Brewing Thoughts 2/16/20

Excited to hear that Freddy Peralta added a slider to his pitch repertoire while pitching in winter ball. We all heard the stories all offseason how dominate he was in winter ball, which while it's not nothing to sneeze at, having a good winter ball and having a good MLB season are two totally different things. But don't get me wrong, I'm at least hopeful that he really did figure something out with this slider and adding it to his fastball that played up out of the pen in addition to a curve that somtimes looked absolutely filthy. Maybe we see a full season of the nasty Peralta we saw occasionally out of the bullpen in the 2018 playoffs and the 2019 regular season. Sure would be helpful to guys like Hader, Knebel and Suter to make our pen one of the best in the league again.

Josh Hader lost his arbitration case to the Brewers so he will *only* earn $4.1 mil in 2020. The $6.4 mil he and his representation filed for which would have been the record for a relief pitcher in his first year, sure seemed like a tall hill to climb. But I can't really blame them, Hader has been pretty much far and away the best RP in MLB for the past two seasons. And honestly he is more than worth the $6.4 mil, but looks like not having many saves in 2017 and 2018 hurt his cause. It certainly isn't "fair" but it's just the way of an old, somewhat broken arbitration system. Due to his Super 2 status he achieved he gets three more years of arb. I am sure the next few years he will earn much more if he continues to pitch like he has and for his sake and the Brewers sake I sure hope he does.

Was fun to see our MVP Christian Yelich show up at NBA All-Star Saturday night in Chicago and lend an assist to Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton in the dunk contest. Yelich rocking a old school Kareem Bucks jersey and used as a prop for Pat doing the "White Men Can't Jump" dunk. Let's be honest, anytime our athletes of our teams crossover and show up to support the other teams in the state we are always going to mark out for it. At least I know I will. Just glad Yeli was left unscathed and will be in AZ in just a day or two to report to camp.

So happy for Brent Suter, a former 31st round pick out of Harvard signs a 2 year deal to avoid arbitration (which a hearing was going to be held tomorrow). $2.5 mil guaranteed for The Raptor. Pretty awesome for a guy picked that late, doesn't throw hard at all and had TJ surgery in 2018. He was obviously huge down the stretch last season for the Brewers when he returned and they will need more of that in 2020 to compete. He has become a huge fan favorite with his quirky personalty and how fast he works on the mound. For me, I look forward to watching him pitch as much as I do Hader. He should be huge as a multi inning RP in 2020 and possibly as a spot starter depending on the health of the top five SP going into camp.

Brent Suter, Brewers Vs Cubs 7/28/17

It was a game in late July, but last nights game vs the Cubs at Miller Park felt like a playoff game. As I watched the game with friends at my neighbors house everyone watched it with the intensity of a playoff game, hanging on every pitch. The atmosphere at Miller Park through the TV was electric and felt like a game with it all on the line in October. The Brewers came into the game after a BRUTAL 2-8 East Coast road trip that saw them lose their grip on 1st Place in the NL Central and actually fall 1.5 games behind the Cubs. You have to give it up for Brent Suter. He was outstanding. Easily the best start of his career. 7 shutout innings, 5 K, 1 BB, only game up 4 hits and had a Game Score of 73. Suter showed some serious #want and #rig on the mound in a game the Brewers desperately needed to win and needed a strong start and with the offense only scoring 2 runs, the margin for error was thin. Suter has now started 7 games this season and has been really good in 5 of them. And one of the two he wasn't so good in, was the game he had to start in an emergency vs the Cardinals when Brandon Woodruff hurt his hamstring in pre game warmups. What I'm getting at here is that Brent Suter has earned his right to stay in the Brewers rotation once guys like Garza and Anderson come off the DL. Once those two guys are back healthy it should be a rotation of Nelson/Anderson/Garza/Davies/Suter. Junior Guerra should go to the bullpen (where he could actually be pretty good) once everyone is back healthy.