(Photo: Mike McGinnis/Getty Images North America)

As of this writing, the Brewers pitching staff is last in the league in earned run average, as well as runs allowed.  While the bullpen has had its ups and downs, the starting pitching has been remarkably ineffective – with the notable exception of Kyle Lohse.  Although he’s cooled down somewhat, Lohse is still the only starter with an ERA under 4.00.  Also, Lohse has pitched only 2.2 fewer innings than Yovani Gallardo, and Gallardo has had one more start.

A couple months ago, some Brewers fans were less than thrilled that Lohse got a three-year contract, but where would they be now without him?  At the beginning of spring training, the starting rotation was supposed to be Gallardo, Marco Estrada, and some combination of Wily Peralta, Mike Fiers, Chris Narveson, and Mark Rogers.  It seemed like the Brewers were going to ask a lot of several untested pitchers, but you never know with pitching.

As it turned out, Rogers never made it out of spring training when his velocity dropped.  Last week, Rogers was pulled from his latest minor league rehab start after nine pitches with “tingling in his arm.”  Narveson has also been on the DL, only pitching two innings out of the bullpen this season.  Fiers never got going and was optioned.  Peralta has been perfectly acceptable, considering this was the first time he made an opening day roster.  Including today’s loss to the Reds, he’s had five quality starts.  Of those early starting rotation candidates, it still feels like Peralta has the most upside, but who knows where he’ll be at the All-Star break?

Still, even if Brewers pitching hasn’t been inspiring so far, it’s easy to imagine how it might have been even worse.  Lohse does have two victories against the Giants and Padres.  Would those have gone in the “W” column if it was Fiers holding down that spot in the rotation?  And even though they’ve lost games they “should have” won, the Brewers have also had a couple of questionable victories.  They outslugged the Giants on one occasion when Brewers pitchers gave up seven earned runs.   Then there was that game against the Pirates when Milwaukee gave up eight earned runs, but the offense powered them to victory.

If those games go the wrong way, and the Brewers could be 11-24, at the bottom of the division, well behind the Cubs.  Five games under .500 don’t seem like such a big hole by comparison.  There’s always a bright side in baseball if you’re willing to look hard enough.  Would it be crass to mention that it’s still early?

(Image: Amazon.com)

The back cover of Brewers beat writer Tom Haudricourt’s latest book, 100 Things Brewers Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, bills it as “The Ultimate Resource Guide for True Brewers Fans.”  It certainly is a resource, but true Brewers fans won’t find much in the book they don’t already know.  The format of the book – a breezy list of events/trivia (interspersed with sidebars and photos) that can be read in a few days – is probably best suited for casual fans looking to deepen their knowledge, or younger folks who aren’t familiar with the pre-21st century Brewers.

Haudricourt’s previous book, Brewers Essential, was released in early 2008, before Milwaukee ended its long playoff drought.  That book is a more or less chronological story of significant events in Brewers history, beginning with Bud Selig buying the defunct Seattle Pilots.  Most of the stories in that book are also included in 100 Things…: the ’82 World Series, Hank Aaron’s final seasons, Bob Uecker, Juan Nieves’ no-hitter, the Molitor-Yount-Ganter era, decline in the 1990s, Miller Park's construction, etc.

As for the story of the Brewers after 2007, most of what’s in 100 Things… is common knowledge.  There are perhaps some details you didn’t catch when these stories were first reported – like Doug Melvin telling the Indians if they were going to trade CC Sabathia, the deal had to be done that day, and they couldn’t shop him around to other teams.  But other items like Ryan Braun’s MVP, the trades for Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum, and John Axford’s path to the big leagues are all a matter of public record.

100 Things… is strongest in its final third, when it recounts more arcane material, and there’s a better chance of coming across something you didn’t know.  For example, I had no idea Terry Francona played for the Brewers, or that he got ejected from a game in the middle of being walked intentionally in 1989 (Thing #95).  An item on Jeff Juden’s brief and ignominious tenure with the Brewers in 1998 (Thing #92) is another story fans may not remember.  Such pieces of obscure knowledge are the most interesting, but they are relatively few, and appear late in the book.

It should be noted the list format lends itself to a fair amount of repetition.  Each Thing is written as a self-contained unit, and they often refer to previous Things, giving the book a certain “yeah, you just said that” quality.  Thing #83 is about Ben Sheets’ introduction to Brewers fans at County Stadium’s last game, and includes a paragraph about how Sheets would go on to set a franchise record of 18 strikeouts in one game.  That 2004 game against the Atlanta Braves was Thing #77.  The acquisition of Sabathia is Thing #32, and refers to his eventual wild-card-clinching complete game against the Cubs on the final day of the 2008 season…which was Thing #9.  Over the course of 260 pages, the redundancy factor becomes difficult to ignore.

In all, 100 Things… is a crisply written compilation of Brewers cultural artifacts, most of which are conventional wisdom, with some interesting tidbits here and there.  It would be perfect for light reading on vacation, as a gift, or summer reading for a student.  Fans should keep in mind, though, that the word “resource” is emphasized on the back cover – not “essential” – and adjust their expectations accordingly.

(Photo: Associated Press)

For the last several years, JSOnline’s chats with Brewers beat writers have been a terrific source of amusement.  There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about them, but it’s usually fun to see how professional sportswriters react to the (shall we say) occasionally impetuous sentiments expressed by fans.

In this week’s installment, Tom Haudricourt had to respond to the following question by an incorrigible fan calling him/herself “Appleton Fox.”

Do you think Mark Antanassio is wearing blinders in thinking Doug Melvin and Ron Roenicke actually know what they are doing? Melvin had made so many costly personnel blunders it borders on being criminal. Roenicke is completely lost when it comes to making rational managerial moves. Are the Brewers stuck with these 2 losers because Antanassio can't see their incompetence?

Haudricourt answered with typical class, reminding us that the Melvin/Roenicke-era Brewers won a division championship and made a late run at the playoffs last year – not exactly evidence of criminal incompetence.

Appleton Fox exemplifies one of the more tedious types of sports enthusiast – the Fire Someone fan.  Similar to his cousins, Trade Someone and Demote Someone, Mr. Fire Someone thinks that a winning streak is right around the corner…just as soon as you give the manager or GM his walking papers.  That’ll shake the team up!  The reason the players have underperformed is the coaches and front office staff aren’t in fear of their jobs nearly enough!

You can’t listen to sports talk radio without Mr. Fire Someone calling in and explaining his nifty motivational technique.  Why haven’t more teams realized by now they can pink slip themselves to a World Series championship?  Surely, if only there was more turnover in the Detroit Tigers organization, they wouldn’t have been swept by the Giant last year.  Mr. Fire Someone probably still uses the phrase “tough love” without irony, and thinks American decline began when parents stopped spanking their children.

Over the course of Melvin’s tenure, the Brewers have gone from a 100-loss team to a .500 team, to a winning team, to a wild card winning team, to a division winning team.  Sure, the Suppan and Hall contracts were bummers, but no one’s perfect.  Based on the totality of Melvin’s track record, Mr. Fire Someone ought to get down on his knees and shine Melvin’s shoes.

There’s an infamous retort stand-up comics use to shoot down hecklers, something along the lines of, “I don’t come down to the corner where you work and tell you how to [perform casual sex act].”  Mr. Fire Someone would do well to heed that sentiment.

(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

I was talking with a coworker the other day, and he said he thought one of the factors behind Ryan Braun’s slow start was that he was falling behind in the count more.  Whenever a player is going through a slump, it feels like they’re 0-2 as soon as they step into the batter’s box (I’m probably paraphrasing Bill Schroeder there).  It definitely feels like Rickie Weeks has been behind in the count a lot, no?

It might be interesting to look at how often Braun and others are down in the count, as opposed to batting from out front (I’m definitely paraphrasing Jon McGlocklin there).  Baseball-Reference helpfully breaks down a player’s plate appearances by Batter Ahead, Even Count, and Pitcher Ahead.  We can then calculate the % of plate appearances he is behind in the count.  Let’s see if there’s any insight to be gleaned from this information as it relates to the 2013 Brewers starting lineup (as of Wednesday afternoon).

Nori Aoki

Pitcher Ahead 23.1% / BA .233

That batting average doesn’t seem too shabby at first blush, but how do the rest of the Brewers stack up?  Also, Aoki has only struck out four times this year when behind in the count.  When people say he puts the ball in play, it’s no joke.

Jean Segura

Pitcher Ahead 28.8% / BA .389

Segura’s batting average is 45 points higher when behind the count than when he’s ahead.  That’s a dangerous hitter right there.

