Jim French Stepstool

I always assumed Ebel was in Wilson to stay for '26. Are you just speculating? If he's promoted, Pena has been almost exclusively a SS this season. Do you think he'd slide somewhere else or just get a heavier dose of DH?

The bold is oh so true, and the run prevention has an awful lot to do with that. For all the lamenting about not hitting in SD, the 3rd game is a win if not for 3 walks & the botched play on a routine bouncer in the 8th. Everyone wants to see the hitting pick up, but the other stuff being a constant is the backbone.

Since the deadline, lots of moves by teams to try to improve their roster around the fringes. Just by Ornelas being a guy that can play a legitimate SS in addition to 2B & 3B, mission accomplished.

Maybe things will at least ramp up a little. He's hit like 4 balls hard this weekend.🤷‍♂️.

I would prefer..............neither lol. Right now Bae is here because Turang has to sit, Pratt is out, Shewmake declared instead of going to Nashville, Rengifo apparently refused to hit unless he played LF on the west coast, Vaughn has been at 3B & you need SOMEONE who can play a couple of different spots on the INF. I guess I'd give the nod there to Bae, but I totally understand your point. Hopefully Turang is playing today or tomorrow. It's tough because with only 4 position backups, a lot of teams will rotate the DH spot between different guys, or the primary DH will occasionally put on a glove. It's like the Brewers are in the mid 70s, where you have a DH who can't do much of anything else. Puts a strain on the flexability they crave.

Basically, the glove & defensive range. As is he. When someone has decent minor league #s but doesn't get his first chance until a few months before age 26 that's often the reason when you can only have a 4-man bench. And he apparently was shakiest at 3B, which is where he would've had his best chance for PT here.

It's actually an interesting scenario. When he is deemed ready to return, I suppose the popular choice to go down would be Lockridge. That leaves you pretty overloaded on the LHH side in the OF which is where they were before, except the switch hitter (Lara) is an improvement over Perkins. I imagine you would then see a heavy dose of Bauers in RF vs LHP with Vaughn at 1B & Sanchez DHing. I know there was some speculation about Lara going back to AAA but IMO that would be a mistake.

Anything more on Williams/Adams? 😮anybody😮??

Pitchers like Misiorowski historically have given up HRs from time to time. The key is giving them up w/no one on base, which he's built to do since his walks have been few & far between recently. The LAST thing he needs to do is feel like he needs to go out & pitch a shutout or think he needs to be perfect because the offense is struggling. I'm also hoping against hope for better decisions from, of all people, the director of these telecasts. I'm old-school, and before the ball is delivered I like to see if the pitcher is varying his pace, aware (or over-aware) of a baserunner, or shaking off the catcher. I also like to see where the catcher is setting up. Instead I get a shot of the pitcher just as he's releasing the pitch (or even slightly after) because I was forced to watch a HR replay from two days ago. Or last night, it was Clayton Kershaw sitting in the stands w/one of his kids. I'm not even sure if this is an old man rant because I felt the same way years ago.

Caught that. Maybe he says nothing if he thought people in Wisconsin were still awake lol. Apparently he was convinced Muncy was swinging regardless of where the pitch was, and thinking through it he might be right.

I was all set to say there was still more chasing than should be accepted, but the ABs overall were better; just not enough of them & not bunched. Enough good ones & bunching in the 9th, thank you very much. It was nice to see them bail out the run prevention side of things for a change. Two things could've been killers: The Contreras drop on the throw home & Drohan walking back-to-back w/one out & no one on in the sixth. Probably getting gassed a little, but you can't lose Edman there & if you don't, I think he's a little more aggressive & has a good chance of getting Freeman. I thought Senzatela looked terrific getting the K to start his outing. The Muncy AB, poor location but Muncy does that to soooo many people over the years. I think Senzatela is still going prove to be an asset. Even though he wasn't a part of the rally, I'm hoping this lifts something off Contreras' shoulders & we see better play from him. Just another ugly day for him. Hall, geez. If he can work from ahead in the count.............that's two nice appearances in a row. I can now tell people that I saw a major league baseball game where a team put Gary Sanchez at 1B & Andrew Vaughn at 3B and won.

People who have been better before, need to be better again. The guys the organization thought might be able to help this year--Pratt & Lara--started the year in AAA, which sort of gave away that thought process. Williams is hurt, Adams is hurt. Naylor will be here if a catcher goes down. I suppose if Burke mashes in Nashville like he did in AA & Yelich continues to struggle, they could suddenly find a ruptured rear axle or dismembered fender & IL Yelich. But in that event I think you'd see Frelick first.

That would've been lovely, and maybe the most heads-up play of the entire season.

Quite possibly. I don't know what the spray chart says for Cronenworth AFA shading him one way or the other as a second baseman. I'd like to know if Bauers was yelling 'home' to Ashby immediately after feeding him since doing things on the diamond other than pitching isn't exactly Ashby's strong suit. Of course, it had to be a 3-2 pitch which meant the runners were off. Otherwise Bauers has an easy flip to 2B for the force. It was that kinda day.

Not that Brian Anderson or Jeff Levering is in a hitters' ear during the game (thank goodness), but how often do you hear them say on a 2-0 or 3-1 count that it's a 'hitter's count'. That usually makes me cringe. Too often a count like that leads to over-aggressiveness, especially when there's a runner or two on. And yep, Mitchell has been a guilty party quite a bit lately. When they click, when there's a 4 or 5 run inning, you hear an awful lot about how they 'move the line', how they 'trust each other', etc. It needs to be pointed out, mostly to themselves, the times when they DON'T do that & how detrimental it is.

