mudcats

The Other Overlooked Cooper

There’s a player named Cooper opening some eyes on the Brewers farm this year. He can hit for average, draw a walk, and slug one into the gap. He plays a position of recent organizational need, though a few shrewd offseason moves have clouded his path to the bigs. Sound familiar? You might be thinking […]

USATSI_10119614_168381442_lowres

Weekend Recap 10: Nelson, Fielding

The Brewers completed their hot week by taking two of three games from the Padres, maintaining their lead in the National League Central. The weekend was filled with excitement and drama. The teams combined for seventeen home runs across the three games, we saw another Brewers bullpen meltdown, and yesterday featured the first complete game […]

USATSI_10119405_168381442_lowres

130 Games of New Wave

The use of restrictive linguistic categories complicates discussion about the 2017 Brewers: since these upstart Brewers will not stop winning, they are short-circuiting fan dialogue between “rebuilding” and “winning now.” According to Baseball Reference, Sunday’s thrilling 2-1 win against San Diego marked the 32nd day that the Brewers stood in first place in the National […]

USATSI_10108513_168381442_lowres

Keon Broxton: Exit Velocity King?

Last year, Keon Broxton’s average exit velocity was 91.7 mph, which was a top-20 mark in all of baseball.  By this measure, he was comparable to such luminaries as Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Bautista, and Khris Davis, and his breakout potential was well-covered in certain corners of the online baseball community.  The idea that he was […]

The Continued Costs of Miller Park

MLB Draft and OFP Surplus

The MLB Draft is a questionable institution at best, and an awful one in its worst aspects. From a labor standpoint, the Draft filters professional baseball talent through a non-competitive process, suppressing a player’s potential earning power from Day One. Even the (roughly) 300 players lucky enough to be written into one of the MLB’s […]

USATSI_10093068_168381442_lowres

Call-Ups Reveal the Idiocy of Service Time Rules

What an exciting week to be a Brewers fan! The results were mildly disappointing at best following a home split against a poor Giants team and a series loss in Arizona. But the games took a bit of a back seat to the call-ups of pitcher Josh Hader and outfielders Brett Phillips and Lewis Brinson. […]

USATSI_10083417_168381442_lowres

Eric Sogard: Oasis or Mirage?

Quickly, without Googling: through this past weekend’s action, among Major League players with at least 50 plate appearances, who tops the leaderboard for wRC+? Mike Trout? A good guess, if a predictable one, but he’s in second place. Eric Thames? You’re really, really close. As in, same team, same first name, close. I’m talking about […]