Although the Crew has 88 of their 162 games in the books, the All-Star break is a natural point to recap how the 2007 Milwaukee Brewers are doing so far:
Team offense measures and rankings:
- Win Pct.: 49-39, .557, 2nd in NL
- Road record, pct.: 19-26, .422, 10th in NL
- BA: .267, 8th in NL
- OBP: .332, 6th in NL
- Runs: 430, 2nd in NL
- Runs/Game: 4.89, 2nd in NL
- SLG Pct.: .457, 1st in NL
- OPS: .789, 2nd in NL
- K/AB: .203, 11th in NL
Conclusions: Leading the league in Slugging Percentage, and the strong Runs/Game, means the Brewers are excelling in getting extra-base hits to put runners in scoring position and/or to drive in runners from scoring position; but the power-hitting also has created a "feast-or-famine" outcome--the antithesis of "small-ball" hitting means lots of strikeouts...with some, no doubt, in situations where a simple single could drive in a run to tie or win the game. How the team utilizes it's 4.89 average runs per game needs further examination, e.g. are the Brewers' runs coming in games where they are not needed, say an 11-1 pounding of an opponent. Of course, Ned Yost is unable to "bank" runs for future contests, and will never (I hope) say, "ah, our 7-2 lead is quite comfortable...I think I'll take out my good hitters to rest them, hoping that they'll get more clutch hits tomorrow." Of course, in a sense, he does that when he opts to rest players. But, as you no doubt already knew, the '07 Brewers are not a "small ball" team, but are, in fact, a team that can get 22 hits one night, and none the next. Ned Yost's charge, then, for the second half is to try to identify those instances when a batter is likely to strikeout (e.g., Geoff Jenkins against lefties), and minimize those instances...without losing the extra-base hits.
