2019-03-29: Cardinals (Flaherty) at Brewers (Peralta) [Brewers lose, 9-5 -- Goldschmidt hits 3 HRs]

[topper09er]

Yelich will hit a 2 out granny to tie it up, then Braun walk off just like last year

[adambr2]

Grandal isn't impressive at all these first 2 games on either side of the plate.

[adambr2]

Well that was not dramatic.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Hope Woodruff delivers tomorrow! In a perverse way, I'm glad the first loss of the year is out of the way.

[HiAndTight]

Yadi is such a great individual. Why, when he's not on the field making everybody in the park better, he's working on a cure for cancer, kissing babies, and brokering lasting peace in the Middle East.

 

Barf.

 

 

He's a guy I dislike so much, I don't even know if I'd want him on my team. I appreciate how good he is, but he's so righteous and so obnoxious...it'd be a hard call. And I can tolerate most guys if they perform well for my team baring them being serial wife beaters or something along those lines.

[HiAndTight]

As counterintuitive as it may seem, once Nelson gets back, they might be better off with Nelson, Davies, and Anderson back in the rotation and Woodruff, Burnes and Peralta back in the middle relief roles that made us so successful in September last year.

 

Starters are less important on this team than others, Counsell is always going to have a short hook. But they just don't have the middle relievers on this team right now to bridge the gap to Hader/Jeffress.

 

 

Ok, this is like a chicken and egg type scenario though. Has CC had a short hook because we've lacked good starters capable of going deep or because he's had such a good pen that he could afford to use different guys without over-using guys? Which for the record I don't believe he did last year.

 

Also, you seem really confident that Jeffress is going to be back to being a viable high leverage reliever. All we know right now is he's got an issue with his shoulder which is obviously troublesome and his last time out he was topping out about 13 MPH less than normal. I wouldn;'t count on JJ until I see him back out there throwing and being productive.

 

And if he's healthy, perhaps the rest and not really ramping up until May will hopefully benefit him and make him fresher later in the year.

[sveumrules]

At least we have Yelich & Hader.

 

Might have to do something about the other 23.

[HiAndTight]

I don't know what we can expect from Jesus Aguilar this year, but he's no Paul Goldschmidt, that's for sure.

 

 

So you don't expect Aguilar to be as good as arguably the best 1st basemen in baseball?

 

Has ANYONE indicated they believed otherwise?

 

That'd be akin to saying, "I don't know what we can expect from Harrison Bader this year, but he's not Christian Yelich," if you're a Cards fan.

[HiAndTight]

Shaw’s hand was shaking pretty badly there, surprised he’s staying in.

 

 

I thought that was off the elbow. I was FF'ing at the time.

 

Good thing we signed another left-handed 3rd baseman if that's the case.

[The stache]

I don't expect the Ryan Braun of 2011-'12, but we have to like what we've seen of him, thus far. I just saw the home run, and that thing was absolutely crushed. The power is clearly still there. From memory, his exit velocity last year was within his career and peak norms. Assuming he can play 125-130 games this year, which I think is doable if the thumb doesn't flare up again, is 25-30 home runs unreasonable to expect?

 

His BAbip of .274 last year was 57 points below his career average.

[adambr2]

I don't know what we can expect from Jesus Aguilar this year, but he's no Paul Goldschmidt, that's for sure.

 

 

So you don't expect Aguilar to be as good as arguably the best 1st basemen in baseball?

 

Has ANYONE indicated they believed otherwise?

 

That'd be akin to saying, "I don't know what we can expect from Harrison Bader this year, but he's not Christian Yelich," if you're a Cards fan.

 

Not sure what the purpose of this response was, but it was just said in contrast to the night that Goldschmidt was having. Wasn't meant to be a big deal or a specific dig on Aguilar. Obviously no one literally expects Aguilar to be better than Goldschmidt.

[HiAndTight]

Unhittable.

 

 

Of course he was the "one good pitcher" between Hicks, Reyes and Miller. Oh, and the reigning NL MVP was the guy who he gave up the HR to in the blowout.

 

 

The other two didn't look like the sub-par pitchers that some on here suggested they were. In fact they look like what we had last year at the back of the BP. I can't imagine how excited Brewers fans would be with a healthy Reyes and a 22-year-old Hicks in his second year.

 

 

I dislike the Cards as much as the next guy, but I don't seem to recall people writing off an older Hader who'd worked his way up all the way through the system because he "walked everyone he faces" when he had control issues at 24 years old. But Hicks at 21 with control issues isn't good.

