Jim French Stepstool

Both Bauers & Vaughn are putting up some of the teams' better ABs recently, which is the issue. Recent games, as well as the next few, might be used to answer whether they want Bauers in LF, or Yelich. Collins appears to be an odd man out right now but can be very valuable as a PH who can hit from either side.

I don't want to dump on Chad Patrick. He's been pretty valuable for us, especially in the early months of the season, and has pitched better than some of the numbers might suggest. But early in Wednesdays' game I heard him say Patrick's been "unbelievable" this season. I guess if he maintained that it was something that needed to be said I'd tell him "Didn't have to be".

Yep. Or the opener of the SD series. Peralta stumbles & balks in a run. In the 7th inning Mears looks very solid, then with 2 outs & none on walks Iglesias, who had homered but overall is having a very similar season to Joey Ortiz offensively. That cost him a run. Koenig & Uribe followed up with scoreless & fairly efficient frames. A series that left a bad taste in some mouths could've easily been a 2-1 series win.

I was ready to say a few games ago that he was looking better at the plate, but he promptly proceeded to put up some ugly ABs. Watching him, I really think he needs to find that fine line where he's keeping the shoulders & hips tucked in & trying to drive the ball to RF, while at the same time laying off pitches that are TOO FAR outside. That isn't easy. If he can lock into that then he might get balls to pull, like the GS he hit vs the Mets that seemed like it was about a century ago.

For whatever reason, when this is brought up I think of the 2018 WS, when we fell short by one game. LA & Boston were the participants. LA had Logan Forsythe & a 39-yr-old Chase Utley sharing 2B, and the Dodgers would've been happy had either approached Ortiz' current offensive numbers. When necessary, they would be PH for.. I don't recall the names, but Boston had two guys share the C job, and both were weak offensively. My point is, sure it would be great if Ortiz was hitting .280 for the year, or Cooper Pratt was playing well beyond his years & could come up here & be productive, but teams can have someone with an exceptional glove swinging a sub-par bat & still be successful. The teams I mentioned had a pretty good collection of hitters to offset a weak link, sure. But I'm pretty certain we aren't going to come anywhere close to approximating that by replacing Ortiz' bat with Monasterios, not to mention the defensive downgrade. As long as he's healthy I expect Ortiz to be the guy throughout the post-season, and I agree with that. They'll PH for him if it's a later inning & they're trailing.

I think the offense has been better in recent games than given credit for. Obviously the RISP needs to be better. That aspect of the team has been lousy, good enough, or very good, depending on which segment of the season you're talking about. I mean, we're talking about getting to/winning a WS, right? OK, then the level we played at from the ASG through August needs to be closer to the norm for that to happen. But you can say that about pretty much everyone. For that to happen, IMO we need to get back to grinding out the ABs, fouling off tough pitches, not chasing, drawing walks, etc. The announcers have gotten on this 'woodpecker' schtick & talk as if it's a constant. It isn't. Re-discover it. Other than that, let's hope for some better fortune afa pitching health. It sounds like things might be trending well for Megill; that would be huge. Whether he goes back to closing or not, you'd be adding him to Uribe, you have two LH throwing well out of the pen, and while I'm sure he's taken some heat after the SD series it looks to me like Mears is throwing the ball well. His biggest sin was when he got two quick outs Monday & then decided to start walking people, which he seldom does. Let's see what transpires w/Megill, Hall, Henderson, Quintana et al & find out who's available to work. And of course you can't have Chourio turning in the ABs he has lately. And Both 1B need to stay on the course they're on. We can be happy about the offensive production of both of our 1B options, and neither of them are named Rhys Hoskins. Who predicted that on opening day?

Almost all of them. Except there was this one guy named Bruisedtiger...........

Well, Ohtani leads off, so........😛. I'm sure there's something behind it, I'd just like to know what. Your RBI leader is leading off, and the guy who I thought was looking comfortable in the LO spot is hitting 5th. And it has nothing to do with splitting up LHH because you were able to do that either way. Odd.

In Websters', next to the phrase 'trying to do too much' there's a picture of Jackson Chourio. Looks totally lost. I'm sure he's known since age ten that standing there with the bat on your shoulder is uncompetitive. He needs to figure out that chasing is just as bad, and if diagnosed by your opponent can be even worse.

