MadScientist

I wouldn't be surprised if it were 1-2 per game. Not so much sneaking one in, just forgetting about it. So ~100-150 per season.

Any word on why 25th round pick Dan Wirchansky didn't sign. He's a senior, so this was it for him.

The players and ownership first need to sit down and figure out the root of baseball's problems and find some solutions. First and foremost the number of franchises following the 'terrible for a few years, great for a couple of years pattern needs to be eliminated. One down year is understandable, maybe two. But not the 5 we often see. If a team has no chance on day 1 of the season to compete, there isn't going to be a whole lot of interest. So how do we get there. 1) Cap FA contracts to 3 years max. 2) Shorten pre-FA control - 5 years for players under 25, 4 for 25-30, 3 for over 30. 2b) A pre-FA player injured for a year will not have that year counted against the control limits 3) Salary cap so big markets can't buy everybody. 4) Salary floor (70 % of cap) 5) Improved revenue sharing, including auditing team owned stations so monies aren't hidden. Players get: -Much faster path to FA -More teams bidding for FA services -Better pay during most productive seasons Owners get: -Better cost control and budget certainty -Fewer dead-weight contracts -Likely better revenue Fans get: -More competitive baseball. Negatives: -Players likely to change teams much more frequently.

I hope you are right... Miller hasn't even been used as a starter since mid-May. Plenty of things may preclude the Brewers from adding a starter (asking price, other teams, etc) but Shelby Miller isn't one of them.

In. Teams that race out to a good first half tend to fade. Teams that are good, particularly one with a lot of veterans, but tread water for the first half tend to pick it up in the second half. The Brewers are a good team, they will pick things up in the second half.

I know their whole shoulder program is a bit controversial...some like Joe Kelly swear by it while it may have ruined Tyler Thornburgs career. I wonder if he partially blames them for his struggles and just wants out of that organization. Right or wrong, I suspect that's a bit of a factor. That said, I'd only want Tyler if he accepted a minor league deal with some time in the minors to try and get right. With how bad he's struggling, no way should we be throwing him at MLB hitters. It's plausible if not likely he's upset with the organization and their shoulder program. The question is will getting out of there and into a program more suited to him improve his results or has he been permanently damaged? At this point I doubt even the O's will give him a MLB contract.

I'm guessing they (and others) find it more difficult to project pitchers at ages 15-16. Looking at the top thirty, there are only 6 pitchers on the list, the highest being #16.

It's been proven here many times that 12 AB is sufficient for an accurate judgement. (Especially if those at bats fit your expectation.)

I don't know, the Lombardi trophy is just a silver football on a tall base. NHL is just a weird cup. NBA is a nice idea of a basketball on the rim, but it looks unbalanced.

Successful season =

If you are trying to win a championship, go for the All-Star.

But the contrast between Shaw and the duo if Moustakas and Yelich is stark. So he's drawn a few walks? After 2 hits his first night back, he's got one since and one RBI. With an opportunity this week to use a 9th hitter, somehow it doesn't make sense to have the 13th arm instead of arguably no worse than the 5th best bat in the system at AAA. It's only 2 games with a DH, which is arguably better used giving Braun or Grandal or Yelich a partial day off. Also with no pitchers batting there's much less need to pinch hit. Plus with Brewers pitchers facing 9 real batters, having the extra arm is valuable for pen management and playing the match-up game. The Brewers have reliably shown over the last few years that they are better off having that 13th arm on the team.

So is he just really good at MLB the Show 19?

AKA Hader 2.0. A bit of development and he could be quick moving bullpen arm.

The Cardinals are like a horror movie antagonist. Only when that elimination notification in the standings appears is it “safe”. At this point I'm only willing to wright off Miami, Baltimore, KC, and CHW. The Cards Pythagorean is 28-24, the Brewers 29-26. The only reasons the Brewers are 3.5 games above the Cards are CC's in-game decisions and more aggressive shifting. The Cards aren't in any way out of it. I won't trust them to go away even if they are 20 games out on August 1. They are worse than zombies.

