coolhandluke121

If this ever catches on, and I hope it does, I think it would become a game within a game. You try to out-guess the opposing manager and then you both reveal your lineups at the same time. You could even force teams to hand in lineups a little earlier so the opponents can't see who's warming up. I love the "simultaneous secret action planning" mechanic in board games and sports. If you really guess wrong at this time of year, with expanded rosters, you even could take a guy out of the game before the first pitch. On that note, where does Jennings hit? Because I think it behooves you to pinch hit for him in the top of the 2nd if possible, assuming you aren't sure you want to pull a double switch so early in the game.

Anderson hasn't been any better than Woodruff, Guerra, or Peralta for a while now. There's no reason to let any of them go 2 times through the order and get at least one plate appearance when you have so many comparable long relief options. This also may have to do with Guerra, whom I expect to start, being a little better against the Cards, but bullpen depth is the real story here. Chase had plenty of chances to keep his spot and has given up 30 HR's in 30 starts. That's playing with fire. Even last year, his FB:HR ratio was one of the luckiest in all of baseball. I don't think we're going to see 2016 Chase again for a few years, but he's not entirely a thing of the past either. The Brewers know this. I think they locked him up to a cheap deal just because they were confident he'd have some trade value when they were ready to move on.

Shouldn't be posting that they won the series with Albers still on the mound. No lead is safe!

I think it will be the same as last year unless someone they can't pass up becomes available. However, there's no Yelich or Cain equivalent pitcher that's going to be on the market for a remotely reasonable price, so it's hard to imagine the Brewers paying a premium. That means they'll do everything they can to preserve their depth, even if it means someone with a slightly higher expected value being in AAA because he still has options. Guerra was on the 25 most of the year, so I'm pretty sure Chacin is the only one who doesn't have options. These guys all have options: Nelson Davies Guerra Peralta Woodruff Burnes Not a single one of those guys is assured a spot in the rotation, but all of them are legit MLB talents. I think they'll go after a LHP, even if it's just Miley or Gonzalez, which means 3 of those guys will start the year in AAA. And I'm okay with that. Look how many different guys have started this year. You need depth. Keuchel might be the one free agent to watch closely IMO. He might not get a huge offer after 2 somewhat disappointing seasons out of the last 3.

Wow, kind of a prude-ish crowd. I literally don't know anywhere else that joke doesn't get a chuckle.

Did Guerra keep his option? They awarded him a 4th option after a very complicated process this year, and I can't see how he would have spent more than a week or so in AAA. I just don't know if there's different rules for that "redshirt option" thing, like if it can't be saved or something. (I made up that term but it makes sense.)

Might want to check his pee. I'll do anything he wants me to do.

Why do you want them to keep pace with the Dodgers? LAD will probably win the West. They're a much better team than the Rockies, and they have a 1.5 game lead. The best possible outcome is for the Rockies to catch the Cardinals. There's not many plausible scenarios where the Cardinals beating anyone except the Cubs right now is good for the Brewers. It's really important for the Brewers to keep a nice cushion and rest their best pitchers for a possible wild card game. Can't count on them to win a series in St. Louis, and I'm by no means a Negative Nancy when it comes to this years Brewers. Cards won in 10 today by the way. SF blew a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the 7th and lost in the 10th.

Yeah, DeGrom hasn't really been any better than Kershaw and Scherzer were for years. Arrieta and Greinke were up there a couple times as well. And that's just in the NL. That said, with the lack of position player even sniffing 7 WAR at this point, I think opening it up to pitchers makes some sense. However, pitchers have the advantage of being able to influence more plate appearances than hitters. In a way, their WAR is just a "compiling" stat. That's kind of a derogatory term for just having more opportunities. Given how different those roles are, I'm totally fine with the Cy Young and MVP trophies being separate awards. If you're going to be very strict about "value" meaning "wins added", a starting pitcher would win almost every year. For whatever reason, MVP's have to be on winning teams, whereas Cy Young winners do not. I have some misgivings about that, but it's not going away any time soon. I'm okay with winning being a tiebreaker in the case of comparable candidates, like Betts vs. Trout, but Trout should win it nearly every other year. Anyway, there are no MVP candidates pitching for NL playoff contenders, so we won't see a pitcher win it this year. Baez was ahead of Yelich almost all year. It's not surprising that people haven't jumped on the Yelich bandwagon yet. They'll check the stats at the end of the year and see who was better, and that will probably be Yelich. But it's understandable that the average fan wants to wait and see before they anoint him. Baez played well for so long, but I can't give it to a guy with his OBP unless there's no other worthy candidate.

