Ron Robinsons Beard

The KC version of Burch Smith reminds me of a favorite childhood uncle who always had the cool fireworks. And a sweet Camaro up on blocks in the front yard.

It's Burch time!

It's a judgement call by the official scorer. But in his defense, there is no way Cain would have gotten to 3rd without the throw going home.

But he's no longer our terrible.

He ended up on third... why did they call it a double??? He advanced to 3rd on the throw home.

Or, Freddy has proven he can be an effective relief pitcher. This was not a traditional relief outing. He knew he was getting the 3rd inning on. I don't think I would trust Peralta in a traditional relief role quite yet.

As noted in the ML thread, I'm taking credit due to me waiving him on my fantasy squad. Everyone I waive goes on to have a huge week. lol ummm .... LIKE!

They can get Strasburg out of this game at any time.

Well, if tonight is any indication, they can keep on letting someone else pitch the first inning or two for Freddy.

No, this isn't anything new. Every team, every year has a game or more where they need to bring up someone from the bullpen or minors to start a game in a pinch. They try to get 4 innings, with a long reliever following him. You can call Peralta a tandem starter, piggyback, whatever you want but it's the same thing as long relief. Sorry, this new philosophy you've been touting is not becoming true. Also, I like the way you keep saying "it's coming." That way you can never be wrong. This is a little different in that they technically have a starter available to take the turn in Peralta, so it isn't a true bullpen game. It's more of a "our young starter sucks in the first inning, so lets throw the noodles against a wall" game. Results are pretty much the same though.

Hasn't worked yet, but will, watch and see... I expect you to take full credit next week after Shaw has hit five bombs and raised his average by 75 points.

Those extension situations are always easier said than done, because you need to have interest from both sides in doing it. Until it does (if it does), it is in the team's best interest to play the Super 2 game. If Hiura's camp is interested, I'm sure Stearns and company would take a hard look at doing it, as it makes solid financial sense from the team's perspective. Also, I include "mid-market" with the caveat that likely the only thing making the Brewers a mid-market team is the fact that they are a playoff contender and have several highly marketable players that have increased national exposure and, therefore, the fanbase. If that changes, they'll be back to being one of the smallest markets pretty quick, as the market itself has not gotten demonstrably larger. Your correct in that it takes two to tango. If I’m the crew I call him up for the cubs series to face the lefty’s, then send him down, getting the potentially lethal righty bat in the line-up. This staff can get by with 7 pen arms for 3 days. What’s the downside? The downside (if you can call it that) is that he rakes against the Cubs. Then you're in a tough spot roster construction-wise, and you'd pretty much be admitting to the rest of baseball that you're pulling Super 2 shenanigans if you send him down. That would be a good problem to have, though. Still, the roster as it's currently constructed leaves little room for Hiura. They are obviously going to stick with Shaw for however long it takes him to pull out of the slump he's in, and they signed Moose to be the everyday 2B - a role he's been completely fine in. I get the feeling Shaw is going to have to slump for a lot longer before they look at taking at-bats away from him.

Lead with that next time I'm looking forward to tonight's game because they are thinking outside the box in an attempt to get an uber-talented young pitcher right. If we want to see success for this team long-term, it's going to take developing talented arms like Peralta, and finding ways to help them find the most success.

Those extension situations are always easier said than done, because you need to have interest from both sides in doing it. Until it does (if it does), it is in the team's best interest to play the Super 2 game. If Hiura's camp is interested, I'm sure Stearns and company would take a hard look at doing it, as it makes solid financial sense from the team's perspective. Also, I include "mid-market" with the caveat that likely the only thing making the Brewers a mid-market team is the fact that they are a playoff contender and have several highly marketable players that have increased national exposure and, therefore, the fanbase. If that changes, they'll be back to being one of the smallest markets pretty quick, as the market itself has not gotten demonstrably larger.

Who was the last consensus top 20 prospect traded for a half season rental? Gleyber Torres in 2016 when he was dealt by the Cubs for Chapman I think.