Ryan Braun

Pitcher Ahead 28.7% / BA .200

Braun is actually down in the count less than his career average, which is 32.9%.  On the other hand, his career batting average when falling behind is .254, so he’s certainly less productive than usual in that situation.

Aramis Ramirez

Pitcher Ahead 32.0% / BA .125

Ramirez has barely played in 2013, but for his career he’s behind in the count 31.2% of the time, so that number is consistent so far.  His career batting average is .257, so that still has to come around.

Rickie Weeks

Pitcher Ahead 28.6% / BA .135

It probably isn’t a surprise that Weeks does not hit well once he’s behind.  At least we know he doesn’t fall behind more than the top of the order.

Jonathan Lucroy

Pitcher Ahead 35.0% / BA .171

So far, Lucroy is behind in the count the most.  His career 36.3% is also relatively high.  Does it feel like Lucroy’s behind in the count as much as he is?

Carlos Gomez

Pitcher Ahead 30.3% / BA .343

Gomez is the NL batting leader as I write this.  Sure enough, pitchers can’t sleep on Gomez even they get ahead of him.  Fun fact: Gomez is a career .198 hitter when behind in the count…which make up 38.2% of his plate appearances.  Maybe he’s not hitting as many foul balls?

Yuniesky Betancourt

Pitcher Ahead 36.6% / BA .154

As it turns out, the Brewers homerun leader has spent more time than anyone else behind in the count in 2013.  I don’t suppose many fans would find that surprising.

So what does it all mean?  Possibly nothing, although I would note my suspicions about Weeks were unfounded.  Can’t say the same for Betancourt, but at least he’s making up for it in other areas.

(Photo: Jeff Curry/US Presswire)

My understanding is the Cardinals had never swept a four-game series against the Brewers.  But after watching those four games, it’s hard to believe the Brewers have ever won against St. Louis.  In three of the games, the Cardinals jumped out to big leads and never looked back.  On Saturday, Milwaukee actually showed some life, scoring five earned runs against Adam Wainwright – something they had never done before.

It wasn’t enough.  Even when the Brewers do things right against the Cardinals, it just isn’t enough.  When a guy like Daniel Descalso – who was hitting all of .167 at the time and only had one previous homerun against a lefty pitcher – takes Tom Gorzelanny out of the park to put the Cardinals back on top, after the Brewers fought to get back in the game…it just feels like there’s nothing they can do.  On Sunday, Allen Craig drove in a run on a bloop triple in the sixth inning.  A bloop triple!?  When has there ever been a bloop triple before?  Bloody hell.

During Sunday’s game, Bill Schroeder was trying to fill TV time in a blowout, and he said something that didn’t ring true.  Talking about how the Cardinals have had a lot of success against the Brewers since mid-2011, Schroeder said, “Before that, the Brewers had their way with St. Louis for a while.”  Maybe it’s denial.  Maybe the Cardinals have beaten the Brewers so badly it’s given Schroeder the broadcaster’s equivalent of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Since the Brewers joined the NL Central in 1998, the only time Milwaukee had their way with the Cardinals was 2008, when they went 10-5 against St. Louis.  Other than that, the Brewers have had two winning seasons against the Cardinals: they were 7-6 in 1999 (despite being outscored 61-71 over those 13 games), and they were 8-7 in 2010 (again while being outscored overall).

There have been four seasons when the Brewers lost at least ten times to the Cardinals.  The most lopsided was 2003, when Milwaukee was 3-13 against St. Louis, and outscored 62-129.  From 1998 through 2012, the Brewers record against the Cardinals was 101-130.  That’s a leap year February more games St. Louis won during that span.  2008 aside, the Brewers have not had their way with St. Louis.

As Brewers fans, it would be nice if there was a good reason to dislike the Cardinals, if we could somehow believe they weren’t playing the game the right way or didn’t deserve their success.  When Tony LaRussa managed St. Louis, he was such a cantankerous, polarizing figure, you could convince yourself the Cardinals were unscrupulous.  But now it just seems like the Cardinals beat the Brewers because they are the better team.  How humiliating.  To paraphrase Noah Jarosh at Brew Crew Ball, why couldn’t they be more like the Pirates?

Still 12 more games against the Cardinals in 2013.  On the bright side, there are also 16 games against Pittsburgh, so maybe it will all balance out.