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]

[dlk9s]

This team is not mentally strong.

 

This is just completely untrue. Remember when we were celebrating all season how this team never quit and showed tons of heart rallying late in games? Hell, even tonight, after not scoring for almost two and a half games, they came out hitting pretty well and rebounded after the Braves tied it up the first time.

[Brewcrewin07]

This +1000

 

Mark Miller

@WisBBYearbook

·

29m

David Stearns has pushed a lot of the right buttons during his tenure in Milwaukee. Same for Craig Counsell. But a ton of eyeballs will be watching closely this off season. The Brewers' window of opportunity with this pitching won't last forever. Need some big-time bats.

[oldguy]

Yelich is getting hammered here, and rightfully so, but if you look at him, he is struggling, deeply struggling.

 

Just look at his body language, look in his eyes, dude is hurting, emotionally and physically, and one may hinge on the other...

 

Seriously, 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.

Does the guys body look like a guy who is going to get in the gym and get healthy?? Bulk up a bit?? I don't think so.

 

Looks like a guy who could use a real hitting coach, not the pretender they have now. These guys look like they are all struggling to figure things out on their own.

[FVBrewerFan]

Bottom line, this team was a true contender for a large span of the season. Even the favorite at their peak. They were not that team in October, and that's the way sports work. And that downturn happened before they shifted to neutral after clinching.

 

It wasn't just the hitting either. Woodruff and Peralta were no longer dominant. Houser gives up 2 bombs in the series, Hader the game winner. They were never going to win the WS without all of Burnes, Woodruff, Peralta, and Hader being dominant.

[Bulldogboy]

By the way Yelich has a full no trade clause so he isn't going anywhere even if the Brewers wanted him to be.

[bucks2281]

By the way Yelich has a full no trade clause so he isn't going anywhere even if the Brewers wanted him to be.

 

Thanks, Mark.

[yourout]

By the way Yelich has a full no trade clause so he isn't going anywhere even if the Brewers wanted him to be.

 

Uggh.

[Joseph Zarr]

Just finished watching - had to delay on DVR.

 

Home plate ump was hot garbage. Holy crap. So many balls out of the zone called strikes and he got fooled by pitchers missing the target several times.

 

Freeman bomb aside, it basically came down to two terrible 0-2 pitches by Strickland and Ashby (though Ashby's still resulted in weak contact).

 

Thank You. Absolutely agreed. Strickland was really off on key pitches. Ashby had an extremely unfortunate 1st inning. Is what it is. I did notice, however, Ashby had lost his movement on his fastball - was quite a bit more restrained in action.

[sixtolezcano16]

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?

 

 

I’m with you ‘stash. When Counsell was first hired he actually had some creative ideas, however as time went on he became more and more like every other manager, boring and extremely predictable. Throughout this year he had some head scratching moments, but he really lost it during the last 3 weeks of the regular season. It was inexcusable the way he managed against the Cards and the Dodgers. To let his foot off the gas was just plain stupid. To continue to bat Yelich 3rd didn’t make any sense and then to PH for Freddy in game 3, just smacked of desperation, it was almost like waving the white flag. Both he and Stearns need to sit down and figure out some creative way to get some above average bats in here. Anyone who thinks next year will be better is just fooling themselves. Do you really think Burns, Woody and Peralta will improve on their 2021 seasons or the current bats will magically improve is delusional.

[HarveysWBs]

My understanding is that Haines is Yelich’s guy, since they go way back. I will not speculate as to whether or not that had anything to with his hire and/or his retention. What I will say is that the results certainly don’t seem to indicate that being handpicked by the positional cornerstone of the franchise is enough all by itself to justify his tenure.

 

I have been fired. It sucks, and I’m not calling for any job losses here. I also think it is difficult for fans to realistically and accurately assess any coaching, we simply don’t see enough of what goes into the job to get a fair picture. But I will say this: in terms of the offensive staff, I really hope there are a lot of incredible things they’re doing outside the lines that we don’t see on game day.

[oldguy]

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.

 

Their lineup is insane. It's hard to not make mistakes when nearly every guy 1-7 can end the game with one swing. I admit that I didn't know how much power they had until I was at Game 1 and saw all their numbers on the board and it was like 6 straight 30 bomb guys.

 

True. That's what you expect in the playoffs. The Brewers were the anomaly.

[TURBO]

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.

 

I just can't see how. There is nothing coming up the pipeline that's going to do that. The only dream I can cling to is fixing Yelich to the point he's a shell of what he was. Yeah, I'm sure they can move a guy here or a guy there, but this offense badly needs something. And it's not just Yelich. It's JBJ. It's Cain. There's a lot of money in some not very great players.

 

Our entire outfield should be replaced, but can't happen because they are all too expensive to get rid of.

 

Yelich has been beaten to death, Cain is old and plays a max of 80-90 games and is being paid 15 million. JBJ was an absolute train wreck of a signing, and now we are stuck with his 10-12 million dollar contract. Garcia is going to cost way more than we can even begin to afford (18 million?), and to be honest, he went in the tank when we needed hi most anyway. We are in a bad situation with the OF, nothing more to say about it. This OF, unless Yelich comes back strong will be our downfall next season offensively.

 

Without dumping our entire outfield, which will be impossible to do, offensively, I don't see a lot of change for next season.

