Should The Brewers Being "Emotionally Drained" By The All-Star Break Cause Concern?

Pairing short starts, extensive bullpen usage and a grinding, scrape-and-scramble offense can wear any team down over a 100-day period. The Brewers are in a funk at the moment, and seem desperate for the All-Star break to arrive yet again. However, the problem remains: After this five-day respite, they’ll be the same team they were before. So what has to change for the Brewers?

The Offense
The Brewers' offense have been much more formidable than was expected this season, with Joey Ortiz and Brice Turang complementing a resurgent Christian Yelich and (early on) an MVP-level William Contreras. However, despite massive power production from both Yelich and Contreras in April, the Brewers have struggled with the long ball since May and rank just 26th in MLB with 60 home runs. For a team consisting of Willy Adames, Contreras, Gary Sánchez and Rhys Hoskins (plus the young, dynamic Ortiz and Jackson Chourio), there have been too many cold stretches that brought power outages.

Maybe we shouldn’t expect Yelich and Contreras to hit 25-plus home runs, given their ground-ball proclivities. Still, Contreras turning into a substandard hitter for two months hurt the offense enormously, while the aforementioned sluggers were struggling in and with a lack of playing time. Yelich may yet find a hot stretch like he did in April, but at least he’s continued hitting for average during his cooler patches.

The solution for Contreras, as much as he may dislike it, is that Sánchez has to catch more often. Between them, they have (on paper) the best offensive catching tandem in Major League Baseball, but the Brewers haven’t used this advantageous situation to give their number-one any real rest early in the season. Sánchez is likely to return after the break, and Contreras needs to be given more proper days off (not just DH days), to make sure you’re getting not just quantity, but quality from him. That’s infinitely more valuable than making appearances in over 150 games this season just for the sake of it. The extra downtime should bring benefits both offensively and defensively for the star catcher, because if they want to perform in September and October, then he’ll be a vital cog.

In regard to the middle-of-the-order sluggers, the high-pull, high-fly ball hitters will always be streaky. Adames, Hoskins, Sánchez and Bauers all fall into this category, and all have shown an ability to carry the offense when they get hot, but it’s been too sporadic so far. Hoskins appears to have found some timing, and Adames heated up significantly over the final week before the break. The long and short of it is that the Brewers need more long balls to take the pressure off their offense's short game, to free up Brice Turang, Sal Frelick, and Chourio somewhat and reduce the mental fatigue that will no doubt be coming back, otherwise, in late August and September.

The Pitching
Thankfully, one part of this may already be getting fixed. The reassigned Bryse Wilson and the rehabilitated Jakob Junis have strengthened the Brewers' middle-relief corps, who can now take pressure off those previously going multiple innings when they hadn’t built up for it. In the interim, Hoby Milner, Elvis Peguero, and others were filling these innings, with Milner in particular worked to the bone. Having that long relief will be essential when the starting pitchers have struggled to work deeper into games.

Speaking of that: The Brewers' starting pitchers rank 29th in total innings from their starting pitchers--although that incorporates a slight penalty, given their occasional usage of “openers”. Averaging around 4 ⅔ innings per appearance from their starters is not going to cut it for what is already looking like a strained bullpen. Dallas Keuchel wasn’t the answer. There is some hope the flashes from DL Hall in Nashville and Joe Ross before his back injury will provide some quality on their return, but a lot of this will come down to Freddy Peralta. The Brewers are going to need him to find some semblance of the dominance he demonstrated in the latter stages of last season, or that bullpen will be on its last legs when it's needed most.

A comment from Chris Hook last season that preceded the breakout was about Peralta’s mental approach on the mound, trying to bring through his personality on the mound. Peralta referenced this, as well, his infectious enthusiasm being shelved for a more serious demeanor that played havoc with him in pressured situations. This year, as the projected leader of the pitching staff, it seems the tension has racked up on his shoulders again. Murphy has alluded to that as a reason for his struggles. Peralta can attempt to be “too perfect,” in situations where his raw swing-and-miss stuff should be sufficient. He doesn’t need to be wasting pitches and inflating his own pitch counts. The Brewers staff need to find a way to release some of the internal pressure Peralta puts on himself. Only then will he be able to reach his very lofty ceiling.

What Lessons Can Pat Murphy Learn?
Pat Murphy has developed a lot already as a manager this season, and his bullpen management has improved significantly. He appears to believe in momentum in some ways, with a focus on using his best available players to stop losing streaks or even to get off to a good start earlier in the season. The next step is to find moments when he can get away with testing some of his least proven players and alleviate the pressure on the core.

Murphy hasn't had his best weapons at his disposal for much of the year, but even once he does, he may have to leave DL Hall or Joe Ross in for those extra few batters when they come back and save an inning here and there for arms who figure to be bigger pieces of their postseason plans. It may not show perfectly in the win column at times, but in the long run, it could make a big difference. In return, the back end of the rotation needs to repay that faith with quality performance, which is still a matter in question.

One thing Murphy hasn’t done a lot of early in the year is rotating the offensive contributors, especially his main core. He’s listened to his players, and perhaps that hasn’t always been the wisest choice--particularly with Contreras, but also with Turang and Yelich, who had played 50-plus consecutive games leading up to the All-Star break. Both are gritty players, and that mental grind requires time off--maybe even more than is needed if you go about your at-bats the way a team like Atlanta does.

In short, Murphy needs to trust the depth of the team to perform, or they can’t be at their best at the back end of the season. It might mean more appearances for Monasterio to give Turang the occasional day off, or more of Sánchez and Eric Haase, but that’s not something to scoff at. The Crew’s depth has been an underutilized resource in the first half, and while there may be reinforcements coming, the point remains the same. Murphy needs his starters to step up, and to keep half an eye on the potential for players to succeed past September and into October.