tmwiese55

Right. Well, for the sake of argument assume Moose/Grandal are back just to eliminate variables. One would think this would improve simply by Cain returning to form (even if not fully 2017 level) as this is exactly what he was brought in to counter. Second, not having about 700 ABs going to Shaw, Jesus, Perez when they're beyond awful. Several hundred of those would be replaced by Hiura. In theory a chunk of Jesus' would be replaced Grisham with Braun going to 1B. Things like that improve it right away. A high contact backup IF instead of Perez would be great as well. Then of course is the Arcia question, that's another 500+ PA that can easily be improved with a target on this type of hitter. Dealing with Moose/Grandal replacements is a whole other thing to figure out. Note: having a 370 + OBP C is not part of the problem. Almost anyone you repalce him with his going to have at best a similar BA, less OBP and less power.

Extremely well done, thanks.

Wow. Fire the guy who pulled off a drastically shorter rebuild than we all thought we'd deal with if rookie doesn't agree to an 8 year contract right now? OK Also, no Cain's approach isn't bad. He's trying to do exactly what you want, and he's trying to do exactly what he did last year. He's just failing to execute, most likely because he's been hurt all year. Braun's approach isn't bad, it's the same approach that dominated and played at a HOF level. Guys like Thames, Shaw, Jesus all took tons of walks so again their approach isn't awful. You're acting like they had a bunch of free swinging idiots out there, these guys all have patient approaches and take walks. To your he's an idiot because he didn't see too many Ks and try to get some more contact. Well, just last year he jettisoned high K Santana and decided not to go with high K Phillips/Brinson in the OF and swapped them for Yelich/Cain, exactly the types you want. But apparently doesn't fit your current narrative, so now their approaches aren't good. I guess Yeli has gotten too good and hits too many HRs now or something. note of course everything there is 'except Arcia'

Yelich and Cain have bad approaches at the plate? They were specifically required by our idiot architect to address what you're talking about here and they almost won us a WS in year one. Cain had a 300/400 high contact year just last year, how can you plan on that falling apart the next year. The head scratchers to me were Schoop and Moose acquisitions don't adhere at all (well I guess Moose not as bad since he does put ball in play a reasonable amount) to this goal. This year it's just Moose coming back which really was purely a value move. And really are we gonna rip the GM for getting 35 HRs and close to 100 RBIs and an .850ish OPS for 7-10 million one year deal? Gonna rip him for Grandal and his .376 OBP 25 HRs on a one year deal? I mean he's top 5 hitting C almost for sure. Frankly it's shocking they essentially only have a bad hitter one position and they're struggling this much to score. But I guess we need to blame someone so it's Stearns fault Cain, Jesus, Shaw fell off cliffs this year. Can pick on for Arcia but on a limited budget when you have what should be plus hitters at every position I don't think it's crazy to just go cheap and good D at SS.

Yup, that and the Texas 1-0 are the two sticking out to me. Get those two games and they're in 1st. The Twins one was whatever, we made up for it the next night and really they only lead for like 1-2 innings total in two games and somehow got a split, so not too worked up about that

Forgot about that, has it stuck? I haven't paid close attention to it, but maybe will tonight. I vaguely remember something about going back to his old way after not long but it's been a while now

Sports betting opened in Iowa last week. For us on the Madison side of the state that's an easy drive to get involved. I'll probably make a trip before first week of college football and see how it all works/looks. Hoping it's as simple as in Vegas without any weird systems. I don't see a date for when Illinois goes live yet for MKE folks.

For the team, some of the stuff I've been reading have me feeling much better than I was a couple months ago. Too bad they have a very though schedule, so they actually could be improved and much better but still have a 'bad' year in UW standards by losing 4ish times. We'll see soon enough

I'm sure just meant things that violate the code of conduct but not necessarily criminal. Just keep in mind he wasn't exactly a saint that night. I guess for this specific example, think of the picture taking aspects of it that should not be very debatable, arguable, or controversial here as something not right. IDK what else is in that code, but I'd assume things like cheating on test, public drunk type incidents, fighting, things like that could apply etc.

Yup, good to see him contributing and playing so well. crazy to think he's somehow the 2nd best hitter on the team at his age (could argue Huira above him though of course too). I agree it was likely that thumb injury that killed for that 1.5-2 year stretch way moreso than "without PEDs he sucks" type views. Granted PEDs help stay healthy and all that. But they seem to have that thumb figured out now though. I'd generally agree that take away that injury and the suspension he'd probably have a HOF worthy career and enough stats to support making it. Or say he had the suspension but not the thumb, his resume is probably HOF worthy (but obviously wouldn't make due to the PED).

On no you didn't, the TH twitter post said it though. So I guess I guess just wondering what the marathon game would've done to change it for them, especially if Arcia was the one going down.

Why would the marathon game have mattered to that decision? It's independent of the pitching moves and he went 0/6 in that game. What I can think of would be Arcia was going to stay up even with Spangenberg up, but instead needed to grab Wilkerson.

Good post. Yes if they redshirt him this year and Coan stays healthy so they don't burn it it would put a big gap in years between he and Coan. Wolf seems capable as a backup as well. Good points on the offense too. One thing I've been seeing is a lot more mobility is being implemented than previously in order to play into all 3 of these guys abilities to do it. Along with your desire for simple screens, I found myself jonesing for the basic play action pass with a bit or rollout to hit the TE for an easy 10ish yards. You know, the staple of the passing game for 20 years that disappeared last year.

Yes I'm somewhat surprised by it. I thought they wouldn't want the precedent set, but it seems they just followed logic and doing the right thing, as best they could here. How rare is that these days, haha.

I've seen the high Reds salary mentioned in several spots recently. They clear a ton of salary off this season and go into next year with only Votto on an expensive contract. Yes they'll have to arbitration Bauer but they go into next year with a fairly clean slate and no more bad contracts lingering on their books besides Votto. If they want the SS back they can afford it. The Reds have set themselves up very well imo. One interesting thing to note is they're still paying Ken Griffey Jr. 3.5 mil. he's their second worst contract right now.

What's somewhat being lost in the Mertz hype train is that Coan was also a very high rated recruit in the top 10-15 range of QBs. He was a 4 star as well. Basically before Mertz became our highest rated qb ever, Coan was our highest rated QB ever (he and Houston probably about same rankings wise). He's not a Stave/Horni type out of nowhere. Sure some true freshman have played and done well, but lots of other big name ones redshirted a year and then played. While I wasn't impressed with Coan last year I would chalk some of it to game planning and play calling not letting him do anything. Basically he was being coached to just be a game manager. That said, my frustration also came in that after 1.5 years in the system he still couldn't be trusted to play freely and with an open playbook so I took that as a bad sign. That's on him and the coaches. Don't take this as me saying Coan is awesome sor something, just saying he was also very highly rated and probably shouldn't rush to judgment on a guy after playing like 5 games total. In CFB, winning teams with conference title aspirations are playing to win the games right now. They're going to play who they feel is best. And don't forget the first game is against a competent team in a true road game. Not getting warmed up with Western Poly Tech at home. If Coan flounders in the first few games and vs Mich while Mertz continues to improve then maybe they'll flip it.

To the player. I probably would've just passed and looked elsewhere since it's been years since he's been good now. But basically it's a low risk gamble hoping to get lucky, it really can't hurt much. If he doesn't show anything, cut and move on. And I'd hope of course they did their research on him cleaning up his act the last few years.

