Brewers' Offense

[Pugger]

That postilion would depend entirely on your ability to prevent runs, mainly pitching and defense...two things at which the Brewers happen to be really good at. It's not hard to win that way when the team is built to win that way. It may be hard on the fans to watch that type of baseball but the team knows what they are and what their strengths are.

 

Yes, our pitching is great but lately it seems like if our opponent gets a couple of runs we are screwed. I voiced this concern a few times the last couple of weeks of the regular season and some here told me not to worry, that we were resting players and saving them for the post season. How unfortunate if we squander this opportunity because we can't hit our way out of a paper bag.

[wntrtxn21]

That postilion would depend entirely on your ability to prevent runs, mainly pitching and defense...two things at which the Brewers happen to be really good at. It's not hard to win that way when the team is built to win that way. It may be hard on the fans to watch that type of baseball but the team knows what they are and what their strengths are.

 

Yes, our pitching is great but lately it seems like if our opponent gets a couple of runs we are screwed. I voiced this concern a few times the last couple of weeks of the regular season and some here told me not to worry, that we were resting players and saving them for the post season. How unfortunate if we squander this opportunity because we can't hit our way out of a paper bag.

 

The Brewers came limping into the playoffs playing some of the worst offensive baseball of anybody in the game. That has obviously carried over to the playoffs. The inability to at least put the ball in play continues to haunt them. They have wiffed a staggering 24 times of their 51 outs in the series so far. Great pitching isn't going to do anything unless the Crew can right the ship and start hitting.

[brewcrewdue80]

May have to go back and check but I started watching the game I believe bottom or end of 2nd. When Brewers came to bat in the third, Fried I think went 11 straight batters throwing 1st pitch strikes without 1 single swing. Then I think he finally had a ball on 1st pitch followed by 3 more 1st pitch strikes with 1 swung at. Curveball, Changeup(85mph)? Was it? Probably 13 of those 15 abs.

 

I've said this before but there seems such a poor strategy on approaching the Opposing Starter. This one clearly add to Fried's pitch count and get him hopefully out by 6th inning. They absolutely wanted nothing to do with attacking him and Fried just lofted 1st pitch strike after 1st pitch strike like okay. Guy is lofting 72MPH curveballs that seemed vertical not horizontal and guys took them. Series is lost. Any opposing pitcher has zero fear factor on every single Brewer batter. Brewer Pitchers though have all the fear facing Freddie Freeman. They must think he's Barry Bonds yet they wont just free pass him and save the 5plus pitches they're about to toss trying to get him out poorly.

Might want to trade Hader and package Yelich this offseason. Yelich is broken and not going to be fixed here.

 

Edit. Went back on feed and 11 of 12 batters took strike 1 from 3rd til 2outs in 6th. There were a few ball 1s.

[adambr2]

Yelich has extremely negative trade value. If you're trading him you're getting nothing and either eating a lot of salary or taking on an equally bad deal.

[BruisedCrew]

I wonder if we are going to hear after the season that Yelich is going to have some kind of back surgery.

 

It’s not just the results, but he just looks completely different to me at the plate, including his balance after his swings.

[Marc Newfield of Dreams]

Interesting point on his balance. Especially when he goes to LF it looks like he's falling back toward the dugout. I had wondered if it had to do with the knee... if he was stepping more towards first to protect it. But a back issue could also explain balance issues.

[TURBO]

If Yelich is so bad off, he shouldn't be starting.

[Pugger]

I wonder if we are going to hear after the season that Yelich is going to have some kind of back surgery.

 

It’s not just the results, but he just looks completely different to me at the plate, including his balance after his swings.

 

If he has a back issue then he shouldn't be out there. Period. We have enough problems getting hits as it is. Poor Yelich is hitting almost as bad as a pitcher.

[DuWayne Steurer]

maybe he does have lingering back pain. maybe he just sucks now. maybe he has PTSD from the knee injury.

 

but jumping from "he looks off balance" to the conclusion that he shouldn't be out there if he's injured is kind of weird, since we have no indication that he's actually hurt.

 

he did have a single and a walk yesterday, which is more than just about anyone else mustered, as I recall.

 

a guy who's slugging less than .380 should definitely not be hitting 3rd, and I would completely get on board with moving him down in the order.

[BruisedCrew]

Just to be clear I wasn’t saying Yelich “shouldn’t be out there”. I am just comparing current Yelich to 2018-2019 Yelich, including the first half 2018 Yelich who was a great player, but the not the MVP caliber superstar that he was in the second half of 2018 and most of 2019. I would love to have first half 2018 Yelich now.

