What we learned: June 24, 2014

Yesterday's Results

Nationals 3, Brewers 0

The Brewers lost the opener of a 3 game series last night at Miller Park to the Nationals, getting shut out to snap the 4 game winning streak. The only scoring came when Matt Garza gave up a 3-run home run to Adam LaRoche in the third inning.

Cram Session

• Yesterday we discussed the standing of the Brewer outfield's relative rank among all outfields in MLB from a post at Beyond the Boxscore. I had some problems with their methodology (if you can even call it that) in the comments, but hey, the Brewers came out ranked third so good job everyone.
• Derek previewed the Nationals series, so head over there and get caught up on his take on the pitching matchups for tonight and tomorrow. He predicted that the Brewers would only get 1 out of 3 in this series.
• JP has your Prognostiggers results and entry form, congrats to user tgdpb on the W last week.
• Yesterday brought an All-Star voting update with some good news for the Brewers. With the big push from the PR department and a few attack ads, every Brewer moved up in the rankings. Aramis Ramirez is now in line to start at 3rd base (given the weak crop there in the NL, it makes some sense). Lucroy narrowed the gap at catcher but is still in second. Carlos Gomez currently holds a starting spot in the outfield, and Ryan Braun is in 5th.
• Adam McCalvy's game recap digs into the point that that Gio Gonzalez had the Brewers completely off their game last night by throwing a changeup far more than they expected based on their scouting reports.
• Carlos Gomez's 18-game hitting streak and 35-game on-base streak came to an end last night. He had a 12 pitch battle to lead off the 9th inning against Tyler Clippard but struck out. After the game he told McCalvy he could have attempted a bunt but chose to "defend [the streak] like a man."
• Yesterday over at Disciples of Uecker, Adam Wieser talked about how much Scooter Gennett has exceeded expectations, and how much we can learn about projecting his future performance based on his crazy major league career so far.
• The Brewers Bar talked to a Royals fan about the Aoki/Smith trade.
• Jeff Sullivan talks about Carlos Gomez's extreme rate of swinging at the first pitch, and the success he has had doing so. He leads baseball in that category by 11 percentage points!

Power Rankings Tuesday

• ESPN moves the A's and Brewers up to 1 and 2 and drops the Giants to 3rd. The Cardinals jump 2 spots to #6.
• Same story in the top 3 at MLB.com, which has the Angels in 4th.
• The top 4 is the same at Sports Illustrated, and the Cardinals show up in 5th place. Bringing up the rear are our good friends out in Arizona, the Diamondbacks.
• Jonah Keri at Grantland sticks the Brewers at #2 in The 30, but also terrifyingly discusses the idea of a trade of David Price to St. Louis.
• Fox Sports swapped the Giants and Brewers this week, giving A's, Brewers, Giants top 3 a sweep of the major media network power rankings this week.
• Screwing up the sweep is Fansided, which has the Brewers in 3rd-- and though they say some nice things, they place more blame on the Dbacks and Rockies for the past week than they give credit to the Brewers.

Minor League Update

Check out morineko's daily minor league update for a more in-depth look at yesterday's minor league results.

• Early draft pick Monte Harrison hit a home run in the AZL Brewers game last night.
• Taylor Jungmann had a solid, if unspectacular, start at AAA last night in a Sounds win.

Division Update

Today's Division Games

• The Brewers play game 2 against the Nationals at 7:10 PM at Miller Park.
• The Cardinals play the Rockies in Colorado, first pitch at 7:40.
• The Reds and Cubs continue a series in Chicago with a 7:10 start.
• The Pirates play game 2 of an interleague series in Tampa Bay at 6:10.