Jim French Stepstool
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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool
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First TD in the game for ND that wasn't an extremely short field. Coming out of the locker room I was afraid of that. The delayed release over the middle, and starting to run the ball a little better. Good adjustment by them. We'll see if they can keep up the physicality.
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This is a program that's really been in the dumps, and they're playing a team with a real chip on their shoulder. All things considered IMO the talk about play calls, etc should be taking a back seat to the fact that they're really playing hard, physical football which has been quite rare. Not clean football, but much cleaner. And they've actually forced a couple of errors by ND. Fickell is certainly on a seat that's quite warm, and he deserves it. But it was an impressive 1st half. I don't know if they'll get a stop on the opening drive of the 2nd half, but if they do things could get interesting. I like the way guys in the secondary are flying around. And Joseph seems to fit what they want to do offensively. Oh, and NBC certainly makes you feel like you're a Brewer fan, watching a Brewers-Yankees game on YES.
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Different people can have different definitions, but how many 'innings-eaters' did they actually have? Misiorowski & (until lately) Harrison. Henderson is, but not until recently; he was IL'ed & then they were fairly protective of him. Drohan maybe to some limited extent. Woodruff was eyed that way but then got hurt. Sproat seldom lasted long enough into a game to be viewed in that regard.
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Yep. And other than Henderson, the only game in the last week that looked like it might be an 'innings-eater' start was May. And as fate would have it the baseball gods short-circuited that one with rain. I think he has more to give than what we've seen.
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He HAS made some really nice plays this year. But even if the quote was true, it doesn't excuse the level of struggle he had today. That's just a manager knowing before he sits down in the presser that he's going to be asked about Hamilton, and getting defensive about it before the questions even started to fly. Better to just say he had a bad day, or whatever.
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I get not liking what we gave up for the two STL pitchers. I flinched when I heard the cost, too. But again, if that's what it took & we said no, was there anything else in the hopper? And what would THAT have cost? Unfortunately we'll never know. If that was the only possibility, I think I would've done it reluctantly, but tried like hell (I suspect unsuccessfully) to replace Frias or at least get a 3rd piece (lotto ticket). I'm pretty sure the rumors about needing to include Henderson for Skubal were true, and that was a non-starter. None of the three pitchers have performed well up to this point, and IMO they've all underperformed what could be reasonably expected. If that continues then Arnold should take the heat.
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I don't disagree w/the 2nd point. Thing is, he's been coming in throwing hard stuff to the first hitter & almost w/o fail going 2-0, 3-0, 3-1. Maybe that shouldn't shrink his options down but it seems like it does. I've just never seen him consistently fall behind like this.
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OK, that's fair. Are you saying we should've stood pat? If we did then I think there's every reason to believe this staff would be in much worse shape right now. If you're referring to the talent we gave up to STL, that's a fair point. And down the road we certainly might regret not having one or both of the OFs. But that's what it took to make that deal, I'm sure we didn't sweeten it just for fun. I'd love to know what some of the other arms out there would've taken to acquire. But we don't, and some of these trades have proven that you can't just look at prospect rankings or computer-generated value to assume that because one team gave up so-and-so, we'd have gotten the guy If we had given up A, B, & C. I think Senzatela (along with Patrick) in middle innings is going to be a huge key to all this. And if Senzatela isn't any better than he's shown---like I said, I don't recall ever seeing him look this bad outside of Coors---then yep, they'll be criticized, and fairly. But I for one didn't see any indication he was going to have these issues.
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Yeah, it's gotten to that point. I understand Pratt not jumping in & being an immediate everyday SS. His offensive #s in AAA were pretty solid but far from flashy, and we all know what Ortiz was (not) doing with the bat until 5-6 weeks ago. And Ortiz had two horrible ABs yesterday so I can see him getting a blow today. But i think you should be looking at Hamilton getting one start a week; perhaps two.
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Hard to imagine this not being Hamiltons' worst game as a Brewer. He's not going to get buried on the bench as I'm sure some would like, nor should he. But of course Ortiz deserves the majority of time at 3B; that's been the case for awhile. Things snowballed for Hamilton today to the point where in the 8th inning he failed twice to advance the tying runs and he's arguably the best bunter on the team. What he needs right now is to flush this one. The bigger problem is the rotation behind the top two. Harrison had the opp to close up whatever pitch-tipping stuff was going on, but no improvement in the numbers so now it's a concern. Has he hit an innings wall? Maybe. There are other options, maybe not 6-shutout inning options but people you can combine, piggyback, etc. And I'm sure no one is in a mood for anything positive but it looked to me like May might've figured something out Saturday night before the rains came. I see some b****ing about the trade acquisitions. No GM anywhere was going to think, before this deadline, that we had better options on our 40-man roster for semi-important innings than Romero or Senzatela. And Romero has been just fine before this weekend; let's let that play out. As for Senzatela---he's been around quite a long time & I've never seen him pitch this poorly away from Coors. Odd. Cincy has been scoring & playing pretty well for about a week-and-a-half now. That contributed to this. We helped immensely, but they had a lot of good ABs.
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No one wants to drop out of the top 2 of course. But they've played pretty well on the road for the most part so I don't think it would be some sort of death knell. Home or road, a bigger factor is whether or not they're playing close to or at the top of their game in October. That's the case with everyone.
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I dunno if the successive # of games in a row played a part, but to me they looked like a different team after the rain delay. Better ABs by Cincy, a little more energy. And I don't know if reverse splits played a part, but I thought going with Romero in the 6th wasn't a good idea. I would've expected Anderson, then go with the 'primary' guys. Of course I also would've hit for Sanchez in the 9th, and I would've been wrong. Just pointing that out because fan boards are filled with rants from folks who complain that they would've done 'A' after 'B' failed, but when 'B' works they never admit that they would've done something else. What really sucked was May seemed to get on a very nice roll & Ma Nature pulled the rug out from under him. They were down by two in the 9th. Sanchez staying in after the double was a no-brainer. You MIGHT see him get PR for down two runs fifty years ago when you had seven position players on the bench, but probably not even then.
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Thurs. 9/3: Heading Down the Stretch
Jim French Stepstool replied to Jim Goulart's topic in Brewers Minor League Talk
Rylan Mills is doing a nice impersonation of a young Johnny Bench at the plate. I haven't seen much of his work defensively but understand it's been a struggle (a 19-yr-old catcher in full-season ball; it would be quite the surprise if there WEREN'T issues back there). Anyone out there who's seen him behind the plate more than I have, I'd love a scouting report. Thx in advance. -
Great point; much better than some of the lineup griping. Bauers didn't look good at the plate tonite but he usually doesn't get himself out. He can extract a walk. So I'd have let him hit. Sanchez for Yelich makes a lot of sense though, especially since you made the same move in reverse earlier in the series. Unless he goes up there totally undisciplined (possible), I think he's at least even money to draw a walk, you run for him, then either Pratt or Lara for Mitchell.
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Media types always like to say how this & that is 'wide open' even when it really isn't, like they're trying to sell airtime or something. But when you look at the top 4-5 teams in the NL, it really appears to be the case this year. But in the case of the team we played this week, in a playoff scenario I don't know how often they can avoid having to get 10, 11, or 12 outs from their bullpen, which sounds like a pretty big ask.
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I hear ya. For sure, he's not swinging the bat like a guy you want up there in the order. I just don't know what the other options would be. I think Murphy sees Pratt & Ortiz in a good spot mentally right now & might be reluctant to mess with that. Moving someone up in the order shouldn't make a difference, but that doesn't mean it doesn't. I don't like Mitchell up there now that he's cooled off, and as @wiguy94pointed out Lara right now isn't someone you can just plug into the 2-hole regardless of who the pitcher is. Down the road, either him or Lara could be great fits there. And you want Chourio to hit with some baserunners so that's also a factor re the bottom 2-3 spots. If you were to give him a break from that spot in the order I guess the best options would be Ortiz, or Frelick if/when he's in the lineup.
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Tonite was a refresher course for those who think the term 'good pitching can beat good hitting' no longer applies. I know Gausman has mediocre numbers on the year but they would be much, much better if he threw the way he did in this game. Not that there weren't some poor ABs, but it was mostly him being one step ahead pretty much all night. It's why you saw some of the takes on hittable balls, and why I hate guessing w/two strikes. This was a night where Gausman getting through the 7th inning was huge for them. The thing about Turang that is confounding to me is that he's perfectly happy going to the opposite field, he's good at it, and he's getting pitches he can go that way with; it's not like people are constantly busting him inside every AB. Yet he's STILL having contact issues. A hitter that can go oppo getting balls he can do that with & missing them is.......weird. Just in a bad place right now. A bad leadoff walk from Hall followed two hitters later by a drive that was caught, but I liked his willingness to be aggressive in the zone. His breaker for a strike on the 2-1 pitch just before the walk was pretty. Just so much better than he was pre-IL. I had no issue with the lineup. Hamiltons' at-bats were more good than bad IMO, Ortiz coulda sat for Pratt but they're both swinging the bat well, and if Turang would benefit from a day it would most likely come vs a LHP.
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I mentioned the other day that if he starts this weekend, looking at the off-days coming up he can then start once a week afterwards (assuming they stay w/the 6-man). That should give them enough time to work out kinks in the delivery, possible pitch-tipping etc while still giving him a comparative breather. He could even be piggybacked if that would be advantageous, now that you have 14 pitchers, So, no IL for my money unless he's actually hurt.
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Tell him "Nah, I don't think STL has a run left in them." Another favorite of mine is "Oh, you're a fan of Chicago. The ummmm.....ah, damn, you know.......help me out......not the White Sox, the OTHER team..........."
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For no particular reason I had the last few innings on mute. I got a kick out of BA on Sunday when Chourio was hitting w/no one on base down 7-2, on a 3-0 count: "Let's see if Chourio has the green light here," I also get annoyed at him rocking the "PCA" nickname. That's fine for national guys, Ron Coomer & Pat Hughes. I'd rather a Brewer announcer not refer to him that way (I know, unimportant).
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From a strength standpoint, right now it looks like Herman (Munster) vs Herman, (Pee Wee). As long as we're on the BP, let's hope for the best for Webb. Damn, took that one right on the throwing arm.
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Anyone else reminded of the '18 team tonite, when four or even five guys would go an inning each & barely give up anything? Nice to bail out a subpar start tonite. We all know that doesn't happen real often. Really looked to me like it wasn't the mound for Misiorowski as much as simply missing badly, and also some close misses that weren't chased---that team can do that to you. They had a nice approach. Good to see it was wasted. Great approach at the plate, not only scoring runs but getting Peterson out of the game early & making the Chicago manager go through his BP rolodex early one more time. I wonder how often we'll see Bauers in the OF from now on, esp RF. That looked like one heck of a Suzuki impersonation on the triple. Well hit, but not sure how it wasn't caught. Looks like Pratt & Lara are pretty good at baseball. Wonderful night.
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Personally I like PB'ing a LHP w/a righty, and vice-versa, that's why I didn't mention Hall. But yeah, he could be an option, especially with the other LH pen options now available (Romero or Drohan/Gasser on their 'throw' days).
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If another IL stint would help him, great. But I think a better option (assuming he's healthy) would be to get him up on blocks between starts, make sure the mechanics are right & he's not tipping anything, then limit him to 75 or so pitches. If he throws in Cincinnati this weekend & you stay with a six-man, that gives him one start a week afterward considering the days off. If the roster expansion wasn't limited to 28, Sproat or Crow could be a nice piggyback mate. As is, with the pen being beefed up Patrick could work.
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All good points & a very timely win. But I'd give an edge to a couple of those wins in LA---especially the first one.
