2021-10-12 (NLDS Game #4): Brewers (Lauer) at Braves (Morton) [Brewers lose, 5-4 -- Freeman’s 8th inning HR off Hader breaks tie, and hearts]

[Pugger]

Really have to question pitch selection in that Freeman at bat....I know it's just a one pitch AB, but you can't start him off with a get me over slider. If Freeman can square up 97 at the top of the zone so be it, go down with your best pitch - the offspeed can't be a middle of the plate strike.

 

Wonder if any unfamiliarity having the 3rd catcher putting signs down had an impact.

 

Just a disappointing end to what looked like a promising opportunity to go on a run. They always say pitching and defense wins in October....but that's when you compare teams that are similar offensively. When one team has a really good offense even great pitching gives up a few runs here and there, and that's enough to beat a team whose offense never really showed up.

 

Who called for those pitches to Freeman? Our 3rd string catcher?

[jason21nl]

[quote name=

 

Seriously' date=' I don't doubt he is seeking counseling after his last two seasons. How can he even look at himself in the mirror and feel good about himself?

 

I feel bad for the guy, and hopefully he is going to take the off season and get some help, mentally and physically.[/quote]

 

He hasn't looked right since that knee injury

 

 

I go back to that too but he has zero issues running. It was his right knee and required no surgery. I think his problem is in his head.

[willie key]

You could see this for a month now.

 

This team was not good for awhile. They weren’t going to beat anyone with a pulse

[DuWayne Steurer]

 

If winning the WS is the gold standard then don't bring up 1982.

 

 

Again, it is the most successful season in the Milwaukee Brewers history, you just need to understand that much...

 

It still ended in a loss, but it is the high water mark because it is the only time we ever got the the World series.

 

I get it though, it gets old hanging our hat on a loss, but until we have a better outcome, it is the furthest we have ever made it in a single season.

 

I'll say this ..... I was around, and old enough to be deeply invested in baseball in 82, and I'm TIRED of hearing about 82. I enjoyed the crap out of 08, 11, and 18. To a lesser extent these last few playoff seasons. They also ended in losses, but there were big moments in those seasons that really gave enjoyment and enthusiasm to a new generation of brewer fans. I can still watch that base hit by Tony Plush that brought Gomez home to win game 5 of the NLDS in '11 and be like "wow, what a moment!!". I wish it was a WS win, but it's still a big defining moment for this generation. 82 was awesome, but just .... man, I'm kinda over it.

[Joseph Zarr]

One thing I will give the Braves credit for doing, they watched their star player go down mid-season and instead of folding they went out and brought in a whole bunch of offensive-minded replacements.

 

Absolutely. I remember their deadline. I remember we played them right out of the deadline and I also remember thinking: How are these NL East teams sitting at 0.500?!? They give you tough tough AB's. They don't make many mistakes. Their pitching really came on. I like their squad quite a bit. With Acuna? I absolutely love their 1-6 offensive Lineup. I said in this thread, but, I really love Albies. I think he is an extremely underrated player.

[roadcrew3]

The manager has to help get a struggling team over the hump with some big decisions. Counsell actively hurt the cause today. Shame on him for being outmanaged this badly today not to mention the brutal decision of yesterday. Yelich needs to look in the mirror but so does Counsell.

 

Did you grow up in Bay and Counsell bullied you or something? Holy crap your constant criticism moves past the point of logic and seems like its a personal agenda.

 

Almost all of Counsell's big decisions back fired. Really tough series for him in terms of results. You can make a good decision that ends up having a bad result, but doesn't mean it wasn't the right decision at the time.

 

Now I think there is definitely room to question the line up construction and how he handled the catchers, but that's not even close to what lost them this series. The reasoning behind his decisions with Peralta yesterday and Lauer and Hader today are all there and pretty easy to understand but you're just choosing to ignore it.

[yourout]

They went out and got Escobar and benched him only to watch him go 2-2 pinch hitting the last two games. Meanwhile Yelich is hitting three. It's like a dad letting his kid start just because he's his kid. Bad stuff. Guessing Escobar won't forget it this offseason.

 

I really think they're going to have to make big moves this off season. It's likely going to mean dangling Hader and yelich in front of the Yankees with only prospects in return. Yelich contract is so toxic right now they have to find a way to dump it

[adambr2]

We had basically a completely healthy roster.

 

No Acuna for the Braves and they still won in 4. The Braves are better.

[Pugger]

 

If winning the WS is the gold standard then don't bring up 1982.

