After Monday night’s disappointing 7-6 loss to the Reds (3-3), the Brewers sank to 5th place in the NL Central with their 2-5 record, already 3 back of the Redbirds and Cubs in the loss column, and 3½ back overall.
I decided to check the team stats against the other 29 teams to see how the Brewers have stacked up…yes, I admit, that the sample size is woefully small at 7 games…that said, they have now faced 3 different teams of varying skills and at least a dozen different pitchers, so the numbers are not totally meaningless.
The Crew sits at 25th in team ERA as of Tuesday morning at 6.34, ahead of only the Astros, the Phillies (!), and the Nationals in the NL. The Brewers are 28th in terms of team BA at .224, ahead of only Cincinnati at .219, which boosted their number Monday night.
The Brewers, however, are 22nd in runs at 31 and tied for 22nd in runs allowed with 43. Still, this means that they are getting outscored by opponents, on average, by a score of 6.1-4.4, or by more than 1½ runs (obviously they outscore their opponents in their wins, and lose by even more in their losses…but, for our purposes, we are seeing the average they allow versus the average they score).
Granted, the Giants are a much improved team over last year, and the Cubs–their second opponent–are the reigning NL Central champs. But is it time to panic? No, of course not. Despite a three game losing streak, the Brewers lost two of those three games by a run (the other by three runs). While Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun are experiencing their early season struggles again this year, Mike Cameron and Corey Hart are each hitting over .300, while Billy Hall is hitting .294 and Rickie Weeks is hitting .276, with .400 and .376 OBP’s, respectively.
Among starters, only Braden Looper has an ERA below 6.00, and he’s only had the one start. Four relievers–Seth McClung, David Riske, Mitch Stetter, and Carlos Villanueva also have ERA’s over 6.00, but all have pitched 6 innings or less, with Riske and Stetter having less than 2 IP apiece.
Still, skipper Ken Macha is no doubt painfully aware how fast a team can slide into a funk and settle in the bottom half of a division’s standings. While he, pitching coach Bill Castro, hitting coach Dale Sveum, and bench coach Willie Randolph are viewing videos and orchestrating practices, all we fans can do is be patient.
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