SB Nation User Blog: tristarscoop

Future of the Franchise?

tristarscoop — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:23:12 -0000

Got a surprise when we arrived at the Timber Rattlers game tonight and Lorenzo Cain was in the lineup. The news broke about 6pm, from what I can tell, so his arrival was a surprise to pretty much everyone, including the uniform guy, who didn't even get a chance to put Cain's name on the back of his jersey.

The best part was seeing two of the biggest prospects in the system hitting next to each other in the lineup. As they both warmed to bat in the bottom of the ninth, it was seemed like a perfect photo-op to capture the possible look of the 2012 Brewers lineup.

Cain was in the three hole and Lawrie batted cleanup behind him. Each guy was 1-4 with run. Lawrie's hit was a double and he also had a walk.

A little late on this news, but we read in the program that Lawrie participated in the Midwest League All-Star Game Home Run Derby on June 22 and took second to Peoria's Rebel Ridling (he of the best name and mustache in the Midwest League).

Since we just had Kirbir's pics, those who are dying to see the swings of Cain and Lawrie in action, follow the jump for a few more pictures from the game

Cain at bat.

Lawrie's stance

Lawrie catching a pop-up in th early innings.

Cain at bat, full extension

Cain about to be driven in - love it with the sign in the back

Steve Braun likely out for season

tristarscoop — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:46:59 -0000

Buried deep in this Haudricourt article from June 30 is the fact that Steve Braun, brother of Ryan, will likely miss the rest of the season with a broken ankle, though according to the TRats web roster over the weekend, Braun was just on the seven-day DL.

Braun was supposedly brought up to Wisconsin to take Lawrie's spot while Lawrie recovered from nose surgery. However, Lawrie returned from the DL on June 17 and Braun was playing in the game on June 29 to get injured, so he must have been impressing the coaches.

Bad luck for lil' Braun.

Brewers 10, Mets 6

tristarscoop — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:55:38 -0000

More photos » by Morry Gash - AP

10 days ago: Milwaukee Brewers' Casey McGehee hits a grand slam during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets Monday, June 29, 2009, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

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W: Braden Looper (6-4)
L: Fernando Nieve (3-1)
S: Trevor Hoffman (18)

HR: J.J. Hardy (8), Casey McGehee (5, GS)

MVP: J.J. Hardy and Casey McGehee (both at .206)
LVP: Prince Fielder (-.094)

Win Expectancy Graph
SB Nation Coverage

Casey McGehee was the story of this game.

While the Brewers had plenty of hits and base runners through the first five innings, they'd only plated three runs.

In the top of the sixth, McGehee booted a routine pop-up, extending the inning. Of course, the next guy at bat hit one off the center field wall, scoring two runs.

However, redemption came quick for Casey, who came up in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded and cracked his first career grand slam to the Brewers bullpen.

Then, in the seventh inning, he got a routine grounder (though deep) from Gary Shefffield and failed to get the throw to first in time, once again allowing a run and extending the inning, which is when Ken Macha pulled a double-switch, taking him out and putting in Bill Hall.

J.J. Hardy was three hits to the cycle after his first three plate appearances. He doubled in the first, homered in the third and singled in the first. He had a hit to center in the sixth that got past Fernando Martinez that looked to be his best chance at the triple, but with the slightly injured Counsell on-base in front of him and his own not-so-fast pace, he was held to a double.

Hardy, despite going 0-for in Sunday's game, has been on base 11 times in the past four games.

The Brewers got at it early, putting more hits on the board by the end of the second inning than they did during Sunday's entire game.

It was a great game for the less prolific of Brewers hitters.

Frank Catalanotto, giving Corey Hart a day's rest in right field through six innings, was 2-2 with a HBP, Jason Kendall was 3-4 with a walk, Braden Looper had an RBI, and Bill Hall, who came in for McGehee in the seventh, was 2-2 with two RBI. All-in-all, the Brewers compiled 19 hits, their second-most this season.

Braden Looper up seven hits while walking two and striking out two. The two early runs were unearned, but he was responsible for the seventh inning run that scored on McGehee's throw. He was relieved by Todd Coffey, who notched just 1/3 of an inning.

Mitch Stetter came in and was his normal, spectacular self, stranding two more, making it 36 of 44 inherited runners stranded.

