Brewer Paradise Lost

Truly desperate times by Tom H.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

And, make no mistake about it, these are desperate times at home for the Brewers.

Manager Ken Macha loosened the pitch-count leash on his starting pitcher Saturday merely to get him into the sixth inning and lessen the burden on an overtaxed bullpen. It didn’t work, with either starter or relief corps, which is how things are going for the Brewers at Miller Park this season.

Letting yet another close game get away in the latter innings, the Brewers’ home woes continued with a 10-6 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies as a second consecutive sellout crowd watched in dismay.

…

Before watching his woeful pitching staff take another beating – the Brewers have surrendered 47 runs during this 0-5 home stand – Macha admitted that continuing to lose games at Miller Park was bad for business, bad for morale, bad for him, etc.

“Our organization is driven by attendance,” said Macha, well aware that the team has no chance for a third consecutive season attendance of 3 million if this madness continues.

Is it just me, or are people really reaching with this team?

It’s the middle of May… the Brewers are 6 games under .500. All it’s going to take is two weeks of hot baseball and the Brewers are right back in it.

And two weeks of hot baseball is just itching to come out. Take a look at the ‘worst’ (keyword: unluckiest) pitching staffs in baseball, sorted by both BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) and HR/FB% (Home Runs/Fly Ball rates). These stats average out to about .300 and around 10.5%, respectively:

5 ‘worst’ pitching staffs, by BABIP:
Brewers – .336
Pirates – .327
Astros – .325
Angels – .322
Diamondbacks – .322

5 ‘worst’ pitching staffs, by HR/FB%:
Diamondbacks – 14.0%
Brewers – 13.2%
Angels – 12.3%
Pirates – 11.7%
Phillies – 11.6%

These will get better. Doug Davis has a .415 BABIP against him, despite having consistent peripherals compared to the rest of this year.

The Crew has had an unlucky month-and-a-half pitchingwise so far. Leave it up to the media to overreact to it. I’d be willing to bet they’ll be over .500 by the end of June.

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Brewer stuff, milwaukee brewers by Cody