Jim French Stepstool
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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool
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Brewers Bullpen (Quarter Season Assessment)
Jim French Stepstool replied to sveumrules's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
That's been a hope of mine for years now, to have enough depth in the organization that come July we don't hear the organization roll out the same old template "We're hoping to add a bullpen arm or two". Looks like we may finally be approaching that. With the early work Koenig has turned in, unusual depth from the left side. And I have a good feeling Payamps, while maybe not at the 2023 level, will turn in good work from here on out. Icing on the cake for the shuttle if Bukauskas & Clarke get added to the mix. Even if he gets himself right, it'll take some kind of foresight regarding the schedule to figure out a way to promote Uribe while having him unavailable for 6 games. September, or 2025, looks more likely. -
They'd be scared to death to do that in-season after the clubhouse reaction to the Hader deal. Not that it doesn't make some sense on paper. But a team that might have use for Adames wouldn't be in position to deal a proven starter anyway.
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Whatever you do, don't bring up the offense. It'll force me to think about that 7-game outlier to start the season.
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Yeah, that's part of the reason why it isn't a slam dunk. But I would imagine they're considering it & will eventually pull the trigger. They seem to be reaching a sort of temporal crossroads coming up in early June, with the chance of a # of people returning or close to doing so, and when the smoke clears I think Vieira will be somewhere else then if not before. We'll see.
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What was funny to me today was looking at the batting order, it pretty much appeared to be "Let's make sure Contreras & Adames get the extra AB if need be". And here they score ten runs. Hopefully Frelick has found something. And it's nice to see Chourio remind everyone just how much he has in the toolbox. Rottino made a great point in postgame. Gasser made one heckuva terrific pitch to McCutchen w/2 on & 2 out. It was still a game at that point, to start him off w/the changeup AND put it in a perfect spot to get him on one pitch-----just a very impressive start to his Brewer career.
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You'd think that has to at least be entering their thought process.
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Happy for the win, great job by the pen and I guess it's good enough to only have one big inning when you string together THAT many good ABs in succession. But I can't help being really, really disappointed in Chourios' AB w/the runner on 3rd & one out. It's bad enough to get caught chasing like in his prior trip, but he had at least one & probably two decent pitches to hit, contact was imperative, and he kinda reminded me of a pitchers' AB from back in the stone age. Just ugly. Keep workin', kid. Too bad Ross went deep in the count so many times, otherwise felt like 6 innings, maybe a little more. Yelich probably cost him 9-10 pitches too w/the dropped fly.
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Not necessarily launch-angle related, but I feel he's attacking pitches at the top of the zone (or above) that he should be leaving alone. Way more swing-and-miss than what his skillset should allow for, and way more than what he displayed in the minors. And I think approach has more to do with that than the upgrade in pitching at this level. Hopefully as he matures that'll change.
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Amen to that. So many hitters followed the launch angle craze that shouldn't have. Makes me ill.
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Bingo. The recent inactive spell was pretty obviously a case of the organization believing that side work w/Timmons, Dawson & whatever vets were working with him, was going to be more productive than him spending a month or two hitting against AAAA pitchers & the occasional not-yet-ready prospect. I think his ABs the last few days haven't been overly impressive, but better. I'm good with giving him the 2-3 week window before Mitchell returns, provided that in the meantime we keep Mitchell away from batting cages, bases, anything sharp or protruding, anything not encased in bubble wrap..........
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I was thinking the same thing. While Chourio was sitting I was assuming there were specific aspects to his hit tool that were being worked on, and he'd eventually return to at least a semi-regular role. It looks like that happened a few games ago. What I'm seeing since then is better contact, but not a whole lot of balls on the barrel. Looks to me like a lot of swings you'd usually see if the count was 0-2 or 1-2, even when he isn't behind in the count. It appears the pitchers are always one step ahead of him regarding pitch selection & location, which shouldn't be surprising considering he's 20. He hasn't looked terrible but the confidence that comes with experience & smart anticipation just hasn't caught up with the ability yet. If Mitchell is ready to return on or around June 1 that's a reasonable target date.
