Bashopolis

Is there this type of analysis on Pratt? He seems to be the next guy up for the Brewers. And considering the contract, the Brewers seem to think Pratt will consistently hit better than Ortiz is hitting. I’m guessing Pratt doesn’t have the same significant flaw at the plate? Why do the Brewers feel strongly that Pratt can be at least adequate offensively when they aren’t able to fix Ortiz?

Or maybe Andrew Fischer?

Sure, it makes some sense to explore the possibilities. But as you said it is difficult to believe a 30 year old with five years of replacement level production is going to turn into an offensive force. It doesn’t happen very often. The Brewers may give him a few weeks in April of heavier use to see if the one month was for real; but don’t expect a long leash.

When seeing these moves listed out together, it really feels more like a team entering a shallow rebuild rather than attempting to win in the playoffs. Each move was done with an eye towards having the best team possible in 2028. Even the Woodruff move was more about the draft choice—he just happened to resign. The Durbin trade and even the Collins trade were about optimizing value before there are prospects pushing them out the door. Each signing was a stopgap move. The type of move a rebuilding team makes. It all creates pitching depth from which the Brewers hope to build the next starting rotation and a deep bullpen. But this team isn’t better than it was for much of last year. For those of us that bemoan the Brewers not sacrificing to go for it —be happy. The Brewers are doing it. Just in reverse of how you want. Instead of trading prospects to go for it this year. They are trading established talent to go for it in the 2027- 2029 window.

I wonder if the best overall positioning for the players on hand is Ortiz, Turang Rengifo from left to right on the infield with Williams getting the first call up if Ortiz offensive woes continue. The reason not to do this is that there is greater potential for shortstop prospects over the next year or two so that would mean moving Turang back to second.

I tend to think Gasser has the inside track on a starter spot. He has nothing more to prove in the minors if he does fine in spring ball.

Each of these players faces different factors. 1. Contreras will turn down qualifying offer and warrant draft pick as long as he doesn’t totally fall off the ledge this year. So there is return value even if they keep him. The biggest question for this one is whether Quero can be an everyday MLB catcher? If Quero is ready, it makes exploring trades much more likely. 2. Vaughan: we have to see if 2025 is sustainable. And even then, the Brewers may be more likely to trade than risk him potentially accepting a qualifying offer after 2027. They don’t want to spend that kind of money on a first baseman. 3. McGill — trade.

Reading this I got a little bit of Joey Weimer flashbacks. Weimer was/is a guy with amazing physical skills but somehow went through the minor leagues with a batting stance and load that were going to fail him in the majors. When he got there and failed in the majors, they found out that he wasn’t able to find success changing things either. Sproat doesn’t seem to have as much to fix, but this article leaves wondering he can change how the Brewers may want him too.

Getting CJ Abrams is interesting.

Baring injuries, I would expect Vaughan will get around 81% of starts at first while he and Bauers are the two most likely options. I just don’t trust Bauers, after being a pretty poor player for 30 years, to suddenly become a productive player.

Agree. The batting average under .240 at AA just doesn’t scream future Wade Boggs at the moment. Maybe wait till he gets a good stretch with an OPS over .690 before he gets to mlb.

Rough math: the rest of MLB teams are paying Brewers players around $2M that’s very kind of them.

Vaughn not qualified based on number of at bats?

I think it is unlikely we see the Brewers roster 12 pitchers and Myers and Patrick seem rather redundant. Hoskin has a role as a power hitting pinch hitter. Two out in the eighth. Two on. Down by two. You want to have Hoskins available rather than go with Monasterio or Perkins.

If Bergman isn’t an option, and I’m not convinced that the Brewers are yet totally ruling out the potential of getting him, Turner is the only batter that is of interest. But I’m not sure Turner is interested in signing with a team that can’t guarantee him 400 AB at DH.

