Sunday Sundries: Week 23

We all would have taken a 4-3 week, no questions asked, before hosting the Cubs at Miller Park for 3 and traveling to St. Louis for a 4 game set. Two of three from the Cubs and a split in Busch got the Brewers just that result. They are 7-5 over the last two weeks, with Jonathan Lucroy, Will Smith, and Jeremy Jeffress off the roster. Not only are those three gone, but nobody came back to help the team this season. The hope is, of course, that they will help in the next few seasons. Kudos to Craig Counsell and the players that are still here!

TOP HITTING STORY: Domingo Santana will not go softly into that good night. He wants to start next year, and for many years to come. Good health is showing us what he can do. This past week, Sunday slashed .417/.462/.792 - OPS of 1.253. He had three homers, and no cheapies. He is a menacing figure at the plate, and hits with patience. Too many good players? The Cubs are showing that that is not a problem.

Honorable Mention: The Brewer catchers didn’t kill the ball this week. Manny Pina, Andrew Sumac, and Martin Maldonado combined to slash .130/.222/.304 (OPS .526). Maldy had a homer and sac fly, but you look for more out of your backstops than that. Nobody is stepping up, although Susac hasn’t exactly had much of a chance yet. I knew trading Luc would leave a hole in the line-up, but I was hoping for a smaller hole than what it’s proven to be.

TOP PITCHING STORY: Tyler Thornburg has taken his opportunity to be the Brewers’ closer and run with it. Hard to imagine anybody has better numbers since the trades of Jeremy Jeffress and Will Smith - anywhere in any bullpen. This week, Tyler went 2.2 scoreless innings, with no base runners. Struck out 4. Won one and saved one, finishing two of the Brewers four wins. Just crazy good. (He allowed an inherited runner to score today, but hey! - nobody’s perfect.)

Honorable Mention: Time to recognize the job Matt Garza is doing. Only one start this week, but his six inning/three hit/one earned/ one walk/two strikeout performance was his second very good start in a row. Where will Garza be starting games next year? ‘Cause he’s pitching himself into somebody’s rotation, whether it’s Milwaukee or elsewhere.

Dishonorable Mention: Corey Knebel and Ben Rowen combined to pitched 2.1 innings this week. That’s 4.4% of the innings for the team. They allowed 9 hits. That’s 18% of the hits allowed. They allowed eight earned runs. That’s 31% of the earned runs. There are lots of arms out there. Knebel might need a break.

IMHO: We all know that Junior Guerra has been a great rookie pitcher for the Brewers this year. He hasn’t been quite as dominant in two starts since coming back from his DL stay, but is still an effective starter. Did you know that Juni G is slashing .242/.242/.303 this year? That’s a slash of .545, better than our catchers for this past week. He’s scored twice, and has two doubles. Hoodathunk, even for (especially for?) and ex-catcher.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK: Kyle gave us his last minor league recap. You can read all about it here.

Old friend Noah complimented Kyle on how much work went into that weekly report. He oughta know.

*********************************************************

So the post rec button is yellow now.

And apparently it doesn’t show the number of recs?

Anyway, rec’d cause this was probably a whole lotta work to keep doing every week.

by Noah Jarosh on Sep 9, 2016 | 9:28 AM reply

*********************************************************

The Brewers have three at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati and four in Wrigley Field this week as their string of 21 games against the NL Central continues. Could this group get another winning week?