04/09/04 Astros (Miller) @ Brewers (Obermueller)

[tyguy20204]

At least Obermueller looked pretty solid.

[DHonks]

and that guy in the Astros lineup...Berkman...is hitting .083. Boy, he sure stinks

[endaround]

JP just said Wendy is on the Expos rellocation committee. I think that explains a lot.

[pabrewerfan]

D-Honks,

At least Berkman has a history of being a good hitter and the chances of him ending up with at least .280 a average are about 99%.

 

With Counsell, he is right around his average...and Spivey, well, who knows....but they look as good as Royce did at the plate!!!

[DHonks]

With Counsell, he is right around his average...and Spivey, well, who knows....but they look as good as Royce did at the plate!!!

 

You're talking about 4 games for each, against two outstanding teams. Heck, with our April schedule we're already about 2 wins ahead of our expected pace. I can't criticize any of our hitters after 5/162 of the season!

[clancyphile]

Spivey's had a few loud outs. I've still got hope for him.

 

Counsell... well, he's walking every 8 ABs. Last year, he had a .328 OBP. The Crew was up against Wade Miller, and he kills us.

[scoop53714]

I dont care what his stats say right now, Adrian Hernandez is a pitcher. He will totally rebound. His stuff is wicked.

[batman]

Jeff Bagwell... wow. Dude is tearing us up. 4-for-4 with a walk, two singles, a double, and a grand slam.

 

At least Ginter is getting to play.

 

~Bill

[mls4]

"the better catcher (Moeller) is getting more playing time, and given that we'll skip the fifth starter a bunch of times, Moeller will get close to 75% of the starts, I'd guess."

 

Really, how many times will we skip the 5th starter? I just doesn't seem like it happens very often. I only remember that happening once last year. Now, if you are saying the 5th starter is likely to change once or twice this season, I'll go with that.

[tyguy20204]

Not a big fan of Counsell's stance.

[RobertR]

It's official now.

 

Adrian Hernandez and Ben Ford are going to have to show something soon.

 

I'm guessing Ginter gets his first start of the season tomorrow and Hall gets a start Sunday.

 

Robert

[DHonks]

I'm guessing Ginter gets his first start of the season tomorrow and Hall gets a start Sunday.

 

Ginter started yesterday.

[RobertR]

My mistake. Nice game too. Hall's got to get a start this weekend though.

 

Robert

[scoop53714]

I disagree with the critique of Hernandez. Without question he is pitching into horrible luck. He didnt get hit hard today at all. Squibbers, bloops and horrible defense had more to do with his line than his pitches. Podsednick should be fined for his half ass attempt at that bloop late in the game. That wasnt Adrian's fault. AH can pitch. Its early. He will show his stuff soon.

[tyguy20204]

The defense seemed pretty shoddy the whole game, actually, from my observations. Pods had several bad throws, one that should have nailed a runner at the plate for sure, and Jenkins made some imperfect plays in the outfield, although I don't think they resulted in any extra bases.

[DHonks]

I disagree with the critique of Hernandez. Without question he is pitching into horrible luck. He didnt get hit hard today at all. Squibbers, bloops and horrible defense had more to do with his line than his pitches.

 

So failing to find the strike zone had nothing to do with it? I'm not worried about him, but the Adrian Hernandez I saw today had little control and little command (if there is a difference). He did not throw strikes, and when he did, they weren't what he was looking for

 

Pods had several bad throws, one that should have nailed a runner at the plate for sure

 

First off, there was shoddy play. Jenkins' miscues were partly his fault for how deep he plays, and partly bad luck in the corner. As for Pods, he was 1 for 3 in throwing guys out at the plate. I don't want to blame him, when in reality it's not his fault that runners are reaching third in the first place. Too many baserunners was the simple problem

[batman]

Really, how many times will we skip the 5th starter?

 

I can't remember the exactitudes but Yost was quoted saying that they'd skip the fifth starter a bunch of times in the first two months of the season. This year there's a bigger difference between four and five than last year... so they're not going to move everyone back a day after off-days, or at least that's the current plan. In those situations, Obie will just get skipped.

 

Sheets-Davis-Capuano should really be 1-2-3. I understand wanting to break up the lefties but those three are in a different league than Kinney and Obermueller, at least until someone proves otherwise (either by struggling in the former case or succeeding in the latter case).

 

And as long as I'm posting, how 'bout Ginter? Dude is pretty good for a backup utility player.

 

~Bill

[tyguy20204]

There is one throw in specific with Pods where I think the play should have been made. It was a bloop single to shallow center where Hidalgo froze because he thought the ball might be caught but he still scored because of an offline throw.

 

In no way am I saying the defense was the cause for the loss, it was without a doubt due to lackluster pitching - however, that is a play I hope to see executed.

[MassBrew]

Anyway, the Brewers have 10 of 12 Mondays off prior to the All-Star Break. To truly skip the fifth pitcher (we'll say Obermueller) consistently, you'd still have to play around a bit with a four-man rotation during the six-day Tuesday - Sunday stretch. But there are no stretches of 20 straight days of action in the first half, that's for sure.

[bwi]

EDIT - By the way - this is RyDogg66, I am posting this at my Dad's computer and under his screen name....

 

Hey all, I was at the game today, so maybe I can shed a little light on what happened, and how people looked at the plate.

