Don't get this dude. Seems like he has really good - even elite - stuff and solid control. Electric arm. Yes, he's definitely had some bad luck and you have to tip your hat to some of the hitters who have hit some good pitches.

But, wtf? I'm struggling to understand why a guy with his stuff and competitive fire just kinda, well, sucks. What's going on with May? Why can't he pitch?

Hi Brewers fans!

I’m doing a tour of all 30 stadiums and will be seeing American Family Field on Monday 9/7. The problem is I’m squeezing it in on a tight schedule (flying in 11 AM, flying out 6 PM) and don’t know what to do with my carry on for that time. I know some stadiums have independent businesses with lockers nearby, but I can’t seem to find any online. Does anyone have a suggestion?

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Game ended at 9:26 PM.

Made by painting over base cards

Magic number for the NL Central is now at 18.

Other relevant magic numbers:
Playoff berth = 12
Bye = 22
NL #1 seed = 23

Got a chance to eliminate a lot more blue this week.

Brewers (85-52) @ Cubs (77-60)

First Pitch: 6:40 PM at Wrigley Field

Line Score - Game Over

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Decisions

Game ended at 9:26 PM.

Remember to sort by new to keep up!

Rosters go from 26 to 28. No more than 14 pitchers on an active roster.

Who gets the call? Let's speculate.

edit: ffs people we get expanded rosters tomorrow - abner is not part of the september call ups of two additional players

The Timber Rattlers have some of the best alternative identities & jerseys. Udder Tuggers. Brats. Frozen Pizzas. Granjeros. And all of the revenue from the game-worn jersey auctions goes to a charity fund called Timber Rattlers Give Back, which supports local programs & nonprofit orgs in the Appleton area.

Hey all, after the amazing atmosphere of the late June series, with the anticipation that this series will feel like Playoff Baseball in September, I figured that I would break down in depth the starters and lineups for both teams. Just a heads up I'm posting this to both subs, so there will be some redundant information.

Game 1:

Clay Holmes vs Kyle Harrison

Tonight's marquee matchup is particularly exciting.

Clay Holmes will pitch for the Cubs. A sinkerballer with an insanely high groundball rate, he's normally a match made in heaven for the Cubs' number 1 defense, but with the absence of Dansby Swanson and speed of the Brewers' lineup, the weaker arm of Nico Hoerner and downgrade at 2B in Pedro Ramirez may prove to be a problem for the Cubs. Holmes has 5 other offerings that he throws including a sweeper and cutter to righties, and a circle change-up to lefties. Expect the ball to be put in play a lot. Holmes has made 1 start against the Brew Crew, posting a 3.38 ERA over 5.2 innings, with 1 K and 4 walks.

Kyle Harrison will start for the Brewers tonight, and any Brewer fans to pay attention are thrilled with this. Since joining the Brewers and having his fastball refined, he has faced the Cubs twice, pitching 7 innings of shut out ball with 11 strikeouts while only allowing 3 baserunners. His second start was a 5 inning, 9 strikeout appearance where a single and HR marked his 2 runs allowed and half of the baserunners. There may be concern with the fact the Cubs will be seeing him for the third time, in a very hot and humid day for a fly ball guy. He boasts a great fastball with some great rising action that I credit Brandon Woodruff with teaching him, and an ELITE slurve. He has a circle change he throws rarely to RHHs. Harrison was just recovering from an injury, and has had a mix of very good starts, and some starts where he has looked a little shakier, with his inning total being low as a notable point. With only a 7 man bullpen right now, the Brewers will need him to have a deeper outing than his last few with two of their long relievers throwing yesterday.

Game 2:

Matthew Boyd vs Robert Gasser

Robert Gasser was a former top prospect who really took a bad case of the injury bug that has changed his trajectory. Gasser throws a 4 seamer, sinker and cutter that he tunnels really well to miss the barrel of the bat, and a sweeper as a breaking pitch. He does a great job of inducing soft, in the air contact, which could be dangerous against several Cub hitters who have excellent bat to ball and line drive skills, such as Nico Hoerner and Alex Bregman, or guys who just mash fly balls like Seiya Suzuki and PCA. Gasser's one appearance vs the Cubs was a solid 6 inning, 7 K outing, but that was pre-injury so I'm not sure how much stock to take in it.

Matthew Boyd is a fairly pedestrian pitcher this year. He peppers fastballs, then uses circle changes to RHH and Sliders to LHH as his putaway pitches. His groundball rate is average, and while he limits hard contact to league average, he gets barrelled a lot and often finds himself trying to work his way out of jams. He goes deep in games, but primarily relies on early count outs or double plays to manage to claw deeper into games. The Brewers have brutalized Matthew Boyd every time they see him except for Game 4 of the NLDS. Like his ERA is in the double digits except for a 4.2 inning effort.

