MLB 2018 Season

[wadesworld]

Great move by Counsell to start Miley for one batter. That means the Dodgers used their right-handed hitting lineup only to have to face a right-handed pitcher after one batter.

We'll see how it works out.

They had more of their righty lineup in than their lefty lineup.

Brewers have had chances all series and haven’t taken advantage. Could’ve easily won in 5 but just not taking advantage.

[wadesworld]

Fun while it lasted. Not going to a WS when your best offensive player is your 8 hole hitter.

[CreightonWarrior]

With the way the brewers bats are going the 2-1 lead will probably be big enough. Yelich has another opportunity for an mvp moment and couldn’t get it done. He’s lost.

[GB Warrior]

Counsell outthinks himself and it might cost them this game

[wadesworld]

Counsell outthinks himself and it might cost them this game

What did Counsell outthink?

[GB Warrior]

What did Counsell outthink?

Went against what he's done for the last month - don't let guys go 3rd time through the order

[CreightonWarrior]

2 run deficit feels insurmountable at this point.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Know how the Cubs and Rockies felt previously....

[GGGG]

This is starting to feel like 2011.

[MU82]

2 games at home now.

C'mon, Crew fans ... was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

[WarriorDad]

The offense has been poor, especially in key situations.  Missing Vaunted Player

But back to Milwaukee they go and perhaps they can force a game 7.  I still contend the series killer was game 1, up 5-1 and you bring in Hader.  No need.  Use him for 1 inning, not 3.  If the Brewers take game 2, which they had in their control, this is a totally different series.

[wadesworld]

The offense has been poor, especially in key situations.  Missing Vaunted Player

But back to Milwaukee they go and perhaps they can force a game 7.  I still contend the series killer was game 1, up 5-1 and you bring in Hader.  No need.  Use him for 1 inning, not 3.  If the Brewers take game 2, which they had in their control, this is a totally different series.

The series would be over had Hader not gone 3 scoreless in a 1 run Brewers win. You can continue to contend that all you want, but you’re wrong.

[buckchuckler]

nm

[WarriorDad]

The series would be over had Hader not gone 3 scoreless in a 1 run Brewers win. You can continue to contend that all you want, but you’re wrong.

Impossible for you to know this, for the same reason it is impossible for me to know if I am right.  So, I won't say you are wrong because I don't know, but you dig in to your opinion all you wish as if it is factual.

Last night, why pitch to him when Grandahl was on deck, pitcher behind him?  Odd managing choices in my opinion.

[BM1090]

Impossible for you to know this, for the same reason it is impossible for me to know if I am right.  So, I won't say you are wrong because I don't know, but you dig in to your opinion all you wish as if it is factual.

Last night, why pitch to him when Grandahl was on deck, pitcher behind him?  Odd managing choices in my opinion.

Using Hader for 3 was the right decision.

Pitching to Bellinger was the wrong decision.

Just my opinions, of course.

Brewers back at home needing a 2 game winning streak. Is it likely? No. But to quote Lloydslegs, it is doable.

[MUDPT]

Brewers had a 90% chance to win the game when Hader came in, in game 1. It was really low leverage compared to all of the pitchers in Game 1 and 2. I guess it makes sense, but I would think you would want your best pitcher in a higher leverage situation.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Brewers had a 90% chance to win the game when Hader came in, in game 1. It was really low leverage compared to all of the pitchers in Game 1 and 2. I guess it makes sense, but I would think you would want your best pitcher in a higher leverage situation.

Don't get me started on win probabilities.   They only say what has happened in the past, not what will happen in the future.

[wadesworld]

Don't get me started on win probabilities.   They only say what has happened in the past, not what will happen in the future.

Yup.

People can claim that the Brewers didn't need to throw Hader in game one.  Those same people also ignore that the only pitcher that came in over the final 2 innings after Hader pitched 3 scoreless that did not give up a run was Jeremy Jeffress...who went 1/3 of an inning and gave up 2 hits.

One surefire way to lose a best of 7 series is to have a 4 run lead going to the bullpens having faced the other team's ace in game 1 and give the game away.  I literally have no idea how anybody could be so clueless to say the Brewers made the wrong move by pitching Hader like they did in game one.  If the Brewers don't win that one this series is over, maybe even a sweep.

[nyg]

Argue all you want over Brewers pitching, but Yelich and Aguliar have been the biggest disappointments in last four games.

Yelich is 3 for 16 with zero RBIs, one hit a bunt with the shift on.
Aguilar is 3 for 15 with zero RBIs

I don't have stats for RISP, but they both have left a boatload on base.  Last game second and third with one out and they both struck out.  They need to get it going in last two games. 