 

First let me address Obie. His command today was NOT good, as someone said that he had good command somewhere on the 2nd page. He fell behind almost every hitter, and he walked three, allowing two to score. He worked out of potential jams nicely a couple of times, and if he hadnt gotten his glove on a ball hit by Endsberg in the 2nd, no runs would have scored that inning. In the end though, I worry about our #5 starter...he had 3 walks in 5 innings, but like I said, he fell behind WAY to many hitters today.

 

Ford, Kiesch, Hernandez - All three of these guys looked bad. Ford couldn't find the strike zone. It looked like every hitter was ready to tee off on Kiesch (see the 6th) and I think Hernandez's first 6 pitches were balls. Hernandez got jobbed a little bit in the ninth, but he was not as impressive as his lines indicted this spring. I am a fan of his, but my expectations are a lot lower than they were before the season.

 

Hitters-

Let me start with Grieve, who gets a lot of flack on this message board- and he doesnt always deserve it. In the bottom of the fifith he hit an absolute BOMB to center field that just seemed to die out there and Biggio caught it at the track (The ball was NOT carrying at all today, as in the second Jenks and Overbay smoked balls to the gap that died). Grieve then had a somewhat clutch double late in the game with RISP. bottom line, too early to judge Grieve so give the kid some time to prove himself. I think he has performed well for a 7 hitter.

 

Overbay - Everytime this guy is up I believe he can get and extra basehit. His swing is so sweet - yet ironically when he hit both of his HRs (one today) he finishes exactly like Burnitz (who had a terrible swing). I am gonna love this guy. No rush Prince, you can wait to 2006 if you have to.

 

Counsell, Spivey - Well, ugly box scores so far for them. Spivey is a little to patient it seems, but both of his first two called Ks were VERY close, and the count was full. The ball he hit in the 8th with bases loaded was right on the screws, but right at Berkman. Counsell...well he got a walk.

 

Ginter - all this kid does os crush the ball everytime up.

 

Helms - looked lost at the plate today.

 

Bennett - If we have to go 60-40 I wont mind at all, he has put some good wood on the ball this year.

 

About the only person I am leaving out is Jenks, he had an RBI single and another ball he hit could have been a gapper. He is his old self.

 

Oh yeah and Pods - all three throws to the plate were up the 3rd base line, one the guy was dead, but it was a bad throw..the last one, to end the 6th looked like a mercy call. Didnt look all that patient at the plate today. Once he got on base with the bunt single (which was a bad bunt that Miller misplayed) Miller threw over about 5 times in a row, and Scotty still got the SB - he was nice on the basepaths.

 

Thats about it. Our Bullpen is shoddy, and that concerns me. I think we have a real shot of winning tomorrow but Ben needs to pitch past the 6th for that to happen. I'll be there with Bells on and I'll have another report tomorrow.

 

It's just one game, one loss against the best team in the NL - no big deal.

[gregmag]

I'm not *that* high on Kinney, I'm really not, but Bill, how can you assert that Doug Davis has put a lot of distance between himself and Kinney? They both had good and bad stretches last year, but Kinney's awful stretch came with the Brewers while Davis laundered his through two AL teams, so I fear we underestimate how bad he can be. I'll go along with you on Capuano; he hasn't proved much at all, but in his limited opportunities he has looked like the kind of pitcher who should be better than Davis and Obermuller -- that is, good peripherals. The thing is, Kinney's peripherals are also better than those of Davis or Obie. If Kinney flames out, he flames out; but if he can achieve some consistency, I'll be stunned if he doesn't outpitch Davis.

 

Greg.

[batman]

Doug Davis has actually been a good pitcher when taking into account his ballpark and league. His career ERA+ is 98, his 2003 ERA+ was 113, and he's never been below 95 in a season. Matt Kinney, on the other hand, has a career ERA+ of 89, including an 84 in 2003. I'm all about giving him an opportunity to improve, and I think his stuff is very good and therefore he has a respectable ceiling, but in terms of performance he's in a whole other category than Davis. Doug pitches ugly, and he's bounced around like crazy, but he gets the job done.

 

~Bill

[brewmann04]

i agree the bullpen might see some changes by next week

especially if Wise and santos pitch well at 3a

[danzig6767]

Lots of very bad defense today

 

Watching Pods out there can be painfull at times,he reminds me a bit of Sanchez,two guys with great speed but no natural instincts as an outfielder.They often get horrible jumps on balls off the bat and are very poor at going backwards on a ball over their head.The only balls they are good at are ones in the gaps,having played OF in hardball and softball those are the easiest ones to track.The true sing of a good CF are the ones who can read a ball off the bat going forwards and backwards,far and away harder to read off the bat than a gap line drive.Tracking down a liner in the gap looks pretty,but going backwards on a ball over your head is hard stuff,Pods is very poor at that.

[DHonks]

I'll go along with you on Capuano; he hasn't proved much at all, but in his limited opportunities he has looked like the kind of pitcher who should be better than Davis and Obermuller -- that is, good peripherals.

 

I don't believe anyone pointed this out, but Brandon Webb's AAA numbers weren't great because of playing in Tucson, and he appears legit. Capuano had numbers that were easily as good--if not better--in AAA in Tucson (and less than a year after Tommy John surgery). So I guess with that in mind, how good can Cappy be?

Also anyone else notice his mechanics look a lot like Nance's? Good to see we now have some pitchers who can hit (Oby and Cappy, along w/Brooks)