Simba2020

Yeah Yardley is back. Oh wait, booo, Yardley is back.

Hopefully things go better this time around as we absolutely need him. However, he kept up his strikeout pace in the minors so I'm not sure anything will be much different when he goes back to facing big league pitching.

J.P. with the first save of his career today for the Rays.

Winker was a top 50 prospect at one time so a pretty big prospect. Always has hit for average and the power started showing up more last year with a .544 slugging rate.

I was all for him playing when he was doing well and others (Hiura) were not. But he quickly crashed back to who he's always been and that is a lousy major leaguer.

I really don't think it's fair to compare reliever WAR to a regular player's WAR. If we concede that Hader is 2-3 WAR player (extremely elite for a reliever) he is worth more than a 2-3 WAR positional player.

I think Urias has an ok arm. Not great, but not a noodle either. However, he was probably never going to be a major league shortstop long-term. I think there was a reason San Diego played him far more at second than short in the minors. Baseball America always seemed to refer to him as a second basemen.

Bad enough that Eric Thames is the MVP? Hey now, Thames is OPSing 1.6ish in Japan right now so Korean League must be better than that at least. 30 plate appearances is a bit of a small sample size. Plus he was doing it in the Japanese minors which I've read is about the equivalent of A ball.

Pretty bad. Thames was putting up 1.100+ OPS there. Thames put up over 5 fWAR in just under 1300 PA (spread across 3 years). For $17M in salary that's a steal. I agree, it was a fine signing. But he wasn't sniffing a 1.288 in the majors as he did one year there. The KBO isn't very good period. That's the only point I tried to make.

Pretty bad. Thames was putting up 1.100+ OPS there.

I'm not sure how far they have even considered lowering the mound, but the last time they did it for the 1969 season, it was a full five inches. I have no idea, but I suspect it didn't take long for pitchers to adjust and I also doubt injuries were the result. That being said, I'm not really in favor of it but I don't think it would be a big deal for pitchers. Moving the mound back might be different and I'm definitely not for that. At one time I didn't want shifts to be limited. I figured it was on the hitters to adjust. They obviously are unwilling or can't so I'm basically in favor of limiting shifts at this point. Pitchers have gotten too good and hitters need a break. Don't go back to the juiced ball. I think hitters will have to drop the launch angle or at least seriously lessen it with the new ball. That will help batting average along the way as well. They had a way of hitting that got them where they are in the first place, shouldn't be all too hard to go back to what you used to do. At least for most hitters. Definitely in favor of a pitch clock and also limiting the number of throws to first. Perhaps give them a certain number to use all game long. That way if you want to save them for late in the game in a key situation, you'd have that option as opposed to a strict limit per base runner as I think they are employing in one of the minor leagues or independent leagues. Probably should also go back to not calling the high strike. Hitters have no chance against the velocity up in the zone. Particularly with the launch angle. Lower it back to where you had been calling it and pitchers won't be able to just pound the upper part of the current zone and get guys to chase out of the zone.

Bill has always been a big-time homer when it comes to that. I have always found it particularly annoying.

I just don't know how much longer baseball can get away with real umps. They are just sooo bad.

Great call. Playing baseball the way you are supposed to play the game. Good for the Royals.

If only that was his only weakness. There's also fastballs down the middle, breaking balls anywhere but especially low and away. You know, pitches. I suspect Hiura will be recalled sooner rather than later. And while the 6-19 he is thus far with several doubles in the minors is encouraging, he has now struck out 8 times. I just don't think he can realistically expect to hit major league pitching without a major overhaul. And he has to be willing to do that and I'm not convinced he ever will.

Stearns put together this lineup which was pretty much guaranteed to be bad. I think the only way Craig would be in any real trouble is if Stearns thinks the offenses he's assembled the past couple of years have been good and Craig is the reason they've underperformed. Personally, I'd be looking in the mirror if I was Stearns.

If this team isn't the most boring team in baseball these days, they'll do.

I just traded him after his last start. Typically that means he'll be on no-hit watch.

I don’t think this is true. The one frustrating thing is that people have talked about him looking for hitters with better approaches that strikeout less when in reality he has basically never put reducing strikeouts as a priority of the offense. In terms of team strikeouts: 2016 Dead last 2017 Dead last 2018 25th 2019 26th 2020 29th 2021 28th A list of his recent free agent targets and their strikeout percentages: Shaw 27% Vogelbach 31% Garcia 26% Smoak 27% Bradley Jr. 29% Then we have Hiura at 37% to go along with that group. I’ve listed players I would have liked to see targeted the last few offseasons and they would have been been significant additions at very reasonable contracts. Wilmer Flores prior to 2019 and went on to hit .317, Jose Iglesias prior to 2019 and went on to hit .288 at SS. I know both of these were cheap and I think both were around $3 million. Their strikeout percentages are 14% and 13% respectively. Other players I mentioned were Michael Brantley (long shot, but we had the money. Just was allocated elsewhere) both times he was a free agent and Tommy La Stella recently. Maikel Franco and his 17% K rate would look pretty good in this lineup. It’s actually pretty frustrating when there are very good pieces available and the deals don’t get done. I know it takes two to tango, but if you offer an extra million to a guy like Jose Iglesias or Wilmer Flores, I imagine they would have found themselves in Milwaukee. Stearns certainly hasn’t gone the route of reducing strikeouts though and the results his entire tenure to this point show that. And don't forget that Stearns came from Houston where in his tenure as Assistant GM, the Astros were 29th in strikeouts in 2013 and 2014 and dead last in 2015. Definitely seems like strikeout levels are not even remotely a priority for him.

That's not their career strikeout rates, check the links I posted for their actual numbers. Strikeout rate is K/PA, not K/AB. I know how strikeout rates are determined, but I prefer strikeouts per at bats myself as well.

Can Houser play first?

You have to feel bad for Council when a team is so bad offensively that a journeyman like McKinney (.230/.278) is his best option at 1B! That's for sure. I so wish they had signed Cron in the offseason. Better against lefties but still quite solid against righties too. I'll hope for an Aguillar trade if the Marlins are out of it come the trade deadline.

I'm almost hoping Hiura struggles in the minors. The reason I say that is because I'm largely convinced he will need to completely rework his leg lift and swing plane to have success at the major league level. Not sure he's ready to go there yet but struggling in the minors might make him amenable to it. He hasn't played in the first two games in the minors so maybe he already is doing a makeover. In the interim, I will continue to call for McKinney to take over as the regular 1B with Taylor getting regular time in the OF.

Not really a great "told ya so" moment. This sucks. I'm not sure how any Brewer fan, even if you perhaps guessed right on this, can't think this sucks. Obviously it sucks. However, I had brought it up that he had missed games three different seasons due to his back and I very strongly felt this was going to become a chronic thing and I don't think others felt that way at all and were almost brushing it off as some minor thing.

For those who thought his back wasn't going to become a chronic thing, would you care to reconsider?