When you look at how well the Brewers scored runs this week you wonder how they won only half of their six games. When you look at how many runs they gave up, you wonder how they only lost half of their games. We all owe a thank you note to the Cincinnati Reds for the three wins.
TOP HITTING STORY: The Latin Babe Ruth, Hernan Perez, had a Ruthian week. He appeared in all six games and walked THREE TIMES! Oh, and he slashed .500/.545/1.222 with an OPS of 1.768. He had three doubles, two triples, and two homers. Scored six, drove in eight. Stole two bases without getting caught. Manager Craig Counsell is playing LBR daily at multiple positions to give others a rest. Depending on the severity of Travis Shaw’s hand injury after getting hit by a pitch last night, we might see Hernan at third for a while.
Honorable Mention: Very encouraging week for shortstop Orlando Arcia (at the plate, anyways...his defense was a little shaky). He slashed .316/.350/.709 and OPS’d 1.139, with three doubles and two homers. Scored four times and drove in six(!). His calmer stance, right field approach, and keeping his back foot still instead of stepping in the bucket give hope for a solid contribution at the plate to compliment his generally fine defense.
TOP PITCHING STORY: I’m looking at the staff as a whole here. They went 54 innings in the six games and posted a WHIP of 1.67, allowing 65 hits and 25 walks. Brewer hurlers allowed eleven homers, with special thanks to Wily Peralta (4) and Tommy Milone (3) for keeping that number up there. The team ERA was 5.67...how did they win half their games again? Good news! Zach Davies had a solid start! Bad news? There are so many areas of concern right now that the only way for it to improve is for the guys on the staff to pitch better. Minor league help is likely at least a month away, as the youngsters that are pitching well won’t be up before Super 2 status is cleared...if at all. It is a puzzle.
IMHO: Don’t panic! The fairly good start by the Brewers has many of us raising our expectations for this edition of the Milwaukee Nine. And there’s nothing wrong with that...this team is more talented than many thought it would be. But it still has some serious issues - especially on the mound - and expecting contention might just ruin your summer. My guess is that they very well could hover around the .500 mark all season, but if the pitching doesn’t rebound soon they could very well be down ten games to .500 in a month. Trust the process!
COMMENT OF THE WEEK: As Jaymes reported, MLB has decided to help the employment numbers for the good ol’ USA by seemingly testing Eric Thames several times every day. Actually, it was only the third test of the regular season - and we aren’t even sure that he leads baseball in that category. nullact looked for an ulterior motive for the testing:
Why do they keep taking blood
Are they trying to test him or clone him?
Officially boycotting Matt Garza
Posted by nullacct on Apr 29, 2017 | 7:19 PM
The Brewers finish off their series with the Braves today before heading to St. Louis for three and Pittsburgh for three. 3-3 might be tough to get to this week.
Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference