Jim French Stepstool

I've followed Black. His approach is nothing like Wiemers', and similar to Turangs' except with much more gap-to-gap power, while making very consistent contact & drawing a ton of walks. I know you're focused on offense only, but Turang has won numerous games for them this year. Wiemer was up here due to early injury issues. Otherwise it would've been to his benefit to stay in AAA. Having said all that I don't know how to respond to "they can't hit" when you're talking about someones' first taste of the bigs. If you're referring to the here & now only, then OK. If they're a WS contender it's due to the run prevention, like it or not. I don't think anyone clamoring for him is looking at Black as an "answer" right now, but simply an improvement. Personally I don't want him up here unless he gets regular ABs & that might be tricky. Their approach is pretty much the approach they need to employ. Anyone who doesn't like it should b**** to the MLB hierarchy that the financial structure of the game be changed to mirror the NFL & NBA (gee, I wonder how the players' union would feel about that?) This team "can't hit". Yeah, & on other days they can. Be happy the pitching & defense gives them a chance they'd otherwise not have.

Yes, bad teams sometimes do win games like this. Judging by the W-L record one did today. Everyone would like for their offense to be better. Over the last six weeks, sorry, but it has been much better. I know the last two have been frustrating. I'll also take their record since they left LA---a long time ago---every time. How do YOU think Wainwright pitched today? Not this season as a whole. Today.

I think he'll definitely be here in '24, at least at some juncture. Also, they've signed legitimate bats. They've traded for legitimate bats. The direction you apparently want them to go in isn't happening, can't, and shouldn't.

Here's what I saw: There was some over-anxiousness at the plate. Tellez' 2nd AB in an RBI spot, yeah, the result sucked. But that was a 9-pitch AB. It's impossible to put up that lengthy of an at bat & label it "bad". But in the end, he failed. Three DPs didn't help. Here's the thing about Wainwright. This isn't a computer game. It isn't Strat-O-Matic. We weren't sending punch cards up to the plate vs a 7.95 ERA. I know how this sounds, but he pitched well. If he threw like this all season his numbers wouldn't be that ugly. In fact they'd be more like what he's done most of his career. How that guy suddenly showed up tonight is what's frustrating. He got a little bit off the plate, and took advantage. The over-anxiousness, he's caused that for like the last 83 years he's been pitching. It says volumes about Sal Frelick that, as a rookie, he can get a couple knocks the first time he faced a guy who can make inexperienced hitters look real bad. Please keep this man.

My main concern is for Peralta to continue to pitch well, stay the course & give them a chance to win. There are too many variables involved to just assume we'll score a bunch off Wainwright, as bad as he's been. Still, it's really amazing how few swings-and-misses he's gotten. Just don't chase (usually we haven't been) & there should be some pitches to hit. I assume Donaldson will take some guff tonite, their fans being so knowledgeable & all.

The play I referenced above was it, I'll bet. Not lining up properly took away a 1st down, and they followed it up with a barrage of points in the following possessions. It's a new staff, and a mix of returning vets & guys new to the program. So who gets the blame? Damned if I know. Fickell talks about playing cleaner; it has to start pretty soon. They'll probably be facing a raucous atmosphere on the road Friday, and a Purdue team that, like them, has been uneven. IMO Mordecai has been one of the few who's shown visual evidence of improvement each week. Combining that with a tailback tandem that can be effective if they were actually used, would be welcomed.

For sure, I don't disagree with that. Certainly the credo should be "Just keep winning".

As they did. Still +6.5. I'm waiting for the thread that goes something like "Should we bring up Janson Junk & Caleb Boushley to start in Miami just so the fish can ace you-know-who out of the playoffs?"😛.

Tell your customers you're on BrewerFan & they're also paying for the scintillating conversation you provide while serving them. Then bump the price up to $6.00.

Five times.* In other words, three times before they went to NY last week. Recency bias. I'll admit I thought it would be a larger number too. But if you win the first two, is it really something to complain about? * I'm just talking about 3 game series.

Don't know. I don't follow the NFL; was there something about the Packers to b**** about?

And four in the last, I think, five weeks.

Sure there is. Just make sure you say it after the "right" games lol.

He was on 2nd base, and the ball was hit more-or-less behind him to the right side, with some air under it. With zero or one out, you're always going to freeze on a ball like that unless the 2nd baseman is playing almost directly behind the bag, which wasn't the case there. As long as there's less than two out, the way Monasterio & Lane reacted to the play is something you see more often than not.

I couldn't help but notice a big contrast today. Very 1st inning. Nats were rocked by the late heroics yesterday. Corbin immediately has a 1st & 3rd, one out to deal with, including issuing a walk. Here we go again? Pressure all on the pitcher? Nope. Without seeing a pitch yet in the game Willy swings at the 1st pitch & pops up. Compare that to Frelicks' last AB, where he drew the walk to load the bases. No, it didn't lead to a run, but just such a complete contrast w/regards to "owning" your AB, as opposed to wanting to get it over with. Pretty nice job by the "B team" bullpen. Just couldn't get the sticks going.

Actually the time to use him was the last Monasterio AB. Tellez reached base three times yesterday.

I wasn't convinced Wiemer would be optioned, but have no problem with it. A rare mix of size, speed, talent & athleticism that needs to play. I wish he had more than a week left at Nashville. In 2021 they had the big division lead, & CC went pretty heavily into resting guys. It's the thing to do when you have the opportunity, I just hope he doesn't overdo it if/when the time comes. They finished 4-10 that year, not exactly the way you want to finish up.

I hate that Fickell didn't go for it or move the needle during portal season.

It's the second one. Like I said in another thread, coaches at that high a level have huge egos. You pretty much have to. But you also need to be smart enough to realize what you have/don't have, and how it fits. It's possible that the emphasis has been on establishing what they want to do, and now that they're in the league portion the run game may take more of a center stage. I certainly hope so. But cleaning up the dumb mistakes is every bit as important. Both those things happened in the second half, and the results were impressive. There's also the idea that if you want a certain type of recruit, you have to show them what you're committed to. And they HAVE recruited well since taking over. Still, Allen & Mellusi certainly need to get the ball btwn the tackles much more.

You have to have more then a modicum of ego to coach at that level. I agree with much of what you say, but Longo isn't going to just change a lot of what he believes in. I'm not disagreeing that he needs to adjust, though. They're in the Big Ten portion now. I refuse to believe that he's so dense that he doesn't see that they can run the ball effectively w/o major adjustments. I'm hoping that the tendency to lean on the other stuff was born from a desire to establish that as the way he wants to play, and things will look a little different going forward. We'll see. I agree, passing to set up the run usually doesn't fly, esp in this league. Even when Brees was at Purdue, vs better defenses they'd move well then when they got inside the ten yard line they were hamstrung because the field shrunk & they couldn't run the ball. The difference is this team CAN run the ball. How they go about their business going forward is going to be interesting.

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?