2019-08-03: Brewers (González) at Cubs (Hamels) [Brewers lose, 4-1 -- Offense continues to struggle; Bullpen allows 3 runs over final 2 innings]

[TJseven7]

I believe that DS, much like us, believed deep down that this team isn't going anywhere but didn't want to look like he was giving up on the season so he acquired ho hum players, but that is going to come back and bite him what with giving away our only true high end prospect. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do what's best for the future. Unfortunately I don't see much of one in the short term. It's not easy being a fan of a small market team.

 

The price of higher expectations and the fact that a large portion of the fanbase does not realize that despite the standings the team is pretty weak. The Brewers need to sell tickets to fans who still believe the team has a decent chance of making the postseason.

 

What is confusing to me is that now is when the media chooses to challenge the decisions the club makes and chooses decisions like CC bringing in Hader on 3 consecutive days to focus on, but I suppose blaming the manager is the most convenient and easy target to explain to the casual fan.

 

That's why you clear space for Grisham and Devin Williams. You sell but you bring up something "exciting" to tell the casual fans, this might not be our year but we are strong long term and we are going to bring some of our future up and hopefully get it done no and then.

 

There's a PR angle for everything.

[pacopete4]

Pitching doesn't matter when you can't score.

 

The players being paid to get hits against left-handed pitching have been the biggest letdown this year. That's why every team is starting crap lefties against us.

 

Didn’t we have a post show that our stats and record are damn sad the same against both hands?

[Oxy]

Sorry Oxy, the Cubs are better than us. A lot better than us.

 

They weren't last weekend. And don't be sorry. I just have a hard time criticizing Stearns for this year, and I don't know what deals or moves he COULD have made but DIDN'T make. If the Aguilar and Dubon deals are any indication, we were neither going to get great value by selling our expiring contracts OR by buying a true upgrade. Things are still looking better THIS year AND for future years than they have for 25 out of the past 30 years.

[TJseven7]

Pitching doesn't matter when you can't score.

 

The players being paid to get hits against left-handed pitching have been the biggest letdown this year. That's why every team is starting crap lefties against us.

 

Didn’t we have a post show that our stats and record are damn sad the same against both hands?

 

Yes, but the premise is flawed anyway. The team is averaging 4.8 runs per game. That up considerably from last year.

 

The runs allowed is up a full run. That's not the story today, but that's the story.

[pacopete4]

I didn’t know Pomeranz is a free agent after the season. Wow. We have to stop letting Stearns trade with SF. First we get robbed for

Smith and now this move? Yikes.

 

Pomeranz is a free agent and Black, with 25 career MLB innings will be going on 30 and out of options.

 

I knew Black was the throw in but trading for a rental that may not even be very good with one of your only prospects is just, wow.

[treego14]

I think the primary problem with the team is hitting. We have not scored more than 5 runs in a game since July 23rd in a 14-6 loss to the Reds.

 

Andy Haines?

 

Shaw went way south this season.

Aguilar went way south this season in more ways than one.

Cain went way south this season.

Arcia has dipped more this season ... he looks like he is afraid of getting hit all the time.

[TJseven7]

Sorry Oxy, the Cubs are better than us. A lot better than us.

 

They weren't last weekend. And don't be sorry. I just have a hard time criticizing Stearns for this year, and I don't know what deals or moves he COULD have made but DIDN'T make. If the Aguilar and Dubon deals are any indication, we were neither going to get great value by selling our expiring contracts OR by buying a true upgrade. Things are still looking better THIS year AND for future years than they have for 25 out of the past 30 years.

 

What level of something do you need to make it better than nothing?

[Bulldogboy]

Where is my guy who was bashing me for saying this team is helpless against left handed pitching by quoting me ops numbers? Don't let numbers get in the way of the facts. Having a team full of left handed bats doesn't make the Cubs a good matchup. This was why I didn't understand the Grisham call up at the time. Well maybe he'll get back in there tomorrow.

[BruisedCrew]

Pitching doesn't matter when you can't score.

 

The players being paid to get hits against left-handed pitching have been the biggest letdown this year. That's why every team is starting crap lefties against us.

 

Didn’t we have a post show that our stats and record are damn sad the same against both hands?

 

Those numbers might tell part of the story, but when I looked the Brewers are averaging about a half a run less in games started by lefties (including games started by crap lefties) than games started by righties.

[adambr2]

Sorry Oxy, the Cubs are better than us. A lot better than us.

