Brewers offense wasting this pitching staff

@MichiganPacker2 posted:

You feel bad for the kid. He's 23 years old and this was the highlight of his life to this point. I always wonder if maybe allowing a guy to debut in a lower leverage situation is a better idea. Maybe in a game where you are behind by 5 runs, you allow him to get his feet wet by going out there for an inning?

I thought the same. I wished they would have let Burnes pitch today and have Ashby go against Pirates.  It only would have delayed Burnes rest by one series and with the All-Star break coming Burnes will get even more rest.   But as they say;   all's well that ends well.

Sogard has been the Cubs best pitcher all series.   Two scoreless appearances.

He finally found a useful role

From ESPN:    - The stage was set for the Chicago Cubs to break a five-game losing streak and gain a game on the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, but after taking an early 7-0 lead on Wednesday, the Cubs became just the second team since 1900 to score seven or more runs in the first inning, only to lose by at least that many.

Also this:      Brewers only winning team listed twice.

Largest Loss By Team That Led By 7 Runs -- Past 40 Seasons*

I’m not yet convinced this offense has turned the corner, though seeing Yeli and Hiura shooting balls into the seats is a positive development.

However, sending Cubs fans home after a three game sweep, including two games in which we scored 29 combined runs, sure makes me smile.

If we can muster just a little more consistency hitting the ball, and with Wong back I think that’s going to happen, this team could be very scary after the All Star break. I’ll put our top of the rotation against any staff in baseball. Woodruff, Burnes and Peralta are all deserving of All Star Game selections. Hader, as well.

It's gotta be demoralizing to put up 7 runs in the first inning then lose the game where things are so far gone you have a position player pitching. Almost felt bad for them. Almost.

Jackie Bradley Jr. dekes a home run, catches fly and doubles off runner who had rounded 2nd. Jeenyous play.

Every starter but Wong and Burnes got a hit tonight.   Slowly coming alive.

MLB cracks down on foreign substance use by pitchers… Brewers bats come to life. Coincidence?

9 in a row!
58 runs scored in our last 7 games.

And they still have the worst team batting average in MLB at .218

Though they have raised it ten points in the last couple of weeks.

@Music City posted:

MLB cracks down on foreign substance use by pitchers… Brewers bats come to life. Coincidence?

It will be interesting to see what kind of statistical effect the crackdown will have for baseball overall.  My gut feeling is that scoring is up, but I can’t say for sure.

Back to your original point, I think the Brewers are benefiting as are other  teams.  I was worried that the Brewers pitching might get affected more negatively than some other teams, but there hasn’t been much dropoff that I’ve seen.

Admittedly the Brewers have mostly faced weak teams recently, but hey you gotta appreciate any win you can get.

Yeah, they need to fatten up on these teams. June was always kinda set up this way. Beat the beatables and you’ll end up well above .500 when it’s all said and done.

Brewers doing what you need to do to win a pennant. Beat the lower class teams and play  .500 on the road and win 2 of 3 at home.  They are ahead of the curve on the road but a little behind at home.   That would be 94 wins and that should take the NL Central.

Solo homers by Adames, Peterson and Bradley Jr. gives the Brewers a 3-1 lead, top of the 3rd.

Nice to see Keston contributing

Reds beat the Cubs,  Brewers pick up another game. Now up by 7.5!  That is also the largest lead in any division in baseball.

The Brewers are doing what they need to do which is beat teams like Pittsburgh and the pitching has been decent all season.  In the last month the bats are coming alive, and if they can get consistent offense and 4-5+ runs a game they will be very difficult to beat down the stretch.  Would be nice to maybe add another bat before the trade deadline.

I think it depends on how long they think they can ride the Jace Peterson train. Dude is slashing 1.273 over the last 2 weeks and has only struck out 3 times in that span- kid is white hot.

Or the Willy Adames train- he’s slashing 1.074 with 5 HRs and 14 RBIs the last 2 weeks.

Or Urias, who is slashing .969 the last 2 weeks, with 3 HRs and 10 RBIs.

I guess you ride them for a while- but I agree that if a bat comes available you get him.

So the real question- is it the cheating pitchers no longer allowed to cheat, or was it Travis Shaw?

If Taylor or JBJ struggle Lorenzo Cain will be back after the A S break.  We got that going for us.   Not sure what to do with Shaw or Vogelbach.  And Wong should be back after A S break too.

Once again every starter but Urias and Lauer had a hit.   Narvaez 1st Brewer catcher to have 5 hits in a game.   Crew wins 11-2.      

The Boston Red Sox (52) are the only team in baseball with more wins than the Milwaukee Brewers (51)

— Ryan Wing (@RyanWingFOX11) July 3, 2021

Sucks that the All Star break is coming up. Would rather see that when the team is struggling.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

It's almost as if batting average isn't the greatest way to judge a player/team offensively. https://t.co/GteS8YjTF8

— David Gasper (@dgasper24) July 4, 2021

Clearly it’s all about bunting

Disagree

it’s about playing the right way*

*I’m passed out drunk at a stop sign

No, it's about putting the ball in play. Every strikeout is 1.127 outs.

Very feeble end to first half. Such great pitching, but atrocious hitting. Does Christian Yelich even have a pulse? Way overpaid.

Ebbs and flows… I think the break is coming at the right time.

@PackerHawk posted:

Sucks that the All Star break is coming up. Would rather see that when the team is struggling.

Looks like your wish came true!

@tsr86free posted:

Very feeble end to first half. Such great pitching, but atrocious hitting. Does Christian Yelich even have a pulse? Way overpaid.

The good new is he is locked in for forever.

@Pikes Peak posted:

The good new is he is locked in for forever.

The back caused some of the problems, but the fear is that he hit his peak and will revert back to what he was before the Brewers got him. That is, a good player who over a full season will hit between .280 and .300 and get you 15-20 HRs and 75-80 RBIs. Look at his OPS based on his age over his career. His OPS is respectable this year because he's walking a lot, but his power numbers are way down.

Age 21, 766 OPS

22, 764

23, 782

24, 859

25, 807

26, 1000

27, 1100

28, 786

29, 768

He's played 9 years in the big leagues, and the two MVP seasons are enormous outliers.

In the 2 MVP seasons, he hit 80 HRs over 1231 plate appearances.

Over the rest of his career, he has hit 76 HRs over 3497 plate appearances.

He's not terrible, but it's unlikely he's going to be like he was in 2018-19 again when he was basically pre-steroids Barry Bonds. His OPS other than those two years is more like the last 4 years of Robin Yount's career. That's a big problem when he's going to make 182 million over the next 7 years.

@Cheezers posted:

Looks like your wish came true!

Yeah, they didn't have to take that literally. +1 on Hader for making sure to get the struggling part down.