These are frankly each team's respective weakest starter appearing in this series, but neither are BAD pitchers, which speaks to the strength of both lineups.

Game 3:

David Peterson vs Jacob Misiorowski

David Peterson's pages are a tale of two teams. With the Mets, the poor guy had an ERA in the 6's, and with the Cubs he has been posting a 3.9 ERA. A sinkerballer who induces groundballs at a VERY high rate, everything to be said about Clay Holmes is true. Especially the guys who platoon vs LHP for the Brewers should scare Northsider faithful. He held his own vs the Brewers in June, earning the win in Game 2 of the first Miller Park series of 2026. I have a gut feeling that Luis Lara may have a day on game 3.

Jacob Misiorowski, whose name has 0 Z's, needs no introduction. His second start vs the Cubs contained the coolest baseball moment of the year when he fed off the electric Milwaukee crowd, dialed it up to 105.5 MPH and PCA managed to fight it off before being struck out on 104 later in the at bat. A real life Road to the Show player, his long limbs allow him to fire 100+ MPH fastballs over 40 times a game. The only ways to beat him is to outlast him, especially with the Brewers managing his workload in expectation of reaching the Fall Classic, or go yard. Which is no small task. His fastball is the headline, but all of his secondary offerings are phenomenal as well. The only concern for Brewer fans would be the fact that this will be the Cubs' 5th time seeing him in the last year, and they have no doubt prepped for him more than anyone else on this Milwaukee roster.

Definitively the biggest mismatch of starters, this game is the equivalent of a Dark Souls boss fight for Chicago.

Game 4:

Kevin Gausman vs Logan Henderson

Gausman boasts a 2 pitch mix. A low 90's fastball, and a splitter. He technically has a changeup he's thrown 27 times of over 2600 pitches, and a "slider" that equates to a batting practice fastball. It barely moves, only goes 84, and gets a .300+ batting average and .700 slugging against it. That's BETTER than Yordan Alvarez' stats, and that's over a 200 pitch sample. He doesn't walk guys often, strikes out at a league average rate, and has no real red flags, good nor bad. He has performed well against the Brewers over his career, posting a 1.99 ERA, but most recently allowed 3 runs in 5 innings in April.

Logan Henderson attended the George Kirby school of "throw lots of strikes and don't walk guys" to great success. He has that Woodruff/Harrison fastball with a lot of rise, and induces a LOT of pop ups. Almost 2 times the league average. He locates his fastball really well and trusts his defense if he does get hit. His secondary offering is a circle change that runs away from lefty bats really well. I anticipate him being a hard matchup for PCA, especially if he can paint the black and steal a strike. Pete's uppercut in his swing will mean either he misses it, or he drives it a long way though. He has never faced the Cubs before, and if the series has been close or tilted in the Cubs' favor and the Wrigley crowd is electric, he could feel the weight of the moment as a young starter. On a humid day he may be praying the wind blows inward.

Both of these pitchers are strong pitchers, and weather pending, I could anticipate this game being a close, tense game or a barn burner.

Bullpens

I'm mostly going to gloss over the bullpens, but just know that the Brewers are running a 6 man rotation, a 7 man bullpen, headlined by the Megill, Uribe, Ashby trio and staffed with 4 long releivers. Uribe will return tonight from a 20 day IL stint.

The Cubs' bullpen is a variety of long relievers, waiver wire pickups, and the survivors of an injury wave that would make an NFL team squirm. Craig has been asked to throw random bullshit at opposing lineups, and made it work, but those who were effective are definitely getting worn down. Daniel Palencia just returned from injury, but is still finding his groove.

Lineups

The Brewers lineup can be described as one word: relentless. Top 5 in every stat but homers, where they rank last in baseball. They work counts, they attack their pitch and get on base by any means necessary. Pitchers wake up in cold sweats over the prospect of facing Turang, Chourio, and Bauers the third time through because even their bottom of the order pitchers exhaust them. Their middle infield defense is very good, and their outfielders are all pretty solid. They sit between above average to middle of the pack depending on what defensive metric you ask, but I tend to lean toward calling them an easy top 10 unit with everyone healthy. Their bench is full of good defenders, runners, and platoon bats.

The Cubs are the best offense in baseball. Headlined by the MVP candidate in PCA, a very patient lineup stands behind him. Every member of the Cubs lineup is patient, save for a few bench bats. They lead the league in OBP, Runs, and are top 3 in HR in a very humid, hot week at Wrigley where it can be assumed the wind may be blowing out. As great as the Brewers' pitching is, this is not a team to get into a shootout with. The Cubs also have the best defense in several years, BUT they are missing Dansby Swanson, causing Nico Hoerner to travel to short stop, where his arm is more of a liability, and his chemistry with Pedro Ramirez, a perfectly average 2B, quite the downgrade from a gold glove contender is still developing which hurts their ability to turn double plays. Counsell frequently deploys platoon guys, so expect Tyrone Taylor, Matt Shaw, Michael Conforto, and Ian Happ to frequently leave the lineup.

