Why can't this team hit on the road?

[Fear The Chorizo]

Some current home/away offensive statistics for the 2011 Brewers:

Home:

Average - 0.305 - #1 in MLB for hitting at home, by 0.021 over 2nd-ranked Cubs
OBP - 0.374 - #1 in MLB for hitting at home, by 0.017 over 2nd-ranked Indians
SLG - 0.499 - #2 in MLB for hitting at home, behind top-ranked Indians by 0.005
OPS - 0.873 - #1 MLB ranking for hitting at home, by 0.012 over 2nd-ranked Texas

Away:

Average - 0.220 - #28 in MLB for hitting on the road, 0.008 above Twins for worst
OBP - 0.279 - worst in MLB for hitting on the road
SLG - 0.333 - #27 in MLB for hitting on the road, 0.017 above Twins for worst
OPS - 0.612 - #28 in MLB for hitting on the road, 0.012 above Twins for worst

No other team in baseball has offensive stats that different when comparing home and road production. To this point in the season, the Brewers are literally the best offensive team when playing at home close to the worst offensive team when playing on the road. It's startling how night and day different some of these slash line stats are. Small sample noted, but they can't say they've only played cupcakes at home and ace pitchers on the road, either. A 261-point discrepancy between home and away OPS for an entire team? That's crazy!

[JohnBriggs12]

It all starts with Weeks and Gomez. At home Weeks is .338/.429/.592. On the road he's .260/.306/.413.

 

At home Gomez is .297/.333/.406. On the road he's: .171/.250/.280.

 

Ever since Weeks has been a Brewer, he sets the tempo of the offense. Rarely does it function well when he's scuffling.

[crewcrazy]

Brewers road BABIP: .256

Brewers home BABIP: .347

 

Every year in recent memory, they've been closer to the .280-.315 range on the road and at home. The biggest difference is that more hits are falling at home than they are on the road. It's not like they aren't hitting the ball hard on the road, either -- how many balls in the two-game Dodgers series were hit hard, only to find gloves in the outfield? These things even out by the end of the year.

[logan82]

So basically random variance and small samples make it look like we are not hitting well.

[RobDeer 45]

Road Gnomes

[Klements Bratwurst]

I think there is something to the theory that the Brewers are built well for Miller Park, but struggle in the pitcher parks like in Atlanta, San Diego, and Los Angeles. If you look at the struggles the Brewers have had in scoring runs lately on the road, it has been at these kinds of parks. Obviously, when they went on that recent 10 game road trip it started to go bad in Houston, but teams can just go into funks where ever they might be playing. I just think the Brewers roster is short of the Jeff Cirillos, Mark Lorettas and Placido Polanco types in their line up that can work the counts, hit well situationally, and bunt when needed. When playing in these bigger parks, the Brewers need to string together 3 hits or so together sometimes to get across one run. They just don't do that well and in bigger parks you need to do that.

 

Look at the games just played in the west coast, I bet they probably missed out on 4-5 Home Runs just in the 4 games played out there. If they were in a different park, they may have won 3 or swept the road trip. They didn't because they have Yuni Betancourt, Casey McGhee, Rickie Weeks, etc, who are players that slug well (except Yuni) but don't perform well in situational hitting and the Brewers can't win consistently in Petco relying on the homerun.

 

There could be something said for conditions too this year when the Brewers have played on the road. While in Atlanta is was windy and damp for some of those games, with the balls not carrying. Plus they did have a tough set of pitchers to get through during that series making every hit an accomplishment. In Los Angeles and San Diego it was also cool and damp and the ball just wasn't carrying out there this past week. Couple the weather issues with the size of those parks, and again it really just doesn't work well in the Brewers favor in terms of how there offense is structured.

 

Here are the games since 2007 that have been played out on that San Diego-Los Angeles west coast trip. Since 2007, the Brewers are 12-16 in these two cities, scoring 110 runs with an average of 3.93 runs per game. They are surprisingly 7-7 at Dodger Stadium with a couple of back to back 11 run games from last year, but they are abysmal 5-9 at Petco scoring only 3.21 runs per game:

 

2007

137

50

Sunday, May 27

MIL

@

SDP

L

0

3

Peavy

Suppan

Hoffman

2:27

41,246

138

49

Saturday, May 26

MIL

@

SDP

L

3

6

Germano

Vargas

Hoffman

2:43

35,975

139

48

Friday, May 25

MIL

@

SDP

L

6

8

Maddux

Bush

Linebrink

2:37

32,130

140

47

Wednesday, May 23

MIL

@

LAD

L

1

5

Penny

Capuano

2:51

35,609

141

46

Tuesday, May 22

MIL

@

LAD

L

2

3

Wolf

Sheets

Saito

2:15

33,552

142

45

Monday, May 21

MIL

@

LAD

W

9

5

Suppan

Tomko

3:07

33,446

2008

97

125

Sunday, Aug 17

MIL

@

LAD

L

5

7

Beimel

Villanueva

3:02

45,267

98

124

Saturday, Aug 16

MIL

@

LAD

W

4

3

Torres

Broxton

Riske

2:56

52,889

99

123

Friday, Aug 15

MIL

@

LAD

L

3

5

Billingsley

Parra

Broxton

2:52

44,547

100

122

Thursday, Aug 14

MIL

@

SDP

L

2

3

Peavy

Sheets

Hoffman

2:25

30,145

101

121

Wednesday, Aug 13

MIL

@

SDP

W

7

1

Sabathia

Banks

3:04

32,771

102

120

Tuesday, Aug 12

MIL

@

SDP

W

5

2

Suppan

Baek

Torres

2:34

28,373

2009

108

108

Wednesday, Aug 5

MIL

@

LAD

W

4

1

Looper

Schmidt

Hoffman

2:57

50,276

109

107

Tuesday, Aug 4

MIL

@

LAD

L

4

17

Kuroda

Gallardo

3:28

45,535

110

[RobDeer 45]

I like it! Let's hope so!! Plus having Hart through his "spring training" should help.

