Game Thread (4/26/2022): Brewers (Woodruff) at Pirates (Keller) - 5:35 PM CDT

[Eye Black]

[Eye Black]

Pirates are coming off a 4-game series in which they got out scored by the Cubs 29-12 yet they managed to win 3 of the 4 games. Of course much of that was discrepancy can be attributed to Saturday’s 21-0 Cubs victory. 

After the past couple of nights the Brewers offensive stats have plummeted, they are now batting .201 BA / .275 OBP / .325 SLG on the season with the DH in place. By comparison the Pirates, also a bottom third offense, are hitting .233 / .301 / .347. 

The Brewers 75 wRC+ as a team ranks 28th in baseball only ahead of the Dbacks (74 wRC+) and Reds (56 wRC+). The Pirates 92 wRC+ ranks 21st. 

[DuWayne Steurer]

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[KeithStone53151]

Can we also create an area for all the negative people to go to avoid making the in game thread utterly unbearable? Maybe throw a couple boxes of tissues in there in case it isn't a 10-0 Brewers win...

[Brewcrew82]

If I see both Cain and McCutchen in the top six of the lineup again tonight I seriously might cry...Thankfully there's a number of guys who have had success against Keller.

[owbc]

Wait, where did the Giants go? Why are we back on the road? Who wrote this schedule? 

[Austin Tatious]

2 minutes ago, owbc said:

Wait, where did the Giants go? Why are we back on the road? Who wrote this schedule? 

They squeezed this one in on what was supposed to be an off day due to the games missed from the lockout,

[markedman5]

 

[Brewcrew82]

3 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

 

Too bad. But it's really up to the other players on this team to step up and contribute at this point. Will also be interesting to see what they opt to do with Severino later in the season, seeing as he was one of our best hitters this spring and we can definitely use a bat, 

[Brewcrew82]

What I would throw out there tonight (and moving forward against right handers until Urias comes back), fully expecting that it will look nothing like this and probably involve McCutchen and Cain hitting in the 4 and 6 spots...

Wong 2B

Adames SS 

Yelich LF

Renfroe RF

Tellez 1B

Hiura DH

Narvaez C

Taylor CF

Peterson 3B

Just as I post this the actual lineup is out and it basically confirms my fears re. McCutchen and Cain: 

Wong 2B

Adames SS

Yelich LF

McCutchen DH

Tellez 1B

Taylor RF

Narvaez C

Cain CF

Peterson 3B

This offense will never be able to realize whatever potential it has until Cain is riding the pine only to be used as a late inning defensive replacement and McCutchen is replaced by Hiura against righties. 

 

 

 

[KeithStone53151]

It sounds like you want to see more Hiura/Taylor and less Mccutchen/cain. I generally agree, though I just went and looked and Hiura/Taylor have played in 11 and 9 of the 17 games this season. Cain/Mccutchen have played in 11 and 16 games this season. I think that's a pretty reasonable allocation of playing time. Maybe a bit less McCutchen, but he's also the shiny new toy so it's not weird that he's playing a lot. I also think our whole offense, but notably McCutchen will improve a fair amount from what he's doing currently.

[Brewcrew82]

12 minutes ago, KeithStone53151 said:

It sounds like you want to see more Hiura/Taylor and less Mccutchen/cain. I generally agree, though I just went and looked and Hiura/Taylor have played in 11 and 9 of the 17 games this season. Cain/Mccutchen have played in 11 and 16 games this season. I think that's a pretty reasonable allocation of playing time. Maybe a bit less McCutchen, but he's also the shiny new toy so it's not weird that he's playing a lot. I also think our whole offense, but notably McCutchen will improve a fair amount from what he's doing currently.

Basically right. I'm mostly irritated by the automatic insertion of McCutchen at DH against right-handers, which completely ignores McCutchen's struggles against right-handers since 2019 and  Hiura's sizable reverse splits. Basically a matter of a .650 OPS vs. an .830 OPS. As for Cain, I think it's clear he's on his last legs, though he still has some value on defense, and that his playing time should better reflect this. Part of a manager's job is using your talent in the best possible way and setting everyone up to succeed, which I'm not sure Counsell is doing right now. 

[NBBrewFan]

8 minutes ago, KeithStone53151 said:

It sounds like you want to see more Hiura/Taylor and less Mccutchen/cain. I generally agree, though I just went and looked and Hiura/Taylor have played in 11 and 9 of the 17 games this season. Cain/Mccutchen have played in 11 and 16 games this season. I think that's a pretty reasonable allocation of playing time. Maybe a bit less McCutchen, but he's also the shiny new toy so it's not weird that he's playing a lot. I also think our whole offense, but notably McCutchen will improve a fair amount from what he's doing currently.

The issue that's been brought up over and over is that it's clear from the past few years that McCutchen can't hit RH pitching anymore. I'm sure they aren't paying him $8.5M just to platoon against LH pitching, but I would have thought there was going to be some attempt to reduce his exposure to RH pitching. Well the good thing is that the chances this offense will get worse (barring injury) is pretty close to winning the lottery so, yeah, they are going to get better.

