CrewFanBrewMan69

I’d absolutely accept Acuna for Hader, I doubt the Braves would. Acuna is a potential 5-6+ WAR franchise cornerstone, while Hader has been just absolutely great there’s a limited ceiling and impact in his role and also the whole fragility of pitching vs position players. I think it’s also relatively easier to find good to great relief pitchers than it is to find ~5 WAR position players.

Yup, I'm excited and cautiously optimistic. We need to play well the next month and hopefully are at least 2-3 games over .500 come June 1st. I was looking ahead and we get a little unlucky against the Indians, we have to face Kluber and Carrasco in the two game series next week. Too bad we didn't get their weaker pitchers.

You're going to die on this hill, aren't you? They already had Rizzo on the DL, Bryant out for about a week, and Russell (yeah, not worth a ton but still a starter) on the shelf. I know you generally comment on their pitching staff having no depth, but they do have Montgomery if needed as a 6th starter. Eddie Butler is probably about as good as Suter if a real emergency strikes. It's true that they are a bit thin there, but they've had plenty of injuries. Epstein may have drained their farm system, but he's still shrewd in keeping replacement-level options available in some capacity. Yeah Zobrist has been on the DL already too. I think I saw that Bryant/Rizzo have only been in the lineup together for about half their games. Butler is currently on the DL with a minor injury like ankle or groin or hamstring or something not arm related. They've been hit with injuries a decent amount already. Plus like you said they have some depth at pitching and their top prospect has taken no-hitters in to the 6th twice already this year in AAA. Sure they could lose a guy or two for a few months then it's interesting but that's some wishful thinking. The best or more likely route for beating them is hoping that the non-Bryant/Rizzo guys all stink on offense and the starting pitching remains inconsistent like it has been for a good chunk of the year. They've also had one of the hardest schedules so far this year, after their first 5 games they haven't played a team under .500 and they really aren't playing well but still over .500. They probably are going to win 93-97 games if things break like you would project and not have any crazy variance or injuries.

I'll believe when I see it that he only misses one start. Rotator cuff injuries can be serious.

170 innings of even 4ish ERA pitching is more valuable than what the best relievers usually do every year. Trevor Bauer as example was 176IP of 4.19 ERA 10 k/9, which is a fair Hader comp and that was worth 3.2 WAR, only 2 relief pitchers topped that last year (Kimbrel at 3.3 and Jansen at 3.6). He doesn’t even need to be that great as a starter to provide more value than a reliever.

Yes it is. He should be a starter, they’re using him the best way if they are going to make him a reliever but it’s not maximizing his potential value. I think he was saying it isn't true that your best pitching prospect shouldn't be your middle reliever... My bad. I was just agreeing with wasting talent part.

That's just not true any more. Yes it is. He should be a starter, they’re using him the best way if they are going to make him a reliever but it’s not maximizing his potential value.

Yeah I’m not a big fan and don’t think he makes us any better. Like Sogard, he’s another guy Sterns seemed to jump to gun on early in the offseason with a guaranteed deal.

Still getting crushed 24th hardest exit velocity out of 142 pitchers who have had at least 50 batted ball events. He's a really weird pitcher to try and judge off of the stats because they all seem so contradictory I think he's really a guy you have to scout in person to like or not like.

Way to show them we are tough guys and hitting Rizzo, which led to the run. We showed them.

What has Arcia ever done to think he can be anything more than what he did last year other than “being young?” He still can be a valuable player with the defense but there isn’t much he’s ever done to believe the bat will be all that great.

Arcia was never the hitter Báez was in the minors. There’s very little evidence to believe he’ll ever be more than a version of Alcides

Guerra is leaving a lot of balls in very hittable spots early. Hopefully he settles down.

Umpire at home was terrible today, but he was terrible both ways. Nothing he did cost us the game, Sogard booting a ball for a run and our best hitters not coming away with more than 1 run in the 7th with a big inning chance is what cost us the game. He was not equally terrible against both sides. The ratio of botched pitches was like 5 to 1 in the Cubs favor. And he probably intentionally called a couple the Cubs way to try and even it out a bit... The game absolutely could have gone differently if Heyward doesn't get walked on 4 straight strikes, or if certain counts were different. That slight edge the Cubs received from the umpires could have been the difference in the game... He handed us the game in the Cishek-Sogard at bat but the offense couldn’t get more than 1 run in

Sogard can go

Their pitching staff is good to great, being shut down by them isn’t a crazy thing to happen and they are all due for bounce back starts and it’s just seems like bad luck those are coming vs us

either the camera work is awful or these balls are dying

I was listening to the Score just now when I was driving since they were doing some draft talk, but anyways they had an update deal and apparently he’s taking BP for the first time today since being hit and Maddon said he could pinch hit if needed if he feels good. So if I had to guess we won’t see him until tomorrow at the earliest.

On my phone, so hard to link but go to Fangraphs “glossary” section. Should have everything you need.

Why not just make it a rule and require it? I'm pretty sure I heard on the radio the other day that the Brewers do require it or "strongly encourage" it, wink wink, at every level of the minors. I don't know if other teams do. But yeah it would seem to make sense, though I don't know if it would've made a difference in Bryant's case.

True, but they might have a normal amount of appearances compared to others. With multiple inning appearances becoming more the norm, we are saving wear and tear from warming up nearly every day. There will be some interesting number crunching opportunity after this year to see how game/warm up pitches, appearances, innings, and days rest factor into performance. Yeah it's definitely a newer way to use a guy so we may not know until the season is over. Just seems like a lot of innings for a relief pitcher and with Hader it seems like he's anywhere from 20-40 pitches every outing, it's not like he comes in and is overly efficient with pitches.

Hader is on pace for nearly 100 innings and Jeffress for mid-high 80s. I’m worried about them getting worn out in the 2nd half.

Agree, but it seems like they are going to give Miley a shot so I'd rather just keep Woodruff stretched as a starter in AAA if that's the route.

I think I'd rather Suter stay up as the long man, he's not a starter so knock him down a peg on the pitching pecking order and see if he can be a serviceable long man. I'd like to see Woodruff stay down to stay stretched out in the event of an injury or poor performance in the rotation and he's needed.

Jeffress is going to be burned out by June at this rate