Brewcrew82

I'd say it's about even. Brewers with the clear pitching edge (when healthy). Cardinals with the clear offensive edge.

Also, Cain and McCutchen are two separate players. One of them is clearly no longer a major league hitter, while the other has picked it up recently on top of his stable underlying metrics and is also a notoriously slow starter.

I mean, even good hitters have their slumps. But they are then able to pick it back up with hot streaks. It's quite possible that the reason Urias hasn't been able to pick it back up and has instead continued his "steady plunge", particularly over the last few weeks, is the thumb. And maybe they'd rather Urias play even with the bad thumb while our other starting infielders like Adames and Wong have been intermittently unavailable.

Keston Hiura at 2B tonight....Urias' thumb still has to be hurting. It would explain a lot with his recent performance.

#1 Reason for optimism: Atlanta and Washington, the two most recent World Series winners in a 162 game season, were likewise beset by injuries and inconsistent play at this point in the season (they were actually in far worse shape than we currently are) only to turn around in August and September and ride that wave to a championship. As far as the current state of the team, there is no doubt that they are in a rough patch. But it is way too early and the Brewers have too much star power on the pitching side of things to throw in the towel at this point in the season. Could they continue to collapse and find themselves in clear selling territory by the deadline? Sure. But, even then, the last thing I would do is follow your suggestion and trade guys like Burnes/Woodruff. That would basically mean that we're conceding the next few years, in addition to this season. The NL Central is too weak in my opinion for us to do something along those lines. As a result, I think we just simply have to wait out our current injury issues and then potentially reevaluate around the deadline. Woodruff coming back within the next week or so could be huge. Also, guys like Gott coming back to bolster our bullpen depth will be big as well. On the offensive side of the equation, there are a number of key guys (Yelich, McCutchen, etc.) who appear to be coming out of prolonged slumps, in addition to guys like Adames and Renfroe who are starting to get back in the swing of things after returning from injury. Overall, this is still the same team that won 95 games last year, and none of our injured players have been ruled out for the rest of the season. Finally, remember 2019? That team hovered around .500 the whole year and then picked it up in September to claim a wild card birth. Even without superhero Yelich, I still think they would've gone far in the playoffs had Hader not blown that save in Washington with how well they were playing. Really, it's just about getting to the playoffs....

Christian Yelich since being moved to the leadoff spot: .343/.378/.514 (152 OPS+), albeit in a small sample size. Still, that is the sort of production that we are paying for. Also, in nearly half of the games, he's almost equaled his HR and WAR totals from last season. Have the last two plus seasons been a disappointment following his otherworldly 2018-2019 campaigns? Sure. But he wouldn't be the first player to struggle for a few seasons only to suddenly rediscover his all star form. The main thing for Christian is to keep hitting the ball hard and to elevate it just a bit more often.

Why I keep saying that the people who want to lump him into the "finished category" with Cain are pretty clearly in the wrong. He's not the player he was in his prime, for sure, but he's still the player he's been over the past few years or so, which is a productive major league hitter, particularly against left handers. Just take a look at his Statcast numbers from this year. Virtually identical to his 2018-2021 seasons. So, as you say, as the summer heats up, we should expect Cutch to continue to heat up and bring his actual numbers more in line with his expected numbers.

Christian Yelich since being moved to the leadoff spot: .343/.378/.514 (152 OPS+). Small sample size, obviously, but nice to see.

I see a team that has been beset by injuries. They haven't played well, for sure, but if you're already closing the book on the season right now in June, you're crazy. And if you remember correctly, it wasn't the concept of wanting to see them play better teams that I "scoffed" at.

With how depleted our pitching is at the moment, I'm actually kind of impressed with how they hung right in there with the best team in the NL. If our usual Boxberger, Williams, Hader combo is available, or Rowdy doesn't make two stupid defensive plays in a row, we could very easily have walked out with a series win. But it didn't happen and now they have to focus on playing well in Cincy this weekend.

Okay. Good thing you weren't the GM of the Braves last year when they lost Acuna for the season. Or the Nationals in 2019.

Yep. It took a good throw and tag to get Renfroe. Any of those two go wrong he scores. And Yelich struck out the next at-bat anyways. It was a good send, just didn't work out in our favor.

We need a series win in Cincy this weekend. Has to be the minimum expectation.

Suter didn't. Rowdy's error caused that situation.

We need a series win in Cincy this weekend in the worst way.

Stearns, we need some reinforcements if we're going to hang in this thing.

Gott injured. Hader on paternity. So, yeah. And that run wasn't even Suter's fault. It was all on Rowdy.

Thanks Tellez. You don't even look at Marte?

Would have certainly been Boxberger, Williams, and Hader, if Josh was with the team. No Gott hurts, too.

If either Williams or Boxberger goes two innings tonight, I would take it as a sign that they expect Hader back for the weekend. So, with Boxberger pitching the 7th instead of the 8th, maybe that's the case?

Going to need another big inning to win this game, I think.

I mean, even great pitchers have their "rough" patches. His peripheral numbers are virtually unchanged from the last few years.

Great job by Milner. He's been great this year.

Well, good thing we have one of the best pitchers in baseball going on a rehab assignment Saturday....

Top of the last inning. Megill threw like 35 pitches and then left with injury. Brewers then worked some more deep counts and put some hits together against his replacement.