Ron Robinsons Beard

Silver lining tonight with Albers. He's really pitched quite well lately ... actually for a large chunk of the season. ERA down under 4 now, and averaging more than 1 K per inning. Pitching himself back into a prime set-up role. Really nice to see.

Deja vu ... or beating a dead horse. Can't decide.

This is getting really bad lately. Like multiple times a day it seems. For pretty long periods at a time as well.

Yes, I’m sure they do see him as just a depth piece, otherwise he’d be starting this eeek instead of Peratla, but it’s the wrong move. Why start a failed starter when you can start statistically speaking the best starter in the minor-league system, any minor-league system. Wilkerson has NEVER had anything more than a spot start. With Chacín and Gio down it’s the perfect time for a 2-3 start trial. Do we remember his first start with us on the last game of the year vs the cards > no hitter into the eighth. His last 2 were emergency spot starts one of which he flew that night and lost his luggage so he had to borrow someone’s shoes, not exactly what I’d call a real shot. Although he did homer in that game.Peralta again? I won't deny that Wilkerson's AAA numbers look great this year. He's always had solid numbers in the minors. But he's a middling talent that profiles at best as a long reliever/spot starter. Sometimes those types can catch lightning in a bottle and have some success, but it's often brief, and comes crashing down with a pretty big thud. Oh, and that game against the Cards in 2017? It was actually Wilkerson's 2nd big league start (in his first start he went 2 1/3 innings in Pittsburgh on Sept. 20, giving up 3 runs). Against the Cards, he took a no-hitter into the 6th (not the 8th), and ended up giving up 2 hits and an earned run over 7 innings. Definitely a very solid outing, but consider the lineup he was facing. The Cardinals weren't playing for anything, and basically threw their AAA lineup out there. Wilkerson is solid against those type of hitters ... hence the label as a AAAA pitcher.

Six college lefties in the first 12 picks. I'm sensing a theme ...

Lambert is slated to get called up and make his ML debut with the Rockies against the Mets this weekend. So no, he's not a Brewer.

The optics certainly aren't great coming off a game where they gave up 16 runs, but I think the pitching has been fine for the most part. There were plenty of times early in the season last year where both the starting rotation and pen scuffled. The rotation didn't really jell until Miley came back (the second time) and pitched like an ace.

Just a guess on my part obviously, but perhaps the Brewers see Wilkerson as many posters here do ... as a AAA-type depth piece who is nice to have around as an emergency guy, but that's about it. That fact that he's on the 40-man roster indicates that he'll likely see more big league time at some point this year, but it appears that he's somewhat down the starting pitching pecking order, despite his great AAA numbers. As for the new 40-man arms, I get it ... but this team is all about conserving depth. They wouldn't be adding guys like Sanchez and Perdomo unless they planned to call them up. With your prospective 12-man staff, there simply isn't room for them. Please don't take this as me disagreeing with you for the sake of disagreeing, or picking on you as you've implied lately to me and others. It's simply providing an alternative viewpoint.

Merry Jimmy-mas to everyone! Seeing Jimmy on the mound after his long rehab is going to be a cool experience. I don't know what to expect right now regarding his results, and I don't really care. Hopefully him getting back on the mound serves as an emotional boost and gets this team rolling.

Concern: We don't have any projectable lefties in the upper portions of our system Answer: Let's just draft every college draft-eligible lefty!

Have you read any of the studies of mlb performance related to age? If yes, what is your interpretation? If no, try to educate yourself with a little reading. Most everything I've read on the subject points to ages 26-29 as a player's prime, but of course that is left to some interpretation. In any case, most times the drop off in production between 28 and 31 is not massive. I feel comfortable knowing that Shaw is Brewers property through his age 31 season, but I don't think I'd look to extend him past that. There is no reason why he wouldn't be able to put up an approximation of what we've seen out of him the last two seasons, though, for the next 2 1/2 years.