[TURBO]

Also just to be clear, I said "IF he is so bad off, he shouldn't be starting."

 

I have no idea if his health, either physical or mental, has anything to do with his struggles, but if either are effecting his play at this time of year, then he shouldn't be starting.

[AdvantageSchneider]

https://www.brewcrewball.com/2021/10/11/22719677/the-milwaukee-brewers-were-surprisingly-unprepared-against-max-fried-game-2-nlds

 

"Had the Brewers done their homework on Fried, they should have known that he rarely walks hitters and loves to fill up the strike zone. His 6.2% walk rate was in the 84th percentile among all pitchers this season, and his 45.5% zone rate was 11th-highest among starters who worked at least 150 innings this season."

 

Because Fried is a noted strike-thrower, the Brewers’ lineup needed to come out swinging. If they got a pitch over the plate—especially early in the count—they had to jump on it.

 

Instead, Milwaukee hitters did the exact opposite. They were alarmingly passive against the Braves’ lefty, taking 20 called strikes. That was tied for the second-highest total in any start for Fried this season.

 

This is somewhat shocking to me as the Brewers seem to be highly analytical. And it's not like we didn't know ahead of time who we were likely to be facing. We were pretty much locked in to either the Braves or the Phillies with two weeks left in the season. The Braves clinched on Sept 30th. Plenty of time to put a scouting report together.

 

Is a failure like that on the hitting coach or the analytics department?

[sveumrules]

I didn't get to watch the game, but it could be that the Brewers game plan was only to swing early at pitches they thought could do damage on & the Braves counter was to target locations early in the count where Brewers players were less likely to swing.

 

I don't know where each of the called strikes were, but depending on the location, batter, count, etc, a take could be a better decision than a swing.

[Bulldogboy]

I am sure this has been covered before but I just do not feel good about a hitting instructor who has zero major league hitting experience. I know it's dumb but I just feel like there is only so much Haines can do with his relative lack of experience to fall back on. How do you know what Yelich or Hiura is going through when you have never been there in the arena. Counsell seems like a decent manager in part because he's been there and done that. Hire a Paul Molitor type who can at least say here is my best advice based on my experience. I just think when this series is over a change has to be made. The Brewers have to invest whatever it takes to get Yelich turned around because the future is bleak if he doesn't.

[sveumrules]

I am sure this has been covered before but I just do not feel good about a hitting instructor who has zero major league hitting experience. I know it's dumb but I just feel like there is only so much Haines can do with his relative lack of experience to fall back on. How do you know what Yelich or Hiura is going through when you have never been there in the arena. Counsell seems like a decent manager in part because he's been there and done that. Hire a Paul Molitor type who can at least say here is my best advice based on my experience. I just think when this series is over a change has to be made. The Brewers have to invest whatever it takes to get Yelich turned around because the future is bleak if he doesn't.

 

No team has had a more dramatic turnaround on the offensive side the last couple years than the San Francisco Giants.

 

Their hitting coach, Justin Viele, never played in the Majors.

 

Despite scoring the most runs in the NL this year, the Dodgers are six outs from getting shutout for the 2nd time in three games, maybe they need to fire their hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc too? He never played in the Majors either.

[timpep]

I don't know if it's the hitting coach or just a lack of a great hitter. Really the number 1 problem with the offense is Yelich. If he stays mediocre the Brewers offense is likely to be mediocre for the next several years. That's basically just how it is imo.

[AdvantageSchneider]

I didn't get to watch the game, but it could be that the Brewers game plan was only to swing early at pitches they thought could do damage on & the Braves counter was to target locations early in the count where Brewers players were less likely to swing.

 

I don't know where each of the called strikes were, but depending on the location, batter, count, etc, a take could be a better decision than a swing.

 

They have the pitch chart for the 20 called strikes. 8 were on the black or even off the plate, but the other 12 look pretty much middle of the plate. A couple were middle middle even.

[DHonks]

I'd love to find a way to get Peterson in the lineup. His at bats helped spur us on in starting in June. Just not sure where to play him with Tellez, Urias, and Escobar at the corners.

 

So far it hurts that Yelich, Garcia, Wong, and Cain haven't done much. Heck, only Adames, Urias, and Peterson have done anything. If it were the regular season and not a potential last game, I'd love to get Peterson and Taylor into the lineup.

[BruisedCrew]

I'd love to find a way to get Peterson in the lineup. His at bats helped spur us on in starting in June. Just not sure where to play him with Tellez, Urias, and Escobar at the corners.

