Jim French Stepstool
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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool
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That's what adds to the frustration of his being hurt so often. You see the 1st round talent poke thru sometimes when he's on the field, but the lack of contact makes it so hard to project exactly what we have here. Was really hoping 2025 was the year he compiled 400-500 PAs.
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Agreed. Another example (albeit another better player) is Paul Molitor, who 'always seemed to be hurt' earlier in his career but shook the injury bug later. For now we can be glad this organization is adept enough at finding replacement parts that his being MIA isn't crippling. Of course it would help if Perkins wasn't taking forever to heal.
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I expect Pittsburgh to be their usual pain in the arse. Fouling off tough pitches, lengthy ABs, putting the ball in play. Adam Frazier--upon seeing a Brewer uniform--closing his eyes, swinging, and finding a hole virtually every time. It's great to see the bottom 3 spots in the order doing so well. That's often the difference between scoring a few runs-or less-and putting up large numbers. That's the nicest thing about the road trip. A couple times where we didn't get the mound performance we're used to but still won the game. Haase has to catch either tonight or tomorrow, right?
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And reliever Matt Wise, cutting himself on the hand w/salad tongs. I remember the guy looking like he weighed about 170 lb; couldn't he have just had steak & potatoes?
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Welcome to the Wonderful World of Analytics. I think Ortiz has been for the most part pretty outstanding defensively, and I believe the odds pretty strongly favor them rolling with both him & Durbin on the left side as opposed to competing with other teams for whatever else is out there & overpaying. There was a plan here, and it did not include Boeve & Wilkin being derailed by injuries (there's at least a chance they'd both be in AAA by now & ready to help) and Black being plagued both by health issues and, frankly, by not being all that good when he was here last year. Someone mentioned Contreras possibly playing some 1B. That's questionable but even then, Quero would be the replacement at C and, once more, we're talking about a guy who missed a full year of development by getting hurt. There's a path to success--great success--for a team in Milwaukees' position. But that doesn't include people getting hurt, screwing up the timeline & then simply overcoming that by using prospect capital to buy replacement parts. And as others have mentioned, Durbin & Ortiz HAVE been better at the plate recently.
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Catchers have so very much on their plate so I've been an advocate for Dinges staying at Wisco this year, save for maybe a taste of AA at the tail end. But if they think the defense can translate, can absorb another promotion, I dunno. The kid just keeps hitting, and hitting, and............
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I like looking at a youngsters' overall numbers when he's had roughly a full seasons' worth of playing time (combined) in his career. That's where Bitonti is currently sitting. An .853 OPS, with 27 HRs & well over 100 driven in with 99 walks is a nice platform to build on. Only bugaboo I see is the Ks, which from a power hitter playing full-season ball at the age of 19 isn't catastrophic.
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It's really sweet to find a way to endure on the road when the home team is rallying & the HP umpire is, basically, following the script.
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Smells like the type of game where you try to hang on for five innings tied or at worst down a run or so, then bank on your pretty well-rested bullpen to outperform theirs.
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Sun. 5/15: Do It for Dad, Guys!
Jim French Stepstool replied to Jim Goulart's topic in Brewers Minor League Talk
Adams really fleshing out his #s. On a pace for his best year by far, while still only a couple months past his 21st birthday & in his first taste of AA. Good stuff. -
He actually had a cup of coffee with the A's earlier this season.
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Definitely, they've evolved over the years from where they were, esp if you go back to the Doug Melvin era. But especially over the last two games, that's too many Ks in my book when you look at who they were facing. Vs Pallante & Mikolas, that's way too much swing-and-miss. When you're built on speed & baserunning like they are, IMO they need to be better than middle of the pack contact-wise. Admittedly though, I would've thought they were further down than 14th.
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Not until we see if Yoph makes it to Cooperstown.
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Apologies if it's been mentioned, but after being snubbed for the roster spot Rosario has exercised his option & is no longer with the organization. I've always kinda liked him, but he has a few more years on him than Avans & they say Avans plays a pretty good CF. And as you said, most certainly faster. Almost caught the catcher w/his pants down on the tapper in front of the plate.
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Shows how inaccurate stats can sometimes be. The line says two hits but I thought that was one of Megills' better performances of the year, and I can't remember the last time I've seen a better AB than the one Arenado turned in. So Avans looks to bunt, bunts the first one foul which isn't a strike, then takes a thoroughly buntable pitch for strike two. He'll fit right in😆. Seriously though, nice piece of work turned in on the trip resulting in the sac fly. Mikolas is about the least strikeout-likely starter you can find & he Ks six in the first three innings. This isn't going to be a consistently good offense--that's been established. But some of these ABs are incredibly ugly. Hopefully Yelich is starting another hot streak.
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I missed much of the mid-portion of the game, but a few thoughts......... It seems to have gotten to the point with Quintana where the opposing strategy should be A) Take pitches & see if he's hitting the edges, and B) If he IS hitting the edges, see if he's getting the calls. St.L did a pretty good job of that, even though he was wild enough that it made little difference. He certainly needs a lot of 0-2, 1-2 counts & that wasn't happening. I don't know if Pallante was breaking his tendencies early, but I have no idea how else you can rack up 5 K's on the first seven batters cuz he ain't no big strikeout guy. I didn't see Chourios' approach on his two base hits, but Maton worked him really, really well in his last AB & to me it illustrated the youth vs experience factor. Just offering at the 1st pitch wide slider----I think he's getting better at the discipline, but hopefully he's getting closer every day to realizing things like, if you get the breaking ball there on the 1st pitch, it's either a ball or a mistake. Still, he's an unfinished product that's probably going to hit 25-30 HRs & drive in close to 100. Just an amazing talent. Waiting for the day that pitchers do everything within their means in a clutch situation & still can't get him out, and I think it'll come.
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I don't know if it's part of a bigger plan or not, but I'm sure Black has lost a lot of his luster trade-wise, and the only way I see them dealing Hoskins is if they fell out of playoff contention in which case it's not all that important whether they have an MLB-ready replacement for him or not. They'd just put Bauers there & maybe Dalbec. If Civale never opened his mouth he'd still be here, until we get closer to the deadline.
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Nothing to lose by stashing him in AAA. And nothing is written saying he's their 1B in 2026. The one scenario where they could've done better is to get a lottery ticket & have it hit in four or five years which is probably just as big of a crapshoot. It IS getting a little crowded in Nashville (assuming that's where he's headed) finding ABs for all the AAAA personnel there. I'd feel a smidge better if he could play a little LF but he hasn't been out there in three years, and for good reason from what I've heard.
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Thx, I thought I saw one year. Yeah, he'd be pricey then.
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It's almost as if they value his defense, framing & handling of pitchers so much that they'll live with the poor ABs. That doesn't sound appealing to me but neither does Haase catching for a week & a half, and I have no idea what kind of work Siegler turns in behind the plate. If he ever does get IL'ed & they deem Quero not quite up to snuff yet, I wonder if they'd find a way to get Jorge Alfaro on the 40 & up here. He has quite a bit of MLB experience & if they feel he's a better game-caller & defender than Siegler it just seems like something they might consider. Doesn't look like he can hit much anymore but enough power that he might run into one now & then.
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Not a bad thought because the Sox could be looking for starting pitching & Duran has a team option for '26 so he might be available. Would certainly have to add a minor leaguer; it just depends on who. I think everyone we talk to in the weeks to come is gonna bring up Arienamo or one of the low-A infielders. And that would only happen if it involves someone we can control for awhile. It would come down to how excited they'd get about Civale or someone like Myers.
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The problem is that any non-contender would want a starter with some control/youth on their side. They wouldn't want the Civales or the Quintanas. And I don't believe we have much stomach for dealing the others. It would have to be a deal w/a contending team that has an upgrade at SS/3B they'd be willing to let go. I don't know that there's such a match, and at SS I doubt they'd roll the dice there due to the defensive game Ortiz is giving them (and he IS starting to hit a little). The better odds might be a LF type, and I have no idea who might be on that list.
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I think he knows his value on the open market lessens if he's stuck in the BP for the remainder of the year, even if he performs well. And I don't see him exactly shining in that role. Still, I agree with @Trax. Don't just pull a quick trigger for a lotto tic.
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I dunno, after reading all this I feel confident that we can hit Sonny Gray tonite. I'm just not sure how we can get him to throw us bottle caps instead of baseballs.
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In his first 7 innings, Schwellenbach had no single-inning pitch count over thirteen. I don't know if I've ever seen that. Maybe Maddux. His being so effective combined w/the way we (aren't) swinging the bats is a bad combination. I usually rail about a lack of patience when an opposing starter goes this deep, but not today. He was that good, and the few pitches we got to hit we're mostly fouled off. popped up, etc. Contreras----kudos to him for his hard work behind the dish & how IMO he's gotten so much better at calling games, but geez, every one of his ABs today he looked like he didn't want to be up there. Just terrible. I guess Frelick is our POTG. Two magnificent plays in right, and he actually had a base hit. Like they say, no one is going to feel sorry for you. Not the greatest time to have Sonny Gray coming up next.
