Posted by Steve
It hasn’t been a very aesthetically pleasing start to the Brewers season. Their offense is stuck in a rut, their bullpen has been hit-or-miss and the back end of the rotation has been mediocre.
Among national league teams, the Brewers rank 12th in batting average (.248), 11th in OBP (.314), 9th in slugging (.399) and 12th in OPS (.713). The pitching stats aren’t much prettier: Ninth in ERA (4.07—granted, the fact that a 4.07 team ERA ranks ninth in the league shows that offense all around the league is down the first few weeks), 10th in WHIP (1.40) and 8th in OPS against (.730). Like I said: ugly. Somehow, though, the Brewers still sit at 13-9. You can’t really blame luck a whole lot either, because they are outscoring opponents 105-93.
There are really two reasons for the winning record so far. Despite struggling in the main offensive categories, the Brewers are tied for seventh in runs scored. This is because of their .303 average (16 points ahead of the second place team) with runners in scoring position, a number that is unlikely to remain so high throughout the season.
It may seem surprising, but the other reason is their defense. Error counts are not a particularly good way at all of measuring defense, but it’s definitely not bad that the Brewers have the third fewest in the NL (10). Without question, the Brewers are making fewer mistakes and getting to many more balls than they did last season.
Not surprisingly, the biggest reason for this has been substituting Bill Hall for Ryan Braun at third base. I figured Hall would be able to be average defensively, but he’s looked very good so far. He is easily the Brewers’ best infielder right now.
Side note: As much as I love his offensive game, Rickie Weeks is still very bad defensively. Sure, he’s only got one error, but he rarely makes a difficult play. Anything that’s slightly tougher than routine tends to get by him, and he continues to spike his throws to first on a regular basis. That ‘you can’t assume a double play’ rule has saved Rickie from being the league leader in errors for second basemen. The next time I hear a Brewers announcer say something like “Rickie has just gotten better defensively each year, and is playing solid defense!” I’m going to verbally correct him as if he was present.
Anyway, the difference between Braun and Hall is already amazingly apparent. Last year when the Brewers got out to their hot start, it was because of their offense. Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy were first and second in the NL in home runs, and the pitching overall was also a bit better. If the Brewers got off to a poor offensive start like this last year, they’d have been well under .500.
The most encouraging part is that offense is the team’s strength; it’s going to improve, and probably sooner rather than later. And while the hitting with runners in scoring position won’t stay so high, there is reason to believe the defensive performance will. Mike Cameron’s return this week will only improve it, actually. It’s why I’m confident this team will see a nice improvement over last year’s win total.
Now, if those frickin’ Cubs would only slow down…
