2018-08-09: Padres (Erlin) at Brewers (Guerra) 1:10 PM CDT [Brewers lose, 8-4]

[BruisedCrew]

There's no reason Jeffress couldn't have worked the 9th today too, and that probably would have been that.

 

But nope, gotta have your 9th inning guy. Hope it was worth it, Craig.

JJ only pitched 14. 13 were strikes. 2 Ks. Clearly he could have finished and we wouldnt be in a tie for the wildcard now.

But we have seen this before this season with Corey.

 

The silver lining in this is that Counsell will learn from this repeated error and finally allow JJ to finish or close. It chaps my ass when JJ or Hader only pitch 1 inning and yield to knebel or Barnes or anyone else. Makes no sense if the pitch count is less than 15. Im tired of the boys club, obviously Knebel is in it. Sheesh!

 

It will be a lot less gut wrenching to blow the leads earlier in the game.

[trwi7]

There's no reason Jeffress couldn't have worked the 9th today too, and that probably would have been that.

 

But nope, gotta have your 9th inning guy. Hope it was worth it, Craig.

JJ only pitched 14. 13 were strikes. 2 Ks. Clearly he could have finished and we wouldnt be in a tie for the wildcard now.

But we have seen this before this season with Corey.

 

The silver lining in this is that Counsell will learn from this repeated error and finally allow JJ to finish or close. It chaps my ass when JJ or Hader only pitch 1 inning and yield to knebel or Barnes or anyone else. Makes no sense if the pitch count is less than 15. Im tired of the boys club, obviously Knebel is in it. Sheesh!

 

It will be a lot less gut wrenching to blow the leads earlier in the game.

 

Gives the offense more than 3 outs to catch up too.

[Pugger]

Wonder if Soria’s injury is related to reduced warm-up time in the pen

Man, I hope not. This is where CC really botched this game. Soria started warming up way too late. After that first walk Soria should've been warming up. Instead he waited.... and waited.... and waited.

 

This wasn't the first time CC waited and waited. It was evident Knebel didn't have it today after he got behind his second hitter. By the time he was a couple of pitches away from walking the bases loaded CC decides to get on the damn phone and get somebody up. This is what really drives me crazy about Counsell.

[Boomer5]

Protecting a two run lead at home vs the bottom of the order of one of the worst hitting teams in the game really isn’t a “the manager made a bad move” kind of game.

 

The bullpen functions better when we have 2017 Cory in there and CC tried to baby him to a save in about as easy a situation as he could. Knebel and Soria just blew it.

 

It’s one loss. They need to keep Knebel out of any high leverage situations and go with the hot hand.

[PinaMadness]

[Bulldogboy]

Offense against lefties continues to be not awesome. Cubs going to take full advantage.

[SomewhereInTime]

Protecting a two run lead at home vs the bottom of the order of one of the worst hitting teams in the game really isn’t a “the manager made a bad move” kind of game.

 

The bullpen functions better when we have 2017 Cory in there and CC tried to baby him to a save in about as easy a situation as he could. Knebel and Soria just blew it.

 

It’s one loss. They need to keep Knebel out of any high leverage situations and go with the hot hand.

 

This is the one I agree with the most. Every bullpen is great when they're saving games, every manager is terrible when bullpen guys are blowing games. Today wasn't a "we need our best pitcher to close out a 9th inning" game, this was a throw someone out there to get three outs against the bottom of a bad lineup. Corey comes in and walks three guys, it's on him, Soria was brought in before the game was blown, and he tosses a meatball to unload the bases, it's on him.

 

Live by the bullpen, die by the bullpen. Change out the pitchers often, and never marry anyone to one role.

[owbc]

It was a shocker to see the final score today after watching briefly in the 6th-7th. We've been spoiled by our bullpen this year and the past week is concerning.

 

Hopefully we just ran into the Padres at the wrong time.

[LouisEly]

The Cubs gave up four to the Padres in the 9th a few days ago, five if you count the 8th and 9th. The Padres are confident and dialed in right now.

 

I'm not suggesting they are stealing signs, but it seems like they know what's coming. They have scouted well, and the Brewers need to change up how they call pitches.