This series, and the following one featuring matchups of Gasser v Peterson, Misiorowski v Gausman, and Henderson v Imanaga, who the Brewers have crushed, will be some of the most exciting regular season games we're likely to see this year.

3 Tickets Section 132 row PP Seats 5-7 ada WITH PARKING PASS - ELLY DE LA CRUZ BOBBLEHEAD NIGHT 150 OBO

There's been rumblings over the course of the year that the Brewers move on from Bill this offseason. With a potential salary floor it's at least plausible they sign him to a deal but catchers aren't a position that a team like the Brewers is interested in extending long term (which is pretty reasonable they usually don't age well). Brewers are an excellent organization at rehabbing offensive catchers with poor defensive metrics so maybe the answer is outside of the organization. However assuming they promote within they've got some of interesting options for a catcher if they want it

Bo Naylor - Age 26 - LHH - On 40 man roster

Acquired for Pat Murphy's nemesis Craig Yoho Bo Naylor is a classic Brewers reclamation project. Former top prospect castoff AND he's seen as an offensive catcher with some defensive limitations. Honestly surprised he wasn't a Brewer sooner. Bo has been raking since he got to Nashville (small sample alert) would be my leader in the clubhouse for the Brewers starting catcher next year

Jefferson Quero - Age 23 - RHH - On 40 man roster

A former crown jewel of the Brewers organization Quero has taken a step back ever since his shoulder problems began. A 70 grade arm is now average and hope is fading that the arm will ever return. Still a functional catcher on the offensive side but he hasn't even been playing any catcher this year. A steep decline of what was looking to be the brewers long term plan for catcher just a couple years ago. Offensive side still looks good (hits the ball very hard for a catcher) but needs to get some of his arm back to be the answer. More of a potential trade candidate to make room for a couple more options. Jeferson Quero - Prospect Savant

- Age 25 - LHH

Matthew Wood - Age 25 - LHH

Drafted in the 4th round of the 2022 draft by the Brewers Matthew Wood has had an excellent year at the plate for Biloxi. He's scuttled around the organization since being drafted but is currently posting his best OPS and his expected stats are even better. As an average defensive catcher he would need his offensive stats to stand out but it looks like there's something there. Rule 5 eligible this upcoming offseason so will probably require a move off of Quero to replace him on the 40. Would obviously be a big jump going straight from double AA to the majors but he's a seasoned minor league with a profile that screams Brewer. Doesn't swing (or swing very much actually), doesn't miss, and hits the ball hard when he does swing. Was surprised he wasn't moved at the deadline due to his rule 5 eligibility but maybe the brewers have plans for him. Matthew Wood - Prospect Savant

Darrien Miller - Age 25 - LHH

A 9th round selection all the way back in 2019 he's another prospect who's been grinding away in the organization for awhile now. Ok results in both Appleton/Biloxi where he stayed at both for a couple of years. Like Wood he's had his best year of his career this year even having some excellent results in Nashville. He got moved back down to Double AA so he could keep getting reps at catcher after the Bo Naylor move. Doesn't hit the ball as hard as Wood but still has some very good numbers for a catching prospect. Defensively needs more refinement than Wood which is the limiting factor here. Rule 5 eligible another guy I'd suspect would have some value either on the 40 or in some other organization. Not a perfect prospect by any means but if he polishes up the defensive side a little more there's a major league catcher in there. Darrien Miller - Prospect Savant

Brewers could always end up rolling with Bill another year or going outside of the organization for their catching needs. I could also see them doing a platoon with one of Wood/Miller/Naylor as left handed bats while keeping Gary around (might be too expensive after having a stellar season as a backup catcher). I'm sure the Brewers have a plan going forward and if they're blown away on an offer for Bill it's just in their MO to work out a deal.

Is it just me or was that a totally classless and unsportsmanlike way to handle a blowout victory last night by the Cubs?

Two Brewers vs Cubs tickets for this Thursday 9/3 at Wrigley Field. Game time is 6:15pm. Seats are in section 226, row 16. Willing to sell them at face value $140 for the pair to Brewers fans. These seats are behind the Brewers dugout. Go Crew!

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Game ended at 4:39 PM.

Made it out to the Rangers game on Friday and kids LOVED the new outdoor playground and I'm pretty sure mini-golf will happen every game from now until I age out of it (don't care if they age out of it, I'm golfing).

Before the kids, I thought catching a game in the restaurant also seemed cool but I've put it on the bucket list for now until they're much older.

So, thought it'd be fun to ask. Do you guys have a favorite ballpark feature, past or present? The Sausage Race and 7th Inning Stretch had always been the draw for my 2 girls until Friday's game where I think they may have been replaced.