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Yeah. And he played that damned Bauers again tonight.
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I sure hope Willy was going to 3rd b/c he was anticipating a throw home. It still would've been a terrible decision, but at least he'd have a bad excuse for being mentally vacant. It's getting kinda old for me, having Vieira here w/o being able to option him. I get it, he throws hard & is around the zone an acceptable amount of the time w/the fastball. But everything else is pretty severely lacking.
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They started swinging the bats a lot better on Saturday. They can get things done vs a righty, especially with Wilson struggling. Probably a good time to get them out of town. In an alternate universe w/no one injured & Miley or Hall having their turn come up today good chance we sweep.
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Romero is a LHP which makes it tougher to get a jump. It may have been a case of not reading him well enough & having to resort to guessing, which might've given him pause w/Contreras at the plate. Having said that, I wanted him running too. I think on the 1-1 pitch Contreras may have been giving him a chance to go.
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The StL bench was chirping from the get-go. Unless they got up early & cruised I really think part of their script today was to do some agitating & try to get each other fired up, which sometimes happens when a team looks dormant. They were just waiting for the opportunity. And it gave Turner Ward a chance to catch some rays out on the railing.
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What sucked the most to me today was getting Mikolas to 43 pitches, or whatever it was, after one inning then allowing him to get through innings 2-6 with just over the same amount. We've been doing a nice job of bunching 3-4 good ABs together in an inning & couldn't do it today after the 1st. Never thought Mikolas would put together an outing like that but he was real good after the 1st time through. Just one more even semi-lengthy inning early & we probably got 'em. Helsley having 100+ in his arsenal then coming in throwing sliders for strikes isn't exactly fair.
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Depends. Seems like one of those guys that would talk your ear off. Which I guess is OK if it keeps you from the honey-do list.😃
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Looks like this is an "acceptable" lineup today, so maybe people can traverse the IGT w/o having to wear their hip waders. Cards hit the ball a little bit yesterday, so this might be a good time to be getting them out of town. Even so, Mikolas has been, shall we say, vulnerable this year. You kinda figured Turang would be inserted in the leadoff spot at some point, it's terrific to see he's done it w/o skipping a beat. Coulda/shoulda had 2 hits yesterday.
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I mentioned that last night in the IGT. Pretty much the only explanation.
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That's nothing. I became a curmudgeon when I was still playing.😒
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Only one boneheaded pay from the home team tonight. In the graphic showing Brewer pitchers w/6 shutout innings in their M.L. debut, it mentioned Jim Slaton in '74. Slatons' rookie year was years before that. What stuck out to me about Gasser vs Myers was they both try to fill up the zone, but Gasser does it with the sweeper, and does it effortlessly. And of course threw strikes w/the FB too. Glad to see Frelick get the late hit & RBI's. If I had to guess, I'm thinking he got on top of a lot of fastballs at the minor league level that he should be taking up here. He's fighting it right now, but I think it would be wise to let his story play out. Methinks Hoskins & Adames are going to get a LOT of RBI opportunities if that top 3rd stays healthy. Loved their ABs tonight, especially Adames. A word on Chourio: I'm guessing that anyone privy to what goes on 3,4,5 hours before the games would see a lot of concentrated work with him, Dawson, and Timmons, correcting & polishing up something mechanical. And they deem this work to be more fruitful than going to Nashville & cuffing around AAAA pitchers. Just a guess.
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It's times like these that make me sad that Vieira has no options remaining. After the early work he did, I really miss Bukauskas.
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The Real Brewers Offense?
Jim French Stepstool replied to BruisedCrew's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
The top one-third of the order looks really formidable (waiting to see what it looks like vs a LH starter). As long as Hoskins can do Hoskins things & Adames retains some semblance of the AB quality he's shown in the first 37 games--I'm not thrilled with his work the last two nights, but small sample to be sure--they'll give people problems. -
The Real Brewers Offense?
Jim French Stepstool replied to BruisedCrew's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
And here I was trying to be funny. Sveumrules & Bruised, lots of nice data there. Thanks for digging.