Agree 100%. There are examples that can support doom & gloom. And examples of this having nothing to do with how they perform in ten or twelve days. This is a great day for the former because they haven't looked this dead at the plate in a long time. To the above list I'd add getting back to the pain-in-the-ass ABs----going deep in the count, fouling off tough pitches, finding ways to once again draw walks. They drew eight yesterday, but I think you throw that game out since balls & strikes were called as if the HP umpire was on drugs.

He was never on it. His starting tonite had to do with Preister getting an extra day & not wanting to have a bullpen game, nothing more.

I'm not concerned with the lack of timely hitting right now---obviously tonite (thru seven innings) the offense has been a snoozefest though---but I brought up this very thing recently. I thought they settled into Frelick leading off, Yelich 3rd & Turang 5th, which I liked. Rather than rant about it, I'd really love to hear an explanation from Murphy as to why he's lining it up this way because it makes little sense to me.

That's what I was thinking. If they had challenges last night, by the ninth inning Roberto Ortiz would be looking for a hole to climb in. Or a bottle. I've always hated the idea of robot ball & strike calls. But pitching is getting so sophisticated with the spin rate development, many pitchers having two or three different types of breaking pitches, not to mention 96-97 MPH fastballs being the norm. It's probably time.

That's what it's about, in baseball more than any other game-----getting hot at the right time. I know that with a few pitchers down that you're hoping can return, the bye is a blessing. It was a bit skewed by the horrible job from the HP umpire last night, but they drew 8 walks, which is encouraging. It's something they've hung their hats on all season & haven't been doing a lot of recently. Other than that, they're picking up base hits, and the batted ball luck has been rotten recently. The RISP numbers have been lousy but I really think that's something that ebbs & flows. I've yet to see a 'Get hits with runners on base' hitting drill. As long as certain guys stop trying to do too much, I think that'll be fine. If they fail in October I really think a culprit will be pitchers losing their aggressiveness in the zone & walking people you shouldn't be walking, and at inopportune times. That's killed them the last two days.

Where to start........... Ortiz has saved a ton of runs this year, and runs saved are just as important as runs scored. Yesterday, no, he didn't have a lot of balls hit his way. Perhaps Murphy should know which days that's going to happen ahead of time & not play him? Even then, he saved a bad throw from going into LF, which kept the game tied at the time. Stranding the runners was unfortunate. Not once but twice, he turned what should've been a 2-1 count into 1-2 by chasing, and the second time chased again for strike three. I doubt that you dissect the ABs, but yesterday was a particularly bad day for him. No one has ever said he fields every other ball or is errorless. And the people defending him on here aren't defending his hitting. They're defending his playing regularly over Andruw Monasterio and the reasons why. The reasons have been expressed, you ignore or disagree with them. Cool. Defensively, yes, no SS on this team is better than him. Thinking otherwise is what's crazy. Please share the offensive stats that show that Monasterio would hit well enough over a protracted period to make up for what you would lose defensively. Again, pull for the Brewers to be trailing late if you want to see him PH for. AFA Monasterio starting over him, my guess is you might get your wish tonite because as I said, his ABs yesterday were particularly bad. He chased, and was pulling off the ball. He needs to keep his hips from flying open & use RF. I imagine you probably think his ABs yesterday were just as bad as other recent games. They were quite worse. Friend, like I mentioned in the previous post, they aren't trying to throw games. maybe look beyond the emotion & ask yourself the reasons why a team that's on track for their best regular season ever, does things the way they do.

I dunno. I don't like Megill being gone & everyone else having to step up in their roles, but they allowed one run tonite that wasn't an automatic runner. I'd give Anderson an incomplete because he entered the game, gave up a hit, and that was it. Mears back-to-back walks was inexcusable w/Arraez waiting in the wings. I thought everyone else threw the ball pretty well vs a tough lineup. Certainly Megill returning would slide everyone back & could make a big difference. Can we count on it? No.

They're getting hits but not stringing them together as you mentioned. The RISP #s have vacillated this year, and lately have been lousy. I'm more concerned about health & performance of the pitchers. Mears looked solid in the 7th, then out of nowhere walks back-to-back hitters. Too much of that lately. I know Iglesias homered, but he gave him way too much respect, and if he makes his pitches there they most likely win. That, more than the offense, is what would keep them from making a postseason run IMO.

