Brewers OPS is 29th out of 30 teams vs. RH pitchers

[DrWood]

Please get us a LH bat, Dougie. If you don't want to make a trade, we have a couple in Nashville that might serve.

 

[chadomac]

What position and when are they going to play?

[DrWood]

What position and when are they going to play?

Apparently that's not up to me, and the majority have not welcomed my Branyan suggestion for occasional starts.

So to answer your question, anywhere other than 1b, and at least some times when there are RH starting pitchers.

[Fatter than Joey]

What position and when are they going to play?

 

Branyan -- occasional 3b/of, and a LH PHer off the bench.

[Oldcity]

Gabe Gross.

[fondybrewfan]

I fail to see why this is a strict LH and RH issue. Plenty of right handed hitters are fully capable of hitting right handed pitchers. Thus my conclusion is that Braun, Weeks, and Hart have the talent to consistently hit right handed pitching, they just need to focus more or something. I don't think adding Branyan or any other left handed bat would make a whole lot of difference.

[Fatter than Joey]

I don't think adding Branyan or any other left handed bat would make a whole lot of difference.

 

Making him option #1 off the bench instead of Counsell/TGJ would raise the team OPS.

[GAME05]

no comment, just wanted to post some OPS numbers vs. RHP from the 07 season:

 

Hardy: .729

Fielder: 1.100

Hart: .824

Braun: .845

Cameron: .700

Branyan: .720 (in 108 AB)

Gross: .792

[DrWood]

no comment, just wanted to post some OPS numbers vs. RHP for the last 3 seasons.

Hardy: .691

Fielder: .951

Hart: .801

Cameron: .773

Branyan: .848

Gross: .825

Weeks: .750

Counsell: .696 (.838 in 2008).

[Fear The Chorizo]

comment, just wanted to add that the Brewers didn't exactly light up any of the four straight lefty starters they faced last week - my guess is their overal team OPS ranking is pretty similar to their OPS vs. RHP only.

[brewers19]

Overall ranking is 19th; ranking against LH is 4th.

[Ennder]

no comment, just wanted to post some OPS numbers vs. RHP for the last 3 seasons.

Hardy: .691

Fielder: .951

Hart: .801

Cameron: .773

Branyan: .848

Gross: .825

Weeks: .750

Counsell: .696 (.838 in 2008).

Just wanted to post 2 more for completeness sake, just posting last years stats since that is what we 'lost'.

 

Jenkins - .807

Estrada - .675

 

There is no reason this team should struggles against righties more than they did last year. We did however struggle against them last year too but not nearly as much as this year so far.

[DrWood]

I think Jenkins help vs. RH WAS critical.

[DrWood]

Overall ranking is 19th; ranking against LH is 4th.

Right. 4th vs. LH and 29th vs. RH doesn't bode well for a team that has to mash to win consistently, since LH are by far the minority of pitchers.

 

[rluzinski]

This thread could be merged with this (I won't dare suggest it should have been put in the Counsell threat on the same topic):

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/viewtopic.php?t=12171

 

In 562 PA, RH hitters have a .286 OBP and a .639 OPS against RH pitchers. It goes without saying that our RH hitters are going to dramaticaly improve on that number as the season goes on. It does not begin to reflect their expected performance against RH pitchers. And to compound the issue, even LHers haven't done as well as you might expect in their 201 PA againt them (.713 OPS):

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/bsplit.cgi?team=MIL&year=2008#plato-plato

 

You don't just look for weird splits after one month of the season and start making changes to personnel. The Brewers are not going to be as good against RHers as they will against LHers but they are not going to finish the season with a .139 OPS spltoon split. I guarantee it!

[TooLiveBrew]

Using 3-yr. splits on guys as young as Hardy, Weeks, Hart, etc. is not a very effective way of trying to determine true talent imo. I also think that, with Cameron, if we want a more accuarate view, we should be using his road splits v. RHP for the past 3 years or whatever.

 

Overall, this is a bit of a reactionary thread, since nearly all of our main hitters are due to regress upwards toward their personal mean(s).

 

EDIT: Rluz sorta beat me to it... also, I agree 100% that Branyan should be up in place of that 18th pitcher.

[GenoSeligPrieb]

"You don't just look for weird splits after one month of the season and start making changes to personnel."

 

I hear ya, Russ, and believe me, I'm down with the sample-sizing for the most part.

 

However, I'm of the mindset that an extremely right-handed lineup (especially if you're going to be foolish enough to carry about 27 pitchers) limits your options in a profound way. I'd love to have an offense where opponents can't stack righties (or lefties) against us, as the Cubs did for crucial series.

 

As you wrote, yes I agree that the Brewers won't continue to be so weak on offense this season. But this winter, I would have brought in a lefty or 2 to the bench, at the very least. Choosing to add Cameron, Kendall and Kapler to an already overwhelmingly right-handed team, and limiting yourself to only 2-3 pinch hitters is playing right into your opponents' hands.

 

At the risk of igniting a Branyan thread, yeah I'd recall him. He can spell Prince at 1B, or play some 3B, allowing Billy to take over SS or 2B for a game or 2 when JJ and Rickie are struggling (and they're usually struggling).

[dadofandrew]

Look at the quality of SP's they've faced so far. They are fortunate not to be 10-18.

 

And yeah, making a change based on 18% of the season seems foolhardy. Wood is a RHP, and they hit him hard today...they'll be fine versus all but very good RHP's...and LHP's. Funny how that works out.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[wallus]

Look at the quality of SP's they've faced so far. They are fortunate not to be 10-18.

Excellent point doa, we have faced some of the best pitchers in the NL over the first part of the season. I suggest we wait a little longer while they boost their stats on the bums.

[fondybrewfan]

They have faced Zambrano twice, Dempster twice (Who knew we would be calling him a good pitcher?) Aaron Harang twice, Johny Cueto twice, Adam Wainright twice. I think most teams wouldn't exactly be putting up awesome numbers on these guys.

[rluzinski]

Dempster twice (Who knew we would be calling him a good pitcher?)

 

I would call him a mediocre starting pitcher based on his performance so far this year (no, I'm not looking at his ERA to make the determination).

[Fatter than Joey]

Johny Cueto twice

 

StL. lit Cueto up. Cueto has had 3 good starts, 2 against the Brewers and one against AZ.

 

PIT, HOU, and STL, have gotten after him pretty good.

[Oldcity]

Either way, there's no question the Brewers have faced tougher pitching than most. Can't remember the thread, but ennder posted the average OPS against for all the pitchers the Brewers have faced, and it was really low.