titanrick

For what it's worth, Woodruff said he was going to try to get ready to open tonight. I can't see it, but who knows?

Generally speaking, most of the analytics I read reinforce what I'm seeing with my own eyes, watching almost every game. But not with Hamilton. He seems to rate as average or slightly above and I just have so many replays swimming in my brain of him booting balls and making horrible throws on plays where he had time to set himself. I realize it's just one play, but the Suzuki tag play at third late in the year, where GMitch threw him out trying to advance, was horrific. If you watch the replay, Mitchell's throw is right on the money, and Bunty inexplicably comes 4-5 steps off the base - toward the throw, and then catches it with no chance at all to the make the tag because he's now too far away from Suzuki. We lucked out there because Suzuki overslid, and he was able to apply the tag when he came off the base. But what on Earth is he doing positioning himself like that?!?! The throw is traveling way faster than you'll be able to swipe a tag on someone - let it travel! That's a baseball instinct you should have picked up by high school!

I get that they wouldn't want teams to abuse this situation with chronic injuries and just getting someone a WS appearance only to immediately swap them out with someone healthy. But man, they gotta realize it's good for baseball to have Woodruff pitch if he's able and threatening the Brewers with not letting them replace him if he re-injures his shoulder seems like a lowball move. Smart for us to ask ahead of time though so there are no surprises mid-series.

Ughh... you're exactly right. I just hope this doesn't hurt us defensively in a game. Bunty is nowhere close to Joey with the glove. He's been playing better defense lately, but I hold my breath every time a ball is hit his way.

I felt like Ashby was "on". Yeah, Megill has been mostly lights-out since about May, but you never know when you bring in a reliever and he just doesn't have it that day, for whatever reason. We saw it with Uribe and even Megill walked the tying run into scoring position his last time out. I think he was one batter away from going to Megill the entire time but just never needed to.

I don't trust El Gary at 1B defensively, and I'd be surprised if Murph does for most of a playoff game. But that would mitigate the risk of ending up with a pitcher taking an AB.

Just so I understand, if Sanchez starts at DH and Contreras gets hurt, we can put Sanchez at catcher, but then the pitcher has to hit for Contreras? But we could still pinch-hit for the pitcher with a bench player? I never fully understood this.

This is kind of a depressing thought, but are we seeing a fatigued version of Miz due to the most IP in his career and still being relied on as an ace in mid-October? Or were the last two starts just bumps in the road and we see the dominant version of him again this series, or the next? It's certainly strange that two different teams were able to foul off a lot of his FBs when he was getting mostly whiffs in the regular season. Thinking ahead, I believe a game 5 start would be on normal rest. I almost wonder if the series is 3-1 at that point, do we give him two extra days of rest and his home mound for Game 6? I want the best version of him if we're trying to slay the dragon, not the version that slips on the mound every pitch.

This feels a lot like asking me to grade the dot-com stocks in February of 2000. He has value, and I certainly don't miss Mona or Siegler. But I'm very happy we have more prospects coming up at IF positions for the next couple years.

I'm not sure if you're being serious. The human being umpire isn't going anywhere. He just wears an earpiece that tells him instantly if the pitch is a ball or strike. He still makes the call so the rest of us know. Nothing looks different to the viewer. I agree with you that umps are generally pretty decent at it. But if all that changes is they now call every single pitch accurately the first time, how can anyone be against that? I've never sat down to watch a game thinking, "I can't wait to see which pitches the ump will miss tonight." This isn't some nostalgic part of baseball - it's an annoyance that we always put up with because we had no other choice. Now we do.

May have to splurge for one of these.

I don't know about that. Duran only had one multi-inning effort all year, and then Mattingly wants him to go three? In game one of a three-game series? Was anyone else warming up in the 8th? If the plan was for Duran to get through the "meat" of the order, he had already done that. Riley was hitting 7th. I know you have to think outside the box in the playoffs. And the rest of their bullpen is bad. But that seemed a bit too much to ask and for me, it was a predictable result.

I'm curious what you mean by a negative unforeseen impact on how the game is enjoyed.

I still would love for them to go full ABS and do away with all the missed calls. No one would even notice a difference because the ump gets instant feedback in an earpiece and just calls every pitch correct the first time. But I fear that "baseball" is infatuated with the strategy aspect of this current system and it will probably be years before they go full ABS.

Fair point. I honestly hesitated to add him but decided to do it anyway. Agreed he's a tier below Yount and Uecker.

I can see both sides of this. His at-bats most of the year have been dreadful, between swinging through center-cut fastballs and chasing every slider low and in. When he finally connects, it's a rollover 4-3 putout. It's really hard to watch as a fan who hangs on every at-bat. So, this late in what has been a dreadful offensive year, heading to the post-season with WS ambitions, we suddenly decide to put a C on his jersey? Feels like a cheap ploy to somehow motivate him out of his prolonged slump. Definitely would have looked much better in March. But the other side to this is I've always been frustrated that the players care less than we do. For almost all of them, it's a job and they could be on a different team next year. I'm 54 and live and die every year with the Brewers. So, although I've never swung a bat or caught a ball for them, I'm way more invested emotionally than they are. Look no further than "Greg" Counsell for proof that even the most die-hard Brewer "lifers" can turn on you if the money is right. But I say all this to bring up that it seems like Yelich might be the exception to that rule. You can just tell from his comments and body language that it is KILLING him to not be able to help this club more than he has. The scene with Uecker (who truly was a Brewer lifer) confiding to Yelich his cancer diagnosis must have had a profound impact on him. I also think back to the emotion Yeli showed early in the year when he hit the walk-off home run - very out of character for him. He seems to have started out 8 years ago as "this is just my next stop in my career" and transformed into doing everything he can to give back to the Brewers and the city of Milwaukee. Kind of like he's choosing to be the next Brewer "lifer" in the mold of Yount, Braun, and Uecker. That's extremely rare in this day and age and should be appreciated and celebrated.

I do find that encouraging. Hopefully, he gets one more crack against the Cards, and we see results that match the stuff. It's nerve-wracking thinking of May and Harrison pitching in the playoffs, but I'm not sure what other choices we have. We're going to have some question marks, but so does every other team.

I hope Lake Bachar isn't renamed for his dismal performance.

I'm guessing Murphy's thought process was that the lead was large enough to take a chance there and see if Sproat could right the ship on his own. If he can somehow reset himself, and get out of the inning, it would only help him in the future. Obviously, that didn't happen. But if Murph was taking that chance thinking we can still win the game, he was ultimately correct in that. No way he leaves Sproat in that long if the game were closer.

The 80's baseball cards give me a nice dopamine hit.

Still younger than both NL ROY candidates this year: Stewart and Wetherholt

I hate to harp on his defense, but what is Bunty doing here? He's about three steps away from the base with the ball heading directly to the base. If he stays back and lets the ball travel, we may get Suzuki before he even gets to the bag. It worked out, thank goodness. But this guy's defensive instincts are really lacking. I don't want him playing D in the playoffs at all.

This team has bounced back well before. The 22-0 shellacking didn't help us the next night against the Mariners. I don't trust Gasser, but I'm still optimistic we can split the series.

I think my graphic got cut off. I can't see PCA's name on it. I kid! I kid!