I can't imagine sending Hiura back down at this point. Of course I picked up Woodruff in fantasy this week
Keston optioned Hate it Hope they're trying to shop Shaw or giving him one last go in the meantime Hope Jesus has 2 more weeks to prove he belongs on the team or else Super 2 rule is dumb
Hiura: 17 games, 0.4 WAR, 18 hits, 5 home runs, OPS+ 122 Shaw: 40 games, -0.7 WAR, 22 hits, 4 home runs, OPS+ 44, still has options remaining. Shaw better hit the living piss out of the ball
I cannot even express how much I hate this move. Shaw has two options remaining and wasn't even hitting in AAA. Meanwhile Hiura was hitting so much that he batted cleanup yesterday. At least make Shaw earn it by hitting in San Antonio. Terrible terrible terrible decision today. I'm sorry but Hiura should not be in AAA while Shaw and Aguilar suck it up in a Brewers uniform.
He added a much needed spark to the offense I guess on the small brightside, he can work on his defense after bad errors
He is also a right handed bat which we desperately need in the lineup. I would at least understand this decision if Shaw wasn't terrible in AAA.
You don't bat a guy cleanup and send him down the next day. We are a contending team and every game is important. There is no good explanation for this.
It's quite the clusterfuck deciding between Aguilar, Thames and Shaw who's the odd man out Aguilar is the bat the lineup needs the most, being a righty Thames is the one that has even remotely produced Shaw has the most pedigree and can move down the defensive spectrum. Shaw has options but it's obvious now he's not a guy they want to demote for any extended period of time.
You option Shaw until he starts hitting AAA pitching. This team is short on right handed bats with Hiura and that gets worse now. I can sort of understand giving Aguilar more time since he is out of options but the point of having them with Shaw is flexibilty. He didn't hit with the Brewers and hasn't done squat in San Antonio yet he is back and Hiura who won us the game along with Arcia on Saturday and hit cleanup the next day is the one off the roster. I'm sorry but there is just no way to justify this move even if Hiura is far from a finished product defensively.
Ethan Small Spoiler Skip to content BASEBALL FARM Data-Driven Prospect Analysis 2019 FARMHAND CROP: ETHAN SMALL Posted on March 3, 2019 by Phil Goyette Last season, I worked on a series ‘Farmhand Crop’ articles to look at some deeper names that might be available in your dynasty or keeper league this season via supplemental or first-year player drafts. This season, I’m starting even earlier on the Farmhand Crop! My first look is at Mississippi State starting pitcher Ethan Small. Bio: Small is a 6’3″, 190 lbs. lefty originally from Lexington, TN. Small just turned 22 and is a redshirt Junior. He was actually selected by the Diamondbacks in the 26th round in 2018’s Rule 4 draft but decided to return to school to lead the Bulldogs pitching staff this season. Our own Alex Jensen has put a solid 2nd round grade on Small for this June’s draft. 2018: His 2018 season was fantastic: he started 18 games for Mississippi State, posting 11 QS and striking out 122 batters in 101.1 innings. 2019: His 2019 performance has been even better than his 2018 performance. He’s posted a 2.00 ERA in 3 starts, scattering 11 hits and walking 0 batters over 18 innings. He’s also struck out an eye-popping 44% of the batters that he’s faced this season. Arsenal: Small relies on a three-pitch mix. His fastball appears to be a high spin rate offering that he locates well and is comfortable working up in the zone with to generate swings-and-misses. While reports have him sitting in the upper 80s/low 90s, in the full start I watched he sat 92+ with the fastball and was routinely able to dial it up into the 94-95 range. I grade his fastball as a fringe-plus offering at present. His changeup is a straight change that comes in around 75-77 mph. He throws it with the same arm speed and arm action as the fastball. It’s a true out-pitch for Small, with great vertical drop and minimal horizontal fade. It’s easily a plus pitch at present. Small is working on his curveball. He throws it between 80-82 mph, but the pitch lacks depth. It’s more of a slurvy motion and Small can have difficulty locating the pitch. I’d grade it as a 40 offering at present, with potential for improvement. Small’s control is excellent. He hasn’t walked a batter yet this season and can consistently pound the zone with his fastball and also throw his changeup for strikes. His command is also very strong (I’d call it fringe plus at present). He can work the fastball on the black to both the arm side and the glove side. He can also elevate the four-seamer with good spin and challenge hitters up in the zone. He’s also comfortable throwing the changeup for strikes and ‘working backward’ by starting the batter with a couple of off-speed offerings and then going to the high four-seamer for an out pitch. Finally, Small is deceptive. He hides the ball well to both RH and LH with an unorthodox delivery. His extension is good. And he will do small things to mess with a hitter’s timing, like ‘quick pitching’ or letting his lead leg hang for an extra second before his delivery on occasion. The total package means he’s really overwhelming college bats at this point in his career. I watched and charted Ethan Small’s full start against Southern Miss on February 22. It was his second start of the season. Here’s an initial view of his delivery to give you an idea of his deception: 1st Inning Small came out of the gate pounding the fastball to good results: P5, strikeout looking, strikeout swinging. 