I don’t know, A.J. Pierzynski seems to actually be terrible at it. I don’t think he has the type of former player personality and insight/knowledge sharing that play well on broadcasts. Of course he didn’t exactly have the type of personality that played well on the field or in the clubhouse either.
The Brewers have the most plate appearances with the bases loaded in all of baseball at 75 total now. The next closest teams in MLB are the Dodgers and Red Sox who have 58 PAs with the bases loaded. Unfortunately the Brewers have a 67 wRC+ with the bases loaded (Dodgers are at 143 wRC+ and Red Sox at 158 wRC+ with the bases loaded). On the bottom end of the spectrum 10 teams have less than 40 PAs with the bases loaded including 4 with less than 30 PAs with the bags full.
A lot of ugly tonight, but some positives include Arcia showing glimpses of the approach of a decent major league hitter, Hiura with a pair of hits (yes one bad running decision), and Jacob Nottingham goes yard for his first MLB HR.
The Brewers are going with an all right handed swinging lineup tonight aside from Yelich. Fried is a southpaw, but doesn't have exaggerated lefty/righty splits. Over his 32 career games Fried has allowed a .732 OPS to right handed hitters and a .706 OPS to left handed hitters.
I will forever believe the Pirates mid-July five game sweep of the Brewers convinced them they were something they simply weren’t. That series moved them to just one game below .500 heading into the All Star Break and seemingly within striking distance for a wild card spot (albeit still 5.5 games out of the wild card). If for instance the Pirates would have instead gone 2-3 in that series I don’t think they would have made the Archer trade. I think they got caught up with moving onto the periphery of the playoff picture.
Hader threw just 12 pitches last night. If this remains a narrow margin in the Brewers favor I assume Hader is available for at least one inning. Hoping for more than that is probably pushing it.
It already has the feel of being one of those days where whoever ultimately loses is going to experience frustration over the mistakes and missed opportunities.
The Brewers are now 10-2 against the NL East with four more versus foes from the East over the next four days. With none of those games being against the Marlins yet the Brewers are setup nicely to own the East this season.
They showed still photos and said he is setting his hands higher. The thing about that claim is Lorenzo’s pre-pitch routine is to constantly bob his hands up and down between the locations of the two still image positions they showed. I am a slightly skeptical about the claim that he has changed his hand positioning right before he swings, but I guess if they say it’s so I’ll take their word for it.
Beautiful piece of hitting by Christian there going with where it was pitched and peppering left field. Also, where is everyone tonight? Is there something else going on??