BruisedCrew

I’m sure they want him to get more ABs since he missed virtually all of the spring training games.

It’s too bad they had to go to Hader to close this one out.

That outburst will add about a half a run to the team’s RPG. Now to make the night complete we need to see the bullpen coast home and give Williams and Hader another day off.

Wow, Adames has found the stroke.

Brewers can’t afford to lose games when they explode for 4 runs. Have to find a way to get a few more.

They were talking before that until Peterson’s DP the Brewers had not hit into one in 8 days, the only team in MLB to not hit into one. A cynic might point out that you have to have baserunners to hit into a DP.

Nice to see Adames driving the ball.

Looks like a short start from Woodruff tonight . 42 pitches to get through 2 innings and he might have to be removed early if that foot gets sore.

That’s not what you want to see.

The Brewers really could use a game with 7-8 runs, and there’s a start.

Recognizing that the season is still in its infancy, and that offense is down across the league, the Brewers offense has been brutal relative to the rest of the league. Before this year I only compared the Brewers to teams in the NL because the DH resulted in slightly higher scoring in AL games. Last year with their 3 months of excellent scoring and 3 months of dreary offense, the Brewers scored 4.56 runs per game. That was slightly above the league average of 4.46 runs and placed them 6th in the NL. That was lower than all of the other NL playoff teams except for the Cardinals, who needed their red hot September to rise to 4.36 RPG. This year with the universal DH I am looking at MLB as a whole, and the overall average RPG has fallen to 4.00 RPG, a drop of about a half a run a game. But, the Brewers scoring so far is just 3.29 RPG (1.27 lower than last season). That places them 26th in MLB and 13th in the NL, ahead of only the DBacks and Reds. Of the teams considered the likely playoff contenders in the NL (Braves, Mets, Phillies, Cards, Dodgers, Giants and Padres), only the Padres at 3.96 RPG are below that MLB average of 4.00. As I have watched portions of games on MLB TV, I have seen announcers for several contending teams talking about how their offenses have struggled in the early going. Just last weekend that included the Braves, Yankees, Phillies, and Rays, all of which are scoring more than the Brewers. So, while it is reasonable to expect the Brewers offense to pick up as players heat up and Urias returns to the lineup, the question might be whether they will improve as much as or more than the other contenders, including teams that will be welcoming back players like Acuna and Tatis. FanGraphs projected the Brewers to be 20th in MLB in runs scored before the season started. It's going to take more than just players returning to their projected performance for them to have even an average offense, much less one that isn't significantly less potent than the top teams in the NL. I'm still expecting a trade of one of the top 7 starting pitchers (including Small) to acquire a quality bat. Without it I think the Brewers are destined for a below average offense and at best a placement in the first round of the playoffs as either a wild card team or the lowest seeded division winner.

Considering that the Reds no longer have several of the players that gave them a potent offense last year (especially Castellanos and Winker), and have also parted ways with a couple of their top pitchers, there is no reason to expect them to challenge .500 this year. Throw in an injury to India and Votto off to a terible start and this is a really bad team that doesn’t figure to improve significantly over the course of the season.

The two things are related. Because the Brewers have trouble scoring more than 2 or 3 runs in a game, even with outstanding starting pitching they rarely take more than a small lead into the late innings. So, to protect those small leads they have to use their top relievers, usually starting in the 7th inning. Obviously, pitchers like Boxberger, Williams (who has been erratic so far), and Hader can’t pitch every day, so some times, like Friday and yesterday, protecting those small leads is going to fall to the middle and back end of the bullpen. Hader has been exceptional, saving 8 of the Brewers 10 wins. But it isn’t sustainable to have a closer save 80% of the team’s wins if the team expects to win the 90 or so games it it usually takes to make the playoffs. They have to be able to score enough runs on occasion to win games without a save. Last season the Brewers only lost 4 games when they took a lead into the 8th inning. They’ve had 2 in the last 4 days, and there are going to be a lot more if the offense can’t score more runs in the first 6 or 7 innings, no matter how good the starting pitching is.

One of the problems with the popgun offense is the stress it puts on the top relievers. To win the 85-90 games it will probably take to win the division, they’re going to have to win some games without using Boxberger, Williams, and Hader in almost every one. A 1-0 win like last night is fine once in a while, but occasionally a team has to take a larger lead into the late innings and get the win without using its top relievers. The Brewers only lost 4 games last year when they had a lead after 7 innings. This year they already have lost 2 when they had to rely on the second tier of the bullpen to try to hold a 1 run lead after the offense failed to provide a cushion to support an outstanding start.

That should do it. One run is a big hill for the Brewers to climb but 2 is Mount Everest.

One of my pet peeves from the announcers is when they say the Brewers offense has been inconsistent so far this season when, in fact, it’s been very consistent: consistently weak. Its inevitable that there is going to be variation in how many runs you score, especially facing different pitchers every day. But it isn’t like they are scoring 12 runs one day and getting shut out the next. They have scored between 0 and 6 runs every game and only reached 10 hits once (the first game in Chicago).

I’m guessing Cousins. He’s not going to throw Hader out for the third day in a row in a tie game.

Come on Brewers, Give the fans something to make noise about. Like that HR.

Presumably Ashby because he is scheduled to start on Wednesday.

I assume that number about the calls favoring the Brewers comes out that way largely because the call against Schwarber came in the last of the ninth. It meant the difference between a man on first and one out and two outs and nobody on. At that stage of the game that has a much bigger impact on the win probability than the same call would make early in the game. Everyone who saw that game knows there were a lot of bad calls and they went both ways. The graph shows that there a lot of pitches called strikes that were more out of the zone than that one. That one was just the last straw.

Too bad the Brewers have to use up their best relievers on a game where they have virtually no chance of scoring a run.

Only if they play 30:games against the Pirates and 30 games against the Orioles.

I’m glad I have a nice big screen TV so they can cram the game into about half of it. I can turn off the sound so I don’t have to listen to Harper but I can’t get him off the screen.

I guess we'll see if Friday's game was just one of those where the Bulls didn't adjust to the Bucks big lineup and the Bucks got hot early and put the game away. Or maybe the first two games were just flukes and the Bucks really are that much better and just played poorly in both. My biggest concern about losing Middleton would show up in a close game because of his value as a clutch shooter and free throw shooter. I hope that you're right and that the oddsmakers who had the Bulls as a 2 point underdog on Friday and a 4 point underdog today are overestimating the Bulls chances.

Hey, a win in Philadelphia. Couldn’t manage that in 4 tries last year. .