I thought you missed a digit on the K's. Definitely a player from a different era.

Too late. I've already forgotten it while blotting out 2002.

Chacin started slowly last year as well. The pattern is very similar to how he's been this year.

If there has ever been a player that a shift will not work, he is the guy. His outfield spray chart is pretty even, but I'm not sure you can make that claim without a spray chart of his infield outs. The infield hits skew heavily to the left side, but that makes sense due to longer throws. It would be nice to have a really good hitter that they have to play straight up.

Forget the age factor, he had a K rate of less than 10% the last two years combined and after being promoted spike to over 20%. Hiura is debuting with a K rate of nearly 30%. Kid destroyed and overperformed for his age at every stop. Not sure why it wasn't expected for him to over perform at the MLB level compared to a normal rookie. Big jump yes, but Guerrero Jr. was no normal guy. I will temper my expectations for a guy who gets fanned at a high rate at AAA. Not sure why going to the MLB level will help that much and guys striking out 30% of the time don't typically provide much of meaning. It is really hard to predict how a guy will do when making the jump. Some guys sprint out of the gate and some don't. Some surprise compared to expectations and some obviously disappoint. Hopefully he looks competent. I agree that Hiura could struggle, and speaking for myself, I will only be disappointed if he comes up and is only subpar at the plate relative to other second basemen. For that position, I figure "average" is around 90 OPS+. For comparison, Perez is OPS+ 88 for the season, so to me, this move is a win if Hiura is better than Perez. I think that is a very reasonable expectation, and while he may see a big spike in his strikeout rate at the MLB level like Vlad Jr., I wouldn't take Hiura's 30% K-rate so far this year as necessarily indicative of who he is going forward. It seems he saw an early spike as he adjusted to AAA pitching, but has since leveled off his K/BB% quite nicely. So, long story short, I expect Hiura to play a lot and probably strike out a bit more than we'd like (and more than he's used to), but make strides in that area if given the playing time to adjust. He should at least be marginally better than Perez, and way better than 2019 Shaw (OPS+ 46, yuck!), and that is something everyone should be excited about. Whether he is a star, though, is anyone's guess. But it should be fun to find out. One other thing on that strikeout rate. Hiura had 15 K's in his first 5 games (21 PA). Since then his rate is down to 20.6%. I'm not expecting him to set the world on fire, but I also don't think there is a gaping hole in his swing that MLB pitchers will exploit at will.

Pretty similar in terms of age/level/results. Weeks had a bit better walk and strikeout rates, Huira has a bit better power numbers. I don't have a good way of comparing the Nashville vs Albuquerque park / league effects. Both were similar to what Braun put up in AAA at age 23.

The IGT's would be almost barren if we didn't question managerial decisions. But yes, CC is the best in-game manager in baseball, it's hard to justify questioning his moves.

Nice 7-0 win to start the series. Cubs were colder than the weather.

no no

No, this isn't anything new. Every team, every year has a game or more where they need to bring up someone from the bullpen or minors to start a game in a pinch. They try to get 4 innings, with a long reliever following him. You can call Peralta a tandem starter, piggyback, whatever you want but it's the same thing as long relief. Sorry, this new philosophy you've been touting is not becoming true. Also, I like the way you keep saying "it's coming." That way you can never be wrong. This is a little different in that they technically have a starter available to take the turn in Peralta, so it isn't a true bullpen game. It's more of a "our young starter sucks in the first inning, so lets throw the noodles against a wall" game. Results are pretty much the same though. Not sure if this qualifies, but June 30th 1987, the Brewers started Mark Clear, for his only start of his career. After 3.1 innings they brought in Chuck Crim who had started 5 games earlier that month. Crim was a starter in the low minors, but was mainly a reliever after that. His only other start came in 94.