istanbultaye

If you can't hit the corners when pitching to Jared Dyson, you're not going to be able to hit the corners when you pitch to Harper, so you gotta do it against everyone?

Maybe there were some prospects that would have been included too, I guess I don't remember the details, but if it was just straight up Braun for those 2, it would've been pretty dumb to do it. I certainly thought he'd be better than he has been so far this year even with anticipating some decline, but the extended stretch so far this year has me starting to swing around closer and closer to the camp that Braun could be a bigger roster challenge than just limiting some payroll flexibility going forward.

I still don't think I'd make that trade today. Salary and performance wise, McCarthy and Puig have not done better than Braun over that time period, and arguably have been worse. The only potential silver lining that could have come out of the trade would be to turn around and try to trade off Puig for some minor league help.

I'm ok with giving him 40% of that win.

So, regarding Braun, he started off on a seemingly career low cold streak to start the season, sitting at .176/.218/.373 on 4/16. Then he had a 10 day hot streak that shot him up to .275/.310/.525 on 4/26. Now he's been cold again since and has dropped to the aforementioned .222/.268/.413 line as mentioned in prior posts. Long story short, he's been rather cold for basically 5+ weeks out of the 7 weeks we are into the season. It's definitely not a good sign. All of the advanced metrics mentioned really are supporting the theory of some aging, so far this year, with him having good LD%/exit velocity, when he actually makes contact, but making a lot less contact overall. I'm still on the side that he will get it going, but there is definitely a lot of signs indicating things will proceed along the naysayers predicted path right now.

I'll give Braun a little bit longer before I write him off as a sub .800 hitter, but people are definitely making some good points, and though it's still somewhat early, we're at a point that saying "it's early" is starting to wear thin a bit.

I think we were watching different games. I didn't see a whole lot of stuff down the middle. I saw a lot of stuff along the edges of the zone and while he didn't have pinpoint control he had strong command - when they wanted the pitch on the outside part it was on the outside part, when the wanted it up it was up, when they wanted it inside or down it was inside or down. I thought he was successful because he used all parts of the plate and was great at changing hitter's eye level because of working up and down, in and out. I saw quite a few pitches down the pipe, and so did the article linked earlier in the thread which has a plot of his pitches. He definitely pitched a good game, but he's going to need to cut down on that a bit in the long run.

One thing that has really been encouraging with Hader, who had issues with control in the minors, if I recall correctly, and when he first came up last year, is that he has really had pinpoint command all of this year, and the end of last year. If he can keep that level of command long term, that is honestly the biggest sign that he could transition to a starter and put up "one or two" level numbers. That said, if the Brewers are going to make a run this year, it's going to be on the strength of the bullpen it seems, so I still support keeping him in his current role for the rest of this year. But, if the brewers fall off a cliff, it would probably be worth giving him a shot in the rotation in September.

He has more velo than Fiers did in the beginning, doesn't he? Also, he's younger so likely to hold that velo a bit longer compared to when fiers first came up. It's one thing to have a deceptive delivery. It's another to have a deceptive delivery and velocity. Really, the 3rd step would be the control, but it seems to me, that deceptive whippy motion is probably harder to repeat with the precision needed for really good control. But, any improvement in that aspect would sure help ensure his long term viability.

Sounds like it wasn't actually a challenge, so other than wasting a couple minutes, no harm in checking.

Seems some of the fantasy sites have noticed, but no actual info on reasoning for him to sit 6 out of 7 games.

Is the kid still alive? JJ's got some HEAT!

The Brewers need more sub .800 players that bat .796 away from Coors Field

I guess I'll add the caveat, that if a trade to pick up a top 30 pitcher in the MLB comes along, and Arcia is required to get it done, then I guess I can live with that.

Orlando Arcia is going to be the starting SS for the brewers at least until he hits arby, and rightfully so, as he has the potential to be a great defensive SS with a league average bat. If he's still barely cracking a .700 OPS after 2019, I could see them potentially going a different route then. I would rather not see another 5+ year stretch of revolving door crappy 35 year old short stops starting for the brewers any sooner than absolutely necessary. Shaw has been in a slump, but it's way too soon to be panicking about him. Braun started out dreadfully cold, but picked up the pace, but has now been slumping a bit the past couple weeks as well. As mentioned by others, Santana has really been heating up the last couple weeks, so if he can keep it going, and some other guys get it back together a bit, and the offense would be mostly back on track. That leaves 2b and C as the main places that have potential to improve. Sogard is demoted, so the work has started there to begin cycling the options. I understand Villar has been putting up a pretty empty, very mediocre .600s OPS that's heavily inflated by a lot of infield hits, but, I think they need to just push him out there every day at least through May, and possibly into June, and see what is out there on the trade market if he's still not catching the 2016 spark. I'm fine with pulling up a Nate Orf or Dubon or whoever else to rotate on the bench, but no real point in giving them significant playing time unless Villar just isn't hacking it through June, and no real improvements have come available on the trade market. For Catcher, I'm not as concerned as many are, as Pina has pretty consistently put up a decent .700+ OPS as a Catcher from minors to MLB throughout his career. If he can get back to that, even if he doesn't get all the way back to last years' .750, C stops being a black hole in the lineup at that point. I think, similar to Villar, they have to at least give him through May before they start pushing other options into more playing time. That said, I don't really know how Bethancourt compares defensively with Pina? It's been mentioned that he's got solid D on broadcasts a time or two I think, but I always take those comments with a heavy dose of salt, against my doctor's advice.. With Vogt's continued injury struggles this year, and suspect defense, who knows if he'll even end up getting any chance this year, so it would seem like Bethancourt and Nottingham are the only other guys to even give a shot to. I harbor a lot of doubt that a legit catching improvement over Pina would come available in a trade scenario, though I admittedly don't keep up with other mlb/milb teams' rosters like a lot of folks on here do.

In the bullpen, it seems to me that Knebel, Barnes and Williams are 3 guys that you really want to start clean innings, as they each seem to have a bit of a tendency towards walking people. So, in my mind, they aren't guys to really take over too often in the 5th or 6th, where you are likely coming in to clean up a mess. Knebel probably comes back as primarily closer, but I do have a feeling that the roles will still be more flexible than they were last year.

Over the larger sample size, Suter has been better 1-2 times through than 3+, but this year he's had some issues in the early innings. But he's had some success both starting and relieving, so I really don't have any issue with him going to the pen rather than getting sent down.

http://m.mlb.com/glossary/rules/strike-zone If the ball catches any part of the strike zone, it should technically be a strike. The entire ball does not have to be in the zone. So, Pitch 6 is a good call, Pitch 4 is a bad call, but not atrocious compared to some you see.

There must be something in the dirt around 1b encouraging runners to take off early tonight.

I take back what I said about Aguilar's edge on defense :D

When it comes to playing 1b, with Thames down, I'd say he's pretty 50/50 with Braun. Braun with the edge on the bat, and Aguilar with the edge on the defense/experience at the position.

"This roster was unable to sustain injuries by Pina (Bandy) Arcia (Sogard) and Yelich (Santana)..." I would have to disagree with the first 2. 1. Manny Pina has not been all that great offensively so far this year, and Bandy has matched that production, and the defensive dropoff wasn't really that noticeable over the course of the 10 or 11 days Pina was on the DL. 2. Again, Arcia has not been very good offensively, though Sogard has been attrocious, him covering SS for 3 games really didn't hurt the Brewers. 3. Clearly, you have a point, since as has been noted in other threads, the Brewers record with and without Yelich are drastically different so far this year. However, it was also not a very long DL stint (12 or 13 games that he missed?), and it happens that Santana has been terribly cold to start the year. I think most would expect Santana to heat up at some point, and cover the absence of Yelich or Braun to an injury better than the first time around. Frankly, Braun should also take some blame for not covering that DL stint as he was also pretty cold to start the year outside of a couple clutch homers those first 2 weeks. "... and would be unable to sustain injuries to Shaw, Anderson or Davies." If, like the above injuries, these guys had minimum/near minimum DL stints, it wouldn't be as crippling as you insinuate. However, a month plus would certainly be tough to cover for with the players available on the roster. "The only injury that has worked out to not significantly hurt us are Knebel, so Stearns gets credit for the strong bullpen, and Thames, who will now be replaced by the same guy who would have done it last year." I'm not going to dive into how much credit Stearns does or doesn't deserve.

Hammel back out for the 7th at 95.

Maybe his low pitch count was a sign that he was masking an injury??? If there was ever a time for a SP to at least get through 7, tonight was the night...

I don't think it means that at all. They have been one arm short in the pen for a while now. Woodruff is just one more guy that can go multiple innings. After a Suter start, Chacin, Guerra, or anyone else. I don't see why he's being tied to Suter specifically? In terms of Woodruff claiming a spot in the rotation, it's pretty clear that Suter is in the weakest position to maintain his spot right now. However, you're correct in terms of giving some length to cover innings for <=5 inning starts from the bullpen doesn't necessarily have to link to Suter specifically. Heck, he could even have to cover innings tonight if Chacin has problems with the Royals.