Brewers Slow Start Dooms Season

The start of a baseball season can often lead to rather silly conclusions. Such as the headline above or the caller on Sunday to a local radio station who stated that if the Brewers didn’t sweep the Cubs they were done.

Or the daytime host on another local station who has been around this town for years but still went on to say something about how he didn’t see how the club could contend even with the extra wildcard spot because of the hole they have dug for themselves unless they sweep the Cubs.

People are jumping off ledges all over Brewer Nation and I have written here previously about the need to be patient and let things play out. The injuries to several key players may be acting as an accelerant and if the injury bug continues all this angst may turn out to be warranted.

Here is a look at the National League Central Standings:

St. Louis

22

16

Cincinnati

20

17

1.5

Pittsburgh

18

19

3.5

Chicago

16

20

5.5

Milwaukee

16

21

5.5

Houston

14

23

7.5

The Brewers find themselves 5½ games behind the front running Cardinals and 4 games back of the Reds. They are lagging behind the surprising Pirates in a battle with Chicago despite having won 5 of 7 from that team. The starting pitching hasn’t been as good as advertised. The offense is struggling especially in clutch situations and the defense is amongst the worst in the league.

You onto me yet?

Before you all start bombing me with comments about how my standings are wrong, please know that I am famous for living in the past. Those standings above are of course from 2011 after the games played on May 13th. The year the team went on to win a franchise record 96 games and the division crown.

So let’s live in the present:

St. Louis

20

14

Cincinnati

17

16

2.5

Pittsburgh

16

18

4

Houston

15

19

5

Milwaukee

15

19

5.5

Chicago

14

20

6

Other than Houston being much better to start the season than most would have thought those standings look an awful lot alike don’t they!

The start and the injuries have certainly been disappointing and many of the same issues that plagued this team a year ago exist today. You would think that these guys would figure this out with such a veteran team (minus the injuries) but for some reason moving runners over and hitting cutoff men just doesn’t sink in with this group.

There are some very positive signs to take away from the last week despite some tough losses. There has been timely hitting and the starting pitching has started to step it up. The best news however is that over the next 11 series the team has a chance to make a move similar to last season if they can keep the positive momentum.

The current records of their next ten opponents features only two teams with winning records and only one other ahead of them in the standings. The two-game set in New York that starts tonight will be one of those series but the Brewers will send Yovanni Gallardo and Zach Greinke to the mound. Yo has a 2.45 ERA this season in games not against St. Louis (22.24 against them). Greinke despite his struggles on the road at times in his career has looked sharp his last two outings and carries a 3.35 ERA into his Tuesday start.

After that the team will head to Houston before coming home to face the team with the worst record in Baseball the Minnesota Twins. Next week they get San Francisco at home before heading West. If the can survive the left coast, they will begin June with the Pirates, Cubs and Padres (worst record in NL) before heading to Kansas City (second worst record in AL) and Minnesota.

Winning series has not been a hallmark of this team in 2012 but if they get on a run against this weaker competition and not have an awful series such as getting swept in the four-gamer in LA they could put up a record of something like 20-12 between now and Father’s day. That would give the team a 35-31 record. Their record after June 17, 2011? 39-31.

I’m actually beginning to like the similarities between this year and last year slow start and all.