NBBrewFan

Who's the bigger fool - the fans who think the Brewers have a chance at their current payroll rank or the fans who think the Brewers should spend more to put a competitive team on the field?

When will my buggy whip stock go up? I blame the government for cutting horse and buggy subsidies!

So one way I wanted to address whether our perception that the Brewers were bad at turning runners into runs was to look at LOB numbers in relation to OBP (If you get on at a high level you would also LOB at a higher level). I "lost" the excel file so I can't post a graph or the numbers, but the Brewers were above the trendline for OBP vs LOB (MLB in general). So the Brewers LOB number was lower than you would expect given their OBP. So our perception is just that a perception and didn't match the reality that the Brewers were slightly better than expected (based on OBP) of converting runners into runs. The one outlier I noticed at the high end of LOB was the Padres as they left many more men on base than their OBP indicated which kinda makes sense that they were desperate to upgrade their offense at the trade deadline. There were other outliers I just don't recall them. From what I recall the Brewers were about the same location WRT the trendline as the Dodgers (Higher OBP, Higher LOB) and pretty close to the Cubs.

So one way I wanted to address whether our perception that the Brewers were bad at turning runners into runs was to look at LOB numbers in relation to OBP (If you get on at a high level you would also LOB at a higher level). I "lost" the excel file so I can't post a graph or the numbers, but the Brewers were above the trendline for OBP vs LOB (MLB in general). So the Brewers LOB number was lower than you would expect given their OBP. So our perception is just that a perception and didn't match the reality that the Brewers were slightly better than expected (based on OBP) of converting runners into runs. The one outlier I noticed at the high end of LOB was the Padres as they left many more men on base than their OBP indicated which kinda makes sense that they were desperate to upgrade their offense at the trade deadline. There were other outliers I just don't recall them. From what I recall the Brewers were about the same location WRT the trendline as the Dodgers (Higher OBP, Higher LOB) and pretty close to the Cubs.

Well it's never a "THE" problem. It's often "A"/"one" problem. Their hitting with RISP is below average, but not significantly lower that it is a Major Issue. There are probably 5 to 6 other problems with a larger impact so it is relatively low on the list.

Well it's never a "THE" problem. It's often "A"/"one" problem. Their hitting with RISP is below average, but not significantly lower that it is a Major Issue. There are probably 5 to 6 other problems with a larger impact so it is relatively low on the list.

You are correct that most teams need to plan for 8 SP or at least for some "quality" depth to fill in missed starts. I think Stearns/etc. were fooled by the good fortune in 2021 plus with limited resources they had to decide how to use the assets they had and spending it on rotation depth wasn't high on the list. In hindsight how much better would they have been if they didn't sign McCutcheon and spent the $8M on a Wade Miley-TYPE signing of a vet to man the 6th spot and pushed everyone back one on the depth chart. Hard to know, but given how things shook out I'd bet if they went that route we'd be discussing SP alignment for the Wild Card round.

You are correct that most teams need to plan for 8 SP or at least for some "quality" depth to fill in missed starts. I think Stearns/etc. were fooled by the good fortune in 2021 plus with limited resources they had to decide how to use the assets they had and spending it on rotation depth wasn't high on the list. In hindsight how much better would they have been if they didn't sign McCutcheon and spent the $8M on a Wade Miley-TYPE signing of a vet to man the 6th spot and pushed everyone back one on the depth chart. Hard to know, but given how things shook out I'd bet if they went that route we'd be discussing SP alignment for the Wild Card round.

1. I don't think the decision to sign McCutcheon was a bad one. The decision to trot him out almost every day,no matter how bad he performed, was the bad decision. He also should have been platooned, but in CC's mind Cutch was the platoon for McCutcheon. Just horrible decision making during the season. 2. I don't think they relied on Small that much. They were hesitant to promote him due to not improving enough at AAA. Ashby was the primary depth for SP and he struggled, then with mutlitple injuries they had LindBOOM sitting at Nashville and Alexander and Small as the "depth". They went with 2 of the 3 and Alexander was successful initially and Small not. I'm glad they didn't even try LindBOOM, but when Alexander was struggling they went waiver wire/FA dumpster diving for the likes of Chi Chi Rodriguez. I get they don't have the $$$ for depth, but with Gasser they might have one more option that might be able to put up #4/#5 starter numbers if needed. 3. Trade Deadline - BINGO! They took a mediocre pen and removed the elite closer and added a bunch of meh to caca. Sending the message to the players that the long game matters, this season? nah.

