I was having an endoscopy today, but not until 1 pm. This meant a whole morning of fasting, and I could think of no better way than to just laze around and stay in bed as long as I could. So when I woke up at 2 am, I wasn’t concerned in the slightest. And when I stumbled upon the Brewers playing the Tigers on YouTube, I figured a ball game would be just the thing.
And I must say that the crew on YouTube is excellent and insightful. In addition to Scott Braun and Jon Morosi from MLB network, they had former Brewer Dan Plesac and former Tiger Sean Casey calling the game. They all know good baseball, they know talent, and they’re not a group of homers. The Plesac/Casey combo are especially fun to listen to while giving excellent insight into the histories of the teams.
And it didn’t hurt that the Brewers put on a show both on the mound and with their bats (and that was about time). Corbin Burnes was incredible – allowing only one base runner in 7 innings. He was absolutely nasty, and thanks to the lack of fans, you got to hear plenty of Tigers players express their frustration at the plate.
Then there were the Brewer bats. They set a club record with 13 extra-base hits – 8 doubles (four in the second inning alone) and 5 home runs – on their way to a 21-hit, 19-run day. Everybody was hitting, and it got to the point where it wasn’t fair any more (4 runs against a position player at pitcher in the 9th), but what are you gonna do, just watch those meatballs over the plate?
It was plenty of fun to watch for a Brewer fan, but not at all if you like the Tigers. Yet, I’m not entirely thrilled by the performance because I don’t think it really counts.
Here are a few of the problems I’m having with this season:
1. There’s no time for anyone to work things out and settle in. Christian Yelich is an incredible player, but he’s coming off a season in which he broke a kneecap on a foul ball late in the year. Give him 163 games and he probably works things out by the All Star break. Unfortunately, there is no All Star break this year. There aren’t even enough games to make the equivalent of a half season leading up to the All Star break. So when the Brewers need one of their star players to come on strong for a run at the post-season, he’s left still struggling at the plate.
2. And speaking of star players – the Brewers had a plan. I’m not saying it was a great plan, but it was a plan nonetheless. It was a plan that allowed them to let go of three of their top power hitters from last season (Moustakis, Grandal, and Thames) and bring on some who were not quite as good, but had shown good promise in the past. It was a gamble, and over a full season, they could’ve gotten some production out of them. Two in particular come to mind – Justin Smoak and Brock Holt. Smoak averaged 28 home runs a year with Toronto over the past three seasons, but the Brewers dumped him after only 5 and a .186 batting average. Holt wasn’t a power hitter, but was a solid utility player who batted nearly .300 with the Red Sox last year and who many thought would produce with more playing time. Unfortunately, playing time isn’t something you’re going to get in a 60-game season, and now he’s with the Nats.
3. What really hurts is that one of the Brewers’ most important players isn’t playing simply because he decided 5 games into the season that the risk just wasn’t worth it with the Coronavirus out there. I can’t fault him that at the time, but it’s looking more and more like MLB is getting it together and those teams hit hard in the beginning of the “season” (Miami and St. Louis specifically) were anomalies that are out of the woods. So, without Cain’s leadership and abilities, along with all of the other issues I’ve mentioned, the Brewers are just muddling around. I don’t think they believe they have a shot, even with a 19-run outburst today.
I’m not sure that the Brewers were really going to be contenders this year, but it’s still a disappointment anyway. It actually looks like their pitching staff – starting pitching being their greatest weakness over the past few seasons – is finally coming around. Burnes has been lights-out. Brandon Woofdruff is solid and showed a lot of promise last year. Adrian Houser, although only 1-4 this year – mainly due to poor offensive support – looks promising. The bullpen with Devin Williams (0.53 ERA and 35 strike outs in 17 innings!) and Josh Hader as set-up and closer has been near unstoppable if they get that far. Given the time for the offense to work itself out, the Brewers – who’ve been strong in September over the past couple of years – may have been a team to reckon with in the final stretch of a full season.
But now? A shot at the post season is improbable for them, and if it happens, it’ll have to happen through the hated (by me) St. Louis Cardinals. As if the 2020 season wasn’t bad enough, because of the virus hitting the Cards at the beginning of the “season,” the Brewers have to play them in 10 of their last 16 games. Even though people think the Cardinals’ pile of double-headers to make up for the missed games in the beginning – they play 5 over the rest of the season – might work in the Brewers’ favor, 3 of those double-headers are against the Brewers. For that matter, double-headers being only 7 innings this year, the Cardinals will have played fewer innings over the season than just about every other team in baseball (although I can’t say whether that’s an advantage).
I love that they’re playing baseball right now. I’m happy for them that it looks like they’ve got the virus under control within the league. I pray for the health of the players and applaud them for getting out there and playing a vital role in helping our country feel even a little bit of distraction and normalcy in these times.
But I still don’t think it should count…
I haven’t paid much attention to the standings. Just enjoying listening to games on my MLB app. To me, counting or not counting the season doesn’t matter anymore. Baseball’s metrics revolution is ruining the game anyway, and the only way to change it is to move the pitching rubber back a couple of feet to give hitters more time to react, expand the strike zone to make it harder to work pitchers for walks, and either move all the fences out 20 to 30 feet or go to a baseball with a looser winding around the core so it doesn’t carry – in other words, return to the deadball era where putting the ball in play was more important than hitting home runs. All of this swinging for the fences and working pitch counts is destroying the game. Games have become long and boring because the two least exciting ways to make an out or get on base in baseball – strikeouts and walks – are the rule, not the exception, and the plays with the most potential most for excitement in baseball – plays where the baseball is put into play but doesn’t leave the ballpark – have been devalued to the point where infielders and outfielders should probably take cots onto the field with them so they can get a nap in between their times at bat. Those changes would also help get rid of the other blight in baseball: the shift. If putting the ball in play becomes the primary objective in baseball, practices like hitting to the opposite field will be valued again.
I can still listen to the games without being too annoyed, but watching games, which involves committing 2 of my 5 senses to the extremely boring activity of watching a pitcher and catcher play catch, tries my patience.
I still enjoy going to games though, because I can at least watch the guys in the field pick their noses or scratch their balls between those rare occurrences where the baseball is put in play.
Excellent point about the shift. I was watching the O’s yesterday against the Yankees and they’ve got their hot hitter D.J. Stewart who had 6 homers over the past week and when he was 0-3 and the shift was on he laid down a bunt to 3d base. Excellent thought — you’re a power hitter who’s been hot, but your team needs runs and you popping out to the second baseman isn’t going to help. If they’re gonna give you the whole left side of the field, take it. I’d love to see more of that just to keep them honest. I mean, Christian Yelich has been waving at so many pitches I’m surprised they even shift on him any more — so why doesn’t he just lay down bunts until they get their butts back over in position?