 

They weren't last weekend. And don't be sorry. I just have a hard time criticizing Stearns for this year, and I don't know what deals or moves he COULD have made but DIDN'T make. If the Aguilar and Dubon deals are any indication, we were neither going to get great value by selling our expiring contracts OR by buying a true upgrade. Things are still looking better THIS year AND for future years than they have for 25 out of the past 30 years.

 

That's more of a sorry statement about our franchise history than anything positive right now.

 

I don't totally disagree with your 4th sentence, but the Dubon trade was just silly and made no sense either for now or the future. At the end of the day it just looks like Stearns fell in love with Ray Black's arm and couldn't help himself. I find it almost naive that he thinks they can make something out of Ray Black when he's been in the organization probably best in baseball at developing pitchers for 6 seasons and they haven't been able to harness him into anything useful whatsoever. Every organization thinks they have a Ray Black. We thought Jacob Barnes was the next great reliever at one time. We thought Taylor Williams was, too. Probably 5% of these guys end up amounting to anything resembling a useful MLB reliever.

 

The Cubs have at least of good of a lineup if not better, probably a slightly better pen and a far, far better rotation. I mean it's really not that complicated. How they stacked against up against us in one particular regular season series is irrelevant, the Orioles could be better than the Yankees in one series.

[schmidtac20]

The team held serve for a while and did well. Once It was announced that Woodruff was out 6 weeks it was clear this team should have sold. End of story.

[Bulldogboy]

The team held serve for a while and did well. Once It was announced that Woodruff was out 6 weeks it was clear this team should have sold. End of story.

This is pretty much right on. Tough call but I said sell as well. Especially guys who won't be back. If anyone wants Cain in the off season I would pull the trigger. His deal is going to look gross the next 3 years.

[Oxy]

Sorry Oxy, the Cubs are better than us. A lot better than us.

 

They weren't last weekend. And don't be sorry. I just have a hard time criticizing Stearns for this year, and I don't know what deals or moves he COULD have made but DIDN'T make. If the Aguilar and Dubon deals are any indication, we were neither going to get great value by selling our expiring contracts OR by buying a true upgrade. Things are still looking better THIS year AND for future years than they have for 25 out of the past 30 years.

 

That's more of a sorry statement about our franchise history than anything positive right now.

 

I don't totally disagree with your 4th sentence, but the Dubon trade was just silly and made no sense either for now or the future. At the end of the day it just looks like Stearns fell in love with Ray Black's arm and couldn't help himself.

 

The Cubs have at least of good of a lineup if not better, probably a slightly better pen and a far, far better rotation. I mean it's really not that complicated. How they stacked against up against us in one particular regular season series is irrelevant, the Orioles could be better than the Yankees in one series.

 

I agree. Dubon could have been handy as an optionable IF depth piece the next couple of years, and the Pom/Black return was underwhelming. Still it's a minor trade that will likely be completely negligible whether we made it or not. I'm glad we didn't try to make a bigger splash (buying or selling) that would have had bigger consequences.

 

Then again, we haven't had a good history the last 6 years of letting middle IFers go...Stearns needs Black to really turn out.

[pacopete4]

The team held serve for a while and did well. Once It was announced that Woodruff was out 6 weeks it was clear this team should have sold. End of story.

This is pretty much right on. Tough call but I said sell as well. Especially guys who won't be back. If anyone wants Cain in the off season I would pull the trigger. His deal is going to look gross the next 3 years.

 

Yeah, I’d ride with an OF of:

LF: Braun/Grisham

CF: Gamel/Grisham

RF: Yelich/Gamel

 

And find maybe a 5th that can play OF/IF that’s right handed.

[adambr2]

Is there any chance a team would claim Cain if he were waived? Letting him walk for nothing in August might not be a bad idea if a contender wanted to make that claim now.

[BruisedCrew]

Starting to get the feeling that this team has quit or begun to. They see the writing on the wall with this roster as constructed.

 

We should give Yelich a few days off I think.

 

I think there’s about a 90 percent chance that Yelich’s back or something is hurting. All great hitters go through slumps, but Yelich has looked horrible at the plate this week. Even before that, he was striking out a lot more and driving the ball a lot less than he has since he’s been with the Brewers. He’s taking more strikes and missing pitches that he usually mashes. He’s such a good hitter that he still can flare a hit to left field or ground one through the infield once in awhile, but he looks like a shell of the hitter that he was earlier in the year and all of last year.

[pacopete4]

Is there any chance a team would claim Cain if he were waived? Letting him walk for nothing in August might not be a bad idea if a contender wanted to make that claim now.

 

Tampa could use him.

