Craig Counsell phones a friend while the Andrew Vaughn Experience rolls on.

You just hate to see it happen to such a loyal guy! The camera person working down that first base line deserves a BIG raise for capturing Counsell immediately hitting the bullpen phone before Andrew Vaughn is even out of the batter’s box. Poetry.

Now, let’s talk about Andrew Vaughn. Sweet sassy molassy has this guy been a revelation. First things first, let’s thank the person who is truly responsible for the second coming of Vaughn’s Valley:

Aaron Civale could have just taken his demotion to the bullpen in stride. Accepted the fact that he was the weak link in a good rotation, put his head down and done what was asked of him. But no! He got a dump in his pants, decided he needed to be a starter somewhere, and demanded a trade.

So, the Brewers granted his request and sent him to Hoth aka the south side of Chicago. In return? Andrew Vaughn. A guy who was off to a miserable start on a miserable team and had been demoted to AAA when this trade was executed.

Well, Vaughn went to Nashville and immediately started hitting. The problem was, Rhys Hoskins was occupying first base for the Brewers and having a pretty good season. Then Hoskins went down with a UCL sprain. Now you never want to see a guy go down, but it was a bit of baseball luck/magic that the Brewers just happened to acquire a guy who could fill that role a few weeks earlier.

Enter: Andrew Vaughn. He has been on an absolute HEATER since he got called up. 21 RBI’s in 15 games! An OPS over 1.300! A bat as hot as his combover:

Does he look happy to be out of one of the worst organizations in professional sports and right in the middle of a pennant chase with the best team in baseball?? YUP.

Now look, there is already a lot of conversation about what to do when Rhys Hoskins gets healthy. Both are first basemen by trade, and I don’t think there’s a ton of defensive versatility there for either of them. It’s either first base or DH, and Yeli has been the DH for the majority of the year.

My response to that question is this: Cross that bridge when you get to it. Hoskins isn’t even set to go on a rehab assignment until late August. It’s July 30th. I hope Vaughn can stay on this pace, but it’s probably fair to assume that he’s going to cool off at some point. Maybe there’s a natural solution by the time Hoskins is ready to rejoin the big club. Also, keep in mind, Hoskins was having a good year, and has a history of clutch postseason hits from his time in Philly. This is a good problem to have.

Related: How about Quinn Priester. Another Matt Arnold MASTERCLASS. 10-2 record coming out of last night and they’ve won his last 11 starts. ELEVEN. Remember when degens on Brewer Twitter were crying about how we gave up our 17th best prospect and a draft pick for him??? Suspiciously quiet now. Crazy that both Vaughn (3rd overall) and Priester (18th overall) were first round picks in 2019 and both had their franchises give up on them. Arnold snatches them up and they are now key cogs on a team that is 21 games over .500.

PS: Today is YUGE. You already have the series win, but a win today is the difference between a 3 game lead and a 1 game lead in the division. A win would also give the Brewers a 5-3 edge on the season series, with that 5-game series at Wrigley looming in August. It would be nice to go into that series with a bit of a cushion when it comes to a potential season series tiebreaker.