The Key to the Brewers Season: Finishing Sweeps

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

We did an amazing job (atleast for the first couple months of the season) in winning series... it was like 10 of the first 11 IIRC, but simply put 3-0 is much better than 2-1. We are going to have some tough series against great teams this year, and we need to finish off the bad teams when we start a series 2-0.

 

Hopefully the offense can get atleast a couple runs for Big Ben today

[wisconsinfan47]

I know talked about this ad nauseum on Thursday, but I think sweeping on the road will be especially key. We've had 9 chances to do it since 2004 after going up 2-0 and failed every time. We know we'll win at Miller Park, and we know we'll take our lumps on the road, but sweeping a series or two outside of the Keg will help even out that road record. As has been said, going .500 on the road is ideal, and a few sweeps might be necessary to do that.

[Sheets4theHOF]

I think avoiding sweeps is more important. If you win 2 out of 3 3 game series for the entire season you win 90 games. Sweeps are gravy. Being swept is makes you play catch up.

[OOOverbay]

I say winning series.

[istanbultaye]

I say win 90 games. I don't care where or how they do it (disallowing egregious cheating of course).

[Fatter than Joey]

Of course there is nothing more fantastic that the "must sweep" series -- but we should be in a good place to win today and complete the sweep.

[And That]

As long as we win enough games to get into the postseason, I don't care how we do it. It's nice to sweep a team, but I'll take 2 out of 3 every time (especially on the road).

[dadofandrew]

I would agree the key is to win 90 games any way at all. That said, I'd say it's more important to avoid being swept than anything else.

[DHonks]

I'd be happy to win 2 of every 3. That's a nice 108 win season

[The Ignitor]

Counting on sweeps will leave you very frustrated and disappointed throughout the season. The odds of sweeping more than a handful of series over the course of a season are quite low. Enjoy when they come, but don't start measuring the teams success on whether they can finish sweeps.

[rluzinski]

I think the Brewers should be expected to finish a sweep a little over 50% of the time. A sweep feels really good to get but there's nothing significant about it otherwise. I'll take a 3 game winning streak anytime http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[DuWayne Steurer]

Statistically speaking, one should never "expect" a sweep, even over a bad team. Of course when you get to 2-0, you hope, but if you don't get it, you're still up 1 for that 3 game stretch. I will say that given the state of this Giants team, anything less than a sweep would have been a disapointment, but it's the first week of the season. I'm sure we're going to be seeing posts about "must sweep" series before the end of May.

[pmg4]

Thank you, TwinsBrewersWorldSeries (never happen), for asking this question. I was asking the same question all last year-- why does the Crew keep spitting up in the sweep game?

 

A friend of mine recently mentioned that he disagrees with Ned's policy of running out the bench once per series... *ding* the light finally went on. Why does Yost always start all his scrubs (uh, I mean, bench players) on the same day, usually the getaway day? It seems like once the Crew puts away the series, he doesn't care anymore.

 

I understand that statistically sweeps don't mean anything. I'm not an idiot. But when you're playing a bad team, you might as well take the third game too instead of running out your AAA squad and losing 90% of the time. As an example, I offer the 2nd game of the most recent series. Yes, the Crew won, but barely, and against the team commonly referred to as the worst in MLB this year. Why take that chance? If you need your benchies to start on occasion, spread it out.

 

Thoughts?

[TooLiveBrew]

I agree that Yost seems (I haven't checked into this) to start many backups in the same games, but I disagree with your "AAA" comment.

 

why does the Crew keep spitting up in the sweep game?

 

Because it's really hard to sweep a MLB team. I think we take that for granted, and assume that other teams must be doing it more.