Caleb Durbin’s second half
The rookie’s slow burn into an everyday player for the Brewers has them excited for his potential at the hot corner. He hit his 7th homer of the second half on Sunday, that’s tied for the 4th most on the Brewers after the All-Star break.
“It can be a faster game up here if you let it,” Durbin said on Brewers Warmup on Saturday. He’s settled into a .263/.321/.456/.777 slash line in the second-half.
“I think once I learned what it was like to compete and win at this level, everything slowed down a little bit,” Durbin said. You can hear our full conversation below.
Quinn Priester on Brewers Warmup
For Sunday’s “Five Good Minutes”, I was pleased to be joined by Quinn Priester, Friday’s winning pitcher. The Brewers have now won 18 straight games he has appeared in and 12 straight winning decisions – a Brewers franchise record.
His cutter has become a new weapon for a self-proclaimed “not a strikeout guy,” but he prepares for his first postseason, the whirlwind that April was joining the Brewers, and the adjustments made since he joined the organization.
Chourio’s sprint speed
Jackson Chourio always plays hard, but since he has returned from his hamstring strain he has not always kicked into full throttle. The eye test sees a young player learning how to stay healthy and trust that his body can handle the rigors of being an everyday player.
That catch was actually his third “bolt” (a sprint 30.0+ ft/sec) since returning from the injured list. As a baserunner, Chourio leads the team in “bolts” with 57 this season. You have to imagine the sooner the Brewers clinch the division and a bye, the sooner they are going to give Chourio a chance to rest his legs.
He also hasn’t had a true stolen base attempt since returning from the IL, putting his bid for back-to-back 20-20 seasons at risk. With two more stolen bases, Chourio would be come the first player ever to have multiple 20 HR / 20 SB seasons before his age 22 season.
Grant Anderson’s season
An under-the-radar trade in January brought Grant Anderson to the Brewers organization. It’s easy to understand why the move didn’t make headlines, the then 27 year-old only had 49 games in low leverage for the Rangers the last two seasons.
Pitching coach Chris Hook predicted in spring training that Anderson would be his staff’s “quantum leap” candidate for the 2025 season, a nod to Pat Murphy’s prediction of Brice Turang’s breakout.
Anderson now has 70 strikeouts in 65.2 innings as a Brewer, thanks to his new sweeping slider. Opponents are only hitting .170 on his breaking ball, but it masks his sidearm heater to catch hitters by surprise. His four-seamer has more strikeouts on it than the sweeper does, thanks to tunneling it like he did in this AB vs Jordan Walker.
Brewers outfield defense
As Jackson Chourio has returned to the everyday lineup for the Brewers, an internal struggle to decide the best lineup defensively for October.
The reason this is a conflict is Chourio specifically rates as a -5 defensive runs saved centerfielder for the Brewers – the worst defender by the advanced metric on the Brewers. Last October, the Brewers deployed Garrett Mitchell in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, then Blake Perkins in Games 2 & 3.
Obviously only Perkins will be available this season, but the Brewers may need as much offense as they can get from their lineup. The lineup decision leads to a domino effect of the following scenarios:
If Chourio is in center field, Isaac Collins is in left field, and Blake Perkins is on the bench.
Or … if Chourio is in left field, Blake Perkins is in center, and Isaac Collins is on the bench.
This is a decision that could loom on the opposing starter in the playoffs. If the Crew is facing a lefty, perhaps Perkins gets the nod, as he is adds nearly 300 points of OPS vs southpaws over righties.
