47 Runs in 4 games.

[Ghostbear]

My goodness Brewers fans. I listened to Pat Murphy prior to the game today. He's obviously worried. 47 runs in 4 games.  The Yankees are a powerhouse team with  a type of new bats. The MLB says they're legal. If I was Abott and Murphy, I'd be looking into getting them for the Brewers team.  No doubt, our pitching is in dire straights. We need to do some very serious review of the situation, and if needed call a couple of guys up from the minors. Both Cortez and Civalia were terrible. That kid today gave it a great try, but the first inning did it. I am also very, very concerned about where the hitters are. I saw way too many guys swinging late on the fastballs and sucking for the sliders today.  Did they really get ready to play the season in spring training, or did the guys who are starting now, not get enough swings before the season started? It appears Churio, Yelich, and a number of others just really aren't seeing the ball very well.  This needs to be addressed soon. Don't we have some hitting cages down below in the stadium? We should, so the hitting coach(s) can go down and work with the hitters-each one should be taking 50-100 swings at least every other day. So, I am very concerned that at the end of the first 20 games, we'll be something like 5-15. Time to really dig in, and do some deep analytics and address the problems. 

[wallus]

It's 4 games

[liveforoctober]

The Brewers offense ranks 7th in the NL through 4 games in BA and 9th in OBP.

Our pitching ranks last in ERA, WHIP, home runs allowed, opponent's OBP, (insert pitching category here), etc

If there are panic buttons to hit after 4 games ... 95% of the buttons we should be striking are pitching related.

[yourout]

5 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

The Brewers offense ranks 7th in the NL through 4 games in BA and 9th in OBP.

Our pitching ranks last in ERA, WHIP, home runs allowed, opponent's OBP, (insert pitching category here), etc

If there are panic buttons to hit after 4 games ... 95% of the buttons we should be striking are pitching related.

https://giphy.com/gifs/funny-lol-gif-1wDy0NewJUS4w

[Matt]

I think you're lying to yourself if you didn't think this season had the potential to go very bad. One of these years the the perennial overachieving would come to a stop and the overall lack of talent on the roster would catch up to them. 

It's obviously super early. Maybe this is a blip. But I don't think the pitching results have been all that surprising, and relying on a bunch of low-slug hitters to score runs isn't the recipe for modern winning. 

[rickh150]

23 minutes ago, Matt said:

I think you're lying to yourself if you didn't think this season had the potential to go very bad. One of these years the the perennial overachieving would come to a stop and the overall lack of talent on the roster would catch up to them. 

It's obviously super early. Maybe this is a blip. But I don't think the pitching results have been all that surprising, and relying on a bunch of low-slug hitters to score runs isn't the recipe for modern winning. 

Overall lack of talent?  Huh?  We are loaded. We are hurt, mainly with SP.  And they all should be back this season.   
Whachoo talkin bout Willis?

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I don't really know what to make of these four games. Probably nothing. I think the hard part is, a lot of us felt some serious "uh-ohs" looking at the Opening Day roster and seeing how it had been impacted by injuries and how many question marks there were in the lineup. As Brewers fans, we're probably conditioned to expect the other the shoe to drop more than most franchises, and the easiest thing in the world is to see your worst fears realized completely in a small sample and then extrapolate that out to forever.

We're obviously going to play better. But this roster construction really does seem troubling. They let Adames go and signed no one, basically counting on Yelich to be MVP Yelich and Hoskins to have a bounce-back year, not to mention Chourio taking a step forward after the league starts to adjust to him a bit more. Mark Canha is not the answer, but I was puzzled by trading him for cash. His bat's useful! Especially against lefties (which we can't hit). Then there's letting Rea go and signing your one pitching FA late in camp, when you know you're going to be very careful with Woodruff. Maybe it's easy to criticize all that in hindsight, but I do think there are some avoidable errors in there that have compounded the bad injury luck.

