Braun to 10 day DL (Latest: Choi recalled)

[pacopete4]

 

 

Is it bad that I think that looks better than having Braun anywhere in there... I'd love to see them have a breakout series with like 25 runs.

 

I agree. Just seems so much more likely that a guy in his prime like Aguilar or Choi will have a career year than it is that Braun will turn back the clock. It's such a drag seeing him in the 3 hole and not knowing if he's going to be able to play even if he's not on the DL. Really looking forward to the end of the whole era of counting on washed-up players when younger guys really deserve that opportunity.

 

There will almost always be players on the Brewers that fit this bill. Cain is next in line for that and I'm sure a pitcher will be signed eventually that will fit it as well.

[KeithStone53151]

The lineup should be mixed up a bit but I won't hold my breath.

 

 

vs. LHP:

1. Cain- CF

2. Yelich- LF

3. Santana- DH

4. Shaw- 3B

5. Aguilar- 1B

6. Perez- RF

7. Villar- 2B / Perez- 2B

8. Pina- C

9. Arcia- SS

 

 

vs. RHP:

1. Villar- 2B

2. Yelich- LF

3. Cain- CF

4. Shaw- 3B

5. Santana- RF

6. Choi- DH

7. Aguilar- 1B

8. Pina- C

9. Arcia- SS

 

Not terrible, but Santana should not be hitting 3rd right now. Cain, Yelich, Shaw, Aguilar are your options at the 3 spot. I would go Cain, Yelich, Aguilar, Shaw, Santana, Choi, Pina, Arcia, Villar...against a lefty you could switch Perez and Choi, and maybe get Saladino in there for Villar or Arcia.

[pacopete4]

The lineup should be mixed up a bit but I won't hold my breath.

 

 

vs. LHP:

1. Cain- CF

2. Yelich- LF

3. Santana- DH

4. Shaw- 3B

5. Aguilar- 1B

6. Perez- RF

7. Villar- 2B / Perez- 2B

8. Pina- C

9. Arcia- SS

 

 

vs. RHP:

1. Villar- 2B

2. Yelich- LF

3. Cain- CF

4. Shaw- 3B

5. Santana- RF

6. Choi- DH

7. Aguilar- 1B

8. Pina- C

9. Arcia- SS

 

Not terrible, but Santana should not be hitting 3rd right now. Cain, Yelich, Shaw, Aguilar are your options at the 3 spot. I would go Cain, Yelich, Aguilar, Shaw, Santana, Choi, Pina, Arcia, Villar...against a lefty you could switch Perez and Choi, and maybe get Saladino in there for Villar or Arcia.

 

Not quite sure on why so many are down on Santana's bat right now.

 

Here are the past 28-day split:

 

Domingo Santana- .303/362/.467/.829

 

Shaw: .205/.279/.538/.818

Aguilar: .262/.333/.459/.792

Cain: .253/.372/.405/.777

Yelich: .261/.303/.402/.705

[coolhandluke121]

 

There will almost always be players on the Brewers that fit this bill. Cain is next in line for that and I'm sure a pitcher will be signed eventually that will fit it as well.

 

I'm pretty optimistic about Cain. There was an article comparing him to 10 very similar cf's (Cameron, Victorino, etc) and most of them aged very well. He also played a career high # of games last year and showed no signs of having lost any athleticism since his theoretical prime.

 

Yeah, there's a decent chance there's a guy like that or two on the Brewers every year, but they seem to be avoiding it for the most part and I love it. Used to be nearly 1/3 of the team was like that (Weeks, Hart, Ramirez, Gallardo, Wolf, Marcum, Lohse, Garza, Suppan, Hoffman, probably missing a few).

[coolhandluke121]

 

Not terrible, but Santana should not be hitting 3rd right now. Cain, Yelich, Shaw, Aguilar are your options at the 3 spot.

 

I actually like it. Santana is probably going to be a better hitter than Aguilar by the time the year is out, and could be much better. He looks like he's out of his slump, and Aguilar's ridiculous streak of good luck is probably over. Besides, the 3-hole doesn't have to be your best hitter. That should be 1-2-4. And Santana has much better speed than Aguilar, which isn't saying much, so he's a better threat to get on base and score runs with the 4/5 hitters behind him.

 

Cain

Yelich

Santana

Shaw

Aguilar/Thames

 

Is looking like the dangerous top 5 we all hoped for at the start of the year.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

It's a good-looking lineup, especiallly if Villar, Pina, and Arcia are bringing some pop to the 7-9 spots.

