Ken Rosenthal: "Chemistry Not Better, Brewers only picking on weak schedule"

[lcbj68c]

Foxsports.com Senior Baseball Analyst, Ken Rosenthal has just stated that the Brewers chemistry is no better and that the talent level isn't really that good and that they are picking on a weak schedule. This is kind of surprising considering I thought Rosenthal was always talking up the Brewers and had them picked in his pre-season prognastications. Are the Brewers really just picking on the weak schedule or are we the 2nd most talented team in the NL? A link to the video below. A little more than a jab to the gut was my impression.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&brand=foxsports&vid=fd48b814-d86e-488b-85c5-7b54856b2a06&playlist=&editor=&from=FOXSPORTS&fg=/mlb&rf=http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb

[Chio151]

I'd say the chemistry is great and the talent level is above average. They are still the second best team in the NL.

[bjkrautk]

Rosenthal is just saying that the Fielder/Parra fracas isn't the reason that the Brewers have been winning lately. Since the shoving match, the Brewers have faced the Reds (2 games), Nationals (4), and Padres (3). Winning 8 out of their last 9 is still an accomplishment, but it's what you have to do against sub-.500 opponents to have a shot at the playoffs.

[owbc]

I didn't think it was anything too surprising. I agree that the Brewers' offense tends to be overrated, especially with no Ryan Braun, and that the pitching is carrying the team. Still, our 162-game schedule is no easier than any other team in the National League--and in addition to that, we finished the difficult part of it a long time ago. We drew a string of easy teams and we took advantage of that for an 8-game winning streak. That says nothing about the 62 wins that we had before that.

 

Press for the Brewers has been overwhelmingly positive. Getting humiliated by the Cubs at 'Wrigley North' is going to leave some doubt about our ability to advance in the playoffs until the Crew proves otherwise.

[TauPentaRei]

Here is what I don't understand, and what I bring up to Cubs fans:

 

The Cubs (NL) rank

#1 - R

#1 - BA

#1 - OBP

#1 - SLG

#1 - OPS,

#2 - ERA

#1 - BAA

#2 - K

 

How is it that you are ONLY up 4.5 games when the team chasing you ranks 6, 11, 8, 2, 4, 3, 6 and 8 respectively across those eight categories? The delta is gigundous.

 

Is Ned Yost a genius? The Cubs should have an AL-West-Angelian type lead. OR - Have we been overachieving and due for a crash when a string of 1-run games goes the other way?

[AJAY]

Rosenthal is correct. We are beating up on weak competition and our winning streak had nothing to do with the fight. He was not taking a jab or being insulting towards the Brewers.

 

It's no different than when the Cubs got off to a hot start because they beat up on Pittsburgh, San Diego, etc. early in the season. Now it's our turn.

[owbc]

Is Ned Yost a genius? The Cubs should have an AL-West-Angelian type lead. OR - Have we been overachieving and due for a crash when a string of 1-run games goes the other way?

The answer to that question is the holy grail of the Ned Yost debate and from what I've seen, people have strong opinions for both sides.

 

In my opinion, the Cubs are better than us. The only categories where we come close are starting pitching and slugging. It's quite a strange combination if you think about it. The Cubs are statistically the class of the NL by far and yet they can't shake off a team that smacks lots of HRs and doubles with a group of starting pitchers that go deep into games. It's worked so far, but who knows if it will continue.

[bcf5575]

part of being a good team includes beating teams near the bottom of the standings. so they are doing what they are supposed to do.

its hard to argue with the talent part though; i will admit that the lineup yesterday made me do a double take. when the top 3 spots in the lineup are filled by durham, counsell, and nix - that does not scream playoffs to me. sounds more like 2002...

[trwi7]

What's the big deal with what he said? He's absolutely spot-on imo.

[pretendastronaut]

I was prepared for his statements to be much worse based on the description. He's not off base in what he said. If the streak didn't start the day after the dugout issue, nobody probably talks about it nationally.

[Ennder]

I was prepared for his statements to be much worse based on the description. He's not off base in what he said. If the streak didn't start the day after the dugout issue, nobody probably talks about it nationally.

 

To be fair if we had gone off and lost 7 games in a row everyone would have blamed the dugout issue for it without a doubt in my mind. It is a total non issue but people want to read things into everything.

[rluzinski]

How is it that you are ONLY up 4.5 games when the team chasing you ranks 6, 11, 8, 2, 4, 3, 6 and 8 respectively across those eight categories? The delta is gigundous.

 

6th in runs and 3rd in ERA + slightly inflated record + 4.5 games = 1st in runs and 1st in ERA.

 

That doesn't sound way off to me.

 

The Brewers are a very good team but I'm not convinced they are the 2nd best team in the National League. Maybe the 3rd or 4th. The Brewers have gotten a little lucky in 1 run games, IMO, inflating their win record a bit. Still, a very good team, especially with CC.

 

The Cubs are easily the cream of the crop, though, and a 4.5 game lead isn't insignificant. It's huge. BP predicts about 98 wins for the Cubs and 93 wins for the Brewers.

[Sundown Kid]

Rosenthal didn't say anything that I disagree with, but he certainly didn't say anything insightful. He didn't really address the team chemistry, most likely because he doesn't really know much about it. And as for beating up on weaker teams, yes they have. So have the Cubs and the rest of the contending teams. That's what contenders do, and we should know. Contending teams had been doing it to the Brewers for many years.

[Ennder]

If you look at W3 you find the Brewers with 66.8 wins and the Cubs with 71.4 wins so it should be expected that they are 4.6 games ahead of us which is just about correct. The Cubs have scored a lot more runs than they should have because of a lot of luck with situational hitting(yeah I'm calling it luck so sue me). The Cubs are a very good team but if Dempster slips back to expectations and Harden gets hurt we are pretty darn close to them in overall talent. If Harden stays healthy and somehow Dempster continues to be a top 10 SP we are going to stay a good bit behind them in talent.

[RU Rah Rah]

After this lull in the schedule, I'll be curious to see how the Brewers fare against the Dodgers, Cards, Mets, Cubs, and Phillies in the next few weeks. I hope they can just hold their own in those series and then clean up against the bad teams (three series against the Pirates, two against the Reds).

[jhart05]

Ummm, I believe the Crew has the most wins (50) in the Majors since May 20.

 

(Angels are second with 49, then Tampa Bay 47, Cubs 46.)

 

So...what...all 50 of those wins have come against "weak" competition. Please.

 

I would tell you what I think Ken Rosenthal can do with his "article", but then I'd be banned from this site.

 

 

EDIT: I'm not able to read the article here at work for some reason. Just going by the title.

[glassjawed]

The Dodgers series will decide this argument.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

I enjoy Ken Rosenthal, but the "beating up on weak competition" argument only goes so far. There's a lot of teams in baseball that don't have an 8 game winning streak against any team this year, none the less, the bottom feeders of baseball. This is the major leagues and every win is earned.

 

That said, we'll see how the Brewers fare against the tougher competition to come. Rosenthal could be on to something, but I'm a fan of the Brewers so I refuse to believe. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif