Why Pat Murphy Gave Cooper Pratt Tuesday Night Off

[Jack Stern]

Image courtesy of © Michael McLoone-Imagn Images

In the bottom of the sixth inning on Monday night, with runners on first and second and the Brewers trailing 3-2, Pat Murphy pinch-hit David Hamilton for Cooper Pratt. The decision could be seen as securing the platoon advantage by batting the left-handed Hamilton against the right-handed Chase Petty, but the changeup specialist has pronounced reverse splits in his limited big-league innings. He’s also been generally unsuccessful against big-league hitters overall during that time.

In reality, it was a big spot, and a struggling Pratt was not a great fit for the moment. He was an on-base machine during his first two series in the majors, but he has since gone 1-for-19. In his last three games, Pratt is hitless with four strikeouts and zero walks. On Sunday and Monday, to put it bluntly, he looked like a mess. He chased a handful of high fastballs, several of them well above the strike zone:

Murphy said the buildup of those poor swings contributed to the substitution, and his last at-bat on Monday triggered the move. His first time up, Pratt chased a 2-1 changeup just below the zone, prompting him to swing through a borderline two-strike fastball at the top of the zone for a strikeout. In that second at-bat, he lofted a changeup straddling the outside corner for a routine flyout.

“I made the decision early in the game,” Murphy said. “I was going to pinch-hit for him when I saw his second at-bat.”

Pratt’s chase rate was too high throughout the minor leagues, and improving his swing decisions is near the top of his development checklist. Before his last two games, he had contained his chase rate enough to match the league average. For the most part, he did what the Brewers asked him to do: swing at strikes, let the ball get deep, and use the opposite field to maximize his on-base potential. That’s changed during this lull.

“He’s trying to do too much. He’s trying to take another step, instead of just do what you were doing,” Murphy said. “Not just the success. The pitch selection was very, very good. He took his walks. He had a better flight plan. He wasn’t punching out. He’s gotten away from it a little bit the last couple series.”

After hitting 40% of his batted balls to the opposite field over his first nine games, Pratt has hit none that way in his last four games. His swing has been slightly longer and faster in that very brief sample, a sign that he’s unloading on more swings and trying to force damage. That kind of offense has not yet been developed in his 21-year-old body.

Murphy took action beyond Monday night, also withholding Pratt from the starting lineup on Tuesday. It wasn’t a punishment, but rather a mental break to help Pratt slow things down before his struggles continued snowballing.

“I called him in today and talked to him,” Murphy said. “It’s perspective.”

He took a similar approach with Jackson Chourio early in his rookie season. The former top prospect struggled to a .207/.251/.323 line (60 wRC+) over his first 176 plate appearances. During that stretch, Murphy did not start him for three straight games in early May, then for two straight games near the end of the month.

There’s a fine line between productive breaks and preventing a young player from getting going by limiting his reps, but things worked out fine for Chourio. He went on a tear in the second half as a rookie and has since remained a mainstay near the top of the lineup. Murphy thinks Pratt is already more mature than Chourio was at that time and won’t require as many resets.

“I think he’ll get back on his game quicker,” he said. “I think he’s done great. His baserunning, his defense has been nearly impeccable.”

Thirteen games into his career, Pratt is hitting just .211/.295/.237 with a 55 wRC+, though his .320 xwOBA and 81 DRC+ indicate the quality of his plate appearances has been a bit better than his results. More than anything, the last few days are a reminder that Pratt will probably take some lumps at the plate for a bit. His defense and baseball instincts made him big league-ready, but the bat could take a few years to come around.

“I was just really sincere with him about it and reinforced with him how much we believed in him and how proud I am of the way he transitioned when he first got here,” Murphy said. “A lot of guys don’t do that.”

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[Michael Trzinski]

I think Coop is going to be a fine player for years. We all need to remember that he has less than 50 PAs in the bigs and although his batting isn't where we hoped it would be, he has still played solid defense and has five SB.

There will be some growing pains but in the end, he will be a solid contributor for Milwaukee.

[igor67]

At this point I have a ton of faith in Murphy to mentor Pratt along with the rest of the team. While it often ends up driving us crazy in the short term they do seem to have one heck of a knack for helping guys make that final step. So at this point a solid start that featured a good approach followed by a few days of getting away from that when clearly most of the team had started to press a bit. Not even a top 100 worry for me.

[izzi]

Dude can't hit. Never could. Trade him before it's obvious to everyone

[kestrel79]

Joey has looked better of late too. All of our younger guys have gone through those stretches where the book is out on them and teams adjust how they pitch you, and you have to now counter adjust. 

You just knew those Cubs pitchers weren't going to throw him a strike, just high fastballs and see if he'd lay off. He didn't.