First half

Baserunning?  I don't even want to talk about it.

 

 13th (4.13) in ERA

13th in WHIP

 

Starters?

15th (or last, if you will) in ERA

1 complete game (thanks rook)

 

Pen

3rd (nice work pen, where were you last year)

Not surprising, our pen in 4th in workload so far. 

 

 

Fielding?

 

Individual.

 

Segura and Gomez have been awesome.  Nori has been really good, but horrible on the basepaths.  Braun and Aram have been beaten up.  Weeks and Luc took a long time to start playing with big boy pants on.  Weeks leads the team in walks (and K's), Francisco has more walks than Yuni in less than half as many ABs. 

 

WAR

Even Rickie managed to work himself into the positive side.  Nori's is low because of his work once he gets on base.  Gomez may be the first half MVP. 

.269/.292/.561 or .228/.236/.564?  (yes, that is a .228 OBP).  Everyone except al see's the first player as superior defensively.  Why Yuni keeps getting at bats over Bianchi baffles me.  Yuni is the anti rabbits foot, the broken horseshoe.  Yuni is the reason this season has gone as it has. 

 

nice

work

good analysis 

 

the pitching has killed them and injuries have not helped 

 

if Peralta can finish strong and they can locate one more decent starter that gives some hope for next year 

The Brewers are obvious sellers- but here's what's interesting- the young arms are getting better. Send the others out there after they deal Gallardo and the BP arms. Peralta will take Gallardos place, and they'll have some FA dollarss available to perhaps land an Ace eleven pitcher. As scared as everyone is about injury, Garza would fit really well in MKE I think....

The Brewers have not been shut out for the last 71 games.

The problem with signing an "ace" pitcher is that I'm not sure that always works out and it's a risk because of the dollars and years involved in a guaranteed contact.   Even solid, established free agent pitchers aren't a guarantee.  Kyle Lohse has pitched well but look at a guy like Edwin Jackson?  

 

I think they need to continue to take a more conservative path and hope a couple of their younger arms develop.  I agree they will have some FA money to spend but this team cannot afford to swing and miss on a big name free agent pitcher.

No team can afford to make a mistake on a FA, especially Milwaukee. Lohse was and still could be a mistake due to his age and that is one reason he could be a good 'sell' for the Crew this month. Zack Greinke was as good a gamble as there was/is for a long term contract as he was 27 when the Brewers got him. Over 30 and soft tossers should not be considered, obviously, since the Wolf and Suppan, etc. experience.

Lohse has pitched just fine IMO but his record is a little misleading because in several of his losses he had little to no run support.   I think he's lived up to expectations unlike some others (i.e. Weeks).   Good starting pitchers have become the left tackles or pass rushers of the NFL.   They are going to command top dollar and you'd better hope you make a good decision because unlike the NFL the contracts in MLB are guaranteed. 

 

Some of the risk can be offset by a shorter term deal, but a legit, top notch starter isn't going to sign a 2 or 3 year contract.   This was the challenge with a guy like Greinke or Sabathia.   They wanted (and received) multi-year deals at huge dollar amounts.   For the Brewers, you could absorb a few years at $20MM per season, but 6 or 7 years?  I'm not sure they could recover if the player got hurt or flamed out.  

The only reason Lohse, already 34, was picked up because MA realized in spring training that what Melvin had for pitching wasn't going to cut it and was still available. Therefore he is a great candidate to flip for as good a pitcher in return, most likely high minors. As I stated before, in this case, over 30 pitchers are hands off for Milwaukee; see the Wolf case, 33 when signed for 3yrs, nice coin, and bombed out of the box his contract 3rd yr never going below ERA of 5 and released. Suppan, signed @ 32 for 4yrs good $ and in was only .500 in first two seasons. 2nd yr had an era of 4.96 and it got worse being released in 4th yr 7-12, 5.29era. So, below age 30 is a much better gamble than over 30 for this team.

Second half and the season is lost, there is no reason whatsoever for Yuni to play first base.  Halton should get the majority of time there.  Francisco can play there sometime if Aram is good.  If Aram is still banged up or traded, then Francisco sits at third.

 

No point in cutting Yuni now, we don't want this team to start to play better. 

ElkConde is going to win X4 stats for July by a landslide.

since Henderson blew a lead on July 11, I'm guessing that tweet isn't correct at all.  I'm guessing they haven't rolled off 34 wins since that point.  Ax has 4 blown saves, Henderson has 3, I'm pretty sure they didn't come back to win those all. 

Mike Vassallo needs to check his stats for sure.  The Brewers have blown plenty of leads this year.