Jim French Stepstool

The 60-day is back-dated, so he can still return by June 20th. The chances of that happening seem pretty close to zero, but all this means is his return isn't imminent. Like with Gasser it's just a frustrating wait-and-see thing right now.

23 hits & no HRs in the game last week vs Chicago too. Yeah, in this day & age that can't happen very often.

With the subset of starting pitchers we had in March now looking like a MASH unit & Myers at 100 pitches w/ a ten run lead, I'm pretty sure 8 shutout is memorable enough for him. Although I'd agree Herget warming in the ninth was a little odd. Meh, but odd.

Fun fact of the day: # of consecutive pitches thrown w/o Detroit picking up a base hit. I think it was something like 107. Love to see Turang & Perkins pick up base hits foul-line to foul-line. Would like to see Frelick start smoking the same brand.

Carlos Rodriguez has been very good since the beginning of May. If that continues over his next one or two starts he should elbow his way into an opportunity. No, no, no to Hudson starting. I'd try to gradually stretch Koenig out before I'd do that, and I'm not so sure I like the idea of messing w/Koenig. But please leave Hudson alone. The issue w/Misiorowski is consistent command moreso than length. He just isn't ready.

I don't know if anyone saw Fry coming. But trading Olson for Daniel Norris was asinine.

Tim Dillards' middle initial isn't B, is it?

I never liked the idea of one catcher DHing while the other is behind the plate when they're your only two. I've softened on that somewhat since the standard four bench guys isn't very many & the options are limited. Maybe we'd see Contreras DH more if we had the traditional, defense-first backup C but that isn't the case here. Still, Sanchez is the guy they decided on for that role & especially with the heat coming Contreras needs to fill the DH role a little more often. And yes, a full day off needs to happen even if it's sporadic. Don't want to change this into a position-change discussion because they're usually silly, but if Quero proves the real deal could we see a 1B mitt on William down the road?

True dat.

I'd target Fedde moreso than Crochet, for reasons mentioned above. Hadn't thought about Gomber. Could be a nice, (relatively) cheap option. I suspect Arnold & the rest of the braintrust is wanting to see Mitchell get back in action, most likely in AAA, then determining whether they'd want to include Frelick as a piece in a deal. Obviously none of the young OFs mentioned are in rarefied air AFA trade value is concerned. But I'm sure they'd like to add one of Frelick, Mitchell & Wiemer if possible.

No change. I'll admit there are a number of guys you can point to for the lack of offense this week. Their names are Sanchez, Nola, Wheeler, Hoffman & Alvarado. Philly has a terrific team. A season has ebbs & flows, I'm sure they'll have stretches where they don't look all that great. This week, they were great. They also threw us out on about half a dozen bang-bang plays at 1st (you could see Murphys' frustration after awhile, constantly checking for a review & every play being called correctly), saved a run when Frelick couldn't get out of the way of a wild pitch, saved a run when Bohm made, frankly, a dumb decision going against his mgrs. strategy & being bailed out when Stubbs, while looking for the throw, just happens to put his foot in the perfect spot...........I mean, breaks go both ways over 162. This week, they happened to go with the team that was extremely talented, and playing extremely well. I pretty much gave up on Wednesday after Sanchez hit a rocket toward the gap, & Merrifield caught it flat-footed, without having to move, as if he was playing long toss with someone. I wouldn't spend prospect capitol on anything other than starting pitching. If a bench-type bat can be added to the deal, fine. I would at least be open to dealing relief pitching if it helps get a deal done. People like Williams, Clarke & Bukauskas returning would make this more palatable. If needed at some point, it MIGHT kick up the offense a bit if Turang & Ortiz hit 1 & 2. Yelich 3rd. Get Contreras more RBI opps. If Ashby can go northward from what he did yesterday it would be huge. And apologies for not remembering who it was, but someone brought up the idea of stretching Koenig out as a legit starter. That's intriguing. Still hopeful on Junis & Hall. To have something special happen, I think the keys are Ortiz maintaining & building, and a light to go on for Chourio.

Many Brewer fans wail, whine & complain about Bauers & Ollie Dunn being on the roster. If they don't like it, your comments above sum it up: Blame Black. If he was to the point where he could be at least adequate at 2 or 3 of the positions he's been tried at, he could be filling either role. But he isn't. And if they never felt the need to trade for Bauers we'd still have Jace Avina, who I liked a lot. And Brian Sanchez is doing well in rook ball. This is the first time I heard someone say he's actually regressed with the glove. Disturbing.