Carlos Villanueva came in in the ninth and made it interesting, giving up three runs and putting runners on first and second, necessitating Hell's Bells. Luckily, The Hoff needed just one pitch to get Brian Schneider to GIDP, ending the game.

Of course, perhaps the bigger story than McGehee is that the Brewers won a nationally televised game in more-than convincing fashion.

Tristarscoop's Pictures of the Week

tristarscoop — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:02:00 -0000

Kirbir's on vacation, so I'm filling in for her this week. She usually covers a week's worth of images, but last night's amazing walk-off win was so full of cool shots that this post may be a little heavy in that direction. As always, images from Yahoo!

Working in reverse...

Prince waits at second base to get mobbed after doubling in the game winner Saturday night.

Mike Cameron took flight to steal a home run from the Gigantes' Nate Schierholtz

Gigantes Aaron Roward and Randy Winn played a little game of "which way did he go" when they misplayed a Mike Rivera double.

Craig Counsell was upended by Denard Span of the Twins, losing his shoe (and some feeling in his knee) in the process

Mike Burns got his first career MLB start

Carlos Villanueva and Mark DiFelice go nuts in the bullpen as Twins OF Carlos Gomez can't catch a near-home run from Jason Kendall

Last night's robbed homer wasn't the only catch Cam made at the wall this week. He also robbed Carlos Gomez of a hit during the Twins game on Tuesday.

Brewers 5, Giants 1

tristarscoop — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:30:35 -0000

More photos » by Morry Gash - AP

13 days ago: Milwaukee Brewers' Craig Counsell, right, slides safely home past San Francisco Giants catcher Bengie Molina, left, during the fifth inning of a baseball game Friday, June 26, 2009, in Milwaukee. Counsell scored from third on a sacrifice fly by teammate Prince Fielder. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

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W: Yovani Gallardo (8-4)
L: Matt Cain (9-2)

HR: Pablo Sandoval (9), J.J. Hardy (7)

MVP: Yovani Gallardo (.249)
LVP: Prince Fielder (-.045)

Win Expectancy Graph
SB Nation Coverage

The game got off on a sour note when Pablo Sandoval hit a solo shot in the top of the first, but the Brewers quickly responded. Craig Counsell had a lead-off triple and scored on Ryan Braun’s double. Braun was then driven in by Casey McGehee’s double, making it 2-1.

The Giants singled in the second, but from there, Gallardo went on auto-pitch, retiring 16 in a row, six via the strikeout, before giving up a ground rule double (on fan interference) and a walk in the seventh inning.

In the meantime, the Brewers kept adding to their lead.

J.J. Hardy got his 500th career hit on a home run to deep center in the third. (Video here.)

In the fifth, Gallardo and Counsell walked to lead off the inning. Hardy laid down a beautiful bunt to advance the runners and beat out the throw at first to load the bases with no outs. Braun then singled to left to score Gallardo, leaving the bases still loaded. Prince Fielder hit a sacrifice fly to shallow left and third base coach Brad Fisher sent Counsell home where he made a beautiful slide, beating the throw with his toe and scoring another run. The inning ended on a double play, but the Crew had pushed the lead to 5-1.

Gallardo left the game after 7 2/3 with 118 pitches and nine strikeouts.

Todd Coffey sprinted on in relief with runners on first and second and got Bengie Molina to fly out on two pitches to end the inning. Carlos Villanueva then came in to close out the game in the ninth inning, retiring the side in order.

Edit: Also, the Cards lost, so we're tied for first again!

Are They Really That Bad in Interleague and Nationally Televised Games?

tristarscoop — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:35:56 -0000

Of course last night's game went a lot better than anyone expected based on the recent lack of Interleague success and how bad the team plays when the game is nationally televised - especially after going down by five runs - twice.

But if you take away last night's rousing success, Interleague hasn't seemed to be going so well for the Brewers.

Not sure about anyone else, but I've got a really low opinion of Interleague games, mostly because it feels like the Brewers never perform well, so I compiled a list of the team's record each season since Interleague play started.

