Jake McKibbin

Turang had no issues... 👀

I think he said about ditching the four-seamer completely this season, so I'm curious which of these pitches did he use effectively up in the zone 2020-2022?

Can you imagine the furore if the Crew are 4 or even 6 games up on the cards after 9 games?

Yeah i think that's it, I can't find footage that follows him running the basepaths, though I did think he could have been further down the path than he was, with his injury issues and technique that he's working on, that could easily throw him out of rhythm and lose some speed. If only they had Yelich running the bases But yeah, I don't think Marmol has done himself justice here, O'Neill is handling it well though it has to be said

2B range is even more important when you consider how little of it Rowdy has, Turang has looked so smooth, with him and Wiemer being key differences so far for me

Very true in this specific case! Though I'm not sure we can blame him for every one of these occasions 😂

I think this is a weirdly big game for the crew, I've just done a piece on it, but they really struggled to generate momentum last season, in particular when the opportunity came to sweep a series and apply pressure to those around them (namely the cards will feel a little already if they're 3 games down before coming to town). With Burnes on the mound, hopefully mere solidity can get them over the line and into the next series on a big big high with a statement sweep

Interestingly that's a huge differential from last season in the minors, when he had a real hole in the outer half of the strike zone

One of the issues last year that the Milwaukee Brewers had was an inability to build momentum after a record start to the season at 32-18. From then on, they went 54-58, a losing record fueled in part by a failure to gain any momentum over the course of their season. They lost ten out of the eleven games after May 30th, 2022, and couldn’t seem to rebound. Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports One of the issues last year that the Milwaukee Brewers had was an inability to build momentum after a record start to the season at 32-18. From then on, they went 54-58, a losing record fueled in part by a failure to gain any momentum over the course of their season. They lost ten out of the eleven games after May 30th, 2022, and couldn’t seem to rebound. The importance of this momentum is encapsulated by the St Louis Cardinals, who won 17 out of 20 games after the All-Star break, including two seven-win streaks, taking them into first place in a division they wouldn’t relinquish. The team developed an aura, a belief that no matter what happened on the field in August, they would come out on the winning side. We’ve seen this same feeling of invincibility fuel the Brewers through September runs from 2018-2020, where the Brewers had a 52-29 record this month. Craig Counsell made good use of the rules regarding roster sizes and the use of his bullpen, but there was also a belief, an expectation that they would win when crunch time came around. The mental side of baseball is massive, from dealing with the fluctuations in output at the plate to the sheer number of variables requiring extreme mental strength to go up there time and again in the face of adversity, either as a pitcher or a hitter. One thing that almost every sport emphasizes is that tension in your body and mind slows down the thought process and body movements; you’ll see sprinters running with their jaws as slack as possible, face jiggling; the fluidity and power demonstrated in gymnastics enabled by a lack of tension; weightlifters attempting to be as relaxed as possible pre-lift. An action such as throwing, fielding, running, or swinging a bat can only be repeated precisely when tension is eliminated from the body, enhancing the fluidity, and thus power, of the transfer of energy through the movement. A reason momentum is so vaunted is due to the enhanced feeling of calmness and relaxation it affords the players, as well as the self-belief in the game's big moments. It allows players to perform at their best without overthinking their performance and just letting their years of hard work ingrain a technique flow through them. It also has shown benefits in the ability to notice and seize opportunities because of the increased freedom of thought, as well as maintaining a more positive mindset in terms of “how can we win this game” vs. “how can we stop ourselves from losing this game” as can happen on a negative run. From a psychological standpoint, the brain doesn’t process negatives effectively in thought, so if someone is thinking “ don’t strike out” repeatedly, the brain will struggle to feel optimistic about this