 

Is Rowdy our answer at 1B? It feels like a risk to go into the season with him as our guy, but what choice do we really have?

[yourout]

My understanding is that Haines is Yelich’s guy, since they go way back. I will not speculate as to whether or not that had anything to with his hire and/or his retention. What I will say is that the results certainly don’t seem to indicate that being handpicked by the positional cornerstone of the franchise is enough all by itself to justify his tenure.

 

I have been fired. It sucks, and I’m not calling for any job losses here. I also think it is difficult for fans to realistically and accurately assess any coaching, we simply don’t see enough of what goes into the job to get a fair picture. But I will say this: in terms of the offensive staff, I really hope there are a lot of incredible things they’re doing outside the lines that we don’t see on game day.

 

If it would keep Yelich happy I say they promote Hanes to director of toiletry acquisition.

[Brewcrewin07]

 

 

Tom

@Haudricourt

·

3m

More from Yelich: "It's definitely disappointing. I understand that I've got to play better; I've got to do better. Take the offseason and figure out a way to do that."

[Jopal78]

Brewers are scheduled to pay 52 million dollars to Yelich Cain and Bradley. If Garcia opts in it's almost 76 million. That is impossibly bad roster management.

 

It’s not 2005 anymore. Role players get 10+ million dollars a year in the major leagues now. That they’re going to be paying a former MVP and two former All Stars 52 million in 2022 isn’t really that big of a deal.

[oldguy]

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.

i'll agree with you on that. But he's going to need a hitting coach to do that. They all could use batting help. What they have now is not it.

[sixtolezcano16]

Yelich is sunk cost. That is money you can never get back.But not to try and find a way to improve at that position is just plain stupid. Maybe play Yelich at DH, or platoon him if he continues his steep downward slide. But I refuse to think the best solution is to hope he improves or just throw up your hands and say “ it is what it is”. You always need to Strive to improve your team, and not have that losers mentality. Bringing in a bunch of castoffs is not going to cut it anymore. You need to adjust the line of thought, the team is different now.

[TURBO]

Brewers are scheduled to pay 52 million dollars to Yelich Cain and Bradley. If Garcia opts in it's almost 76 million. That is impossibly bad roster management.

 

It’s not 2005 anymore. Role players get 10+ million dollars a year in the major leagues now. That they’re going to be paying a former MVP and two former All Stars 52 million in 2022 isn’t really that big of a deal.

 

 

lol

 

It certainly is if our entire payroll is 115 million...

 

It's a really big deal actually.

[Bulldogboy]

Brewers are scheduled to pay 52 million dollars to Yelich Cain and Bradley. If Garcia opts in it's almost 76 million. That is impossibly bad roster management.

 

It’s not 2005 anymore. Role players get 10+ million dollars a year in the major leagues now. That they’re going to be paying a former MVP and two former All Stars 52 million in 2022 isn’t really that big of a deal.

When your roster payroll is 95 million it is.

[timpep]

Brewers are scheduled to pay 52 million dollars to Yelich Cain and Bradley. If Garcia opts in it's almost 76 million. That is impossibly bad roster management.

 

It’s not 2005 anymore. Role players get 10+ million dollars a year in the major leagues now. That they’re going to be paying a former MVP and two former All Stars 52 million in 2022 isn’t really that big of a deal.

 

It's a big deal when that's half the payroll.

[yourout]

Brewers are scheduled to pay 52 million dollars to Yelich Cain and Bradley. If Garcia opts in it's almost 76 million. That is impossibly bad roster management.

 

It’s not 2005 anymore. Role players get 10+ million dollars a year in the major leagues now. That they’re going to be paying a former MVP and two former All Stars 52 million in 2022 isn’t really that big of a deal.

 

 

lol

 

It certainly is if our entire payroll is 115 million...

 

It's a really big deal actually.

 

Sure would be nice to not have a few of those contracts so you could go sign a Brandon Belt or some other mid-tier free agent that can actually hit.

[Brewcrewin07]

Brewers are scheduled to pay 52 million dollars to Yelich Cain and Bradley. If Garcia opts in it's almost 76 million. That is impossibly bad roster management.

 

It’s not 2005 anymore. Role players get 10+ million dollars a year in the major leagues now. That they’re going to be paying a former MVP and two former All Stars 52 million in 2022 isn’t really that big of a deal.

When your roster payroll is 95 million it is.

 

 

Actually, you hit on the problem...it's not the post you quoted that's the problem.

[oldguy]

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

 

Bingo!

[Brewcrewin07]

Brewers are scheduled to pay 52 million dollars to Yelich Cain and Bradley. If Garcia opts in it's almost 76 million. That is impossibly bad roster management.

 

It’s not 2005 anymore. Role players get 10+ million dollars a year in the major leagues now. That they’re going to be paying a former MVP and two former All Stars 52 million in 2022 isn’t really that big of a deal.

 

It's a big deal when that's half the payroll.

 

I bolded the part that's actually the problem.

[Bulldogboy]

The series is why it's time to trade Hader for a bat. What good is a one inning closer if you can't score?? His value has diminished now that he is 1 inning only guy. He's great and somebody will pay a heavy price. Call the Yankees and ask about Luke Voigt to dh.