[Oxy]

Is there any chance a team would claim Cain if he were waived? Letting him walk for nothing in August might not be a bad idea if a contender wanted to make that claim now.

 

We are still at least 2 weeks of poor play away from this, but a large part of me hopes it happens.

[pacopete4]

Is there any chance a team would claim Cain if he were waived? Letting him walk for nothing in August might not be a bad idea if a contender wanted to make that claim now.

 

Tampa and Cleveland could use him.

[Oxy]

Is there any chance a team would claim Cain if he were waived? Letting him walk for nothing in August might not be a bad idea if a contender wanted to make that claim now.

 

Tampa could use him.

 

No way they take on that contract. I already miss the August waiver wire deals. Anderson, Jeffress, Moose and Grandal are candidates as well.

[trwi7]

A gutted farm system and a mediocre MLB team. We are back to 2012-15 just as fast as we got out of it. What was the point of ushering Melvin out when the approach hasn't changed at all?

 

Sounds like me the last couple of years and this is exactly what I was worried about. Never really bottomed out, got lucky for a couple years with Casey McGehee like players like Shaw, traded prospects and now we're back exactly where we were except now the fan base probably won't tolerate a several year rebuild like they would've been willing to in 2015.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Pitching doesn't matter when you can't score.

 

The players being paid to get hits against left-handed pitching have been the biggest letdown this year. That's why every team is starting crap lefties against us.

 

Didn’t we have a post show that our stats and record are damn sad the same against both hands?

 

Yes, but the premise is flawed anyway. The team is averaging 4.8 runs per game. That up considerably from last year.

 

The runs allowed is up a full run. That's not the story today, but that's the story.

 

Premise is far from flawed. Runs per game are up across baseball. Offense wasn't consistent last year either. It is worse this year, though.

[Oxy]

A gutted farm system and a mediocre MLB team. We are back to 2012-15 just as fast as we got out of it. What was the point of ushering Melvin out when the approach hasn't changed at all?

 

Sounds like me the last couple of years and this is exactly what I was worried about. Never really bottomed out, got lucky for a couple years with Casey McGehee like players like Shaw, traded prospects and now we're back exactly where we were except now the fan base probably won't tolerate a several year rebuild like they would've been willing to in 2015.

 

The only veteran signing that might hamstring us a bit is Cain. And if you are actually going to say that you regret the Yelich trade you are straight up lying. We've had no pitchers step up this year other than Woodruff, and we had a lot of guys who could/should have. That's not on Stearns, and is mostly unavoidable (unless DJ was retainable?)

[trwi7]

A gutted farm system and a mediocre MLB team. We are back to 2012-15 just as fast as we got out of it. What was the point of ushering Melvin out when the approach hasn't changed at all?

 

Sounds like me the last couple of years and this is exactly what I was worried about. Never really bottomed out, got lucky for a couple years with Casey McGehee like players like Shaw, traded prospects and now we're back exactly where we were except now the fan base probably won't tolerate a several year rebuild like they would've been willing to in 2015.

 

The only veteran signing that might hamstring us a bit is Cain. And if you are actually going to say that you regret the Yelich trade you are straight up lying. We've had no pitchers step up this year other than Woodruff, and we had a lot of guys who could/should have. That's not on Stearns, and is mostly unavoidable (unless DJ was retainable?)

 

So basically the only veteran signing he's made? He also didn't trade Braun when he had the chance, which is currently hamstringing us and we didn't have many elite pitching prospects, so asking them to step up and perform is probably going to have mixed results. So yes, all of this is on Stearns.

 

As far as the Yelich trade, what exactly is that getting us? An MVP surrounded by a bunch of players that are good enough to get us 81-85 wins.

[Oxy]

 

So basically the only veteran signing he's made? He also didn't trade Braun when he had the chance, which is currently hamstringing us and we didn't have many elite pitching prospects, so asking them to step up and perform is probably going to have mixed results. So yes, all of this is on Stearns.

 

As far as the Yelich trade, what exactly is that getting us? An MVP surrounded by a bunch of players that are good enough to get us 81-85 wins.

 

That's fair. Braun could have been traded a few years ago and we could have kept Santana and had whatever pieces we got back for Braun (basically anything if his whole contract was traded as well). Santana and Braun are very similar players production wise but obviously far different salary wise. Although last June Santana was on the verge of flaming out of the league, so all this 20/20 hindsight stuff is a little silly. We are really only 5 or 6 wins from having a nice division lead and everything mostly being hunky-dory.

 

ALSO: Last year was a blast, and we were inches from a WS. That was fun.