The Bauers That Be

 

Not looking forward to the Brewers having to play the Phillies right now. Not that we're bad, but we're throwing Derek Hill out as a starter. The Miz game is the day Andrew Painter has to start. It's not gonna be pretty.

I don't know if the Brewers are the best team in the NL, but they might be the most lethal. Similar to the Braves, they've filled the lineup with people that are doing 100% what they were brought here to do, but unlike the Braves, there's like 5 or 6 more 'OH MY GOD' prospects waiting for one of the genuinely effective people to get hurt. We're still waiting on Jett Williams, Jeferson Quero, Jesus Made, Luis Lara, Cooper Pratt, Luis Pena even...and this team is currently extremely good without them. The infrastructure is there to insure that they will continue to be this good for a while. The Braves have some of that but not to this degree. Same with the Dodgers honestly.

Like, to give you an idea, the current mega-prospects who are working for this team at the MLB level are Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, Jacob Misiorowski, Kyle Harrison, Logan Henderson, Brandon Sproat and Shane Drohan, plus secondary prospect guys like Robert Gasser, Coleman Crow, Chad Patrick and Sal Frelick. That's already the majority of the team. And not only are these guys working, they're elite. Chourio, despite the late start, is having a phenomenal year, hitting .304 with 6 homers and 20 RBIs in 32 games. Turang's chasing MVP numbers again, with 10 homers, 11 steals, 42 RBIs and some of the best 2B play in the league. The Miz has a 1.50 ERA, 116 Ks and a 0.808 WHIP. Video game numbers. And Kyle Harrison, even after the Vegas start where you could tell that playing in an a-ball park really hurt the pitching, has a 2.72 ERA and 7 wins.

The triumph might be some of the people brought in for nothing. Last year Quinn Priester was a terrific bargain acquisition, and though he's yet to appear he looms large over the second half. Jake Bauers was a low-rent utility guy who'd succeeded in Cleveland and New York, and now suddenly he's the starting 1st baseman, hitting .277 with 12 homers [meaning his next one will mark a career high] and 43 RBIs. And even crazier is Andrew Vaughn, who's now splitting time with him, is still on fire, hitting .370 with 2 homers and 18 RBIs in 29 games. I might even throw in Gary Sanchez, who's become a terrific DH/backup choice in his later years and has an .845 OPS in 39 games. Even David Hamilton's become a terrific utility infield option, topping even Andruw Monasterio, who he was traded for.

The Brewers are an efficient, deep, varied team that can beat you several different ways, and look like they're gonna get even better as they go, with Woodruff and Henderson expected back soon. I am really worried that the Phils might not be able to get anything done against these guys this weekend, but...can you blame them if not?

Coming Tonight: I follow Mina Kimes on Bluesky, and she just had a very nice interview with this guy on there. Pretty sure he's the real deal.

Wild Card Week Day 3: Believe it or Not

 

The very first series of the year, the Mets were swept by the Brewers. And not in an inoffensive way. There were big, flashy moments, including a damn near brawl at one point as a result of a dirty slide from Rhys Hoskins. The very last series of the year, the Brewers won the first two games against the Mets, and then right on the last game of the season, before they'd have to fly to Atlanta to see if this postseason thing would happen at all this year, the Mets won big, 5-0. The tide had turned. After a year of being pushed down by this superior Brewers team, something gave. Days later, it was revealed that the Mets would play the Brewers for at least two more games. 

Any chance of this series being cut and dry were removed at moment one. In a week of simple, predictable matchups, Mets-Brewers went back and forth the whole time. Great pitching, clutch hitting, come from behind victories, messy moments. Somehow, this had become the most evenly matched playoff series yet, and I wasn't gonna assume it'd end reasonably either.

Everything coming down to Devin Williams, Pete Alonso and the ninth felt inevitable. Remember, everything came down to Pierce Johnson and Francisco Lindor, I knew something was gonna happen there. So here, with two men on and Alonso stepping to the plate, the moment felt inevitable. And so...Alonso powered through.

The fact that it didn't stopped there, and they just kept hitting Williams to make it 4-2, thanks to great work from Jesse Winker and Starling Marte, just proves how badly the Mets wanted it. They got hungry midyear, and they became unstoppable. Nothing could stand in this team's way, which does make me worried for this Phils-Mets series. Out of the two teams, the Brewers matched up better against us. The Mets routinely have our number, and they could again. 

The Mets making an NLCS would be incredible. Not definite, not unheard of, but it's the kind of miracle only this franchise can make happen. The Phils will make it extremely difficult, though.

This has to be the last straw, right? 

It's not Counsell, it's not Yelich, it's not an improved youth movement. Somehow this Brewers team is still allergic to October, and they haven't figured out why. 

At certain points in this series, this team felt ready for the next level. Jackson Chourio, Willy Adames, Tobias Myers, Freddy Peralta, even Jake Bauers tonight, they all felt like they were heading to Philly with this kind of team effort. But the Mets just had more, and the Brewers were outmatched once again, despite all that regular season progress. They were the first to clinch, and now they're the last cut before the division series'. This has to hurt. I hope they can come back from it next year, but seeing as literally every other team in their division is making conscious efforts to improve after just being on the cusp of greatness this year, it's not gonna be a gimme. Then again, I said that last year, and here we are.

Saturday marks the beginning of the next stage of playoff greatness. Tigers-Guardians will be a battle between two impeccably-arranged contact-heavy beasts. Mets-Phillies will be an all out war to see whose destiny is more important. Yanks-Royals will be a true test of whether or not the Yanks are October ready this year. And Dodgers-Padres is gonna be a bloody rematch of 2022. It's gonna be amazing. I'll get the popcorn ready.