OldHeidelberg

Who would have guessed even as recently as Sept 1 that Woodruff would be starting the playoff opener and Chase wouldn't make the cut. Maybe a changing of the guard in the rotation and they will be building it around Peralta, Burnes and Woodruff next year. I know it's a lot about matchups and maybe even more the recent results but it is still stunning to see Chase and Davies left off. 55 minutes to go!!!

I feel like Chacin is due for a win and the Brewers really want this one. Putting the Cardinals playoff hopes on life support would be so sweet!!!! Can't wait for this one to start!

Someone brought up in the game thread that he was 3 homers and 6 RBI's off the Triple Crown. Wasn't there a home run called foul that Counsel didn't bother challenging?

But I think the Mets have some solid pitching prospects already and dealing from the depth of their major league rotation could go a long way to fixing other problems. They have said they wanted near major league or MLB players and if getting pitching prospects back isn't a priority the Brewers may be a good fit for them trade wise in the off season. Huge if but if Moose agreed to come back either with a new contract or his option a deal built around Shaw and Hiura could knock Syndergaard free as the Mets may be soured on him bit with the missed time the last couple of years. I just think the Brewers may be in a 2-3 year window where an ace may be required and the Mets are an obvious target for one this off season. It looks like they did well to not deal any of them at the deadline this year as both Thor and Wheeler have upped their value.

Shockingly betting line still has Baez as the big favorite today. I think the batting title could really help his case...a lot. The most recent lines I found were Baez +105 and Yelich +135, that is pretty close and Yelich has a ton of momentum right now. Good arguments can be made for both but I think the batting title would tip the scales.

We shouldn't be surprised by the NFL defending the call, they almost always do if there room for interpretation. I think they defended the fail mary if I remember right. One thing that struck me after the game was the NFL is really blowing it on it's OT rule. I thought the coin flip victory by the Pats in the SB would be the final nail in the coffin but they continue to double down on this wacky rule. It was like 100 degrees Sunday and the teams were gassed, on top of this the Vikes won the toss and as it turned out got 2 possessions to the Packers 1 because of it. I used to hate the college shootout OT rules but now think it is the way to go in the NFL too. Everyone gets even amount of possessions from the 30 or wherever and you don't have XP's or FG's after 1st round. Would end things quickly for TV reasons and no massive advantage for coin toss winner. Amazing that this OT thing keeps going on.

I thought we just had one 2019 option left with Jeffress, if 2 more than yeah wait and see

If Moose actually did accept the option I think they would still offer Schoop arby,as others have stated they would work something out. Maybe the Mets would have interest in Shaw as part of a Syndergaard trade or something like that. I would be shocked if they let Schoop walk after giving up so much for him, 10 million on a one year deal isn't so much for the Brewers, I think they would raise payroll over what we think is their cap for a year as long as we are not talking about long term commitments.

Pitchers are always a risk but yeah if we can buy out a season or 2 of FA from Hader they should do it since he seems pretty durable so far. Plus for those of us, including myself, who think Hader should still move to the rotation it would give more time for that. Part of the problem of keeping Hader in the bullpen and then moving him to the rotation is you eat up his cheap years building up his innings again and by the time he hits his stride as a starter he is in arbitration. But I am coming around to accepting he may never be a starter. As for Jeffress of course, the Brewers and Jeffress are a marriage made in heaven for whatever reason and we should reward him for his great season with an extension.

I was just going to look and see if Moose was hurt or something looking at these lineups. I would rather see Shaw than Thames at 1st if Aguilar is out and really against a righty he should sit out until rested again.

That was terrible, pinch hit anyone it was a big at bat

It seems like a B bullpen day with the Cubs series starting tomorrow. They are all big now though, a win today is one you don't have to get down the road and I would much rather relax and enjoy the division race the last couple of weeks without worrying about the wildcard anymore. So maybe they use Hader only if he is needed for a save in the 9th. A sweep sure would get the fans excited about that Wrigley series, I can't remember the last sweep we have had but being due doesn't seem to mean much with this years team. They have turned Sunday around recently though. A 12-1 type win with Davies going 7 would be pretty nice.