action, as per this study from the BRM institute. The article says, “Put frankly, their study proved that negative words release stress and anxiety-inducing hormones in subjects, " not conducive to performing at one’s free-flowing best in an intense environment. I bring this up because the Brewers failed to build momentum in key moments last season. Mainly down the stretch, they struggled to create a positive rolling effect, constantly feeling slightly behind the mark because they won the series by a small margin, then consequently lost them by a small margin, always staying in touch but never gaining ground towards the playoffs. Here’s a review of the Brewers' results last season during the run-in: 141 Sunday, Sep 11 boxscore MIL CIN W 7 6 75-66 2 8.0 Woodruff Dunn Williams 3:05 D 42,482 .99 ++ 142 Tuesday, Sep 13 boxscore MIL @ STL W 8 4 76-66 2 7.0 Perdomo Montgomery 3:07 N 42,047 1.14 +++ 143 Wednesday, Sep 14 boxscore MIL @ STL L 1 4 76-67 2 8.0 Wainwright Burnes Helsley 3:10 N 46,459 1.21 - 144 Friday, Sep 16 boxscore MIL NYY W-wo 7 6 77-67 2 7.5 Rogers Holmes 4:09 N 36,011 1.16 + 145 Saturday, Sep 17 boxscore MIL NYY W 4 1 78-67 2 8.0 Woodruff Taillon Williams 2:56 N 41,210 1.23 ++ 146 Sunday, Sep 18 boxscore MIL NYY L 8 12 78-68 2 8.0 Cole Milner 3:46 D 35,964 1.29 - 147 Monday, Sep 19 boxscore MIL NYM L 2 7 78-69 2 8.5 Scherzer Burnes 2:49 N 25,671 1.19 -- 148 Tuesday, Sep 20 boxscore MIL NYM L 5 7 78-70 2 8.5 Rodríguez Rogers Díaz 3:19 N 26,319 1.04 --- 149 Wednesday, Sep 21 boxscore MIL NYM W 6 0 79-70 2 7.5 Gott Walker 2:47 D 25,204 .93 + 150 Thursday, Sep 22 boxscore MIL @ CIN W 5 1 80-70 2 7.5 Woodruff Greene 2:50 N 9,889 .96 ++ 151 Friday, Sep 23 boxscore MIL @ CIN W 5 3 81-70 2 7.5 Perdomo Cessa Williams 3:22 N 16,658 1.09 +++ 152 Saturday, Sep 24 boxscore MIL @ CIN W 10 2 82-70 2 6.5 Burnes Ashcraft 2:57 N 20,472 1.30 ++++ 153 Sunday, Sep 25 boxscore MIL @ CIN L 1 2 82-71 2 6.5 Farmer Bush Díaz 2:46 D 19,952 1.56 - 154 Tuesday, Sep 27 boxscore MIL STL L 2 6 82-72 2 7.5 Mikolas Houser 3:13 N 29,341 1.47 -- 155 Wednesday, Sep 28 boxscore MIL STL W 5 1 83-72 2 6.5 Woodruff Quintana 3:31 N 28,835 1.35 + 156 Thursday, Sep 29 boxscore MIL MIA L 2 4 83-73 2 7.0 Nance Peralta Floro 3:08 N 23,122 1.83 - 157 Friday, Sep 30 boxscore MIL MIA W 1 0 84-73 2 7.0 Burnes Alcantara Williams 2:28 N 31,945 1.90 + Gm# October Tm Opp W/L R RA Inn W-L Rank GB Win Loss Save Time D/N Attendance cLI Streak Orig. Scheduled 158 Saturday, Oct 1 boxscore MIL MIA L 3 4 84-74 2 8.0 Nance Williams Bleier 3:28 N 30,686 2.11 - 159 Sunday, Oct 2 boxscore MIL MIA L 3 4 12 84-75 2 8.0 Brazoban Gott Scott 4:12 D 31,053 1.73 -- 160 Monday, Oct 3 boxscore MIL ARI W-wo 6 5 10 85-75 2 7.0 Boxberger Moronta 3:19 N 18,612 .40 + 161 Tuesday, Oct 4 boxscore MIL ARI W 3 0 86-75 2 7.0 Lauer Gallen Strzelecki 3:02 N 19,611 .00 ++ 162 Wednesday, Oct 5 boxscore MIL ARI L 2 4 86-76 2 7.0 Poppen Gott Ginkel 2:43 D 18,765 .00 - They had opportunities to build their momentum and the whole “Craigtember” feeling, with sweep opportunities against the Yankees (where a poor start from Jason Alexander crippled them despite mauling Gerrit Cole), the Reds (raising just five hits against one of the worst run prevention teams in the league) and the Diamondbacks. This meant the positive Yankees series was canceled out by losing to the Mets. A poor showing vs. the Marlins canceled out the Reds' wins. In short, the Brewers never got far away from a .500 record, which is not good enough when you’re trying to justify a place in the postseason, and sweeping a series was at the heart of this issue. Let’s compare the records of the two teams regarding sweeps: 3 Game Series Series Sweep Lost Sweep in Final Game Times Swept Brewers 3 Game Series 33 4 5 2 Brewers 4 Game Series 12 0 2 0 Cardinals 3 Game Series 31 7 6 1 Cardinals 4 Game Series 10 0 1 0 Discounting two-game series as they barely even constitute a series, the Brewers went 4-7 in opportunities to sweep a series last season, compared to the Cardinals' 7-7 record. This may not seem like a whole lot, but the Phillies were 8-8, the Padres 6-6. In short, the Brewers, against their main rivals last season, struggled to build any positive roll from which they could feed off, especially as three of these opportunities came in the final half of September/October. Tonight’s game is a huge one to set a stamp on their season and differentiate themselves as not just happy to win the series and let a game slide but to mash the Mets and send a statement to the league. A win tonight would equal their longest win streak last season (five), and they have the perfect opportunity with Corbin Burnes facing off against David Peterson. Can they keep their momentum going? View full article

