Jim French Stepstool

"STRETCH ARMSTRONG!!!!" Lol. If I was a knife-twister, I'd tell Trace Fowler that Tommy Harper was the first ever Brewer all-star in 1970, he pinch ran in the game, Johnny Bench threw him out stealing & the Reds are still paying for it. That, and I'd love to hear what these guys think of Luke Fickell.

I certainly wouldn't have used Williams tonite. That said, he's in one of those stretches where every AB seems to go anywhere from 6-7 to maybe ten pitches, and I don't think overuse has anything to do with it. He's done this before, just needs to work his way through it. But no, not a day after throwing 25. My feelings on Bauers: During his good stretches he keeps the K's to a manageable level, draws walks & goes fairly deep into counts, and can pull the ball with some authority. Almost like a poor mans' Russell Branyan. At his worst, no, you don't even want to see him coming to the plate. What I think many have glossed over, is the huge canyon of difference defensively to Hoskins, Sanchez, or Black. I remember in the first six or seven weeks of the season counting 3 or 4 games that we probably don't win if not for his glovework. Now make it 4 or 5. "Run prevention" isn't just a slogan with these guys, it feeds their decision-making & roster construction. Despite all the 'DFA' cries, he was never really going anywhere. Turang: I've been a defender of the guy in the leadoff spot, I still believe he can be an effective fit there. But part of my patience w/keeping him there through his struggles stems from not liking the other options. Ortiz has cooled back down, Yelich isn't here, and I really don't like the idea of Chourio leading off. Now, Perkins is swinging the bat acceptably & hits from both sides, and Frelick seems to have taken things up a notch. For the remainder of '24, trying either of them up there wouldn't be a bad idea. Mitchell; Damn, you easily see what the organization sees in the guy; so many tools. Just such an unfinished product. Still under 1000 PAs as a pro. Still many frustrating ABs, but starting to get interesting.

My first thought during the telecast tonite was "Gee, it's too bad Chourio doesn't play in LA or NY. Then they'd know how to pronounce his name."

Alright, then. With Chourio OK then Hicklin it is, as the extra position player. Feel a little bad for Collins, I think he's just a smidge more deserving (yeah, I know he's not on the 40). Hicklins' bat had been quiet for quite awhile but he's had a couple productive days recently. It gives them the option of sitting both LHH OF vs a LH starter now, if they choose.

I think Jake Bauers throwing three scoreless innings in one-sided games this year has been huge in this regard.

What I'm saying is, I can't say I expected us to stuff the play & get the ball back. Stopping the 4th & 1 was, at that point in the game, pleasantly surprising to me. The risk on their part was giving us the ball at midfield & either not getting it back, giving up another score, or getting pinned deep if we punt. But yeah, I agree it was certainly worth the risk to them.

Some of them had bad feet re pass blocking, but I found nothing boring about those lines. Keeping the ball away from an opponent for half a quarter or more while the clock burned was a beautiful thing to watch.

I'd like to know what he meant by 'too conservative', because they very seldom if ever threw deep last year. I like the idea of them mixing in some go routes, I'll just have to see it to believe it. Things did get clogged up more than you'd like to see. It didn't cause big issues because they were able to get the run game going btwn the tackles. Could that be an issue in the big ten? Absolutely. If ever there were games where they planned to keep things under wraps, this one & next week are it. We'll see, I guess. I suspect letting the TEs get their feet wet early was by design. I could be wrong but I don't see them catching more than a combined 3-4 balls a game on average. If they DO stretch the field more with the wides that might open them up a bit. Nowakowski was always a willing blocker who started as a FB and you're right, his hands seem more than good enough. I feel he's someone that they viewed as a blocking TE who's surprised them a bit. Not totally convinced re the LB corps, but as you said there's an awful lot on their plate due to the line being thin. The two FCS-level guys they brought in are gonna get every chance to make a difference. Hills actually made a play or two.

James Thompson was a huge loss.

Another positive. I don't blame WMU for going for it, but our O-line was starting to get some push & stopping them there was going to give us the ball at the 50 & put a real damper on their upset hopes, and we did it. Can't say I expected that. Curt Neal might be every bit as valuable as Van Dyke, AFA needing him to stay healthy.

Maybe the biggest positive I saw was in the second half, we actually started to wear them down a bit with the O-line. That might not seem like a big deal since it was WMU, but I don't know if we could've done that last year w/o having to wade through a bunch of false starts & holds. Having depth at RB is refreshing. Still, there was a play in the 1st half when we were in the red zone, 1st & ten and lined up in an empty backfield, which is nuts. Van Dyke needs to be better moving forward, but his combination of running ability & throwing is a step up from last season. I see people complaining about not throwing more deep, vertical routes. I kinda agree, but on the other hand they really don't have receivers built for that or an offensive philosophy that integrates it. I'd like to think part of it is holding back the playbook for B10 opponents, but they never really did it last year either. Maybe Vinny Anthony, as the year unfolds.......... They got good stuff from the TEs, and I liked the formation with both of them on the field. Helps to make up for no fullback, and as pass catchers they both fit the 3-7 yd flips out in the flat that Longo loves to throw. The front seven mostly didn't impress. But Neal plugged pretty well, and Pius & Hills made plays later on. Too soon to judge, but the depth could really be a problem. I was actually disappointed that the secondary didn't make more plays, but I saw they never threw at Hallman (which I didn't notice, embarrassingly) & there wasn't enough of a consistent pass rush to help them out. Need to find a way to get someone like Peterson on the edge because I remember one safety blitz, and the rotation to cover for the safety was non-existent. All in all, much stuff to clean up, and people like Barten & Neal HAVE to stay healthy. But after one week, saying they're "this" or "that" is IMO a fools' errand.