My best guess is that the team's medical staff deemed him healthy. It's a rehab assignment, not an option to AAA. When players are deemed recovered from their injury, it is expected that they are activated. Was he even really injured in the first place? (25% blue) Guys aren't going to play anywhere if they are hurt. A rehab assignment isn't about getting healthy it's about getting AB's to shake off the rust. Maybe Shaw's "rust" is gone but nothing he did against inferior AAA was very inspiring. I've always thought that stats put up during rehab assignments are about as useful as Spring Training stats when determining future production.

Tom is also a beat reporter, and not really a columnist, other than his Sunday column. Columnists are typically paid to give their opinion, while beat reporters are paid to provide the facts. It is often very difficult to surmise that a team has erred with 100% certainty without inserting opinion into that determination.

Yes. It’d be great to hear a huge roar from the crowd tonight in support of Shaw but they’ll probably boo instead. Mostly because people are idiots. I don't think they'll boo. Yeah, there are a few rotten fans who are part of this fanbase, but there are thousands of really good fans too. Fans that know that Shaw has been a stalwart of this lineup for the last two+ seasons. Yeah, you're going to hear some jerks booing and hoping that Shaw fails. Those aren't fans. They're narcissists.

My best guess is that the team's medical staff deemed him healthy. It's a rehab assignment, not an option to AAA. When players are deemed recovered from their injury, it is expected that they are activated.

He didn't just straight out mash for 3 straight weeks. He had a .700 OPS just 5 games ago. Each of the guys they've chosen to keep on the roster for now has had better stretches of success than Hiura just did. Aguilar had an excellent half of baseball last year, and aside from that was solid at best the balance of last year and the prior year. Thames had that great first month in a Brewer uniform and was overall decent at best beyond that. Guys that produce like Thames/Aguilar are not THAT difficult to find. So many examples of mashing 1b coming out of nowhere. Shaw has the most solid track record of the 3, but I honestly cannot handle watching him swing through meatballs down the middle over and over and over anymore. I'll turn the damn game off the first time I see him do it. This move was rushed, it could have waited another couple weeks and didn't have to happen now. To be clear, I'm not advocating for cutting Shaw. He's the last of the 3 we should cut ties with. But he's not ready to start at the MLB level. That's fine. And I agree that if Shaw comes back and looks like the same exact player he did in his first 40 games of the season, the optics don't look good. But I also trust this team's decision making enough to believe that won't be a the case. It's pretty clear that you wanted the Brewers to option Shaw to AAA. Obviously that wasn't their plan. Teams make personnel decisions that we aren't going to like. If you're that invested where you feel the need to turn off the game and walk away, that may be the best option. Otherwise hop on board the Shaw train and hope for the best.

For how long? Shaw is 29 this year and the team has 2 more full years of control. He will be in his age 32 season if he signs somewhere as a Free Agent. He is the last player the Brewers should be building a long-term plan for at this point. He is past his prime and given his past history and splits there should be a very short leash on him for the future. He is a perfect candidate today for a platoon role, but unfortunately the Brewers have left handed bats coming out of every orifice so there isn't a candidate to platoon with him at this point. I am 100% sure the Brewers want to see if he can go on a hot streak and approach what he's done in the past, but he is another 60 games of poor production from being an afterthought not a part of the future. Since when is 29 years old past his prime? Sheesh! You have two years of control on Shaw, which seemingly fits into the early portion of the team's contention window pretty perfectly, while giving them time to determine whether Lucas Erceg is the 3B of the future, of if they need to go out and find one. Given all the 3B this team has cycled through over the last 15 years, having a guy like Shaw around is a nice luxury to have.

There, I fixed this to better reflect the situation. Shaw has played in 40 games this year. Travis Shaw is on this team, whether you like it or not. Hoping he fails is an odd fan stance.

