Offensive Woes

[pacopete4]

Getting frustrating to see the offense just not have the next gear to compete with the better pitching staffs so far. I will say that it is no surprise considering that we are basically only putting out a half of a lineup. The top 4-5 are probably just as good as the top teams or close to it but boy does it drop off after that.

 

Catcher- black hole. Pina is every bit of the regression candidate as many figured.

2B- Villar has an okay average but there’s nothing behind it.

SS- Arcia is immature and still so green and also seems to be unwilling to change his approach/swing.

 

Bench- if it wasn’t for Aguilar, whoa. These guys are absolute turds. Sogard, Perez and Bandy are just awful.

 

Then you add in Santana who has been such a let down.

 

Now, the few options we tossed around prior to the season probably wouldn’t be helping much (Lucroy, Walker). So I guess I wonder, what do you do? Do we just have to ride this out and hope it turns around or is there a way to be proactive?

[adambr2]

Coles should probably be gone. While I'm sure it's not all his fault and he's got some weak bats in his lineup, he's got several years of a pretty uninspiring track record now and should be getting more out of the bats than what he's getting. You don't add Yelich and Cain in the same off-season and accept more of the same offensively.

 

Player-wise, there isn't much that can be done short of a big trade to fill a weak position. Realmuto, Schoop, or Dozier would all be helpful and probably obtainable, but at some point you're going to start gutting your farm again. Machado is obviously the big prize and we could probably get him, but the price would be so high for a rental that it would pretty much be a failure if you don't at least get to the World Series this year.

 

So if they're not willing to trade you've pretty much got to ride it out. Villar's 2016 is looking more and more flukey, and Arcia for all of his defensive praise really hasn't seen his bat come along like we had hoped for.

 

Sogard and Perez aren't better options though, so there's not much to do internally. You can probably improve the bench with guys like Dubon and Phillips, but Dubon probably isn't going to upgrade much with his bat and Phillips won't be valuable for anything other than a good pinch hitter unless he learns how to play catcher or middle infielder overnight.

[JohnBriggs12]

Doesn't help that the manager sits one of his best hitters 2 out of 3 games against the Cubs. Why isn't Aguilar in the lineup every day?

[Boomer5]

Regression and injuries plus the two new guys weren’t really very good offensive players to begin with, their value came in part from their LF and CF D.

[Boomer5]

Doesn't help that the manager sits one of his best hitters 2 out of 3 games against the Cubs. Why isn't Aguilar in the lineup every day?

 

If Aguilar is the a Brewers best hitter that begs more questions than answers.

[pacopete4]

Regression and injuries plus the two new guys weren’t really very good offensive players to begin with, their value came in part from their LF and CF D.

 

Huh? You don’t think Cain and Yelich are good offensive players?

[Boomer5]

Regression and injuries plus the two new guys weren’t really very good offensive players to begin with, their value came in part from their LF and CF D.

 

Huh? You don’t think Cain and Yelich are good offensive players?

 

I guess that depends on your definition of “very good” which is what I said.

 

They are OBA guys not middle of the order power run producer guys. They were brought in to set the table for Braun, Shaw, Santana, and Thames. Which to a certain degree they have done but it doesn’t matter because the middle of the order guys haven’t been 2017 level productive.

 

So while they are both good hitters they aren’t guys anyone would ever expect to carry a lineup.

[3and2Fastball]

Hasn't the last 3 days been mostly about Wrigley and the wind blowing in?

[pacopete4]

Hasn't the last 3 days been mostly about Wrigley and the wind blowing in?

 

Both teams played in the same conditions. They’ve out hit us each game and obviously scored more runs.

[JohnBriggs12]

Doesn't help that the manager sits one of his best hitters 2 out of 3 games against the Cubs. Why isn't Aguilar in the lineup every day?

 

If Aguilar is the a Brewers best hitter that begs more questions than answers.

 

He's certainly one of them and deserves to be an everyday player with Thames out.

[JohnBriggs12]

Hasn't the last 3 days been mostly about Wrigley and the wind blowing in?

 

Both teams played in the same conditions. They’ve out hit us each game and obviously scored more runs.

 

Wrong. Brewers handed them the game on Friday on Sogard's error. Both sacrifice flies that drove in runs in that game are long, long gone on virtually any other day. Aguilar smoked a ball to left that would have easily traveled well over 400 feet in MP. Yelich's drive with the bases loaded ends up in the loge level at MP. That being said, when playing in those conditions, the mindset of hitters has to change and defense becomes all important. Brewers handed the Cubs another freebie run today, then failed to get Cain in from third with nobody out and two of their best hitters up. Yelich swung at a ball a foot off the plate for strike three. If the score is 0-0. or 1-1, Counsell probably uses someone other than Drake in the 7th. Even there, one run scored because Arcia fell asleep. Two of the three hits off Guerra were popups. He matched Quintana pitch for pitch.

[3and2Fastball]

Hasn't the last 3 days been mostly about Wrigley and the wind blowing in?

 

Both teams played in the same conditions. They’ve out hit us each game and obviously scored more runs.

 

They have better pitching maybe? And a little bit better defense at C, 2B, RF, & 1B.?

[pacopete4]

Hasn't the last 3 days been mostly about Wrigley and the wind blowing in?

 

Both teams played in the same conditions. They’ve out hit us each game and obviously scored more runs.

 

Wrong. Brewers handed them the game on Friday on Sogard's error. Both sacrifice flies that drove in runs in that game are long, long gone on virtually any other day. Aguilar smoked a ball to left that would have easily traveled well over 400 feet in MP. Yelich's drive with the bases loaded ends up in the loge level at MP. That being said, when playing in those conditions, the mindset of hitters has to change and defense becomes all important. Brewers handed the Cubs another freebie run today, then failed to get Cain in from third with nobody out and two of their best hitters up. Yelich swung at a ball a foot off the plate for strike three. If the score is 0-0. or 1-1, Counsell probably uses someone other than Drake in the 7th. Even there, one run scored because Arcia fell asleep. Two of the three hits off Guerra were popups. He matched Quintana pitch for pitch.