[KeithStone53151]

15 minutes ago, NBBrewFan said:

Well the good thing is that the chances this offense will get worse (barring injury) is pretty close to winning the lottery so, yeah, they are going to get better.

Well I tried, comments like this are wildly unenjoyable. ✌️

[sveumrules]

21 minutes ago, NBBrewFan said:

The issue that's been brought up over and over is that it's clear from the past few years that McCutchen can't hit RH pitching anymore. I'm sure they aren't paying him $8.5M just to platoon against LH pitching, but I would have thought there was going to be some attempt to reduce his exposure to RH pitching. Well the good thing is that the chances this offense will get worse (barring injury) is pretty close to winning the lottery so, yeah, they are going to get better.

It's only been 17 games. If McCutchen is still posting a 59 wRC+ vs RHP when it has been more than 47 PAs, I'd imagine they will start to reduce his exposure vs RHP.

Granted he's only posted an 86 wRC+ over 795 PAs vs RHP since 2019 so there isn't too much upside there, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Brewers told Andrew they'd give him some chances to show he could hit RHP to start the year with the understanding that if he didn't those opportunities would decrease as the season went on,

[Jopal78]

42 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Basically right. I'm mostly irritated by the automatic insertion of McCutchen at DH against right-handers, which completely ignores McCutchen's struggles against right-handers since 2019 and  Hiura's sizable reverse splits. Basically a matter of a .650 OPS vs. an .830 OPS. As for Cain, I think it's clear he's on his last legs, though he still has some value on defense, and that his playing time should better reflect this. Part of a manager's job is using your talent in the best possible way and setting everyone up to succeed, which I'm not sure Counsell is doing right now. 

I don't think 35 year old McCutchen is a world beater by any means, but Hiura is still striking out over 40% of the time (174 Ks in 415 ABs since 2019, and  half his at bats so far this year), There's simply no reason to give more at bats to a player who fails to even put the ball in play that often. McCutchen at least has struck out only 29% of the time (12K : 42ABs) against RHP this year. 

Cain's struggles to start the year should have opened the door for Taylor to seize the regular CF job, but Taylor's .214/.267/.357 line so far has given the Brewers justification for at least trying to get something for the 18 million they are paying Lorenzo Cain.  

[Eye Black]

 

[Eye Black]

An hour to first pitch and the Pirates still haven’t released a lineup.

Here is the Brewers lineup…

 

[nate82]

Taylor is not a good defensive CF.  Add that in and his offense doesn’t really justify him playing more than Cain especially in CF.

Taylor should be good playing more in RF over Renfroe. This is where Taylor’s defense won’t hamper him as much.  Yelich should be the DH for the majority of games when there is a RHP and Renfroe in LF.  

Also Hiura should be playing a few games at 2B here and there for Wong.  Though Hiura does need to cut down on the K’s.  

[Sixtolezcano]

7 hours ago, KeithStone53151 said:

Can we also create an area for all the negative people to go to avoid making the in game thread utterly unbearable? Maybe throw a couple boxes of tissues in there in case it isn't a 10-0 Brewers win...

I agree. How dare these so called “fans” speak so poorly of our beloved Brewers. They should just”suck it up” and only provide positive comments regarding our great team. Who cares that they are in the bottom 15% of runs scored. Unless they only receive positive vibes, there is absolutely no chance of them playing any better?.

[Brewin]

Playing Taylor in CF in Pittsburgh is a mistake. There are a few parks where playing Cain in CF should be automatic and PNC is one of them. I know Lorenzo is struggling offensively, but Taylor has done nothing in 2022 indicating he is a viable starting option

 

My mistake - I misread the lineup as I see TT is starting in RF with Cain in CF

[Brewcrew82]

With all this being said, feels like a great time for an offensive breakout, am I right?! After all, this is a team that lost to the Cubs 21-0 this past weekend and just lost their best hitter to the COVID-IL in Reynolds. My totally unsolicited prediction: we hit three dingers tonight (including Yelich) en route to a convincing (for our standards) 8-1 victory.  

[HarryDoyle]

The over under is set at 7. Jump on the under while you can.

[Brock Beauchamp]

3 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

The over under is set at 7. Jump on the under while you can.

Both teams or the Brewers? I mean, I might take the over either way.

[sveumrules]

8 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

The over under is set at 7. Jump on the under while you can.

Pirates are at 9 games over, 4 games push, 3 games under on a 7 run O/U.

Brewers are at 7 games over, 2 game push, 8 games under on a 7 run O/U.

Obviously the predictive power of 16/17 games on run scoring in any single game is next to nil, but the over would appear to be the safer bet so far this year.

PIT O (3.56 R/G) + PIT P (5.31 R/G) = 8.87 R/G

MKE O (3.29 R/G) + MKE P (3.53 R/G) = 6.82 R/G