HarveysWBs

The sakura, or cherry blossom tree, is revered in Japan not just for its beauty, but for its poignancy. Blooming for at most only two weeks every year, they are cherished while in full flower, as picnickers and revelers bask in the fleeting glory and ponder their own mortality. I thought of this as soon as Miz got the call and is already in the top 10 in all-time number of pitches over 101 mph. Such things are not meant to last. The human body is not designed to throw like he is throwing a baseball, and if he keeps doing this, his arm will inevitably fail, and likely sooner rather than later. But just like one cannot bid the cherry blossoms to cease their unfolding, one would not tell such a rare talent as Misiorowski not to pitch. In a vacuum, the only logical thing for the Brewers to do would be to trade him, probably as soon as this winter. I don’t think such a pitching asset—so much talent over so many cost-controlled years—has ever hit the market, and the return would probably be astronomical. What could the franchise become after a trade like that? The mind fairly boggles. But, of course, the average fan would hate the organization for that, maybe for a generation, and I see no way of explaining the move to even the clubhouse, much less the fan base. So instead, I suppose the brass and the fans alike have to hope against hope for eternal springtime, willing the blossoms to cling to their branches, at least for a few hundred innings. But what a sight those precious few years promise to be!

So can we just skip ahead to when we’ve got the surprise hot NL wildcard team (idk, maybe the Giants this year?) at home in a game 3 and Megill holding a slim lead with two on and two out? Because at this point, I’m not sure our Brewers know how to tell a different story…

Yeah, his sub.700 ops would certainly fit in nicely. In all seriousness, I always liked him too, until he went to them.

Just got done coaching a little league game and wasn’t watching. Any idea what Mis did to himself? NVM, just saw the above—thanks all.

The answer has been out there all along: the guy who never should have left.

It is pretty early to be doing postmortems and all that, but if we’re in the mood and you want my .02 (and even if you don’t, then too bad, we all sidled up to the same digital bar and that has consequences), I, for one, happen to think it would not be the absolute worst thing in the world for this season to be a small step backwards. For one, we’ve enjoyed quite a bit of recent regular season success, and it is a bit unreasonable to think that it would continue unabated indefinitely. Progress, as they say, is not linear. But more importantly, there is no reason to think the brass would see a down year as a reason to radically tear down and rebuild. In fact, scuffling in the first half would be a good excuse to flip a few temporary resources for either major league help, prospects, or both. I think one could make the case that the future looks brighter starting in 2026, with position player reinforcements on the way and healthier pitching (Woody notwithstanding), than this year’s outlook seems. A quick infusion of even more minor league talent to strengthen the pipeline or stock up on trade ammo may be just what the team needs to build momentum into a better contention window. So I’m not stressing this at all. As long as the young core does not sustain career-altering injuries of some kind, it’s all kinda gravy to me this year. But I’m the guy who predicted 90 wins, so what do I know?

So, welcome back, Jaire! Maybe you’ll clear 50% participation rate this year…

I know it’s the Browns, so of course they did this, but at some point, how can the franchise make the same mistake over and over and over again without learning anything? Manziel? Mayfield (who became serviceable elsewhere but was fairly immature coming out of college)? Watson? Now Sanders? Just being a starting QB in the NFL is enough of a circus already, choosing to add extra drama is just an unforced error, and they keep doing it to themselves. It’s insane.

Sounds like Sorrell can rush inside or outside, which is a helpful trait. I wonder if Sawyer would have been the pick there if still available. I have no opinion on the matter, just a curiosity.

Guess I’m pregaming with Maalox this year. This is shaping up to be a lot of open receivers turning into 50/50 catch propositions.

Yeah, having a worse drop rate than Wicks—11.8%!—is not exactly confidence-inspiring, is it? Makes me wonder what they want him to do that we can’t try with existing personnel. I don’t know, guess we’ll find out.

So much for liking the WR room. Message delivered: we’re going to have tryouts, because the passing offense wasn’t good enough.

They’re the kid brother who finally got a taste of big bro’s Schlitz last year, and now they think they’re big man on campus.

I’ve wanted Green Bay to try power football, running identity and aggressive defense pretty much ever since Rodgers started to slide. Hafley is certainly more aggressive than our usual fare on that side of the ball (leaving aside the part about the player quality he is working with, draft capital aside), and now they’re clearly finding some big fellas to play on the line, which is also a step in the right direction. But I was hoping to see moves that close the gap between 11 wins and 14. I’m not sure Belton was it, at least for this year.

