BruisedCrew

The timing of this article is unfortunate. Especially this sentence: ”The 2022 Brewers team can rely on their starters to go into the 6th and 7th inning and shouldn’t have to rely on overwhelming depth”. With Peralta out for at least a couple more months, and Woodruff’s stay on the IL becoming significantly longer than expected, the starters aren’t covering the innings needed to get by without a deep bullpen. And that lack of depth is showing as deficits in the middle innings are turning into blowout losses. Several recent short starts from Burnes, Houser, and Lauer have put more strain on the bullpen. Good late inning relievers are pretty much wasted on a team that can’t take a lead into the late innings. Throw in an offense that has been the second worst in the NL since early May (better than only the Pirates) and the Brewers house of cards is collapsing. The Brewers don’t have many games where they score enough runs to take a comfortable lead into the late innings, so the lack of depth becomes more problematic if the same relievers are needed to finish almost every win. The bullpen might not be the Brewers biggest problem, but it shares some responsibility along with starting pitching, hitting, and defense for the recent slide.

The timing of this article is unfortunate. Especially this sentence: ”The 2022 Brewers team can rely on their starters to go into the 6th and 7th inning and shouldn’t have to rely on overwhelming depth”. With Peralta out for at least a couple more months, and Woodruff’s stay on the IL becoming significantly longer than expected, the starters aren’t covering the innings needed to get by without a deep bullpen. And that lack of depth is showing as deficits in the middle innings are turning into blowout losses. Several recent short starts from Burnes, Houser, and Lauer have put more strain on the bullpen. Good late inning relievers are pretty much wasted on a team that can’t take a lead into the late innings. Throw in an offense that has been the second worst in the NL since early May (better than only the Pirates) and the Brewers house of cards is collapsing. The Brewers don’t have many games where they score enough runs to take a comfortable lead into the late innings, so the lack of depth becomes more problematic if the same relievers are needed to finish almost every win. The bullpen might not be the Brewers biggest problem, but it shares some responsibility along with starting pitching, hitting, and defense for the recent slide.

This is an excellent summary, though I would question the use of the word “haters”. Maybe something like “critics” would be more appropriate. I think most of the critics on this board are much better described as “fanatics” than “haters”. On the subject of the Brewers beating up on bad teams, that first came up after they started 18-8 with a high percentage of their games against the Pirates, Cubs, Orioles, and Reds, who left Milwaukee on May 5 with a record of 3-22. The consensus at the time seemed to be that the Pirates, Cubs, and Reds might be the 3 worst teams in the NL, not just the division. I remember pointing out after that Reds series that the schedule was going to get much tougher through the end of June as the Brewers played many more playoff contending teams, and had three, 3 city road trips. I think pointing that out wasn’t being a “hater”, but just taking an objective look at the schedule. The Brewers performance since May 5 reflects that tougher schedule. On May 5 the Brewers had a record of 18-8 with 128 runs scored and 87 allowed. Since then they have gone 15-12 with 115 runs scored and 117 allowed. Their almost uncanny ability to win close, low scoring games has allowed them to maintain a winning pace. I recognize the rush of injuries the Brewers have had the last couple of weeks, but I don’t think they have had a significant effect on the won-loss record YET. I note that on their first road trip after May 5 they dropped 5 of 8 against the Braves, Reds, and Marlins before Adames was injured. The Braves and Marlins illustrate that using “teams under .500” to identify weak teams can be misleading. Those teams are all under .500 but I consider the Braves and Marlins (largely because of some strong pitchers) to be more competitive than some other teams. Even the Reds, after their horrific start, have gone 15-10 since May 5, a slightly better record than the Brewers. Sometimes it isn’t what teams you have played, but when you played them. The Braves with Acuna seem to be more formidable than without him. Anyway, to me the best news for the Brewers now is that the absolutely worst part of their schedule for the season is behind them, and they survived it in pretty good fashion. They have completed 2 of the 3 3 city road trips, including the worst of the bunch, the latest trip which featured 11 games in 10 days. The other 2 trips are/were 9 games in 10 days, which puts a lot less stress on the team and the pitching staff, even a staff without injuries and other personal absences. So, while the June schedule is still more difficult than the first 26 games of the season, it has many more home games and includes 3 off days and (as of now) no doubleheaders. I mentioned that I don’t think the injuries have hurt the W-L record much, if at all, YET, because the fill-ins have generally done the job (like Williams as closer, Peterson delivering some big hits, and Taylor getting hot when given regular playing time). I am skeptical that this is sustainable for too long, so hopefully Adames, Renfroe, Woodruff, and Narvaez can all be back soon. On the subject of the two losses to the Cubs, I see both overreactions and overreactions to the overreactions. It is only natural for many baseball fans to get emotionally wrapped up in the game every day and react in the moment. As the daily results (good and bad) sink in the games quickly get blended in with the bigger picture. When people have an overreaction to the latest game or string of games, it might be better to let them wail than to try to convince them that they shouldn’t react the way they do. So, maybe at the end of the day the advice in the title would be good to remember. Whether you choose to call them (or me) “haters”, “critics”, “cynics”, “skeptics”, or whatever, try ignoring them. Just my two cents.

