What would you do to shake up the Brewers' offense?

[Brock Beauchamp]

Over the past day or so, this tweet has really stuck in my head and I'm not sure what fixes can be done in the short-term.

Calling up Frelick is an option but swapping in guys like Toro kinda feels like shuffling deck chairs.

What would you do to fix this ailing offense?

 

 

[sveumrules]

I’d say that tweet is overly dire as it includes a lot of bad performances - Turang (177 PA | 55 wRC+), Brosseau (78 PA | 75 wRC+), Taylor (78 PA | 8 wRC+), Voit (74 PA | 54 wRC+), Singleton (32 PA | -8 wRC+) and Ruf (30 PA | 54 wRC+) - that aren’t immediately relevant to what the Brewers offense will be like moving forward.

The Brewers as a team have posted -39.4 wRAA, those six players account for -30.8 wRAA or about 78% of the team’s offensive underperformance at this point.

In the near term guys like Adames (79 wRC+), Winker (63 wRC+), Tellez (89 wRC+) and Urias (79 wRC+) need to hit closer to their career norms. That’s the big one.

Frelick, Hiura, maybe Black if they wanna get crazy are about the only hopes on the farm.

Thats pretty much it until the deadline.

[jerichoholicninja]

Until the organizational philosophy of focusing on defensive versatility and filling in with cheap, flawed, one dimensional sluggers changes there really isn't much you can do.

[JCREW]

Almost all of it comes down to those regulars regressing upward toward their means. 

As far as moves are concerned...

Frelick for Weimer - gain that extra year of control on Weimer. 

Let Owen Miller play first base more often. Let Caratini catch more and have Contreras DH more

Otherwise, trade deadline. 

[rickh150]

14 minutes ago, JCREW said:

Almost all of it comes down to those regulars regressing upward toward their means. 

As far as moves are concerned...

Frelick for Weimer - gain that extra year of control on Weimer. 

Let Owen Miller play first base more often. Let Caratini catch more and have Contreras DH more

Otherwise, trade deadline. 

Bring Hiura up to DH regularly.  Agree with Frelick and Wiemer too. Can always bring Wiemer up later.

[Jim French Stepstool]

I imagine they have a certain # of at-bats they want to see Frelick compile before pulling the trigger on him. When that happens It won't be for Wiemer unless he really falls off a cliff & is hitting .180 or something. I get the 'year of control' stuff, I just don't see them going that route unless they can back it up with a severe performance decline.

Let's let Hiura get back on the field at N'ville. If he continues to hit once he does, then sure.

Explore what Ramon Laureano or Lane Thomas would cost.

[Jopal78]

The reality is…nothing. 
 

The only real possibility is to DFA Winker, there has to be hitter available that could at least put up a .700 OPS from the DH spot (For crying out loud Jesus Aguilar was DFA’d by Oakland with a .665 OPS which is better than Winker). 
 

Although that move probably doesn’t “shake up the offense” and moving Adames and/or Tellez isn’t practical 

 

 

[homer]

Sign Wll Myers

[owbc]

As some of you know the Mariners are my other favorite team and they basically have the exact same problem...floundering around .500 with severe underperformance at ~5 positions, the most embarrassing of which is being the team that is keeping the Brewers from being 30th in OPS at DH. 

Not much you can do but wait it out on the guys who are well below their career means, swap out the replacement level players for different ones, and hope that your GM makes a move at the deadline. 

 

 

 

[KeithStone53151]

18 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

The reality is…nothing. 
 

The only real possibility is to DFA Winker, there has to be hitter available that could at least put up a .700 OPS from the DH spot (For crying out loud Jesus Aguilar was DFA’d by Oakland with a .665 OPS which is better than Winker). 
 

Although that move probably doesn’t “shake up the offense” and moving Adames and/or Tellez isn’t practical 

 

 

Agreed, except I don't think DFA Winker does anything at all...except maybe tell the roster to figure it out or you could be next. But it's not like we have a guy down in AAA pounding the baseball and ready to get a shot at this level. Either the guys we have need to improve to career norms or better, or good chance we'll be big sellers in a month.

[mtsportsfan]

Doubt it works , but move some guys in the lineup ! Adames is the guy I'm thinking of moving down .

Maybe try a little small ball , I understand that you need to get on to steal a base , more hit and runs , anything but what we are doing now , so boring !

[brewmann04]

We are really stuck at this point 

[yourout]

17 minutes ago, brewmann04 said:

We are really stuck at this point 

Fixing the offense is a multi-year project.

Honestly I don't think they have people in management capable of doing it right now.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, yourout said:

Fixing the offense is a multi-year project.

Honestly I don't think they have people in management capable of doing it right now.

It’s not the front office. They developed an excellent starting pitching staff, and a pretty good bullpen for being all cheap contracts. 

The problem is there simply isn’t enough beans to pay a bunch of expensive hitters to go with their pitching and they had some bad luck.
 

That Hiura and a Corey Ray turned out to be busts as Top 10 picks hurts them. Jackie Bradley Jr. being a bust hurts them (cash, deferred cash, prospects, and two years later they have a middle reliever and a AAAA starter to show for it).  Mitchell and Frelick suffering significant injuries hurts them. 
 

With not much cash to spend, and no blue chippers knocking at the door of the majors, the front office did the best they could getting middling band aids who might have some upside  (Tellez, Urias, Anderson, Winker, etc.) and hope to get lucky. Their roll of the dice just didn’t pan out.

