Milwaukee Brewers Week in Review: Opening Week Frustration

Opening Day is always a special event for the Milwaukee Brewers faithful, whether the team is expected to push for the playoffs or continue the rebuilding process.

Game one of 162 was exciting and had tense moments, but the Milwaukee Brewers showed some early warts in their 7-5 defeat last Monday.

Those issues carried on throughout the week. Now we all look to figure out if these are permanent problems or just a 7-game sample that is blown out of proportion due to the spotlight on the season’s first week.

Milwaukee also gave some glimpses of what strengths exist on the club. In doing so, the Brewers had a legitimate chance of winning 6 of those contests with just a few plays going in their favor.

Series Recap

Lost 3 of 4 games at home to the Colorado Rockies (L-L-W-L)
Lost 2 of 3 games at home to the Chicago Cubs (W-L-L)

This week’s record: 2-5 (2-5 overall)

Three Up

Wily Peralta, Chase Anderson and Jimmy Nelson threw the ball extremely well in their respective starts. The three combined for 17 strikeouts and a 1.06 ERA over 17 frames.
- Peralta tossed 5 shutout innings with 5 punch outs compared to just 1 walk and 3 hits.
- Nelson struck out 8 batters (2 walks) in 6 frames of 1-run ball.
Travis Shaw was the Brewers’ most consistent and productive hitter in his debut week with his new club.
- Shaw started all 7 games and delivered 6 extra-base hits, including 5 doubles and his first home run in the National League.
- He is tied for the MLB lead in doubles and tops the Brewers with 6 RBI.
The first base combo of Eric Thames and Jesus Aguilar has gotten off to a terrific start. Thames’ versatility has been a big boost, helping to keep both their bats in the lineup (Thames in the outfield).
- Aguilar’s hot Spring Training bat didn’t cool off in Milwaukee. He went 7-for-11 to open the year and has a .438 average to go with his 1.000 OPS after 18 plate appearances.
- Thames has thus far proven to be able to handle MLB pitching. He leads the Brewers in slugging (.611), owns a .429 OBP and collected his first big league homer since 2012.

Three Down

Jonathan Villar‘s opening week as the starting second baseman could not have gone any worse. Both his offense and defense were a disaster in the first 7 games.
- Villar has been careless and absent-minded on defense. His miscues have cost Milwaukee a handful of runs and played a large role in their 2-5 record.
- He hasn’t fared any better at the plate. Villar leads MLB in strikeouts (15) and is off to a 5-for-30 start. Thanks to his .194 OBP, last year’s stolen base champ also has just 1 theft so far.
Speaking of whiffs, the Brewers have the league’s worst strikeout percentage (K%) after one week. Milwaukee batters are striking out in 31.9% of their plate appearances.
- No other team has a K% higher than 26.2%, putting the Brewers well ahead of the pack.
- Batters are averaging 11.6 punch outs per game, with 10 players striking out at least 5 times already.
Zach Davies has been off his game in 2 starts to open the year. Davies has allowed 11 earned runs in 9.1 innings (10.61 ERA), putting a pair of early losses on his record.
- The biggest surprise has been Davies’ lack of command, walking 5.79 batters per 9 innings. He was 14th in MLB in that category (2.09) among qualified starters in 2016.
- Looking for silver lining? In 2016, Davies started 0-3 with an 8.78 ERA with the Brewers. From there he went 11-4 with a 3.54 ERA in 25 starts.

Browsing the Box Scores

4.8 – This is the average number of innings pitched per start for Milwaukee Brewers’ hurlers. They rank 29th out of 30 MLB clubs, just ahead of the New York Yankees (4.8). No starter has tossed more than 6 innings in a game.
4 – It’s the number of new Brewers who have already homered, including a recent waiver wire pickup. Nick Franklin joined the 25-man roster Friday and went deep the next night. He joins Shaw, Thames and Jett Bandy in hitting their first long balls for the Crew.
55 – The Milwaukee Brewers’ pitching staff has stranded 55 runners in 7 games to share the MLB lead. Runners left on base is both a concern and a positive, as it means tons of men have reached base, but pitchers are limiting the damage (in general).