Ron Robinsons Beard

Well ... ball goes far when it's straight. Gotta do better Rasmussen.

Knew this was going to be a pitchers duel tonight. Was hoping the Brewers would be on the upper end of it, and Woody nearly escaped. It sucks being down in well-played games like this.

Wish they were giving Taylor more starts, but they are still leaning hard into the platoon matchups. At least Gyorko is seeing full time work finally.

Guessing there have been no conversations to start him on short rest just to maybe have him pitch Sunday on short rest again. If anything he will start per normal Thursday and maybe pitch Sunday in a pinch if it means getting into the postseason or not...in the bullpen role of course. That is exactly what the Reds will likely be doing with Bauer (starting him Wednesday, then Sunday against the Twins if the game is important) ... the difference being, of course, that Bauer is going to be a free agent at the end of this year, and there's a good chance he won't be re-signing with the Reds, so they are more apt to ride him hard.

It was announced that they would have a double header with the Tigers next Monday if those games are needed to determine playoff participants. If they are just needed to determine seeding, though, they won't be played.

Well, he didn't play yesterday because he's hurt. He got the most snaps of anyone in the TE room against the Vikings, and played very well, especially blocking. Tonyan played twice as many snaps in Game 1 (48) as Deguara (24) and Marcades Lewis played 32. But it's clear that MLF wants his TE room to be more involved in 2020 and so far they have been. MLF clearly values blocking from his TEs as a skillset more than outside evaluators. Drr ... my bad. Not sure what I was looking at.

We need a "Has anyone gained confidence in Stearns" thread. I actually admit I have to eat some crow on the Vogelbach move. I didn't like it at the time, I said more or less one random bad dude is just as likely as another to get hot at a random time, it felt very much like shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. I still think it feels random, I don't think Stearns had any kind of an inkling of an idea that chunk from the Goonies was going to get hot suddenly in September, but I guess you have to give him credit when its due. All that being said, if we keep the DH in the national league next year, I'll be happy to at least give the guy a chance to show that his first part of this season was the aberration. Maybe he's figured something out. I doubt he's a 300 hitter but we already know he's got power and the ability to draw walks. If Stearns truly has mined a nugget, I hope the DH sticks around and gives us a roster spot to give him some bats next year. Obviously having a guy the shape and size of an Ewok playing 1B is not ideal, but I thought Vogelbach looked fine there on defense yesterday.

Well, he didn't play yesterday because he's hurt. He got the most snaps of anyone in the TE room against the Vikings, and played very well, especially blocking.

The "this team is terrible" posts (and the posters who regularly type them) have gone silent. That might be the most optimistic thing that's happened in the past week

They are doing a great job so far of shutting up the "Gary is a bust" truthers and, to a lesser extent, the "shoulda drafted a WR" crowd. Granted, I'd love to see another perimeter weapon, but there are only so many passes to go around, and the team has had no problem moving the ball through two games. It was nice to see the TEs get more involved yesterday. That group would have looked even better has Sternberger not had a couple ugly drops. Lewis and Tonyan are solid role players, and Deguara looked very good against the Vikings. Hopefully he's back soon, because I'm excited to see more of him. He looks like a player. I see some fans continue to rag on the team because of the draft, and to me, those are just narcissists looking for something to complain about. It was obvious that the Love selection was made with the future in mind, so you don't want to see him contribute this year. But other than that, I expect Dillon to still be a major contributor this year, as Jones or Williams are going to eventually get nicked up. Deguara is already a major contributor. Kamal Martin was looking great by all appearances in summer, and should be getting playing time once off the IR. Runyan has been solid as an injury fill-in in both games so far, and will likely end up as a starter at some point down the line. Hanson is on the practice squad, but he might have a future. Stepniak is likely taking a redshirt year to get healthy, but he's an interesting prospect. Scott and Garvin have both been playing a lot of special teams, and have even gotten time in the base defense in both games, so they are already doing better than a lot of 7th rounders do. And of course Byrnes has looked great at ILB, especially for an UDFA rookie.

It's been reported(presumably by Harrison's team) that the Packers made an offer, but they did not feel it was a "competitive offer." I think everyone knows it's not as simple as "if he wanted to be a Packer, he'd be a Packer." "Competitive" is also subjective. I mean, he's not playing anywhere else, either, which tells me that his opinion of his value is higher than the league's opinion of it. But in the end, yeah, it is that simple. If he wanted to be playing football (for the Packers, or likely one of many teams) he'd be playing.

On paper this should be a 2-1 game ... but since it's 2020, I'm ready for 12-10.

Gary has looked really good this year. Not sure if he's close to passing Preston Smith yet, but he's definitely justifying his selection... Now, just get Harrison in here. If you put Clark and Harrison on that DL and if Raven Greene could get(and stay) healthy it feels like this defense could be good enough to give them a chance vs the truly elite teams in the NFL. I know we haven't exactly played dominant teams, but with Bosa and Thomas likely lost for the rest of the year and several other 49'ers banged up...the Packers really need to fix the issues they have on offense. Harrison has said that the Packers offered him a deal. If he wanted to be a Packer, he'd be a Packer. I'm not sure he even wants to play this season.

It will make it all the more cool, though, when they win their 2nd championship in a row next year.

We have to put our best lineup on the field, and if that means the Dan Vogelbach 1B experience, so be it. Gyorko can easily shift back over to 3B. Urias and Arcia can share SS. Don’t think they trust Vogelbach at first.......Geryko has saved quite a few errors the last couple of games......just don’t see them putting a bad first baseman over there in the last week of the season. You are probably right. That unfortunately takes one of the team's best current bats out of the lineup for every game, though.

Wow ... it is really a shame that we may possibly only see one more Burnes start this year. He's easily been the biggest and best highlight of this weird season.

We have to put our best lineup on the field, and if that means the Dan Vogelbach 1B experience, so be it. Gyorko can easily shift back over to 3B. Urias and Arcia can share SS.

He was a starter at Oregon State, but had two Tommy John surgeries, so I think that by the time the Brewers took him, it was understood that his future was in relief. The Rays had previously drafted him in the 1st round as a starter though.

Liking Rasmussen more and more with each outing. His stuff is filthy. This pitching staff is a lot of fun.

If this is truly Braun's swan song as a Brewer, what a ride it's been. Over the last couple weeks he's been vintage MVP Braun.

Not just this weekend. He's firmly resurrected his career, and is going to force the Brewers to make a very tough decision on whether they want to pair him with Pina or Narvaez next season. He's had a very nice audition.

Dude is definitely a cheat code right now. Glad he's pitching for us, and that he's only 25, and we have him for a long time.

Opposing teams don't have much of a book on him after only getting a few innings last year. Hitters will eventually figure out his tendencies a bit I imagine. I think 98 with a wicked change to boot is always going to play pretty well, though.

They looked pretty good against the Brewers in several games this year. Pulling a starter with a no-hitter going at 84 pitches is really odd. Of course that would happen to the Cardinals though.

He's human ... gonna give up runners and runs every now and then. I'm much rather it happen against the Royals with a 5-run lead then nursing a 1-run lead next week against the Reds or Cards.