Year	W	L	Runs Scored	Runs Against
2009	2	5	34	45
2008	7	8	72	81
2007	8	7	82	74
2006	6	9	58	91
2005	8	7	58	64
2004	8	4	57	36
2003	5	7	67	60
2002	2	10	45	79
2001	5	10	65	77
2000	6	9	68	84
1999	8	6	86	78
1998	8	6	74	68
1997 (in AL)	8	7	48	56

Total	81	95	814	893

Turns out, it's not that bad. Clearly, it's not great, but it's better than I thought it was going to be. I didn't remember having a winning record in 2007 and I lived in another state in 2001 and 2002, so I missed out on the pain that was a combined 7-20 record. But overall, my impression that the Brewers have been complete crap in Interleague was easily proven false, no matter how hard it was to believe.

So maybe it just seems so much worse than it is – and for good reason. Interleague losses have been some major heart-breakers. Though the series in Boston last year ended up being a catalyst for the team to break out of their slump, it was also some of the worst, ugliest, most painful baseball of the season.

You’ll remember the loss to Minnesota in 12 innings in July of last season despite a 455-foot Braun homer and a pinch-hit Russell Branyan ninth inning homer to send the game to extras, where Prince was robbed of a home run by the umpires, all before the Twins scored five runs in the 12^th for the win.

How about the loss in Minnesota on June 17, 2007 when Prince hit an inside-the-park home run, Corey Hart hit two homers, including a back-to-back with Hardy, and the team still lost 10-9?

Or CoCo Cordero’s first blown save in 23 tries on his return to Texas as the Rangers had four-straight two-out RBI singles to snatch the win 4-3.

Or getting no-hit in Detroit in ’07?

Yeah - Interleague hasn't been kind to us over the past few seasons, no matter what the W-L record says.

On the other hand, the Brewers really ARE as bad as they seem to be when playing in a nationally televised game. Admittedly, figuring out the record here is an inexact science – the schedule was difficult to find and piece together.

But the best I could figure, the Crew is 4-11 in nationally televised games over the past season and a little more than a third.

Here’s the games I compiled:

March 31, 2008 4-3 win over Cubs

April 30, 2008 19-5 loss to Cubs

May 10, 2008 5-3 loss to St. Louis

May 17, 2008 5-3 loss to Boston

May 18, 2008 11-7 loss to Boston

August 2, 2008 4-2 win over Atlanta

September 13, 2008 7-3 loss to Phillies

October 1, 2008 3-1 loss to Phillies

October 2, 2008 5-2 loss to Phillies

October 4, 2008 4-1 win over Phillies

October 5, 2008 6-2 loss to Phillies

April 12, 2009 8-5 loss to Cubs

May 24, 2009 6-2 loss to Minnesota

June 13, 2009 7-1 loss to ChiSox

June 16, 2009 14-12 win over Cleveland

I know I missed some games in there, but I was doing my research while watching last night's game and understandably got a little side-tracked at times. If anyone else has some to add to the list, please do, but I doubt any other unearthed wins will help dull the pain of the performance of this team when all eyes are on them.

Brett Lawrie had surgery on broken nose today

tristarscoop — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:35:02 -0000

I'm kind of surprised I didn't see this anywhere else, but Lawrie underwent surgery to correct the broken nose he suffered on May 21. It's always notable when a prospect has surgery, but it also happens to be the reason Braun the Younger was called up to the TimberRattlers.

Brewers 9, Marlins 6

tristarscoop — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:20:21 -0000

More photos » by J Pat Carter - AP

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W: Seth McClung (3-1)
L: Sean West (0-1)

HR: Dan Uggla (11), Ryan Braun (10), Jorge Cantu (9)

MVP: Ryan Braun (+1.60)
LVP: J.J. Hardy (-.072)

Win Expectancy Graph

SBNation Coverage

Here's what you need to know about this one:

Braden Looper cruised through four innings of one-hit ball, throwing 18, 13, 14, and 11 pitches respectively.

The Brewers looked to cruise as well as the fifth inning went

- C. McGehee grounded out to third
- R. Braun safe at first on shortstop H. Ramirez’s fielding error
- P. Fielder singled to center, R. Braun to second
- H. Penn relieved S. West
- M. Cameron walked, R. Braun to third, P. Fielder to second
- J.J. Hardy grounded into fielder’s choice, R. Braun out at home, P. Fielder to third, M. Cameron to second
- B. Hall walked, P. Fielder scored, M. Cameron to third, J.J. Hardy to second
- J. Kendall walked, M. Cameron scored, J.J. Hardy to third, B. Hall to second
- B. Looper walked, J.J. Hardy scored, B. Hall to third, J. Kendall to second
- B. Sanches relieved H. Penn
- C. Hart safe at first on third baseman E. Bonifacio’s throwing error, B. Hall scored, J. Kendall to third, B. Looper to second
- C. McGehee doubled to deep left center, J. Kendall and B. Looper scored, C. Hart to third
- R. Braun struck out looking

So the Brewers led 9-1.

