Bob Skube Snacks

I couldn't care less about the contract length, money, etc. This isn't signing a journeyman to a five-year deal. The psychological meaning of this deal for our fanbase goes way beyond the usual financial/competitive considerations. We all know as a team in the smallest TV market in MLB? It's not easy to retain talent. I'm so appreciative that we have an owner who doesn't go the cheap route when it would be very easy to. The contract itself is secondary to the psychological impact it has on the fanbase. If the team is committed? We're committed as fans. Mark Attanasio is the best owner any of "my" teams has ever had given the challenges small market MLB teams have to compete. He walks on water as far as I'm concerned. And the fans have shown they'll show up with the commitment too. Milwaukee was fifth in attendance in the NL in 2019. Sure, we were good, and all-weather Miller Park is massive in a cold weather state, but that's still a small miracle given how many big markets there are in the NL. Selig was cheap in his last 15 years in charge, so we know what it's like to be the Pirates, Marlins, etc. This makes being a fan so much more fun and worth the emotional investment. I'm all in on this. If the deal looks bad when Yelich is 35? I couldn't care less because it's bound to look fantastic in every year leading up to it. Glad I follow a team that tries.

They claim “sellouts” in almost every game despite several sections’ worth of empty seats. Tickets are always abundant, and usually cheap, on the secondary market. In the playoffs, you can’t get away with the “tickets sold” model of announcing attendance they claim justify the sellout claims. The emperor can’t raid his own clothes. And to be fair? The Brewers likely do this too. Attendance numbers are a scam in almost every sport. If teams/schools are using inaccurate numbers to gain sponsorship/advertising, etc., they’re all guilty of legal fraud.

It wasn’t a TGI Friday’s was it? Oh well. I have zero desire to eat, restaurant-style, during a game anyway.

Man. Some serious navel-gazing here. We could be a mess like the Orioles, Tigers or Pirates. We have been that mess in the past. In many ways, we’re the model small market franchise at the moment. Enjoy the ride, but understand the ride may not take us to the destination we want. No fan of any team is owed a championship. Coming close sucks, but it’s better than being miles away. I’d rather have my heart broken than not have a heart in the game to break. It’s still fun. It’s still just entertainment. It still mirrors life’s ups and downs. So release the angst and ride the wave. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Different sports. Access to the postseason is easier in both. Baseball is still the hardest postseason to qualify for. I have no problem with a little flag out there for the 2019 Wild Card. They’re not ostentatious anyway.

Same way I feel. Have no idea how anyone can equate a Wild Card loss with a win-or-go home shot at the World Series. There’s no comparison. House money to even get in the playoffs with everything that went sideways this year, honestly. Which is why I feel strangely fine about 2020, though the weaknesses of the structure of the offense need to be addressed.

On Arcia batting in the ninth? In a vaccuum, it was bad. But the options on the bench were Pina, Perez, Tyler Austin and Tyrone Taylor. Don’t think any of those guys are much better, honestly. A regret? Healthy Lo Cain would have had a shot at that Ryan Zimmerman duck snort. Sigh. Sometimes it just isn’t your day.

Hader is not trash. Not even close. However, Hader has been shaky over the last week (the HR in Colorado was, for me, a worse gut punch than this, and remember, he barely escaped in game one against the Reds last Tuesday) and has been streaky all season. Counsell should have accounted for that and limited his exposure in this game, not expect him to go two, which exposes him to the majority of the Nats’ lineup even if things do go well. Either someone should have pitched between Suter and Pomeranz, or, let Pomeranz continue until he showed vulnerability. So I pin this one on Counsell. Pretty angry about it, honestly, because he needs to read his team better than he did. Secondary villains? The offense, I guess, though it’s hard to argue three runs against Scherzer. Strasburg is no tomato can either. The construction of the offense generally bothers me more. Pretty much over the three true outcomes stuff. Grisham? Yeah. He needs to make that play obviously, but Hader needs to make his pitch too. Ugh.

News to me ... and I’ve been watching baseball since the late 70s.

Much ado about nothing. Cubs have the right to play whomever they want. It’s not their job to worry about our pennant race. No more so than it was the Tigers problem to worry about the Cubs playoff race a year when Detroit was throwing out Triple-A players in the Brewers’ final series last year. And that the Rockies might very well throw out there against us this weekend.

Tap ... the ... brakes. Selig did more good than bad in his tenure, and for being so driven to bring baseball back to Milwaukee? For that alone, every Brewer fan owes him a debt of gratitude. But Commish Selig was not good for the Brewers. The rot from 1993 on is his responsibility. From 1993 on, a good argument can be made that the Brewers were made to be a bargain basement operation on purpose to make us one of the poster teams for a salary cap. We were a bargaining chip. He and his accolytes stuck with Sal Bando as GM way too long. He was no different than any other owner in leveraging Miller Park vs. relocation. A lot of fans bought into the financial unfairness he championed in the 90s, but we know now baseball success is really about having a commitment to being competitive (not a spender, but not a chintzer) who hires smart people. Small market teams can and do win, they just don’t have the flexibility to eat mistakes. And in the end? The best thing Selig did besides bringing the Brewers here in the first place was whom he sold to. He left the Brewers in great hands. But he probably did so at least a decade later than he should have.

