Jim French Stepstool
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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool
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IMO, Rengifo wouldn't be sniffing a DFA unless we're quite a bit further into the season AND he craters. He's oh-for his last 8; before that he had a 7-12 stretch. He K'd twice tonight but on the year rarely strikes out which to me suggests some rotten batted-ball luck. He's also hitting around .280 vs RHP, which I suspect would surprise some (A RHH to share 3B with him sounds good, but I don't know that they'd want Williams on the short side of a platoon as opposed to getting regular ABs in Nashville). I also feel Frelick is untouchable regarding a demotion, although yes he's been disappointing. The rest? Yeah, keep an eye on Lara, Pratt, Jett. You never know.
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Murphy was asked about Gasser starting tomorrow. He did his coy thing, but to me it sounded like Gasser was getting the call.
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I think they trust Mitchell. But like I mentioned above, they just aren't going to pull a better defender if they're leading in the game, and Perkins is slightly better than Mitchell IMO. This shouldn't surprise anyone; it was the same strategy last year re Ortiz. I wouldn't mind seeing Lara here. But whether it's here or Nashville Mitchell needs to get ABs, and even with all the Ks they feel he's done enough good things to roll with him. They don't want him only playing once or twice a week, and they certainly don't want Lara coming up here & doing the same. So if Lara gets a shot I think Mitchell should go, and then Perkins is here until Lockridge is back. The idea was mentioned earlier about Perkins canning hitting from the left side. His numbers are much better hitting RH; of course that doesn't mean he'd hit righties from that side.
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The consistent mindset there, is that you don't weaken your defense if leading in the game. Would inserting Mitchell for Perkins do that? IMO yes, slightly. Trailing, you'd have seen a PH. Tied, probably.
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My only problem with tonite's game, strategy-wise. With the Gomez vs Frelick matchup you needed either an early steal attempt or the old-school hit & run. Unless you want to count Brewers' hitters chasing as a 'strategy', but that doesn't come from the dugout.
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I'm guessing Blake Perkins in playing today in place of either Mitchell or Frelick, which makes sense given the numbers. His splits are Grand Canyon-wide though, so if Minny switches hands in an important situation he should be lifted. In the recesses of his mind, I wonder if he's given any thought to going RH-only. A career OPS over 1.000 hitting RH vs RHP (5PAs). What's the guy waiting for?
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Plus, many times when he enters the game the offense feels compelled to put his team in the lead. You can't put a price tag on that.
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With all of the ranting & railing about the Brewers' BP, maybe it's about time they give a shot to this Ethan Murray guy. ERA of zero. And the inning kept scoreless due to a diving catch by Luis Lara that can only be described as sensational.
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I think Lewis definitely blocked the base. The Twins might counter with the argument that you never see that called, why pick on us? And they'd have a point. Put another way, I don't think I'll ever see Max Muncy get called for it.
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True, but I think often times it's more a case of "All managers manage games in which their teams lose, and therefore SOMEONE has to be blamed." IMHO there are probably some teams Murphy would be an average MGR for, but the Milwaukee Brewers aren't one of them.
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Wouldn't be surprised. It's a game of numbers, and 8 or more wins out of the BP one-fourth of the way through the season is a big number.
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It looked like one of those "we can't hit" days, but you wind up with 9 hits & 3 or 4 other well-hit balls that would be hits on another day. I'll say this---I would've liked a little more 'woodpecker' in a few of the ABs. Case in point in the 3rd inning. W/one out, Turang & Contreras both work the count full vs Ryan (who BTW was very good). Those are the situations where you wear a guy out, walk, make him throw eleven pitches---something. Both wound up as Ks. Bauers followed with a single. I don't know if I've ever seen someone score two runs, pick up a couple knocks & be this instrumental in a win offensively, and look as horrible at the plate as Chourio did tonite. Scale it back, pick up the ball, keep it simple. Loved Crow tonite. He might be one of those 'third time through is an issue' guys but you gotta love his early work. I'll give Perkins a little credit. PHing vs the lefty was a great call, he put up a great AB & drove one to the wall after working it full. Then forced to face a righty (who he's been horrible against), contact was imperative & after getting to 0-2 he puts it into play but right at the 2B vs the drawn-in INF. After his name came up a time or three during trade deadlines, I'm fine with us not having Josh Bell (now watch him hit three bombs tomorrow😛).
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Yes.
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I think, if the internet existed in 1927, you'd have had Yankee fans complaining on message boards about all the dumb things Miller Huggins did.