Here's my takeaway: I don't see a reason to panic. Panic after four games is silly. But there are some warning signs here that you'd be silly not to notice, especially when nobody is hitting and even our good bullpen pitchers are really struggling. We can't throw strikes. We can't stop giving up hard contact. Other than the opener (where Freddy pitched like a pretty good, B, maybe B- outing), every defensive half-inning has been an adventure. It's not just that the pitching is thin. It's that nobody has been able to look like an above-average big-league pitcher outside of your staff "ace," who's really more like a number 2 or number 3 starter (not a Freddy criticism, that's just who he realistically is). When you pair that with an offense that scored nine runs in a game they were only briefly in (largely thanks to some very bad Yankees defense) and six runs in the other three games (aided greatly by Devin walking dudes), ouch. You get a very lopsided 0-4 and a lot of folks asking some legitimate questions about what realistic expectations are for this roster.

On the other hand, maybe we just faced a world-beating offense and a million left-handed pitchers and are better than the rest of the NL Central. Ask me again in two weeks.

[Matt]

17 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

Overall lack of talent?  Huh?  We are loaded. We are hurt, mainly with SP.  And they all should be back this season.   
Whachoo talkin bout Willis?

Loaded at what? Let's just use Fangraphs depth chart rankings: 

C: 6th
1B: 28th
2B: 17th
3B: 29th
SS: 25th
LF: 6th
CF: 21st
RF: 14th 
DH: 9th
SP: 18th
RP: 11th

Overall: 11th

Three positions firmly above average. Four firmly below average. The rest in the middle or slightly below. 

This is not a loaded team.

[Brian]

1 hour ago, Ghostbear said:

My goodness Brewers fans. I listened to Pat Murphy prior to the game today. He's obviously worried. 47 runs in 4 games.  The Yankees are a powerhouse team with  a type of new bats. The MLB says they're legal. If I was Abott and Murphy, I'd be looking into getting them for the Brewers team.  No doubt, our pitching is in dire straights. We need to do some very serious review of the situation, and if needed call a couple of guys up from the minors. Both Cortez and Civalia were terrible. That kid today gave it a great try, but the first inning did it. I am also very, very concerned about where the hitters are. I saw way too many guys swinging late on the fastballs and sucking for the sliders today.  Did they really get ready to play the season in spring training, or did the guys who are starting now, not get enough swings before the season started? It appears Churio, Yelich, and a number of others just really aren't seeing the ball very well.  This needs to be addressed soon. Don't we have some hitting cages down below in the stadium? We should, so the hitting coach(s) can go down and work with the hitters-each one should be taking 50-100 swings at least every other day. So, I am very concerned that at the end of the first 20 games, we'll be something like 5-15. Time to really dig in, and do some deep analytics and address the problems. 

They did not order any torpedo's until yesterday or this morning and I do agree they do work better, no question.  But its a marathon not a sprint and thank GOD were ahead of the curve with an ass whopping right out the gate to wake our us up..  We are used to a cushion in the standings which we do not have right now, so after Game 4  do not worry,  Game 4 results mean literally zero in the standings. That's the reason why you/we love the game.  It's for that moment. It's to win it all in October 7 months from now. Yes? 

[Brian]

55 minutes ago, Matt said:

I think you're lying to yourself if you didn't think this season had the potential to go very bad. One of these years the the perennial overachieving would come to a stop and the overall lack of talent on the roster would catch up to them. 

It's obviously super early. Maybe this is a blip. But I don't think the pitching results have been all that surprising, and relying on a bunch of low-slug hitters to score runs isn't the recipe for modern winning. 

Our pitching failed us, nothing else. Just a wake up call in the 1st round. 

[trwi7]

32 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

We are loaded.

Yes, you may be loaded if you think we are full of talent.

[edfunderburk]

3 hours ago, rickh150 said:

Whachoo talkin bout Willis?

👏👊🙌💪

[Jopal78]

4 hours ago, trwi7 said:

Yes, you may be loaded if you think we are full of talent.

The Brewers have the most talented rotation in the NL Central, it’s just most of it is on the IL right now. 

[trwi7]

7 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

The Brewers have the most talented rotation in the NL Central, it’s just most of it is on the IL right now. 

We knew Gasser and Woodruff would be out to start the year.  Myers is on the IL.  Ashby and Hall are more relievers than starters.  In short, no we do not have the best rotation in the Central.  

[Frisbee Slider]

We will need to call people up to make it through the rest of the week, right?

