the Brewers haven’t shown that they can hit him. It also looks like there is a good possibility of rain delays or a rainout tonight.

Maybe having robo umps calling balls and strikes would serve two purposes. In addition to greater consistency in calling balls and strikes, the home plate umpire could concentrate more on keeping the game moving.

I also see that the Mets have announced Stroman as their starter tomorrow, meaning that deGrom likely won’t be facing the Reds next week.

I’d have to go back and count the results of all of the All Star Games since 1970, but unless the NL mounts a big comeback tonight, the record of the Brewers’ league in ASGs is about to drop to something like 10-40-1. They joined the NL at just about the time that dominance in ASGs shifted from the NL to the AL.

Of course losses and losing streaks and stretches happen. But, they should happen while giving it your best shot with your best players as long as they aren’t being overused. IMHO, giving your best starting pitchers almost two weeks in between starts (assuming they are healthy) while you’re playing your closest competitor for the division lead would be inexcusable. If Counsell thinks the pitchers who attended the ASG festivities need a few days to wind down from that experience, and thinks Anderson should start on Friday, OK (even though I won’t like it). And if he thinks Peralta could use a few extra days and doesn’t need to face the Reds for the fifth time this year, that’s OK too. But, as long as they are healthy, I can’t see any good reason not to start Woodruff and Burnes over the weekend.

If Counsell does that, he should be fired on the spot. Burnes pitched last Wednesday and will have 5 days before he maybe pitches one inning in the All Star Game. Then he wouldn’t be pitching again until next Tuesday against the Royals, and Woodruff wouldn’t be starting until Friday against the White Sox, 12 days after his start on Sunday. There’s a fine line between rest and rust, but I think this would be much closer to the latter. I’m going to be irked if Counsell doesn’t get at least Woodruff and Burnes (who the Reds haven’t seen yet this year) starts this weekend. The Brewers have enough trouble with the Reds starting pitchers as it is without giving them even more advantages by putting their second tier starters against them when it isn’t necessary. If the Brewers lose 6 games in a row and 9 out of 10 to the Reds, so be it. But don’t do it by only using your top 3 starters in 3 of the 10 games. Of course, this is all moot if the Brewers offense can’t figure out how to score more than a run or two per game.

With the off days the next two Mondays and next Thursday, I would just go with Burnes, Woodruff, and Peralta (in some order) against the Reds unless they want to avoid having Peralta face the Reds for a fifth time. After losing 6 of the last 7 against the Reds I would use my best pitchers in those games and use Houser against KC. I would also be skipping a start for one of the other two (probably Lauer) and have him available for a couple of innings of long relief if needed. If they would stick with a 6 man rotation through those off days, the pitchers would be getting 6 or 7 days off, and and I think that does more harm than good if the goal is to keep pitchers on some kind of routine. As for Peralta or Burnes pitching in the All Star Game, starting pitchers usually have a throwing session in between starts anyway, so an inning in the All Star Game can take the place of that. They shouldn’t need another full 4 or 5 days of rest before pitching again.

I realize that you just like to pick arguments, but that is an absurd interpretation of my point. I don’t think even you believe that teams don’t evolve over the course of the season, and that their composition and how they perform in the last few weeks before the All Star break is more predictive of how they will perform in the second half than how they played in April. Anyone who thinks the Reds haven’t improved significantly, specifically in the pitching department, since the early season has his head in the sand. And the Brewers have seen that improvement. I just don’t think your point has much behind it. The season is a marathon. There will be good and bad stretches. The Brewers just finished off 33 games in 34 days. Does that factor in at all? Of course it does. The Brewers won 4 more games than the Reds to the all star break but you’ll give no credit to the Brewers for doing so. Just that the Reds had a better, not by much, series days before the all star game. Are the Reds better? Maybe? Maybe they will surpass the Brewers before the end of the season. But you state it as though it’s final and it’s definitely not. For a point that you think doesn’t have much behind it, you sure are spending a lot of energy attacking it. Just like you attacked my comment about the Brewers having trouble against left handed starting pitchers and telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about. So, I had to go back and provide the facts. If you think I am declaring that the Reds are absolutely going to finish ahead of the Brewers, that is your interpretation. If we aren’t supposed to offer some opinions about where things are headed, what is the point of boards like this? Just wait until the end of the season and discuss what happened. I have never seen a sports related message board on which game threads don’t include a lot of venting. If that kind of talk bothers you so much, there is a simple suggestion and I don’t have to tell you what it is.

I realize that you just like to pick arguments, but that is an absurd interpretation of my point. I don’t think even you believe that teams don’t evolve over the course of the season, and that their composition and how they perform in the last few weeks before the All Star break is more predictive of how they will perform in the second half than how they played in April. Anyone who thinks the Reds haven’t improved significantly, specifically in the pitching department, since the early season has his head in the sand. And the Brewers have seen that improvement.

Nice! The Brewers are much better than the Padres and Dodgers using that metric. No, the question is how good teams are right now, not how they were in April when the Brewers had winning series against the Padres and Dodgers. And I don’t really care how the Brewers compare to them as they aren’t in the same division.

Yes, this team is good enough to make the playoffs. Right now. The pitching is legit. Now, advancing in the playoffs is a different story. But this team, as it stands, is a playoff team. There's no reason, other than pessimism, to believe it isn't. Sure, they've fatten up on some bad teams, but they've generally looked fine against decent to good teams for the most part. One reason for concern is that haven’t really played any decent to good teams except the Reds and Mets since the beginning of June, and they are 2-8 in those games.

Except they're not. I guess we won’t know for sure until we see what, if any, additions the teams make, but right now it’s hard to argue that the team that won 6 of 7 on the other’s home field isn’t better. Now that they have added Gutierrez and Castillo is back to elite form, they have much better starting pitching than they had in May. A lot of what happened then is irrelevant to what to expect going forward.

Of course the Brewers can still come back with Hiura, Bradley, and Pina against the Reds horrible bullpen

I know some Reds fans who care that they have shown the Brewers that they own them.

Sitting Hader down every time the Brewers went ahead by 4 runs may not have been the best thing. He’s been pretty terrible since his long layoff.

Hader is not exactly providing evidence of the Brewers superior bullpen.

Losing another home game to the Reds would be disheartening. Having Hader blow 3 games in a week would really be disheartening.

So now it’s a battle of bullpens that theoretically gives the Brewers the advantage. Or does the advantage go to the team with more offensive punch?