1. I don't think the decision to sign McCutcheon was a bad one. The decision to trot him out almost every day,no matter how bad he performed, was the bad decision. He also should have been platooned, but in CC's mind Cutch was the platoon for McCutcheon. Just horrible decision making during the season. 2. I don't think they relied on Small that much. They were hesitant to promote him due to not improving enough at AAA. Ashby was the primary depth for SP and he struggled, then with mutlitple injuries they had LindBOOM sitting at Nashville and Alexander and Small as the "depth". They went with 2 of the 3 and Alexander was successful initially and Small not. I'm glad they didn't even try LindBOOM, but when Alexander was struggling they went waiver wire/FA dumpster diving for the likes of Chi Chi Rodriguez. I get they don't have the $$$ for depth, but with Gasser they might have one more option that might be able to put up #4/#5 starter numbers if needed. 3. Trade Deadline - BINGO! They took a mediocre pen and removed the elite closer and added a bunch of meh to caca. Sending the message to the players that the long game matters, this season? nah.

Good to see Frelick have a full season in the minors when clearly the Brewers major league team didn't need him this year.

Good to see Frelick have a full season in the minors when clearly the Brewers major league team didn't need him this year.

Is there $8M to spend? If there is then Wong is very good value at $8M. The issue is where do you play him? He should spend a lot less time in the field and against LH pitching (wRC+ vs LH = 33, wRC+ vs RH = 134) and Yelich should see less of the field and more DH with less of a handed bias (wRC+ vs LH = 86, wRC+ vs RH = 118) who really should be the primary DH next season. I guess when a SP has a higher Ground ball rate Yelich is in LF and Wong DH, and a SP with a higher Fly Out rate then Wong is at 2B and Yelich DHs. What we are looking at for offense is adding Frelick and Mitchel/Taylor (full time) to replace McCutcheon and Cain/Taylor then we either Lose Peterson and/or Wong or keep one (I doubt both). That offense would be worse losing both, but about the same if we kept either. What are the plans for Turang? I don't know if the Brewers really want him in Milwaukee next year. So one of Peterson/Wong are likely necessary if they keep Turang in AAA until they see how 2023 is progressing. They could very well run most of the same team back out for 2023 (minus Peterson) and have a similar offense and a better defense/health to pitching which puts us from where we are today to a likely WC spot (maybe a division win/3rd seed if the Cards regress) next year. Personally I don't think they can stay close to the same team and sell the fans (the "Average" fans that drive attendance ) that this team is going to be significantly better. I also don't know if the Brewers see a need for a 3B as they likely could think Urias just had an off year and don't look to upgrade 3B. What we think is the problem with the team may not be what Stearns/Arnold/Counsell think. We'll see which way they are likely headed as Wong's option will likely be one of the first off-season "moves".

I did that before we moved back to WI. In fact the upright was still connected to the roof from the previous installation (DirecTV IIRC) so I was able to easily clamp the outdoor antenna on, point it at the towers and connect the cable to the antenna and all the cable outlets in the house now had the HD antenna feed. No need for the AirTV (unless you want to record). We lived about 3 miles from the towers and had pristine HD almost 100% of the time. Also consider putting an outdoor antenna in the attic. Works almost the exact same as having it on the roof (depending on your position and where the towers are located) without having to deal with the weather and wiring 50+ feet of cable. It's relatively easy to run cable down an inside wall and to an outlet that you punch in the wall to attach the AirTV. The first time I went up into our attic in WI I found the previous owners had an outdoor antenna hanging there and they had wired most of the house with outlets so I was able to easily switch the antenna into the wall outlet on the 2nd floor attached the AirTV and had HD for any TV.

Well I am fine if CC took him out because of the baserunning mistake. The rest of the season CC gets an F grade for how he managed the DH spot. I just hope if CC is successful running Hiura out of town like he was with Villar that the Brewers just cut him loose instead of giving away another prospect and getting a negative value player back. Just cut bait and while Villar has been very hot/cold since leaving he's put up about 5 fWAR in 5 seasons. We just paid $8M to get to a free agent and got 0.4 fWAR so Villar has provided some value. Maybe if Keston get's out of the doghouse he can at least have a few years of productive baseball somewhere else.