2022 Brewers Offense

[MVP2110]

There seems to be quite a bit of consternation about the state of the Brewers lineup so figured we could put it all in to one thread. I'm personally a believer in this offense. There seems to be this narrative that the Brewers had a great lineup in 2018 but have fallen off significantly. But in 2018 the Brewers were 12th in MLB in runs scored at 4.63 runs per game. In 2021 the Brewers were 12th in MLB in runs scored at 4.56 runs per game. The 2018 Brewers got shutout 12 times compared to 10 times in 2021. I expect this offense to be right around the same when the season ends. Renfroe has definitely gotten off to a cold start which hasn't helped things. I'd like to see Rowdy get everyday ABs to see what he could do with those but overall I think this is an above average offense in MLB.

[HarryDoyle]

Is this where we put our "The Brewers offense is so bad" jokes?

[brewmann04]

they continue to have issues with getting runners in as in the past maybe it was not the coaches?

[TURBO]

The offense has been offensive so far.

Based on our off season, I can't believe this surprises anyone.

For us to be successful, we are going to need some career years from some guys. (Rowdy, Renfroe, Taylor)

Yelich needs to come back to respectful, and Hiura needs to be 2019 Hiura...

We know what we have in Wong, and if Adames is anything like last year, I think we are ok there.

Cain is Cain, he'll miss 80+ games, and we can finally mark him off the books.  He is a non factor, just here to eat up salary.

3B is still a dead zone until Urias comes back, hopefully he is the real deal.

I see no possible chance we finish in the top 12 offensively this season, but we shall see.  As we know, top 12 isn't good enough come play-off time anyway, so I don't know why anyone would hang their hat on that stat to begin with.

[MVP2110]

24 minutes ago, turborickey said:

The offense has been offensive so far.

Based on our off season, I can't believe this surprises anyone.

For us to be successful, we are going to need some career years from some guys. (Rowdy, Renfroe, Taylor)

Yelich needs to come back to respectful, and Hiura needs to be 2019 Hiura...

We know what we have in Wong, and if Adames is anything like last year, I think we are ok there.

Cain is Cain, he'll miss 80+ games, and we can finally mark him off the books.  He is a non factor, just here to eat up salary.

3B is still a dead zone until Urias comes back, hopefully he is the real deal.

I see no possible chance we finish in the top 12 offensively this season, but we shall see.  As we know, top 12 isn't good enough come play-off time anyway, so I don't know why anyone would hang their hat on that stat to begin with.

What makes you think they'll fall off from last season? I do agree they probably need to be a top 10 offense to be a World Series contender but I also believe they are closer to a top 10 offense than a bottom 10 offense.

[umphrey]

I am hoping they can be middle of the pack until mid season then strike some deadline deals

[brewers888]

Considering how bad this offense was down the stretch and in the playoffs it’s incredible to me that Stearns and ownership thought that adding McCutchen and Renfroe was the answer. 

[MVP2110]

8 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

Considering how bad this offense was down the stretch and in the playoffs it’s incredible to me that Stearns and ownership thought that adding McCutchen and Renfroe was the answer. 

They were 6th in MLB in runs scored after the Adames trade. They absolutely went cold in the playoffs but judging anything off a 4 game sample is usually a terrible idea

[KeithStone53151]

What's there to discuss? Haven't you been to the in game thread? 4 games in and the season is already over. Nothing can possibly happen from here on out aside from the brewers being bad, based entirely on those 4 games...

[Jim French Stepstool]

I know many folks think who hits where in the batting order is immaterial, but I'm no fan of this McCutchen hitting cleanup vs RH & leading off vs LH nonsense. Otherwise I think Umphrey is correct in that they want to put themselves in the best spot they can, then strike the mid-season deal(s). That's been their M.O. for awhile, will continue to be, and IMO should be.

[Brock Beauchamp]

7 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I know many folks think who hits where in the batting order is immaterial, but I'm no fan of this McCutchen hitting cleanup vs RH & leading off vs LH nonsense. Otherwise I think Umphrey is correct in that they want to put themselves in the best spot they can, then strike the mid-season deal(s). That's been their M.O. for awhile, will continue to be, and IMO should be.

I see a lot of fan pushback against moving lineups based on matchup and I just don’t get it. Of course front offices and managers are switching roles based on matchup because McCutchen simply is not the same hitter against both sides of pitching. Why wouldn’t Counsell exploit that to his advantage, even if that advantage is small?

