The 2018 Milwaukee Brewers are in quite a strange position, representing the bundle of contradictions that defined their uncanny 2017 campaign. On the one hand, the organization dropped a “rebuilding” narrative in 2015, meaning that industry writers, analysts, and fans alike did not expect the club to compete, let alone contend, for several years; on […]
Tag: Matt Garza
Fluctuation Race
The 2017 Cubs had a good rotation, as far as typical, standard rotations go. The club entered the season with their four most productive starters locked in, and many pundits praised their depth moves to fill out the back of the rotation. When a team can prevent more than 100 runs on the front end, […]
Out West
It is August 18, 2017. The Milwaukee Brewers are one game out of first place in the National League Central, and four and a half games back of the Colorado Rockies in the Wild Card. So this west coast trip will not be inconsequential for the Brewers, a mere extended trip while playing out the […]
What (We Think) We Learned in May
Because more than some 2,000 years ago an emperor thought it was a good idea, we have months to divide up our year and, by extension, our baseball season. Seems like as good of a reason as any to check in with the state of the Brewers statistical profile and what, if anything, one can discern […]
What Should the Brewers do with Matt Garza?
Coming into this season, I had low expectations for Matt Garza. He began the year on the disabled list so we already knew that he wasn’t completely healthy, and he was coming off of two horrendous seasons. In 2015, Garza threw 148.7 and posted a DRA of 6.18, which was good enough for a whopping […]
Weekend Recap 5: Garza, Shaw, Thames
Welcome to Week Five of the Weekend Recap, where we’ll look at another disappointing weekend for the Brewers. They lost two of three games against Pittsburgh; the losses were a rain interrupted game on Friday and an extra inning loss on Saturday. Weekend Series Brewers Pirates Friday May 5 0 4 Saturday May 6 1 […]
Matt Garza’s Final Escape Chance
The Brewers are about to enter spring training in a couple weeks with a rather remarkable salary situation: Just eight players on their 40-man roster will be making more than Major League Baseball’s minimum salary, by far the lowest in the league. Cincinnati features the next-lowest total at 11, and all but six squads carry […]
Caring About the Garza Tweet
A few weeks ago, Brewers starting pitcher Matt Garza made headlines with a tweet. In a response to actress Jessica Chastain lamenting the fact that birth control was no longer covered by health insurance, Garza both advocated abstinence and criticized an entire generation. It's called abstinence, a word that has been forgotten amongst this generation… […]
A Tight Rotation
Spring Training starts soon, which means a number of things to everyone. It’s a chance for young players to make an impression with the big club. It’s two months to prepare for the season for those assured of a roster spot. And, in quite a few cases, it’s a semi-open audition for the unfilled spots […]
Matt Garza’s Value
For an MLB player, value has two elements: Production: A player can be considered valuable based on how well they perform on the field. Alternately, as advanced statistics and analytical tools emerge, a player can be considered valuable based on their underlying elements — stuff, mechanics, plate approach, command, etc. Both of these metrics, traditional […]