And then this happened:

- D. Uggla singled to center
- J. Baker singled to right, D. Uggla to second
- A. De Aza singled to left, D. Uggla to third, J. Baker to second
- B. Sanches singled to pitcher, D. Uggla scored, J. Baker to third, A. De Aza to second
- C. Coghlan grounded into double play second to shortstop to first, J. Baker scored, A. De Aza to third, B. Sanches out at second
- E. Bonifacio singled to left, A. De Aza scored
- H. Ramirez singled to left, E. Bonifacio to third
- J. Cantu singled to right, E. Bonifacio scored, H. Ramirez to second
- H. Ramirez to third, J. Cantu to second on wild pitch
- J. Hermida walked
- S. McClung relieved B. Looper
- D. Uggla struck out looking

Looper threw 45 pitches and was unable to get out of the inning.

In total, the fifth inning featured 10 runs and 21 batters and took 51 minutes.

Despite all that, the Brewers hung on, Trevor stayed perfect and it was Milwaukee's first win in Miami since April 2007.

Edit: Also check out the first game thread for the BCB poetry slam of Bill Hall

It's nice to not fear the bullpen

tristarscoop — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:33:43 -0000

Sitting at today's game, we noted that at no point were we concerned about the lead that was amassed in the first three innings despite the fact that the Brewers failed to score any runs for the rest of the game, gave up seven hits, recorded three errors, and went to the bullpen in the sixth inning.

Being that sure of the bullpen was the most surprising of the reasons. It feels like it's been forever that there isn't a pitcher that I fear entering the game. There were quite a few guys last season that made us want to turn the game off, hide our eyes or just plain gave us the shivers while we worried how bad the damage would be.

Many would still argue that they fear Jorge Julio entering the game, but his ERA is now a manageable 5.71 - down from 8.40 just four appearances ago - and he's had a few successful outings of late, taking his scare factor way down.

That's a far cry from the bullpen situation at this time last season.

Take a look at the pitching stats from March/April and then May of last season. (from FanGraphs)

May's numbers are a little less scary, but March/April features Eric Gagne's four blown saves and Derrick Turnbow's 15.63 ERA

Compare that to the pitchers' numbers so far this season:

Riske and Swindle's numbers are from minimal appearances and they aren't even on the current roster, so you're talking about a full lineup of pitchers who's ERA's are under 6.00. ~~If you include Swindle and Riske, we have a team ERA of 5.28. Without them, it's down to 3.52.~~

Edit: turns out my stat skills are still far below par

From PagsBrewCrew:

relief ERA: 3.22 (includes one 2 ER in 1 IP appearance by Bush)
starting ERA: 4.41 (obviously does not include the Bush outing above)

Overall: 4.01 (our starters have pitched more than our relievers, so that’s why our ERA is higher than the average of the two above)

One of the biggest changes? Trevor Hoffman. Since he came off the DL on April 27, the bullpen's ERA is just 2.18. He has brought stability to the relievers. Apparently his mere presence in the bullpen is enough to scare Jorge Julio straight!

Game Thread #50: Reds (26-22) at Brewers (29-20)

tristarscoop — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:51:16 -0000

It's Micah Owings v. Yovani Gallardo at 1.

Lineup:

Craig Counsell 2B
J.J. Hardy SS
Ryan Braun LF
Prince Fielder 1B
Mike Cameron CF
Mat Gamel 3B
Corey Hart RF
Jason Kendall C
Yovani Gallardo RHP

Bullpen:

Seth McClung pitched 3 innings yesterday.
Carlos Villanueva pitched 1.1 innings yesterday.
Mitch Stetter faced three batters yesterday.
Todd Coffey has not pitched since Friday.
Trevor Hoffman has not pitched since Friday.
Mark DiFelice has not pitched since Tuesday.
Jorge Julio has not pitched since Tuesday.

Game Thread is now open.