Adrian Houser threw 19 pitches in 1 1/3 innings of work on Saturday night. I imagine that even though he's stretched out as a starter, he'll be on a pretty tight pitch count tonight. I would guess 2 innings or 40 pitches, whichever comes first.

Yeah it was mentioned on Super 2 we already control him 7 seasons upon calling him up. He just goes through 4 years of Arbitration vs a 4th year of major league minimum. I'm just in the mindset that clearly these days you lock up guys that go through your farm with these expectations pretty early. Takes out the Super 2/Arb worries like that. Someone then mentioned to do the extension for 8 years. I never quite get that. You control Hiura through 2025 and that 8th year would only be 2026. Any extension should go for 3 years where you have options to pick up in year 9 or just 10. You're likely getting the best value with the added non-FA years than the typical extension price. You'd probably get in the 13mil range vs the 20 or higher he's getting in FA or commanding. You also lock down that avoidance to a very high Arb year. So, Bring him up and see the kid produce or not. Or not can always mean sending him down and rewinding that clock before Super 2 status. Good points. The exact rules of Super 2 were a tad lost in translation on my end Still, that extra year of cheap control is of great value, especially with a budget-conscious mid to small-market club.

Signing a 1-year deal this far into the season is likely a complete no-win for both of these guys. No team is going to give them a huge salary at this point, especially since we're looking at probably June before they would be available. Plus, if they were to sign a 1-year pact and not pitch well, it's going to hurt their chances of signing a long-term contract this coming offseason. Sure, they could both sign a deal and pitch well, but would that really increase interest and get a team to take the plunge? Both are coming off solid to above-average seasons and couldn't find the deals they wanted. The only way that is going to change after signing one-year deals is if both pitch like Cy Young candidates in their abbreviated seasons ... and I'd say the chances of that happening are slim. They would just be assuming too much risk at this point.

Why can't they plan to bring him up for a few weeks and then send him back down til sometime in the second half? The "Super two" cut-off only matters if the guy stays up permanently. And it doesn't add a year of control, it just cheapens one of his years of control. He's an extension candidate too, so it may not matter one way or the other. That is a good point regarding an extension. I have a hard time seeing him going back down once he's up, though. The only way that happens is if he scuffles at the plate, and it's getting harder to see that happening with each game. He's exceeded my expectations for him at AAA. I think once he's up, he's up, and they'll sort out the pieces along the way.

I'm all for Hiura coming up at some point this year if his hot hitting at San Antonio continues, but I think it would be downright irresponsible to even think about bringing him up before the Super 2 cut-off in early June. I'd gladly trade another few weeks of Shaw trying to get right, or even more playing time for Perez, for an extra year of "in his prime" control for Keston several years from now. Yeah, it sucks for the players, but you have to use the system to the best advantage both for the short and long term success of the team. But if we get to the beginning of June, and Shaw is still scuffling while Keston continues to tear the cover off the ball, I think we could see a move.

C'mon man ... the only, and I mean ONLY reason they are doing it is because your boy sucks in the 1st inning. This is far from being some sort of regular thing. But I suppose they are employing an "opener" in a May baseball game, so .... props.

I don't know about that. Having cautious optimism doesn't mean people aren't familiar with Hiura as a talent. Hiura is certainly doing everything a prospect of his caliber is expected to do at the AAA level, and his future appears extremely bright. But at the same time, it is so, so rare for a player to come up and immediately be a game-changing type hitter. Perhaps Hiura is one of those ultra rare talents. But yeah, this team has probably only had one or two of those types in its history. For the record ... I hope you are right, because that would be pretty dang terrific.

LOL. What did I miss? You'll have to go read yesterday's game thread. Or was it Saturday's marathon game thread?

Between Guerra being terrible and Jeffress being a disaster, we get the best horribly thought-out hot takes around here.

BA and Slg at Yelich's level and the BBs are adding up lately. Ks are also going down. That was my biggest concern early on.