Jim French Stepstool

If we have to endure them winning, tonite was perfect. They aren't cashing in long term by winning 9-7 games.

Not a good night for the hitters, but you knew McGreevys' mixing and locating was a big part of it when you looked at the 6th inning. Top of the order, third time through & none of those ABs looked anything like they came from hitters seeing a pitcher for the 3rd time. I've said often about Chourio that he's an immense talent with a really incomplete offensive game AFA swing decisions are concerned. By his 3rd AB you could kinda tell that he was aggressive early, not because he was getting something meaty to hit but because he just didn't want to get deep into the AB after the 2 Ks. Better pitchers are doing a good job of taking advantage of him. He seems like a smart kid; looking forward to the days when the gameplan AB to AB gets better for him. Baseball gods weren't kind to Lara, giving him a couple tough plays in the sun field right off the bat. But you gotta love how he handles himself. I felt like he was about 90% of the way to completing a successful AB in that opening inning, and it could've been huge. Koenig giving up the L vs L bomb is a bad look. I guess we'll have to see going forward. And Stallings......that's a helluva changeup if he can get to 2 strikes with it.

I guess it's a case of getting Bauers & Mitchell up in the order vs a RHP, but I really would've liked to see Lara stay in the 2-hole & slide the others down a spot. Otherwise, Jones at 2B----bust open the shed & break out the pitchforks!!!!!!!!😄😆.

Interesting that you brought up the Rays, who are often compared to the Brewers AFA how they make personnel decisions & go about their business. I didn't see any of their series vs the NYY but yeah, I'm sure their game plan was very solid. I think Yelich does an awful lot of anticipating/guessing. And I agree that Lara is probably much better at adjusting to the unexpected.

Yeah, I think it was the play-by-play guy who said Chourio 'almost hit it out'. Considering he never hits from that side it was hit really well, but not close to being out. It's very impressive how good of shape the BP is in now that they're over 2/3 of the way through this 18-game stretch. Maybe Anderson first out of the chute tonite? Another offensive explosion would be nice, followed by Rom and/or Stallings. There was a real contrast I noticed last night, made obvious by it being in back-to-back ABs. In the 5th inning w/the bases loaded, Yelich works a 1-1 count then swings at one over the plate but at his feet. So he's behind 1-2 & eventually Ks. Lara then gets to the same 1-1 count, sees what appeared to be the exact same pitch in the exact same location & laid off. The difference between 1-2 & 2-1 there can be huge. Of course Lara gets it to 3-1 & bangs one into the hole & through for 2 RBI. Even when he's been more productive, Yelich has gone through chasing episodes and now that he also swings through hittable pitches these days, it's just a killer. Seeing Lara lay off the same pitch, with the bags juiced & in his first big league game was very, very impressive.

I would love to have the chance to sit down with Henderson or Hook & discuss the cut FB usage the last two times out for Misiorowski. I think it's a hell of a pitch but I wonder about the sequencing. It's almost as if it's been set up as a priority pitch recently, as opposed to establishing 103-104 & using the cutter off that. To me it seems to be happening the last couple starts-----since they've been talking about him going to a 4-day off schedule rather than five. I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Once he de-prioritized it today, one hit in 6.1 is usually gonna work😁. Yelich in a bunting situation, fouls off the first two, then lines the 2-strike pitch for an RBI double. Oppo, no less. I'm sure Card fans loved that lol. Joey Ortiz is hitting .261 since Pratt has (mostly) taken over at SS. Does that mean anything? I dunno.

I think the versatility idea re keeping him around is a sound one. But as long as he's their best bet in RF........I mean, that can be a tricky spot. They're going to prioritize that over what might keep him around the bigs longer. I'd be real hesitant to do it now save for an emergency but given an off-season & spring training to sharpen it, yeah, I could see the possibility. His willingness to always stick his nose in there, you gotta love it.

Agreed, IF Frelick is capable there. Making that move in the middle of a season, I think it's unlikely but we'll see. And if/when he's there it moves him off RF, where I still feel he's better than anyone else we can put in that spot.

Jones has never played 3B in professional ball. He's played 2B & SS in the minors.

If Lara plays like he belongs I think an eventual result could be an OF getting an occasional day off as sort of a rotating DH, with Vaughn & Bauers also filling that role, & Yelich being ILed with whatever malady he has that causes one to swing at pitches that aren't close to being strikes---and way too often missing ones that ARE. Maybe they're still entertaining the Frelick-3B thing, but I hope not.

When I heard Lara was coming up I scratched my head because I thought Hamilton would have a short IL stint & this was the move, which positionally makes no sense. This must mean Hamilton can play which is great news. I'm good with this, but it must feel odd for Perkins because he survived a really rough stretch & while he still wasn't impactful day-to-day he was playing better. Still fine with it though. EDIT: Nevermind, Hamilton IL'ed. Greg Jones selected.

The Mets wouldn't approve, either.

There was a time when I thought Refsnyder would make a nice bench bat. Didn't know he's dropped so far off the face of the earth. Good points. I think when the Brewers struggle to score offensively, don't get runs in from 3rd w/less than two outs, etc a lot of fans watch the highlight shows & see people hitting the ball out of the park, running around the bases, etc. Those are HIGHLIGHTS. The Vasgersians of the world are usually able to ignore the other 90-95%.

