Glavine is a good pitcher, a smart guy, but that's disgusting.
Last year, Milwaukee K'd 1162 times--that's 7.2 K's per game, good for second (by quite a bit) in the National League. There's not much reason to expect it to be any different this year: yeah, Russell Branyan is striking out for the Devil Rays now, but adding full seasons of Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks would appear--so far, anyway--to easily close that gap. So far this year, the Crew has averaged nearly 8 K's per game, good for 5th worst in baseball.
There have been endless debates over whether all these strikeouts are really all that bad; after all, if the bases are empty, a K is no different than an F9, and all those punchouts might contribute to the number of pitches Brewers see. However, beyond the endless frustration to Brewers fans, putting the ball in play does make a difference, no matter what the immediate consequence. After all, the Mets fourth run last night--you know, the one that made sure they won the game--came on a Carlos Delgado GIDP.
So...what to do? We're going to have to be patient with Fielder, Hardy, and Weeks--I don't think Prince will be this K-tastic once he has a full season under his belt. Rickie often looks like he needs a good hitting coach (and I'm not confident that Butch Wynegar is the guy). Hardy? It's great he's got a power stroke, but I'm not sure that's the hitter he is.
The one glaring number amongst the Brewers strikeout totals is this: in 10 games, 39 ABs, 42 PAs, Geoff Jenkins has struck out 15 times. That puts him on pace for 240 over the course of a full season, which is completely disgusting. He looks awful, especially against lefties. This is nothing new, he's done a Jose Hernandez impression against southpaws his entire career. Geoff Jenkins doesn't need to start every day, especially when someone like Glavine is on the hill. I don't think Doug Melvin and Ned Yost put Corey Hart on the roster so that he could slowly die of an infected splinter wound.
Tags: Butch Wynegar, Devil Rays, New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, Russell Branyan, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Doug Melvin, Tom Glavine, Carlos Delgado, Ned Yost