HarveysWBs

Imagine walking JBJ on four straight pitches that weren't even that close. That's almost unbelievable.

Yup. If the crew draws STL in the NLCS, I want Houser getting as many innings as humanly possible. But there is an ocean to cross before we get to slay that dragon.

Putting my fantasy team on his back during championship week. Sorry, I know no one cares, but I had to geek out for a minute. Carry on.

I absolutely hope you're right, but considering how the general trend of pitcher usage is going these days, the quality of opponent lineups we are likely to face, the fact that all three top starters are amidst career-highs in innings already, and the fact that CC (like most managers) is likely to have a quicker trigger than normal in the postseason, I think expecting Burnes or Woody, much less Peralta, to suddenly go considerably deeper into games than they usually do is a very optimistic assessment.

Rea has been thoroughly average to bad in his time in the majors for his career. In his first (and so far only) lengthy stay, he logged over 100 innings in 2016 (mostly with the Padres), and pitched to a 4.82 ERA, which is likely a true reflection of his performance, since his FIP was 4.63. Not the results one would like from a pitcher enjoying the cavernous confines of San Diego. He required Tommy John towards the end of 2016, missed all of 2017, and struggled mightily in the minors and with the Pads in 2018 (5.73 era, 1.673 whip, 1.7 HR/9, and 4.3 BB/9). He ended up in the Cubs system in 2019, where he showed enough improvement to give the north-side brass a favorable impression (3.95 era, though his 1.35 whip was uninspiring and his SO/9 numbers were trending the wrong direction). His 2020, was, shall we say, not ideal: 5.79 era, 9.6 hits per 9, and an unsightly 1.9 HR/9 (though, some perspective is helpful here, as his FIP was a slightly better 4.98, his walks were way down, and this was all in a ludicrously small sample of 14 innings after all). At any rate, this paved the way for his release and subsequent move to Japan. His wife gave birth last year, however, and he returned home to be with her during and after the birth, resulting in his decision to stay stateside and give up pitching in the land of the rising sun. The Crew scooped him up in mid-August of this year, and he's been dealing in (admittedly only 35 innings of) AAA ball: 2.27 era, 1.037 whip, and critically, his HR/9 is down to 0.5, and his SO/9 is up to 8.8, which would both be career bests for him at any level above A-ball. As one would expect, he's been getting a few more ground balls, which helps to account for some of his improved HR-allowed numbers. Despite how much I may try and talk myself into Rea being a meaningful contributor, and the fact that the Brewers selected him to replace Williams at least suggests that they'd consider petitioning the league to allow him to be on the postseason roster should he merit an inclusion with his performance this week, I'm whistling past the graveyard here. The only encouraging sample size we have for him is quite small, and he's pretty unlikely to be any kind of a difference maker. Expecting him to be anything other than a Gustave substitute at this point would feel like setting oneself up for even more disappointment.

I mean, they threw at Ohtani this year. Like, I'm sure some midlevel staffer at the MLB office had a nervous breakdown about it and everything--this is MLB trying to create this image for itself of finally being fun and youthful and La Russa charges in like a big old triceratops and smashes up the place. The problem is, Manfred probably thinks the pitch clock will solve the issue, so...

I think we are going to have to get used to teams getting long, sustained drives against GB. I am guessing their strategy is to prevent big plays and that most teams either don't have the patience or the talent to dink and dunk and move down the field in 5-yard chunks. The issue then becomes keeping teams out of the end zone and holding them to field goals when they do get down there and GB hasn't been too good at that yet this year. The weird part is that this is basically my understanding of Pettine's Platonic ideal of a defense. So it is weird, because, you know, we already had a guy who wanted to do this, and did it fairly consistently (except for a certain playoff game that does not bear mentioning...). I am not saying replacing him was a bad move, or even that Barry necessarily won't have a better defense in the end, but it is pretty dang funny if they end up basically operating under the same basic philosophy. But hey, if Barry is just Pettine with better blitz schemes and a willingness to move on from Kevin King on the boundary, then that is a worthwhile improvement in my book.

Freaking YES!! Beat the Niners and the refs, on the day the Brewers clinch the division? What a day of sports!

Made the playoffs, won the division—two milestones down. Three to go.

Who needs exit velocity when you have voodoo?

Do the Cubs hate us more than they hate the Cards now, or is there really no better option in their pen? No matter—let’s just finish it right here.

We needed insurance runs, and having Barrel Man on the bases was probably not conducive to that.

I largely agree with this sentiment, but Urías is more than capable of uncorking some horrendous throws.

Oh boy He is not Ryan Braun.

You know who could use a little moment here? One Christian Yelich.

Conforto is basically their Yelich. Not a surprising result there. Nice job all the same, Box!

I am most uncomfortable with all the throws over to first, especially with Escobar there.

In other news, I will NOT be buying any lottery tickets any time soon.

Nah, I think the offense has this one. Got a good feeling about this.

Nice job, Burnsie! Cue the Jurassic Park

Oh you know, the usual. Some hits, some walks, maybe an error or two.

Rich Hill is a pest

Whew! Let’s go get this done tomorrow (with a little help!)

Nice job, raptor. What do you think, just turn it over to Hader and not jack around with this one? My only apprehension is that once you play that card, if Hader gets into trouble, what do you do then? I mean, it could turn into Chernobyl around here pretty quickly… EDIT: and we have our answer, Hader it is

Classic example of making the manager look good in this one.