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Plausible.......IF the team we deal him to has at least a hint of a plan for him moving forward given the options situation. But that could work.
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Just imagine how even better those numbers would be if he knew what he was doing.
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Good points all. I would add that he could possibly be added as an extra bat after the rosters get expanded (although people who would like to see him here understandably don't want to hear that since it's 3.5 months from now). You could say the organization has been a bit blindsided by this. A career .270 hitter in an 8-year minor league career who has never had this productive a start to his season. It reminds me a little of Garrett Cooper from almost ten years ago & I wouldn't be surprised if the result is similar----that Leonard is involved in a trade, possibly for a minor-league arm that they think may help them at some point. It would be a cool story if he made it up here but flexibility is important in this FO & I think the lack of options is going to be a brick wall.
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Despite the modest (but climbing) numbers Cooper Pratt is one of these guys that has hit the ball hard to all fields. Sharp single to RF tonite followed by a double to the gap in LC. And like Lara he draws his walks & just doesn't strike out much. He's gettin' there. A couple more Xbase hits for Jett Williams. Our old buddy Owen Miller pinch ran for Iowa tonite.
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Leonard is out of options, right? So if he comes to Milwaukee he needs to stay here or be exposed. With Lockridge out & Yelich being a ? right now, Black also being an option...........I think Leonard was one of those deals where his best shot was making the team out of ST, and now that he didn't it's a little dicey. I also get the feeling they'd like to leave Chourio in LF, which could further complicate Leonard being on the roster. That also gives Mitchell a longer leash. Of all the whipping boys on the roster---Rengifo, Ortiz, Mitchell, Frelick, Hamilton---Mitchell is arguably the most vulnerable, but it's probably going to take even more extended struggles from him for a change to be made.
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I thought using Hall was fine as he hasn't thrown for three days, but agree re Woodford. One for him, one for Hall, and one each for Anderson & Fitzpatrick, both of whom had cobwebs hanging from their arms.
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The knuckleball can allow you to throw a lot more than a usual workload-----although IIRC he didn't throw many on Tuesday. Like mentioned above, probably a case of riding the mule into the ground before bye-bye.
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I guess Rengifo should get people off his back now. He's never been an all-star but his work in LA has mostly been solid & given the makeup & timelines that exist in the organization signing him made a lot of sense. And many people will see 2-4 w/3 RBI and hit stop, but he also saved two runs in the top of the 1st when it was still 0-0. Harrison once again was just so poised. Gave up some hits but when you don't walk anyone.............and the BP obviously wasn't stressed but they all threw well. If Fitzpatrick can continue to perform it's huge w/the LH pen guys that are out. Chourio reached five times in his first game, but just as impressive to me was his pitch recognition & swing decisions his first couple games. That's gotten worse as he's moved on & hopefully today was the bottom. Pretty ugly. Going oppo vs Waldron tells me Mitchell is really, really concerned about staying on the ball above all else. He can run, so it's not the worst thing in the world. As always with him, stay tuned.
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I wouldn't say the 3-2 was uncompetitive. It's a location where you get a lot of swings w/two strikes in the count, pitchers get "low but over the plate" swings all the time. I would agree though that getting to 3-2 in the first place was a problem. And on 3-2 w/Sheets next you certainly don't want to have to rely on a chase. So bottom line, yeah, a failure.
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You can't defend Uribe obviously, but with the people due up in the 9th for SD I don't know if there's any manager who would've left Ashby in after the 8th. A good 'what if' would be if Misiorowski was able to stay in & pitch a scoreless 8th & the 9th then unfolded the same way, does Murphy go to Ashby for the Sheets AB? It sucks that you didn't get a swing from Bogaerts on the 3-2 because you easily could've. Both Uribe's walks in game one were much worse than the one tonite, but this one cost you. Baseball. Hopefully tonite is a new beginning for Frelick & Rengifo. A couple guys who have an offensive history much brighter than their first 40 games. And great baserunning by Frelick to keep Machado from turning two. The clamoring for Lara was, initially, premature IMO. But he had three more hits tonite, and while you can tell that Mitchell is going through a process & trying to improve the 'game within the game' regarding how he's putting ABs together, man is he struggling. I suspect the FO is at least in 'think about it' mode now.
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I was wondering if Contreras would maybe sit out tonite. He took a couple foul tips that they said hit off his glove right in the area of the finger that's been a little bit of an issue, and his last AB looked pretty ugly. Good sign that he's playing as long as it isn't a case of him talking Murphy into it. Quality matchup on paper. King has been very solid.