I was thinking after the game, how impressive Williams was today. He threw a lot of pitches but the Reds were pretty much doing that to everybody, fouling balls off & going deep into the count. They did some things that'll make a pitcher crack, and he didn't. And considering France never faced him before AND fell behind 0-2, that was a hell of an impressive AB to end the game.

The best chances of someone else throwing would probably be Koenig or Megill, but I agree I doubt they'd want to do that. None of the Cincy relievers threw many pitches in game one but I don't know if they're comfortable bringing any of them back.

I think his being on base less has something to do with it, plus earlier in the season he has Contreras in the 2-hole who was hitting to the right side really well then, and is probably more likely to take pitches for Turang & still put up a good AB. With Chourio hitting 2nd, perhaps you're best off just letting him concentrate on getting a good pitch to hit w/o worrying about letting Turang run. The numbers you posted tell another tale about Turang. A little better than 1:2 strikeout to walk ratio in the 1st half. Now almost 1:3. He can be an effective hitter, but it'll be hard for him if he isn't closer to the 1st half ratio. A little too much chasing.

Seems like a nice addition, but the timing of it strikes me as weird. It sounds like he'll be the college FB equivalent of a bench coach. The only connection I see is in 1997, when he was strength & conditioning coach for the Saints & Fickell was on their injured reserve list

That's the ticket. Let him get further & further away from surgery, then see what's best for him. If it's 2-3 effective innings a couple times a week, that has value. Especially compared to where we were at most of this season, which was totally writing him off.

Or DL Hall. He last threw on Saturday.

This is what they envisioned when they got Civale. Six or seven innings of old-man ball, staying one step ahead of the hitters, commanding all of his multiple pitches. Kinda resembled a RH Kershaw today. I've heard the great things about Ashby in recent weeks from the minor-league guys, but unfortunately wasn't able to see him work in Oakland on Sunday. I'll tell you what---the locating he did today, the velo, that was some eye-opening stuff. Even with the generous strike zone in the 9th, those were 2-strike pitches. He put both of those right where you would want him to. Exciting to see. You know how you blow up a balloon as a kid, get it real big, then let the air out? PLPLPLPLPLPLPLLLLLLL! That's Hoskins ABs recently. From the neck up, he's actually doing some good things to get back in the count, or get ahead in the count. Then he gets a pitch to hit, and PLPLPLPLLLLLL!!! Frustrating.

Tough to watch when he was hitting w/the bases loaded. Got ahead 2-1 vs a pitcher that walks a lot of people. Nowhere to put him, you KNEW he was getting something pretty straight to hit, got it, and fouled it off. Inning deflated from that point. He's gotten much better at not chasing like earlier in the season, but the strikes he gets usually aren't getting barreled. Felt for him on Tuesday though. Hit one on the screws w/men on vs Rogers but didn't find a gap.

Maybe the defense keeping the bases clean has played a large part in a lot of the HRs being solos & 2-runners? It also seems to me like we pitch much more carefully when facing multiple baserunners--everyone does of course, but even more so than most. Not a great example because he hasn't been here all season, but Civale seemed way too passive, trying to get chases & make the perfect pitch last week in Oakland w/runners on even though he had a 6-run lead.

Damn, on the interstate that could've easily been a REAL tragedy. Glad to hear damage was limited to the vehicle, which is a blessing.

Ross & Wilsons' roles are kinda redundant, plus Ashby & Hudson can go two innings, so I wouldn't be surprised if one of them leaves the building at some point. Agreed, Ross appears the safer of the two right now.

This was a frustrating yet goofy game to me. It reminded me a little of some of the games the Dodgers play. "Oh, we're tied now? We're trailing? OK, we'll just pull one of our HR cards out of the deck & play it here. What? The HR was robbed? OK, we have another one in the deck. Yeah, here it is." Otherwise they did very little offensively. Of course you can say the same thing about their opponents tonight too. Probably needed to look to steal a little more in the late innings. As well as we ran up the pitch count & made Webb work, I thought he had a horseshoe stuck in his arse a little bit. Two or three 'almost' infield hits in clutch spots, and Bauers smoked one in the 1st inning that easily could've gone for an RBI hit. Ballet lessons for Myers in the off-season.

I dunno. Coming into todays' game Payamps has allowed two hits the entire month. Hudson seems to have settled back in after a rough stretch. Megill had a bad outing his first time back from the IL, but was solid in Oakland. There might be tweaking of the personnel coming up but it's still a group more than capable IMO. My biggest concern is fans jumping off a bridge when Hobie Milner is the pitcher that gets added on 9-1. Not predicting it but it wouldn't surprise me.

A little, I guess. That July was one Baaaaad month, wow. Still, athleticism w/some pop, I like that combination. I gotta admit though, the other guy we gave up (Sanchez) is having the better year (albeit at a quite lower rung).