[MUWarrior2007]

Aguilar is something like 0 for 14 with RISP and has left about 16 runners on during this series.  He's been really sub-par, and your clean-up man cannot have that poor of a performance in a 7-game series.

Yelich looks lost at the plate right now.

[WarriorDad]

Argue all you want over Brewers pitching, but Yelich and Aguliar have been the biggest disappointments in last four games.

Yelich is 3 for 16 with zero RBIs, one hit a bunt with the shift on.
Aguilar is 3 for 15 with zero RBIs

I don't have stats for RISP, but they both have left a boatload on base.  Last game second and third with one out and they both struck out.  They need to get it going in last two games.

Moustakis even worse.  Hitting is at premium, which is why when you have 5-1 leads you don't waste your best asset for 3 innings keeping him out of the next game.

[MU82]

Argue all you want over Brewers pitching, but Yelich and Aguliar have been the biggest disappointments in last four games.

Yelich is 3 for 16 with zero RBIs, one hit a bunt with the shift on.
Aguilar is 3 for 15 with zero RBIs

I don't have stats for RISP, but they both have left a boatload on base.  Last game second and third with one out and they both struck out.  They need to get it going in last two games.

Reminds me of Soriano and Aramis Ramirez in Cubbies' back-to-back playoff appearances in 2007 and 2008. Neither of them - especially "Rammie" - could hit their way out of a paper bag.

Ramirez was dubbed "Mr. Clutch" by some in the cloying Chicago media because he had some  regular-season game-winning hits over the years. But his record in the team's biggest games was horrific. He sucked in the last three games of the 2003 NLCS debacle, blew during the 2004 collapse and, as previously said, was invisible in the 2007 and 2008 playoffs. In his last 9 postseason games as a Cub, the team's main run-producer had exactly 0 RBI.

Some guys have the mental toughness to excel when it counts most, and some don't. Rammie clearly didn't.

It's too early to know if Yelich has what it takes. One postseason is not a good sample size, and he carried the Brewers into this position during September - essentially a month of playoff games.

I'd love to see the Brewers' bats get hot again on Fri and Sat. Sudden turnarounds like that happen all the time.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming of chicos2 and wades reliving old, silly, impossible-to-prove debates.

[Benny B]

Games 1-4 were over.  The odds of the Brewers winning yesterday’s game with Kershaw in the mound were already slim.  Throwing Miley out there for one batter was the right move because your odds of winning game 6 rise exponentially with Miley on the mound.  In addition the entire bullpen except the three lowest leverage guys (Burnes, Cedeno, Soria) will be on at least two days’ rest going into Game 6, which means they will most likely also be available for Game 7.  While the same can be said for the Dodgers (throwing a 1/3 of an inning notwithstanding), the upper end of the Brewers’ pen - when on their game - is a step or two ahead of the Dodgers, especially at home. 

I hate to say it, but even though the players did miss a few golden opportunities to win that game, Counsell essentially hung the team out to dry yesterday. And in doing so, set the team up to win two games. 

In the alternative, Counsell could have burnt through the pen yesterday and/or got a couple innings from Miley, and they most likely still lose the game with the bats being asleep as they were.  In which case, kiss Game 6 - and the series - goodbye.

Counsell isn’t managing to win games, he’s managing to win a series.  And he’s in perfect shape to do exactly that. 

What Counsell is doing is nannying managing this team to win. What all y’all naysayers and second-guessers are saying is that you want Counsell to manage “not to lose.”


[EDIT: damn autocorrect]

[wadesworld]

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming of chicos2 and wades reliving old, silly, impossible-to-prove debates.

Already proven.  We saw what happened after Hader's 3 scoreless innings.  4 pitchers, each one of them giving up at least 1 run except for Jeffress, who gave up 2 hits in 1/3 of an inning.  Chicos thinks the Brewers would've won that game without using Hader, or with trying to get an extra 2 scoreless innings out of the pen.  Entirely laughable.  This series is over if the Brewers had tried to do that.  Hader needed to throw 2 scoreless innings minimum, and at that point he's unavailable for game 2 the next day, so you ride him as long as you can.  Really there was no decision to make.  That's as easy as it gets for a postseason managerial decision.

[MUfan12]

Counsell isn’t managing to win games, he’s managing to win a series.  And he’s in perfect shape to do exactly that. 

What Counsell is doing is nannying this team to win. What all y’all naysayers and second-guessers are saying is that you want Counsell to manage “not to lose.”

Have absolutely no issue with how he's handled the pitching staff. It's been outstanding.

I do quibble with him not walking Bellinger on Tuesday, less so with Barnes yesterday. I'll be interested to see if he mixes up the lineup at all. I'd give Shaw a start for Moose at this point.