Well, we've seen THIS movie before. All the elements that usually involve a "Brewers-y" type win were here this evening, except for a couple defensive miscues that needed to be overcome. And Drohan helped immensely in that regard. The way he & Sproat have stayed strong through rough patches in some of their recent starts is just so impressive. Sounds from Murphy's presser like it might be a little while for Hamilton. If so, the affiliates have a day off so we can't check to see if anyone got pulled from their game. Not fair. I would imagine if a move is needed it would be Jett Williams? If there's an Unsung Award on the team, just box it up right now & send it to Chad Patrick. What he's done, while changing around the way he was used, the days off, everything. Standing O. There's a hitting theory that goes something like 'the first two strikes are yours, the third one is for the team', meaning you can pretty much cut loose then w/two strikes try to use the whole field, the "humble approach" Brian Anderson likes to call it. I could be wrong but after his first week or so it seems to me like Pratt has adopted that mindset. If he has, I wish he'd stop. Go back to the CF-to RF swing we saw earlier. Shelve the hero stuff for another couple hundred ABs or so. I thought Contreras had his usual nice game behind the dish (the way they set up Burleson was fantastic), but at the plate he looked like he was playing in his 38th game in a row. And that's after a day off yesterday. He deserves the All-Star recognition but I'm not thrilled about him travelling & going through all that stuff instead of getting off his feet for three days.

The kudos Ortiz deserved Friday for his play in the 9th inning keeping Carroll from coming to the plate w/a couple runners on---same thing re Frelick yesterday. tying run on; Carroll at the plate representing the winning run & he does the Spiderman thing on the foul ball taking his AB away from him. So far Bauers has been better in the OF than I thought he'd be, but pretty sure he doesn't make that play. The challenge here is you're going into a 5-gamer & your longest start in Arizona was four innings. Like @long ballsaid, you'd love 5-6 from Drohan tonite.

Fitzpatrick just underwent TJ surgery, so he's done until later in '27 at the earliest. Hopefully good things happen from here on out re Koenig, Hall, Rom, Rob Z re health/effectiveness & we won't need a decision re Manfredi until the off-season. But his command improvement since moving to AAA does intrigue me.

None of them had to worry about being labeled 'worst umpire in MLB' as long as Angel Hernandez was around. Now that he isn't..........time to pull the plug.

Detmers would be a worthy target. But IMO this would have to involve Milwaukee unloading some of the corner INF talent they possess, rather than someone like Pena. If the Angels aren't interested in that category, so be it. Also, I'd imagine we aren't nuts about letting Quero go given the clock ticking on Contreras' time here.

I've always liked Boeve, but I think the organization pretty solidly puts Burke ahead of him. Perhaps the lack of HR pop hurts Boeve, but a bigger factor might be his defense. He still hasn't found a fulltime home but I can understand them moving him around because as you alluded to, being a good hitter but not a big HR guy doesn't exactly help you as a 1B. I imagine as the phones heat up this month his name will be brought up.

With the way LH bullpen guys have been dropping like flies this year, I suspect Manfredi is on their radar not only to be protected but perhaps even called on this year. It's not really surprising that he was promoted to AAA (he's 26) but it IS a pleasant surprise to me that as you said the command has gotten much better. I believe his best offspeed is the slider, which he tries to get the majority of his chase on. Along with getting the walks under control, he's allowed only 3 HR in his last 96 innings going back to the beginning of '25. The FO has to like that. If Rom and/or Koenig have issues & Hall still isn't ready it looks like Manfredi or Zastryzny would be next up from the left side. I don't think Wood will ever be better than acceptable defensively but he has an idea at the plate & has some power. I think he'll find his way on someone's roster eventually but they'll probably have to flip the coin & bank on him not being selected this winter.

With Schwarber, it's the HRs & the Ks but it's also the walks drawn. I don't know about the 40% mentioned but if he can be around one-third Ks & take his walks in addition to a high HR total I think that's doable for one spot in your batting order.

Any mention if he came from, you know, somewhere else?

The other day I brought up Sacramento, a Brewer AAA farm team in the 1970s that had a ridiculously short porch in LF. Bill McNulty hit 55 HRs there in 1974. He played in a total of nine games at the big league level, none with Milwaukee, and went 1 for 27. He was a third baseman, so maybe if Joey Ortiz doesn't start hitting better............nah.

I think the racing presidents in DC is a pretty good schtick, how Teddy Roosevelt went such a long time w/o winning (I believe he finally did).

About the RISP thing, there were a couple good comments from, of all people, media guys. I have no idea who he is but there's this guy who does the post-game call-in thing on WTMJ. I seldom listen to it but heard a little last night, and he said the good thing about the 3-18 with RISP was the 18. That sounds dumb on the surface but he's right. Keep getting base hits; keep getting runners on base. This team, for the lions' share of the season, has been among the top handful of teams in MLB in hitting in those situations, including two-out runs. It sucks when it goes dry for a stretch, but over 162 games it would be a miracle if that DIDN'T happen. Keep getting people on base. Because then when it turns there'll be, you know, people on base. The other guy who brought up something I agreed with was Dillard. He puts runners on 3B w/less than two outs in a separate category. He's right because that's where you don't necessarily need a base hit to succeed. I think in both categories they're guilty of changing their mindset when it's important to change nothing & stay with your normal approach. Bauers' AB in the 1st inning with Turang at 3B was horrible & looked nothing like what you'd see him turn in with, say, one out & nobody on. I cringe whenever I hear an announcer say things like "He needs to just try to get something in the air". No, if he's a capable ML hitter he needs to keep the same approach he always has. Vaughn, same thing. I can count on one hand the ABs he's had this year that were as bad or worse than the one he had w/runners on 2nd & 3rd and one out tonite. I can't believe the situation didn't get into his head. Trust yourself, trust your teammates is an adage they talk about all the time but don't always adhere to. Other than that, Yoho suddenly looks useable if he can spot the FB enough to where hitters have to honor it. Hopefully he (and Contreras) figured something out. And after giving up the run in the 8th, it's like all of a sudden Koenig decided to use the FB along with his other pitches. It wasn't his 2024-25 FB but tonite it was good enough. Hopefully it wasn't just there for a brief visit.