tmwiese55

It's all about TV. It is what it is, they need to drag these out long enough to line up with the predetermined Finals TV schedule. All the sweeps and 5 game series made it more glaring. After game 3 they have two days off without traveling.

All true, but I'm convinced that Giannis just isn't comfortable scoring off the ball. He would be great on quick hand-offs and cutting action, but he likes to have the ball and size his guy up. And he's so good at it that it would be hard to get him used to doing stuff that he's not as comfortable doing, even if it would pay off in the long run. The Bucks also don't have the type of passers who are great at setting guys up on the move. They have drive and kick passers. Remember how Nash would set up Marion and Amare at the rim? Giannis could feast on that with half as much effort as he's putting out now, at least in stretches, but they just haven't figured that out as a team for whatever reason. And as much as I disliked Jabari's overall game, he was very good at cutting into open lanes off the ball to get easy dunks. Giannis could learn from that. I think that comes down to still not utilizing the Giannis/Bled PnR as much as they could. It's more than with Kidd but still could be used way more, seems like it almost always ends in a good result when they do it. It gets to the first posters point about the D not being able to set when he gets the ball. It gets Giannis going down hill with a crease and gets the D having to rotate. All good things.

True. I hope I don't come off as acting like the pitching coach is everything and 100% to blame or responsible, just saying having a good one certainly helps. Thing is Burnes and Woodruff have those pitches but they're not throwing them. Issue of course is that sure they have them, but if they aren't good enough then it's the same as not having them at all. I guess I'm of the opinion chances are you're still better off throwing them than not since MLB hitters will just figure out FBs. Or at least what they're doing now isn't working, so why wouldn't you try something a bit different. And Burnes was hyped through his coming up as having the multi pitch arsenal, then all of a sudden he's only allowed to throw 2 pitches. I just don't know how much a pitching coach can affect the lack of location on almost every players FB right now, they're just not hitting spots. I guess coach helps with mechanics and all, but still a MLB player should be able to locate a FB somewhat consistently. I'd guess the biggest help is the gameplan, pitch selections, plan of attack to each hitter, etc.

No, the Anderson had no impact on this. This was Woodruffs day with normal rest. The Anderson injury happening could've led to Fredy taking Anderson's next start this move today was happening before that injury occurred. I also don't see why they didn't give Freddy a couple AAA games to hopefully get sharp. The other guys had been doing OK lately.

Moose has nice numbers so far and has won them some games. When he was out of the lineup, the lineup was quite stagnant. Also, what difference making pitcher takes a one year deal like Grandal or Moose? I still am thankful for the move in bringing him back. I like Moustakas, however Keston Hiura has a .680 SLG in AAA right now. Granted I'm just an armchair GM but it seems glaringly obvious that there is a bigger need for pitching than a 2B. Sure is obvious right now, for sure. But at the time it was the offense that was our issue most of last year, not pitching. So I understood the logic at the time to eliminate the two blackholes we had last year at C and 2B. They had good P last year and would be adding back in Nelson, hopefully healthy Davies bounceback, full years from Wood/Burnes/Peralta as opposed to half years last year. Logically it made sense to think that would make up for the loss of Miley. Turns out their assessment on P that it would continue to be strong was wrong though, so far at least. Of course injuries to Knebel and JJ killed the BP. But all starters outside of Davies have just been below expectations.

Spitballing here. I'd guess that no substantial improvement quality P option could be had on a low risk one year deal. So the options would be very risky multi year deals to Ps or try to pick up a few wins with a low risk batter instead. As a team that watched Looper, Suppan, Lohse, Wolf, etc I think we know the risk they're trying to avoid. Well, sure, however it wouldn't need to be a one year deal. The Grandal, Chacin, & Moustakas money is all coming off the books next year. Braun's money is coming off the books after 2020 etc... But if you have Yu Darvish's contract on our books right now we're basically effed. Same If Keuchel is bad and you have 20 mil on the books for 4 more years. MKE just can't take those risks, nature of the small market.

Spitballing here. I'd guess that no substantial improvement quality P option could be had on a low risk one year deal. So the options would be very risky multi year deals to Ps or try to pick up a few wins with a low risk batter instead. As a team that watched Looper, Suppan, Lohse, Wolf, etc I think we know the risk they're trying to avoid.

