2011-05-15 Pirates (Correia) at Brewers (Greinke) - 1:10 PM CDT [Brewers win, 9-6]

[Glennron]

What a rough series for these umps.

 

First sweep this year, right?

[rluzinski]

Never a dull moment. In sniffing distance of .500!

[Mr QL]

phew

 

was getting nervous

 

another series against the Pirates, another sweep

[Yeti73]

SWEEEEEEP

 

finally

[endaround]

If they were playing double play depth instead of the shift that would have been 2 on Doumit

 

The fact the ump wouldn't give Axford his breaking ball didn't help at all.

[COBrewerfan]

Betancourt's OBP is currently .252, remind me why he hits in front of Lucroy? Or anyone besides Nieves for that matter?

Well a lineup is not made by just putting guys in order of their average. You spread people out for speed and power reasons. You are not just going to stick the worst couple guys and the pitcher at the bottom of the lineup.

If every batter in the lineup got the same number of PA per game, you would probably be right. But every bump up in batting order position is about 18extra AB over a full season. Gomez will get an extra 100 AB betting 2nd instead of 8th. I don't care how fast he is, that is a losing strategy.

But you do because of this book? I didn't bother looking at the link.

Wow, if you aren't even going to try than there's really no sense in responding to your posts anymore. You already know everything.

 

Gomez is not going to be in the 2 hole all year long. He was there because of injuries. Now that Hart is back, and once Morgan is back, he will be playing less and not be in the 2 hole as much. So those extra 100 AB's will never happen. The circumstances with the team have dictated the lineup such as Gomez in the 2 and Kotsay playing as much as he has.

[BuckyBrewer61]

What a rough series for these umps.

 

First sweep this year, right?

Unless you count the 2-game sweep earlier in the season in Pittsburgh. Thank god for the Pirates!

[ilovebeer]

BREWERS WIN thank god

[derflotr]

Not a single "nice play Betancourt" post? Tough crowd. He might've saved the game

[ilovebeer]

37,059 at the game today.

[razzzorsharp]

Brewers: NL's best home record and baseball's worst road record.

[hawing]

I'm just glad to get through that Doumit AB with the ball in the yard. Had flashbacks to the last year or two.

So did I, which is why I took a walk around the concourse once he came up - my first concourse walk of the 2011 season. Man, I dislike Ryan Doumit.

 

Conversely, I like Zack Greinke, and finally feel comfortable letting my fan crush develop now that I've actually seen him pitch in person. I look forward to seeing him go deeper in games. A day with (on balance) encouraging performances from Greinke, Hart and Lucroy is hard to top on the hawingmeter.

 

Now that it's all-star balloting season, we usually fill out enough ballots to redeem for tickets for the baseball memorabilia drawing. Today the S.O. got back from delivering the ballots to report that the "prize" today was something from Wil Nieves. He added that no fan was in sight of the ballot area when he approached. Then the fan in front of us said that once he saw Nieves' name on the sign he thought about saving his ballots for the next game. That was kind of funny, in a sad way.

 

The hawing party continues on its unprecedented roll; the Brewers are 7-2 in games we have attended this year. I'm in mild disbelief that we're almost 25% of the way through our games.

[TheCrew07]

I have problem with people using "building arm strength" up as an excuse for Greinke. He's fully stretched out, has been for 3 starts, he's just been uneven.

[bucksman4]

I have problem with people using "building arm strength" up as an excuse for Greinke. He's fully stretched out, has been for 3 starts, he's just been uneven.

Exactly. I want to like this guy and think "superstar" but I keep seeing Mr. Up and Down. Can't make it thru the 5th without getting in trouble. I'm having a tough time seeing what all the hype is all about. I'm starting to believe that his ERA last year might be more indicative of the type of pitcher he really is.

[Invader3K]

I have problem with people using "building arm strength" up as an excuse for Greinke. He's fully stretched out, has been for 3 starts, he's just been uneven.

This may have been mentioned already, but it looked like he was relying heavily on his fastball later in the game.

Had a good time at the game yesterday, despite the hurricane-like winds. Tailgating was an interesting experience because of it.

 

[endaround]

If by uneven you mean he obviously tired in the 5th inning after about 70 pitches sure. The only reason he wasn't lifted mid-inning was to get him the win. God that's a stupid stat.

[rluzinski]

I have problem with people using "building arm strength" up as an excuse for Greinke. He's fully stretched out, has been for 3 starts, he's just been uneven.

Exactly. I want to like this guy and think "superstar" but I keep seeing Mr. Up and Down. Can't make it thru the 5th without getting in trouble. I'm having a tough time seeing what all the hype is all about. I'm starting to believe that his ERA last year might be more indicative of the type of pitcher he really is.

You keep seeing Mr Up and Down in 3 starts? WOW.

[ninja33]

Greinke's pitched really well, the results just haven't quite been there. But 20 K vs. 2 BB is pretty fantastic, and looking at his peripherals his HR/FB% has doubled so far this year on top of the fact that his strand rate has dropped about 30%. All of those are a product of a small sample size and some bad luck. The only thing that would maybe worry me is his velocity being down a little bit (91-92 so far compared to 93-94 normally), but it seems to be increasing a little bit each start, as he gets into form. He will be fine.

[TheCrew07]

I have problem with people using "building arm strength" up as an excuse for Greinke. He's fully stretched out, has been for 3 starts, he's just been uneven.

Exactly. I want to like this guy and think "superstar" but I keep seeing Mr. Up and Down. Can't make it thru the 5th without getting in trouble. I'm having a tough time seeing what all the hype is all about. I'm starting to believe that his ERA last year might be more indicative of the type of pitcher he really is.

You keep seeing Mr Up and Down in 3 starts? WOW.

Ha... yea that's what I said.

 

If you watch, early in the game he's getting by with pitches thigh high over the heart of the plate, batters aren't even swinging. Later in the game those pitches are getting hit hard like they should. I don't think his location has been all that sharp in any of his starts so far, I have no idea how the hitters are so off balance they let those pitches go by early, but they aren't later in the game. Hence the uneven overall performance.

 

Hitters are going to make adjustments, pitching is about location and pitch selection. It truly is very simple, either you hit the spot or you don't as pitcher, and if you don't you're hoping to get lucky. Afterall every MLB hitter can hit a grooved fastball or they wouldn't be playing MLB in the first place.

 

I have no doubt he tired with so many pitches in a single inning, that was a stupid decision, our MiLB pitchers would have been pulled 17 pitches sooner. However, he just not pitching well, because he's not hitting spots in general, it has nothing to do with him being stretched out, he's been stretched out since his last rehab start.