GasserFace

Great info and breakdown, Jack. It matches what my eyes are seeing. Uribe, Ashby, Koenig and Megill are 4+ innings of trust for me. I feel really good about that group.

100% agree. The Brewers are a model franchise. I was at the recent Angels series, and watching a team that is not actively involved in the postseason chase is difficult. Yelich, Woody and Freddy have played 1 game total in the past 7 years that was not postseason relevant. That is amazing for a team that runs out a $100-120 MM payroll each year. Kudos and thanks to the organization! I love being a Brewers fan. Now..let's go win the tournament, so we can silence ALL of the naysayers.

Could they start playing him a bit shallower? He has shown the athleticism to go back and chase down balls, but if he was even 5 feet shallower, he might be able to attack those low liners more aggressively. I don't want to put him in an uncomfortable 'no man's land' where he is indecisive on all types of plays but it might be worth a shot.

The Brewers love their depth. My view is that the front office is stepping in right now to make managerial decisions. Murph knows one way to manage. Win tonight! He has even eluded to the feeling that it is uncomfortable right now. My perception is that the FO was concerned about the bullpen arms falling apart in September, so they brought in vets that Murph would actually use, Fedde and Payamps, to soak up inconsequential innings. Let's be real...these games really don't matter that much. There is a possibility that they make a decision with the playoff roster to include guys like Yoho and Gasser, with or without Murph's buy in, and the instruction of when to use those guys. I agree that it might be valuable to bring them up again DFA Payamps and Fedde, but there are still a lot of inconsequential innings to cover over the remaining regular season and there is risk involved in letting those guys go too soon.

The Brewers are the buzzword that NFL Def Coordinators use, multiple. As Matt astutely brought up, their power is ticking up with player development and roster changes. Their base running is top notch. They lead the majors in infield hits and reaching via an error. Putting the ball in play with speedy baserunners, increases the opportunity to reach base and create scoring chances. I am happy that they are 'multiple' and that they seem to building a pipeline of players who operate in that way.

Do you think there is a correlation between his pitch mix, reduced K rate and reduced hard hit rate / BABIP? Have the Brewers sold him on missing fewer bats, and try for weak contact? Pitchers that want to maximize their career earnings are always striving to miss bats, but maybe DL has figured out that his niche is not a swing and miss guy, but a soft contact, defense dependent lefty. If so, that would be very mature, as Jack states, but could actually increase his long term earnings. Interesting article about a really intriguing pitcher.

Andrew Vaughn IS the 1b moving forward. Even a 50% output version of the current Vaughn is better than an injured Hoskins. The question related to acquiring O'Hearn is this...is he better than Jake Bauers? Yes. Make that move. The trade deadline is sexy because of the coverage and the flurry of moves, but the really solid teams have made their moves in advance. The Brewers hit with the trades for Priester and Vaughn. O'Hearn would provide better LHH depth than Bauers. Another RP might give them a chance to 'rest' Koenig. I'm not sure what else this team needs, with what is possibly attainable. Everyone needs to understand that there are no quality SS's available AND Brice Turang is not a SS currently. He would need a full offseason to prepare for that spot, so we can't even dip into the weak 2B market either.

The Brewers are going to Brewer. Build up enough quality depth options, so that they can play the most effective players. If they happen to get O'Hearn, he would be a huge upgrade over Bauers. Vaughn is currently a huge upgrade over Hoskins. My guess is that Hoskins will stay on the IL for longer than expected, so the Brewers can determine if the Vaughn-aissance is real. From what I see, it is real. He is being encouraged to display good swing decision habits and he is taking to that info to heart. With a 95% playoff chance, and a 19 games in 18 days stretch coming up, they will need all of these guys and more to keep everyone on a regular rest schedule, while competing for the division and a bye.

I totally agree with Snoebird. O'Hearn to replace Bauers. Soto to give Koenig a break. Castro to replace Mona. The only way I would consider moving off of Ortiz or Durbin is if they got back Suarez (unlikely because of the competition) and either Xavier Edwards / Otto Lopez of the Marlins. Those 2 intrigue me, but I'm not completely sold on them as upgrades. O'Hearn, Soto, and Castro are all definite upgrades.

Depleted Dodgers lineup??? Any lineup that contains Ohtani, Betts, Freeman and Pages is still pretty formidable. I agree that this is not peak Dodges with Hernandez, Muncy and Edman out, but it does not diminish. I would have liked to see how Will Smith would have fared against the Miz, but Dave Roberts wanted to play the platoon game yesterday.

I certainly hope they continue with this piggyback arrangement. I would even expand it with an Ashby/Patrick combo. I would set it up as Freddy, piggyback, Quintana, piggyback and Civale When Woody comes back, option Patrick and move the least effective of Woody and Civale into the piggyback with Ashby. A true RP crew of Megill Uribe Koenig Anderson Mears and Z with the ability to move Patrick Mis and Henderson as desired seems pretty stout to me.

Interesting story and great work by Vinny this offseason. Mixed martial artists are some of the most explosive and well rounded athletes that I have seen. It makes a lot of sense that this type of training would produce these results. Take a minute to watch fighters like Islam Machachev or Ilia Topuria and the rotational that they generate is almost frightening. Long story short, don’t mess with Vinny Capra.