I think everyone would agree pitching coach matters way more than hitting coach. I was one that just wanted to shake it up but I would never make the case hitting coach is huge. I watched STL with Duncan for too long to not think pitching coach matters. Or at least, having an elite one matters. Maybe all the guys in the middle won't be much different, but if you have one of the top top guys he makes a difference. And we might've had that guy. That said, I really like how much better a guy like Moose has been going opposite field this year. And we are scoring more runs than last year. Which they should be though with having Moose and Grandal all year vs the scrubs at those two positions last year. For the most part, yea not much has changed on the hitting though. IDK though, I'd be curious of the stats on leaving guys on base, RISP, and especially the stranding guys on 3rd with less than 2 outs that so many lamented about last year. That doesn't seem to be as bad this year so far at least.

Sure seems like it would've made sense to give him a start or two in AAA before tossing him right into the big leagues. I'm usually not one to nitpick every decision they make but this one looks like a clear mistake to rush him back. He wasn't very good before he got hurt, why not let him have a couple games to get sharp since the other guys had finally been doing ok.

Of course the pitching coach isn't the end all be all. But think of it this simply of how many times the last year or two many of us attributed credit to him for him fixing this guy or improving that guy. But then he's gone and we try to justify its ok by saying he really didn't matter. I mean, we were basically talking about him here like he was a pitching guru/magician. We of course have no idea how the negotiation went though so it's tough to blame anyone. For all we know he was just dead set on being in Cincy due to his family and some personal reasons. Sure, if it was just over a small amount of money I'd be annoyed they didn't pay it, but we have no way of knowing the reality.

I saw this thread at the top and I assumed it was about him dropping a routine fly ball in LF last night. The recap on MLB network said he has 6 errors already. Obviously that's just terrible for an OF. I'm not a Santana hater by any means, I'm hoping he does well. But that was probably way more in the equation than most realize in the reasons they acquired two OFs last year to play in front of him even though he just had a 30 HR year with good OBP.

I side with this as well. If you're not aware that's the WI bar/restaurant in the area.

I never really was on a pre-planned piggy-back system. Those words were assigned to me by others. I'm anti-rigidity. I said it will look like a tandem or a piggy-back and I certainly thought it was coming, but people can call it whatever they want. 2 pitchers not only don't have to be assigned together, they shouldn't. You can play matchups series to series, game to game if every long man is independent the rest. I had the sense the Brewers would pair pitchers together because Adam McCalvy flat-out said to expect it in 2019 soon after last season concluded. And it still might happen. But I'd much rather see them play matchups and let game flow dictate how long people stay in and when they'll be available next. If you say so, sure seemed that way way back when this started months ago. Feel like there was an elaborate post somewhere laying it all out, but yea maybe that was someone laying it out to try and point out how it won't work and it didn't come from you. Regardless, just shouldn't use the term piggyback then. That term certainly implies it that way even if that's not how you mean it. Again, really all we're talking about is having more multi inning guys instead of 1 inning guys, there is nothing revolutionary about it and doesn't even need a term. Looking ahead at starters CBS still says Woodruff is the starter Friday. So I'd be guessing Anderson is the one moving out for Peralta. We'll see, maybe they'll go 6 for a while and assess later but I doubt that since it'll limit the BP. CBS also could just be guessing since Thurs was supposed to be Woodruff.

Yea as long as you're coming off any kind of pre planned piggy back system almost like rotation I think most can generally see what you're getting at, I can at least.

But to plan it to have it consistently happen seems very difficult to do over the long run. Definitely see how the situation arises and can happen here and there, and that it woudl be beneficial to rest so many guys in a day. Overall i'm in agreement on the multi inning guys but I don't see a set plan piggy back in place. Just look for opportunities to have the multi inning guys eat it up to save other dudes.

haha. I was just coming to make the same joke. Dare I say we call this a piggy back? haha. Either way, I think the key difference is looking for situations to make this work, which would be possible with more multi inning guys, as opposed to as if they're planning it before games. Curious if this happened last year at all? I'd guess at some point we had a game with a starter go 6-7 and Burnes or someone finished it but of course not sure. Back to the Bucks game.

Exactly. That's what i said on this a week or two back. We can't find more than like 1 guy to trust at all right now, yet somehow we're going to find 15 guys to trust in this scenario?

