Highs and Loes

I needed to do a shortened follow-up post after my last one now that we've seen "setup man" Kameron Loe choke for the second time in under a week and the Brewers fail to put up a run against their biggest rival. There are a few other things I'll get to, but first: Mr. Loe.

Have we seen enough, Coach Roenicke? There has to be a better way to go about getting the game to the Ax Factor in the 9th with the lead…or at least tied. Why in God's name is Loe in there when it's not even a hold situation? This is normally a time reserved for someone like LaTroy Hawkins (should-be setup man) or even Zach Braddock. Speaking of Hawkins and Braddock, how about these guys share the 8th inning based on who is at the plate? Call me crazy, but I believe that lefty-lefty and righty-righty match-ups favor the pitcher in each situation respectively nine times out of ten. In fact, keep Loe in there for the righties...why not. His sinker is almost unhittable when it's working, which has been occasional this season, but in no way should Loe pitch to a left-handed hitter. Loe has as good of a chance of getting a lefty out as Lebron James has of coming through in clutch situations. With how deep the Brewers' starting pitchers have been getting into games this season, Roenicke should have plenty of well-rested relievers to use for either the seventh or the eighth, and yet we continue to see him march out Loe's corpse and his 5+ ERA. Here's the ultimatum...either let Loe face only righties in the seventh or eighth and allow Braddock to take the lefties or just remove Loe from the setup role altogether and throw Hawkins in there. Clearly, there are other bullpen guys able and willing to take on a task that Loe simply cannot complete. Don't believe me?

LaTroy Hawkins: 16 G, 0.59 ERA
Tim Dillard: 7 G, 1.86 ERA
Sergio Mitre: 19 G, 2.00 ERA
Zach Braddock: 16 G, 2.31 ERA
KAMERON LOE: 36 GAMES, 5.23 ERA

I'd now like to back up to my previous post. I mentioned that I would like to see Mike Rivera to come up from AAA and fill the backup catcher role behind Jonathan Lucroy instead of current backup Wil Nieves. However, whatever Nieves has been doing behind the plate with Wolf, it's been working. Wolf lowered his ERA to 3.20, which is second-best among the Brewers' starting five...that’s saying something. Nieves is Wolf's designated-catcher for lack of a better term, but he is the only Brewers' hitter without an RBI and is hitting .140 in 50 AB. For those keeping track at home, Nieves leads the league in number of plate appearances without an RBI. Ouch. Here's why I can except having Nieves on the roster. He only takes up one spot in the batting order, and he calls a great game behind the plate for Wolfy, who refuses to throw to the youngster, Lucroy (which still bothers me). Still, I would much rather have a happy Wolf throwing to Nieves while having success instead of a frustrated Wolf throwing to Lucroy with the chance of maybe getting another run or two from the offense, but risking a bad outing from Wolf. For now, it's worth it to keep Nieves on the roster. Think of centerfielder Carlos Gomez; his role has basically transformed into pinch-running/defensive specialist...a guy who comes in late to relieve an outfielder or a slow runner on the base paths because of his blinding speed. Josh Wilson and Craig Counsell do this on the infield - Nieves, to a degree, does this behind the plate. I should have thought of this before throwing Nieves into the fire last weekend.

One final note...it seems as though that as of late, the Brewers have done a good job of getting up against clubs with winning records, such as the Cardinals, Marlins and Giants (I know...not the Reds). It can be argued that they have caught a break because these teams haven't had the likes of Buster Posey, Hanley Ramirez and Matt Holliday, but I'm hoping that this doesn't put a damper on the recent success of the Crew. Coming up, the Brewers face a treacherous interleague schedule, having to travel to Boston and New York, host the Tampa Bay Rays and play a home-and-away against the now surging Twins. This is arguably the most difficult interleague schedule out of any team in the MLB and will truly test the Brewers, but I believe their ability to hold their own against the NL's best will carry over to this tough stretch of games. Nevertheless, Roenicke should take a long, deep look at his bullpen and figure out how to utilize some his relievers correctly. RR should be familiar with using a designated hitter since he came from an American League squad in the L.A. Angels, so that shouldn't be a huge issue...it's just a matter of lighting a fire under whoever is suiting up on the left side of the infield.

As long as Milwaukee can avoid a total collapse and keep the ship afloat, they should emerge from interleague play near the top of the NL Central. June 17th to July 3th will show this team's true colors...that I can guarantee.