Deadline deals between two contenders have been rare, but Milwaukee & Texas might actually match up well enough to buck the norm. Intriguing.

Not to mention the ball basically put on a tee for their fielders. Have a guy hit a one-two hop fungo right at you, barely have to move your feet, you're able to step into the play & throw w/o your setup or rhythm being upset one iota. That happened about four times this week.

.........And we gave up only seven runs in three games, which speaks volumes about the Phils' pitching.

I think it's exactly that, because I don't believe our philosophy is all that drastically different.

W/ one out, what they're doing (and other teams as well) is banking on a play not being made well enough to field it, make a good throw, and get a catch & tag. I know it's frustrating when it doesn't work. But unless you have a sloth running at third no team is going to hold the runner w/one out & hope for one of the seven ways you can score from 3rd, or a base hit. You're banking on not only a bobble, but the ball not being fielded with the INF being squared up & ready to make an immediate throw. Why it hasn't worked for Milwaukee as often as we'd like I honestly think is luck-related more than anything else, because our strategy isn't much different than other teams. With no outs, I doubt they're trying it an inordinate amount of the time, or running "no matter what". If someone has such a stat I'd like to see it. I'm sure such a scouting report doesn't exist. I mean, you're either playing the INF in & trying to cut off the run, or playing back & conceding. What happened today was a play by Bohm that Thomson didn't want him attempting, he defied his own managers' strategy, and got away with it. Again, typical of the way the week went.

I look at it as, he walked five in five innings vs a pretty good lineup & was still one mistake away from 5 shutout. IF he can harness the command a little more & get ahead a little more often he'll help us more in 2024 than I ever thought he would. Plus in my world, it was four walks. The second walk to Harper was a K for Ashby in a lot of worlds.

That WOULD be dumb. Thank goodness it isn't what they do.

There isn't a manager, 3rd base coach or player anywhere in MLB that isn't going to sign off on Contreras trying to score there, especially with the INF back & probably even if it isn't. The only reason to hold at 3rd in that situation is if you have a time machine & know what's going to happen. Stubbs bailed out Bohm by getting his foot in (of course) the perfect spot to block Contreras' hand. I mean, with the INF back & one out, you look like a total moron if you DON'T go.

Here's my microcosm of this series: You get a runner on 3rd w/one out. The infield is playing back, conceding the run. You hit the ball on the ground, not to the pitcher but one of those infielders. The infielder makes what was IMO a pretty dumb decision & throws home. And you still don't score. This was the best they swung the bats the entire series, despite being shut out. Not "well", not "good enough", but better than the first two games. Was anyone surprised when Sanchez hit the crap out of the ball in his last AB & Merrifield hardly have to move? For the 3rd straight day, one of their very good starters was pretty much on top of his game. I call it the teeter-totter, where the pitcher has you taking strikes & swinging at balls. Nola did that about as well as you can do it. As for Ashby, I talked about him building. He continued that today IMO. But still obviously not there yet. 0-2 to a LHH backup catcher hitting in the 170s & he throws 4 out of the zone. That cost him 10-12 extra pitches. Then the back-to-backs (one to the same guy) was just a killer. I imagine he'll stay here & continue to build. Overall, certainly more good than bad from him.

They were. But you'd have to say "relatively speaking", and underline it about five times. I'll say this much, if we have to roll the dice for someone to start today, I guess better a LHP vs this group.

He's been better than that lately. Having said that, his starting today is more a byproduct of our having to go so ridiculously deep into the organization due to injuries than anything else. I'd love to see him be able to continue to build in Nashville. It is what it is.

What I saw the last two days was a couple of the better starters in the NL pretty much on top of their game regarding stuff, velo, location, working from ahead. When that happens they'll hold down us & pretty much everyone else, too. Their relievers on Monday were very good also. What disappointed me was the lack of success yesterday vs Dominguez & Strahm who both looked vulnerable. This series so far has boiled down to two excellent games decided by a few key ABs. Ours were horrible-looking failures By Contreras Monday & Hoskins yesterday, and a failure each night by Turang that weren't bad ABs but still fell short. If they were to lose today & Ashby somehow pitches well, that might be a case of losing the battle but winning the war. I'd be shocked if he looks that impressive but we'll see. Philly might have a somewhat watered-down look with a flight to London coming up, but scoring is the bigger problem, at least in this series.

Junis threw 2 scoreless innings (21 pitches) Tuesday night for Nashville. I would think one more start down there, then either another one or a piggyback w/.............by that time, who knows? Wilson? Clarke? Hall? Ross? Oliver Drake?