2018-04-04: Cardinals (Martínez) at Brewers (Chacín) 6:40 PM CDT [Brewers lose, 6-0]

[TexasCheesehead]

Cardinals announced their lineup for tonight:

 

Fowler RF Pham CF Carpenter 3B Ozuna LF J. Martínez 1B Molina C DeJong SS Wong 2B C. Martínez P

[liveforoctober]

Agree on Arcia and I vented about it quite heavily a few days back. It's ridiculous that he's already gotten 2 days off in the first week of the season. His defense alone should put him on the field every single day.

 

I also don't understand the infatuation that Counsell has with getting Sogard playing time. What exactly did he do to earn it?? He had one amazing month last year, then reverted more or less back to his career norms of being an entirely below average hitter with very little power and marginal defense. I don't get it quite frankly.

 

I also know Braun's numbers this year aren't great, but he's now hit two monster 9th inning HR, and promptly got put on the bench the next day. I get that it's matchups, but why not try to get him hot and ride it out? He's carried the team before on his hot streaks.

 

Sogard is a LHB crappy infielder-so CC sees himself in him. Thames should get the day off instead of Braun because of what you said and Thanes was Chris Carter outside of April last year so he doesnt need to start against all righties

 

I need to honestly ask if you really think Counsell is starting Sogard because he thinks Sogard is the same type of player he was and therefore he feels the need to play him?

 

If I were you I'd go look at Thames' 2017 numbers again. His July numbers were very good and his September numbers were great. His OBP last year against RHP was .378 ... if you want your lead off guy to be someone who gets on base - he isn't a terrible choice.

[Greenleaf1]

Unless there’s some minor injury with Arcia it makes no sense to be giving him days off. The defense is too valuable

 

He's 1-11 against Martinez, Sogard is 2-6, so my guess is it's more about Arcia not doing well against Martinez.

 

Not sure it matters much with that small a sample size, but after Martinez walked the world in his last start I wouldn't mind having more patient guys in the lineup tonight.

[Mike2k33]

I'm pretty sure Craig is giving Villar an extended run to lock down 2B. Sogard needs ABs.

 

If Arcia is only starting 4 out of 6 games in June or July, I'll be right there with you guys. Until then, I'm not getting my blood pressure up over it.

[adambr2]

Playing time so far pretty much supports the notion that there isn't going to be an odd man out. 4 out of 6 for Thames, Braun, and Santana.

[Greenleaf1]

Playing time so far pretty much supports the notion that there isn't going to be an odd man out. 4 out of 6 for Thames, Braun, and Santana.

 

I'd imagine there's no odd man out until players have distinguished themselves over others. If Thames hits .400 for the month of April and Santana hits .200, my guess is Thames is going to get a lot more playing time than Santana in May.

[pacopete4]

Playing time so far pretty much supports the notion that there isn't going to be an odd man out. 4 out of 6 for Thames, Braun, and Santana.

As well as Villar and Arcia I think.

[brewerswinNLcentral]

at this rate, yelich shaw and cain are on pace for over 600 AB and braun thames and santana are on pace for 450 AB ....thats ok but i wd like braun at about 480-500 and santana closer to 520

[brewerswinNLcentral]

the only one who is getting screwed is santana and that will be rectified if ANY of the outfielders miss 15-20 games due to injury

[adambr2]

Not sure how I feel about Eric Thames batting lead off. High strike-out rate and not a whole lot of speed. Given his power, wouldn't it be better to move him down in the order and put either Villar or Yelich in the lead of slot? Just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, he's not a lead off kinda dude.

 

I don't get why people worry about a high K rate at the leadoff spot. The leadoff hitter hits with nobody on more than anyone else in the lineup. If there is no one on, any out is just an out the same as any other. So if you have a high K/high OBP guy, isn't that literally the most beneficial spot for him? If a guy comes up 100 times with no one on, strikes out 60 times and reaches base the other 40, all that really matters is that he reaches base 40% of the time.

