Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 293 | Milwaukee Brewers | Profile & Projection

Episode Date: March 6, 2021

You guys ranked the Milwaukee Brewers as the #18 team in baseball. Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe are previewing their 2021 season! Presented by DraftKings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

for another team. Profile and projection. This is talking baseball. Brought you by Draft Kings. Very excited to talk about the Milwaukee Brewers. Jake, say it in Wayne's World Voice. Milwaukee. Yeah, wow.

That was Jake. Trevor's here. I'm here. 20 minutes on the clock. Little preview of the Brewers season. Wait, hold up. We've recorded this episode before they signed JBJ. So we're adding on a little addendum.

To the front, is that the correct usage of the word? Addendum. Oh, it's Eddendum. Eddendum. Yes, nice to meet you. Like Ed De Bedvix. Eddendum. Okay.

Well, J.B.J. will now be an outfielder for this brewer's team. We obviously didn't talk about this. I think everything else probably stays the same that we discussed. Any changes here? The only thing I want to say, and we kind of just talked about this before we recorded, him being a lefty and the three other outfielers being righties, I think J.BJ is going to get a good amount of run because he can spell every. one with a righty pitcher on the mound.

There's a lot of righties. Not that his hitting is ever the reason he's in there. But maybe. Yeah. Yelly left. She's a left hander. My bad. It's all right.

Why is he red? Do you see what happened here, Jake? On the screen, these bottom three lefties are all red. So I thought I was only looking at red. I was only looking at red. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I just saw, oh, the lefties are red. And then there was no more red.

But yeah, Yelich is a lefty. Yelich is good enough to... He's playing every day. Trev, do it, Big Daddy. I think that this is obviously great depth for the team. We're not having a DH in the NL this year, possibly next year, but not this year. So, one, you need a defensive replacement out there.

If there's a pinch hit situation, you got a guy to go out there. I think he also spells a lot of these guys. You know, I see Jackie Bradley Jr. you're starting three games a week, four games a week, depending on how it's going. Yeah. You know, like if Aviso's going off, Locaine's going off, then maybe he doesn't play. But if they slip a little bit, Jackie gets hot, they have options, I guess, is the main takeaway.

Yeah, and LoCain sat out last year. He's going to be 35 this year, so, you know, I wouldn't expect him to be built up for 162. You're going to need depth this season. And it's NL baseball, man. You know, whether it's subbing in to make a defensive lineup of death, I mean, J.BJ and Lorenzo Cain in one outfield, you could go two, man. Doesn't matter if Yelly or Avicales finish in the game. And guys are going to get hurt.

All of these guys are going to get some run. And watch out for the Brewers maybe stealing something from the race here. They can get very platoony. They have a lot of lefties. They have a lot of righties. So on any given day, they might stack against you. and then flip when that bullpen comes back out. So Burr's baseball.

Top heavy lineup. Top heavy retortion. Totion. They sureed up their defense this year, or at least made it better with Wong and now with JBG helping out in center field or wherever. So we'll go back to the rest of the episode, which I forget. Kyle did want me to tell you, Trev, that every time you read the lineup, you're always like, well, this isn't positive.

this is, you know, things can move. And with the Brewers, you were like, their outfield is shored up. It's half a sale, Kane. He was like, the one time Trev said it with confidence. They changed it. It's all good. You know what?

I'm happy for them. I think he's a great player. Here's the thing about Lorenzo King. You call him 35. He didn't start playing baseball until he was like 14. So you got to take away, what? Eight years off that? So he's basically, what is that now?

He's got more than his prime. He's in his prime. Why did he start so late, Treve? I have no idea. That's just the story I heard and I think it's awesome. He's really busy. I don't think he started playing baseball until high school. He's not like from London like what's the Giants offense or defensive end? O.C.

I don't think he's like O.C. Okay. I don't think so. You promised me that you don't think that? In some ways. All right. Trave, the confidence you showed on that first one just shows how good a depth move this is. There you go.

Wow. Wow. Here we go. You like depth. The audience ranked them as the 16th or 18th, 18th, best team. They're coming off in sub-500 gear, but they did squeak into the playoffs. They've made the playoffs three seasons in a row. Craig Counsel going on his sixth season as manager.

Jake, what else changed this off-season for these guys? Ooh, what else changed, Jim? Totally forgot we do that and I don't have the sheet up, so I'm going to have to get there. How about that? Okay, Jake, can you tell us what changed with the Milwaukee Brewers? John, your Milwaukee Brewers. They lost some guys. Corey Evil Kniebel out of the bullpen.

He's on the Dodgers now. Watch for him to shove. Alex Claudio, a guy who's got a lot of Major Leagueouts too. He gone Ryan Braun, former MVP friend of Trevor Plouffe. He's currently unsigned Ben Gamal, Jed Jerko, and Eric Sogaard, Ms. Soderberg. They're all currently unsigned. Who they did add, though. How about Colton Wong goes from the rival Cardinals?

He'll be at second base. Derek Fisher, Joms Defensive Specialist, might get some outfield to run. Tim Lopes, Daniel Robertson, you could see them around the infield. That's a few of the guys they added to that lineup, Trevor. The lineup's interesting. I kind of like it. I think there are some question marks there still.

But catcher, we got Omar Novias. At first base, moving over. Our guy Keston Hira from Valencia High School, the Vikings. Purple and gold, kind of love it. Second base, we talked about him. Coton Wong coming over from the Cardinals. I'm going to shore up that middle infield defense with Orlando Arcea at Shortstop.

And then here, third base, shortstop, there's kind of, you know, I would say, maybe a spring training battle. You know I love those. But we got guys like Travis Shaw competing for that. Luis Urius is penciled in per fan graphs. But we also have Daniel Robertson coming over. So there's going to be a lot of competition for those infield endings.

And then in the outfield, we're we're short up. But we have our guys here led by obviously our guy, Christian Yelich, the MVP. Center field Lorenzo Kane comes back after opting out of 2020. And then in right field, mini-miggy, Abysel Garcia. Jim. On the hill, they have the one-to-punch of Woodruff and Burns, which I think sounds like an ace law firm. Behind them, Josh Lindblom,

Adrian Houser, the Puk King, Brett Anderson. How about that? Eric Lauer. Oh, their bullpen is really fun with Josh Hader and Devin Williams. We've got some other guys, but I'm not even going to mention them.

I'm just going to mention Josh Hader and Devin Williams, and that's really fun. Well, Brent Suter was part of a good... Didn't you have a breakdown on him when he rolled over? Yeah, but I'm not mentioning. He's not mentioning. Hater and Williams. Just want to make sure everyone knows about those guys.

Another law firm. Another law firm. Hater and Williams? Not as good as Woodruff and Burns. Never is. Woodruff is incredible. Woodruff and Burns is... I told their marketing team that they should, like, take a picture of them in suits on the mound

and say like, you know, one-two-punch protection or, you know, something like that. That's free. There's some picture there. There's something there. Yeah. Woodruff and Burns.

We'll get you out of trouble. Yeah. Leading the way. Go get a Buick endorsement. Okay. Okay. That's kind of a new strategy. Yeah.

But we like that. Woodruff and Burns. You like this team? This is our audience ranked them as the 18th team, which is bottom half. But this is a team that very well can win the, division and believes that they can win the division. I think this is the first team we're doing that believes they can win their respected division on the player, on the team profile on projections, which is a fun

spin. The audience has them pretty low for a team that believes in themselves. I still do think the Cardinals will be tough, but I think they are going to be competing for a wild card spot, if not the division, and have some fun games down the stretch. These Brewers are sneaky. There's some high-level talents. It's Yelly, who's going to be in the running for the MVP every year. You know, Woodruff and Burns, we're making a lot of lawyer jokes,

but those are two guys you need to know as a baseball fan. Both those guys can drop dick on you in a big way. Jim, I've got something you're not going to like because there's a little caveat, but the Brewers have been to the playoffs the last three years. NLCS, you know, 29 and 31 last year, but they get the wild card spot. They lose to the Dodgers. So these brewers have recent success on their side.

I am worried about depth a little bit because Trev, I know something that we've kind of been harping on. You know, we like looking at those top 100 prospects, see who's next. They don't have those guys ready to go. So they're going to be leaning into their big guys. If Yellich is competing for the MVP, if Burns or Woodruff takes another step and can be in the NLSI Young. race. I think these brewers then, yes, they have a chance at the NL Central. Jim, like what you were saying, I think we jumped up a tier. We just did the Marlins. We just did the Reds, who I like this team better than the Reds. The Marlins didn't really

have a chance in their division. That's kind of not their problem. These brewers believe, and yes, they're going to need some stuff to go right, but that's baseball. Burns is an awesome pitch-mix change guy. I really love those stories. If you've listened to a lot of episodes. You know that I will, I have, and I will talk about it. He, in 2019, his numbers are pretty bad. He was mostly used out of the bullpen. He was four-seem heavy, Trev.

