Jim French Stepstool

If you want to parse the game into four categories--pitching, defense, hitting & baserunning--this may be the only game of the season where we were this poor in all four. Rodriguez; I'm glad we have him. But both his starts were eerily similar. He's OK to good for 7 or 8 or 9 hitters then things fall apart. It's too bad they need him to be up here right now. It'll get better, eventually. Perkins has a bad day, which helps to put us at 42-30. We're 41-31 if not for his performance Sunday (not just his play to end the game but the one to close out the 8th too). He's an elite defender who is streaky at best w/the bat, usually closer to mediocre. With him in CF, that's our best team given our options. Unfortunately he has to play both ways & hit too; this isn't football. People need to understand that & deal with it. Since the better players should shoulder a little more of the burden I'll pick on Yelich. Yesterday he showed real smarts, trust & a "move the line" mentality in two late & very important ABs. Tonight he swings at a 3-0 pitch that he couldn't even pull. Pop fly to left. Then he swings 2-0 leading off an inning. Again, pop fly to left. I don't know if it was a lack of intensity or no respect for Plesac or what, but the game was in Anaheim & his brain was in Encino. With the RISP thing, it isn't easy to do this but I believe your best mindset is simply don't change your approach. Sanchez, just a bad AB. Got ahead then Ks on a breaking ball that splits the plate. Perkins & Turang (especially Turang), I'm confident they at least put the bat on the ball & possibly even walk if they're leading off the inning & see the same pitches. Both of them were so obsessed with "gotta put the ball in play" that any pitcher with a brain & some without will just keep throwing splitters ankle high. The team was great early on in these situations. Struggling at some point was inevitable. One little crumb: Peguero & Milner got off the deck a little & looked good.

George Lauzerique (0.02%), Dooley Womack (0.3) & Ted Higuera (10%). Womack was a briefly a Pilot, never a Brewer. But it's allowed😁.

Hopefully the Angels will play crappie this week.

I don't know either but I assume you're right re Bauers & options. He's going to run cold w/stretches (we've already seen one) where he makes contact & hits doubles & HRs. Unless something really falls into their lap at trade time I believe they'll stand pat at 1B. And their feeling re Black is probably that he'll do drastically WORSE defensively. After what we saw yesterday no one should be surprised anymore about the emphasis they put on that.

That's a terrific breakdown. Thanks. As I replay the whole thing in my head it's even more astounding that anyone who is something other than 'slow' would be thrown out on that play considering there were two outs. When I saw the throw coming towards home & Fairchild not there yet.......I mean, you can't say enough about Perkins' play, or the attention to detail by Q Berry. I hope we can keep him. When you hear about his involvement in this final play & see how the team runs the bases, that's one helluva great coach. Of course, if Berry just moves him in another 25 feet we don't have to go through all that stress.

It's wonderful to read these nat'l media guys, I learn so much. Never knew the Brewers were in a "current state of desperation". I also would explore the possibility of including Lara, but he & Wichrowski? No, not for a half season of Flaherty.

Agree. I was hoping Koenig started the 8th to face De La Cruz but thought it would be a "This is Payamps' inning" deal. Was pleasantly surprised when he came out to face him. Of course he homered, but still thought it was the right move.

One hell of a good question. Would love to hear from Murph on that.

That, & his walk before the HR. Murphy lauded the walk & rightfully so. Pass the baton.

I didn't like it until I realized it was Espinal next. I rag on De La Cruz but he homered RH & tripled LH. He was locked in today. Risky but OK.

More than anything I guess this game was a testament to defense in a launch angle, exit velo, need-to-add-a-bat world. Rae gift wraps their second run. Turang keeps the team in the lead by stealing a run on an eye-opener of a play in the hole. Turang & Yelich manufacture a run, but it was a goose egg if not for his liner dropping behind Elly De La Heel-of-the-Glove. Perkins steals one to close the 8th. Rare E by Adames (only his fourth, didn't realize that) keeps Megill from a 1-2-3 ninth & costs us the lead if not for: A fantastic end to the game & series, brought to you by the Blake Perkins Redemption Tour.

Especially now that you can't continually step out on him. Maybe he lobbied for the one-TO rule.

Despite the lack of successful at-bats, we once again ran up a starters' pitch count. That's 3-4 times this week, and especially when you do it early in a series it can pay dividends. Now if the situation calls for it tomorrow we probably won't see Buck Farmer, who looked a lot better than anyone they ran out there yesterday. Not panic button time, but Hoskins is concerning right now. Felt kinda bad for Sanchez today, in a comical sort of way. A pop up on a 3-0 green light, then his next AB he goes 3-0, takes two on the edge, fouls one off then takes a called third. If Jobu was in his locker he just got evicted. Boy was that some moronic baserunning by Cincy in the ninth. De La Cruz was off w/the pitch in a full sprint toward 3B when Candelario doubled. If he lines it at someone it would've been a very easy DP. Then Candelario heads to 3B on the grounder. Ouch. Looks like Koenig opening is a good thing. But in the 6th-7th we might get to the point where he's a better option than Milner, if we aren't there now.

