Jake McKibbin

Yeah you can support a team for me and still just be a fan of baseball, especially as this is an entirely relevant point no? @Matthew TruebloodI didn't notice this during the game but I can imagine this can really hurt, you wonder if he knew anything from Willson about it last year?

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He's not floundering, he's just developing with his pitch recognition and the mental side of things. The bat speed is still outrageous

Also elly de la cruz has an xWOBA of .289, instead of the current .384 mark

The reds are playing well no doubt, but they've also been incredibly lucky at just the right moments over this series. Hoping we can burst the bubble, heck we kinda need to

Haha absolutely, but I think it's fair to say Arraez is a freak, and very very different as a player. In general when you hit the ball in the air as well as Hiura does, exit velo is important to show quality of contact He never lost the high exit velos though, but definitely seemed to be guessing at the plate, still I do think he could have a big second half and even if Winker is replaced, then Hiura will take some of Rowdy's AB's

Coming back from a two-month layoff, it’s understandable that Keston Hiura would take a little time to find his rhythm again. After he did a solid enough job of getting on base with some seeing-eye singles, Sunday night’s game was his first sign of really getting on time again. Image courtesy of © Katie Stratman, Katie Stratman / USA TODAY NETWORK Looking further into his at-bats, there are some reasons to be optimistic that we might see a prime Hiura in the Brewers lineup sooner rather than later. This is his second at bat below, and a slight indicator of his improvement at grinding against the high fastball: Having fallen behind 0-2 with fastballs on each edge of the plate, he stayed patient on some very high ones i tight, took a well-located sweeper just off the outside edge of the plate, and punished the slider left over the middle. Previous iterations of Hiura get antsy, swing at the fifth pitch, and strike out, but this version had a far calmer approach, resulting in a hard-hit single. This approach in his third at-bat is a typical example of how not to pitch to Hiura: a fastball down in the zone, followed by a cutter even lower. This is the AB finishing in the 98 mph “fly out”, and they got away with it, but this would be classified as a barreled-up baseball. His fourth at-bat is, perhaps, my favorite, as it located pitches exactly where you would want to Hiura He swings early in the count at pitches he would probably regard as very hittable, over the middle of the plate and slightly above the knees, whiffing one and fouling off the next to fall behind early. Then he takes a fastball just above the strike zone–again, something he’d previously be very likely to chase. A slider far off the plate and a high changeup evened the count, before a foul ball again on a pitch he would probably like back. And to finish it off, the high fastball, something he has perennially struggled with, slightly off the outside part of the plate. Mashed. A 107-mph double. All in all, here were his exit velocities from the game: 83.9 mph groundout 100.9 mph single 98 mph flyout (19 degree launch angle, so basically a line out) 107.1 mph double 99.9 mph lineout That’s four hard-hit balls consecutively, off a variety of different pitches in different locations. The Issues Let’s face it, a fully firing Jesse Winker is an upgrade on a firing Keston Hiura at the plate, and Winker has begun to show some resurgence in the last week or so, making much better contact, hitting the ball noticeably harder even to the opposite field. He’s hitting .261/.346/.478 over his last seven games, while hitting four doubles and a home run. (Bear in mind that he went over two months without an extra-base hit, beginning in mid-April). The ongoing struggles of Rowdy Tellez at first do, however, present an opportunity for Hiura to try and seize that role against right-handers as well as lefties. Tellez has still shown occasional power, but his lack of home runs (previously his main value to this team) is very concerning, and you can’t help but think even an average Keston Hiura is a substantial upgrade if his hands have improved with the regular playing time at first base. Tellez last hit a home run on May 22nd, and recorded just seven RBIs in the month of June–shocking, from a hitter in the three or four hole, and given how often Christian Yelich got on base ahead of him. Hiura has also played an average left field this season, unexpectedly, with some highlight-reel plays, so there are several ways to get him involved in the line-up should he come up. View full article

My man, love it! Yeah you can get to him if you can keep the ball up If Brewers take a nailbiter tonight, this could be atruly classic series worthy of a post season, it's been epic in the ups and downs and either team could have been three games up by now It's important to get something before the Reds come to town, but Adames has looked significantly better recently, and it's made a huge difference to this offense.

Is it just me or does Rowdy pick that at first base?

He hit two balls yesterday over 112 mph for the grand total of one single

Steele has been lights out this year, using the four seamer more often and more effectively. He's an ace, and the Brewers may need a gem from Houser

I seem to remember one of his starts was a little harsh, with four runs coming from exit velocities that weren't even hard hit? But he actually pitched really well this month, I have to say I was impressed by the improvement he showed so quickly

None of whom fit a roster crunch like he did, and one of whom was signed while Hiura was on the IL I agree they wouldn't stand in the way, unless they felt they were likely to call him up (which they weren't with Erceg)

Just noticed Misiorowski isn't scheduled this week at all.. injury related or a developmental/scheduled break?

A) his salary will be half of what it was B) he's shown improvements so far this season, and is likely to have someone take a flyer on him at this point, almost definitely

WAR is the general term, but two different sites have calculations that slightly differ in it fWAR is from Fangraphs bWAR is from Baseball Reference

Let's hope Waino is still throwing by the time we play them next

If that's the case all is forgiven. But which would live longer in our memories, his brown trousers or those calls

Tyrone Taylor's second rehab stint looks to be going a whole lot better than his first

I understand the second send more, make him make the throw again but it was a 20/80 play in cubs favour. The first send was just thick with one out and tapia up, who's a good contact hitter

That's got to be a first.. consecutive inning ending outs at home by the same player

That changeup is money

That eighth inning on another day has the first five guys reaching and serious pressure on. Yelich is flying out more to right field... Is he continuing the improvement?

Every first pitch has been a fastball so far and hittable, we need to be attacking that. The stats back it up, he's not walking you, swing at the pitch you know is gettable