RollieTime

Christian Yelich is the first player with a 40 homer/20 stolen base season in MLB since 2012 when, you guessed it, Ryan Braun accomplished the feat.

Can this clown get banned yet? Enough is enough.

Has that been announced by Washington? I've seen those listings as well but they are subject to change with Max chomping at the bit to get out there. Hope they do hold him out until we leave town. MLB Network showed a Tweet a couple hours ago from an insider that those were the two slated to take the hill this weekend.

Looks like the Brewers will be facing Anibal Sanchez tomorrow and Erick Fedde on Sunday.

He needs to go back to using the changeup. Even if it’s just 8-10% of the time, with the slider being used 10-15% of the time, it would make him that much more effective. If he could spin a changeup over for a strike, it gives the hitter another pitch to keep in the back of their mind. Right now, they know they will see a fastball the majority of the time and won’t even bother swinging at anything other than the fastball. They just sit on it and wait. He doesn’t even need to locate the changeup that well for it to be effective. The change in speed will get the hitter way out in front thinking it’s a fastball.

I would definitely be open to shopping Cain. He will be 34 next season and still has 3 years left on his contract. Regression is expected and I would prefer being able to put that money toward the rotation or pairing an all-star caliber right handed hitter like Anthony Rendon in the middle of the lineup behind Yelich.

I think it's time to stop thinking that Davies has any value at all. People keep throwing his name out there as a trade candidate, but who on earth wants him as anything more that rotation filler, and only if necessary. We'd get nothing for him, zero. I am of the opposite opinion. Why would a team that struggles to find solid starting pitching year after year trade off a young, solid starting pitcher? Davies is always going to be a guy who has rough patches when he struggles with his command, but he's proven to be a substantially above average starter when he's on. The people who want to deal him or just get rid of him justify their reasoning by boiling it down to "durrrrr, he don't throw fast #DERP". A guy like Davies likely holds more value to the Brewers than he would on the trade market. I agree with you. He’s on pace to have a 2 WAR season and is still very cheap. He has been fantastic outside of his last three starts. Every single player will go through struggles during the season. Didn’t Yelich hit something like .220 for a 30 game stretch this season? It happens. Literally every single team in the MLB would take Davies and for some reason, people try to remove him from the rotation and run him out of town all the time. He would be a number 3 or 4 on a good staff. But somehow with how our starting staff has fared this season, we STILL think he sucks and shouldn’t be on the team? He’s making $2.6 million this season. With Davies’ pedigree, he would be a guy people would be clamoring here for to get on a multi year deal at $10-12 million per season if he wasn’t on our team and was an impending free agent. He would be the exact guy people would say Stearns should target as an under the radar guy who quietly puts up good numbers every year and won’t break the bank. Again, I think this is part of people wanting something “new” because Davies has been here for a while and is not a big strikeout/big name guy. He’s a very good pitcher and is still only 26 years old.

Wow, good thing we didn’t get stuck with that big contract for him like the Pacers did!

Not sure where to find it, but how many times have the Brewers faced a lefty this season? If it’s something like 80/40, with the majority being right handed, it wouldn’t really appear to be everybody throwing “any” lefty against us if 2/3 of the staters we face are righties. I think that would be about an expected amount if it’s anything similar to that.

He went 6 innings last Wednesday against the Braves, so he's going on 6 days rest tonight. He's also been pretty bad for the last month or so. They had an off day yesterday though so it looks like it’s his regular scheduled day to pitch.

I disagree with the first bolded part in the short term. I think there will be a big advantage to the pitcher when the bottom of the strike zone will actually get called correctly. Seems like a lot of umps aren’t very consistent with calls near the bottom. I do agree with the second bolded part that having a consistent strike zone for guys to adapt to and know what is and isn’t a strike will be beneficial to the hitter, but that it will take a year or two for guys to really get a feel for exactly where the strike zone is. Those fastballs right at the bottom of the zone and curveballs that nearly hit the dirt, but cross right at the knees are going to give hitters FITS when they start getting rung up on those pitches. They will adapt, but it’ll be a painful learning process for the hitters in my opinion.

Yep, I think you and I were the only two mentioning it as a smart move to consider doing. *waves* *waves back* Good call!

Yep, I think you and I were the only two mentioning it as a smart move to consider doing.

Interesting note that Braun has played in 107 games this season.... Yelich? He has played in 104. Braun has really been a consistent bat for us all season long.

Unfortunately, neither Grandal or Moustakas can be offered the QO again since they both received qualifying offers in the past. Players can only be offered a qualifying offer one time in their career.

