adambr2

Yeah, I don't think anyone can say they haven't been trying to fix things. If anything I think they've had quick hooks -- Milone after a month, Marinez in May, Feliz in early June. Not that that is a bad thing. I think they've had a pretty good balance between giving guys some time to fix things while also not waiting around forever on guys who just aren't producing. They were never just going to DFA 5 guys one Monday morning and bring in the top 5 relievers from the minors , nor should they.

Yes, but I was bummed we gave up Haniger and Banda for a mediocre veteran like Parra. Still seems to have worked out overall Yeah, I'd much rather have Haniger and Banda than Davies. Don't get me wrong, I respect a lot of what Melvin did, it's just hard for me to give him too much credit for a good trade when a bad trade set it up.

Didn't see the Keon HR earlier but heard it was the longest HR in Busch Stadium history .

Yes!!

Great play! I didn't think they had any chance to turn that with the runner going.

Bill asks what Molina has to do to get a hit around here. I would suggest being faster.

Oh boy, Carlos Torres. This should end well.

Bandy has just fallen off a cliff.

Quit walking guys!

I was excited about Brinson, but he needs to head back down to Colorado Springs. Especially with as much as he's playing anyway.

Great play Arcia.

I'm still seething about that inning. With how bad Davies has been tonight it could end up costing us the game. How Eddie Sedar can test a good arm at home with nobody out and a guy with leg problems is just hard to fathom.

That was about the dumbest inning of baseball imaginable, and we've all seen plenty of Brewer baseball.

How do you make the 1st out at home with nobody out? Incredible, a chance to blow the game wide open and Sedar single handedly crushes it.

That's interesting since you posted this in March: To be fair, he did state a couple days after this and before the regular season that he thought it was baffling to give that money to Feliz. Might have just been posting his predictions for the pen.

No one is fearful of winning, that's ridiculous. It's about planning and investing wisely. Many believe it better to plan and invest in the team 2-3 years down the line rather than sell some of the future to invest in this current team. It's all about which team you think is more likely to win. Nothing is for certain, this year or in the future. But most would say the odds of fielding a true contender are higher in a couple years than it is right now. I agree with most of this. The future is still brighter than the present here. Now if you can improve the present without sacrificing the future, by all means go for it. I'm fine with trading Reed, Cooper, Wren, even Cordell. But there's no way I'd be looking to sell off top prospects, or even any highly promising pitching talent like Burnes or Bickford, without getting controlled young pitching in return.

Not fearful of winning, but I do personally think it's probably still the Cubs' division to lose. I just see too much talent on that side to not put together at least 85-90 wins over 162 games. The only way I can see a .500ish season is if their rotation really doesn't improve, which I think is unlikely. Even if they don't, they have the prospects to go out and fix that at the deadline. I agree with Patrick that the Cubs being under . 500 at this point is a lot more surprising than us being 3 games over, and frankly I think our 1st place status has a lot more to do with that right now than us just suddenly being a team to beat. With that said, they've defied my expectations to this point and I hope they continue to do so.

Knebel's on pace for 80ip. If he can't handle that at 25yrs old then he shouldn't be pitching. Jeffress threw 68 in 2015. Thornburg threw 67 last year. Andrew Miller threw 74 last year and is on pace for 86 this year. There are several other closers on pace for 74-86ip and a few more on pace for low-70s. Keep harping on how garbage Garza is when he had 1-2-3 innings every inning he pitched except the 2nd (sweet play Broxton - no mention of that of course because his last name isn't Garza). Guy has been solid all year thus far. You probably wanted Chase gone a month ago and now you're on your knees. "what have you done for me the last 24hrs" mentality on this board (ie Barnes is a candidate to go to AAA and work on things). Really? Because he had 2 bad outings in his past 16? Can anybody watch a game anymore without whining about someone Yeah, and what are Jeffress and Thornburg doing this year, by the way? Just because you think Knebel should be able to throw 80+ innings doesn't mean that he should or will be able to do so without consequence. I also like how you complain about people whining about someone, only to whine about Broxton in the same paragraph, and said I'm not whining about Broxton because his name isn't Garza, only to accuse me of hypothetically whining about Anderson a month ago. What is that?? Barnes walks are way, way up this year, and his overall numbers are middling, it's not just 2 outings, and he has options. Trust me, I know he's not going anywhere, nor do I think he should, I simply said he would be a good candidate to go down and work on things, particularly his control, IF we had a good pen, which we don't. Things sound a lot different when you take them out of context.

After the finale with the Cardinals, the Brewers have a 7 game homestand against the Padres and Pirates, then on the road against the Braves and Reds, and back home against the Marlins. The only series between now and July 24th that looks especially daunting on paper is a 3 game series at Yankee Stadium right before the break. The Cubs don't have much tougher opponents, but they do have a 4 game set in Washington and play only 3 home games between now and July 4th. If we're going to prove we really are in this race, we need to make hay now.

I'm curious as to why Hader was called up to see very little work out of the pen so far. It doesn't appear that Counsell has much faith in him, which is odd considering the performance of the rest of the pen besides Knebel. Hader is clearly behind Hughes and even Drake and Torres in terms of preference. This isn't a Wei Chung Wang situation from a few years ago where we're just trying to hide a guy at the back of our pen. Hader is MLB ready to help the team out of the pen and if he's going to remain up its important that he see work in critical situations, both in terms of evaluation and because the rest of our pen has obviously been failing in those situations. Sooner or later this season Knebel is going to wear down from overuse and we're going to need another pen arm to turn to in key situations, and we need to find out if Hader can be that guy. If we're not willing to do that he should head back down to Colorado Springs to continue to develop his craft.

I don't know what we are going to do late in the season when Knebel wears down, because the way he's been used it's a matter of when he will wear down, not if.

It's 3-0 and according to Gameday every pitch hit the zone.

Knebel is REALLY getting squeezed.

Only 600 of The Greatest Fans In The World left because of rain?

Barnes would be a good candidate to go back down to AAA and work on things, if we actually had more than one reliever that was better than him, which we don't.