|
The New York Mets welcome the Milwaukee Brewers to Citi Field this week for a four game series of little importance to either team. The Brewers stumbled out of the gate in 2010 and were already 11 games under .500 and 9 games out of the NL Central by May 22nd. They have been more consistent in the second half and have a .500 record since August 2nd. It will be an interesting offseason for Milwaukee as they face some of the same questions as the Mets do. GM Doug Melvin is on the hot seat and manager Ken Macha is at the end of his contract and not expected to be asked to return in 2011. Ryan Braun and Yovani Gallardo are still nice pieces to build a team around, and Prince Fielder may or may not be around for one more season, but Milwaukee will have a lot of questions going forward especially when it comes to pitching.
Pitching Matchups:
Monday, September 27, 2010, 7:10pm EST
Dave Bush (7-13, 4.70) vs. Mike Pelfrey (15-9, 3.75)
Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 7:10pm EST
Randy Wolf (13-11, 4.24) vs. Jon Niese (9-10, 3.95)
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 7:10pm EST
Yovani Gallardo (14-7, 3.57) vs. R.A. Dickey (11-8, 2.92)
Thursday, September 30, 2010 7:10pm EST
TBA vs. Dillon Gee (2-1, 2.00)
The Brewers have struggled all season to find a consistent starter to be their number two behind ace Yovani Gallardo. Randy Wolf has shown flashes of greatness at times this season, but will finish the season very close to his career averages. Wolf has been better over his past 4 starts going 3-1 with a 1.21 ERA over that span. Bush is also going to finish 2010 close to his career averages and is 0-2 in September with a 4.64 ERA. Gallardo continues to lead the staff and has won his last 3 starts. Gallardo has 2 shutouts this season, the first one coming against the Mets in May at Miller Park when the Brewers won in the ninth inning on a Corey Hart walk-off home run.
Brewers Lineup:
2B Rickie Weeks .270/.365/.466/.832 28 HR, 82 RBI, 10 SB
Weeks turned the power on this season for his best ML performance after 6 seasons of so-so play. He is still being misused at the top of the lineup by Milwaukee who has no real leadoff threat.
RF Corey Hart .281/.341/.529/.869 30 HR, 96 RBI, 7 SB
The Brewers’ resident Met killer, Hart has put together another nice season which saw him named to his second All-Star game. Hart signed a 3 years/$26.5M contract extension in August when many thought he might be traded for youngsters.
LF Ryan Braun .307/.365/.508/.872 25 HR, 100 RBI, 14 SB
Braun’s numbers are a slight notch below his average, but are still formidable. He has 100 RBI for the 3rd straight year in his young career. He is the offensive face of the franchise and the team will attempt to continue to built around him.
1B Prince Fielder .267/.403/.486/.889 32 HR, 80 RBI, 1 SB
Prince continues to slug and he is leading the league in walks (!). Expect to hear rumors of him going to a larger market team all offseason. Power is certainly a redundancy for Milwaukee and they probably could be okay without Fielder is they were to get pitching back in return.
3B Casey McGehee .287/.339/.465/.803 22 HR, 99 RBI, 1 SB
McGee is another offensive bright spot for Milwaukee. In his year and a half in Milwaukee, his offensive stats have been close to Braun’s…and he can actually play third base.
CF Lorenzo Cain .277/.326/.378/.704 1 HR, 7 RBI, 6 SB
Centerfield has been a patchwork process for the Brewers in 2010. Jim Edmonds was too old and Carlos Gomez did not produce enough offensively to justify having him in for speed and defense. Cain is getting his chance to compete for a 2011 spot on the roster.
SS Alcides Escobar .236/.287/.326/.612 4 HR, 40 RBI, 10 SB
After a decent showing in limited play during the 2009 season, Escobar struggled in 2010 both offensively and defensively. His 20 errors are third most among NL shortstops.
C Jonathan Lucroy .257/.302/.337/.639 4 HR, 21 RBI, 4 SB
Lucroy is another home grown Brewer. The Brewers had been going with experience over youth the past few seasons, but Lucroy is getting a look this September.
Bench:
OF Carlos Gomez .239/.289/.352/.642 5 HR, 24 RBI, 16 SB
C George Kottaras .203/.289/.352/.642 9 HR, 26 RBI, 2 SB
INF Craig Counsell .251/.321/.322/.643 2 HR, 20 RBI, 1 SB
2B-OF Joe Inglett .250/.327/.397/.724 1 HR, 8 RBI, 1 SB
OF Chris Dickerson .220/.273/.280/.553 0 HR, 5 RBI, 1 SB
3B Mat Gamel .200/.294/.267/.561 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB
SS Luis Cruz .273/.273/.455/.727 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
There are not a lot of threats coming from the Brewer bench. Carlos Gomez has been a disappointment and much of the rest of the bench are September callups getting a look. Craig Counsell is still playing, but this could be his last season at age 39.
Bullpen:
John Axford 8-1, 2.28 ERA, 22 Sv, 55.1 IP, 1.157 WHIP
Todd Coffey 2-3, 4.37 ERA, 0 Sv, 59.2 IP, 1.374 WHIP
Kameron Loe 3-5, 2.93 ERA, 0 Sv, 55.1 IP, 1.193 WHIP
Carlos Villanueva 1-0, 4.83 ERA, 1 Sv, 50.1 IP, 1.351 WHIP
Trevor Hoffman 2-7, 6.02 ERA, 9 Sv, 46.1 IP, 1.468 WHIP
Manny Parra (L) 3-10, 5.17 ERA, 0 Sv, 118.1 IP, 1.639 WHIP
Zach Braddock (L) 1-2, 3.06 ERA, 0 Sv, 32.1 IP, 1.454 WHIP
Mike McClendon 1-0, 3.12 ERA, 0 Sv, 17.1 IP, 1.038 WHIP
Jeremy Jeffress 1-0, 2 ERA, 0 Sv, 9 IP, 1.333 WHIP
Brandon Kintzler 0-1, 9 ERA, 0 Sv, 5 IP, 2.2 WHIP
The Milwaukee Bullpen has been up and down this season, but the bright spot seems to be John Axford who captured the closer role after Trevor Hoffman faltered. Axford has put up respectable numbers as the new closer. Loe and Braddock have also been impressive.
Who’s Hot (last 7 days):
Ryan Bruan .333, 2 HR, 9 RBI
Casey McGehee .387, 0 HR, 5 RBI
Coery Hart .346, 2 HR, 5 RBI
Chris Capuano 12 IP, 3 ER, 2.25 ERA
Jeremy Jeffress 5 IP, 0 ER, 5 K
Who’s Not (last 7 days):
Kameron Loe 3.1 IP, 3 ER, 8.10 ERA (3 appearances)
Jason Lucroy 17 AB, 3 H, .176, 0 HR, 1 RBI
Ex-Met Brewers:
Carlos Gomez
Willie Randolph (bench coach)
Rick Peterson (pitching coach)
Ex-Brewer Mets:
Henry Blanco
Elmer Dessens
Why you should watch:
-The Mets still have the opportunity to finish the season above .500 and will fight for 3rd place in the division.
-The Mets have 4 starting pitchers in this series with ERAs under 4…and Johan isn’t one of them.
-The September youth will be on display, tune in to see your future stars.
Milwaukee, like the Mets, had a disappointing 2010 campaign. They are both looking for answers from the top down moving into the offseason. It would be nice if the Mets could avenge the series loss from earlier this season and finish strong in 2010. The Brewers will need to address the lack of consistent starting pitching after Gallardo if they hope to compete in 2011.
|