[wallus]

9 hours ago, KeithStone53151 said:

What's there to discuss? Haven't you been to the in game thread? 4 games in and the season is already over. Nothing can possibly happen from here on out aside from the brewers being bad, based entirely on those 4 games...

It's the same posters hoping to confirm their preseason biases/takes. They will disappear when the offense and team have a good run like always.

[djoctagone]

 

[NBBrewFan]

41 minutes ago, djoctagone said:

 

I see a lot of ABs where they just aren't putting their pitch in play.  They seem to be getting behind in the counts consistently then having to swing at anything close to the strike zone and many of those pitches just aren't high % for driving/putting in play. 

They will get it together at some point, but I see another year where they are hot for extended periods and ice cold for periods.  There doesn't seem to be too much in-between. They were really bad until the Adames trade last year so it isn't an outlier for this team to struggle early.  But the mid-May thru late summer offense was great.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I see a lot of fan pushback against moving lineups based on matchup and I just don’t get it. Of course front offices and managers are switching roles based on matchup because McCutchen simply is not the same hitter against both sides of pitching. Why wouldn’t Counsell exploit that to his advantage, even if that advantage is small?

Guys move up or down a spot or three based on who's throwing that day. That's as old as the hills. But leading off vs hitting fourth isn't a little odd to you?

[Brock Beauchamp]

4 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Guys move up or down a spot or three based on who's throwing that day. That's as old as the hills. But leading off vs hitting fourth isn't a little odd to you?

Not really, I've seen teams do this across baseball with increasing frequency over the past 3-4 years. I'm not sure how effective it is but it's almost certainly effective to some degree.

[jerichoholicninja]

Same offense Stearns has put together for years. Hats off to Counsell for taking career journeymen and playing to their strengths to make them more than serviceable but outside of Yelich's couple year god-mode stretch the lineup hasn't had an impact bat during the whole DS tenure. The only Brewer baseball I watched this year was a half inning on opening day and I saw Cutch hit a leadoff double only to be stranded by 3 K's. I'm sure at the end of the year this team will be in contention for a playoff spot and probably make it and my interest will increase but it's just not at all enjoyable to watch until then.

[owbc]

I think some of this is just typical early April offense, especially with the shortened spring training. The Brewers are 18th in OPS so far in 2022 but 29th in runs scored. So we're unlucky (see our RISP numbers). We'll regress to the mean. 

MLB as a whole is slashing .232/.310/.373, and that's with the DH added to the NL!

Last year MLB ended at .244/.317/.411. So we can expect some improvement as the weather warms. 

But that said, I think everyone here knows that a league average offense is probably the ceiling for the current group of guys. This isn't a top-10 offense no matter how you arrange it. 

[Thurston Fluff]

At least Yelich has started out hot. I know its four games but if that's enough to start worrying about then its enough to be encouraged about.

[Brock Beauchamp]

21 minutes ago, owbc said:

MLB as a whole is slashing .232/.310/.373, and that's with the DH added to the NL!

Baseball badly needs a facelift.

[TURBO]

15 hours ago, MVP2110 said:

What makes you think they'll fall off from last season? I do agree they probably need to be a top 10 offense to be a World Series contender but I also believe they are closer to a top 10 offense than a bottom 10 offense.

I didn't say the offense would fall off from last season.

[MVP2110]

18 minutes ago, turborickey said:

I didn't say the offense would fall off from last season.

"I see no possible chance we finish in the top 12 offensively this season, but we shall see" 

that's a quote from you earlier in this thread.  They finished 12th in runs scored per game last year. If you see no possible chance that happens again then you believe they are going to be worse than last season

[RobDeer 45]

Although things have been brutal so far for the offense and hard to watch, I’m in the camp that we will be fine.  I enjoyed the team last year despite the bad stretch at the very end. 

[BuckyBrewer61]

It's only 4 games, and I suspect the offense will improve.

But I will admit that emotionally, after watching the offense be so punchless, so often, for the better part of 2 seasons - including bowing out meekly in two consecutive feeble postseason appearances...it is becoming hard to get excited to turn on the TV and watch this team play.  

[wibadgers23]

I would agree with others here - the lineup is dull and just not exciting to watch every day. Doesn’t mean they can’t be middle of the pack stats-wise, but the offense is missing some excitement for sure, particularly with Yelich not being the same player. With guys like Mitchell and Wiemer getting closer to the big leagues, maybe that changes in the next couple of years but outside of Urias and Adames, there’s not much for young, talented hitters in the lineup.