I think a bullpen game would be in order, with a Alexander, Rodriguez, Thomas mash up, depending on the circumstances leading up to those fourth and fifth games. Hopefully, Quintana will be ready to roll by game 4 or 5, or the 4 slot second time around. To Murph's point, Henderson seemed timid against the meat of the Padres lineup. I was disappointed as well because I think he has made great strides but not enough to burn an option just yet. I'm not sold on Patrick either. Team may have to take a 'schedule' loss in game 5.

Agreed, That is quite a conspiracy theory. I believe the Brewers like a bunch of the relief options available and they want to keep as many as long as possible. It's a fantastic place to be when, if one of Peguero, Mears, Payamps or Megill struggles or the inevitable IL placement occurs, having Yoho, Uribe etc available as a replacement is a fantastic place to be. Brewers fans need to get used to having the depth available to keep some of their favorite minor leaguers there. Think how Dodgers farmhands must feel when they see the offseason that they just had.

I agree that there will not be 5 LHPs in the pen. Peguero will replace Hall since he is behind schedule. Alexander will either replace Thomas, because he is more expensive or Hudson, if Hudson has not recovered from his end of year issues.

Likely because of the Hall injury and the likelihood that as other teams report and the inevitable injuries flush out, there will be competition for his services.

Perfect! Glad to be wrong about that. Sign him up to platoon with Hoskins.

Mis and Yoho are the most likely to impact the '25 Brewers, even if they aren't a part of the opening day roster. EMJ is particularly interesting to me based on his tools and recent development. If he puts together a spectacular spring, could he make the roster as a power bat off the bench / defensive replacement for Hoskins? His lane is a bit obstructed since he is a RHH, but the doubles power he showed last year is intriguing.

I’m not sure this was a mistake. We don’t have all the information. I will give the front office a lot of leeway on this. this could be the ‘Walker McKinven’ effect. The ChiSox are noted laggards with pitching metrics and Walker has seen Smith develop and probably compared him to other options in their system and convinced their FO to make this move. Stuff happens. Good teams can’t keep everyone and I’m sure there is another option just around the corner

Even if he only makes 2 or 3 starts, this move is a success. Get some ground balls for the 3 shortstops that we play on a regular basis and it will be a major success. Nice stopgap acquisition

Why would the Brewers ask him to be anything but himself offensively? I think the only thing keeping him from consistent MLB time is a defensive home and AB’s He will be just fine. The Brewers gave him a second audition in SD and the results were great.

The first team to deploy this information appeared to be the Rays. They had a wide array of arm angles from both sides. The most noticeable shift for the Brewers this year is LHPs. Targeting Hudson, picking up Koenig and keeping Milner has been the biggest change from recent Brewers staffs. Great article and I look forward to more visual dives into this data.

There is no need to rush. No other team in the division is over .500. Let’s see what we have in Rodriguez, Junis, Ashby and Hall. Peralta and Rea are solid. Myers seems to be improving. Wilson is fine when he limits free passes. The Crew should stay patient and see what the market looks like in late July. We pitched well against the Phillies. Let’s see how we fare against the Dodgers and Braves before we sell some of our prospects.

The Brewers are doing an amazing job of winning while developing players at the MLB level. To do this, it seems like they are trying to put each of Ortiz, Dunn, Chourio and Turang in the best spots as possible. Some of that development appears to take the form of rest and confidence management. As we have seen and heard over the past few years, it takes 50+ players to successfully make it through a season. The sample size so far is way too small to bail on any of these players yet. Each of them are adjusting to MLB for the first time and it is the entire coaching and management staff’s responsibility to be patient and put them in situations designed for their success. My prediction is that Ortiz, Dunn and Turang will be main cogs of this infield for at least this season and to do that on a division/ pennant contender is truly remarkable.

As always, great article Jack. Let’s think about the different rule and baseball mindset changes that have occurred while Turang was developing as a player. He likely was never the biggest kid on his youth / travel teams but he made the most and best contact. He was so good at that, along with his pure athletic ability, that he was a highly ranked player from the time he was 15. The Brewers took him in the first round because of those skills. With that draft position comes expectations and everyone dreams on unlocking HR power in a line drive hitter. Brice does his thing throughout the minors. It takes him a bit of time to adjust at each level but he eventually succeeds at each level. He is doing this in the lift and defensive shift era, where the group think is that SBs are too risky. He is likely feeling the pressure to become someone who he cannot be, but he is likely hearing the noise that if he doesn’t hit 15+ dingers per year that he won’t be a viable MLB player. Fortunately, MLB changes the rules to eliminate the shift. Brice has been working on a lift swing over the past 2 years and was productive in AAA with that swing. He makes the roster and is getting a lot of ABs. He isn’t successful. Likely because he was trying to be someone else and it takes him time to adjust to each new level He gets demoted and works on becoming his true self again. Meanwhile MLB changes the base stealing rules a bit more and he realizes that his legs generate ‘hidden slug’. Almost predictably, a super talented contact with incredible athleticism is now succeeding at this new level. I think it is a great story for Brice and the Brewers and maybe a good lesson for us all. First, being self-aware is a valuable trait. Understanding what your strengths and weaknesses is the first step to success. I applaud the Brewers as well for demonstrating confidence in Brice and encouraging him to be himself. I think he is going to be a long time Major Leaguer and will help this organization win a lot of games.