Sunday’s game featured an old face in a new uniform at Miller Park, as previous Pittsburgh Pirates nemesis and New York Mets second baseman Neil Walker came to Milwaukee via trade. Of course, Walker immediately made his presence felt, showing positional flexibility with a start at third base and going 2-for-4 with a run scored. […]
Author: Nicholas Zettel
The Last Run
The Brewers will close their 2017 campaign (and playoff run) with 22 of 25 games against NL Central foes. This includes three road games against each foe (including a season closing series at St. Louis), and 10 home games against the Reds (3), Pirates (3), and Cubs (4). All things considered, this is both a […]
Grading the System 2
Where are the Brewers? As a franchise, the 2017 trade deadline marks contradictory crossroads leading in several directions. First and foremost, the club has contended for the NL Central all season long, and even the recent tailspin does not have the club terribly far from the division favorite Chicago Cubs. Thirteen of sixteen post-All Star […]
The Calendar Versus The Rotation
Two weeks ago, I investigated the state of the Brewers rotation in order to price out the benefits of acquiring an ace such as Sonny Gray. With rumors saying Milwaukee is finished with the Gray talks on account of Oakland’s high asking price, Brewers fans and analysts may expect a true regression from the rotation. […]
When PECOTA Picked the Brewers
The Brewers won the division 350 times in 2017. 350 times out of 5,000, the Brewers were better than the Cubs, Pirates, Cardinals, and Reds. In the preseason, Baseball Prospectus alumnus Sam Miller published a fun perusal of the PECOTA oddities generated during playoffs odds simulations at ESPN. Of course, the Brewers were hardly on […]
What is Hernan’s Value?
Hernan Perez looks like an unremarkable ballplayer on the surface. Among Brewers positional players, Baseball Prospectus ranks him in a tie for 8th most valuable WARP (1.1) along with catcher Manny Pina. Compared to left fielders, which is Perez’s majority position in large part due to Ryan Braun’s nagging injuries throughout 2017, the superutility’s Total […]
Historical WARP and OFP
Now that the trade deadline is heating up, baseball’s best fan past time is pricing out trades and dreaming up returns for their favorite clubs. Analysts and writers have a tougher line to follow. First and foremost, not only do clubs hide their proprietary player evaluation and analytics systems, they also hide their risk assessment […]
NL Central: Pythagorean Update
As Brewers fans and Cubs fans alike hail the coming inevitability, as the Cubs destroyed an easy stretch of their schedule as the Brewers face the surging Pirates, it’s important to take a look at the full context of the division. It is worth noting, of course, despite the bullpen’s inability to hold several leads […]
Trade Deadline Blues
With the trade deadline approaching, and one blockbuster already completed by the division rival Cubs, Brewers fans and analysts are vigorously debating prospective moves for the franchise. Milwaukee is in a great spot to make moves: the club sits atop the division with a 5.5 game lead, is in the midst of a ten game […]
Organizational Logic and Playoff Trades
Brewers fans are so busy dissecting the recent rumors about the club scouting potential trade returns that they have lost focus of the central aim of the club: an MLB team’s first order of business is selling cable subscriptions (and therefore advertising), and their second order is returning (hopeful) profits to the ownership group. Make […]