 

It's true he doesn't have a lot of speed although he did steal a base and ran the bases well so far this season, but OBP is more important than speed at the leadoff spot.

 

With that said I would have no issue with Cain or Yelich there. Maybe Villar again at some point, but not yet.

[adambr2]

at this rate, yelich shaw and cain are on pace for over 600 AB and braun thames and santana are on pace for 450 AB ....thats ok but i wd like braun at about 480-500 and santana closer to 520

 

Both are going to be higher than 450 if healthy. Still got to figure in 10 DH games and an occasional off day for Yelich and Cain.

[KeithStone53151]

Sorry, too busy eating avocado toast to watch baseball.

 

-A millennial

 

This is fantastic, well done sir.

[Eye Black]

Unless there’s some minor injury with Arcia it makes no sense to be giving him days off. The defense is too valuable

 

He's 1-11 against Martinez, Sogard is 2-6, so my guess is it's more about Arcia not doing well against Martinez.

 

Not sure it matters much with that small a sample size, but after Martinez walked the world in his last start I wouldn't mind having more patient guys in the lineup tonight.

Here are the Brewers' batters stats versus Carlos Martinez...

 

[pre]BATTER AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS

Jesus Aguilar 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 2.000

Orlando Arcia 11 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .091 .091 .091 .182

Jett Bandy 4 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 .250 .400 .250 .650

Ryan Braun 27 7 1 0 0 2 2 10 .259 .310 .296 .607

Lorenzo Cain 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500 .500 1.000

Hernan Perez 17 5 0 0 0 1 1 4 .294 .333 .294 .627

Manny Pina 4 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 .500 .600 .750 1.350

Domingo Santana 17 6 0 0 1 2 0 5 .353 .389 .529 .918

Travis Shaw 8 3 0 0 1 3 1 1 .375 .444 .750 1.194

Eric Sogard 6 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 .333 .429 .333 .762

Eric Thames 10 3 1 0 1 2 2 4 .300 .417 .700 1.117

Jonathan Villar 23 8 1 0 1 3 1 6 .348 .375 .522 .897

Stephen Vogt 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667

C. Yelich 8 4 0 0 0 0 1 3 .500 .556 .500 1.056

Totals 143 46 4 0 4 16 11 37 .322 .374 .434 .808[/pre]

[adambr2]

The second worst OPS against Martinez in our lineup is .897. Hopefully we can keep that going.

[wildcat83]

Not sure how I feel about Eric Thames batting lead off. High strike-out rate and not a whole lot of speed. Given his power, wouldn't it be better to move him down in the order and put either Villar or Yelich in the lead of slot? Just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, he's not a lead off kinda dude.

 

He can't throw or hit, but what can he do?

Guys check your reports or I'm going to have to point at Pete.

HE GETS ON BASE

[pacopete4]

Per TomH

CC said he tells Braun before a game that he'll get the next game off, and both times Braun has won games with HRs. So, I asked if he'll give Braun 40 planned games off and get 40 HRs. "I'll take 30," CC said with a smile.

[TURBO]

Sogard starting is puzzling.

 

He is a CC guy, so he will get his playing time, even if it means it weakens the team, and provides us a lesser chance of winning.

 

It is things like this that make me question CC as our guy moving forward, and into deep play-off runs.

[IntentionalHBP]

Fs1

[TURBO]

I am starting to dislike Dexter Fowler.

[ThisIsMyCrew]

Fowler could be the new Jon jay..

[pacopete4]

Villar needs to make that catch at 2B though. Just can’t have that get by you.

[StearnsFTW]

Dammit Villar. Cost a run.

[TexasCheesehead]

Second base is definitely going to be our biggest problem this year. We should've signed Neil Walker.

[topper09er]

Seems like Cain has not had 1 bad AB all season

[markedman5]

Arica 1-11 vs Martinez with 091 OBA

 

Sogard 2-6 with 430 OBA vs Martinez

 

I'm not making an argument just providing info