 

The Twins are tossing Gibson, Romero, and Odorizzi, I think, all of whom have been good lately. Gibson was a mess last year but looks much better. Plus, he still held the Brewers in check during that awful 4-game sweep. Romero is their version of Peralta. No. 2 org. prospect, only 1 run allowed in three starts. That he is matching up with Freddy Saturday is interesting and fun. FIP thinks Odorizzi is overrated, but he has been better since a rough start.

 

I'd say all three of these games are basically coin flips, though I'd give MN the edge tonight. I think a low-scoring series is most likely, but maybe the offense has found its groove.

[brwrsfan]

If Villar is starting, I'd almost like to see him hitting 9th. He's been getting on base a lot lately. Get him on in front of the top of the order guys. Let him run a bit.

[coolhandluke121]

If Villar is starting, I'd almost like to see him hitting 9th. He's been getting on base a lot lately. Get him on in front of the top of the order guys. Let him run a bit.

 

I've been wanting that all year. When your lineup is that top-heavy, having guys on base for the 1-2 hitters in later innings is more important than having an 8 hitter who might be able to drive in the 6-7 guys, who aren't on base that often anyway. Perfect roster composition for hitting the pitcher 8th.

[Never Outhustled]

I'm just not sold on Choi. He had a nice spring, and got a big hit in Game #1, but nothing else in his major league career has indicated that he is anything but a replacement-level bat. But it makes sense to bring up Choi and not Phillips, as with Santana finally hitting better, Phillips was only going to get sporadic playing time.

 

He's 26. He had an OPS over 1000 in his brief stint with the Yankees last year. He struggled in a stint with the Angel's at age 24, but I don't think that's enough to write off his career. He improves at the minor league level each year.

[JohnBriggs12]

I'm just not sold on Choi. He had a nice spring, and got a big hit in Game #1, but nothing else in his major league career has indicated that he is anything but a replacement-level bat. But it makes sense to bring up Choi and not Phillips, as with Santana finally hitting better, Phillips was only going to get sporadic playing time.

 

You might want to read Jeff Sullivan's chat on Fangraphs from yesterday. Quoting Sullivan "I think there are teams in the major leagues with worse starting first basemen than Ji Man Choi....all he's ever done is abuse Triple A, with a whole lot of walks. He's legit" He went on to say that it speaks to the organizational depth that the Brewers can DL Braun and replace him with Choi.

 

By the way, happy 27th birthday Ji-Man!

[brewerswinNLcentral]

i think the lineup we had last nite was the best one we have put out there, and in 7 days, when brauny comes back, he really needs

to start hitting,..you really cant pitch around anyone in the first 5 slots. this is a very potent team folks.

the starting pitching is way better then we thought and the bullpen is the best in baseball

[MrTPlush]

I'm just not sold on Choi. He had a nice spring, and got a big hit in Game #1, but nothing else in his major league career has indicated that he is anything but a replacement-level bat. But it makes sense to bring up Choi and not Phillips, as with Santana finally hitting better, Phillips was only going to get sporadic playing time.

 

You might want to read Jeff Sullivan's chat on Fangraphs from yesterday. Quoting Sullivan "I think there are teams in the major leagues with worse starting first basemen than Ji Man Choi....all he's ever done is abuse Triple A, with a whole lot of walks. He's legit" He went on to say that it speaks to the organizational depth that the Brewers can DL Braun and replace him with Choi.

 

By the way, happy 27th birthday Ji-Man!

 

Oh Sullivan said it...herd up the sheep we must all think the same way. Listen to the blogger who is citing AAA numbers like there isn’t an endless list of AAAA type players.

[MillerParkSouth]

With all due respect, I'll take Sullivan's word over just about anyone's on this board.

[jerichoholicninja]

With all due respect, I'll take Sullivan's word over just about anyone's on this board.

 

4 major league organizations have let him go for nothing in his career already. Every now and then a guy comes out of no where to make a successful MLB career for himself after being dumped by multiple organizations and maybe Choi will be one. But that's the exception, not the rule. He's a 4A 1B to me.

[MrTPlush]

With all due respect, I'll take Sullivan's word over just about anyone's on this board.

 

Go for it, doesn’t mean everyone else has to.

[Never Outhustled]

 

Not terrible, but Santana should not be hitting 3rd right now. Cain, Yelich, Shaw, Aguilar are your options at the 3 spot.

 

I actually like it. Santana is probably going to be a better hitter than Aguilar by the time the year is out, and could be much better. He looks like he's out of his slump, and Aguilar's ridiculous streak of good luck is probably over. Besides, the 3-hole doesn't have to be your best hitter. That should be 1-2-4. And Santana has much better speed than Aguilar, which isn't saying much

 

Since you suggested Aguilar's "ridiculous streak of good luck is probably over", he's hit 3 homers in 2 games. Nothing lucky about home runs. You bagged on Aguilar the entire offseason and refused to acknowledge the evidence I myself and others put forth for you to understand that Aguilar has improved. Sometimes players do that.