 

That being said, when you are up two and your pitcher walks the first two guys, you get another guy up right away.

 

Knebel has an option left, and they should send him down so that he can find his location and curveball. Only four of his 26 pitches were curveballs, three were to the leadoff hitter and two of those three went for strikes. They don't swing at fastballs out of the zone if they don't think a curveball could be coming.

[SomewhereInTime]

The Cubs gave up four to the Padres in the 9th a few days ago, five if you count the 8th and 9th. The Padres are confident and dialed in right now.

 

I'm not suggesting they are stealing signs, but it seems like they know what's coming. They have scouted well, and the Brewers need to change up how they call pitches.

 

That being said, when you are up two and your pitcher walks the first two guys, you get another guy up right away.

 

Knebel has an option left, and they should send him down so that he can find his location and curveball. Only four of his 26 pitches were curveballs, three were to the leadoff hitter and two of those three went for strikes. They don't swing at fastballs out of the zone if they don't think a curveball could be coming.

 

I really don't like the idea of sending a guy down to CS to work on a curveball...

[The stache]

But but.....Knebel has such great stuff, and he's been so great with the Brewers, so we can't criticize him.

[LouisEly]

I didn't necessarily say Colorado Springs... Biloxi is a viable option, as is Appleton.

[Chicago Here]

Offense against lefties continues to be not awesome. Cubs going to take full advantage.

Moose hits lefties good as well as righties but he took a rest day.

We struggle really bad with LHP.

[PinaMadness]

Protecting a two run lead at home vs the bottom of the order of one of the worst hitting teams in the game really isn’t a “the manager made a bad move” kind of game.

 

The bullpen functions better when we have 2017 Cory in there and CC tried to baby him to a save in about as easy a situation as he could. Knebel and Soria just blew it.

 

It’s one loss. They need to keep Knebel out of any high leverage situations and go with the hot hand.

Unfortunately 2017 Knebel isn't ever coming back.

[wildcat2237]

Protecting a two run lead at home vs the bottom of the order of one of the worst hitting teams in the game really isn’t a “the manager made a bad move” kind of game.

 

The bullpen functions better when we have 2017 Cory in there and CC tried to baby him to a save in about as easy a situation as he could. Knebel and Soria just blew it.

 

It’s one loss. They need to keep Knebel out of any high leverage situations and go with the hot hand.

Unfortunately 2017 Knebel isn't ever coming back.

 

Which is why I advocated trading high on him this off-season...

[Chicago Here]

Wonder if Soria’s injury is related to reduced warm-up time in the pen

Man, I hope not. This is where CC really botched this game. Soria started warming up way too late. After that first walk Soria should've been warming up. Instead he waited.... and waited.... and waited.

 

This wasn't the first time CC waited and waited. It was evident Knebel didn't have it today after he got behind his second hitter. By the time he was a couple of pitches away from walking the bases loaded CC decides to get on the damn phone and get somebody up. This is what really drives me crazy about Counsell.

This isnt on Counsel. Knebel is our closer. Its his job. Once the decision was made, you go with it. That said, we need a new closer. Knebel has been really lucky not to have an era greater than 5.0. Dude gave up 12 runs in last 15 games. Bad.

[PinaMadness]

Then you're the only one that feels this way. He's certainly partially to blame. 45% Counsell, 45% Knebel and 10% Soria. Where's the rule that says you have to stick with your "closer" once you make the decision? Literally every other manager would've pulled their reliever once he walked the first two hitters, if not the first hitter. Not only didn't Counsell pull Knebel, he even gave him another hitter after walking his third hitter in a row, falling behind in the count to every one of them. That's just inexcusable considering that everybody knows how shaky Knebel is. CC didn't even have anyone warming up until it was too late.

 

Knebel is not our closer. We don't really even have one. We have a closer by committee, and Knebel at best is a distant third in the pecking order.

[Devinep]

Is Hader dead?

 

He just needs to sit like 4 more days and then he can pitch.

[The stache]

This isnt on Counsel. Knebel is our closer. Its his job. Once the decision was made, you go with it. That said, we need a new closer. Knebel has been really lucky not to have an era greater than 5.0. Dude gave up 12 runs in last 15 games. Bad.

