Lathund

There's also a chance that they simply allow the claim to go through. They're not playing for anything, they can't offer a QO anyway. In the event the Brewers offer nothing, would they really just pull him back from waivers? ~$1m isn't a lot in MLB terms, but the Reds also wouldn't really gain anything from paying him that million

Heyman reports in a tweet that Brewers are the team that claimed Matt Harvey, and have until 1:30 ET to work out a waiver trade.

Good to hear, a short leash is the right way to go. People don't have some god-given right to post on a private message board. If their overall contribution to the board is negative, or even if it isn't but it includes a lot of personal attacks or other undesired behaviour, they have no business keeping their posting privileges. Because that is what it is, a privilege. Actual toxicity aside, it seems like the overall quality of discussions has suffered too, but that's a harder issue to solve. A decrease in toxicity could help though, as it might bring some of the good and interesting posters back into the fold. Sadly there is a great deal of behaviour and posting that isn't toxic or trolling or abusive, but that still has a negative impact. This includes, but isn't limited to, a preference for points scoring rather than actual debate, disingenuous argumentation using strawmen or other rhetorical devices and so forth. Just simply the general theme of not being willing to engage, not being willing to see beyond ones own point of view, and all that comes with it. Not sure exactly what one can do about it, as it's obviously an issue that goes far beyond one baseball messageboard, just wanted to bring it up.

....aaand unclench.

Brewers need to look over their video replay routines. Too many challenges made that have no chance of being overturned, and some blatant ones missed.

Negatory Pinch-hit HR incoming.

The one certain thing about the lineup tonight is that Eric Thames is in it.

Having two players on the roster who can only play 1B competently (I really don't want to see Thames in the OF or Aguilar at 3rd even if they *can* play there), both without minor league options, limits the team severely. So from a roster standpoint, Thames or Aguilar should be traded in the offseason. Who depends on the return, what other moves are made etc. Purely from a performance standpoint, it makes more sense to trade Thames and find someone else who hits RHP well. But Aguilar with his age and contract and performance probably gets the better return. But having said that, with how little value is placed on that type of player perhaps the difference in prospective return isn't a big deal.

What a ridiculous suggestion. The bratwurst is the key to everything, no way it should be sacrificed ffs. That move would ruin the team.

If we sign a player this winter for $10mil and they give us 1 WAR off the bench are you seriously telling me that player was technically worth it? The minors is littered with 0-2 WAR players. You can pay them a few million tops if you want that. I guess I know why we traded Jonathan Villar now...he is a $20mil+ player per year!! Lorenzo Cain? $60mil a year? I just can’t understand WAR valuations for contracts. Cut your losses if he sucks. Paying him $10mil and wasting a roster spot (and playing time) just makes you look even dumber. If they keep him (not my money) you better find a good back-up plan or we better be getting a good hitting catcher. We can not afford three black holes again. 0 WAR players, as in replacement-level players, are common in the minors indeed. Not littered with, or else teams wouldn't consistently feature below replacement level players every year, but they're common enough. 2 WAR players though? They're nowhere near as common as you think. That's essentially what your average everyday major league starter is. Brewers currently have only 4 position players on pace to reach 2 fWAR (5 going by bWAR, but Keon Broxton is there on the basis of ridiculous DRS in a tiny sample size) this year. There are 2 WAR players in the minors who simply need to be given their chance, but they're not obvious or easy to find, or they would be in the majors. As for $/WAR valuations, they're simple enough. Firstly they're in regards to free agents only. You can't offer a contract to a player under team control by another team anyway, so the cost of acquiring them has to be viewed in a different light. As for where those numbers come from, they're simply the average of what all free agents produced divided by all free agent salaries. For each $10m spent in free agency, you get on average 1 WAR (I don't know the exact number for 2017 or 2018, as it varies a bit over time, but in that neighbourhood). So that includes Chris Davis and Albert Pujols as well as JD Martinez and Max Scherzer. Free agent contracts are ridiculous because of scarcity. Most productive players in their primes are under team control, either through their initial 6 years of control or through an early extension. In a vacuum it's ridiculous to pay Machado $30m or a mediocre journeyman FA $8m to play SS when Lindor is making $600k. But you can't get Lindor without giving up your 6 best prospects (If at all), so you compare it to who else you can get for cash only. If we don't want to rely on Dubon and Hiura at 2B straight away to start 2019 we have to look at what the options are. So think of Schoop as a 1/$10m free agent signing and look at the alternatives. Would the better 2B free agents out there (Like Dozier) sign a 1 year deal? Probably not; to get a proven 2B you'd need to pony up for multiple years (And thus more than $10m) when what we really want is just a bridge to Hiura. Any FA out there is also likely to be older with the ever present risk of regression. Trades are a possibility, and we might very well find a salary dump for less than $10m without giving up significant prospects (Castro?). But we might not. So $10m for Schoop isn't unreasonable, as expensive as it sounds. That is, it should be said, based on the assumption that for a player in his mid 20s it's a lot more reaonable to rely on his career numbers rather than a smaller sample, as they should be more indicative of what to expect going forward. Based on that he's almost exactly league average (97 wRc+) offensively and a bit above average as a defender at 2B. Or, in other words, a ~2 WAR player. So as much as I'm not a fan of the trade, or a fan of the free-swinging types like Schoop. Whatever you might think of him, he's not a .384 OPS player.