NM run defense was so bad I actually thought the Badgers screwed up every time they threw, but the play action started working eventually. Big day for AJ Taylor, I had thought of him as just an OK receiver coming into the season but like a lot of Badgers starting to shine as he spends more time in the system. I didn't see last weeks game and was worried about the D after that first drive but they looked good overall.

Every time I am in Milwaukee I am always struck by how Brewer crazy it is, of course that is usually Saturday night when all the fans spill into the east side bars after the game. Kids are back in school, morning kickoff in Madison and Packer opener in GB tomorrow. Plus there may be a little activity burnout after a holiday weekend. 30k doesn't sound too surprising but you may be right about some fans expecting a collapse. I myself have just recently woke up to the fact that the schedule really favors some playoff baseball, they just need a modest win streak right now and everyone will realize there are fun times ahead.

I thought Broxton would have been out by a lot and Bryant's first thought there has to be home since they were playing to cut off that runner. But it happens, maybe he lost track of where he was, I think he already knew he blew it when he got to third. Huge win, hopefully they can carry some momentum into tomorrow. Too bad the Rockies came back but still a good day.

Fair enough, I knew about the kids activities but the cynic in me assumed that it was populated with sports bars, restaurants, and pro shops to keep the adults spending while the kids play, sort of like Camp Snoopy. If it is more of a giving back to the community endeavor than your are correct, I am very mistaken and that is exactly what I think the Packers should be investing their money in. What is it like on game day?

I don't think any of that's unfair or unreasonable from an individual fan's perspective. But I guess I'd argue just that- it sounds like a lot of this is situational in your case. Some would certainly agree with you if the team got bad for a long period of time, but I'm equally certain you'd find a vast number of people that live four hours away that still make their trips in happily. I suppose the issue I take is with the last part of your post- you're criticizing the Packers for buying/developing all of the land around the stadium, but haven't been there to see what it actually entails? I've been there in the heart of the offseason, and have seen many of the areas jam packed on a random non-gameday afternoon. Maybe that'll wear off, but again I'd argue that it's creating a destination that allows for additional revenue beyond the 10 days a year that the stadium serves its intended purpose. I'm a bit surprised by the premise of your additional post, I guess. There is no indication that the Packers are struggling financially whatsoever, and their development probably helps them weather some of the rough patches that may come. Their rainy day fund should further insulate them from issues as well. Sorry, saw this yesterday but was heading out of town and didn't have time to respond. My original post was related to Rodgers impact on the teams revenue, I didn't mean to imply that I thought the Packers were in financial trouble and even mentioned the boatloads of cash they have and the current windfall. But with my follow up on the 80's troubles I guess I can see how you took it that way. I agree they are well set to survive several down years but not so sure about 20 but that gets into a lot of other issues the NFL has not directly related to the Packers. We may have to agree to disagree on the impact of the seat expansion but I will try to expand on my opinion there. There is a number, and it is not 180,000, where the availability of tickets starts to work against them. One of the reasons teams don't always just build 100,000 seat stadiums is because they want to have some some demand for season tickets, otherwise everyone will just wait and buy tickets when they want them which can be problematic in losing seasons. I brought up the ticket market dive last year, if you paid a $1500 deposit on an upper end zone seat and found that these seats sold for about face value(or less in a bad year) you might want to reconsider your investment and just buy your tickets a la carte on the market. I don't sell my seats online but I would guess they are worth less now than what they were before the expansion. That's why I think they over extended, they made a tough ticket easy. The struggle to sell out playoff games after the expansion may be another red flag. I don't consider myself an atypical out state fan, I take the Packers waaay to seriously. I felt like I won the lottery when I got season tickets(my Dad had put in for them years ago). I brought up my friends feedback before but I can tell you it's the same with most fans I know in La Crosse and the twin cities, you have to give up more than a day to go to the game and it gets expensive. Once a year is just about right for most. I would go to every game if I lived in GB but I am guessing a lot of these new ticket holders are from out state and are not as committed as you may think. Again, time will tell. As for Titletown, the last time I was there it was nearing completion and I think there was already some stuff open. I don't think I need to see it to voice an opinion on it, I don't need to go to Mall of America to know its just a big mall with an amusement park in the middle. I don't mean to sound snarky here, I think it is a legitimate analogy as isn't the Titletown district just a Packer themed mall? I am just not sure what could be there that would make me go wow but you are right, I probably need to check it out, it's not like I wouldn't like Packer themed mall. Anyway Go Pack!