2nd Inning: Small starts fastball-heavy again, and punches out the leadoff batter by painting a fastball at 92 mph on the inside black to a left-hander: Then he climbs the ladder at 96 mph (letting the leg hang an extra half beat) to punch out the next batter swinging: He plunked the next batter but then got out of the inning with another strikeout. 3rd Inning: The first batter of the inning is also the first victim of Ethan Small’s plus change-up: I felt bad for the second batter of the inning. After pounding the fastball up to this point, Small decides to mess with the kid and pitch backward, sequencing two of his plus changeups with a high-spin fastball up in the zone: He ended the 3rd by breaking out the sawzall on a left-handed batter. 4th Inning Small cruised through the 4th inning, reaching back and finding a 95 mph fastball. 5th Inning He started the 5th by toying with 2 more batters, adding 2 more strikeouts to his total: In the middle of the at-bat to the third batter he faced in the inning, Small broke off a delicious changeup that was somehow called a ball despite catching the entirety of the plate. Just a pitch with great depth and finishing away from the LH-batter, looking nearly unhittable. He struck the kid out anyway. 6th Inning: Small continued to dominate thru the sixth inning, still finding 93-94 mph with the fastball when needed. He really demonstrated his “pitchability” when facing the second batter of the inning. With an 0-1 count, Small hangs up his leg to mess with the hitter’s timing and reaches back for just a little extra velocity, changing speeds on the fastball by 4 mph between the 2 pitches in sequence. It’s a seemingly small thing in the middle of an at-bat, but it was one of my favorite moments in a dominant outing: 7th Inning A little infield single that was hit to the 2B who had shifted to short outfield depth was the only blemish on Small’s final inning of the outing. Closing Thoughts Small displayed a lot of the skills that will make him a viable second-round draft pick this summer. He used his high spin rate fastball along with his plus change-up in good sequence. He located the fastball well. He was able to play around with speed and timing on the fastball. He was able to throw the changeup for strikes and pitch backward to keep the hitters off balance. And he wraps it all up with a nice baseball IQ and funky left-handed delivery. Last summer, the White Sox drafted Small’s former MSU teammate Konnor Pilkington in the 3rd round. It’s an interesting comp, as both are advanced college left-handed pitchers who pitched for the same program. I like Small better than what I’ve seen from Pilkington thus far. I think Small winds up as a 2nd-round pick, with a high floor and SP4 upside.
The Brewers pick supposedly has 4th or 5th starter upside. Sorry but that's terrible for a first round pick.
If people are actually realistic with these comps it's not. In a given year there isn't even always a true #1.
Went to play baseball with the pup at 4 to 0 Come back, 14 to 0 Laugh, checks pitchers Williams and Burnes
First time this year being 10 over .500 Grandal pickup has paid dividends Yelich with his 24th, need Cain to get on base more often for him At what point do we talk about signing Moose to a large contract?
It's nice to see the 7-3 in the L10 column of the standings when two of the games were the embarrassments against the Marlins
https://bdata-producedclips.mlb.com/e3fc8570-16af-4d49-8baa-3c97b76099dd.mp4 Moose got all of that one
The Brewers have had the toughest strength of schedule (.526) so far. The difference between the Brewers (1st in SOS) and the Cardinals (0.516; 2nd in SOS) is greater than the difference between the Cardinals and the Orioles (0.507; 9th in SOS).
Hiura has 3 HRs in two days while we are running Shaw and Aguilar out there every day. Aguilar can either come up with a phantom injury or he can be DFA'd. Shaw can be optioned until September when rosters expand.
This team doesn't have one reliable right handed bat and we are going to need both Hiura and another righty such as Edwin Encarnacion who I will keep bringing up until the deadline.
When you are a team that is trying to make the playoffs you put your best lineup out there and Hiura is at worst the Brewers 4th best hitter. If you don't want to lose Aguilar because his teammates do seem to love him put him on the DL with a made up injury and bring him back in a few months. Shaw was definitely good for us the last few years but his numbers are every bit as bad as Aguilar and he actually has two options remaining. This lineup is too lefthanded so Hiura helps a ton to balance the lineup. We can't expect Yelich, Moustakas, and Grandal to carry the entire offense and the fact remains that while all three can hit lefties they will be less effective against them. Hiura and a deadline deal for Encarnacion who won't cost much besides money can make this a great lineup. Stop screwing around hoping that Shaw and Aguilar will get going because its just not going to happen.