In 2019, he threw his four-seam fastball 52% of the time, and the results were awful. Opponents had a 4-25 batting average against his four-seam fastball in 2019. They had an 8-23 slugging. 8-23 slugging against his force-stall. seen fastball. That's the highest I've seen on a single fastball pitch. And his ERA was bad. His results were bad. He comes into the 2020 season. The four seam fastball, he threw it 2.5% of the time.

He completely scratched it. He said, all right, I'm going to take my sinker, which was 3.7%. That jumped all the way up to 33. And the cutter, cut fastball wasn't even 1%. That jumps all the way up to 31. So now he's still throwing 66% fastballs, but no force him. Every fastball has a cut movement or a sinker movement. And he was nasty last year. It was nasty. So I love a tangible change like that. He had 2-11 ERA in 12 games, nine starts. I mean, Cy Young votes in the short season. So I love tangible changes like that where you're like, wow, that's a drastically different pitch mix. And the results are drastically different. I think they have some good coaching in Milwaukee, and that's one of the reasons like you guys keep saying they believe they believe that every year it seems like you kind of can count them out at some point during the season and they make a run now three straight playoff appearances. So the culture is there, but they do need some of these guys to kind of jump back to where they were. 2020 wasn't kind to a few of their stars. And I think one of the guys that's going to make them go, obviously you have Yelly and he needs to have a bounce back season. But he was, he was. He wants to have a bounce back season. But he was, he was, he was. He was a little bit. He was. He was, he was he was. He was, he was he was he was. He was

was one of the unluckiest hitters in all the baseball last year. So we're obviously not worried about him. But a guy like Kestin Hira, and after looking at his number, he's been up for two years now. First year in the league, you could say he was one of the luckiest hitters in the league with a 402 Babbip. And he kind of came down, you know, back down to Earth last year and all of his number suffered because of it. Now, 273 is not, you know, extremely high for your babbip. It's a little bit below average, but this is going to be the year. It's like, is he, what kind of hitter is he? Is he going to be the guy that everyone thought was going to be in the middle of lineup for five, six years, or is he going to be a guy that, you know, you kind of have to find a position

for him? So if he, if he steps up and they have a few guys, like you said, the pitchers are kind of underrated, and we can see this team competing for another playoff spot in a weekend NL Central, like you said, they believe they can even win this division. I don't see that out of this team, but they've proved me wrong for, you know, two, three years in a row now. Herra is definitely one of the first guys you got to circle if we're doing what we're doing about the Brewers. He's moving over to first. Let's see how he adjusts there. This is a guy we had a laugh when we look back to his college days. He didn't really have a position. It was listed as a DH in college. Yeah, which is a little worrisome, but I mean, he played some

second base. He should have the glove skills. He's a little undersized. Let's see what it looks like over there, and how quickly he's adapting because you don't want a situation where you're worried about how his defense is affecting his hitting. So I still believe in her. I mean, last year was his age 23 season. He did lead the team in home runs last season. It was kind of a weird hitting year in the NL Central. Central. So let's, I believe in him to bounce back. The other thing, a storyline that goes kind of overlooked, Lorenzo Kane. This guy opted out for a little bit. He only played five games last year. And what Lorenzo Kane are we? getting? Are we getting the Lorenzo Kane that was an almost seven-war player in 2018?

Lorenzo Kane was hurt in 2019. His hitting stats were there. He still racked up a three war because he can be impactful defensively, but Father Time starting to enter the chat. He turns 35 April 13th. Happy early birthday, Lorenzo. But hey, maybe he got a little rejuvenated last year. Stayed off the feet a little bit. So if Zocane looks like Zocane, if Hura bounces back, I mean, then that top of the Brewer's lineup looks a lot more impactful than what it was, because we all believe in Yelly. So that's kind of the lineup stuff. And then how that third base situation sorts out, Jim, I mean, we're Travis Shawpott now, right? We're Travis Shawpott. Okay. I believe in Travis Shawton. Well, I, I, 100% do, but I also believe. I don't want to shout it from the rafters.

I'm conflicted. We're not rafter shouters. No, I'm just, I'm rooting for him because it seems like he had a really good September last year. Bounce back from 2019's bounce back. And if he can pop like 30 home runs and play third base for the Brewers, that's a whole different team, basically. I like that. I think Shaw or someone at third base, someone on the left side of the infield, having a surprise year, Adrian Houser stepping back up to be a top of the rotation guy. Like he was pretty good in 2019.