 

Like hell it's not on Counsel. He's the captain of this ship, and he let the Titanic continue to drift towards the iceberg, and didn't get off his arse to turn the wheel until we were two inches from it.

 

Knebel has been God awful of late. The leash he's on should be the length of a chihuahua. At the first sign of trouble, you get somebody else up in the pen. I don't buy into this "Padres are hot and confident" BS. They're the worst team in baseball for a reason, and we were facing the bottom of their lineup-at home, no less. Knebel walks the #7 guy, I'm already holding the phone to the pen. Knebel throws a few balls to the next batter, I'm putting the call in, calling time, and stalling to get the pen guy warmed up. Not a chance in hell that I'm allowing Knebel to see another batter after he walks two guys. The umpire can tongue lash me, kick me out of the game, write an impassioned letter to the league why I should be fined. I don't give a damn. I'd have Front Row Amy do jumping jacks for a few seconds-whatever it took to make sure that the head case on the mound doesn't throw another pitch. And after the third walk, there's not a little league coach, let alone another MLB manager, that would have let Knebel face a fourth batter.

 

Knebel threw the pitches, but Counsel should have been watching him with the world's biggest magnifying glass. The buck has to stop somewhere, and Counsell has shown time and time again that he has no clue about when to act.

 

Meet the new Brewers, same as the old Brewers. The late season swoon is underway. They'll choke down the stretch, just like they always do on the rare occasion when they have a decent squad. And, we'll blow sunshine up each other's butts about how bright the future is, because that's all fans of loser franchises have. Losers whine about doing their best. Winners go home and boink the Prom Queen.

[adambr2]

This isnt on Counsel. Knebel is our closer. Its his job. Once the decision was made, you go with it. That said, we need a new closer. Knebel has been really lucky not to have an era greater than 5.0. Dude gave up 12 runs in last 15 games. Bad.

 

Once the decision is made you go with it? You can't adjust based on what follows? I would hope that an MLB manager could be a little more flexible than that.

[BigDaddy1974]

Has anyone else noticed a lack of sliders from Soria. That pitch was supposed to be his new best pitch. Yet he rarely has thrown since coming to the team. I was at todays game and with a 0-2 count to Renfroe I expected at least a couple sliders or off speed pitches to get the K but instead another fastball down the middle. Has anyone else noticed that lack of sliders or am I losing my mind?

[Chicago Here]

This isnt on Counsel. Knebel is our closer. Its his job. Once the decision was made, you go with it. That said, we need a new closer. Knebel has been really lucky not to have an era greater than 5.0. Dude gave up 12 runs in last 15 games. Bad.

 

Like hell it's not on Counsel. He's the captain of this ship, and he let the Titanic continue to drift towards the iceberg, and didn't get off his arse to turn the wheel until we were two inches from it.

 

Knebel has been God awful of late. The leash he's on should be the length of a chihuahua. At the first sign of trouble, you get somebody else up in the pen. I don't buy into this "Padres are hot and confident" BS. They're the worst team in baseball for a reason, and we were facing the bottom of their lineup-at home, no less. Knebel walks the #7 guy, I'm already holding the phone to the pen. Knebel throws a few balls to the next batter, I'm putting the call in, calling time, and stalling to get the pen guy warmed up. Not a chance in hell that I'm allowing Knebel to see another batter after he walks two guys. The umpire can tongue lash me, kick me out of the game, write an impassioned letter to the league why I should be fined. I don't give a damn. I'd have Front Row Amy do jumping jacks for a few seconds-whatever it took to make sure that the head case on the mound doesn't throw another pitch. And after the third walk, there's not a little league coach, let alone another MLB manager, that would have let Knebel face a fourth batter.

 

Knebel threw the pitches, but Counsel should have been watching him with the world's biggest magnifying glass. The buck has to stop somewhere, and Counsell has shown time and time again that he has no clue about when to act.

 

Meet the new Brewers, same as the old Brewers. The late season swoon is underway. They'll choke down the stretch, just like they always do on the rare occasion when they have a decent squad. And, we'll blow sunshine up each other's butts about how bright the future is, because that's all fans of loser franchises have. Losers whine about doing their best. Winners go home and boink the Prom Queen.