I wish we still had Yost. He had his flaws, but I really enjoyed how passionate he was about the game and standing up for his guys. I’m not a big fan of Counsell at all in that regard. He frequently looks bored and uninterested in what’s going on. There are times where the team is struggling or drawing the short straw on every call during a game and he doesn’t stand up for the guys. Not saying he should get thrown out all the time, but when you go through a 5 game losing streak, or your pitchers have been getting pinched on the corners the last few games, or the offense is non-existent, showing the guys you stand up for them goes a long way. It could give your guys the spark they’ve been lacking. This probably won’t go over well with some people, but Counsell and Ken Macha are very similar in my opinion in how they carry themselves during games. I really don’t like managers that have that lack of interest, passive attitude, who don’t stand up for their guys.

Anderson has always been that steady guy. He will give up a homerun seemingly in every start, but they don’t usually score much more beyond that. He’s a solid mid rotation option that will keep you in the game most of the time.

I would take a shot on him. We would still have 2 years of control of him after this season as well.

Bellinger was hitting about .400 through the first 50 games of the year. In the last 60 games, his average has dropped to .325. Obviously he wasn’t going to hit .400 all season, but what has he been hitting the last 60 games to drop it that much? .260-.270? If he continues to hit at that pace and finishes with an average under .300, I think Yelich would have a pretty strong case if he finishes around .340. Especially if he finishes with 50+ homers and 30+ stolen bases.

With 1 more homerun, Yelich will become the 19th player in MLB history to join the 40+ homerun and 20+ stolen base club. No player in history has hit 50+ homeruns and had 30+ stolen bases in the same season. If Yelich can stay healthy, he will have a real shot at becoming the first player in history to accomplish that feat.

Listening to the Tigers broadcast on MLBNetwork right now and wow are they boring and hard to listen to. Sounds like they are trying to put their fans to sleep. The color guy (Kirk Gibson) is especially hard to listen to. If you need a little appreciation for who we have, turn this game on... I need to add that they just spoke for about 2 minutes on how there is a “sweet” spot on a bat called the barrel. And that you want to hit the ball off the “sweet spot” of the bat because it “jumps” off the bat. And that you don’t want to hit it off the end of the bat or lower on the bat because “it doesn’t go as far”. Then they put Gibson on TV during the game and had him show where you want the baseball to make contact with the bat to hit it further...

I don’t buy those rankings at all. The Brewers have a lot of young pitching talent in the system, particularly below AA. They don’t get recognized for some reason in these rankings, but I would say the Brewers have a fairly strong mix of young pitchers in their minors. Hitters on the other hand, yikes... With Hiura and Grisham on the MLB roster, the next waive of hitters is probably Turang, Feliciano, and Lutz, who are all having solid, but unspectacular seasons.

1. Brice Turang 2. Ethan Small 3. Trent Grisham 4. Trey Supak 5. Max Lazar 6. Antoine Kelly 7. Aaron Ashby 8. Bobby Wahl 9. Drew Rasmussen 10. Dylan File 11. Noah Zavolas 12. Tristen Lutz 13. Zack Brown 14. Nate Griep 15. Corey Ray 16. Clayton Andrews 17. Devin Williams 18. Luke Barker 19. David Fry 20. Mario Feliciano 21. Felix Valerio 22. Eduardo Garcia 23. Micah Bello 24. Alec Bettinger 25. J.T. Hintzen 26. Eduarqui Fernandez 27. Bowden Francis 28. Cody Ponce 29. Troy Stokes 30. Lucas Erceg 31. Jacob Nottingham 32. Johan Belisario 33. Fernando Olguin 34. Payton Henry 35. Quintin Torres-Costa

Agreed Joey. They could still move a few guys on one year deals. These moves help the bullpen now, but also in the future since some of the guys have multiple years of control. Nothing wrong with getting controllable bullpen pieces and making other moves toward the future by getting prospects back by moving a couple guys.

I’m not a huge fan of the trade, but Black definitely is an interesting get. Big right hander that throws 100 and K’s a ton of guys. Not sure how much control we have him for, but it looks like 4.5. I think Black has a much higher floor than Dubon and should help our bullpen right away. Dubon would have to hit over .300 at the MLB level to be an impact player for us since he rarely will take a walk. I don’t think that is a likely outcome for him. I don’t think we are going to regret moving Dubon, especially if Black is striking out guys as frequently as Hader. Hopefully he can harness a little bit more control and become an effective late inning option.