 

With how absolutely wrong your opinions were this offseason on Aguilar and Jeffress, its probably time for you to not have such strong opinions. It's baseball played by humans, it's not completely predictable. We're learning new ways to understand the game every day.

[coolhandluke121]

 

Since you suggested Aguilar's "ridiculous streak of good luck is probably over", he's hit 3 homers in 2 games. Nothing lucky about home runs. You bagged on Aguilar the entire offseason and refused to acknowledge the evidence I myself and others put forth for you to understand that Aguilar has improved. Sometimes players do that.

 

With how absolutely wrong your opinions were this offseason on Aguilar and Jeffress, its probably time for you to not have such strong opinions. It's baseball played by humans, it's not completely predictable. We're learning new ways to understand the game every day.

 

I disagree. Most of the available evidence did not support the notion that Aguilar or Jeffress would be good this year. It's okay to have a strong opinion about what the evidence supports. Of course it's baseball and we all know things can happen. On that note, you should probably take your own advice and not have such a strong opinion about Aguilar and Jeffress proving me wrong. Aguilar had a sub-.800 OPS with favorable platoon appearances in non-Colorado ballparks last year, so his signs of improvement were overstated here. Sometimes a player bucks the evidence. The longer this continues, the more likely it is that it will continue. You can't just write off all the struggles JJ had last year or the mediocrity Jesus showed for 10 years because they're playing well now though.

 

That said, I'm obviously not a scout and neither is anyone else here, at least that I'm aware of. We all have day jobs; I don't think everyone should have to preface every opinion here with that disclaimer. Management is with these guys all the time in spring training and knows 50x more than any of us about how they look and what kind of work they're putting in, and we can all be thankful they're as good at their jobs as they are. I didn't have much confidence in Aguilar or JJ coming into the season but don't worry about me quitting my day job or anything.

 

ETA: It's weird that you chose to quote a post about wanting Santana in the 3-hole instead of Aguilar to make your point, considering Santana has been the better hitter nearly every single professional year either one of them has played except the first 2 months of this one.

[pacopete4]

So someone was “wrong” (its only May) on a couple of things and now they shouldn’t post their opinions on our message board that is designed for opinions? SMH

[coolhandluke121]

So someone was “wrong” (its only May) on a couple of things and now they shouldn’t post their opinions on our message board that is designed for opinions? SMH

 

Good post. That said there were a couple times I was overly adamant about Aguilar. Just couldn't understand how a guy who was so mediocre for so long was expected to be much good. Even last year, which was his coming out party of sorts, was mediocre compared to other 1b's. Obviously I'm happy to be wrong so far but I'd still bet on him regressing quite a bit considering where his BABIP sits now.

 

But yeah, opinions and all. It's all good. Keep it up Jesus!

[Never Outhustled]

So someone was “wrong” (its only May) on a couple of things and now they shouldn’t post their opinions on our message board that is designed for opinions? SMH

 

Opinions welcome, but he spent the offseason belittling anyone who suggested Jeffress might pitch better when pitching for the Brewers, and scoffing at the thought of considering Aguliar for the 25 man roster. He wouldn't even acknowledge that great winter ball results could suggest Aguilar is improving.

[pacopete4]

So someone was “wrong” (its only May) on a couple of things and now they shouldn’t post their opinions on our message board that is designed for opinions? SMH

 

Opinions welcome, but he spent the offseason belittling anyone who suggested Jeffress might pitch better when pitching for the Brewers, and scoffing at the thought of considering Aguliar for the 25 man roster. He wouldn't even acknowledge that great winter ball results could suggest Aguilar is improving.

 

Fair enough.

[brewerswinNLcentral]

aggie hit only .244 against

[brewerswinNLcentral]

RHP last year and this year he is hitting .333 against both RHP and LHP.

i would hope when braun comes he doesnt play too much at first base and IF,

a reall big IF luke, if he is still hitting over.300 next month when thames comes back,

i dont know how you bench a guy that hot.

maybe plat thames twice a week against righties and twice a week in the OF.

thames was hitting well also

[brewerswinNLcentral]

i think i worded that last post poorly..when braun comes back, aguilar should start at first as much as possible and i was wondering how counsell will handle the platoon IF aguilar is still hitting well against RHP when thames comes back

[And That]

With all due respect, I'll take Sullivan's word over just about anyone's on this board.

 

Go for it, doesn’t mean everyone else has to.

Did anyone say everyone has to?