Worst OBP and AVG since...?

[jaybird2001wi]

I have never seen such a collective offensive slump among an entire team at this point in the season. There is not one infielder batting above .260, our leadoff hitter is batting below the Mendoza line with a .322 OBP and we only have one starter batting above .300 (Corey Hart).

What is the major problem here? I just can't see any major trend to justify or put into an understandable context of this woeful offense at this point. Has there ever been a Brewer team collectively have worse hitting stats than 2008?

I tried to compare this team to prior years using baseball-reference.com but can't figure out how to sort the stats. There has to be a reason for this season starting so anemic.

As much as we bash Eric Gagne at this point, but there are times where our offense can't even get the ball to Gagne for a save situation, and when Gagne does blow the lead, our offense does bail him out. I can only remember once or twice when they couldn't bail Gagne out. There are too many one-run games thus far.

I can't even remember a game where we won convincingly at this stage of the season.

[JohnBriggs12]

You might have to get in the way back machine for the 1972 Brewers for this kind of offensive futility. That team collectively hit .235/.302/.328 and my guy J. Briggs led the team with all of 21 HR. They had the immortal keystone combo of Ricky (the reindeer) Auerbach who mashed at a Hardy like .218/.277/.269 and Ron (the little general) Theobald who posted Weeks like .220/.342/.256. That team used to go 3 up and 3 down so fast that Merle Harmon didn't have time to urge fans that there was still plenty of room at County Stadium.

 

They went a glorious 65-91 but the scary part was they had much better pitching than this team has.

[jlau20]

As much as we bash Eric Gagne at this point, but there are times where our offense can't even get the ball to Gagne for a save situation, and when Gagne does blow the lead, our offense does bail him out. I can only remember once or twice when they couldn't bail Gagne out. There are too many one-run games thus far.

Gagne has 14 save opportunities, second in MLB, not sure that getting him the ball for a save situation is a huge problem.

This is just sort of confusing, it sounds like you're defending Gagne because the offense apparently can't get him the ball for a save situation then you go against him by saying he needs to get bailed out by the offense. Then you say the offense can't get him the ball but then the offense does bail him out. I'm just a little confused.

Gagne just hasn't been very good, to say the least, so I don't even want him getting anymore save opportunities than he's already been getting. If he's having this much trouble in 14 opportunities, I'd hate to see how many more he might have blown if he had 18-20 opportunities already. Sure, I'd rather be winning and have our closer in, but I do agree that it would be nice to win a few by 4 or more once in awhile. This really is just getting tough to watch. I don't even know what the word to describe the offense is right now.

[joepepsi]

Last night was embarrassing against Olsen and Florida. Two innings they led off with a walk and no outs. In rapid fire each time, the next three batters hacked away, swinging at everything and made quick outs. Olsen wasn't near the plate most of the time, but team of lovable losers kept flailing away at everything. Olsen, high and away; Brewer Batter, flail and K.

 

It's not so much the pitching. The bullpen is actually pretty good, except for Gagne. It's all about the pitching.

[Tbadder]

Hey, maybe were just taking turns. Last year we were horrendous defensively. This year we'll set franchise lows in hitting. Next year after Sheets leaves and Gallardo goes down again, we'll be the worst starting staff in the Bigs. This is an equal opportunity club!

[rluzinski]

I have never seen such a collective offensive slump among an entire team at this point in the season.

 

I know the offense has been bad (especially considering that the offense was supposed to be the teams' strength) but what they've done as a team isn't historically bad. Out of the 16 NL teams, the Brewers rank 14th in BA, 11th in OBP, 12th in SLG and 11th in runs per game.

 

And if you are trying to compare the Brewers' current offensive numbers to end of season totals, that's not really a fair comparison. Remember:

 

Observed spread = "true skill" spread + random variance

 

Random variance is inversely proportional to the sample size, while true skill stays relatively constant. The more AB a team accumulates, the lower the random variance and observed spread and the better it represents a team's true skill.

 

If you want to compare apples to apples, just use ESPN's team splits to see how teams do on a month by month basis. You'll see that what the Brewers have done so far this year isn't especially unique. Heck, they put up a .728 OPS up in July of last year and 7 teams had a worse OPS!

 

You might have to get in the way back machine for the 1972 Brewers for this kind of offensive futility.

 

The Brewers put up a team OPS of .708 in 2004 for an entire year, so that easily beat's the teams current .707 OPS.

[jaybird2001wi]

Maybe I should have phrased my initial post better. Yes, I know Gagne leads the league in save opportunities and no, I am not defending Gagne.

I just don't get it, have any of our position players learned how to make correct adjustments when facing pitchers? It seems like they go into every game not knowing about any of the opposing team's starters and it is as if they don't even read the scouting reports prior to each game.

I have not seen a single game where our offense has made a major adjustment to prey on the opposing starter's weak points of their game. I have not seen a single hitter work the count and force the pitcher to throw a strike down the middle. I have not seen any base runner put pressure on a pitcher to the point where the pitcher is forced to throw strikes to prevent any stolen bases.

What is worse is that it seems that every homer hit by either Braun or Fielder is a solo shot. Bill Hall has SEVEN homers and 19 RBI while Braun has FIVE homers and 23 RBI.

The way this team has been playing, they should call themselves very lucky for having a .500 record.

[mothershipconnection]

The current team has an OPS+ of 93. it was 101 last year, 97 in 2006, 103 in 2005, and 88 in 2004. So the answer would be 2004.

[RU Rah Rah]

Mothership, I have been staring at your avatar for weeks now, and it finally dawned on me. Duh.

[mothershipconnection]

It blew my mind when I stumbled upon it while searching for an image of Dwight Schrute.