He had a bad 2020. He changed a lot of his pitching philosophy in 2020. He switched up his repertoire a little bit. And I think the COVID season hurt him a little bit. All of his pitches ticked down one or two miles per hour. So I'm looking at Hauser because if he can go Woodruff Burns and Hauser and add a third to the law firm, I think you're having a much better time in the rotation. You know, we don't need him to make partner yet.

No, we don't need that, Treb. just need them there in the mix, you know? Like a junior exec or something like that, like, you know, just needs to get back, get his name back on it. You don't think Lindblom can make the title? God, what a, this is a great name. Lindblum's kind of a bad. Lindblum's kind of like, he was in there and they kicked him.

He loses the firm some credit. Yeah. Like, oh, they, Lindblom? Yeah, no, yeah. Isn't he the guy that took on that witch trial? Do you know what this, do you know what this team is not, scared to do. Okay.

They're not scared to add at the deadline. Like if they're in it, that's kind of like what they do. They say, where are we? Where are we at? And then boom, they're not afraid to add. So I like the position they're in, mainly because I think the NL Central is so weak. Like if they're in another division, I'd be like, I'm not so sure about this. But like they're, they know that.

So, and they're a smart organization. They really are. They know, hey, let's see what these guys are doing, where we're at, come around. end of June and make some noise. I like that. Yeah, I think the depth, the depth is kind of my concern with this team because, you know, a couple injuries, like, to their big guys, changes the whole dynamic of this team. I mean, they've got power players when you talk about Yelich, the law firm guys. I, man. The defense will help.

I mean, they have a lot of, we're talking about a lot of sinker ball pitchers here with Hauser. And Colton Wong and Lorenzo Kane, who are joining this team, I mean, are plus plus defenders. Up the middle, it's going to be pretty good. But I think they had a lot of errors at second base last year. And I think Hauser pitching a bad luck. He's sinker baller, Burns is sinker baller. And I think another reason that we're liking this team more, like it feels like we jumped into another tier, is they have a playoff formula.

It's Woodruff Burns, it's Hayter and Williams, and it's, those bad, it's Yelich and whoever else helps them in the lineup. Like, if you run into this team for a one-game wild card, or if you run into this team for a five-game DS, they have a formula. Yeah. And I really hope fans are back in the stands because their ballpark and their fans when things are good.

It's one of the more electric places in the big leagues. So fun. Tailgate and Treve? I feel like you always go there. You love that. They're full of. They pregame with the brot so they can soak it all in as they're drinking all day. And man, they get rowdy there.

But a fun rowdy, like a really polite. Tastefully rowdy. Routy. Routy, Tiles. Dude, did we, did I miss this while I was doing some extensive research? Did we talk about any prospects? Do they have any budding prospects, Jake? So I kind of mention this with the depth piece.

They have one top 100 prospect and he's rated 100. And he's not expected to be there until 2023. That's where I'm worried. When in this year, which should be, you know, some serious attrition and trying to go from 60 games to 162, if they have the injury bug big time, they're not digging into top prospects and let's see what this guy's got. They've got a gap right now. Their top four prospects aren't expected to be in the major leagues until 2022 or 2023. So I wouldn't be surprised as we record this.

You know, Jed Jorko was actually pretty solid for them, and he's a free agent right now. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe they can make something work early in spring training. They might want to add a couple veteran MLB-type flex options because they don't have the young guys to dig into. And those guys are out there. So I wouldn't be surprised if they do a couple more moves like that. And Trev's right.

If they're in it at the deadline, they've showed they're not scared to make the flashy move. Grinky, C, C, C. whoever it may be. So stay in it, and they should be with the NL Central, the way it's wired. You think they're a player for Oderesey? I mean, I haven't heard anything on that front. Like, do you think that's something that fits this team? I mean, obviously he helps any team, but are they needy elsewhere?

We should say while we record this, it's Feb 26. That's true. That's true. It could be on this team. I think we'd like them to be a player, but the other teams involved right now have bigger needs. Philly's Angels are the ones reported. They were showing up money for Turner.

Yeah, they were interested in there. So there's money that they already were committed to spending if they wanted to go spend that on someone else. I'm looking at this guy, Drew Rasmussen. Ooh. I have no idea how Brewers fans feel about this guy. Let me know because it's kind of interesting, Jake. They called him up last year. He was a college pitcher, relief pitcher. They called him up.

In his first 10 games, he pitched to a 198 ER He only allowed runs in eight out of the 10. Really good. Yeah. His last two appearances, he gave up four runs and then three runs, so he ended the season with a 5-8-7 ERA.

Those last two seasons kind of don't tell the full story. Maybe he has promised. I have no idea how they're using him, when they used him. It looks like probably, I mean, they used him in some tie game at one point. They used him ahead too. They used him ahead five. They were using them last year. It's cool. I don't know anything about him, but I just saw him.

He was one of their top prospects that debuted last year was doing well until it fell off. I think we really have to mention, I mean, look, the loss of Ryan Braun can't be understated in Milwaukee. True. Yeah, but once he goes and wins that Israel Cup, then he's their trade acquisition. There's a trade deadline. That's 100% true. Like, he will see if he does the Olympics, but he still is working out and he's ready to do the July signing type thing.

So we'll see if that happens. But just that loss, even for the first couple months, I mean, I know people have strong feelings about him, but you go into that clubhouse and everyone will tell you, he's, he was the leader. And he's taken Yelly under his wing. They work out together in the off season. Oh, Trev. Have you seen Yelly lately? We heard a little rumor that he is beefed up.

He works hard, man. They were waked up and waked up. Put on 20 pounds. They were doing garage workouts. You know anybody else that does that? You know. But look, that's a hold of fill. It's culture in your clubhouse.

They have a good culture. He's, you know, created that with the help of others. But Yelie's got it now. I think Yelie's going to take over that role. Him and Kane will be those guys. And, yeah, come to July. Yes, Jake. I've got an interesting question.

Yeah. What do you guys like more? on this team. The hitting or the pitching? Equal. Right? Both very top, both very top heavy. Defense as well. They played well

in all facets of the game. It's just kind of funny. They're like a perfect balance of Hayter Williams in the pen or, you know, they've got Yelly, Hurricane, Wong, and then, you know, people can talk themselves in Avicale Garcia or Travis Schar or something like, I think it's funny. Don't include Wong. I think I

He does what he does on offense Plus, he's average He gets on base Hey the Milwaukee The ballpark there man Can bump those numbers up quickly I know we're deadening the ball Or whatever this year

But still there's something about hitting in that park That just makes you feel Similar to Houston If you went in there and you didn't hit a homer You were disappointed So he's got enough pop I can see him putting some balls in the seats this year man Fun fact from Max is that

Sogarde had a crazy low whiff percentage last year for them. Whiff. That's a good word, huh? The over under is 82 and a half. Drafking's over under. We're running a little bit longer because we're getting into the good teams

that are fun to talk about. Yeah, that's fun. Might have to bump the timer up to 25 minutes. 22. Okay, well, then we're really close. 82 and a half in that division. They're also playing the AL Central. I like the Cardinals.

I get sucked into that damn Cubs lineup. You know what, though? They do a little brawn ad and they add something else sneaky. the brewers won't be out of it, so they're in it. I'll take the over. I'm taking the over. I'm probably going to be Ryan's hitting coach, so let's see.

Draft King's sweep. We need to start writing these down before him because I feel like I just, people are going to be like, oh, Jimmy just latched on. Like I'm a follower. Nobody's going to think that. People are going to think of their whole posters up. Geez, poster people. Oh, wait, we're supposed to, Trev, here's something fun.

Yeah. We're supposed to keep track when all three of us are on the same. thing and we're going to tell draft kings and we're going to make like a talking baseball parlay yeah if people want to like get odds to all the teams that three of us agreed you can parlay all the overs and unders the talking baseball parlay I love that I'll definitely pick the opposite side of that ploof's picks so we need let's get researcher max or bbd if you have it find all the ones we've already done where we're all three of us are on the same side and then going forward and then we'll choose which and then maybe we'll reconvene and be like which three we

actually all I think we put maybe you can pick this and when we are on the same page it's not forced I think this is good I think that the brewers like after looking at it and the division's weak and I think they're going to the biggest thing is Trev saying that that the deadline they will try to go for it I don't trust the Cubs to do that I don't trust the Reds to do that I They only trust the Cardinals and Brewers to really resupply the troops halfway through the season. So that's why I think that that pushed me to the over there. I think it's a good line by Draf Kings. It is a good line.

I think, again, that injury risk, if it's one of their big pieces, like that changes the whole Brewers' outlook instantly. Yeah. You lose Yelly for a month and a half, and it's like, ah. Woodruff Burns and Hauser. We'll get you out of Toronto. We'll get you out of trouble.