 

 

Again, it is the most successful season in the Milwaukee Brewers history, you just need to understand that much...

 

It still ended in a loss, but it is the high water mark because it is the only time we ever got the the World series.

 

I get it though, it gets old hanging our hat on a loss, but until we have a better outcome, it is the furthest we have ever made it in a single season.

 

I'll say this ..... I was around, and old enough to be deeply invested in baseball in 82, and I'm TIRED of hearing about 82. I enjoyed the crap out of 08, 11, and 18. To a lesser extent these last few playoff seasons. They also ended in losses, but there were big moments in those seasons that really gave enjoyment and enthusiasm to a new generation of brewer fans. I can still watch that base hit by Tony Plush that brought Gomez home to win game 5 of the NLDS in '11 and be like "wow, what a moment!!". I wish it was a WS win, but it's still a big defining moment for this generation. 82 was awesome, but just .... man, I'm kinda over it.

 

Thank you for putting my sentiments here better than I did.

[adambr2]

They went out and got Escobar and benched him only to watch him go 2-2 pinch hitting the last two games. Meanwhile Yelich is hitting three. It's like a dad letting his kid start just because he's his kid. Bad stuff. Guessing Escobar won't forget it this offseason.

 

I really think they're going to have to make big moves this off season. It's likely going to mean dangling Hader and yelich in front of the Yankees with only prospects in return. Yelich contract is so toxic right now they have to find a way to dump it

 

No one is dangling Yelich. He is worthless. He is one of the worst contract values in baseball. He is not going anywhere.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

You can't "dangle" Yelich in front of anybody.

[Bulldogboy]

The manager has to help get a struggling team over the hump with some big decisions. Counsell actively hurt the cause today. Shame on him for being outmanaged this badly today not to mention the brutal decision of yesterday. Yelich needs to look in the mirror but so does Counsell.

 

Did you grow up in Bay and Counsell bullied you or something? Holy crap your constant criticism moves past the point of logic and seems like its a personal agenda.

 

Almost all of Counsell's big decisions back fired. Really tough series for him in terms of results. You can make a good decision that ends up having a bad result, but doesn't mean it wasn't the right decision at the time.

 

Now I think there is definitely room to question the line up construction and how he handled the catchers, but that's not even close to what lost them this series. The reasoning behind his decisions with Peralta yesterday and Lauer and Hader today are all there and pretty easy to understand but you're just choosing to ignore it.

Nope. Counsell got outmanaged today and yesterday period. First guessing all of it all day long. Bottom line he did not help the cause today at all. Is he a good manager sure. Doesn't mean he was good this series. Hitting Yelich three is indefensible.

[Pugger]

You can't "dangle" Yelich in front of anybody.

 

Yeah, if we did every other GM out there will laugh at us.

[yourout]

You can't "dangle" Yelich in front of anybody.

 

Well in his case it's more like force someone by making him part of a bigger trade.

[Bulldogboy]

They went out and got Escobar and benched him only to watch him go 2-2 pinch hitting the last two games. Meanwhile Yelich is hitting three. It's like a dad letting his kid start just because he's his kid. Bad stuff. Guessing Escobar won't forget it this offseason.

 

I really think they're going to have to make big moves this off season. It's likely going to mean dangling Hader and yelich in front of the Yankees with only prospects in return. Yelich contract is so toxic right now they have to find a way to dump it

 

No one is dangling Yelich. He is worthless. He is one of the worst contract values in baseball. He is not going anywhere.

Dangle Yelich?? Lol

[DuWayne Steurer]

Someone mentions trading Yelich every couple days like it's a real thing that could actually happen. Dude is 190 million dollars of negative value. The best, realistic, and only thing the Brewers can do right now is hope he takes the winter to get his mind and body right, see if he can even become like an .850 OPS dude for a few seasons going forward (doubt it, but maybe?) and be a semi-productive guy while they still have the trio of ace pitchers under team control.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Counsell had a bad night. I think that's fair. Yesterday, probably not great, but you can at least explain away some of it by being backed into a corner by how bad the team had been hitting. Then of course we get some support tonight and just can't hang on to it for anything.

 

Personally, didn't like Ashby coming into this game at all, and thought he was left in too long. To me, if Woody is available, you bridge Lauer with Woody. And if you pitch Woody, IDK why he throws 12 pitches, doesn't bat, then gets taken out.

 

None of these are really super egregious though. We just didn't have it. And when we did, it was hit hard right at a guy, or we couldn't hold a lead for 10 minutes. Just a badly timed, unfortunate, ultimately really sad end.

