long ball

I think in general I feel better about this team going into the playoffs than I have most years. 2018 was probably the most optimistic due to MVP Yelich, how we chased down the cubs, game 163, returning to the playoffs for the first time in 7 years, and the Dodgers weren’t quite the dodgers yet. I’m generally pretty hopeful every time we make the playoffs so I feel a little extra optimism this year. on the AL side I am rooting for the White Sox but I don’t have much hope for them. So the Rays and Guardians are the other teams I’m pulling for.

I’m not sure how much attention this has been getting, but the Marlins did something interesting with some of their starters down the stretch. They had Alcantara and Pérez pitch out of the bullpen on their throw day. From what I understand, this is a little bit of a test kitchen idea. See how guys handle the schedule. now I don’t think the brewers would implement this, however it is a very interesting thought experiment. Pair this with a 6 man rotation, a team who is very likely to make the playoffs, generally needs to find advantages at the fringes of the roster/rules and we’d be an interesting candidate to do this. upside: less need to shuttle guys to and from the minors since we have an extra bullpen arm every game. Get 20+ additional innings from some of the best pitchers on the roster. This makes it easier to run a 6 man rotation all year. downside: the game may not present an opportunity for the starter to get into the game so you’d have to have them get their bullpen work in after the game? You lose the ability to just work on stuff without the pressure of it being a live inning. Unknown how it would impact performance and health. they talked about it on the just baseball podcast with lance brodkowski the other day and I found it an idea.

I think I’m pitching Misiorowski and Henderson in games 1 and 2. I understand the argument of pushing Henderson to game 3, but I’d rather just go with my 2 best guys to start the series. as for the rest of it, no one else is going to go longer than 4 innings so I don’t really care the order. I’d probably throw Gasser in game 3 as the “bulk” pitcher and expect to cover the other 5-7 innings with the pen. I’d probably just start Gasser, but I could see Patrick or Senzatela as an opener making sense. The padres do a little more platooning than the Cubs do. Most of the Padres scary hitters are right handed (France, Tatis, machado) I will note… May has made 2 great starts against SD and a third that was pretty decent. He also made one good start against the cubs while still pitching for STL.

The cubs have the biggest weakness that I think we can take advantage of. I think they’re playing worse than the Padres right now. It’s fun to beat the cubs. Less travel. bring me Chicago. I think we can beat either, but either will be tough.

I know the cardinals aren’t a good offense, but he looked good. My butt would be clenched the entire time he’s pitching in a playoff game. If they keep 13 pitchers, I’d lean toward him making it. if they only keep 12 pitchers then he’s fighting with Drohan and May for that last spot in my opinion. These 10 guys feel like locks: Misiorowski, Henderson, Gasser, Megill, Uribe, Ashby, Hall, Romero, Senzatela, Patrick. so pick 2 of Harrison, May, Drohan, and Anderson (if healthy) id keep May. Then Harrison and Drohan are a bit of a toss up to me. I think they’ll only keep 12.

Someone who is smart and has the time can probably confirm or refute this… but it feels like the brewers haven’t done a lot of mid inning pitching changes this season. Probably because their bullpen has generally been really good and their lefties are decent enough against righties for the most part. However for the last month or so it seemed like on occasions Murphy has allowed SP to get one extra up without having the pitch the full inning and here recently they’ve done some mid inning changes with guys who may be more match up dependent like Senzatela and Romero. I like it. Give these guys a taste of coming in mid inning since that’s going to happen in the playoffs.

What a fun season. 100 wins is really cool. 97 was cool last year, but 100!

Since they haven’t activated Wilson today, I kinda wonder if they want to use Richardson to eat an inning or two tonight before DFA him to activate Wilson tomorrow.

Ahh I missed that! Thanks.

I wonder what they’ll do with Wilson after today. Presumably they’ll try to get about 3 IP out of him today. That likely makes him available again on Sunday after Miz pitches his 2 innings, but they may want to use that day to get 1 final tune up inning for guys. kinda feels mean, but I wonder if they DFA him after today to make room for Grant Anderson tomorrow.

When Pratt was called up, I made a comment on one of the articles or forum threads about how poorly our young glove first infielders have hit early on in their careers so I wasn’t expecting anything other than a slight improvement on what we were getting from Ortiz in the first half of the season. I am very pleased with the results he’s gotten (and thrilled with the turn around Ortiz has made). Even if we are getting very limited power from Lara/Frelick, Ortiz, and Pratt they’re all capable of getting on base at a respectable clip. Let’s hope it continues throughout the duration of our playoff run.

I was kinda mapping this out the rest of the way and I think it makes sense to do this: 9/16v Pitt Henderson 9/20 v Balt Misiorowski (4 days rest, hasn’t done that much this year and avoids giving Philly a look at him. I don’t care if it’s a 3-4 inning start, but gives him a chance to work on a 4 days rest schedule since that’s likely what we will need in the playoffs) 9/22 v Phillies Henderson on 5 days rest 9/26 v cards Misiorowski (final tune up start on 5 days rest. Likely only a couple innings. Freddy went 2 IP last year in his final start) 9/27 v cards Henderson (final tune up start but on 4 days rest. Likely only a couple innings) 10/3 is game 1 of the DS. So if they map it out this way they’ll both have a chance to make 1 start on a 4 days rest schedule. Then they’ll have 6 days of rest before their first playoff start. I don’t really care what they do with the rest of the starters. None of those guys are going to be asked to go more than 3-4 innings (mostly think Gasser and May will be the other “bulk” pitchers on the roster)

I’ll give the brewers a pass if they lose tonight. Glad to have the division clinched.

Our game starts an hour before the cubs/braves. if we win, we could be waiting an hour or so to see if tonight’s clinch night. we’ve built up a pretty decent buffer between us and Atlanta so a top 2 seed is looking highly likely at this point.

My read in the current situation is that they’re trying to get Frelick going. If he can show some semblance of what he did last year, he’s probably a better hitter today have in the line up come playoff time. Bauers is likely getting all of the starts in RF against lefties come playoff time. we will see if Lara gets the CF starts against lefties or if it’s Mitchell. I’d probably lean toward Lara in RF against righties, but it may be just an all hands on deck approach where there are mid game line up changes depending on pitching moves the opponent makes. Basically what we’ve seen since Frelick returned.