Ron Robinsons Beard

No, not worried, because if he does go down, it likely won't be for long. He's made a very nice first impression in his first taste of the Show.

Great win today! Davies was masterful. Burnes with a great outing. Thames making a case to not lose playing time to Shaw. Combined with the pregame news of Nelson coming back to pitch Wednesday, mighty fine day.

Well Corbin, time to state your case that you deserve to continue getting big league innings.

Davies is showing why you stick with talented guys when they have down weeks, months or even whole seasons. There were plenty of people who wanted him gone last year. Still more didn't want him anywhere close to the starting rotation this year. The guy is proving that his solid 2017 season was no fluke.

Wednesday's start would be up in the air as well. Nelson is slated to pitch on Tuesday, so it makes sense. I think it's likely that we see Jimmy's debut this week. Of course, Wilkerson is the AAA version of Cy Young this year, so it wouldn't surprise me to see him come up and make a spot start too. Wow is it nice having so much solid starting pitching depth at the team's disposal.

I think it's quiet because the Brewers starting pitching is both high in talent and depth. They have 7-8 guys who have totally legit claims to be starters in this rotation, and that isn't even counting Burnes and Peralta, who really don't, but are legit starting pitching prospects. Would Keuchel be an upgrade over what they already have? There have been some bumps lately, but Davies, Woodruff and Gio have been excellent for the most part, while Anderson has been solid. Chacin hasn't been good, but has his track record to fall back on. Nelson will likely take Gio's spot, but his injury doesn't seem like the type that will be long term. Chacin just went on the IL today, but that doesn't seem like a long term thing as well. In any case, it's tough to see any room at the inn currently.

Guilty, from the first outing this year the heat was there but it seems like the ball is moving more and more every game. Right now, he's used as the last guy in the pen. He is certainly not the worst guy in the pen. If he's not here to stay, I don't have the foggiest clue why. I think the only reason he'd be sent back down would be to get stretched back out as a starter. But he's proven himself so far as a solid multi-inning capable pen arm, which is extremely valuable on this team. They are also very deep in starting rotation options. Pitching is in a very good place right now.

Awesome! Nice work from Houser. Getting harder to send that guy back down with each outing. Pfft to the people that said he's just a guy. That arm is electric. It's almost too bad that he's about 8 or 9 on the starting pitching pecking order.

The team's stopper is going today. Woodruff has been a godsend for this rotation so far. I feel like he got the least hype of the three young guys coming in ... probably because he was the most proven commodity. Glad to see him pitching well and proving his doubters wrong.

That scenario may very well play out. I could easily see that happening as well.

OK ... lets play hypotheticals then. What do you do if the Brewers had decided to extend Shaw's rehab assignment, or if they do option him, and he proceeds to hit .350 with power for the next two weeks in AAA? All the while Hiura continues his consistent play at the ML level. Isn't that unfair to Shaw to leave him down? Unfair to Hiura to replace him? I mean ... who knows what Travis Shaw has shown the Brewers behind closed doors to prove to them that he's ready to come up and produce? I do know that they aren't bringing him up with the expectation that he continue to hit .160. Will he come up and hit? Who knows. I can guarantee you that those are the Brewers' expectations, though.

No ... you tell Shaw to forget April and May. His season starts when he pulls on that uniform on Monday. You give him the chance to prove that he is the player we've seen the last two years. He's earned that. If you don't see improvement in a week or two ... plane ride to San Antonio for an extended visit. I like Hiura. I don't want to see him go down. But if that's the move they end up making, so be it. This team's front office knows what its doing. They don't make a lot of mistakes. If they believe Shaw will turn it around, so do I. Watch, they'll probably option a reliever and go with a 12-man staff, allowing Hiura and Shaw to both be up, and making this argument moot.

Funny. I believe Shaw was told when he went down that he’d be back after a short rehab, and Hiura told that when Shaw done with rehab he’d go back down. So there will be no hard feelings. That's entirely likely. It's also foolish on MKEs part. He needs to get right. Then bring him back. Again, he has options. And if he comes back and continues to scuffle, I'd bet one of those options gets used. I would think the leash is going to be pretty dang short, too. The Brewers know they have a guy in Hiura who can hit at this level. If he goes down, he'll be back, probably pretty quickly. At the end of the day, it's never foolish to stand behind your players.

Exactly. I'm not a proponent of sending Hiura down but I know enough about baseball economics and how Stearns handles a 40-man roster to think the possibility is very real and fairly likely to happen. But all of that should be completely irrelevant until Shaw EARNS his way back. A .515 OPS with ZERO extra base hits followed by a two singles/one walk night is not earning his way back to the 25-man roster. I'm pretty disappointed to hear that the Brewers have already made a decision about this and Shaw is back on the 25-man roster early next week. Shaw was never demoted. He was injured, went on the IL for 10 days, then went to AAA on a rehab assignment. If he's deemed healthy, the Brewers can't just leave him there. They'd need to activate him, then option him. Three hits and a walk tonight, including a HR, certainly helps the optics of the situation.

These guys are pros. I doubt the Brewers are worried about hurt feelings. I'd venture to guess that Hiura knew the situation as soon as he came up. But who knows? It isn't a guarantee that Hiura will be the one to go down. This team has made moves that have surprised all of us in the past.