 

You say wrong but the hit column and run total says otherwise. The rest of what you list is all excuses for losses. They’ve been outplayed. Offensively, defensively, and pitching.

 

Oh and Aguilar should not be the everyday 1B because after a week of full time at bats, his slash line would take an immediate hurting. He’s a good bench bat that can fill in here and there. Let’s not go crazy.

[Lathund]

Not sure what there is to do at this point. Maybe Coles is part of the problem, maybe he isn't. No way for any of us to know really. Replacing him or not depends on who is available to replace him. Playing Perez and Sogard as little as possible is another thing, but when the players primarily playing in their place are Villar and Arcia that doesn't make much of a difference.

 

So looking outside the roster, and then mainly at options for 2B/SS/C which seem to be the weak spots, there isn't a whole lot. Dubon and Arcia ran very similar numbers in the minors and Dubon would likely need some time to adjust regardless. But I don't see how he could be worse at this point; letting Arcia figure things out in AAA while seeing what Dubon can do isn't a bad idea IMO. Of course it could be Sogard or Perez making room for him, but that would also mean likely losing them permanently. And getting nothing in return. Too early for that IMO. Nottingham or Bethancourt could be an upgrade at catcher, but again even if they are it's probably not by much. Apart from that there's Orf (unproven) and Saladino (defensive specialist).

 

At other positions there's Choi, Phillips, Broxton. But there's not really room for them; Santana and Aguilar are out of options, and if you call them up instead of an infielder it'd be rather crowded in the OF and 1B.

 

So yeah, not a whole lot to be done immediately unless there's a trade to be made. But generally a bit early for that, and you'd likely have to pay a premium to get it done. I'd like to see Dubon get a shot though, even if I don't expect miracles. If there's a trade to be made for Perez or Sogard (Unlikely), then make that and call up Dubon. If not, give Arcia some time in AAA. To find some confidence at the plate and maybe work on some things, as well as a wake-up call for plays like the one last night. Arcia could very well figure it out, he's still young, but he has looked lost at the plate for much of his major league tenure.

[3and2Fastball]

You could bring up Phillips, and start him over Santana vs RHP and you could bring up Dubon and have him take the super utility spot that Sogard should never be playing in the first place (that would improve the defense and Dubon could at least hit as well as Sogard has this year!) otherwise there isn't much you can do, other than continuing to work with the hitters we already have

[brewers888]

Neil Walker may very well get DFA'd pretty soon from the Yankees and I think we should pounce if that happens.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I think this team has enough good hitters, but they're unevenly distributed. Too many at OF and 1B and none at 2B and SS. Ideally, you could fix that via trade, but Santana and Aguilar are more valuable to us as regular bench options than whatever the market's priced them at.

 

Short term, I think two things will really help. 1) Pina needs to start hitting a little. He can still regress, but the power numbers come up just a touch and suddenly it is a big lift. 2) Villar plays most days and increases his walk rate. He is fine as a singles hitter if that is what he is going to be.

 

How possible is that? I don't know. But right 6, 7, 8 in the order have to produce more than they are now.

[pacopete4]

We were almost gaurenteed to have one black hole in Arcia because his defense is so talented that he was going to be our shortstop. But getting nothing from our catching duo, especially Pina hurts. Villar has an okay average but he’s done nothing else. Sogard shouldn’t be on the pater. Perez isn’t too far behind him. It’s not really roster construction for me as it is more so the players Stearns has found to fill catcher and second base. It has killed this lineups chance to be consistent unless the top half plays out of their minds... and they haven’t.

[Boomer5]

It’s also April. Trades aren’t usually made this time of year so they will likely stay with this group and hope they break out as it warms up.

 

July would be the time to make major moves if they are needed.

[FVBrewerFan]

Top of the order has not had a productive series, it happens. It's not Luke they're losing these games 9-0.

[KeithStone53151]

One of the biggest problems with the offense in this specific series is trying to hit home runs. If this series were in miller park, we probably win the first 2 games on about 5 homers. The cubs aren't trying to hit homers in cold conditions into the wind, they are trying to hit line drives. The results speak for themselves. Even schwarbers homer had minimal loft, he just hit a line drive incredibly hard and it carried enough to get out.

[brewmann04]

watching today game the offense just looks terribe

[clancyphile]

The cubs beat us for Quintana and Darvish.

 

That's the difference. We sign Darvish or make the better deal for Quintana... we'd be in better shape.

 

But offensive upgrades at C, 2B, and SS. Let someone else overpay for Arcia's web gems. Get me folks who can post .850 OPSs at those positions.

[adambr2]

The @!@ Cubs beat us for Quintana and Darvish.

 

That's the difference. We sign Darvish or make the better deal for Quintana... we'd be in better shape.

 

But offensive upgrades at C, 2B, and SS. Let someone else overpay for Arcia's web gems. Get me folks who can post .850 OPSs at those positions.

 

Darvish and Quintana have ERAs over 5, someone is knocking them around this year.

It's just not us. Their performances wouldn't be making us better, and literally any pitcher wearing a Cubs uniform is effortlessly mowing us down, so this has a lot less to do with Darvish and Quintana and a lot more to do with our pitiful offense.

[clancyphile]

Yep.

 

Villar, Pina/Bandy, and Arcia just aren't the answers at 2B, C, and SS. Gonna have to make some trades or figure out when some people will be ready from AA.