Sunday Sundries: Milwaukee Brewers Week 3 in Review

Hey! The Brewers are still in first! Hard to believe, isn’t it? And they get a chance to put some space between themselves and the immediate competition (the Cards) in their first series this week. A 2-4 week isn’t a total disaster, and it came against a hot Angels team and perennial World Series fodder LA. I guess the .750 winning percentage had to come down to earth at some point. It’s just that winning is so much more fun.

The Crew was outscored 33-25 on the week. Averaging just over four per game isn’t terrible, but giving up almost six per game won’t get the job done.

Photo by Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images

TOP PITCHING STORY: The Brewers’ starting rotation not named Davies had, er, an abysmal week. How bad, you say? (Please keep the children away from the next part.) Here you go - in five starts, the Fab Four (Jhoulys Chacin, Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, and Corbin Burnes) combined to work 22.1 innings, allowing 30 hits and walking 10. 25 runs (all earned) crossed the plate, and 19 opponents struck out.

I bet those 19 are furious with themselves, because when opponents put the ball in play they banged out 9 homers. Now, the Dodgers are a power hitting team, but Tommy LaStella just ain’t a power hitter. He had 3(!) in two games. Sheesh. 1.791 WHIP, 10.07 ERA. That is a large sample in a small sample size.

Honorable Mention: But Zach Davies looks like an older (at least 16), wiser version of himself. Seven solid innings of work in Milwaukee’s 4-1 win on Saturday at Dodger Stadium, and I wouldn’t have minded him finishing the game. He was in total control. Even so, Junior Guerra getting his first career save was awesome, and preps him for the next time Hader has a seven inning save and isn’t availbable for a day or so.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

TOP HITTING STORY: Yasmani Grandal is comfortable playing on the left coast. Maybe the Crew should sign more guys from out there for just such road trips (like, Cody Bellinger, maybe?). Yaz hit .500 for the week, got on base at a .600 clip, and slugged 1.600. Nice round numbers. And GOOD numbers. A double and three homers, five runs scored and six ribbies, and four walks. And he hit well from both sides of the plate! Does Grandal deserve any blame for the poor starting pitching? Don’t know; above my pay grade. But he surely can hit.

Honorable Mention: Mike Moustakas could very well be an All Star second baseman. Imagine that. (Well, the innovative Brewers imagined it.) A solid week: .304/.386/.696, OPS of 1.080. He scored seven times, drove in five, and had three dingers. Not a great week, but as a sixth or so hitter in the lineup, that’ll do.

IMHO: And it’s truly humble this week. After Moose homered on Saturday against the Dodgers, we started another of our highly intellectual discussions of baseball by lamenting that the Crew had a Moose, but no Squirrel. So we started discussing who would be the Brewers’ Squirrel, and once Orlando Arcia’s name was thrown out there the obviousness of that scenario was readily apparent. And then...VOILA...Arcia banged his third homer of the season, and we had long balls from Moose and Squirrel on the same night! Plus, that’s the keystone combo - Moose and Squirrel!

We decided that Boris and Natasha can’t be Brewers, so they are Cubs. Javier Baez will be Boris (natch), and in a flush of generosity, Anthony Rizzo gets Natasha. Fearless Leader? Why, Joe Maddon, of course!

COMMENT OF THE WEEK: Ol’ Rick has been beating the drum for Chase Anderson as a solution for the failings of the young rotation for some time, and his argument is pretty persuasive.

Nothing that a few shutouts wouldn’t cure, though!

I guess I don’t understand the big deal about allowing home runs.

Chase allowed 22 solo HR and 8 two-run HR. That’s it. He allowed 2 runs or less in 18 of his 30 starts.

He allowed more than 4 runs only three times (5,5,6). That’s called keeping your team in the game.

He had a 1.190 WHIP and a 3.93 ERA. What the hell do you want?

Sorry, I think that Craig was stupid to pull the plug on Chase. Well, fine. Whatever.

Chase will rot in the bullpen, his team option for 2020 will be declined, and he can go win 15 games for the Cubs.

Posted by Rick Auerbach invites you to 1972 on Apr 14, 2019 | 12:57 PM inal

That sounds reasonable. Except for that stuff about the Cubs. NEVER!

If you want to see some different teams for the Brewers to face, well, too bad. Reruns of the Dodgers and Cardinals come to Miller Park, with St. Louis up first starting Monday night. Yet another Thursday off day. The weather, she (he? it?) is turning...

Enjoy your week!

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference