Ron Robinsons Beard

It's been a frustrating season so far for the Brewers, but you cannot take away how Hader and Williams (and to a lesser extent, Phelps) have dominated the late innings for them. Those two are as dominant as any late relief pair I can remember.

Open mouth, insert foot. That was a no-doubter. Dude hit a rocket.

If the goal is to also reduce the 2021 payroll while remaining competitive, probably. But that means they'd have to trade Hader for young players that would fill holes on the big league roster next year, so they won't have to spend millions on the retread types they picked up this year.

I have a little bit of a man crush on Williams. I'll admit it.

Also, why the heck isn't Braun in the IL? I get that there isn't really much of anything that he's taking the spot of, but heck, I'd rather see Ray get a little playing time than watch glimpses of Braun sitting on the bench in a polo shirt.

Yep. Case in point is the fact that the Atlanta Braves have been lauded for years by many prospect guys for the pitching talent they are supposedly developing in their system. Yet for the last few years, they've been searching under every rock in an attempt to find warm bodies to make starts for the team, at a time when many of those supposed "top prospects" should be MLB ready. I mean, they actually traded for Tommy Milone this week. Tommy Milone! If that isn't an indictment on what their pitching depth truly looks like, nothing is. The Brewers have managed to graduate quite a few major league regulars over the past few years, despite their low ranking on system rankings. Yeah, that group may be lacking in superstar potential, but the idea that the system hasn't added value, or won't continue to, is false.

I don't know ... at least Jace Peterson can play defense. There is absolutely no doubt at this point that Domingo is a terrible defender, and his lack of offensive production this year, along with the Mariners giving up on him completely despite what look to be acceptable numbers last year, is a pretty big red flag.

I think it's definitely a case of being a squeaky wheel. Unfortunately that's what having a run of success as a franchise does, though. If fans get a taste of success, they want more ... and when that success no longer meets their outsized expectations, someone needs to take the blame. Unfortunately, the way baseball's economic structure is set up does nothing to help the Brewers put together any sort of long-term success. People say things like "Oh, Attanasio has money, why can't he just take a loss to bring in better talent?" That just isn't feasible, or smart long term. If the Brewers jacked their payroll up to $130 million, fans would be upset it isn't at $150 million ... and so on and so on. Right now this team is in a solid position. They have several franchise cornerstone-types that will be here for the next several seasons in Yelich, Hiura, Urias, Narvaez (I still have hope), Woodruff, Burnes, Peralta, Hader, and to a lesser extent Rasmussen and Suter. Yes, I believe that they can do a better job identifying the pieces needed to fill in around those cornerstones, but a huge part of the team's struggles this year rest on the shoulders of the two guys - Yelich and Hiura - expected to carry the offense. If those guys were even performing close to where their talent level lies, and where expectations for them were coming into the season, this team would be firmly in the playoff hunt. Heck, even with those guys performing terrible, this team is one hot week away from being right back in it. So yeah, there have been a few too many perceived "misses" for my liking, but the idea of lost confidence in the front office and the overall direction they have the franchise pointed in is pretty crazy.

That deal was 100% made with Urias's upside in mind, and to call the deal awful after 33 games played during a pandemic is short-sighted at absolute best.

Back in the early 90s, during Holmgren's first few years, they had a DT in the same mold as Lancaster in John Jurkovic. Jurkovic was a pretty terrible nose tackle, and was eventually replaced by waiver wire acquisition Gilbert Brown. But the fans loved Jurkovic because of his boisterous (and at times obnoxious) over-the-top personality. While Lancaster may not have the same type of personality that Jurkovic had, he's a very similar type of player, i.e. one who is eminently replaceable by better talent.

You know he’s not on the active roster right??? I forgot but he wasn’t getting any starts against them prior to today. Gyorko literally was in the starting lineup against a righty 24 hours ago.

Poor Trey Supak. I hope he doesn't become the Brewers' version of Moonlight Graham.

Avi put up 2 WAR last year. If anything, rough metrics suggest he was slightly underpaid.... Along with 4.5 WAR in 2017. This shortened, prorated season works out perfect, as 2021 is Avi's year to be a star again!

The question then would be whether having a solid #1 (I wouldn't call Bauer an ace) is more valuable than using those funds to find a way to fill likely 2021 lineup black holes at 3B and 1B? Perhaps those holes could be filled through other means, though, such as a potential Hader trade. I'm not sure I am very interested in watching another season of Eric Sogard and Justin Smoak ... although Jedd Gyorko has maintained enough production to inch into "pleasant surprise" consideration.

I think most would agree with that assessment. He and Narvaez have been my biggest disappointments so far. I give Narvaez a little more of a mulligan because switching leagues as a catcher is probably a little more difficult. Garcia seems like a good dude, and certainly looks the part. He's a good athlete, and his defense is as advertised. He still has time to pick it up with the bat, but that time is dwindling.

Can we please just go with this lineup predominantly the rest of the season? 1. Urias - 2B 2. Yelich - LF 3. Braun - RF 4. Smoak - 1B 5. Hiura - DH 6. Gyorko - 3B 7. Garcia/Gamel - CF 8. Narvaez/Nottingham - C 9. Arcia - SS I could be talked into bringing up Tyrone Taylor to patrol CF too.

His control isn’t woefully better today. Strikeout #2 was closer to hitting the guy than being in the strike zone. Were we watching the same game? Location on his fastball wasn't terrific, but loads better than Saturday, and the slider was on point tonight. He couldn't get anything across the plate Saturday.

Guess Hader isn't broken.

They showed him in the dugout ... wearing a polo shirt.

Ben Gamel finding it sure would help this offense. Looks good the last few nights.

To be fair, I don’t think we’re that good either. Not Pittsburgh bad, but not good. It’s pretty obvious by now that we arent good at all. Well, if anyone had any doubt, your constant reminders have put it to bed.

Yay, bad Freddy! Awesome!

Adam McCalvy @AdamMcCalvy Hearing the Brewers will get three 19-year-old RHPs from the Phillies for David Phelps: Brandon Ramey, Israel Puello, Juan Geraldo. Story: https://atmlb.com/3bdCLwx

GM knows that if they don't do something this year, he's going to be out of a job. That team has been lesser than the sum of its parts for years.

Craig Counsell on the trade: "[Phelps] has been a valuable piece for this team, but David Stearns found a deal that he thought he couldn't pass up. ... I don't think it says anything about the future of the team. We've got to go out and win a baseball game today." Maybe I'm just overly optimistic, but reading between the lines on this, is sounds as though they know who they are getting back, and its going to be more than just a few organizational soldier types.