2019 Season

[twellner9]

Knebel has a UCL tear. Not sure on the severity. Based on the fact he's getting a second opinion I'm guessing the first told him he needed Tommy John.....Luckily our bullpen is deep but I'd love to add another arm. Can never have enough bullpen arms IMO. Hell give Kimbrel the years. He's been about as good his entire career as anyone can ask. I think he'll still be pitching well at age 36.

[crewfan13]

They announced the rotation as chacin, woodruff, burnes, Peralta and Davies. Not sure the exact order but Davies is last they said so they can get the 3 young dudes starts at home and give Davies a road start, as he's generally been better on the road than at home.

Anderson was also confirmed as in the pen to start the year, but Craig said he anticipates him starting at some point. Have to imagine Nelson is back somewhat early as well, so I'm not sure who will be the one going down when Nelson is ready.

Also not surprising, but gamel was informed recently that he will make the team as well.

[twellner9]

Wonder if it doesn't make more sense to have Nelson be a reliever this season. Try and stretch him out this off-season depending on what the young guys do.

[jay87shot]

It's nice we have some good bullpen depth arms that could step up but without Knebel, Jeffress, and Wahl thats a lot of quality arms. Taylor Williams looked good and I can see him getting big out early until Jeffress is back. Hopefully Knebel can play through it, but part of me wants to just see him fix it. 4 years is a long time to play with it, maybe he can make it through the year and get the surgery right after the year so he could make it back by the playoffs of 2020.

I think Thames is fine on the bench, if he gets in the routine he should hopefully be a better pinch hitter. He is a great come from behind pinch hitter with the power and on base skills but not likely a great play from ahead sub. With him making what he does you probably can't trade him unless he plays ok to start and a team loses a power-hitting 1B that is hoping that he could fill in.

[twellner9]

I guess my point on Thames is that, especially in a backup role I don't consider him any better than the other options we have. In fact he might be a worse bat off the bench. He's also much more limited defensively. He can only play one position, guess he can play outfield in a pinch but he's terrible at it. This limits roster flexibility and where you can play him if you wanted to get clever with things like double switches late in games. Hence why I like the other options better.

[crewfan13]

Opening day. Should be an interesting season. I can see such a wide variety of outcomes this year that it'll be fun to watch. I wouldnt be shocked if we win the division again and I wouldn't be shocked if we finish 4th or even 5th.

I am nervous about the bullpen. Hopefully someone emerges early. I'd really prefer Hader not being the closer. In an ideal world, I'd actually prefer jeffress to not have to close either. It would have been for knebel to close and jeffress and Hader being flexible firefighter and multi inning guys. But it looks like that may not happen for a while if at all this year. Hopefully jeffress is back soon and can at least claim the closer job so Hader can be flexible though.

[twellner9]

I kind of predict that if Knebel is out for a while, Guerra will settle into the closer role. He's an ideal fit in that type of role.

This team will go as far as the young pitching can take them. The offense is stacked so can we get enough outs. If we have 3-4 starters with a sub 4.00 ERA this team should be getting to 90+ wins.

[crewfan13]

I've always liked guerra's profile as a reliever. That splitter is nasty and if guys only see it for one inning, it could be great. For what it's worth, I also thought wily Peralta would have transitioned to a good relievsr as well. So take that with a grain of salt. We do have guys like Albers and Barnes who are weirdly capable of putting together some hot streaks in the bullpen, so ideally those guys can step up until jeffres at least is good to go.

Also, can we just give Cain a gold glove? It's an absolute travesty that he's never won one.

[Brewersfan255]

Can’t top yesterday’s game. Great way to start the year


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[crewfan13]

Knebel officially elected for Tommy John, so hes done for the year.

[twellner9]

Knebel officially elected for Tommy John, so hes done for the year.

Not surprising. I figure the fact that he saw multiple doctors wasn't good news.

Silver lining is that we made it through the majority of last season without him and the bullpen was still strong. I'm sure we'll find a way again this season, someone is just going to have to step up.

[twellner9]

, My way too early season observations:

The good; Yelich, Braun, Moose. I though Yelich would regress but the early indications are that he's just as strong. Could put up monster numbers this year. Braun looks back to form, he's hitting everything hard, great to see. And Moose is hitting the ball well too, he's a streaky hitter so I take a little less out of that, but I think he's poised for a big season.

The bad; Shaw, Aguilar, Peralta. I am not surprised by Shaw so far, this is what I've come to expect from him. He's an okay hitter but I don't think he's a superstar. Aguilar I expected to regress, hoping I'm wrong there. Peralta still worries me, only 1 pitch and he can't throw it with accuracy. I just don't see how he projects well as a starter long term. He needs the curve to have success.

The ugly; The bullpen. I know we have a few injuries, but every single reliever to this point has struggled. Even Hader almost gave up the game tying home run. Last night the Cardinals had guys on base the entire game. Need the pen to be better.

[crewfan13]

Hader has allowed to balls to even be put in play and he had a 9 pitch, 3k outting. I'd hardly call him struggling. But I agree the rest of the pen is scary. Hopefully JJ can be back soon.

And I'm not going to get too worked up over hitters either. If shaw or Aguilar had a tough series in June no one would really notice, but everything gets magnified at the beginning or end of the season.

[twellner9]

Hader has allowed to balls to even be put in play and he had a 9 pitch, 3k outting. I'd hardly call him struggling. But I agree the rest of the pen is scary. Hopefully JJ can be back soon.

And I'm not going to get too worked up over hitters either. If shaw or Aguilar had a tough series in June no one would really notice, but everything gets magnified at the beginning or end of the season.

I agree, hence the "way too early" tidbit.

[crewfan13]

There's been some issues with a few spots on the team in general, but it's hard to imagine a better start record wise than 8-2 after playing 10 divisional games. The good news is if we stay healthy for the most part, this offense should be significantly better than it was last year. The pitching staff in general has some questions. The kids are going to be up and down in the rotation. Both burnes and Peralta will have some very good games and some brutal games too.