[FVBrewerFan]

All just excuses in my opinion. Sure, Dodger Stadium and Petco are pitcher friendly. But they've played most games in hitter (or at least neutral) parks too. Even this recent road trip, hitting w/RISP was the issue. They're hitting what...a little over .200 on the road this year w/RISP? Could be random, but whatever it is that's what's costing them wins far more than any other variable.

[paul253]

It's really frustrating watching the Brewers have the same type of at bats over and over again. Swing at the first pitch. Swing at pitches out of the strike zone. Opposing pitchers have more 6 and 7 pitch innings than I'd care to see. I think the Brewers need to be less aggressive and take more pitches as opposed to swinging at everything! The Brewers really need Njyer Morgan back.

[logan82]

The Brewers always hit better when things warm up and balls start flying out. That's the story I am sticking to. I don't care if it is true or not.

[dlk9s]

Poison

[logan82]

Poison

I think you are right. It was the radioactive scorpion that bit Braddock. That is where the fault lies.

[endaround]

They had a bad week and a half that coincided with them having their first real road trip of the season. Listen to Ryan Braun, its just a fluke.

[tomwopat]

Doesn't park factor have to come into play with BABIP? Aren't don't long fly balls that are HR at Miller Park turn into BIP that are likely to be outs in larger parks?

[Ennder]

Doesn't park factor have to come into play with BABIP? Aren't don't long fly balls that are HR at Miller Park turn into BIP that are likely to be outs in larger parks?

They do but the ranges of BABIP are much smaller than the difference we've seen on the season.

[paul253]

How about because Weeks, Bentancourt and Gomez swing at just about everything. I'm surprised opposing pitchers even throw them strikes. All three of these guys will get themselves out. Pretty tough to score when 1/3 of your lineup does that.

[nate82]

How about because Weeks, Bentancourt and Gomez swing at just about everything. I'm surprised opposing pitchers even throw them strikes. All three of these guys will get themselves out. Pretty tough to score when 1/3 of your lineup does that.

You forgot about Braun who swings at more out of the zone pitches than Weeks does.

[logan82]

How about because Weeks, Bentancourt and Gomez swing at just about everything. I'm surprised opposing pitchers even throw them strikes. All three of these guys will get themselves out. Pretty tough to score when 1/3 of your lineup does that.

You forgot about Braun who swings at more out of the zone pitches than Weeks does.

Yeah those guys suck.

[brewers19]

How about because Weeks, Bentancourt and Gomez swing at just about everything. I'm surprised opposing pitchers even throw them strikes. All three of these guys will get themselves out. Pretty tough to score when 1/3 of your lineup does that.

You forgot about Braun who swings at more out of the zone pitches than Weeks does.

You forgot about Fielder who swings at more out of the zone pitches than Braun does.

[logan82]

Since it is easier I will only list the players who swing at a smaller percentage of pitches out of the zone than Weeks this year.

 

Kotsay

Counsell

Kottaras

Estrada

Kintzler

Mitre

[nate82]

Since it is easier I will only list the players who swing at a smaller percentage of pitches out of the zone than Weeks this year.

 

Kotsay

Counsell

Kottaras

Estrada

Kintzler

Mitre

Pujols must be a bad hitter because he swings at as many pitches out of the zone that Weeks does. DFA Weeks and Pujols!

 

[Ennder]

How about because Weeks, Bentancourt and Gomez swing at just about everything. I'm surprised opposing pitchers even throw them strikes. All three of these guys will get themselves out. Pretty tough to score when 1/3 of your lineup does that.

You forgot about Braun who swings at more out of the zone pitches than Weeks does.

You forgot about Fielder who swings at more out of the zone pitches than Braun does.

No he doesn't. The only players who swing at more out of zone pitches than Braun are useless hitters like Betancourt and Gomez, no good Brewer hitters swing at more junk than Braun.

[rluzinski]

So basically random variance and small samples make it look like we are not hitting well.

That is by far the most likely explanation.

[nate82]

[quote name=Ennder wrote:[/b] No he doesn't. The only players who swing at more out of zone pitches than Braun are useless hitters like Betancourt and Gomez, no good Brewer hitters swing at more junk than Braun.Well so far this season Prince has swung at more out of the zone pitches than Braun has but over their careers Prince swings at less.

[paul253]

Ha well I didn't mean to start an argument. The point is the Brewers lineup is filled with guys who don't seem to have a whole lot of strike zone discipline. The best way to get a rally going when you aren't hitting to draw some walks. Fielder will draw some walks, as will Weeks. But they aren't looking to draw walks, which is why they swing at so much crap. And they swing on counts that, if you want to work the count, you wouldn't swing at. 2-0, 3-1 counts. Why not take a pitch and make the opposing pitcher work a little bit. Another problem is everyone seems to want to be a dead pull hitter. Weeks, Gomez, Fielder, McGehee, and Bentancourt always try to pull the ball, so when they get a pitch on the outer half they roll a week little ground ball to the infield. It's just very frustrating watching players with the same weaknesses they had 2 or 3 years ago.