It does appear that we are now on choke mode but I dont think thats the case. We have a small budget and we simply dont have the depth so we cant trade our best MILB players for "Top" players that bring home playoffs. Soria and Shoop is about the best we can do. Small markets just dont go to the playoffs unless they are aggressive. Sorta like the Tribe trading their #1 for Miller a few years back, and trading their #1 this year for Hand. Crew got aggressive and traded for CC in 2008 and it paid off.

We arent going anywhere without nabbing a Solid pitcher. The only other problem we have, and its a biggie, is we cant hit lefties. Pro players like shaw and thames hit like pee wee league players against lefties and until they are more balanced like moose they will be neutralized.

[Chicago Here]

Another problem we have is too many strikeouts.

Anytime we have 10+ strikeouts like yesterday against cruddy pitching, it will neutralize hits and the only way we will be able to score is by HR.

 

Not sure what the hitting coach does but our strikeouts over the last 3 years just kills us. We had like 10 hits yesterday but all wiped out by Ks.

Our pitching coach needs to help us out and get the players to put the ball in play.

[xisxisxis]

Has anyone else noticed a lack of sliders from Soria. That pitch was supposed to be his new best pitch. Yet he rarely has thrown since coming to the team. I was at todays game and with a 0-2 count to Renfroe I expected at least a couple sliders or off speed pitches to get the K but instead another fastball down the middle. Has anyone else noticed that lack of sliders or am I losing my mind?

I watched most of the West coast trip and it did seem that he was throwing a lot of fastballs. From Fangraphs his % fastball and slider are up significantly since he joined the Brewers.... Curve and changeup are way down. So yes he is throwing a lot of FB and SL, but not many CB or CH... (89% FB/SL with Brewers compared to 73% with White Sox)

 

Not enough data to help with the Crazy part...

[TURBO]

This isnt on Counsel. Knebel is our closer. Its his job. Once the decision was made, you go with it. That said, we need a new closer. Knebel has been really lucky not to have an era greater than 5.0. Dude gave up 12 runs in last 15 games. Bad.

 

Like hell it's not on Counsel. He's the captain of this ship, and he let the Titanic continue to drift towards the iceberg, and didn't get off his arse to turn the wheel until we were two inches from it.

 

Knebel has been God awful of late. The leash he's on should be the length of a chihuahua. At the first sign of trouble, you get somebody else up in the pen. I don't buy into this "Padres are hot and confident" BS. They're the worst team in baseball for a reason, and we were facing the bottom of their lineup-at home, no less. Knebel walks the #7 guy, I'm already holding the phone to the pen. Knebel throws a few balls to the next batter, I'm putting the call in, calling time, and stalling to get the pen guy warmed up. Not a chance in hell that I'm allowing Knebel to see another batter after he walks two guys. The umpire can tongue lash me, kick me out of the game, write an impassioned letter to the league why I should be fined. I don't give a damn. I'd have Front Row Amy do jumping jacks for a few seconds-whatever it took to make sure that the head case on the mound doesn't throw another pitch. And after the third walk, there's not a little league coach, let alone another MLB manager, that would have let Knebel face a fourth batter.

 

Knebel threw the pitches, but Counsel should have been watching him with the world's biggest magnifying glass. The buck has to stop somewhere, and Counsell has shown time and time again that he has no clue about when to act.

 

Meet the new Brewers, same as the old Brewers. The late season swoon is underway. They'll choke down the stretch, just like they always do on the rare occasion when they have a decent squad. And, we'll blow sunshine up each other's butts about how bright the future is, because that's all fans of loser franchises have. Losers whine about doing their best. Winners go home and boink the Prom Queen.

 

This is a highly entertaining post, and I agree with almost all of it...

 

As we found out last year, each and every game matters, we need to play to win every single game.

 

I just hope CC didn't leave him in because he didn't want to hurt his feelings. If he is struggling, he knows it, this is professional baseball, not little league. Goal one is to win as many games as possible, and it does not always feel like that is our goal.