Not now they can’t. Even the White Sox can read an article and no one wants to get hoodwinked…

I wouldn’t say that the Manager of the year award is flawed. But that it is precise in its scope. It is who was the best manager for that year. Is Murphy a better manager than Counsell? Probably not. But for this year with this team, he likely got better results than another year of Counsell would have. Of course there are other factors that lead to this team over performing including system, coaches, and perhaps a bit more talent than they were given credit for. (And a really weak division helped too.). Over performing may be the general criteria for this award . But underpinning that, this team put into play well designed game plans, sound fundamentals, and a strong team first approach in an amazingly consistent basis. Being able to accomplish this makes Murphy a shoe in for Manager of the Year this year. Next year will be a new year.

I tend to doubt Civale will be back next year. The Brewers have some depth at starting pitching if Woodruff actually returns. And they likely will give Hall and Ashby another shot at starting.

Thursday night was a gut-wrenching loss. A baseball season’s end too suddenly in the Wild Card round. And this was more sudden than most. Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images What we trusted as true, that Devin Williams couldn’t blow a two-run lead, proved false. There is reason to feel anger, despair, or frustration in the team, baseball, or even, for the most dramatic of fans, in life itself. But there is also a reason to move beyond grief. The morning after, I felt a touch of gratitude and a lot of hope. Is this denial? Is it just me coping? Maybe. As a Brewer fan, this is just how I need to roll. But there is also some basis for how I am feeling. 2024 was a transitory season. On that, the pundits were right. They foresaw a wide swath of potential outcomes for this team, with most of them not being as good as we got. This team outperformed the expectations if not the talent. For that, I have gratitude. We got to watch a lot of winning baseball this year. Being tossed in the first round of the playoffs doesn’t mean this wasn’t a great year. Pat Murphy injected a sense of fun and pride into this team. These seemed to be missing the previous year when they may have won more games but were tougher to love. The 2024 Brewers were so very lovable. They were our kids. We grew with them as they grew into themselves. There were highs and lows, but there was an overwhelming sense of them doing it all together, and we got to be carried along for the ride. That made 2024 a special season and a joyful time to be a Brewers fan. This playoff series was the culmination of a 2024 season of transition. The Brewer’s top performers in the playoffs were Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick, Tobias Myers, and Trevor Megill. And they will be the core of this team for years to come. This is something to build upon. They were great. Will every one of them continue to deliver in the playoffs every year? Probably not. There is a lot of randomness in baseball. We should be used to this by now, but it smacks me in the face every October. Being a Brewers fan is like attaching your heart to a rigged roulette wheel and letting it spin, ever hoping for it to hit on your team’s number. The difference is that the wheel spins for six months of a season and a month of playoffs. As a baseball fan, you had better enjoy the ride: the hope, the anticipation, the ups and downs, and the personal stories. Because more likely than not, your team will not win in the end. So, let us lick our collective wounds for a bit. We just got tossed off the roulette wheel, and it hurts. But it was a hell of a fun ride in 2024, and there is reason to believe 2025 may be even better. View full article

Eric Haas, the Brewers best OPS, against lefties, should be in the starting line up.

Chourio slugging against northpaws: .550ish Against southpaws: 330ish. in MLB. Could be a small sample size fluke: under 150PA against lefties. But this and the plethora of other right hand hitting power bats available likely play heavily into the Brewers decision making.

The Brewers' playoff odds are almost nothing but sunshine and good news. They just don't have an easy path to claiming a bye through the first round of the postseason. Image courtesy of © Allan Henry-Imagn Images The Brewers are currently the MLB team most likely to win their division. This is more like waiting for the leaves to start falling than an actual division race. It is going to happen; the only question is when. The magic number for clinching the division is three, with 13 games to play. The rest of the Central division has proven mediocre, so there hasn’t been a divisional race since July. FanGraphs website has the Brewers with a 100% chance of winning the division. If anything, they're low. Perhaps MLB was thinking of this type of scenario when they came up with the current playoff format. In today’s MLB, the top two division winners get a first-round bye in the playoffs. The division winner with the third-best record gets a three-game series in the Wild Card round. As Brewers fans, we have seen how difficult that series can be. Even with the division all but sewn up, the potential to secure that first-round bye keeps us interested in baseball. Can the Brewers secure a bye? This is where things currently sit among the division leaders in the race for a bye: Wins Losses Win Percentage Phillies 90 59 0.604 Dodgers 88 61 0.591 Brewers 86 63 0.577 The Brewers are in two separate races: one with the Phillies, and one with the Dodgers. If they win either of these races, they secure the bye. Chasing two teams is better than chasing one, but FanGraphs gives the Brewers only a 6.5% chance of clinching a bye. They also gave the Brewers a 14.5% chance of winning the division at the beginning of the season. Overcoming FanGraphs odds is a very Brewers thing to do. Beating the Phillies This race is likely to be decided over the next three days. The Phillies and the Brewers square off against each other this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Milwaukee. The Phillies, recognizing the importance of this series, have the top of their rotation lined up. The matchups are: Brewers Starting Pitcher Phillies Starting Pitcher Aaron Civale Ranger Suarez Colin Rea Zack Wheeler Frankie Montas Aaron Nola In addition, having used seven pitchers in yesterday’s loss, the Brewers are a bit short on quality bullpen arms for the Phillies series. After the Phillies leave town, the Brewers finish the year with four games at home with the Diamondbacks, who are fighting for a Wild Card berth; three against the Pirates; and a final three against the Mets, who may be fighting down to the end of the season for that final slot. The Phillies do have four against those Mets right after the Brewers series, but then they face the Cubs and the Washington Nationals to close things out. The tiebreaker, if both the Phillies and the Brewers end up with the same number of wins, is head-to-head record, and the Phillies swept the Brewers in a three-game series earlier this year. The Brewers' chances to catch the Phillies largely hang on their ability to not only win the series, but sweep the Phillies in Milwaukee. Even if they do this, the schedule after this series still favors the Phillies. According to FanGraphs, the Phillies have a 94.3% chance of clinching the bye. The Brewers chose not to work to line up the top of the rotation against the Phillies, because this isn’t the team they are more likely to catch. The Dodgers are. Beating the Dodgers The Dodgers aren’t playing their best baseball right now. They have a record of 4-6 over their last 10 games. They are currently two games ahead of the Brewers. The Dodgers, having won the head-to-head series, also win the tiebreaker. For the Brewers to claim that last bye, they will have to pick up three games on the Dodgers over the last 13. It is possible, but also unlikely. FanGraphs calculates the Dodgers' probability of achieving the bye at 89.7%. After a weekend wraparound series concludes with one game against the Braves on Monday, the Dodgers face two of the worst teams playing major-league baseball, in the Rockies and Marlins. The Dodgers always seem to get to eat cupcakes in September. They then face the Padres, a team that may still be in contention, for three and finish with another series with the ski bunnies in Denver. A hopeful outcome is that the Dodgers lose on Monday to the Braves, and then lose one series out of the three against the cupcakes. Take some solace that the Rockies are 6-4 over their last 10 games. If the Dodgers also lose the series to the Padres, they end up going 6-7 over their last 13 contests. The Brewers would have to go 9-4, in that case. They could get there by winning each series through the end of the year, sweeping one of them. A five-game winning streak someplace in the last 13 would surely help. If the series against the Phillies goes badly and the Dodgers sweep the Rockies this week, it may be time for the Brewers to focus more on resting players than clinching the bye. But for now, there is still a chance. Is there such a thing as Murphtember? We will soon find out. View full article

I agree with giving Koenig the 10th. Not sure why Williams is even up. This was an attempt to steel a game while still resting Williams for the Phillies series. It didn’t work. But it was the right call if the Brewers were going to try to take 2 out of 3 from Phillies and stay in the race for a first round bye. With the rest of the bullpen used they needed Williams and, likely being called up today, Hudson available for the Phillies series.