..............."It's how their approach appears to change when the pressure ramps up..............." You absolutely nailed it with that one statement, along with the 'pass the baton' line. In the inning in question, both Hamilton & Ortiz employed an approach they never would have taken had they been leading off the inning, or hitting with a runner on 1st base. Huge mistake. Ortiz drilled a bell to the LCF gap earlier in the game. It was caught but would've easily scored a runner from 3rd if one was available to tag up. Does anyone think he changed his normal approach in that AB? I doubt it. I don't know the % breakdown of the hitting coaches' responsibility relating to mechanics, scouting reports, etc. But consistency of approach in different situations HAS to be emphasized. Great job of graphing everything up, Jake.

Contreras, Chourio, Turang, Vaughn. Someone earlier asked about who you'd be confident having up w/a runner on 3rd & one out in the playoffs. Last year during the lions' share of the season many would've mentioned any of the above four. You need at least a couple of those four on a given day, you need Pratt to get back ASAP, and you need Lara to find whatever it is Pratt found that raised his confidence level. That at least surrounds Bauers with some help. It would also help if Mitchell's hot-cold act goes hot again. And some of the less-is-more approach I mentioned from hitters when there are runners on base, esp with less than two out. I'm not sure re the hitting coaches either. An awful lot of this IMO is mental. I DO think it's funny that Vogelbach gets so much poison on here, probably because folks don't know the names of the other two (Eric Theisen, Guillermo Martinez). Other than Lara who has no track record to speak of, none of the above things are pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking. But fans love to jump on bandwagons, and during times like these many like to jump down empty elevator shafts.

Agreed. And even when you win those games, the 'pen isn't as taxed when you go up by 3 or 4 runs. Still, that 8th was out of character. And even though it was a blowout, the shoddy play yesterday turned a scoreless frame into 5 runs. The offense needs to get much better, but it'll never cover for some of the stuff we've seen recently, either.

I thought Buehler located well last night, but I agree he certainly was not 'give up only one run' good.

The thing is, for all the failures w/runners on they still win the game if they play the level of baseball they've come to expect from themselves, and what we usually see. Ashby failing twice on the same play, three walks in the same inning, etc. But yeah, obviously you need to give yourself some breathing room. The most frustrating thing is seeing people go out of character in those situations. I'm convinced the only reason Hamilton & Ortiz K'd in the last inning was because there was a runner on 3rd w/less than two out & they changed their approach. Put up your normal AB. Clear your head. "Trying to get the run in" has now become "swing at pretty much anything". Even after Turang reached 3B early in the game. It was with two outs, but still.........Vaughn turned in an AB you seldom see from him. For the life of me, I don't know what causes the 'pass the baton' mindset to disappear in those ABs. I mean, I guess I do, but it's almost always harmful. They need to understand that.

I don't disagree. But the swings at pitches that are not strikes hurt just as much. Lotsa potential 2-1s turned into 1-2s, 3-1s turned into 2-2s, etc.

Only Ortiz can answer that one. And if asked, I'm sure he wouldn't ("I'll play wherever it helps the team win games"). But he WAS hitting better when playing 3B & often in baseball, you don't mess with that stuff. If you THINK you're hitting because you wear the same socks for 9 days, or eat chicken (or play 3B), then you ARE. Or maybe like @tmwiese55 said, it has to do with the sore neck. Everything equal, is he a better SS than Hamilton? For sure.

Awhile back I identified 5 people who I feel are important to the offense picking up. Thumb or not, Chourio has gotten much better in his quality of ABs & I feel like scratching him off the list provided he continues to be focusing on R-RC field. Mitchell--his last couple months have been a roller-coaster, but it's one you could never ride due to the steepness. Hot enough to where he actually was hanging in well vs LH, consistently nailing the SS-LCF gap. Now the last few weeks, it's more than a drop; it's like he's been pushed off a cliff. Not only the high FBs either; he's back to swinging through hittable pitches again, guessing, caught in-between. Needs to find the consistency key. Vaughn--hasn't been bad, but they miss the doubles & home runs he provided last year. He's parked a couple recently; can he re-capture more of that the further he gets from the hamate injury? Yelich--forget last decade; he looks light years away from even last season which was pretty good. That said, can he be more than a .230 hitter over the final 40 games with occasional pop to the opposite field? I honestly don't know. It's a low bar, one that needs to start by chasing less. What makes it tough is that he's always had some swing-and-miss in his game. When that's combined with not taking the walks when available & mostly hitting singles........ Contreras--I almost feel he needs to decide if he's looking to drive the ball oppo, or wait for something to pull because it looks to me like he gets caught in-between mindsets too often and tries to do A when the pitch should be handled like B, and vice versa. Maybe he's just around the corner, some hard-hit balls here & there. He's another one who needs to accept the walks when offered as he's being pitched pretty carefully. IMO the batting order stuff is over-blown. I don't see anyone whose struggles should be affected by who's hitting behind them. And I have no opinion one way or the other re the hitting coaches. I've called for a change in the past along with others; nothing happens & a month later they're scoring runs & all is forgotten. And I think some of the folks calling for Vogelbachs' hide are simply bringing him up because he's the only hitting coach whose name they know.

It probably shouldn't. But, yeah.

I wasn't including him because in that case I believe the other two would ace him out, but yes Adams too.