Series Preview: Milwaukee Brewers at Astros
by Evan Hochschild on May 19, 2009 1:22 PM CDT
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PrintAfter splitting a rain shortened two game series in Chicago, the Astros head home for a tilt against division leading Milwaukee. It wasn't so long ago that Milwaukee was in a similar position as our Astros: bobbing along a few games under the .500 mark. Since May 3rd though, the Brewers have won eleven of thirteen games, which has propelled the team to first place in the NL Central.
There have been many players who have contributed to this revival of Team Hops and Barley. Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder had sub par 2008 seasons? This season, both have pounded the baseball, with slugging percentages for each above .500. Ryan Braun has rebounded as well off a somewhat down 2008 season to continue his path to being one of the best players in the game. As is so often the case, a change of approach at the plate has yielded a better season. Patience is the name of the game with Braun, so too with Mike Cameron and his OPS+ of 144. Corey Hart is still up to his old hacking ways, while JJ Hardy has gotten off to a slow start. Jason Kendall....well....plays professional baseball.
Yovani Gallardo has two home runs, and an ERA of 3.00. Dave Bush is a control freak in an oh so good way. A 3.60 K/BB ratio, coulpled with a low WHIP has led to a tidy ERA and a spotless 2-0 record. Jeff Suppan was downright nasty in his last start against the Cardinals. On the whole, the Brewers' pitching staff has a team ERA of 3.94, good for fourth in MLB.
Will losing the services of CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets catch up to the Brewers? Maybe. Milwaukee is 12th in strikeouts and 11th in walks allowed. The staff doesn't allow an inordinate amount of home runs, and their bullpen- with Todd Coffey, Seth McClung, Carlos Villanueva and Trevor Hoffman, should prove to be very effective and a definite asset. Couple this with an improved right side of the infield, and an MVP caliber season from Ryan Braun and things couldn't be better on Lake Michigan.
Probable Pitchers for Milwaukee:
Dave Bush (Tuesday vs. Mike Hampton)
Yovani Gallardo (Wednesday vs. Wandy Rodriguez)
Jeff Suppan (Thursday vs. Roy Oswalt)
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It would appear
that the pitching matchups favor us on Thursday and them tomorrow. Wednesday should be an exciting matchup though. Gallardo is clearly the more highly regarded talent, but Rodriguez has been about as good as anybody in the National League so far this year.
I'm truly excited for Wednesday
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on May 18, 2009 7:31 PM CDT up reply actions
after thinking about the impact of this on fantasy baseball...
I went ot my fantasy team to try and add Brewers rookie Matt Gamel to my team. I couldn’t find him. And then I realized I am in an AL only league. LOL
how good is this kid supposed to be?
if I’ve got Zimmerman with Inge as my back-up (who conveniently backs up C and OF as well), is he somebody that might end up better than either of them? are we talking about the next Ryan Braun here?
by littlevisigoth on May 19, 2009 8:17 AM CDT up reply actions
He does remind me of the next Braun....
that applies to both his defense at 3d (maybe even worse than Braun), as well as his offensive capability. Gamel’s defense is what has kept him from reaching the majors even earlier, and it might limit his major league playing time. Initially he will probably platoon with Hall at 3d, since Counsel is at 2d. However, if he rips the cover off the ball, like Braun did, I imagine the Brewers will have to give him more playing time. I think Gamel is a very good gamble.
Gamel got off to a good start yesterday, hitting a HR in his first ML game.
Omar Vizquel
had a season in the minors where his error total was in the 40s. Last night, his first start, probably showed what he brings. He made a really nice play and then later in the game charged the ball, fielded it well, and threw the ball wide of Fielder for a throwing error. I’d say he compares to Braun in the sense that he has the ability to make the plays at 3rd, but lacks the consistency and both do well when they have to react quickly, but not when they have time. Braun used to do the crow hop a couple times before sending a souvenir to someone in the stands.
I doubt he’ll play any 2nd. I think the original plan was to use him as the DH for the 3 interleague series and bring him up a bit early to get him acclimated. With Weeks injury creating a lot of playing time for Counsell and if his bat stays hot, maybe he won’t go back down. Tonight I expect they’ll use McGehee, the Cubs cast off at 2nd, a RH for Hampton.
I didn't mean to suggest that Gamel will be used at 2d,
But my assumption had been that he would get the opportunity to platoon at 3d initially, because Counsel and McGehee will get more time at 2d.
not to turn this into a fantasy Q&A
but who would you drop between Inge, Ordonez, Bourn, Tulowitski, and Kubel (DH from Minnesota). It may be worth noting that I just picked up Bourn to account for the fact that I’m currently last in SB.
by littlevisigoth on May 19, 2009 9:41 AM CDT up reply actions
I'm probably not the best fantasy advisor.