@Brock BeauchampI've seen a rugby forum have the option to block a poster in order to not see their posts if it's just tiresome for you, for whatever reason (constant disagreements etc) is this a possible feature here? Saves having to ban anyone and just let people choose if they don't want to participate with someone here

Yeah, I think it's important to differentiate that he didn't get tossed because of the automatic strike, but because he was likely being a gob***** It was close the timeout he tried to call, but given his whole stance towards it, probably didn't help his case and I wouldn't be surprised to find he was trying to push boundaries and see what he can get away with

The full thread of this meme's origin is also gold. Pakistan love their cricket

This was his statement incidentally after he got passed over in the draft all the way to the Brewers

For sure. Urias is hitting 48

I think it's more fun to enjoy all the emotions. he may be great, he may be crap by end of season, but let's enjoy the whole journey, this team's big guys coming into the season haven't fired yet(bar Winker) and we're scoring runs! Let's get excited, and if we are disappointed down the line, let's be disappointed then

We're fans, if you don't enjoy the highs and the lows what's the point?

Early in the season is a great time to face these aces, so I'm curious to see this and think we have more than a punter's chance for sure, particularly if we can keep the ball in play, and make havoc on the bases Miley is a solid player, and may need a little luck, but that Turang/Adames link looks really impressive, hoping Miley can keep the ball down and give us some plays

The dumbest part of it is I feel the athletic and Keith law are so much better than ESPN for sure and baseball America too, fangraphs is better too for my money yet not considered as a consensus option

How is this guy not a consensus top 100 prospect?

Bryceeeee!