Actually since June 1 he IS hitting about .250-.260. W/O going back in the thread, I assume you're p***** off that he wasn't PH for w/RISP late in the game. If that's what you want, then pull for the Brewers to be trailing, because if they're tied or leading they most likely AREN'T going to pull him. That's a strategy most teams follow when the move would weaken their defense. If someone on here is defending him as a hitter, then have at it. He hasn't been getting the job done, and tonite chased more than he usually does. Apologies if this is about something else. But sometimes I think you go shoot pool or something when the other team is batting. Teams, including the Brewers, don't try to throw games. There's a reason for what they do. You can disagree with it all you want, but maybe try to understand the reasons.

I try not to be the cynical type, but from about the 7th inning on I felt like I wasn't watching an actual baseball game, but the filming of a baseball movie where the script calls for the home team to win late. Nick Mears read his scene well. W/2 outs & no one on base, the script calls for him to pitch to the 8-hole hitter as if he's Aaron Judge, since in his previous AB the guy doubled his season HR total to a resounding two. It seems many of the opposition rallies lately are fueled by walks at weird times, to guys we shouldn't be walking. And Mears looked solid for the 1st two hitters. I guess that was going off the script, though. Like the ball Yelich lined to LF in the 9th. I had zero confidence that the guy wasn't going to make a diving grab. Horrible night by the HP umpire. And you'd think we'd have enough moxie to take advantage, but in just enough instances, didn't. I can easily see Chourio heating up & having a great October, but he's in a rotten place right now.

Hopefully it's a case of Contreras feeling close to 100% rather than talking his way back into catching.🤷‍♂️. I thought they settled into a batting order w/the LHH of Frelick leading off, Yelich 3rd & Turang 5th, which is my preference. Apparently not.

I believe he's mentioned in the past he has no interest in playing 1B. It can be a funny thing with some players, a comfort-level issue. You'd think 1B would be relatively easy. But I remember reading once how Joe Dimaggio was put at 1B by the Yankees one day, the idea being to lengthen his career. It lasted one game. He was really uncomfortable & basically told the team 'never again'.

The pitching staff for the playoffs is so much of a crapshoot right now with guys trying to come back from the IL at various stages--Maybe Hall & Henderson a little closer, Megill & Quintana more questionable, Woodruff sounding like a pipe dream. I mostly liked what I saw from Gasser. The HR by Herrera, he's a RHH that's going to get a lefty sometimes. What really bothered me was the walks, particularly the one preceding the HR. Victor Scott II swings from the left side & is the 9-hole hitter. That CAN NOT be a walk if you're Gasser. It might be a week-10 days before we know where some of the injured arms are at & the decisions are made. But it looks like one of either Gasser or Hall may have a role in the DS.

As I mentioned yesterday, Jeferson Quero was with the team although not activated. I figured all along Hoskins would be on the PS roster, but if they re-think that you could see Quero activated, he & Jansen split the catching over the next week, with Contreras easing back in as he DH's & catches the last game or two. And for all the Jansen haters, maybe Quero impresses enough to stick around in October. I think it's unlikely, but Hoskins looked less than scintillating at the plate Sunday, so...........?

Yes they did. And the ones who are here now appear to be much worse at it. As much heat as Fickell has taken, that might be his biggest failure. From all appearances he seems to be a CEO-type coach. You can thrive w/that style, but you need to have a strong staff & he doesn't. Successful programs lose assistants; it goes with the territory when you win. You need the rolodex, the contacts, the connections to fill spots--even to the point of anticipating a staff loss. Both originally & subsequently, his staff decisions have been pretty atrocious.

Yep, we agree on the underlined. I think many kids would've started out at a smaller school, yeah. But going from big to small if you don't crack the 2 (or 1) deep, I'm sure that happens too. Leonhard isn't a great example because he got on the field right away, at the place he wanted to be at. The common thread is, either way you can leave at the drop of a hat w/o having to sit. It's attractive in the moment, but a LOT of them wind up w/o a home & I suspect many of those wind up not going back to school at all. We aren't on the same page about the quality of the transfers, outside of some who are at a top-flite program & are stuck behind other high-level guys. When a school goes through the portal process & re-sets the roster I feel the talent level is pretty close to what it was before, except maybe different position groups are strengthened--or weakened. The exception of course is if you spend seven figures for a QB, provided he works out. The sober reality is, the portal might be what they HAVE to lean on right now. I'm not sure how many highly ranked HS kids they can attract given the growing toxic atmosphere re Fickell.