We're in total agreement. I understood pulling Burnes and Woodruff after 2-3 dominant innings in the postseason. I wouldn't agree with it now. An ideal deployment right now would be covering 9 innings with 2 guys traditionally thought of as starters. I've never been a fan of using 6 bullets to cover 9 innings. It worked last year because the Brewers pen was so deep. This year it's Russian Roulette. In that situation though. Theoretically you are leading. Do you want to trust your 'piggyback' guy instead of Hader to ice that win? Or in general most teams have 2-3 trusted guys to take care of the end of that game rather than relying on essentially a failed starter who likely isn't as good as those guys. Yea it's semantics on the term then. Should just be saying let's have a strategy of many relievers capable of going multiple innings paired with a traditional 5 rotation trying go as long as they can. Sooo, basically the only difference is ditching blah 1 inning guys for folks who can go multiple innings. It's not a blow up of the starter system as it's trying to be portrayed, it's acknowledging that pitch count and 3rd time through the line up leads to shorter starts so you should plan that way.

Agree. But I think the logic would be that whoever you're starting right now is theoretically stretched out enough to go 100ish pitches if things go well. So if it is going well it's not like you're going to yank him after 3 innings because you're piggy backing. You're going to go as long as possible. The incidents late last year were guys not stretched out. So, if Anderson or whoever does well they're going to go as long as possible. At which point you might be into your 'high leverage' guys like JJ/Hader and not need the piggyback. So it's somewhat semantics regarding the term in that right now it's unlikely to be locked in a two guys pitch 6 innings type combo starter the way folks think of the term piggybacking. But maybe having a long guy lined up ready to go if needed is maybe the better way to look at it. That said, with all our starters being poor right now it's going to be tough to manager the roster spots since this can happen any day and you can't bank on any guy consistently getting long starts. But in general I get the logic of having our best arms up and using in longer outing rather than cycling through the Wilsons/Williams/etc. That said, it just might be too early in the year to pull all these guys out of being starter stretched out. First, because they've all been so blah that we don't know who's gonna stick as the 'starters' so will need replacements. Second, injuries will happen so you'll need stretched out guys to fill in eventually. Third, it's best for the 3 young guys to develop as starters instead of bailing on it so quickly. I guess I'm saying this might be something that gets molded as the year goes on and it might be a process.

I'm not sure I agree with this, the rotation has finally stabilized lately to general mediocrity, which was a big improvement. We'll see the corresponding move before I'll be too critical or anything but just generally it seems not needed right now. Maybe do a start or two in AAA to get sharp and practice other pitches while we wait for someone else to struggle or get hurt. I was thinking of maybe them putting Chacin on the IL to give him a break since he hasn't been as good lately but if that was they plan they'd have done it already and gotten a pen arm up. We'll see

Agree with the Shield watchers. PRobably the most underrated show out there. never gets its name thrown in with the all time greats when it might be #1 of this TV Boom era. Last time I looked it up out of curiosity it wasn't on Netflix or Hulu though, I don't know why, but that's probably killing it's popularity.

I'd think more Giannis/Bled ball screens could help. First, to give Bled some avenue to act. Second, so Giannis just isn't straight ahead driving at someone. Just overall should be more flow that way and there didn't seem to be too many of these other than one I recall late-ish that was like Giannis' only easy dunk

How do the hard hit stats and things like that look? Last year all those things were still positive to give hope or that he was getting unlucky. Eyeball test this year, that does not seem to be the case. Of course some here and there, but that happens to everyone. For the most part I think his biggest flaw is pitch recognition, flailing at stuff way out of the zone, not getting walks, etc. ETA: Thanks for response and info

I'd guess they planned on a lot DH starts for him but they have that other guy who came out of nowhere who just keeps hitting with the weird last name so they can't take him out of the lineup. Remember when we played Domingo in CF his first late season call up? Braun was probably in RF. Who was left, Davis? Did we really have an OF D of Davis, Santana, Braun? Wow.

I believe Boston had a negative net rating post ASB as they've "turned it on". I don't recall exactly but I think they had the 2nd worst one of playoff teams, Indy being the only one worse. And they essentially played 3 close games vs a blah Indy team without it's star. Yea I don't think this is gonna be a cakewalk and am fully aware of how many good players they have, and some of the specific bad matchups for these two teams. So by no means would I be cocky and trash talking like this will be easy, but there is no reason to not be confident with the Bucks winning especially when you add in HCA. There's a reason we're like 8 pt faves this game and massive favorites for the series in Vegas. If they made the series betting line near even, everyone would dump money on the Bucks.