After seeing the Cardinals match up and take the series against a playoff contender such as the Blue Jays, in the manner they did may appear slightly frightening. However, once you look deeper, you can see the underlying cracks have already shown themselves, and their performance looks unsustainable. Image courtesy of © Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports After seeing the Cardinals match up and take the series against a playoff contender such as the Blue Jays, in the manner they did may appear slightly frightening. However, once you look deeper, you can see the underlying cracks have already shown themselves, and their performance looks unsustainable. Pitching The Cardinals were widely expected to be far greater at run scoring than run prevention and their pitching looked particularly fragile. On a weekend that should have spear-headed their crème de la crème, they had Mikolas first up, going 3.1 innings with ten hits allowed. They lost 10-9, and although starting pitching usually takes a game or two extra to warm up (I’ll come to this in a bit), Mikolas is due for some regression from career numbers last season. Also, in this game, Jordan Hicks, a player the Cardinals expect to be dominant with his extreme velocity, and Helsley got hit for four earned runs across their two innings. In game two, Flaherty may have a zero ERA. However, he gave up seven walks, with only four strikeouts, and was down a few clicks from his dominant seasons, making him eminently more hittable last season. On top of this, Jordan Hicks achieved just one out while giving up three walks, forcing Helsley into a five-out save. Jordan Montgomery looked sharper but still gave up six hits and a walk across five innings, with the Blue Jays showing minimal patience at the plate, one reason for only six strikeouts all game. There were also three different pitches hit over 370 ft by the Blue Jays and a ton of high exit velocity contact off Montgomery. He showed several inches less vertical break on both his sinker and his change-up, which could result from a slight increase in velocity, but could also make him far more hittable if this continues throughout the season. This Cardinals pitching staff, both bullpen and starting rotation, looks eminently attackable if they can stay vaguely healthy this season. The Brewers hitters should be licking their lips at the prospect of facing them next weekend. Flaherty vs Woodruff, Montgomery vs Lauer, and Woodford vs Peralta are the likely matchups. Hitting The other thing everyone knew about the red birds coming into the season was the depth of their lineup. In the three games, they mashed 22 runs, but anyone watching the video will see how the Blue Jays fed into this. They were all over the place in the field, with Manoah and Bassitt looking like they were dusting themselves off a little. Manoah struggled to get anything in the strike zone, falling behind with regularity; this was different from the dominant Alek Manoah we saw for Toronto last season. Here’s his pitch map for the season debut: He struggled to hit the edges of the strike zone compared to many uncompetitive pitches or pitches over the heart of the plate. Bassitt, on the other hand, was averaging 1.5 mph less on his pitches than last season and seemed to hang a lot of his off-speed options, appearing very unthreatening on the whole and not at all the player the Blue Jays will likely see throughout the rest of the season. One of Nolan Gorman’s home runs yesterday came off a 68 mph hanging curve that was as center-cut as they come. Many of their hitters have struggled far more against the high strikeout kinds of pitchers than the “location” experts, and the lack of velocity over the weekend played into their hands. Even then, Gausman performed much better, conceding three unearned runs due to a throwing error from Chapman and striking out more than one batter per inning. This is a quality line-up, make no mistake about it, but don’t expect Gorman, Walker, O’Neill, and Donovan to be replicating this over the course of a season. Gorman will still struggle up in the zone with Woodruff’s heaters, O’Neill is still a strikeout merchant, and Donovan doesn’t have the type of power that will continue to dominate. Then you have Walker, who had a strong start vs. the minor pitchers in late games at the start of Spring Training but faded when tasked with the stronger pitchers; he can’t be expected to produce when he’s never played above AA until he made his debut in the majors. Quality pitching can keep them quiet, and the Brewers ' headed hydra of Peralta, Woodruff, and Burnes is perfectly formed to sit them down repeatedly. However, there would be concern over the likes of Lauer or Miley if pitted against this heavy-hitting bunch of sluggers. Overall Pitching Performances Over the opening weekend, we’ve seen a lot of aces not show up with their best game, from our own Corbin Burnes, Chris Sale (3 IP, 7 ERs), Aaron Nola (3.2 IP, 5 ERs), Jacob deGrom (3.2 IP, 5 ER’s) that it’s easy to see pitching improving considerably over the next few starts. In contrast, the hitters seem far more locked in toward the end of the weekend. In short, the Brewers' pitching has some fine-tuning to come, but the Cardinals hitters can’t say the same, and their pitching has far less room for growth with the talent levels it has on offer. Final Word A quick start is important for the morale of both teams, trying to make their mark on this season early, but especially for the Brewers. This upcoming week of Mets and Cardinals will be fun and a real test of the rookies, but the environment at American Family Field will show what the Brewers have offensively; expect to see some big home runs and some dominant performances. View full article

Brewers 1. Yelich LF 2. Winker DH 3. Adames SS 4. Tellez 1B 5. Contreras C 6. Mitchell CF 7. B. Anderson 3B 8. Turang 2B 9. Wiemer RF Mets 1. Nimmo CF 2. S Marte RF 3. Lindor SS 4. Alonso 1B 5. McNeil 2B 6. Canha LF 7. Vogelbach DH 8. Narvaez C 9. Guillorme 3B

Definitely, Means I can watch it (Yee-haw)