What does that have to do with the Yelich trade? What else is Stearns gonna do for an encore? He acquired the current two most valuable players in the NL last year. Gotta figure Scherzer and DeGrom are next.

I thought it was probably unnecessary to go more than 1 inning with Hader, and I would have liked to save someone like Knebel from going. Exactly. What if they play 2 close games in a row? It's unusual to use your 4 best relievers with a 4-run lead in a regular season game. Even saving one of them for the next 2 games could be the difference between winning and losing one of them.

Hope they don't regret using all their best relievers last night. I didn't follow the game - did they really need to use everyone with a 4-run lead? I guess they've blown more than their share of leads lately, but you'd think they could finish that game without using everyone. It was a good model of what a wild card game would probably look like for the Brewers though.

Chacin has earned it and it lines up pretty well with his off days anyway. I don't see any reason to get cute with it. He's been your rock in the rotation all year. There aren't enough relievers better than him to justify a full-blown bullpen game. In a more general sense, there's not enough difference between most of their pitching options to justify breaking routine too much. It looks like Miley and Anderson will be unavailable unless the Brewers are too far behind the Cubs and too far ahead of everyone else to care about the Tigers series. And that's fine, as the Brewers will have Gio for LHP long relief and Peralta/Guerra/Burnes for RHP long relief. Miley and Anderson can start the first 2 games of the next series if the Brewers win. Chacin will be ready for game 3. You know you have to get Hader and Jeffress in the game. Keep in mind that Hader has pitched 3 innings once all year, and has thrown more than 40 pitches once. JJ has pitched 2 innings 5 times, but never more than that. He has thrown more than 30 pitches 5 times, and never hit 40. You can't just pencil them in for 4-5 combined innings. It depends on match-ups and the situation. Giving them more work than they're used to would be needlessly risky. What if the Brewers sent 6-7 batters to the plate in one of those innings? They're not so great that you have to let them hit to milk an extra inning out of them. It all depends on how it goes. I'd say the most likely scenario is ~4 innings for Chacin. He won't go more than twice through the order and won't bat twice. It's possible they would pull him before his first plate appearance if it's a scoring opportunity in the bottom of the 2nd or if he's struggling at all. Guerra, Peralta, Woodruff, Burnes, and Gio are on standby for that scenario. Hader and Jeffress combine for about 3 innings, based on when they're needed most. Cedeno will face an LHB. Soria and Knebel will each get about an inning when the match-ups favor them. The Brewers could move Miley up to 9/28, skipping Davies, to have Miley available in relief for a wild card game as well. But I kinda like the idea of giving Davies the opportunity, and it's not like Miley has been much better than Gio lately anyway.

