Tampilkan postingan dengan label Jeff Bianchi. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Jeff Bianchi. Tampilkan semua postingan

Senin, 19 Mei 2014

Highlights-Lowlights: Brewers-Cubs

This is SnoTap's version of recap of the two, three or four game series Milwaukee Brewers will play this season. We focus on the positives and negatives with topics about the game and topics that were nowhere near close to part of the game.

Highlights
Jean Segura -This is really just the Friday game for Seggy as he had a three hit game. He was the reason Milwaukee won their only game of the series. Segura scored in the first inning, and then knocked in two runners in the second. Segura is starting to get a little bit warm in the past week or so. Segura's average went up to .262 on Saturday, the highest it has been since April 14th. Personally, I don't think he should leave the second spot in the order.

Kyle Lohse - Even though Lohse gave up two home runs, he pitched pretty well on a cold Friday afternoon in Chicago.  He finished seven innings in only 92 pitches which is impressive only giving up seven hits in the process. Lohse once again is having a great season which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone whose watched him in the past couple years. In his nine starts this season, Lohse has pitched into the sixth inning or longer in eight of them. An impressive and underrated start to this season.

Matt Garza's Six Other Innings - First inning was such a bummer for Garza. After the bad start, Garza only allowed one hit and two baserunners. It is similar to what he did against New York in the past game as well. Hopefully, Garza can find a way to rite the ship in the first inning because he will start putting together some solid outings. I am not starting to freak out about Garza yet. He is doing some great things on the rubber, just needs to put all together.

Edwin Jackson - He continued his strong May with a tremendous start against the Brewers Saturday
afternoon. Jackson pitched seven inning only giving up four hits and striking out eleven batters. He has been an occasional thorn in the Brewers side from time to time and he was on Saturday afternoon feasting on Brewers weak bats. The closest the Brewers got was in the first inning with two two-out hits. Jackson could become an interesting trade option if Chicago messes around a bit with his biggish contract.

Lowlights
Matt Garza's First Inning - You have to believe the routine for Garza will be changing in the coming days. This is the second straight start where he has given up three runs in the first inning plus in his Arizona start, he gave up three runs in the first three innings as well. It could be that Garza is trying to make the perfect pitch and isn't getting comfortable right away leading to his struggles in the first frame. As I said above, Garza will be fine, don't go crazy folks.

Jeff Bianchi - I have no idea why Ron Roenicke decided he wanted Bianchi at third and Mark Reynolds at first, but it happened without much success at the plate. Bianchi is hitting .154, the lowest his average has been this season and for the month, he is hitting .091. Bianchi struck out five out of the six times he stepped to the plate this weekend. I think it is time for Bianchi to find a seat on the bench for awhile.

Marco Estrada - If there was one inconsistent starting pitcher for the Brewers, it's Marco.  He gave up two more home runs today making it 12 on the season. Estrada is leading the National League with home runs given up. This is becoming quite a problem for the Brewers fifth starter. He needs to get back into his groove a little bit with his changeup. Estrada told the media after the game he didn't really have a feel for his changeup which isn't a good thing at all. Playing at Marlins Stadium on Friday will definitely help him out though.

Ron Roenicke's lineup - Ugh. I wish I could write a complete rant about how Roenicke has royally screwed up this lineup but no one really listens to me. Rickie Weeks should have been in the lineup all weekend. Bianchi continues to be bad and Martin Maldonado stays on the bench despite a red-hot bat. Looks Roenicke needs to take some risks. This became a complaint of mine last year, but it seems like his robotic ways are rearing its ugly head yet again.

Carlos Gomez's body - Bummed out that he had the flu or food poisoning causing him to be miss two games in Chicago. I don't know if he could have helped the Brewers offense, but sure would have been a welcomed addition given how putrid they were over the last two games.

Charlie.

Senin, 28 April 2014

Brewers-Cardinals Preview (4/28-4/30)

Brewers previews to get you ready for the series where we have five things to watch, pitching matchups and prediction. We add a YouTube video in the mix, it could be really anything.   

Pitching Matchups & TV Time
Monday:      Yovani Gallaro (2-0 1.42) vs. Michael Wacha (2-2 2.10)  7:15 pm FSNWI
Tuesday:      Kyle Lohse (4-1 2.38) vs. Lance Lynn (4-1 3.30)             7:15 pm FSNWI
Wednesday: Matt Garza (1-2 4.09 vs. Shelby Miller (2-2 2.86)          12:45 pm FSNWI

Five Things To Watch
1. No Braun? No Segura, how ugly could it get? - There will probably be no Ryan Braun for three-game series, Jean Segura is missing tonight at least so it could get pretty nasty for the Crew. They struggled mightily without Segura and Braun yesterday with Jason Hammel, and it could get even worse with the three strong young starters from St. Louis. Although you never know with baseball meaning this could be a big week for Jonathan Lucroy if you do play fantasy baseball getting more chances or even grabbing Jeff Bianchi if you are desperate as he will see more plate appearances.

2. Shhh but St. Louis has zero offense right now - Besides the 7-0 blowout of Pittsburgh yesterday afternoon and an 8-0 drubbing of Washington last week, the Cardinals have 15 runs in nine games.  That's not great. Their offense is scuffling to say the least, and even despite their success against Milwaukee throughout the years, it is not like their offense is humming right now. It is weird too because four of the big hitters on St. Louis' team are hitting the ball reasonably well, but none of their secondary players are contributing right now.