 

So far it hurts that Yelich, Garcia, Wong, and Cain haven't done much. Heck, only Adames, Urias, and Peterson have done anything. If it were the regular season and not a potential last game, I'd love to get Peterson and Taylor into the lineup.

 

I would say that in these 3 games only Tellez has really done anything.

 

The position players in varying degrees are contributing a hit or walk here or there to get someone on base, but the sum total of them is not enough to provide many scoring chances.

 

By my count the Brewers have had 24 base runners in the 3 games, and that isn’t likely to produce a lot of runs unless you hit home runs, string the base runners together, or have exceptional hitting with RISP. The Brewers have had none of those things except for Tellez’s HR. I don’t think they have ever had 3 hitters reach base in one inning except for that same inning when Escobar followed Tellez’s HR with a single.

 

The Braves are ahead in the series not because of great offense of their own but because they have 3 HRs to the Brewers one and one other inning where they strung hits together.

 

This unproductive offense didn’t spring out of thin air. It was evident in quite a few games over the last few weeks of the season, especially if the opponent didn’t provide some significant assistance with walks or errors.

 

At this point the Brewers have no choice but to hope that one or more of the hitters who have been their biggest producers during the season suddenly break out with some big hits. I wouldn’t throw Peterson in there thinking that his two pinch hit walks indicate that he will spark the offense.

[Outlander]

Peterson pinch hitting and getting walks is what he brings to the table. They played him the most in September with terrible results. Wouldn't have minded having him in the Vogelbach role yesterday with two on and one out as he likely would have delivered but also understand they want his defensive versatility just in case. Plus Vogelbach is useless unless he is pinch hitting in key roles or used as a bluff like in Game 2.

[monty57]

Maybe there's nothing to this, but around the time they clinched the division, they didn't necessarily "play to lose," but they certainly didn't "play to win." They rested (over-rested?) a lot of their starters, kept guys on the IL with things that they normally would play through, took their starters out early in games, etc. This was around the time everyone stopped playing well, they lost a lot more than they won, and it's carried over into the playoffs.

 

On one hand, they stayed healthy (Williams' injury wasn't an in-game thing) which really seems to have been their main goal over the final stretch of the season. On the other hand, baseball is full of routines, and when you take guys out of their routine it can throw them off. It's just a thought, maybe it's all just coincidence that they started losing when they changed the way they did things, or maybe their strategy backfired. It certainly couldn't help their confidence that they were getting kicked around by everyone for the last couple of weeks.

 

Anything can happen in a short series. Hopefully today they come out swinging and send the series back to Milwaukee.

[KCBrewerfan34]

Dodgers have been shut out twice. Just saying.

 

its the playoffs man

[monty57]

Dodgers have been shut out twice. Just saying.

 

its the playoffs man

 

I agree, and I keep telling my son that to back him off the ledge. In my previous post, I was just wondering if the Brewers' end-of-year strategy might have backfired a bit by cooling off a hot team.

 

Of course, the hottest team going into the playoffs was the Cardinals, and look what that got them.

[wibadgers23]

Well maybe this will be the offseason Stearns finally learns how to build an offense to go with his stellar pitching staff. I can’t take another year of mediocre offense. I don’t know even know where to begin with Yelich.

[jonescm128]

Well maybe this will be the offseason Stearns finally learns how to build an offense to go with his stellar pitching staff. I can’t take another year of mediocre offense. I don’t know even know where to begin with Yelich.

 

I think Stearns is getting way too much blame here. In terms of money, he only has what the owner is willing to spend. Nobody foresaw the seasons from Yelich, Hiura and JBJ that they had this year. Those guys were supposed to be key contributors to our offense. In addition, Stearns did make a "big time offer" for Bryan Reynolds at the deadline so he recognizes where this team had issues. If he was willing to do it mid-season, he will be willing to do it in the off-season.

 

Let us not forget that he did acquire Adames, Tellez and Urias. All who played key roles this year and who will be expected to be key contributors next year.

 

Whether we make runs at guys like Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber or Marcus Semien (a wider range of available players if NL DH is implemented) or if we make a big trade acquisition, Stearns knows where this team needs help. I am hopeful Antanassio allows that payroll to extend a bit after the loss I'm sure they took last year and I think they have the ability to do it. After 2022 we clear about $30m with Cain and JBJ's contracts ending so backloading some of these deals might make sense.

 

The most difficult part of building a team is constructing a quality pitching staff. We have that covered and then some. Time to go get it!