Regarding arbitration decisions, I think you have to remember that the Brewers wanted to spend money last winter but didn't want to commit to more than 1-2 years. If you want good players, you usually have to do both. I think they would have gladly signed Moustakas to the same deal he got from KC and traded Thames if not for the draft pick compensation, and I think they'd gladly pick up his option and make other plans for Thames* if Moustakas wants to stay. Same goes for Schoop. It's a 1-year deal. They wouldn't want him for 3/$30m, but an arbitration raise is fine. They have a certain amount of money to burn as long as it's 1-year deals, and they'll try to use it on the best players they can get. If all you can offer is 1/$10m, it's pretty hard to beat Schoop's upside at 2b. They'll definitely find a way to keep Santana if they can't trade him, even if it means cutting Thames and taking the loss. He's 2 years younger than Broxton and has shown much more potential. Assuming Moustakas opts out, they will easily have room for at least one of them. They should still have enough relievers with options to carry 13 hitters next year, so they could still keep both of them. I wouldn't even be shocked if they keep Soria. It's not a question of whether he's the best value they can find in the bullpen. It's a question of what's the best reliever they can get on a 1-year deal with the money they have. If they don't find a better value in free agency, they could keep him. It's the number of years that matters most to them. *Roster Resource has an option for Thames. I'm sure he wouldn't like it and it would be hard for the Brewers to stomach the cost, but don't discount it completely. It's nice to have legit Braun insurance in the minors. https://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-milwaukee-brewers/

Pretty simple answer here if you think it through. He had better offers but turned his nose up at them, and those teams spent their money elsewhere. He signed that offer after the market dried up because he wanted to stay in KC and because other teams didn't want to give up a draft pick. Without the draft pick penalty, he will get a much better contract this year if he's wise enough to jump at the chance.

"Should Have Signed Darvish; Can't Tell If They Even Want To Win - Same Old Brewers!"

Thank god the team has more poise than many of its fans. It was pretty brutal watching people question their ability and competitive spirit over losing 3 games in 5 days.

How many times did the brewers pick the best possible time to get hot this year, including when they won 7 series in a row after falling a few games out of the wild card race completely? Acting like this stretch reveals any more about the team than the rest of the year just reeks of recency bias and an overdeveloped urge to complain. Everyone wishes they had won last night, but there's nothing wrong with them except the fact that they're playing professional baseball, where things like this happen all the time.

All 162 of them? Including, specifically, the 150+ that everyone has already played and that the Brewers have won more of than any other team in the NL except the Cubs?

Then why have playoffs at all? Just declare a champion on the last day of the regular season.

Yelich has definitely surpassed Baez. Great SLG does not compensate for a bad OBP, and all the talk about his versatility is overplayed. Yelich can move over to a premium defensive position and be a mediocre defender there just like Baez. Baez playing great 2B defense is no better than Yelich's LF defense. It does not translate to CF, but Baez's 2B defense doesn't really translate to SS very impressively either. I still think Cain is my leader, but I can't stick to my guns much longer at this rate. You don't have to be a slugger to be MVP if you're the best leadoff man in baseball. His OBP has basically been .400 all year and he plays premium CF defense. A lot of teams are just hoping for bonus offense if they have a premiere defender at CF, SS, or C, and the Brewers are getting a .400 OBP. It's ludicrously valuable. For all the talk of Yelich being hot at the right time, that's just narrative - not value. I think Cain's consistency has probably been more valuable. He has basically been the NL leader in WAR for position players literally since day 1 by some measures.

I think that is a fair assumption though, isn't it? If you play in a park that doesn't cater to LH power, why would you go up there and try to hit flyballs? Yeah, that's what I meant. Lots of guys have changed their launch angle recently. It's not like hitting against the shift. It seems to be a pretty simple adjustment.

I remember that, and it was true in the first half. I still think the evidence supported an inevitable power surge though. It may have taken a little longer than expected, but regression to the mean was going to work in our favor eventually in this instance.

True, but it's good to learn from mistakes too. A lot of analytics had Yelich pegged for a power surge at Miller Park, and they provided a lot of evidence. Just another variable to make sure everyone is considering when they're evaluating a player. To me, there were three major issues. One was Brinson having a ton of red flags. Another was people not realizing the significance of Yelich's age; it's like the luster had worn off after several years of non-superstardom, despite him being every bit as good as advertised and not yet in his prime. The third was just the value of an excellent all-around player, even if he never hit more than 21 HR's before. All those things should not be overlooked the next time the Brewers make a move like trading for Yelich - or pass up on a chance to get an overrated anti-Yelich type.

Yeah but he needed that one day off...