Entering the 2018-2019 offseason, there remains a contentious debate among many Brewers fans about the need for the Brewers to improve starting pitching. Who can blame these fans? They just spent three weeks watching national analysts bludgeon the Brewers roster construction, bemoaning at nearly every chance that an ace would be preferable to whatever the […]
Author: Nicholas Zettel
Roster without Regularity
Throughout the MLB playoffs, coverage of our Beloved Brewers completely missed the point of the club’s roster construction. While national analysts consistently stated that the club could not sustain the type of pitching strategies demonstrated in the playoffs for an entire season, in fact the club was designed to withstand precisely that type of strategy. […]
Approaching Ryu
Dodgers southpaw Hyun-jin Ryu is an understated front of the rotation pitcher. It’s easy to focus on the injuries endured by the South Korea native and Korean Baseball Organization veteran, and state that as the lefty’s primary narrative. Simply stated, Ryu has been consistently good throughout his MLB career. Sure, you’ve got to punt 2016 […]
A Quick Note on LCS Aces
Based on Average Runs Prevented, the following pitchers are among the Top 20 percent of all starters in the 2018 MLB. This is a brief table demonstrating their overall League Championship Series performances to date: LCS “Aces” (Top 20% MLB SP) Average Runs Prevented LCS IP LCS RA RA9 Chris Sale – BOS 45 4.0 […]
Series Preview: The Guts
The Brewers released their Game Notes for Game Four tonight, in Los Angeles, meaning that there is relative certainty regarding the next two games of the series. Both games will be southpaw match-ups, with Waiver Trade acquisition Gio Gonzalez facing off against former Independent Leaguer and Curveball Artist Rich Hill before corresponding aces work on […]
NLCS: Will the Better Team Win?
It’s easy to discount the Milwaukee Brewers entering the National League Championship Series. The Los Angeles Dodgers opened the 2018 season with a payroll of more than $187 million, according to Cot’s Contracts, more than double Milwaukee’s figure. In fact, that number alone would comprise approximately 70 percent of the Brewers’ total revenue. Those contracts feature […]
Rebuild Rebuilding
When the Brewers embarked on their rebuilding campaign, first under President Doug Melvin during 2015 and then under GM David Stearns, the common fan and analyst rebuilding model was the scorched-earth, tear-it-to-the-ground, “tank” rebuild. This rebuilding model was ostensibly perfected by the Houston Astros and also practiced by the Chicago Cubs, where the assumption is […]
Playoffs!
On August 31, the Brewers boasted a respectable 76-60 overall record, and stood four games behind the division leading Cubs entering the last month of the season. Yet the Brewers’ fate might have felt sealed: Milwaukee posted their worst pitching performance in August (-42 Runs Prevented), offsetting a strong offense that notably improved following trade […]
MVPs II: The Race without WAR
Over the weekend, the MVP race took a decided turn in favor of Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, as the left-handed batting phenom not only excelled in Pittsburgh, but his right-handed batting counterpart, Lorenzo Cain, nursed a brief injury for the bulk of the series. So it goes, as most of the MVP race discussion devolves […]
Junior Guerra Relieves
In the middle of a pennant race for the Brewers, with a division fight against the Cubs potentially fading into a chance to solidify the top Wild Card seed, our beloved club may have accomplished something unexpected: the Brewers may have defined an adjustment and future role for RHP Junior Guerra just in time for […]