Watching the Milwaukee Brewers thus far this spring mostly has been a series of headshakes and handwringing. They beat the Reds today, a nice change of pace, but the play in the field this spring has been notable because it’s been a little too flawed.
There was another error in Tuesday’s game, unfortunately. That brings their spring tally in official mistakes to 12 or so, as far as I can tell. Spring training is all about practice, and not every error is a big deal, but the Brewers’ play to date in 2015 has left little desire for more access to spring games.
Granted the results, and sometimes the stats altogether, in spring training games are often useless. In addition, the regular roster guys haven’t played much (Gomez, Lucroy, Braun, Ramirez, etc.).
The Brewers finished last spring with a 13-18 record, good for eight games behind front-running Cleveland. They then proceeded to rip off an incredible start to the season before fading later on.
So the results are about as meaningful as a bag full of used tissues, except that the Brewers thus far have sucked most of the fun out of the televised spring games because of a preoccupation with throwing the ball away and getting caught in rundowns.
It’s not so much that the Brewers have lost five games, but the style in which they’ve done so. It harkens back to some bad memories of blunders past.
Milwaukee has scored about two runs so far for every three by the opponents, but what’s most concerning is the lack of baseball fundamentals. The Brewers have players that will dazzle the eyes with spectacular plays. But no one on the roster is immune from the near-daily roll call of bush-league buffoonery.
Ron Roenicke’s radical employment and relative success with defensive shifts is sometimes used as an illustration that the Brewers are a good defensive team. But conceptual ideas on shifts go out the window when players can’t catch and throw the ball cleanly from wherever they are on the field.
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“Guys need to start making plays,” Roenicke reportedly said Sunday. Evidently the team should do more drills on baseball basics before heading north, because Roenicke doesn’t come across as very sure as to the cause of the issues.
In 2014, the Brewers were in the middle of the pack in the National League in errors with 99, which was just two over the Major League average. However, in 2013, they were the worst in the NL, with 114. They were pretty bad in 2011, too, with 111 errors.
Errors don’t tell the whole story about fielding efficiency, but the Brewers’ defensive problems are readily apparent and are nothing new. They consistently make poor or rushed decisions on the field that lead to extra chances for the opposition. In turn, they give the opposition easy outs by getting doubled off the bases, running at bone-headed times, forgetting how many outs have been recorded, or just not following protocol.
If the Brewers are going to compete in a shredder of a division in the National League Central, they quickly must eliminate these lapses in focus. Of course, from time to time, stuff will go wrong. Baseball is in many ways a mental game for each individual, working in concert with others, but a solution to reduce malaise is essential to team success in the long term.
Perhaps the team’s institutional passion for the home run ball and aggressive hacking on offense obscures its view of the vital nature of defense.
As much as Roenicke appears to be ticked off with all the sloppy play, the Brewers will probably go into the season with the same issues. This affliction may be in the organization’s philosophy, rooted and dug in. It’s at least nebulous and difficult to extract. Players change but this thing sticks around. It’s like the foul odor in the “smelly car” from Seinfeld.
The problem must be mental, spiritual or fundamental, because it’s doubtful it’s a physical or mechanical concern.
Until defense is no longer fraught with miscues, the Brewers harbor an ugly, vulnerable side to their play which can short-circuit even the best teams. For an example of bad defense creeping up at ill times, one only has to think back to last year in September when the Brew Crew was playing a crucial series against St. Louis.
Mark Reynolds, who was normally pretty good in the field in 2014, forgot how many outs there were and missed a chance at an inning-ending double play. That led to the Cardinals tying the game and eventually winning. The Brewers were dropped further back in the Wild Card standings and it was, fair or not, a fitting encapsulation of their futility to play good clean baseball when it mattered most.
It’s early, but hopefully the Brewers can kill this demon fast. With fire, maybe.
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