By the time I was 10, I realized that my big-league dreams weren’t actually going to come true. While my epiphany may have come earlier than it did for others, I think everyone reading this has had that moment. Even though my dreams were shattered and I had to start working on a backup plan, I still frequently think about walk-up and closer music. It’s always fun to ask and debate what one would choose if given the opportunity to pick their songs (Full disclosure, while my picks change, currently my walk-up music is Run the Jewels “Close Your Eyes” and my closer song is Slayer “Raining Blood”).
Since this is a big part of my baseball experience, I thought it would be fun to look at current Brewers’ walk-up music and propose changes based on their performance this year. Maybe some players need some new inspiration and/or they shouldn’t be allowed to pick based on their performance.
Some caveats before we begin: I collected walk-up music information from MLB. I only looked at offensive performance. More narrowly, I only considered how players performed at the plate. There’s no stealing base or smart base-running music, so those actions have no sway here. I chose the top six Brewers in plate appearances for analysis here. Lastly, because music is subjective and no one’s tastes align, at least some portion of this article will make you upset.
Ryan Braun: Kanye West “All Day”
Kanye West is the musical equivalent of the eternal question “Is a hot dog a sandwich?”. Either you love Kanye and recognize him as a genius and a hot dog is a sandwich, or he’s an obnoxious, no-talent clown and you’re wrong. Since I clearly fall into Camp Yeezy Is a Genius, I’m going to let Braun keep a Kanye West song, but he deserves a better representation for the season he’s produced.
Ryan Braun has had a comeback season. He produced 32.6 VORP, his highest total since 2012. His improved plate discipline helped fuel that bounce back. He walked in 9.5 percent of his plate appearances, his best walk rate for a full season. While he’s walking more, his line drive rate was 27 percent, behind only last year’s 28 percent.
He’s also connecting with more authority on hard pitches. Last year, he hit .351 and slugged .730 against changeups, well above his career norms of .288 batting and .516 slugging. For comparison purposes, his isolated slugging was .378 against changeups. Perhaps that showed a slower bat that could pulverize slower stuff, but couldn’t catch up to faster offerings. His ISO against four seam fastballs was only .203. This year those trends have reversed, with an ISO of .180 against changeups, while he’s back up to .250 against four seamers.
Since he had something of a comeback year, his new Kanye song will be “Power,” the first single off My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which also served as a comeback of sorts, after a lukewarmly-received album, a cancelled tour, and backlash from not letting Taylor Swift finish. Also, the title of the song fits with Ryan Braun’s power. I swear that was an accident, I wasn’t trying to be hokey. New Song: Kanye West “Power”
Khris Davis: Dr. Dre “Xxplosive”
Davis has really had two seasons. Before he injured his knee in late May, Davis had only five home runs in 46 games. However, since his return in July, he’s hit 21 home runs in only 71 games. He’s already surpassed his career high in home runs (22), which he did in almost 30 more games and over 100 more plate appearances last year.
His exit velocities also show that he’s hitting the ball with more authority. Excluding his two July games after he returned, Davis has shown an upward trend in the ball jumping off his bat. This streak has turned what used to be doubles into home runs, but I don’t think Brewers fans will mind if he keeps hitting dingers at this rate.
While Davis has turned in a good season in terms of power, I need to change this song. Who does Khris Davis think he is, trying to beat me at my own game? Only I can select song titles with themes that reflect a player’s play. I’ll let him keep Dr. Dre, but the new song will be “Keep Their Heads Ringin’”. Better song and he will keep pitchers heads, uh, ringing, as they get whiplash from turning around so fast to see his home runs. New Song: Dr. Dre “Keep Their Heads Ringin’”
Scooter Gennett: Future “Magic”
When I first saw Scooter’s walk up music, I accidentally thought it was the Rude! Guys and was dreading this section. Luckily, it turned out to be a rap song. I swear I’m hip.
Gennett’s 2015 has to be considered a disappointment. He had a chance to establish himself as a potential piece of the next contending Brewers team moving forward, and instead fell further back offensively. His VORP dropped to 2.0. Our site has taken two looks at Gennett this season, and neither were optimistic for his future.
