Game Thread (5/22/2022): Nationals (Sanchez) at Brewers (Peralta) - 1:10 PM CDT

[areacodes]

Just now, brewers888 said:

I think we have a pretty good idea who is good in this league with half of the teams trying to out tank each other.

Are the Brewers one of the good teams?

[Brewcrew82]

4 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

I think we have a pretty good idea who is good in this league with half of the teams trying to out tank each other.

But you just said we don’t know yet know that about the Brewers…

[magnoliacrew]

Does anyone else turn Sophia's "he says" into a drinking game?

[brewers888]

6 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

But you just said we don’t know yet know that about the Brewers…

I said the Brewers are a good team but how they do against other contenders will give us a good understanding of just how good they are. In case you didn't know we won't be playing against Pittsburgh or Washington in the  playoffs. 

[trwi7]

5 minutes ago, magnoliacrew said:

Does anyone else turn Sophia's "he says" into a drinking game?

I don't want to be drunk for a month.

[Brewcrew82]

6 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

I said the Brewers are a good team but how they do against other contenders will give us a good understanding of just how good they are. In case you didn't know we won't be playing against Pittsburgh or Washington in the  playoffs. 

What about Atlanta? Just took a series from them, didn’t we?

[brewers888]

2 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

What about Atlanta? Just took a series from them, didn’t we?

Yes Atlanta is good and we finished 3-3 against them which is fine,

[Brewcrew82]

3 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

Yes Atlanta is good and we finished 3-3 against them which is fine,

Right. So why even have this conversation now after what has been an unusual game to say the least? You can only play who is on your schedule and the Brewers have been doing exactly what really good teams do.

[Brewcrew82]

Right shoulder tightness for Freddy. Likely a precautionary thing. So, good to hear, though him going on the IL for a little bit wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world either with our pitching depth. We need him as healthy as possibly this season to achieve our goals.

[DuWayne Steurer]

If the Brewers weren't at least a "good" team, they wouldn't be 24 - 11 against teams below .500.  If the Brewers were a mediocre team they'd be mediocre.  The NL is super top heavy this year.  The Dodgers, Mets, Brewers, Padres, Giants, and ......maybe the Cardinals.  Maybe the Braves, but they better get their butts in gear.  Everyone else is just fodder.  

That doesn't mean these other teams aren't trying to win games, it just means they aren't very good.  

[NBBrewFan]

52 minutes ago, RoCoBrewfan said:

The Padres are 4-4 vs teams over .500. 

On top of that, the entirety of their run differential comes from their 6-0 record against the Reds.

Using this data, I've concluded the Padres aren't good.  At least not yet. 

Not sure where you are looking, but I am using mlb.com and the Padres are 7-5 vs teams over .500.

[DuWayne Steurer]

3 minutes ago, NBBrewFan said:

Not sure where you are looking, but I am using mlb.com and the Padres are 7-5 vs teams over .500.

Arizona is .500.  I guess it's semantics on whether a team is "over" .500 or .500.

 

[DuWayne Steurer]

And for all that, I'd consider Atlanta a "better" team than Arizona, despite the records those two teams have. 

[Underachiever]

1 hour ago, NBBrewFan said:

To qualify for "pay to not play", you will need ticket receipts or proof of purchase to the games you wish to qualify for a payment plan to not attend games.

HwHow

[Underachiever]

1 minute ago, Underachiever said:

HwHow

Looking for the other two...

[Brewcrew82]

19 minutes ago, RoCoBrewfan said:

If the Brewers weren't at least a "good" team, they wouldn't be 24 - 11 against teams below .500.  If the Brewers were a mediocre team they'd be mediocre.  The NL is super top heavy this year.  The Dodgers, Mets, Brewers, Padres, Giants, and ......maybe the Cardinals.  Maybe the Braves, but they better get their butts in gear.  Everyone else is just fodder.  

That doesn't mean these other teams aren't trying to win games, it just means they aren't very good.  

The only NL teams I’m absolutely convinced are “good” at this point are the Dodgers and the Brewers tbh. The Braves would be next up for me, with the only thing really going against them being their current record. The Mets are the Mets, and the injury issues surrounding DeGrom and Scherzer are a major concern for them. The Giants are clearly not the team they were last year, while the Padres haven’t really been demonstrably better than the team that collapsed and missed the postseason last year. As for the Cardinals, everyone likes to talk about their devil magic, but that is a flawed team that is way too reliant on a trio of 40 year olds and has very little in the way of pitching depth. 

[Eye Black]

Just realized the Brewers are likely to face two LHP starters in San Diego (Blake Snell and Sean Manaea) to sandwich Yu Darvish’s Tuesday start. 

[brewmann04]

there are some days when you have to rest certain players and get games like this. I think DS will be working the phones early this season to see what can be added.

[brewmann04]

The FO and the Brewers need to get better VS Lefties to be able to fight for a WS.