[mtrebs]

You can't "dangle" Yelich in front of anybody.

 

I wonder if Hader and Yelich for essentially nothing in return would peak any rich team’s interest. Would suck to lose Hader without receiving any players in return, but freeing ourselves of Yelich’s contract would be huge.

 

Of course, Yelich would return to MVP form after that…

[willie key]

We had basically a completely healthy roster.

 

No Acuna for the Braves and they still won in 4. The Braves are better.

 

 

Every team in the playoffs was better. Except for maybe the white Sox

 

This is easily the most disappointing end to a season in a long time. Usually you have appreciation for a playoff team even when they lose in the playoffs

 

But this one is different. All they did was screw around for a month. For a month

[MrTPlush]

The Brewers aren’t that bad. The offense wasn’t good, but it hit a really rough funk at the worst time. And no…it wasn’t just because we suddenly faced postseason pitching. We were better than the Braves…but the postseason isn’t just about being better. It takes timing, luck, and a lot of other things.

[tmwiese55]

Someone mentions trading Yelich every couple days like it's a real thing that could actually happen. Dude is 190 million dollars of negative value. The best, realistic, and only thing the Brewers can do right now is hope he takes the winter to get his mind and body right, see if he can even become like an .850 OPS dude for a few seasons going forward (doubt it, but maybe?) and be a semi-productive guy yuwhile they still have the trio of ace pitchers under team control.

 

Yup, this is really the only way to look at Yelich right now. He needs to clear his head first, do whatever he can to clean up any lingering health stuff. Then put in whatever work they can to get his swing back to where he can hit the ball in the air. Just be good, dont need to be Barry Bonds again. Just a solid .850 borderline all star type would be a big help to the O while we have this pitching.

[Bulldogboy]

The Brewers have to sit down this offseason and come up with a plan of how to fix the offense with the dh coming on board the pitching is going to be impacted. You are going to have to score more runs. More consistent ab. Urias and Adames and Wong are good to go. Everyone else is under evaluation.

[The stache]

I think a lot of the blame should be placed at the feet of Craig Counsell. The entire final two weeks, or so, of the regular season was a giant dumpster fire. It started by losing two on the road to the Tigers. We took two of three from the Cubs, but they'd had a giant fire sale, getting rid of Rizzo, Bryant and Baez.

 

We faced the Cardinals and the Dodgers ten times in that finishing stretch, and went 1-9.

 

The narrative I saw over and over on social media was, "well, they're locked in at the #3 spot in the playoffs. They can't improve their playoff seeding, so it makes sense to rest some guys."

 

No. These guys are professional athletes, conditioned to play a 162 game season. You don't limp into the playoffs. You keep playing hard until the season is done, they you go into the playoffs playing good baseball.

 

We didn't. Losing Williams to a colossally stupid broken hand only compounded things.

 

This team is not mentally strong. Neither is our manager. Counsell just makes too many questionable decisions in high leverage situations. Putting our third string catcher in to pinch hit, with Tyrone Taylor available, was just one. Taking Woodruff out after 12 pitches to put Hader in for the bottom of the 8th, meaning that somebody would have to pinch hit for him in the 9th....if we go to extra innings, we have virtually nobody left to pitch with our season on the line.

 

I'm in no mood for silver linings. We're starting to become the Brooklyn Dodgers. "Wait until next year". Only, the Dodgers actually won a World Series.

 

We got our butts kicked by an 85 win team. Does anybody seriously think this team would have any chance against the Giants or the Dodgers, if we somehow made it to the playoffs against them?

[NievesNoNO]

Man, disappointment yet again. Just a lot of swing and miss in thier game. I'm not sure there's really any decisions that were obviously costly. Even as bad as it looked it's still a handful of ABs either way that make the difference. It's an odd thing, it's like the anti-Brewer team. All pitching, no hitting. Hasn't happened in my lifetime. This version of the Brewers needed Yelich to be MVP Yelich. The contract isn't his fault but unless he improves this is the kind of pieced together offense that we can expect as they can't afford to add much. The window is still there with the pitching. Enjoy the rest of the post-season all. On to 2022.

[sobomp3]

You could see this for a month now.

 

This team was not good for awhile. They weren’t going to beat anyone with a pulse

I agree with this. I was so pumped when they clinched the postseason weeks ago, but then when they had the chance over the cardinals to end them, and just faltered it all seemed off to me. I kept coming here to read, as a casual fan, that it didn’t matter, but it sure didn’t seem like a great way to enter the postseason.