That estimate is almost certainly comically high. I don't dispute people do it, but most people make the smart choice to have 1 or 2 or have a DD. As far as a DUI not being an indicator of a drinking problem, I can agree...once. After that, you've got a drinking problem. I do have friends with multiples and every one of them can't cut themselves off. The amount of people who drink alcohol, period, is exaggerated because drinkers tend to put it out there. Random fact, but while the USA has the highest ratio of binge drinkers, it also has the highest % of its population that doesn't consume alcohol at all - about 50% of its adults. yea the number is high as I didn't factor in how much carpooling at a normal game. 35K people doesn't mean 20K+ in cars, so that was my mistake in the estimate. So rephrase that thousands of people are operating at DUI level every game. It's not hard at all to be above .08. Still, you know what I meant in that it's just such a big part of WI culture and obviously for Brewers specifically the tailgating plays right into it. FYI:Quick google says 7% of WI population has a DUI. Of course factor in how many in the population are below 20ish years old and that percent goes up quite a bit. Frankly, I was expecting higher. That number of DUI per game is still beyond ludicrously large. You are seriously suggesting that 10%+ of the people who drive to the game get plastered enough (at MP beer prices) to still be impaired an hour after they are done drinking (no sales the last couple of innings). If it were anywhere near that level, the police would just test everybody leaving the game. They'd be irresponsible not to. -- Yes, I've thought for years how comical it would be if the cops standing right there watching people drive out buzzed up gave everyone breathalyzers like a checkpoint. This is just one of those things everyone looks the other way on for the Brewers. Again, .08 is not difficult to get to. I'm also not justifying, I'm merely saying expecting some kind of fan outcry over this issue seems unlikely considering how many people in the stadium are doing it each night and how common folks do it in WI culture as already somewhere in the 10-20% range of the adult population have a DUI themselves. (take that 7% number and then take out people under 20ish)

For sure. Even as one acknowledging how bad it is, I'm still surprised someone is making that case.

That estimate is almost certainly comically high. I don't dispute people do it, but most people make the smart choice to have 1 or 2 or have a DD. As far as a DUI not being an indicator of a drinking problem, I can agree...once. After that, you've got a drinking problem. I do have friends with multiples and every one of them can't cut themselves off. The amount of people who drink alcohol, period, is exaggerated because drinkers tend to put it out there. Random fact, but while the USA has the highest ratio of binge drinkers, it also has the highest % of its population that doesn't consume alcohol at all - about 50% of its adults. yea the number is high as I didn't factor in how much carpooling at a normal game. 35K people doesn't mean 20K+ in cars, so that was my mistake in the estimate. So rephrase that thousands of people are operating at DUI level every game. It's not hard at all to be above .08. Still, you know what I meant in that it's just such a big part of WI culture and obviously for Brewers specifically the tailgating plays right into it. FYI:Quick google says 7% of WI population has a DUI. Of course factor in how many in the population are below 20ish years old and that percent goes up quite a bit. Frankly, I was expecting higher.

Don't want to wade much into such a bad argument. But let's not forget that probably 5-10K commit a DUI when they leave Miller Park every game. I don't think those same fans are going to be up in arms about it...

Yea that's a pet peeve for me too. I know everyone's body temp is different so can't blame anyone here. But in a public setting it's as simple as if you're cold you can put on more clothes, if you're hot there's nothing you can do, you can't take clothes off. I'd grant some of the problem is probably societal norms on clothing too. As in, in a work environment men are going to be wearing shoes, socks, pants, and usually two shirts due to most people wearing undershirts. Women of course generally wear much less including open shoes

The issue of not using pitches sure seems to be a theme for a lot of pitchers this year doesn't it?

Exactly. He only throws 94-95. If they know it's coming MLB hitters are going to figure it out eventually. If you're at 101 like Chapman, not so much. I don't know why he's shyed away from the slider, it's a very good MLB pitch. On this topic though, since he was starting in the minors. I'd assume he at least used to throw a changeup of some kind but can anyone verify any information on it? Just wondering if he's done it before then maybe it would be easier to add in at least a bit next year.

Yea I'd like to see Gamel around for depth since he has the option. What are the chances Braun stays as healthy again next year as he has this year? But as you state, maybe they try to do right by him and find a spot that needs a 4th.