[Brewcrew82]

I just hope I never have to see Brosseau at SS again. His defensive miscues really set the tone for today’s crappy events

[markedman5]

50 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Right shoulder tightness for Freddy. Likely a precautionary thing. So, good to hear, though him going on the IL for a little bit wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world either with our pitching depth. We need him as healthy as possibly this season to achieve our goals.

Not precautionary 

 

[Brewcrew82]

2 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

Not precautionary 

 

Nope. But generally, tight shoulders are better than things such as sore or inflamed elbows. 

[BruisedCrew]

41 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

The only NL teams I’m absolutely convinced are “good” at this point are the Dodgers and the Brewers tbh. The Braves would be next up for me, with the only thing really going against them being their current record. The Mets are the Mets, and the injury issues surrounding DeGrom and Scherzer are a major concern for them. The Giants are clearly not the team they were last year, while the Padres haven’t really been demonstrably better than the team that collapsed and missed the postseason last year. As for the Cardinals, everyone likes to talk about their devil magic, but that is a flawed team that is way too reliant on a trio of 40 year olds and has very little in the way of pitching depth. 

The Cardinals have already added two top prospects to their lineup. I don’t think they are relying very heavily on Molina. I would take their offense over the Brewers offense.

Their “flaw” is in their pitching which may have taken a hit today with Matz leaving in the first inning. But if they can shore that up at all they should be right there with the Brewers all season. 
 

I said when the Brewers went on the road after sweeping the Reds that we were going to learn a lot about the Brewers between then and late June after they complete the road heavy part of their schedule that includes a much higher number of games against other playoff contenders (Padres, Cardinals, Mets, Phillies, and Blue Jays) than they faced in the first quarter of their schedule.
 

So far, they are 7-6 in this stretch with what might be the toughest two week stretch of the season coming up with 15 games in 14 days, with 11 of the games on the road and 11 of them against the Padres (7) and Cards (4).  Losing Peralta is going to make this stretch even tougher. 
 

I think everyone understands that the Brewers are a “good” team that should be a solid playoff contender all season. But, given the schedule to date (I saw one of the projection sites call it the weakest in MLB), I think it’s more accurate to lump the Brewers with the other “good” teams than to put them in a class with the Dodgers and ahead of everyone else. 
 

 

[BruisedCrew]

2 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Yeah, but was it that much different from when a baserunner circles around first to go to second? It was a call that could've gone either way, I suppose. 

Of course, how far runners go out of the straight line between the bases when they are rounding a base to advance to the next one is totally irrelevant. The rules only prohibit running out of the baseline to avoid a tag. 
 

From our seats which look pretty much straight down the first base line that looked like a call that could have gone either way.

[Brewcrew82]

1 hour ago, BruisedCrew said:

The Cardinals have already added two top prospects to their lineup. I don’t think they are relying very heavily on Molina. I would take their offense over the Brewers offense.

Their “flaw” is in their pitching which may have taken a hit today with Matz leaving in the first inning. But if they can shore that up at all they should be right there with the Brewers all season. 
 

I said when the Brewers went on the road after sweeping the Reds that we were going to learn a lot about the Brewers between then and late June after they complete the road heavy part of their schedule that includes a much higher number of games against other playoff contenders (Padres, Cardinals, Mets, Phillies, and Blue Jays) than they faced in the first quarter of their schedule.
 

So far, they are 7-6 in this stretch with what might be the toughest two week stretch of the season coming up with 15 games in 14 days, with 11 of the games on the road and 11 of them against the Padres (7) and Cards (4).  Losing Peralta is going to make this stretch even tougher. 
 

I think everyone understands that the Brewers are a “good” team that should be a solid playoff contender all season. But, given the schedule to date (I saw one of the projection sites call it the weakest in MLB), I think it’s more accurate to lump the Brewers with the other “good” teams than to put them in a class with the Dodgers and ahead of everyone else. 
 

 

I never said they were equivalent with or better than the dodgers. The dodgers obviously hover above everyone else in the NL right now, as they have for several years now. But the Brewers were the third best team in the league last year, and have played at or above that level to start the year. Everyone else has either played below that level (Giants, Braves) or has serious injury/age concerns (Mets/Cardinals). Regardless of their weak schedule, the Brewers have been doing exactly what very good teams do with such a schedule. 

As for the Cardinals, I have watched a lot of their games this year. Arenado and Goldschmidt are amazing, and Edman has been great to start the year, but literally every other part of their roster is a question mark right now. The bottom of their order has been abysmal. Now, their rookies (Donovan, Yepez) have helped to stabilize things somewhat, but their current production, which is at a near all star level, is not in accordance with their prospect pedigrees. And yes, they are reliant on their 40 year olds. Molina remains their primary catcher, Wainwright is their undisputed “ace”, and Pujols is playing almost every day as their DH, even filling in at 1B on occasion. They may make the playoffs just because they are the Cardinals, but they are not at our level, nor are they in the upper class of the NL. 
 

I don’t think you fully understand or appreciate just how much our pitching (assuming Peralta is not out for long) gives us a leg up on everyone else with the exception of the Dodgers and Mets (when/if healthy).