Ah, hello??? Crew at the swamp......

Blair Kiel posted:

Ouch.

Fun year.

Dodgers would have rolled us.

Prolly. But, I thought Scherzer was gonna go 8 IP, 2H, 0 R, 14Ks last night. You never know. Survive and advance.  

I just know that I've only seen the Brewers in the playoffs 6 times and I would love to see more, even if it was to get swept by the Dodgers.  Playoffs may be routine for other teams, but it's a rarity here and I'll take all I can get.  

Just such a crazy month. You go from losing 10-5 to the Cubs and being 5 full back from WC to then coming back to win the last 3 to keep a spark of hope alive to Yelich getting hurt to running off 18-2 to the absolute shitting the bed of the last 4 games. 

I know in my brain it will never happen, but I just get sucked in thinking that they could win it all.  I would trade every other sporting team I root for winning ever again just to see the Brewers win it all, with my Dad as it happens, while listening to Ueck calling it.

Last year was really a bummer as they were so goddamn close, but the suddenness of losing that last night almost seems worse. I mean I know it's not as we were 1 game from WS last year, but damn it's just a nutpunch how quickly it went from "6 outs to go with the guy you want on the mound" to "ffffuuuuuuccccckkkk"

We will likely look back on 2019 and it will the ultimate “what if” season 

What if Wahl and Knebel and Yelich don’t get hurt?   And Woodruff and Jeffress for that matter? 

What if they resigned Wade Miley?  Or made some larger deals at the deadline? 

What if DJ and Tunnell returned to coach the pitchers?  

What if they don’t blow the Colorado series and steal the division? 

Hell,  last night was just the icing on the cake.   That 8th inning alone was filled with “what ifs” not all that different from the Packers and Seahawks playoff game.  Hit batter.  Bloop (prayer) single.  Booted routine outfield play.  Damn it sucked. 

Sure, they would probably have gotten rolled by the Dodgers but it’s baseball and at times things can happen.  

To me the biggest thing to happen for the Brewers this year were the sheer number of guys who regressed and were disappointing.  The list is huge:  Shaw, Aguilar, Cain, Chacin, Jeffress, Arcia (didn't really regress, but didn't build on his '18 playoff performance), Burnes, Peralta.

Burnes and Peralta were huge disappointments in that they were considered guys you could count on for the future, and now that future has to be somewhat in doubt after their uneven and sometimes awful performances this year. 

That all said, Counsell and Stearns deserve credit for figuring a way to turn things around despite the massive amount of guys who underperformed or flamed out this year.  They are going to have to figure out a way to strengthen that starting pitching staff though if they truly want to take another step.  There's just way too many #4/#5 type starters they are relying on to be better than they really are. 

MichiganPacker2 posted:

I'd leave Pomerantz in for an other inning. 

Said the same thing to the folks I was watching with. At least let him start the 8th??? Pom was dealing plus Hader has had his struggles going 2 this year. 

Didn't Hader have a effective slider last year ? He seemed to rely on the fastball way too much this season, and his slider was rarely used. Course when  you can't throw strikes even with the fastball like last night it usually means trouble. Thought several Nats bailed him out swinging at pitches out of the zone. 

All that said the Nats still needed the fluky HBP, lucky as fuck broken bat bloop by Zimmerman, and the Bill Buckner Special by Grisham to take the lead.

Get em' next year. 

The infamous "hit by pitch" screw up will haunt me for quite some time. The ball hit the bat first, then hit his lower hand and then went off his shoulder into the field of play. The ball spin changed direction after it hit the bat, too. Grandal grabbed the ball and tagged the hitter, in case it was ruled a fair ball. No way should the batter have been allowed to go to first base. It should of, at worst, been ruled a foul ball. Hader could possibly have struck him out or have gotten him to pop out and the rest of the inning could have been changed by the batter not being on first base. 

mrtundra posted:

The infamous "hit by pitch" screw up will haunt me for quite some time. The ball hit the bat first, then hit his lower hand and then went off his shoulder into the field of play. The ball spin changed direction after it hit the bat, too. Grandal grabbed the ball and tagged the hitter, in case it was ruled a fair ball. No way should the batter have been allowed to go to first base. It should of, at worst, been ruled a foul ball. Bader could possibly have struck him out or have gotten him to pop out and the rest of the inning could have been changed by the batter not being on first base. 

I know.....that to me was the whole game.....Hader went immediately down hill after that call JMHO.  

fightphoe93 posted:

To me the biggest thing to happen for the Brewers this year were the sheer number of guys who regressed and were disappointing.  The list is huge:  Shaw, Aguilar, Cain, Chacin, Jeffress, Arcia (didn't really regress, but didn't build on his '18 playoff performance), Burnes, Peralta.

Burnes and Peralta were huge disappointments in that they were considered guys you could count on for the future, and now that future has to be somewhat in doubt after their uneven and sometimes awful performances this year. 

That all said, Counsell and Stearns deserve credit for figuring a way to turn things around despite the massive amount of guys who underperformed or flamed out this year.  They are going to have to figure out a way to strengthen that starting pitching staff though if they truly want to take another step.  There's just way too many #4/#5 type starters they are relying on to be better than they really are. 

Considering the approach Counsell has used with his pitching staff the past two seasons and post seasons, all the starting pitcher has to do is go about 3 innings and then bring in the relievers after that and have them go 1-2 innings each. Uecker feels that this is the way the League will work their pitchers, in the not too distant future. He also brought up Cooperstown and questions of how will pitchers get into the HOF if they only pitch three innings a game. How will the HOF be able to elect future players as HOFers if they don't pitch the majority of innings in the games they are scheduled to pitch in? How will they stand out? 

Somewhere, there’s research on how often a pitcher struggles with the 3rd time through a lineup. That seems to be where the Brewers research lies. They cut it off to keep hitters off balance. What is curious to me is what clicked from earlier in the season when these guys were getting roughed you regularly to September, when they suddenly found their stride. What clicked? How much was Grandal a part of that? Was he mishandling the staff? I think that’s plausible. 

A wise man told me in July.....

"It's just not their year....."

😣😕