Soccer having 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw tends to eliminate that debate. You're simply X points ahead or behind, and the only real interest beyond that is when you have less games played and if you can make up the difference or not. I mean theoretically you could argue whether a team that's 9 points ahead with 3 games more played is in the lead or not, like in baseball, but in a couple of decades following the sport I've never seen it. In cases like where it's 4-5 points difference with 2 games in hand for the trailing team there's more room to debate who'd in the better position and more likely to come out on top, but there's no debate as to who is actually ahead, or by how much. Probably helps that there doesn't tend to be very big differences in # of games played either, as rainouts are nowhere near as common, and games are easier to make up when they do happen.

It's more about looking at past rebuilds/teardowns, and seeing how long it usually takes for a team to become competitive again. Brewers started their teardown at the deadline in 2015, and started playing .500 ball around the deadline in 2016 and winning baseball in 2017. That's a lot earlier than you normally expect to see results. It depends on how it happens. If the WC game comes about with like the second or third best record in the NL, then yeah that's a success sadly spoiled by the randomness of a 1-game winner takes all format. Missing the playoffs this year to me says nothing about on schedule or not. The team is competitive, but with some major holes still. Everyone is under team control for 2019, and most beyond that. Depends on who you mean by "anybody". Stearns is not getting fired regardless of playoff in 2018 or 2019. Counsell is unlikely to, and if it happens I'd argue it's more a case of having found someone even better, than as a result of having performed poorly enough to be sacked. Impossible from the outside to really judge a hitting coach and what impact he really has, positive or negative. Probably the most likely spot on the coaching team to see change though. For CC; see above. Yeah, not gonna bother with that. The phrasing and tone of the questions doesn't really imply trying to really understand, they sound like someone who has made up his mind and is trying to argue for why the team isn't on schedule. I don't recognize the above at all. It's not about just looking at the current record, but about the state of the organization. For instance, the Royals 80-82 in 2017 was a disaster and definitely not on schedule; they had a team filled with impending free agents (Cain, Hosmer, Moustakas, Escobar) and a poor farm system. It was their last chance to win anything for many years. The Rays finished with the same 80-82 record, but without the FA situation, without any awful big contracts holding them back, with a ton of young pitching talent etc. One team had a bright future, one didn't. So going back to the Brewers: The team is 3 years removed from the start of the rebuild, less than 2 years removed from finishing the teardown (Thornburg trade). The team has held the NL best record for large parts of the season, and are currently in a playoff spot and still have a shot at winning the division. This is with no impending free agents this year other than Kratz, Miley and potentially Moustakas (Mutual option) so everyone is coming back for 2019. Then for 2020, only Chacin and Jennings among the 2018 contributors aren't coming back. Plenty of players who recently made it to MLB (Hader, Burnes, Peralta, Woodruff) or look likely to do so soon (Dubon, Nottingham, Ray, Hiura etc). Noone can predict the future, but MLB baseball is largely a cyclical affair, and everything points to the Brewers still being on the upswing of that. 13 games over .500 in mid-August, would be in the playoffs if the season ended today, and more likely to improve than regress going forward? Yeah, I'll say we're on schedule.

It's a six (Well, 7 now as I type this) run lead. Just have a short-ish leash and pull him for Jeffress or Hader if he gives up a run or a couple of baserunners.

Excellent performance by Chacin. Not much hard contact in there either. Also means that both Hader and Jeffress will be available tomorrow even if they're used to close out the game today.

18 hits, 4 walks and 2 runners reaching on errors, and it's still going to be a loss isn't it?

Let's hope we don't continue to be the Milwaukee LOBsters for much longer. 18 hits but only 7 runs.

BABIP gods aren't on our side today. Their batted balls get through the shift or are just out of reach. Ours straight at their fielders.

Anyone know how common a 30/30 season is in the minors? With the sheer number of teams I'd imagine it happens, but can't be all that common I don't think. Would be a pretty sweet landmark. Before yesterdays game, Ray was at the exact same number of games (and within 3 PAs) of last year. Was pretty telling looking at the counting stats to see how much better he was in every concievable way. Not that we didn't know that from the slash line stats and such already, but it somehow seemed even more clear.

10 pitches per inning... if we lose, we lose, but at least make him work a little for it.

One thing I'd like to see the Brewers do better is work the count, and even when things aren't going their way at least be a tough out. Seems like the opponents starter always has low pitch counts, as well as relievers who can then go multiple innings. It's a way to knock their starter out even when he's pitching well enough to not get pulled voluntarily. Gotta do better there.

Trading a rule 5-eligible RHP prospect for a non rule 5-eligible RHP prospect. While I don't know enough about either guy to judge their relative value, it's a type of deal that makes a lot of sense.

Today sucked, but was made a bit better by the fact that while we took 2 of 3 against the Rockies, the Cubs split a series at Wrigley with the Padres.

Interesting article earlier about how he's changed his repertoire, increasing his strikeout rate. Stearns and DJ seem to like curveball pitchers and how that works well together with the high fastball. Presumably they see something. A very respectable 4.14 xFIP (Brewers as a team have 4.13) would suggest that perhaps the ERA is misleading. Put him in front of a good defense and see what happens. And yeah, presumably he's here for long relief as there's no such pitcher on the roster currently; Burnes seems to be used for other purposes and they seem to want Houser and Woodruff stretched out to start.

"What are they doing starting Shaw against a lefty? And why is Hernan Perez ever starting?!??" That wasn't me before the game. No sir, not at all. I would never.

Elbow soreness never sounds good. Could of course be something minor, plenty of structures around the elbow area, but I do worry whenever I hear elbow soreness. Just a few years removed from TJS you'd think that a torn UCL would be unlikely, but not impossible.