 

 

 

And as for the "Chicken Littles," that cute, but I think anyone who is an actual fan of Brewers baseball should be concerned that the strength of our team last year looks like a gaping hole at the moment. It's not like last year when Knebel went through a tough spell, or when Hader gave up a few runs, but you knew the pitchers were talented.

 

As currently constructed, we have good to great depth everywhere BUT the back of the pen. I trust Stearns to address this, but as tough as this division is and as good as this team is, we can probably get through a slow start, but we're going to have to try to mitigate the damage until hopefully, JJ comes back and we can add someone, either from within who performs far better than expected(like Burnes and Peralta did last year) or we can sign/trade for someone.

 

I feel like anyone not genuinely concerned about our BP right now or pretending not to be are just being contrarians.

[Eye Black]

My overreaction hot take after two games:

 

The good news is the Brewers are going to score a ton of runs this year. The bad news is they’re going to need to.

[adambr2]

I don't expect the Ryan Braun of 2011-'12, but we have to like what we've seen of him, thus far. I just saw the home run, and that thing was absolutely crushed. The power is clearly still there. From memory, his exit velocity last year was within his career and peak norms. Assuming he can play 125-130 games this year, which I think is doable if the thumb doesn't flare up again, is 25-30 home runs unreasonable to expect?

 

His BAbip of .274 last year was 57 points below his career average.

 

Overall through the first 2 games, not overly concerned about the hitting. Yelich is still Yelich, Cain is still Cain, Braun and Moose look solid. Plus Shaw, Aguilar, and Grandal will come around, and Arcia should.

 

I think there's definitely legitimate concerns about the pitching staff this year as well a fair question of whether or not the DJ loss will negatively affect the staff.

[HiAndTight]

 

Not sure what the purpose of this response was, but it was just said in contrast to the night that Goldschmidt was having. Wasn't meant to be a big deal or a specific dig on Aguilar. Obviously no one literally expects Aguilar to be better than Goldschmidt.

 

 

There was a question earlier in this thread as to why the Brewers didn't go after Goldschmidt. I said probably because they had a good 1st basemen and didn't want to dedicate the necessary resources to acquire him.

 

 

And god KNOWS had we picked him up....we have to have heard suggestions about playing Aguilar at 3rd base. I can suffer a lot as a Brewers fan, but I don't know how many more of those ideas I can stomach! [sarcasm]That alone was enough to not trade for Goldschmidt.[/sarcasm]

[adambr2]

 

Not sure what the purpose of this response was, but it was just said in contrast to the night that Goldschmidt was having. Wasn't meant to be a big deal or a specific dig on Aguilar. Obviously no one literally expects Aguilar to be better than Goldschmidt.

 

 

There was a question earlier in this thread as to why the Brewers didn't go after Goldschmidt. I said probably because they had a good 1st basemen and didn't want to dedicate the necessary resources to acquire him.

 

 

And god KNOWS had we picked him up....we have to have heard suggestions about playing Aguilar at 3rd base. I can suffer a lot as a Brewers fan, but I don't know how many more of those ideas I can stomach! [sarcasm]That alone was enough to not trade for Goldschmidt.[/sarcasm]

 

I can understand where you're coming from. I too, felt that having a cost-controlled solid 1st baseman was reason to dedicate our resources elsewhere. We just have to hope that Aguilar isn't going to regress significantly, or if he does that Thames will hopefully be a suitable option against RHP.

[adambr2]

My overreaction hot take after two games:

 

The good news is the Brewers are going to score a ton of runs this year. The bad news is they’re going to need to.

 

I have the same hot take, but it definitely feels like it could be a legitimate take.

[HiAndTight]

I don't expect the Ryan Braun of 2011-'12, but we have to like what we've seen of him, thus far. I just saw the home run, and that thing was absolutely crushed. The power is clearly still there. From memory, his exit velocity last year was within his career and peak norms. Assuming he can play 125-130 games this year, which I think is doable if the thumb doesn't flare up again, is 25-30 home runs unreasonable to expect?

 

His BAbip of .274 last year was 57 points below his career average.

 

Overall through the first 2 games, not overly concerned about the hitting. Yelich is still Yelich, Cain is still Cain, Braun and Moose look solid. Plus Shaw, Aguilar, and Grandal will come around, and Arcia should.

