Brewers in 11: October 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Cubs hired Theo Epstein

The Cubs introduced Theo Epstein Tuesday as ~~Exectutive Vice President of Talent Relations~~ president of baseball operations with a press conference. Was it as hilarious as Doug Melvin's was??

Yep

Full stories at cbssports.com and the world's greatest newspaper.

Let's dive into this one.

"It feels truly great to be a Cub today," Epstein said in his opening remarks.

That's because there's no game today

"I'd like to thank Cubs fans for being so incredibly welcoming to me and my family already

you haven't lost a game yet

So you want to buy a first baseman

With no actual baseball to write about (what, they're still playing...I had no idea) and another boring Packers win on Sunday I started looking at some numbers (and thanks to fangraphs for killing the majority of my Sunday).

Ok, so there are a couple first basemen about to hit free agency once the season ends, perhaps you've heard of them their names are Albert and Prince. Both of these guys are going to get roughly $87 bajillion* contracts in free agency this winter but should they??**

Analyzing Melvin's comments

Doug Melvin addressed the media Wednesday (no invite for me??). Well it was covered by Todd Rosiak at JS Online and Adam McCalvy at MLB.com and it was apparently full of nothing but warm fuzzies and "we'll decide on him later"

I dug deeper into Melvin's brain:

it's what I do

The goals, he says, haven't changed: Get to the World Series and win it.

Thank you captain obvious

"You won 96 ball games; how do you improve on a 96-win club?"

win 97

Around the infield episode 6

When we last left our gang of gloveless infielders they had finally gotten a hold of this batting stuff.

Scene: Brewers clubhouse, team cleaning out their lockers.

Well guys, looks like the end of the road

Yep, guess we should have practiced our fielding a few more times

I thought my glove was ok, only 2 errors in my first playoffs!!

Games 5 & 6

via fangraphs

Things went south (or north depending on the perspective) fast in both games.

7 errors.

14 earned runs, along with 5 unearned.

Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun combine to go 1/16, .063/.063/.125, 1 RBI, 5 K's

Kameron Loe pitched in both games.

Loe = Loss

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Sunday, October 16, 2011

The dream is over

I'll be back with a more rational analysis...assuming I can come up with one, later.

7 errors and 18 runs in 2 games isn't going to win many games.

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Friday, October 14, 2011

Game 5

Wow, that was incredibly horrible baseball

And you were doing so well JHJ

Until I find pictures of the other garbage from this game, let's just say it went something like this

Back home for Game 6 and hopefully 7

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game 4 quick hit

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Thursday, October 13, 2011

quick hit, Mark Kotsay

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Monday, October 10, 2011

well that stunk

Game 2 was awful. There really isn't anything more to say about it.

12 seconds into the game we were favored!!

Marcum sucked, Pujols went ham, game over.

See you Wednesday night for game 3

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Around the infield episode 5

When we last left our loveable gang of do-nothing infielders they were trying to get their mojo back.

Scene1: Miller Park locker room after the regular season finale

good job this season guys, we'll get things turned around in the playoffs

good night Casey, see you Game 1

NLCS preview

wow this will be easy

so we can see what Google thinks about the Cardinals (most viewed post here, more than doubling #2)

see what else is in Matt Holliday's ear

see what a Brewers fan goes through during a random Cubs/Cardinals game

see how they compared on August 7/2011

and just see everything about St. Louis that you could possibly want

I'm really getting close to baseball reference levels of information here

you're welcome, go Brewers!!

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Saturday, October 8, 2011

Game 5 delayed reactions

Don't you hate when real life gets in the way of keeping up with a baseball blog that you do in your spare time for free??

I know right??

It's Saturday night and I finally have my first (sober(well kinda)) chance to sit down and reflect on the dramatics of Friday's Game 5 and the emotional roller coaster it took me (well, all of us...but specifically me).

Randy Wolf was historically horrible

According to Baseball Reference there have only been 15 pitchers that went past -.500 WPA in #postseason history. Guess who cracked the top 15??

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Game 4: you want bad starts, you got bad starts

TBS made a point of just how similar Game 4 starters Randy Wolf and Joe Saunders were this season with:

Record

Wolf 13-10
Saunders 12-13

Wolf 3.69
Saunders 3.69

Wolf 212.1
Saunders 212.0

Hits

Wolf 214
Saunders 210

WHIP

Wolf 1.32
Saunders 1.31

Earned Runs

Wolf 87
Saunders 87

Ok you get the point. The most important stat coming out of game 4:

Game 4 IP

Wolf 3.0
Saunders 3.0

Yeah that's bad.

Ok so how often has that happened*:

Not a big fan of the desert

I don't particularly want to talk about Game 3. Shawn Marcum just didn't have it and the Brewers were once again unable to figure out Arizona rookie Josh Collmenter.

Collmenter has pitched his three best games against the Brewers with a WPA of .388, .462, and now ~~tonight~~ really only .187??

Brad Ziegler's terrible, horrible, no good very bad rotten day

After Jerry Hairston Jr doubled off of Daniel Hudson with 1 out in the 6th things kind of took a turn for the worst when Brad Ziegler took over:

with a brief time out for T-mobile

marry me??

Ok, back on topic

The regular season as seen by....well me

The playoffs are just a couple hours from starting for the Brewers and while I obviously hope for a few more weeks I decided to go back and relive the past 8 months through my own eyes and words.