Silly to assume like it is 100% due to service time. Why did he even come up in the first place if service time was that big of an issue? Why go through all of this and tick off Hiura/the fanbase for a short stint just to dump him back down regardless of stats? I don't buy that argument and don't think a competing team is worried about massive hypotheticals over 4 years from now. That is like making decision due to a top prospect in A+ ball and assuming he will be a force in three years. All signs point to it being about giving Shaw a chance to rebound, thus not making Hiura a part time guy...and also preserving the depth/versatility with the roster. They could have sent a pitcher away, but why do that? So Hiura plays once or twice a week? Stearns never said it was about defense, that is just the excuse people say he could use for the reason. Hiura will be back after Shaw either doesn't hit or hits well enough to push someone off the roster. Unfortunately Thames is the one hitting right now because logistically he makes the most sense to boot off the roster for the lefty Shaw. Sadly for us the RHB Aguilar is stinking up the joint. I also don't think Stearns is a dramatic person and realizes two weeks of Hiura gone is unlikely to be the difference in 5, 3, or even 2 wins. There will be at least a dozen non-moves or moves that will be way costlier than this and people are taking it way too seriously. Sticking with Aguilar or some bullpen arm blowing up constantly is probably five times more costly in the win column. Waiting till the end of July to make trades costs teams wins every single year. Claudio pitching against righties....way more costly. This move is like any other move. There is risk, but a lot of reward too if Shaw starts hitting again. I wish we could put this post in a vial and inject it into everyone's veins. This is a perfect summation of the situation.

There are some aspects where I think the coverage of the team could improve, including injury updates/injury timelines and coverage of the minor leagues, including injuries there. But for the most part, I think Haudricourt does a nice job. The people that don't like him are likely people he's been short with in the past. Tom is a little crochety, like a lot of veteran baseball scribes. He's blocked quite a few people on Twitter, 99.9% of the time for very good reason, but that doesn't stop them from getting huffy whenever his name is brought up.

That's a great point. I guarantee Kris Bryant and Boras remember how he was held back before being called up. They've tried locking him up long term and he's resisted. I would be very surprised if he stays in Chicago, barring an overpay. I feel like Bryant is going to end up on the Dodgers in 2-3 years when his team control is up. Totally different situation. Hiura was an injury replace, and I'm sure he was told he'd be a temporary injury replacement. If the Brewers truly wanted to manipulate Hiura's service clock, they would have just brought up Saladino or Spangenberg to begin with, rather than calling up a guy with all of 6 weeks of AAA experience. I totally get being bummed about Hiura going down, but I don't think trying to manufacture drama is the answer to justifying the move as a mistake.

I know that you are probably trying to play devil's advocate here, but I don't think it's going to matter one iota. I'm sure Hiura was told when he came up that he was an injury replacement, and as soon as Shaw was deemed healthy he would be going back down. Hiura and his agent know that Keston is young, relatively inexperienced and could benefit from more time in the minors. The kid is 22. He'll get his opportunity soon. Right now he's one hell of a weapon that the team has at their disposal if the offense goes into another funk.

Some of these posts read like an obituary on Hiura's 2019 season. You guys know that there's a possibility that he can be up again next Thursday, right? Could be even quicker if there's an injury somewhere. We definitely have not seen the last of Hiura on this team this year.

Remember when Bickford was the top ranked prospect in the Giants' system? And people here think that the Brewers system is bad!

Likely a mistake from a copy editor at the Press Gazette. They are owned by the same company, but have different layout and production staffs. The same story appeared in the MJS under a different headline. Sorry ... past life as a beat writer, so it irks me when people rip on journalists unfairly. Plenty of make mistakes and deserve it, but not this time. Since this company bought out the Press Gazette it’s been straight down hill. They barely cover any high school sports at all. The article talks about the other pitchers, just the headline that’s wrong. If it’s not his mistake it sucks that his name is the one plastered right next to it. 100% not his mistake. This happens to beat writers all the time. Lazy copy editing.