Maybe, just maybe, fans tend to vastly overrate prospects and this trade is a whole lot of nothing for both clubs.

If there had been a 1980s Brewerfan.net: “Uke is looking for the next acting job. He misses a LOT of Brewers games to do other things like Mr. Belvedere, the Tonight Show and ABC Monday Night Baseball. He's just there to do the Brewers, waiting on a more stable bigger stage to come up, rather than have his fall back being the Brewers games, because they let him leave whenever he wants to do other things. ...” You see how ridiculous that reads? For Lord sake, people, stopping losing the flipping plot. Brian Anderson is considered a national-level talent and he still chooses to stay in Milwaukee and do the Brewers. That’s a good thing. Well, the big difference is that Uke is a hometown guy who even played ball in MKE too. He wasn't going anywhere because he was already home. I can recall speculation in the 80s, unfounded, that Uke might leave to focus on acting and comedy. Thank goodness it never happened.

If there had been a 1980s Brewerfan.net: “Uke is looking for the next acting job. He misses a LOT of Brewers games to do other things like Mr. Belvedere, the Tonight Show and ABC Monday Night Baseball. He's just there to do the Brewers, waiting on a more stable bigger stage to come up, rather than have his fall back being the Brewers games, because they let him leave whenever he wants to do other things. ...” You see how ridiculous that reads? For Lord sake, people, stopping losing the flipping plot. Brian Anderson is considered a national-level talent and he still chooses to stay in Milwaukee and do the Brewers. That’s a good thing. And remember, it can be a whole lot worse. The last time I lived in Wisconsin, unlistenable Daron Sutton was doing games. He was awful. Schroeder? He’s OK. His voice bugs me more than anything else, but I’ve grown accustomed to it. And remember, it can be a whole lot worse, part II. I live in an area that gets Cubs, White Sox, Reds and Cardinals broadcasts. Quality runs the gamut from being very good (Cubs, Kasper and Deshaies are an enjoybale listen despite the fact I detest their team; White Sox, Benetti and Stone are an entertaining tandem) to uneven (Reds, Thom Brennaman is no Marty Brennaman. He gets wound up too easily, but when he’s focused, he’s good. Lots of old-man baseball takes with their analysts) to seventh circle of hell awful (Cardinals, Dan McLaughlin is boring, a passive aggressive homer and arrogant, somehow, all at the same time. Hard for any of the 1,000 Cardinals analysts to work with that.) And the White Sox are not long for having been awful when unlistenable Hawk did their games. Point being, the grass isn’t always greener. Milwaukee is the smallest media market in baseball so they’ve done very well for themselves broadcast-wise.

Ridiculous. Emblematic of the rampant pessimism on the internet whether it’s message boards or social media.

To me, injury-related problems aren’t busts, it’s just bad luck.

Was Bando bad because Bando was bad? Or, because Selig was uber-cheap at the time and constrained him? I honestly don’t know. Probably a little of Column A and Column B.

This discussion is a great example of why the term “bust” is most often terribly defined by fans and the media too. You’ve got free agent busts mixed in with draft busts, which, to me, are two totally different things. I would never compare Jeffrey Hammonds, a dubious signing even at the time, with Manny Parra, a quantity that everyone thought would pan out. There’s a big difference between a known questionable signing and the great unknown of a prospect not panning out. It’s why fans should never get overly enamored with prospects. Then you have silly recency bias. Lewis Brinson? He has 55 more plate appearances than I do in a Brewers uniform and was the main trade piece in a deal that got us the NL MVP. He may very well end up as a Marlins bust, but not ours. Corbin Burnes? Freddy Peralta? Please. Have some patience.

ESPN crew trying to make that play at the plate out to be some great play. Routine as can be especially with a runner who moves at a glacial pace.

Went to Sunday’s game. I’ve always been a Klements guy and never cared for Johnsonville. Apart from that, my opinion is that brats haven’t been as good generally at Miller Park. Tend to be undercooked. Happy to report my brat on Sunday wasn’t bad. Cooked just about right. I can taste the difference between the brands, and I still prefer Klements, but cook any brand of brat correctly? It’s hard to go wrong.

With Opening Day just a few short days away, I thought it would be a good time to make some predictions about the Brewers for the upcoming season. Feel free to add other predictions if you think of another category to include. Win-Loss Record: 91-71 Playoffs (Yes, No): Yes. Highest Playoff Level Achieved: World Series title. All-Star Game Representative(s): Yelich gets voted in. Hader makes it. Two others, probably. Offensive Player of the Year: Yelich. Starting Pitcher of the Year: Nelson. Relief Pitcher of the Year: Hader. Most Surprising Player: Arcia gets back to being a passable bat. Most Disappointing Player: Grandal, but his production is still more than the Pina/Kratz platoon.

Yes, which is why the reaction to this is way overblown.

I’m fine with the changes. People are making a mountain out of a mole hill. And to claim this was targeted at the Brewers is the worst kind of provincial thinking. Brewers can do just fine with these rules.

Coors effect has nothing to do with Arenado’s fantastic glove and arm, but many seem to be ignoring that for some reason.

Worth every penny. Love Arenado’s game.