Now there’s really no way get better at this point absent extended hot streaks for those aforementioned players, or breaking up the team and trying a new mix of players 

[yourout]

10 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

It’s not the front office. They developed an excellent starting pitching staff, and a pretty good bullpen for being all cheap contracts. 

The problem is there simply isn’t enough beans to pay a bunch of expensive hitters to go with their pitching and they had some bad luck.
 

That Hiura and a Corey Ray turned out to be busts as Top 10 picks hurts them. Jackie Bradley Jr. being a bust hurts them (cash, deferred cash, prospects, and two years later they have a middle reliever and a AAAA starter to show for it).  Mitchell and Frelick suffering significant injuries hurts them. 
 

With not much cash to spend, and no blue chippers knocking at the door of the majors, the front office did the best they could getting middling band aids who might have some upside  (Tellez, Urias, Anderson, Winker, etc.) and hope to get lucky. Their roll of the dice just didn’t pan out.

Now there’s really no way get better at this point absent extended hot streaks for those aforementioned players, or breaking up the team and trying a new mix of players 

The fact that they have not gotten a decent homegrown hitter from the farms in over a a decade tells me there's a problem with talent evaluation and coaching.

[Baldkin]

Sacrifice a live chicken. 

[brewcrewdue80]

Swap Wiemer and Adames in the batting order.  Wait for results.  Wiemer is virtually carrying a higher slg pct the last 30games than Adames is carrying OPS.

[Brock Beauchamp]

5 hours ago, brewcrewdue80 said:

Swap Wiemer and Adames in the batting order.  Wait for results.  Wiemer is virtually carrying a higher slg pct the last 30games than Adames is carrying OPS.

I tend to be in the camp where batting order doesn't matter other than putting your best hitters near the top.

But I don't see much downside in moving Adames down the lineup. If he starts hitting again, you can move him right back up. We're at the point in the season where action needs to be taken, even if it's kinda superfluous and has a small chance of making an impact.

[owbc]

58 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I tend to be in the camp where batting order doesn't matter other than putting your best hitters near the top.

But I don't see much downside in moving Adames down the lineup. If he starts hitting again, you can move him right back up. We're at the point in the season where action needs to be taken, even if it's kinda superfluous and has a small chance of making an impact.

There's some benefit to not being one of the first guys to have to face the starting pitcher and letting a few teammates get a look first. It's definitely lower pressure to hit in the 5 or 6 slot and it can snap guys out of slumps who are pressing at the plate. 

[Playing Catch]

Tellez is batting .153 in June with a 2.7% BB rate. It's been the same issue all season.

Number 2 spot in the order - 30th in MLB (64 wRC+)
Number 3 spot in the order - 29th in MLB (76 wRC+)

Most of the other spots in the order are also, as one would expect, below average. But when the other team completely neuters the heart of the order, the offense is going to stink.

As others have noted, until the players that are probably not going anywhere (e.g.  Adames and Tellez, namely) hit better, the Crew will continue to scuffle.

[YelichPosse]

I’d love to see Frelick , Huira , and Tyler Black up. Perkins, Winker, and idk who can depart. 
 

Frelick is probably ready at this point and can give a spark. Huira time to give him his last chance since Rowdy is a dumpster fire currently. Black - id love to plug in and see if he can get on base like he is in AA. Anderson is lost at the plate he could use some time relaxing on the pine and coming in for D late. It’s wild we won a series with the level of incompetence up and down the lineup. It’s a miracle we are .5 games out of any division chase! 
 

I may be more bullish on Black but I think his on base skills and speed plays with this team now even. Just my two cents.

[Playing Catch]

Looking at his splits, Black probably won't be helping the big league team much versus lefties, FWIW.

[YelichPosse]

9 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

Looking at his splits, Black probably won't be helping the big league team much versus lefties, FWIW.

Yea I was thinking overall on base skills with him. And with Rowdy , Anderson, and Winker being so blah verse any hand there’s room for PT anywhere for a hot bat. It’s just - something has to give…. Some of these guys HAVE to hit better right? … right? 

[tonyei31]

I don't think anything changes but a different voice/look/etc. is about all that can help this offense, especially a veteran hitting coach..  I also wonder if Counsell's message has gotten old/stagnant.  No different than Mike McCarthy with the Packers, Bud with the bucks.  Can be great coaches/managers but eventually the message isn't responded to.  Outside of a new voice our offense is what it is.  Some guys might improve but at this point we are halfway through the season.  The 2023 versions of Winker/Adames/Tellez are more likely what they are vs what we expect.  

[Baldkin]

2 hours ago, tonyei31 said:

I don't think anything changes but a different voice/look/etc. is about all that can help this offense, especially a veteran hitting coach..  I also wonder if Counsell's message has gotten old/stagnant.  No different than Mike McCarthy with the Packers, Bud with the bucks.  Can be great coaches/managers but eventually the message isn't responded to.  Outside of a new voice our offense is what it is.  Some guys might improve but at this point we are halfway through the season.  The 2023 versions of Winker/Adames/Tellez are more likely what they are vs what we expect.  

Baseball is different from most other team sports. 

 

Baseball is a series of 1v1 interactions where you want to put the players in the best position to succeed. 

 

A whole lot of being a good manager in baseball is helping your players understand expectations and how team success comes before individual opportunity. 

 

In other team sports, it's about making the right play so your teammate can succeed, or buying in to team success over individual success, not just individual opportunity.

 

It's a totally different conversation to tell someone "You don't get to hit lefties" compared to, "you can't jump that slant route when we're in cover two"