[umphrey]

There was the article from a few weeks ago that said we had about the 16th best rotation in MLB and I still believe that. If it was re ranked based on only who is healthy though we are bottom 3 easily. 

[Frisbee Slider]

From 9/3/86 to 9/6/86, Brewers allowed 56 runs over four games. Mostly at the hands of Cleveland.

https://stathead.com/tiny/0CwHj

[Jopal78]

37 minutes ago, trwi7 said:

We knew Gasser and Woodruff would be out to start the year.  Myers is on the IL.  Ashby and Hall are more relievers than starters.  In short, no we do not have the best rotation in the Central.  

Peralta, Cortes, Civale, Myers, Quintana, Woodruff. 

Four of the six have been All Stars, only Civale (4.08) has a career ERA above 4.00
 

Name another team in the NL Central with better SP that is six deep.

Injuries happen, maybe they’re snake bit this year and will be buried in the standings by summer, but it won’t be for lack of talent on the roster. 

[BruisedCrew]

49 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

Peralta, Cortes, Civale, Myers, Quintana, Woodruff. 

Four of the six have been All Stars, only Civale (4.08) has a career ERA above 4.00
 

Name another team in the NL Central with better SP that is six deep.

Injuries happen, maybe they’re snake bit this year and will be buried in the standings by summer, but it won’t be for lack of talent on the rost

Players who “have been” All Stars are often has beens.

if that’s the best rotation in the NL Central (which I doubt) it’s simply a sad commentary on how weak the division is.

[Playing Catch]

I think it's fair to be concerned that a poor start could *ahem*, torpedo, their season.

However, I think any criticisms of roster construction need to consider that the greater part of their 10 guys are unavailable to start games. Uribe and Mears are also unavailable.

I think the team knew that they'd be a little light to start the season, but that hoped they could get through it, and grow into the season.

[Playing Catch]

This is tangential to the topic, but I'm wondering if there are legitimate advantages/disadvantages to where teams spend Spring Training. I presume that if pitchers spend a month in the dry Arizona air, their stuff will behave differently in the cold, wet New York atmosphere.

This is merely a curiosity. So I'm not claiming and blaming.

I think the "problem" has been that the Yankees took advantage of their park with great effect, and TKO'd the Brewers in the 2nd round. The Brewers pitching staff desperately needs a day off, or three.

[shanedog19]

With how awful our starting rotation is, i think Misiorowski deserves a chance with the big league club soon. There is no way he is worse than Elvin Rodriguez, and has a chance to be much, much better. If the team can somehow stay afloat through May, you could potentially have a rotation of Peralta, Woodruff, Cortes, Myers, Quintana, and Miz (if they go with 6). I think you can go to battle with that rotation. I am over Civale as a starter.

[Jopal78]

3 hours ago, BruisedCrew said:

Players who “have been” All Stars are often has beens.

if that’s the best rotation in the NL Central (which I doubt) it’s simply a sad commentary on how weak the division is.

As they say: Put up or shut up. Knock the Brewers rotation if you will but throw out the starting 5 on another NL Central club that’s better top to bottom. 

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, shanedog19 said:

With how awful our starting rotation is, i think Misiorowski deserves a chance with the big league club soon. There is no way he is worse than Elvin Rodriguez, and has a chance to be much, much better. If the team can somehow stay afloat through May, you could potentially have a rotation of Peralta, Woodruff, Cortes, Myers, Quintana, and Miz (if they go with 6). I think you can go to battle with that rotation. I am over Civale as a starter.

Seriously? Misiorowski doesn’t know where the pitch is going when it leaves his hand, until he learns to consistently command his stuff, he’s not a major league caliber pitcher.  If the injuries reached a level where Misiorowski was their best option, it would mean the season is already lost. In that case they’d probably still go with someone else out of service time considerations. 

[owbc]

I had no expectations for winning the bullpen game so this is just a bad series sweep on the road with the x-factor of the torpedo bats. Personal opinion is that those bats are a big deal and the psychological factor can’t be overstated. 

The rest of the division is trash and won’t build too big of a lead on us. They just can’t let it snowball. It’s Murph’s biggest test as manager to date.