.........And IMO a much worse bullpen. Most of the attention is being given to Perkins re last night & it's understandable. But probably a bigger factor was that we did a terrific job getting Greene out of the game after 5 innings & pretty much every guy they went to after him was vulnerable. Shoulda/coulda been a 6-5 game going into the ninth, or 6-6. And Peraltas' performance was a bigger factor too, but that's for another day. With Hoskins not hitting right now & Adames being streaky, I'm somewhat concerned about offense vs LHP going forward. Obviously Chourio has been much better & could be the X factor there. Right now the trick is to try to stay consistent, which is why they're in the position they're in. Every other team in the division has had a stretch where they've been pretty bad & we really haven't.

I've seen quite a bit of Taylors' ABs this season due to the MLB networks' obsession with the Mets, and I know his numbers are modest. I was referring more to the RH/LH difference.

Well, you need a 4th OFer. The problem is that Perkins profiled really well as a 4th OF due partly because he switch hits as well as defends. But now he starts most of the time as he should, and he's definitely better from the L side. So your only true presence from the R side in the OF is Chourio. Mitchell is on the way back, but he also hits LH. Isaac Collins switch hits & has pretty even splits but it doesn't seem he's on their radar (or on the 40-man). Right now Tyrone Taylor looks like a better fit than Frelick, but that's hindsight. I doubt anyone thought that in February. Agree 100% re Chourio.

When you're talking about 2 strikes in the count, yep. I seldom if ever used to guess-hit so when I see it it's frustrating. W/two strikes it's tough to justify, especially when a lot of these guys can go oppo.

Ball was hit to RF. Ellie De La Triple Error was on the other side of the diamond.

Yeah, like I said with two outs I wouldn't advocate it. If you can get it down & the 3B was playing where he was when Yelich bunted & drove in a run a few weeks ago, you can understand the thought process. But Candelerio was in.

I don't know how far back you go, but from (ironically) about the time Schroeder started doing his gig here until about ten years ago this team was notorious for swinging at pitches out of the zone, striking themselves out if you will, and hardly ever walking. Now, I'm not an advocate of taking called 3rd strikes but the opposite--flailing away w/no plate discipline--is IMO much, much worse. Their current approach gets them into opposing bullpens earlier than otherwise, including tonite. Is it a perfect strategy that works all the time? No. Sometimes you get caught guessing, which sucks. But I'll take it over the old days of some of their players thinking "hitters count" means "swing at anything".

I'm guessing it wasn't called. I have no idea where Steer was playing, but if he was deep then trying to beat one out there was risky, but I could at least see the thought process. If he was trying to put it down toward third then it was a horrible idea. Academic since he dropped the barrel & popped it up. The idea of it only tying the game if successful doesn't bother me all that much since we're 1) at home & 2) would be sending another hitter to the plate. At the end of the day no, I wouldn't call for it w/two outs. Just saying that I'd like to see where the right side of the INF was playing. That at least might solve the question of what Perkins was thinking there, which is of more interest to me than calling him a moron or whatever. Too bad we weren't down by less than three going into the inning. There was ample opportunity for that.

While I want them exploring opps to pick up a starter, I agree that they CAN survive an entire season as is. It's an exceptional pen due to its' depth of ability, and it isn't really only 8 deep--with the manipulations btwn AAA & the big club it's more like 11 or 12 as long as they're able to dance around any 40-man roster issues (Williams is an obvious ace in the hole; Yoho a little less obvious one). It's possible to deal with a certain number of 4-5 inning starts as long as those starts keep you in the game. So look into available starters. But no, not for Adames.

Since this recent info has been updated into a 24-25 thread (thanks mods), I'll add that UW has just hired a new assistant coach. Isaac Wodajo was most recently an assistant at Northern Kentucky in the Horizon league, & before that was both a head coach & ass't at the JC level. He was a grad assistant at Texas for two years late in the last decade. Sounds like his responsibilities will center mostly on scouting opponents & coordinating recruiting. He's in his early 30s & a Milwaukee native.

Exactly. I swear, sometimes I think national types like Ken Rosenthal see how much fun it is to follow Adames, his antics, his enthusiasm & get all jump-out-of-their-pants excited about the idea of him playing in LA or in the AL East, then try to justify it to themselves.

Definitely looked wonky, between Bauers not making the play or maybe laying back from the get-go & letting Turang handle it. Agree it needed to be an out.