Jim French Stepstool
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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool
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When does Arnold start to receive some criticism
Jim French Stepstool replied to brewers888's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
As long as Borbon DOES do a great job in that regard, sure. I guess my larger point is that, if he is great at it, I don't know how successful we'd be at retaining him. Sedar, when he moved across the diamond, was in a position of having to make in-game decisions on the fly, moreso than any other staff member. IMO he was not very good at it. If not for that responsibility he was probably fine. I coached a lot of 1B. Believe me, there's an art to yelling "BACK!!!"😁 -
2025 Minor League Transaction Thread
Jim French Stepstool replied to Jim Goulart's topic in Brewers Minor League Talk
The first one is a no-brainer. Andersons' promotion is exciting and, at least to me, unexpected. -
it's interesting in that Philly has a need, & it's a need we could theoretically fill w/o decimating our pen as there are other options. I like the sound of some of the Phillies prospects brought up in the thread. But it would certainly be construed by many as punting if such a deal was made this early. I guess I'd start with Bohm & see where it goes from there.
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When does Arnold start to receive some criticism
Jim French Stepstool replied to brewers888's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
Your last sentence raises what I think is a great point. Living in the world the Brewers live in financially, there are some areas you might not be able to throw money at the way some other organizations do. I've felt for awhile some of the major league support staff is done, comparatively, on the cheap. I think the game in Cleveland where the starter had to leave early illustrates that. They had to pivot to a new arm coming in & looked totally lost. It's how you wind up with Ed Sedar as your 3rd base coach. A delightful guy, but......... I had the same suspicion about the staffs on some of the affiliates, but some of the minor league guys here who live & breathe with the farm system would know better than I about that. -
I dunno, I don't think there's an OPS low enough to persuade them to put Black at 3B. If they stick him there during his minor league stint that might signal that their considering it but I'd be very surprised. He isn't in a great spot long term. At 1B they like Blake Burke, Luke Adams is getting comfy vs AA pitching & E Martinez is kinda intriguing. In the OF you have 2 LHH (one on the IL), switch hitter (IL) & a LH OF-DH with a lot of time left on his deal. He could shoehorn his way into playing time with some of the people that are out, but I'm actually surprised he wasn't dealt at the deadline last year or the off-season.
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After how he performed in short stints last year & the health history, I'd keep Ashby as far away from starting as I could (save for spots as an opener of course). But it looks like the organization may be thinking otherwise.
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I was watching at home. I know you don't always get a true indication of crowd noise & reactions that way, but the way things are going recently I was listening for boos by the 5th inning or so & didn't seem to hear any. And it was a large crowd, even if some were Twin fans. Have to admit that at this point, if I was there & the reactions were along the lines of "Oh well, lah de dah, who's turn is it to buy?", That would tick me off.
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If this continues, no doubt. But everyone is screaming SELL!!! SELL!!! & in order to do that, you have to also have a buyer---preferably several. I doubt this is the right time to max out the value of your assets. If it comes, it'll probably be a ways down the road.
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If Monasterio played SS regularly I think we'd see a difference and defensively, it wouldn't be a positive one. That said, there's nowhere else to go unless you recycle Dunn who's played quite a bit of SS recently. It doesn't sound like they're all that high on Freddy Zamora and rushing Pratt isn't a good idea. I think we'll see Mona in the lineup more often but not every day. Oh, and Capra will probably go something like 6 for 11 in his first few games for the Sox.
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Their command hasn't been good so far, but you have Ashby & Hall making their way back, plus Hudson trying to figure things out, plus Jay having success in AAA. I don't have a problem with Zastryzny per se, since it was a cash deal. Fortunately we didn't give up any talent for him. Even a lottery ticket would've been a head-scratcher to me.
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After Tuesdays' game I mentioned Donnie Ecker, who was fired as the hitting coach at Texas. But when you have an in-season move like that there's often some kind of connection between the new hiree & someone in the organization, and I don't know of any. Had they not broken out on Wednesday, I thought maybe we'd have had something happen during the off day.
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First off, I think dropping Chourio to the 6 hole is asinine. What's fueling his atrocious ABs right now isn't going to be fixed by him hitting ahead of Jake Bauers (yes I know he's swinging the bat well right now), or Durbin or whoever. If the discipline doesn't improve it won't matter WHO he hits in front of, but now you've got a 21-yr-old ticked off about being dropped down (as per Murphy) who is going to try his damndest to prove he's 'better than that', & I don't exactly see that mindset resulting in any better ABs any time soon. Bad idea. I believe the BABIP tonite was over .300. So there's that. Turang had a 3-hit game with any luck at all. He & Contreras swung it well. That's about it.
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I'll take that bet.
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I think they're a better team defensively w/Bauers in LF instead of Yelich. Who would've imagined anyone ever saying that?
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Unscientific, but maybe Bauers looking at more pitches.....even if some of them are strikes.....is part & parcel to the success he's having. Whatever his approach is between his ears, I wouldn't want to see him mess with it.
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In the shadows of some of the hot bats in Biloxi, Anthony Seigler has been scorching this month for N'ville & is on pace for his best season as a pro. A switch-hitter & a very versatile guy who can catch. Whether it's here or somewhere else, he might turn out to be a nice bench piece for someone. Mayor Warren is having a well-deserved solid year, too. I believe he's a FA after '25. Maybe he'll get a shot somewhere where there's less blockage? Curious as to where Quero gets sent after getting his feet wet w/the young'uns.
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I swear, anyone with the time could put together a compilation of obstruction calls/non-obstruction calls and make MLB umpires look like total, clueless clowns. That's the problem when you put a rule on the books that doesn't belong there.
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Esp with the man warmed, and an off day tomorrow.
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Chourio IMO should stay in the 2-hole. The above would then put 3 RHH in succession in the top half. I'm not totally adverse to this---it's much better than going 3 LHH in a row---but it's just not something they like to do. I've ripped Yelich on here. Heck, I did it in this thread. But he hit .315 last year, OBP'd over .400 and OPS'd over .900 before packing it in. And now he's supposedly pain-free. It looks like they're banking on him getting better as he further removes himself from the knife. Kinda like with Hoskins last year. If they leave him at 3-4 & it doesn't happen, they'll hear about it, even more than they are now.
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I don't see Chourio moving off of 1 or 2 for a long time, if ever. Any of the others MIGHT work, but I prefer that the folks like Turang, Frelick, Yelich(?) & Chourio re-figure out how to find ways to reach base, then put Hoskins/Contreras in a position to drive them in. Some of their recent lineups have looked horrible from the 6-hole on down & IMO you need to stay away from that. Vs a righty, Bauers might work for the time being. But so much of this is people getting back to what they've been able to do, even just going back to last month. And health. I had the upper-respiratory thing in April & if it's anything like what Turang went through, it really saps you.
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Ok that's fair. Personaly I like Bauers more in the middle of the order. I hate Turang in the middle, and my alternative to Yelich would be to sandwich Turang & Frelick between Chourio in the top third of the order. Of course, neither Turang nor Frelick have been hitting either. I just don't know why pitchers don't throw Yelich hard & in, and never, ever deviate from that.
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And replace him in the 3-hole with............. And please don't say "anybody else". There's way too much of that on sports message boards.
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A pitcher rather than a position player, but Nick Neugebauer comes to mind.
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Confidence can be an epidemic. So can lack of confidence. I have no idea what the personalities of Dawson & LeBoeuf are, but if there's any exasperation, any sort of a suggestion of mentally shrugging or throwing up your arms, it can snowball. Thursday is an off day, so if they don't produce tomorrow then anyone hoping for a change might put their chips on 5/15. I question what kind of a difference it would make but "change for changes' sake", while usually futile, can sometimes work w/a hitting coach. As @RobertCrawleysaid, different eyes, a different way of conveying a message, even if it's the same message. Donnie Ecker was just fired by Texas. And he DOES have a WS ring.
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Yeah, Chourio is the 3rd choice in CF. Has it worked well? No. But under the circumstances putting him there & leaving Frelick in RF made sense from an athletic & strategic standpoint. If anyone thinks his confidence is being wrecked........on average, RF is tougher for a young player unless he has experience there. This is a very difficult 'grow up' pill. He just needs to swallow it & move on. Trying to remember the last time Yelich pulled a ball. I don't mean a ground ball to 2B, 1B or a ground single to RF. He's always been sorta gap-to-gap, but it looks right now like it's impossible for him to hit a ball hard to RF w/any elevation. The HR vs the Rays was to RC. And now, the balls he hits fairly well the other way, he often pulls off them, and whiffs. Just really ugly. I know you can't go back to '18 & '19, but in a close game w/a runner on 3rd you can't strike out...twice. Through all this, Mears has really been fantastic.