This is an excellent summary, though I would question the use of the word “haters”. Maybe something like “critics” would be more appropriate. I think most of the critics on this board are much better described as “fanatics” than “haters”. On the subject of the Brewers beating up on bad teams, that first came up after they started 18-8 with a high percentage of their games against the Pirates, Cubs, Orioles, and Reds, who left Milwaukee on May 5 with a record of 3-22. The consensus at the time seemed to be that the Pirates, Cubs, and Reds might be the 3 worst teams in the NL, not just the division. I remember pointing out after that Reds series that the schedule was going to get much tougher through the end of June as the Brewers played many more playoff contending teams, and had three, 3 city road trips. I think pointing that out wasn’t being a “hater”, but just taking an objective look at the schedule. The Brewers performance since May 5 reflects that tougher schedule. On May 5 the Brewers had a record of 18-8 with 128 runs scored and 87 allowed. Since then they have gone 15-12 with 115 runs scored and 117 allowed. Their almost uncanny ability to win close, low scoring games has allowed them to maintain a winning pace. I recognize the rush of injuries the Brewers have had the last couple of weeks, but I don’t think they have had a significant effect on the won-loss record YET. I note that on their first road trip after May 5 they dropped 5 of 8 against the Braves, Reds, and Marlins before Adames was injured. The Braves and Marlins illustrate that using “teams under .500” to identify weak teams can be misleading. Those teams are all under .500 but I consider the Braves and Marlins (largely because of some strong pitchers) to be more competitive than some other teams. Even the Reds, after their horrific start, have gone 15-10 since May 5, a slightly better record than the Brewers. Sometimes it isn’t what teams you have played, but when you played them. The Braves with Acuna seem to be more formidable than without him. Anyway, to me the best news for the Brewers now is that the absolutely worst part of their schedule for the season is behind them, and they survived it in pretty good fashion. They have completed 2 of the 3 3 city road trips, including the worst of the bunch, the latest trip which featured 11 games in 10 days. The other 2 trips are/were 9 games in 10 days, which puts a lot less stress on the team and the pitching staff, even a staff without injuries and other personal absences. So, while the June schedule is still more difficult than the first 26 games of the season, it has many more home games and includes 3 off days and (as of now) no doubleheaders. I mentioned that I don’t think the injuries have hurt the W-L record much, if at all, YET, because the fill-ins have generally done the job (like Williams as closer, Peterson delivering some big hits, and Taylor getting hot when given regular playing time). I am skeptical that this is sustainable for too long, so hopefully Adames, Renfroe, Woodruff, and Narvaez can all be back soon. On the subject of the two losses to the Cubs, I see both overreactions and overreactions to the overreactions. It is only natural for many baseball fans to get emotionally wrapped up in the game every day and react in the moment. As the daily results (good and bad) sink in the games quickly get blended in with the bigger picture. When people have an overreaction to the latest game or string of games, it might be better to let them wail than to try to convince them that they shouldn’t react the way they do. So, maybe at the end of the day the advice in the title would be good to remember. Whether you choose to call them (or me) “haters”, “critics”, “cynics”, “skeptics”, or whatever, try ignoring them. Just my two cents.

As someone who lived through those years, and all of the rest of Brewers history, the answer is pretty simple. A terrible team leads to no expectations and no aggravation. When expectations are higher, every game becomes more important in the broader context of reaching the playoffs and having a reasonable chance to advance in them. So, the team is subjected to closer scrutiny and a higher standard of performance. This year just winning the division isn’t the only thing to focus on. There is the additional goal is having one of the top two division winning records to avoid the “wild card” round of playoffs. Internet message boards for teams like the Brewers had from 1993-2004 would have been pretty quiet because not many people cared enough about the Brewers to complain about them.

As someone who lived through those years, and all of the rest of Brewers history, the answer is pretty simple. A terrible team leads to no expectations and no aggravation. When expectations are higher, every game becomes more important in the broader context of reaching the playoffs and having a reasonable chance to advance in them. So, the team is subjected to closer scrutiny and a higher standard of performance. This year just winning the division isn’t the only thing to focus on. There is the additional goal is having one of the top two division winning records to avoid the “wild card” round of playoffs. Internet message boards for teams like the Brewers had from 1993-2004 would have been pretty quiet because not many people cared enough about the Brewers to complain about them.

I made a post near the end of last night’s game after Devin Williams couldn’t get out of the 8th inning after starting with a 4 run lead, and the Brewers only got out of the inning when Urias made a diving grab on a soft liner that threatened to put the Reds ahead. The comment was: “The last few days have exposed the Brewers bullpen as not nearly the strong point everyone assumed it would be. And if the starters keep laboring to go 5 or 6 innings it’s going to become a big problem.” If you want to see the responses that comment triggered, you can see them on the game thread. First, let me make it clear that what follows is not a criticism of any of Counsell’s decisions regarding going with a 6 day rotation at this stage of the season or how he has used the bullpen. (Although in light of how the last week has gone with several short starts taxing the bullpen, Hader only pitching one inning in almost 2 weeks, and an off day on Thursday, it's harder to justify not bringing Hader in once it became obvious that Williams was struggling. It is fortunate that Naquin didn’t tie the game or put the Reds ahead. My comment about short starts from the starters comes from this perspective: 1. I understand that starting pitchers generally don’t cover as many innings as they did decades ago. 2. The Brewers are supposed to have one of the best, if not the best, starting rotations in MLB. So, IMHO, statistics showing that the Brewers starters are among the league leaders in things like average IP per start and quality starts are not the standard the Brewers should be held to. 3. This is especially true because so many teams occasionally have to resort to “bullpen games” in which the plan is for the starter to go one inning, or maybe 2, and those starts are going to drive down their averages. It seems like Brewers opponents have done this several times, including strong teams like the Giants and Braves. 4. Because of the 6 man starting rotation, and the desire to use Boxberger, Williams, and Hader in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings of winnable games, even with 14 pitchers on the roster, that leaves 5 pitchers to cover innings when the starter can’t complete 6. They also have to cover innings in lopsided games and games in which the Brewers are trailing going into the 7th inning or the top end relievers are unavailable due to heavy usage. 5. Right now, those 5 back end of the bullpen relievers are Suter, Milner, Gott, Perdomo, and Mejia (replacing Gustave). Gott has been effective, and Suter is a known commodity. But these are generally not pitchers you want to see very often in the highest leverage situations. 6. The Brewers as a staff may be among the league leaders with an average of 5.1 (or whatever it is) IP per start and 13 quality starts, but that is largely Burnes and Lauer weighting the scale to cover very poor peformances from Woodruff and Peralta. The IP per start from the 5 top starters so far have been: Burnes 6.4, Lauer 5.9, Houser 5.3, Woodruff 4.4 , and Peralta 4.4. Even Ashby in his 3 starts has covered slightly more IP per start (4.55) than Peralta and Woodruff. 7. Of the 13 quality starts, Burnes has 5, Lauer has 4,Houser has 2, and Woodruff and Peralta have one each (both against the Pirates). So, again, Burnes and Lauer are carrying the load and Woodruff and Peralta are not coming close to the standards expected from them. 8. I understand that it’s early in the season and not a time to panic. But, I come back to my comment from last night about the recent run through the rotation and the impact it has on the bullpen. Forcing the back end relievers to enter just to get through the 5th and 6th innings reduces the manager’s options both in that game and possibly future games. And when one of the top end relievers like Williams has a bad outing like last night, and Hader will not be used before the 9th, you’re going to see things like Perdomo trying to get out of a critical inning. You can blame the bullpen for that, but short starts from supposed aces of the staff share a significant part of the blame. Needing 3 relievers on Sunday and 4 more on Monday just to complete 8 innings in blowout losses might have impacted Tuesday’s game. 9. BTW, I wrote this before Houser's awful start today that does nothing to help the problem. An off day tomorrow and another one next Thursday might help. But when the Brewers face a stretch of 18 games in 17 days after that (11 of them on the road) they're going to need better performances and more innings covered by their SP, not just Burnes and Lauer.

The way I remember it that happened while he was pitching and tried to avoid a collision with a runner on a ball dribbled down the line.

The way I remember it that happened while he was pitching and tried to avoid a collision with a runner on a ball dribbled down the line.

The way I remember it that happened while he was pitching and tried to avoid a collision with a runner on a ball dribbled down the line.

The way I remember it that happened while he was pitching and tried to avoid a collision with a runner on a ball dribbled down the line.

I would love to see the Yelich that the Brewers traded for and that we saw in the first half of the 2018 season before he went on his MVP tear. Hitting the ball with authority to all fields with an occasional long ball would be a much welcome change to what he’s done the last two years. I’ve seen about 10 of his spring training AB’s on TV and he has looked frighteningly like the 20-21 Yelich and not at all like the first half of 2018 Yelich. Given what he’s being paid it can’t be too surprising that fans are not satisfied with a league average OPS+.

I would love to see the Yelich that the Brewers traded for and that we saw in the first half of the 2018 season before he went on his MVP tear. Hitting the ball with authority to all fields with an occasional long ball would be a much welcome change to what he’s done the last two years. I’ve seen about 10 of his spring training AB’s on TV and he has looked frighteningly like the 20-21 Yelich and not at all like the first half of 2018 Yelich. Given what he’s being paid it can’t be too surprising that fans are not satisfied with a league average OPS+.