Jim French Stepstool

They won because they became much more balanced in the 2nd half, committed to do the things necessary to run the ball & (for 25 minutes, anyway) stopped shooting themselves in the foot. If not for yet another stupid more-than-four-men-in-the-backfield penalty in their 1st possession of the 2nd half, they keep the ball, more than likely score (they scored 21 points in that quarter), and the game winds up 35 (or 42) to 7.

I agree. He had very little running game to fall back on, when he needed one. In the Sun Belt that'll change. All things considered he did pretty much all he could.

After 3 games, probably my biggest concern is whether the defense holds up against some of the run games we'll see from here on out. The answer is blowin' in the wind somewhere, because they haven't faced one yet. Isaiah Mullins will help there, as the depth probably isn't what it needs to be. Tressel did a better job of dialing up some pressure from different spots & being creative with it, as he needs to do. It'll have to be a group that gets enough blocker occupation from guys like Gio Paez, Rodas Johnson, Thompson & Mullins to allow for what is actually a very good group of LBs to make plays. The secondary is struggling, for sure, although Wohler usually seems to be where he needs to be. The credo this week was "let it fly". That, and the preoccupation with not forcing any TOs coming into this game, is what I think led to people biting on first moves & being left in the dust. It's happened each game now. That's correctable. What bothers me more is the 3-4 balls today where they were in a position to make a breakup & didn't. Ricardo Hallman was drawing raves in camp, so I guess he's one who particularly needs to step up. Interesting how the passing game started getting 'easier' once they started running the ball. Surprise, surprise. Like LouisEly pointed out, Rucci started getting involved. Obviously I'm not privy to practice but I believe the run game is an afterthought to Longo & that has to stop. Line looked better, even great at times, but I still think Nelson has to turn his game up a notch or three. I believe Ashcraft can be a guy mentioned with their best TEs they ever had, provided he learns to block. It's his third game since his HS prom, so It'll take awhile. Mordecai has gotten better each week, and it's nice to see him also able to hurt you with his feet. There's no guys at WR for the Gus Johnson-types to salivate over but it's a good enough, deep enough group assuming Longo decides to let Allen & Mellusi occupy an opponents' scouting report too, and I don't mean floaters out to the flat w/little to no blocking. A word about C J Goetz. The kid was a great fit for Leonhards' defense. Not as much with this scheme, yet he's still making plays, making very few mistakes & being a very positive factor. Can't overemphasize how impressive that is. It wouldn't surprise me if he winds up having a pro career as a special teams/situational type guy. Still waiting for some of the mental stuff to get cleaned up. 2nd Half was a step in the right direction.

Lots of fun guys to follow on that team, too bad they're done. Anxious to see what the plans are re Baez (not level of play; I assume he's ticketed to return to Carolina. Wondering about position). Could we see O'Rae in Appleton?

N'Ville rotation for him in '24 I assume. My bad that he's never been on my radar until recently.

We just moved this spring. It's now HS football season, and I can keep track of the action on the field through the PA announcer, whether I want to or not. The stadium is like a half mile away. I didn't think it would carry as well as it does.

That's the nice thing about winning the last couple. Of course, it's baseball, so who knows about the next few. But on paper, yeah definitely.

I scratched my head a little at the lineup today. But when you think about it, Taylor has been out there a lot. Donaldson has played four days in a row. Look at what CC did tonite re the bullpen. When he gets a full roster like tonight, he's gonna try to keep certain guys fresh, even among position players. Santana sat out a game and crushed a couple tonite. I guess we all need to start trusting the guy making out the lineups.

It was his secondary lead. Not saying it wasn't dumb; it was. But not much Berry can do about that.

Something big that happened behind the headlines.........Tellez & Yelich were a combined 0-3 w/3 strikeouts heading into the fifth, and both did a real nice job of working walks, esp Tellez. Settin' the table. Holy crap did Contreras hit that ball. Weird 1st inning. It was like Miley got to 2 strikes, then the Nat hitters got into his & Contreras' brain & knew exactly where he was going with the next pitch. Great stuff by the "B team" pen giving others a blow.

I'm pleasantly shocked. I thought no way we'd see him for at least another couple days.

My first guess is they do nothing, AFA removing him from the roster is concerned. When at full health his PT is mostly going to be limited to what he does well--defend & maybe PR. If they DO make a move I think it'll almost certainly be a swap for Perkins. Greg Allen would be a dark horse candidate. Chourio isn't coming, yet. It wouldn't shock me if Wiemer was starting in the OF next year. For Nashville. If not for the injury bug there's a good chance he'd still be awaiting his ML debut. Just a word on Mitchell--I'm eagerly awaiting his development as much as the next guy, but he strikes out A TON. Had he not gotten hurt I feel this would've caught up to him eventually. I like the skillset but a guy with his speed needs to make much more contact if he wants to maximize.

As long as people don't misunderstand it, and think we're now the purveyors of bad college football.

Like Taylor, Monasterio's certainly opened eyes to a possible role down the road. It might ace out a chance for my guy Cam Devanney, but you can't ignore what an asset he's been.

I'm not against the idea but I'd put that in the highly unlikely category. But if it does I think it would be after N'Ville is through. His ABs in AAA have been awfully good lately though.

I'd be inclined to put that # at .235 or so. I mean, he's been pretty valuable this year hitting .220 or whatever it is. Over the last 6 weeks IIRC he's around 240-250.

Tyrone Taylor. I mean, I did NOT see this coming. Not only stepping up in various ways like he has, but to do it when you really need him to----with the influx of OF talent emerging/on the way, it was very difficult for me to see a role for him in the future. Pending the usual contract/arby/FA issues, you'd think a guy like him would fit beautifully on a roster. Sort of an OF version of what Monasterio has done to the INF picture. Nice to see the script flip after one time through the order vs a talented young arm. Nothing flashy but a very decent return for Houser. Kinda ugly inning from Uribe,but he mucked his way through. It IS nice to have an unfinished product putting up an ERA under 1.5 while he learns. Some kinda talent. Good to see Turang contribute with the little stuff. Make more consistent contact & he's an offensive asset. I'm guessing we don't see Canha until St Louis. I'm basing this on nothing more than them wanting to be extremely cautious & feeling they have the leeway to do so.

That Texas series was some of the best AB consistency I've seen in a long time, over the course of a full series. Agreed re Steele. He certainly wasn't bad that day, but the conditions held us down a little more than he did. The long flies, and IIRC a lineout by Adames in the 1st that might've plated a couple.

I'd feel better about Houser making his return if Wilson was available, which he obviously isn't. As long as he gets through 5 or so we should be fine. I've seen comments in recent days about the walks drawn, and insinuations of luck being involved. Yeah, it's fortunate when the opposing pitcher can't command the way he'd like. But I've seen way too many instances over the years where there are walks to be had, and we don't extract them due to poor discipline & count recognition, lousy situational awareness etc. Bases on balls are often a large part of any rally. I applaud them for improvement in that area. It's too bad they weren't a little better at that on Sunday. As good as he was, Cole had 3 or 4 walks in him late in the count but we chased. Let's string together some good ABs today. I hope the lineup doesn't suffer from a case of "give him one more day-itis"

I should've also mentioned Greg Allen (let go by the Yanks & now at Nashville) as a possibility. IF they look to replace Wiemer, Allen & Perkins are sorta interchangeable. Perkins (probably) a better defender. Unfortunately for Wiemer, anyone in the position group looks like a better AB right now, including Perkins.

It isn't a Brewer thing. It's industry-wide. I don't like it, but CC isn't any different from any other manager in that regard. Done well, in the proper times, it can win games. But it doesn't make you a lot of money come arbitration time, or when you hit FA. Sad, but that's the priority. Guys who don't want to put the time in to become adequate at it will gladly spend an entire off-season rebuilding their swing to increase their launch angle.

I doubt there's a bigger advocate on this board for bunting than I am. But I have to agree with CC, who was talking about it once & mentioned how you need for the guy who you're asking to bunt, to actually be able to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if Wiemer hasn't bunted since he was seven years old. I wish more players had it in their toolkit, and were forced to at least try to become competent at it. But they aren't, and yeah, it ticks me off.

It seems that way. Wiemer is all go, all the time. He has no 2-strike approach to speak of. And it seems he's virtually never getting ahead in the count. People are clamoring for him to not be here, and I don't blame them considering how he's looked. But I wish they'd realize he probably never should have been up here in 2023 to begin with. Urias got hurt, which opened up his spot, then Mitchell went down for the year. He's an elite defender, which they value. So they lived with the incomplete offensive game, which has gotten worse as the league gets a book on him. It may be time for Perkins, now that he's back playing. We'll see.

I would guess they're considering Perkins for Wiemer. He was unavailable & is now playing in N'Ville on rehab. Other than him there wasn't really any other option afa OFs at AAA are concerned. Yelich hasn't been available. Canha is down until Friday I'd guess. Wiemer played because they're down two OFs. I won't defend Anderson being here, esp since he could've been used today & wasn't. I was actually surprised he stayed & Miller went when Donaldson joined the team. As long as Nashville is playing they aren't going to bring up Black to sit, which is what he'd mostly do w/Donaldson being here. They've played this entire series with a short-handed roster & won 2 of 3. Today it bit 'em.

It WAS an out. Runners advance a base if the ball is carried out of play after a catch.