C'mon man, you know they aren't just going to give up on Shaw. I totally get the excitement for Hiura. This was a very good first impression. But they have to get Shaw right, and if he's deemed healthy, they can't just leave him in AAA on a rehab assignment. I get the feeling that if he doesn't show something in pretty short order, he'll get optioned. This team needs to stand by it's guys, though ... especially one who has put up arguable All-Star numbers the last two seasons. I'm not giving up on Shaw. He has options. He can get right and earn his promotion like any other player. They gave him 43 games to get going right. He hasn't shown anything has changed in AAA. It's pointless to promote him back to the active roster now. Hiura has earned it. Shaw will hopefully earn it again some day. It's not a promotion, though. It's the end of a rehab assignment. That may seem like semantics, but I'm sure that's how it was presented to Shaw. As far as earning it ... Shaw has two years of "earning it". Yeah, he's been crap this year, and I'm sure he'll have a short leash. But a bad 43 games isn't going to be more of a determining factor than two years of solid play.

C'mon man, you know they aren't just going to give up on Shaw. I totally get the excitement for Hiura. This was a very good first impression. But they have to get Shaw right, and if he's deemed healthy, they can't just leave him in AAA on a rehab assignment. I get the feeling that if he doesn't show something in pretty short order, he'll get optioned. This team needs to stand by it's guys, though ... especially one who has put up arguable All-Star numbers the last two seasons.

I get why they would do it if that's what they're doing. That wouldn't stop it from being a bummer, though. Hiura hasn't been perfect, but he has been a shot in the arm for the offense, and one more guy that opposing pitchers have to think about. He's made some rookie mistakes, but that is to be expected. If this does come to fruition, and the next two games are his final two in the majors for awhile, it's been a positive first impression. That's based on the notion of "who else goes?". Which I completely understand since some obvious candidates can't be sent down. But it ignores the more important question which is, why the heck does Shaw need to be brought back up? Winning major league baseball games has no room for doing veterans "courtesies" or "favors". Shaw has done nothing to earn a call-up, much less a swap for Hiura. Well, if we are being technical, Shaw was never sent down, so he cannot be brought back up. He's on an injury rehab assignment, and while you can fudge the rules on those at times, when the player is deemed healthy, you kinda have to bring him up. It's the same thing that happened to Nelson last week. His rehab assignment ended, but instead of bringing him back up, they activated him then immediately optioned him to AAA. I'm assuming that the Brewers have deemed Shaw healthy. Now ... they could have done the same exact thing they did with Nelson to Shaw, as he has options remaining. I'm kind of surprised they didn't, actually. I have to think that option is on the table, though, if Shaw comes back up and doesn't show anything. I can't imagine his leash will be very long. This audition showed the team that Hiura is for the most part not in over his head at the ML level. I appreciate that they aren't ready to give up on Shaw, though.

I get why they would do it if that's what they're doing. That wouldn't stop it from being a bummer, though. Hiura hasn't been perfect, but he has been a shot in the arm for the offense, and one more guy that opposing pitchers have to think about. He's made some rookie mistakes, but that is to be expected. If this does come to fruition, and the next two games are his final two in the majors for awhile, it's been a positive first impression.

Well, it's a good thing it's only June 1. They have time to get things figured out before the playoffs.

Hiura giveth, Hiura taketh away. The scouting reports on him are pretty much right on. He can hit, but is not, and likely never will be a gifted defender. The shifts and having Arcia next to him mitigate it some, but they can't on plays like that. It's just something we're going to have to deal with as Brewer fans from him ... until the DH comes to the NL.

No, I honestly haven't even looked into his splits. It can be assumed that a switch hitter wouldn't need to be platooned, but now that you point how how utterly horrible he is against lefties, it makes it appear as even a worse idea. It appears he isn't great against righties as well. Did you even read my whole post? Smoak's switch-hittedness is literally the only potential positive I pointed out (and as you point out, it isn't even that). Otherwise there is really nothing there.

Interesting take you had in April, which is in agreement with my take, but now 5 weeks later you do a 180, and this is after Thames has regressed since your comments. Why? Is disagreeing with every take I have no matter how you really feel the thing to do? This is severely twisting my words. I like that Smoak is a switch hitter, simply because I'm not a big fan of platoons. That's it. Far far cry from a 180. That doesn't mean Smoak is a good fit for this ballclub, or that he is even a sizable enough improvement over what we have to justify the cost. I'll also note that Smoak has cooled down considerably since this supposed interest was first noted. He's quickly reverting back to career norms. Again, you need to CALM DOWN! Just cool it on the constant dead horse beating and enjoy being a fan Trust me, you'll enjoy the game a lot more.

Fine and dandy but the SA numbers look awful too. Tell me the last time a big leaguer cared about minor league rehab numbers... Exactly. If the Brewers are saying Shaw is good to go, we have no reason not to believe them. Really, your only reason would be something like "I don't like Travis Shaw" or "I am a Brewer pessimist".

Yeah ... then what happens when Smoak hits .210 the rest of the way? Because his track record isn't exactly stellar.