They were in some trouble back in the 80's, I remember an SI article about it, not the season ticket list but I think just general poor revenue although I don't remember the details. People kept their seats but attendance wasn't that great and that affects revenue. That could be what is still driving the search for more revenue and the "rainy day" fund. I am a season ticket holder for about 15 years, used to go all the time when I got them and they are pretty good seats. But the Lambeau mystique has worn off for me, I am 4 hours away, and would rather watch them on my HD TV then drive over and deal with all the stuff. I always have fun when I do go it's just not something I want to do 3 times a year. I keep them as a friends still use them but they give the same feedback and don't always want them. I have considered giving them up. So I guess personal experience is why I think the expansion was a bad idea, I look up at those seats and thank god I am not way the hell up there in the end zone, I would give them up the first year. I think the competition with better television is something all pro sports teams deal with but for the Packers getting people to the games is critical. There were not near as many seats and hardly any bad ones in the 80's, so I am not sure the fact that the season ticket base held up then is proof that it will now. Time will tell if the turnover is as bad as I think it will be. I think the ticket market dived pretty badly last year after Rodgers got hurt if you want some recent evidence. For Titletown I am not sure as I don't live there, it would work in a bigger city but I don't know if the Fox Valley will support it all year round. But there isn't much in downtown Green Bay so maybe it becomes the entertainment center for the city. Honestly I haven't been to a game since it was completed.

It is interesting that they have that option, it's almost like arbitration years in baseball, but I don't think that is the intent of the franchise tag and if teams started just using it without negotiating to save money it would get killed in the next CBA. For a player like Rodgers such a move would be disastrous, he would hold out, declare he will never play for GB again and demand a trade. Heck the NFL would probably step in and facilitate the trade to avoid all the negative publicity. Rodgers is worth way more than whatever he is paid to the franchise. I am not sure why a non profit is so hell bent on maximizing profits, either they just have to spend the boatloads of cash they have or just good old capitalism, but I think they overextended with the last stadium expansion and Lambeau Land or whatever it is. As long as Rodgers is around to keep them in contention the windfall will continue, but if we go through several down years I think you will see attendance drop and many of the people who bought these bad seats are going to give them up and the eternal season waiting list may come to end.

Just forget this post lol read this last few posts of this thread after seeing 7-2 earlier and thought it was over.

I thought a while back after the Soria trade that swapping Hader and Peralta's roles once the innings deemed it would be a great way to boost this season and set us up for next. But with Soria's DL stint and Knebel falling off a cliff obviously Hader is needed right where he is. Still frustrating that we don't have the starters right now to go on any kind of a sustained run. These over before they start games suck, is it just me or do we never have any of these type games on our side any more?

Oof. Just checked in to see how thing were going, look like it could be a tough night. I really want to get excited about the playoff chase but man we could use a winning streak.

I guess it is notable that Yelich has close to the highest strikeout rate of his career as a Brewer considering how much this team loves to K over the last few years. It's like a virus. Even before seeing this I thought anecdotally he struck out a lot relative to what I thought we were getting when we made the trade. But yeah no complaints here, they hit a homer with the Yelich acquisition.

Hadn't realized it has been so drastic but Thames sure has faded just like last year.

It has been a bit of a strange rebuild for sure, just a glance at the 25 man and I see only Arcia,Hader,Peralta, and Burnes as recent top prospects contributing. Meanwhile we have traded 8-9 top 30 prospects this year including a couple of top 5 and several from the 6-15 range. It feels more like we are in a couple of year window now and may still need to spend a lot of our remaining capital on a TOR guy like we did with with Greinke but there is still a lot to shake out with the staff going into next year. Not complaining, this story isn't close to finished, just an observation that the rebuild isn't at all what I expected 2 years ago. For this year I feel missing the playoffs would be a failure considering the strong start and the deadline moves we made, of course if we miss while winning 90 it is just some back luck. Next year I expect about the same, a lot depends on Nelson and the upside of Peralta/Burnes.