But maybe you can trade Ordonez. He has gotten off to a bad start. He probably will turn it around, but he is at an age (and physical condition) where you wonder about it. I have Kubel on my team in the TCB AL only league. He is hitting pretty well, but I don’t know that he is an irreplaceable type outfielder/DH.
thanks
and to EHTR.
i’m in a relatively unsophisticated Yahoo! head-to-head league with 10 teams and both NL and AL players, so the FA market is usually pretty solid. that makes trades pretty rare, especially for the slow-starting, traditionally high performing type like Ordonez, since there are half a dozen others just like him in the FA pool.
i went ahead and dumped Kubel. he’s probably the most replaceable of the five listed (although Tulo is looking like his rookie season was an abberation).
by littlevisigoth on May 19, 2009 10:46 AM CDT up reply actions
well
unfortunatly my school picked tommorows game to go too, and NOT wednesdays game…yovani vs wandy wuda been sick to c in person!
by EveryHoustonTeamRox! on May 18, 2009 9:15 PM CDT reply actions
Just looking at some splits
to see if there is anything positive or negative to note about the fact that we’ll be throwing our two left-handed pitchers in this series against the Brewers. Milwaukee has a decidedly right-handed line-up, and as you might think, they feast on left-handed pitching. Even Fielder, they’re one substantial lefty, is hitting southpaws better on the season than right-handed pitchers, with an OPS and a HR/PA (although only slightly) better with what would traditionally be thought of as an advantageous pitching matchup. Braun, in particular is MASHING lefties, to the tune of a 1.557 OPS. Bill Hall also has decidedly favorable splits against lefties. Cameron actually has struggled against left-handers so far this year. I don’t know if that’s a trend for his career or not. MLB.com doesn’t do career splits and I’m too lazy to look elsewhere right now.
Anyway, the only other positive is, as Ole Pete indicates, we might see McGehee at 2nd against lefties, who just doesn’t appear to be that good, although I admittedly no nothing about him except for the numbers I just looked up for 2009. Otherwise, it appears that Milwaukee might have an extra edge tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully Wandy’s wandilicious-ness offsets some of the Brewers mojo against left-handed pitching and Roy can come out with a dominating performance on Thursday, and maybe our offense can come alive against Bush tonight.
For the record, even though the Astros can run out quite a few lefty batters, our OPS drops over 200 points against right-handed pitching. Lee, Tejada, and Pudge in particular have pretty big dropoffs from lefties to righties. Guess what, all three of the pitchers we’ll see from the Brewers are right-handed.
Anyway, just food for thought. Go Astros!
by littlevisigoth on May 19, 2009 10:41 AM CDT reply actions
Wandy is better than most LHPs in facing RHBs.
This year both LHBs and RHBs are have trouble with Wandy (terrible OPS+ for batters from both sides). Last year, Wandy was tougher on RHBs than LHBs. 2008: RHB OPS+ of 78, and LHB OPS+ of 129. In 2007, Wandy’s OPS+ was the same against both LHBs and RHBs. I recall LaRussa saying that his LH batters seemed to see the ball better against Wandy than his RH batters (meaning he didn’t play the platoon game when Wandy was on the mound). Hopefully that will help in the match ups.
Hampton shows very little platoon split this year, but overall he needs to do better against both sides. (OPS of .793 against RHB and .797 against LHB.) On his career, Hampton has a slight reverse platoon splits (better vs. RHBs than LHBs).
So, hopefully this all means that a RH heavy lineup won’t be a huge factor. However, both of these pitchers need to hold the walks down against the Brewers. The Brewers are much more patient nowadays (as the HLP’s article indicates). They beat the Cardinals with double digit walks in yesterday’s game.
the cobwebs of my memory recall
last year Wandy throttled the Brewers one game and was mediocre in another.
Last final on Wednesday >.> Tryin’ to get tickets for Thursday’s game.
"He walked 18."
"New league record!"
"Struck out 18."
"Another new league record! In addition he hit the sportswriter, the public address announcer, the bull mascot twice...also new league records! But, Joe, this guy's got some serious shit."
super value day
or whatever they’re calling it. $10 gets you a cheap seat ticket, a dog, and a soda. all that and a bag of chips… literally (couldn’t resist).
bet those are the only sections close to full on Thursday.
by littlevisigoth on May 19, 2009 2:20 PM CDT up reply actions
That sounds
Delicious
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on May 19, 2009 2:21 PM CDT up reply actions
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3 game series vs Rockies @ Minute Maid Park
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Friday, Apr 6, 2012, 6:05 PM CDT |
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| Sat 04/07 | 6:05 PM CDT | |
| Sun 04/08 | 1:05 PM CDT | |
NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Cincinnati
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Houston
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Milwaukee
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Pittsburgh
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
St. Louis
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
(updated 2.15.2012 at 6:05 PM CST)
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