As Seth Victor noted in his piece, Gennett has superior contact skills for pitches in the strike zone, at 91.76 percent over his career. That’s good. However, he swings so much and at so many pitches that he doesn’t produce great contact. This year pitchers threw only 48 percent of pitches to Gennett in the strike zone. He still swung at 57 percent of all pitches he saw. His swing rate at pitches out of the zone rose from 41 percent last year to 45 percent percent this year, while his contact rate on those pitches declined to 73 percent. His swinging-strike percentage rose to a career high 16 percent.
Disappointment means that Scooter cannot keep his song. If I wanted to be hokey, and I may have already started that above, then I’d give him Guns N’ Roses “Patience”. But I wouldn’t do that to our readers, plus that song is a bit of a snooze to pump up a player before his at bat. Therefore, I’ll give him Pantera’s “Walk” instead. No, wait. I’ll at least give him some hip-hop. New song: Lil Wayne “Walk It Off”
Adam Lind: Avicii vs. Nicki Romero “I Could Be the One” and Swedish House Mafia & Tinie Tempah “Miami 2 Ibiza”
Adam Lind has two songs listed for his walk up music. Since he leads current Brewers with a 126 OPS+, I’ll allow him to have more than one. Aside from his ill-timed slump, which may have prevented Milwaukee from trading him in July, I don’t think anyone can be disappointed with Lind’s season. He produced his best VORP (26.7) since 2009, when he set a career high with 35 home runs.
It appears that Lind has had a more discerning batting eye this year. His walk rate is a career best 11.8 percent. When he does swing, he’s been making better contact as his line drive rate is also a career high at 27 percent. The biggest knock against Lind this year is that he still struggled against left-handed pitchers, producing only a .586 OPS against lefties this year.
In light of his above average production, not only will Lind keep his two booming house tracks, but I’ll also bestow upon him another song, since he deserves it. Because Lind’s season has been an unexpected surprise, perhaps it would be appropriate to call him a feel good hit of the summer. Now that you mention it… New song: Queens of the Stone Age “Feel Good Hit of the Summer”
Jonathan Lucroy- Red “Darkest Part”
After last year’s breakout, big things were expected of Lucroy this year. Unfortunately, things just haven’t broken his way this year. It was nice to see him return from his concussion last week, but that doesn’t erase several disappointing months. He produced his lowest VORP (12.8), since his 75 game rookie season.
He’s hasn’t hit for much power, as his extra-base-hit percentage was 7.3, where he was 10.4 last year, and his home-run rate dropped below two percent, a number he’d never fallen below since his rookie year. A big culprit has been an inability to drive four-seam fastballs this year. He had a .230 isolated slugging percentage against those pitches last year. This year, he’s at .097. Pitchers know they can challenge him and not pay for it.
I must confess that I’d never heard of Red before this exercise, and I think we can give Lucroy a better modern rock song to charge him up for his plate appearances so he can start attacking the ball again and return to his MVP caliber heights of 2014. New song: System of a Down “Attack”
Jean Segura: Daddy Yankee ft. Paramba “Que Se Mueran De Envidia”
Jean Segura has had another tough year at the plate, as his hot first half of 2013 gets further in the rearview mirror. His 7.4 VORP is his lowest since his 2012 call up. His 70 OPS+ is the worst of any Brewer regular.
This year his swing rates have jumped dramatically, but his contact rates have dropped across the board. His swing rate has jumped from 49 percent to 54 percent, yet his contact rate dropped from 86 percent to 84.6 percent. The biggest change has been his swings at pitches in the zone. This year his swing rate on strikes jumped from 62 percent to 69 percent. However, that attempt to be more aggressive hasn’t led anywhere. His zone contact rate has dropped from 93.2 percent to 91.6 percent. He set a new high on swinging-strike rate and when he hits the ball, he’s hitting an abnormal amount of grounders. This season his ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio was 1.47. The National League average was .89. This bad contact is killing his batting line.
Clearly, we’re changing the song here. Segura needs a reboot. Something that will bring him back to his days of promise as a hotshot prospect… when he was twenty-two and thought everything would be alright. How about Taylor Swift’s 22! New song: Taylor Swift “22”
Now that I’ve made you groan enough for one day, enjoy the last taste of Brewers baseball this weekend everyone!