2019-07-16: Braves (Wilson) at Brewers (Woodruff) [Brewers win, 13-1 -- It Was A Good Day; Woodruff looks great; Yelich hits first Brewers’ Grand Slam of the season]

[Eye Black]

 

[pre]Braves Lineup Brewers Lineup

 

1. Ronald Acuna Jr. ® CF 1. Lorenzo Cain ® CF

2. Dansby Swanson ® SS 2. Christian Yelich (L) RF

3. Freddie Freeman (L) 1B 3. Yasmani Grandal (S) C

4. Josh Donaldson ® 3B 4. Mike Moustakas (L) 3B

5. Nick Markakis (L) RF 5. Eric Thames (L) 1B

6. Ozzie Albies (S) 2B 6. Keston Hiura ® 2B

7. Austin Riley ® LF 7. Ben Gamel (L) LF

8. Tyler Flowers ® C 8. Tyler Saladino ® SS

9. Bryse Wilson ® P 9. Brandon Woodruff (L) P[/pre]

 

 

Brandon Woodruff: Batter (Braves) vs Pitching Stats

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Get a win today with their stopper on the mound, then light up Kuechel tomorrow, and things are looking up again. Time to go on a run guys! Let's go!

[Devinep]

I’m sure Braun gets the day off tonight. With the sad offense and Aguilar hitting better and a high K pitcher on the mound I wonder if Thames starts in the outfield

[pacopete4]

Well Braun hit a dinger last night so yeah, I’m sure CC will stick him on the bench tonight. CC should start doing opposite of whatever he wants to do. Might work better.

[topper09er]

Get a win today with their stopper on the mound, then light up Kuechel tomorrow, and things are looking up again. Time to go on a run guys! Let's go!

 

I applaud this level of optimism

[willie key]

Get a win today with their stopper on the mound, then light up Kuechel tomorrow, and things are looking up again. Time to go on a run guys! Let's go!

 

I applaud this level of optimism

 

 

I don't think they will lose again until 2021

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Get a win today with their stopper on the mound, then light up Kuechel tomorrow, and things are looking up again. Time to go on a run guys! Let's go!

 

I applaud this level of optimism

 

No reason not to be optimistic as long as they have a realistic shot at the playoffs. I'm realist enough to know that this team is playing like crap right now. But they also have a ton of talent, and that gives me hope that they can go on a run. Is this team living up to expectations? No. Are they as good as last year's team? Probably not (although they have time to change that). Do they still have time to make the rest of this season a lot of fun? Hell yeah!

[KeithStone53151]

Get a win today with their stopper on the mound, then light up Kuechel tomorrow, and things are looking up again. Time to go on a run guys! Let's go!

 

I applaud this level of optimism

 

No reason not to be optimistic as long as they have a realistic shot at the playoffs. I'm realist enough to know that this team is playing like crap right now. But they also have a ton of talent, and that gives me hope that they can go on a run. Is this team living up to expectations? No. Are they as good as last year's team? Probably not (although they have time to change that). Do they still have time to make the rest of this season a lot of fun? Hell yeah!

 

The talent is there, too many guys not playing to expectations for all sorts of reasons. That can change at any moment or it can take until next season.

 

I have virtually zero patience left for all these people talking about how bad this team is. How is it fun to go on a fan forum and do nothing but dunk on the team you're supposedly a fan of? Maybe we create a negativity thread and quarantine all the negative posters in there(which is way too big a chunk of this board), the rest of us can be some combination of positive and realistic and have more enjoyable back and forth.

[timpep]

I have virtually zero patience left for all these people talking about how bad this team is. How is it fun to go on a fan forum and do nothing but dunk on the team you're supposedly a fan of? Maybe we create a negativity thread and quarantine all the negative posters in there(which is way too big a chunk of this board), the rest of us can be some combination of positive and realistic and have more enjoyable back and forth.

Are people not supposed to discuss what is currently happening? If you don't like reality, don't take it out on others.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I have virtually zero patience left for all these people talking about how bad this team is. How is it fun to go on a fan forum and do nothing but dunk on the team you're supposedly a fan of? Maybe we create a negativity thread and quarantine all the negative posters in there(which is way too big a chunk of this board), the rest of us can be some combination of positive and realistic and have more enjoyable back and forth.

 

Those people aren't going away. The mods actually had to put together a post last year at this time admonishing these type of posters. In a 96-win season!!! It worked for awhile, but they are back in full force this season, on nearly every thread. I totally get that not everyone is a fan in the same way, and that it is possible to be a pessimist and also be a fan, but I agree, the beating-a-dead-horse style of negativity a few posters have displayed in the past few weeks has worn my patience thin at times as well. I've found it best to use the "foe" function, which allows one to easily ignore these posters. Because if you engage them, and call them out on the crap, they never, ever back down, and it just turns into an ugly, unwinable argument. Best to avoid it (although that is getting tougher lately, as a few of these posters are taking over large portions of the board.)