This is usually my thought, too. If the guys who make the lists that tell everybody what is a “reach” were even mostly right about these things, they’d be in the war room, not the studio or their basement talking to fans. Reaches no doubt happen, but I suspect they aren’t nearly as common as the media trains one to think—teams probably have good reason to suspect a player they like isn’t going to make it back to them.

They’re not giving the bag to both Walker and Tom, so a major investment in the O-line makes sense in a better a year early than late sort of way. But I hope both Morgan and Belton contribute this year, since we’re in a state of “urgency” per our GM. The time for impact is right now.

On the whole “Packers don’t draft well” narrative, the eye test to me concurs with those who say Gute has gotten solid value after round 1, but hasn’t found very many stars, particularly with his first round picks. But, then again, the Packers often pick in the bottom third, so parsing this thing out would have to boil down to comparing the pack’s 1st round success rate to other teams that consistently pick at the end of rounds: KC, SF, maybe BUF? Would there be a better way to settle it than this?

My brain is always going to turn Lodolo into: IYKYK

They almost always over-perform the projections, often by double-digits. Talent-wise, the team seems just about the same as last year (subtract Willy and Williams, add Woody and incremental improvements from some positional players), while the rest of the division might have improved just a skosh. Add that all up and I’ll say 90-72. I like the idea of error banding this thing, too, so +/- 5 wins wouldn’t shock me, though 85 wins or less would be a considerable letdown in my estimation. They have me conditioned to the idea that somehow, someway, they will get to 90 and make the playoffs, as they are a well-run organization. A rash of really bad injuries, though, would be a killer, as I fear the depth is a bit more questionable (especially the pitching side) than we’ve seen in a while. If I was putting money on a win total, though, 90 would still be my pick.

Sophia Minnaert just reported that Sal “added 25 pounds of muscle” in the offseason, and this coming in a game where he has already popped a two-run dinger. Reportage like that is reputable and incontrovertible, so we can put the controversy to rest. Sal is one gigantic walking muscle, and will now set the club record for dingers. Contact your bookies immediately.

Does anybody in sports media do any actual journalism these days, or do they just engage in obsequious water carrying and then fire off some tired narratives on X/Bluesky before calling it a day? What a joke.

Is the Packers fan base some kind of modern retelling of the Sisyphus myth? How many times does the team have to be used as headline fodder or agent negotiation tactics or both before everyone accepts the simplest explanation as the true one: the front office, which has maintained a remarkably consistent philosophy for over thirty years, is loath to spend big on wide receivers, and definitely won’t do it in free agency. Full stop. Yet, time and again, the fan discourse (and to be clear, I don’t necessarily mean around here, since I think the level of discussion is a bit more sophisticated here) gets funneled into agonizingly predictable channels: another off season, another round of angst and recriminations about whether there are enough weapons, more media speculation “tying” the team to x y or z wide receivers who could be available, ones who might want a new deal, or guys who probably want out of their current situation. I don’t care that Schneider and Gutey are best buddies, we were never in on Metcalf. I don’t care that Adams was our guy and he apparently didn’t have any hard feelings about his exit, we were never seriously considering bringing him back. I don’t care that Kupp overlapped with MLF in Los Angeles, we are not going to sign him, and I’d be shocked if the brass have spent more than ten minutes even workshopping the idea. Oh, and we’re not drafting a receiver in the first round, either. This organization has shown you what they are and how they think for the entire span of my life as a fan. I for one have internalized the lesson. I’m not upset by the decision, it is simply a fact, almost a state of nature. What does kind of bug me is not trying to make a killer defense by doing what it takes to bring in surefire disruptors up front or on the edge. I figured we’d more or less run the offense back, but I really hoped we’d lean into trying to be elite on the other side of the ball. Oh well, I suppose its still a long way to training camp.

Guess we know what 25 lbs of muscle will do for you now. 🤣

Seems the Chiefs have more room to complain about the officiating so far, which is a flip of the prevailing narrative. I’m not crying for them, of course, but I think on some level, the NFL would be quite happy to have this narrative behind them and are relieved with how this is turning out.