3. Yovani's stale Busch success - In the last three years, Yovani has been abysmal against St. Louis and even more terrible when pitching at Busch Stadium. He allowed 42 runs in 53 games yielding an ERA of a little over seven. He has given up 15 home runs against St. Louis which is the most against any team in that same three-year span. Yovani battled a demon already in Boston, and he will attempt to do it again at Busch tonight with this one being a bigger demon. The first time through the order will be the big thing. If Yovani goes scoreless through the first two or three innings, he could be on his way to exorcising this one. If he did, that would be HUGE moving forward with this team.

4. Expecting the blown save - This sounds horrible, but I am waiting for Francisco Rodriguez to blow a save. I am not ready to live in a world where he blows only one or two saves. I mean it could happen as J.P. said in Angles In the Outfield, but at some time, it would have to come to the end. This would be a brutal series to blow a save because honestly, the expectation is maybe one win for the Brewers so if Frankie blows one or two this week, it would be a huge disappointment.

5. Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller, the Sequel - OH NOT THESE GUYS AGAIN. Both Lynn and Miller were awesome against the Brewers at Miller Park, and now they return to face the same order sans Braun and Segura at Busch Stadium. In two starts after his Brewers start, Lynn has only allowed three runs in 12 innings. As for Miller, he hasn't allowed a run since giving up a home run to Aramis Ramirez so this will probably end well for the Brewers.

Appropriate YouTube Video


Let's go with Dumb and Dumber. I feel terrible about this series, worse than I did against Boston so this works. Let's try to win one here, boys.

Prediction 
I am expecting a sweep. I told a guy at the bar on Saturday night if the Brewers lose all three of them adding the loss on Sunday, they are still eight games above .500 and still have a 1.5 game lead on St. Louis. Also this great note from J.P. Breen





Charlie.

Highlights-Lowlights: Brewers-Cubs (4/25-4/27)

This is SnoTap's version of recap of the two, three or four game series Milwaukee Brewers will play this season. We focus on the positives and negatives with topics about the game and topics that were nowhere near close to part of the game. 

Highlights
Matt Garza - There is something about facing your former team, or I would like to think it has to be sort of cool about it. Garza had been struggling in the last couple starts, and he put together for a strong seven innings start notching his first win as a Milwaukee Brewer. Garza allowed only four hits and striking out seven batters only walking one batter. Garza had all of his pitches working confusing and befuddling Cubs batters. Hopefully, this is the start of strong performances for Garza. If Garza gets hot, it will only continue for Milwaukee's impressive start with their starting pitching.

Francisco Rodriguez - Once again, Frankie had a big weekend with two saves on Friday and Saturday. K-Rod has eleven straight saves in April setting the record for consecutive saves for the month of April. Rodriguez's month has been one of the best in baseball only allowing four hits in 13 appearances and walking three batters over eleven games. He also has struck out 19 batters. Rodriguez known for '30 Pitchers of Terror' in the first two terms with Milwaukee, but right now, Rodriguez is averaging 14.8 pitches per appearances. At some point, you have to expect some struggle, but right now, it's Frankie's world and we are just living it in.

Marco Estrada - Even though he gave up a home run in the eighth inning, Estrada has another strong outing for the Brewers. He went seven-plus innings giving up only allowing four hits, two of which happened to be home runs, something that happens to Estrada given the way he pitches the baseball. It is encouraging to see Estrada succeed at Miller Park. He struggled mightily last year inside The Keg, and it is good to see him bounce back in a major way in the first month of the season.

Jeff Bianchi - The unsung hero of Saturday night's game against Chicago. Jean Segura suffered a bat to the face by Ryan Braun leading him to leave the game, and Bianchi stepped in delivering two hits including a big two-run single helping the Brewers to break open the game against the Cubs. Bianchi continues to be a solid and reliable option for Milwaukee off the bench.

Lyle Overbay - OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO chants were reigning down on Miller Park on Friday as Overbay blasted his first home run of the season. He added another hit in the game as well as had one in Sunday's loss giving him three hits in eight at-bats this weekend. Overbay's average is up to .273 on the season which is a massive improvement from how he started off the year. I would assume the platoon goes back to being more stringent with the success of Overbay lately and Mark Reynolds scuffling a bit at the dish.

Carlos Gomez's 'Aww' moment - If you missed it on Sunday, Carlos Gomez made a girl's day by signing her bobblehead box then giving her hug. Love to see those kind of moments.



Lowlights
Ryan Braun's Intercostal Strain - It's been a real up and down month for Braun as he has belted six home runs yet still bothered a bit by the thumb issue that plagued him last season, he is dealing with a intercostal strain which will keep him out three to five days. He could possibly pinch hit against St. Louis on Wednesday, but I doubt we see Braun until the weekend. If he needs to hit the Disabled List to recover, it's not the worst thing in the world to get him back 100 percent especially this early in the season.

Jean Segura's face -Milwaukee got very lucky when Braun's bat met Segura's mouth. He only needed stitches with the jaw not being broken or Segura suffering a concussion. He will be day-to-day with a chance he could play tonight against the Cardinals. Good to see he did not suffer too serious of an injury.

Saturday night brawl - Friends of the program went to Saturday's night game and saw this taking place in the 400 level of Miller Park. Apparently, it went on for five good minutes with beer being thrown in the stands. Brewers-Cubs have a rivalry, but it doesn't usually get to this point. Hopefully, it was just a rowdy Saturday night and this doesn't become a usual occurrence.



Aramis Ramirez - Did somebody tell him it's April?  He did have two sacrifice flys knocking in two runs, but he also did not register a single hit this weekend. Something to keep an eye in the coming week will be if Rami's struggles at the plate continue.

Charlie.



Charlie.