Brew crew 92

What happened to Barnes 4 seam 99 mph.FB that he had in 17? Seems to me he completely abandoned it, went to the Cutter for some reason. He went from almost unhittable at times with the 99 and his 90 mile an hour slider, to cutter at 94-95 slider 90 and very hittable.

I think the Brewers have to juggle what’s best long-term with what’s best short term. Long-term I think it’s best for our 3 Young guns to start all year long and max out there innings, to develope into 1s and 2s. Short term(this year)be nice to rotate them into pen, giving us a potential super-pen. After super 2 things probably gonna look different with Brown,Webb,Rasmussen,perdomo and a host of others that might help our pen.

Albers is the most wildly inconsistent reliever ever, bound to lose it at some point and at 36 years old that time could be now. I quit smoking a couple years back but when Barnes enters the game all I can think about is...... So really just these 2 and no Jeffress. I’m not saying our pen is terrible just not the strength it’s been. And like it or not our team has been defined by our bullpen.

Hader might possibly be the most valuable reliever in baseball right now. Knebel, despite his hiccups last season, was terrific down the stretch, and has a proven record of high-end work. Claudio has been solid the last several years, and has looked terrific this spring. Relievers are typically volatile regardless of how much perceived depth you have any given season, but any pen headed by arms like Knebel and Hader is going to be viewed as a strength. If Jeffress is an issue, that obviously hurts overall depth, but I don't think that changes the fact that the pen is a strength. Every team is going to have unknowns going into the season. Don’t disagree ^^^^^^ I guess my head just explodes with the thought of Barnes and Albers in this pen, and no Jeffress. I’m sure the pen Will look different as the season progresses so I have that to look forward to.

Yes your correct Joey Meyer bombs, it’s no Secret that I wanted the Brewers to sign Kimbrel. And you’re also correct that if the Brewers were going to do that they would’ve done it already. Jeffress> Concerned what we’re going to get out of him if and when he’s healthy. Albers> how can we not be concerned with which Matt Albers were going to get this year? Petricka> ? Barnes> 97-99 in2017. Now 93-96 with the cutter, he’s regressed in my opinion. He gave up MORE hits than IP last year. Keep him far away from any high leverage situation, wilts under pressure. Williams> Have hope that he takes a step forward this year and becomes another high leverage arm, not highly confident though. Just too many questions to open the year to say the pen will be a strength.

Albers,Barnes,Petricka and Williams > Weak Can’t believe some people think our pen still a strength.

Are we sure Tomlin can be stashed in AAA?

Your right, it’s a long season. Just don’t want to get behind the 8-ball if we don’t have to.

I think we’re not paying much attention to our early schedule. We play the cardinals 10 time’s BEFORE April 25th, the cubbies 6 in 1st six weeks not to mention the dodgers 7 times in April. Phillies, Mets, Rockies just to name 3 more before June. I don’t want any of our pitchers stashed in AAA for depth or innings protection when just about every early season game against a contender.

All reasonable points you make. What about Anderson to pen, allowing for Potentially our most talented and unhittable starter- Peralta - to throw all his pitches for the big club?

What about jimmy starting out opening day in The bullpen? He wouldn’t need stretched out and could pitch like a righty Hader?

Exactly, too much uncertainty. Seems like we went from a dominating, team defining bullpen to maybe slightly above average pen overnight.

Eric Gange part two? Kimbrel hasn't had injury problems, he hasn't struggled or be anything other than one of the best 2-3 relievers in the game every year of his career save for last year when he has a career worst FIP of 3.13. There's always a risk that someone you sign is going to struggle, but we were taking a flier on Gange, hoping he could find the stuff that he had in the two truly dominant seasons he had. Kimbrel is dominant like Gagne was just about every year. As for pitchers signing this late, I think the main person people are referencing are Holland who struggled early, but then came back and was outstanding the 2nd half of last year. Of course the Cards started him on the 25 man when they probably should have kept him in extended spring training for a extra couple weeks. This is all moot though if he's still talking about stupid numbers. At this point, he's a 1 year 12 million, 2 year 25 million dollar type signing IMO. It might take him until May to figure that out. I would like to add another good reliever, OR just hope that Albers can bounce back and follow his career norm of good year, bad year, good year trend. I think Jeffress is going to see a major regression this year. Stearns obviously has confidence in our pen, and that's more important than what I think, but I don't have as much that they'll be able to duplicate last year. If Jeffress struggles for a while like Knebel and you take some of your young guys out of the pen, we could actually be a bit thin there. Just hope Guerra and his splitter can translate into a dominant BP arm for us this year. He could really be the X factor. Great take! Agree with everything you just said. Good thing our starting pitching much stronger than last year or I’d REALLY be worried. Concerned with pen out of the gate especially. No jeffress. No Burnes. No woody. That’s 3 high leverage arms missing. Kimbrel would improve our pen enough early on with our brutal schedule, past super 2 brown, Webb, perdomo,Rasmussen someone or two can help. Your right Stearns knows more than we do, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

Why not?

Now I KNOW what he’s talkin about when he says his breaking stuff BETTER than ever. Sometimes we have to take a man for his word.

Your being awfully kind, but ok I’ll buy the longtime brewer fan conditioned to expect the worst excuse. Time to turn the page, it’s a new era of brewer baseball! In Stearns we trust!

Jimmy Nelson in the rotation mid-April ya gotta love it!

Well, that should calm some fears a bit. Long season, and a lot can happen, but so far, so good. Negative nellies gonna still be vocal with lot to overcome cause it’s “the shoulder”and even if he’s healthy 2017 an “outlier” talk till it’s not.

Even tho he pitched to scrubs plus Murphy, like the no walks and 4 ks

Good news on the 95. Assuming he can up It a couple ticks building up his arm strength.

Counsell saying Peralta and Burnes each adding 2 mph to their FB and woody commanding his 97 has got me thinking the following: - We have 3 potential ace’s in the making - All 3 should start the year with big club - All 3 should get there innings as close to the max as possible so next year no restrictions - Stearns & co even better talent evaluators than i thought -Barring injury, not going to be held hostage at the trade deadline because we need top of the rotation starter - Brewers minor league pitching development vastly improved Anybody else out there as excited as I am, and not just this year but for the future as well?

Looking at our three young guns for the rotation, something to obviously consider would be their innings limits. Most innings thrown in career then add the 25. Woodruff- 158 > 183 Burnes- 145.2 > 170.2 peralta- 144.1 .>169.1 Barring injury, what should the brewers plan be to keep these guys from blowing past their max innings? Reg season & possible playoffs? Skip starts? 6 man rotation? Bullpen? Minors? Piggybacking? What about Nelson when he gets back?

They certainly need pen help, just don’t think it’ll be Kimbrel. There up against the luxury tax threshold and their owner and Theo already stated not going over.

Agree less polished, gonna be tough seeing him strike out 10 AAA batters in 5 or 6 innings though.

No idea what brewers are thinking, but this is what I’d do: Chacin Anderson Davies Peralta Woodruff Burnes to pen- woody possible ace in the making stays in rotation.pen with-out jeffress short high-leverage arm so Burnes to pen I don’t know what there gonna do when Nelson’s ready? Rotate the 3 young guns to bullpen-rotation manage innings? Good depth for the inevitable injury or two.