[KeithStone53151]

I have virtually zero patience left for all these people talking about how bad this team is. How is it fun to go on a fan forum and do nothing but dunk on the team you're supposedly a fan of? Maybe we create a negativity thread and quarantine all the negative posters in there(which is way too big a chunk of this board), the rest of us can be some combination of positive and realistic and have more enjoyable back and forth.

Are people not supposed to discuss what is currently happening? If you don't like reality, don't take it out on others.

 

The Brewers are 3-8 in July. The Red Sox opened the season 3-8. The Dodgers went on a 6 game losing streak at one point and a 4 game losing streak spread across the all-star break. The Astros lost 7 in a row in June. I could probably do the same for every elite team and find stretches of very bad play. The Brewers don't stack up with those teams, but right now we're in a stretch of poor play. It's very likely we snap out of this stretch of play and win games in bunches at some point in the next 2 months...hopefully sooner than later.

 

And I guess I would probably just stop watching if I really was as disgusted as some seem to be by their performance. I don't understand going to a forum to do nothing but dunk on every little thing they did wrong. It's not fun or funny or cool or realistic or any of that. You can hope they turn it around, or go to the negativity thread and talk about how we should trade Yelich and Hader and just be terrible for the next 10 years.

[KeithStone53151]

I have virtually zero patience left for all these people talking about how bad this team is. How is it fun to go on a fan forum and do nothing but dunk on the team you're supposedly a fan of? Maybe we create a negativity thread and quarantine all the negative posters in there(which is way too big a chunk of this board), the rest of us can be some combination of positive and realistic and have more enjoyable back and forth.

 

Those people aren't going away. The mods actually had to put together a post last year at this time admonishing these type of posters. In a 96-win season!!!

 

This should win post of the year. Man if you can't be happy with the team in a 96 win season...

[brooks_quichenick]

Long stretches of really bad baseball won’t make everyone else feel the sunshine and rainbows that you guys all seem to feel. Sorry!

[tmwiese55]

I mean, you could obviously also easily find bad stretches of play by mediocre to bad teams as well. It is important to remember how the team looked headed into the ASB last year to get perspective and remember small sample and not to overreact, but it also just might be they don't have enough pitching this year. We're at a half season now and the pitching staff has shown nothing to think this isn't the norm, at least last year you could chalk it up to the 25 games in 24 days or whatever it was to burn them out and you'd been pitching well other than BP blowing games as they were gassed at the ASB.

 

I suppose the starters have returned to basically be OK of late though, that's a good sign at least. But I don't know how someone can sit here and think all is fine with this team, it's been generally rough all year (as 'rough' as it can be for a .500ish team). Still don't think they're that far off if they add a couple bullpen arms they can trust as I think the O will be fine the second half. Basically since 2/3 of the young starters flopped you have to do your best to recreate last year's bullpen formula.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Long stretches of really bad baseball won’t make everyone else feel the sunshine and rainbows that you guys all seem to feel. Sorry!

 

That's hyperbole. I acknowledge that this team isn't playing well right now. Maintaining an optimistic outlook is different than "feeling sunshine and rainbows", as you so eloquently put it. This is the exact type of defensive attitude I was talking about.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

But I don't know how someone can sit here and think all is fine with this team.

 

I highly doubt anyone thinks this. No one has said this. Having hope that the team can overcome their deficiencies is different than not realizing they have any.

[tmwiese55]

I think the attitude of "all teams go through bad stretches, it happens and is fine or no big deal" is what I was referring to along with taking the attitude that people are just haters if they want to discuss the issues the team is having right now. IMO, no this is not just a cold spell or 'baseball happens' type thing.

 

They have only one starter who can go deep while only having one reliable reliever, this is a big problem for overall team construction and seems tough to overcome as constructed. Still, with the Cubs leaving it wide open and how often good relievers move every year I think it can be patched at not much cost and still make a run at it.

 

Yea, crazies doom and glooming on everything like last year's blasting Counsel after every loss over his pen choices or now taking the attitude that this team is terrible has no shot are just ridiculous though. Or even the 'perpetually trade everyone who's any good' crowd as well. ETA: thought of another one, whenever a P gets beat up it means they're trash and should be sent down

[willie key]

Jesus Christ.

[pacopete4]

Jesus ChristAguilar.

[adambr2]

Oh good, Saladino is starting.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Oh good, Saladino is starting.

 

Yeah, my optimism only goes so far

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KeithStone53151]

Oh good, Saladino is starting.

 

Yeah, my optimism only goes so far

 

This feels like giving him those last 5-10 days of starts before we trade for someone better and DFA/release him. I don't agree with it, rather have Arcia for the defense...that's the vibe I'm getting. Give him a "fair" chance to turn it around.

[adambr2]

The worst part about all the bad decisions that they've made this year is that they have very frequently doubled down on them.

[yourout]

Would it be too much to ask to put our best lineup out there when we have our best pitcher out there.

[treego14]

Oh good, Saladino is starting.

Salads can be refreshing on hot days ... that's all I have on this.