 

I think there's definitely legitimate concerns about the pitching staff this year as well a fair question of whether or not the DJ loss will negatively affect the staff.

 

 

The DJ loss was pretty heartbreaking. I don't know how much he ACTUALLY had to do with some of these pitchers performing better than expectations, but it certainly happened with him as pitching coach often enough that you had to give him some credit.

 

The team looks like the team we expected sans a few issues that need to be ironed out in the BP.

 

I guess we can only hope Nelson and Jeffress come back and perform as they're capable...and maybe we have to stomach putting a young, talented pitcher back into the pen and pushing back his place in the rotation another year for the betterment of the team.

 

I don't like the idea of Burnes, in particular, going back to the BP....but we'll have to figure something out. So far neither CC nor Stearns has given you any reason to doubt they'll do so.

 

I am a bit concerned about Grandal's defense thus far. As I said when we signed him, in back to back years the Dodgers opted against going with him in the playoffs and instead went with Austen Barnes. I still think he'll hit, but I'm not buying his defense at this point.

 

Luckily, we didn't trade Pina just to trade him and have a pretty dang good backup at catcher.

[HiAndTight]

 

Not sure what the purpose of this response was, but it was just said in contrast to the night that Goldschmidt was having. Wasn't meant to be a big deal or a specific dig on Aguilar. Obviously no one literally expects Aguilar to be better than Goldschmidt.

 

 

There was a question earlier in this thread as to why the Brewers didn't go after Goldschmidt. I said probably because they had a good 1st basemen and didn't want to dedicate the necessary resources to acquire him.

 

 

And god KNOWS had we picked him up....we have to have heard suggestions about playing Aguilar at 3rd base. I can suffer a lot as a Brewers fan, but I don't know how many more of those ideas I can stomach! [sarcasm]That alone was enough to not trade for Goldschmidt.[/sarcasm]

 

I can understand where you're coming from. I too, felt that having a cost-controlled solid 1st baseman was reason to dedicate our resources elsewhere. We just have to hope that Aguilar isn't going to regress significantly, or if he does that Thames will hopefully be a suitable option against RHP.

 

 

I trust Aguilar. As long as he can maintain the same approach he's had most of his time in the big leagues, that easy swing without a lot of movement, not overswinging, shortening up with 2 strikes(which can still result in a HR) and not pressing like he said he did last year when he got close to 100 RBI's, I think he's going to be a .850-ish OPS type guy.

 

But we'll see. If he really does struggle, we've got Thames as you said, Braun and you can always add OF help relatively cheap(or just start Gamel). We've got coverage everyone on this team except for the BP.

[The stache]

They're showing Moustakas at second trying to turn double plays. He's really awkward right now, not with his foot work, so much, but with his arm angle throwing to first. I hadn't thought about this, but he's throwing like a third baseman, still.

 

Khris Davis hit another home run.

[The stache]

Jesus, that's three for Davis already.

[clancyphile]

Goldschmidt had a monster game.

 

Stuff like that happens.

 

Aside from that, the Crew did well.

 

Not worried... 160 games to go. Plenty of time to catch up.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

This game will be heaven for all of the chicken littles.

 

This game is reality setting in

 

jesus, give this schtick a rest already

[IntentionalHBP]

I need to stop reading the IGT.

[HiAndTight]

This game will be heaven for all of the chicken littles.

 

This game is reality setting in

 

jesus, give this schtick a rest already

 

 

I don't agree with his "get Kimbrel at any price," idea, or some of his takes on what the Brewers should be willing to spend, but tell me where he's wrong?

 

Knebel goes down, Jeffress has shoulder issues....Burnes and Woodruff are no longer BP options and Soria leaves via free agency.

 

Tell me, how is him lamenting the need solidify the backend of the BP and do so quickly a "schtick?" It's absolutely, 100 pct valid and IF this team ends up a game or 5 out of the playoffs, It will almost certainly be a result of the bullpen being garbage.

 

Take a game like tonight. Last year we could very easily have won this. Bring in Knebel instead of Barnes, keep the lead at one, put pressure on the cards, get someone on base and try to push a couple runs across. Granted, that was moreso the end of last year, but that's how the games usually played out. Now, it's Matt Albers, a pitcher who was awful last year, and Josh Hader who pitched 2 innings on opening day so likely won't pitch again in the series.

 

The need for at least one dominant BP arm and probably two is very real.