Highlights-Lowlights: Twins-Brewers (6/2-6/5)

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
Jonathan Lucroy - We have talked a lot about him in the highlights section. He is almost a given Lucroy is somehow featured, but Luc is having a great season.  He added a little power this week doubling his home run total having two home runs this week. He also added multi-hit games in Monday and Thursday's game with scoring runs in three of the four games.  Lucroy hit both dingers late in the game giving his team much-needed insurance runs in both wins.

Matt Garza - We have been critical on the blog of one bad inning that would come back to bite Garza, but this Monday, we got the full Matt Garza greatness. He pitched really well going six and a third innings with eight strikeouts and only giving up six hits. Garza seemed in control of all his pitches and did not really get phase when Minnesota started to threaten a little bit. He mixed his pitches real nicely. Hopefully, we can seeing this more from Garza.

Aramis Ramirez - Quite the way to welcome yourself back to the roster by hitting a three-run bomb on Wednesday night to tie the game on Wednesday night. Ramirez mashed the ball and looked like he's been on the roster all season. He added a hit on Thursday which resulted in a run as Khris Davis hit a go-ahead two-run homer. It is good to have Ramirez back in the lineup and makes the Brewers that much more a dangerous offense. What to watch this weekend is how he plays third base. My guess is he will play two of the three games, probably missing Saturday's game.

Khris Davis -  A man-crush is growing with Davis. The last 15 to 20 games has shown great improvement by Davis in all facets of his game. Taking a tough pitch the other way and it results in a home run is a fine piece of hitting from Davis. Arguably the best we have seen from Davis in his career. He has a hit in his last three games including scoring at least one run. Davis' average is up to .259, the highest its been since April 23rd. Davis seems to be really taking all the coaching to heart and putting it on the diamond.

Carlos Gomez - What a Thursday night for him. It has been awhile since we had a Carlos Gomez game where he finds a way to get himself involved in many ways of the game. He made a great catch that included a DX crotch chop at the end of it. Gomez hit a big three-run homer the half-inning after Wily Peralta gave up a grand slam. Gomez has a hit in his last four games and scored a run in the last three of them. The average might be down slightly but Gomez played a large part in Thursday's win.



Lowlights
Yovani Gallardo - Is it time to push the panic button on Yovani?  The last six starts his ERA has been 6.55 and in the last three of four games, Gallardo gave up at least two home runs. It is a complete mess for him right now. Gallardo went through these struggles last season around the same time of the season. He went on the Disabled List and figured some stuff out and finished strong. He is nibbling a bunch on the corners in an attempt to make the perfect pitch. Gallardo doesn't trust his pitches, and that's a problem.

Double plays - Hopefully, this is a trend that ends with Minnesota. Milwaukee had players on bases throughout the four game series yet they hit into seven double plays. Brewers could have definitely swept the Twins had it not been for the double play monster especially on Tuesday. That's a killer for this team as they are built on the home run so you hope every now and again, they can do it without one.

Will Smith - This was bound to happen at some point, right? Smith is finding a little bit of regression which is perfectly okay because let's be real, no one is expecting Smith to be a sub one ERA reliever for the entire season. Smith will also be fine. There is no reason to panic. He needs to rework his command a little bit, and it will be fine for him.

Stranded Runners - This has been a small theme to the season. Brewers end up having a player on third base with one or two out, and they fail to drive them in. This goes along with the double play business, but also this team needs to be more opportunistic because when they are hitting, this offense can put up five to six runs nightly.

Charlie.

Changes to Interleague Rivalries Needed

For the last two years, Milwaukee and Minnesota have been playing a split four-game series during the week.  It is a part of the new Major League Baseball Interleague system as Houston Astros made the transition to American League giving both leagues 15 teams. This meant we would have an interleague series every series turn with two divisions playing each other along with the ‘rivalry’ matchups getting a four-game series during the week so each team would get two games at home.  This officially needs some fine tuning after two years because it is hurting baseball’s economy with ticket revenue.  How to fix it is pretty simple actually and it is beyond me why MLB hasn’t thought about it before.

The four-game weekday series works for only four interleague rivalries.  Those are Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox, Oakland A’s vs. San Francisco Giants,  New York Yankees vs. New York Mets  and Los Angeles Angels vs. Los Angeles Dodgers. The reason why it works for these four rivalries is the opposing fanbase can make it to the other team’s venue with ease drawing a bigger crowd.  When you have something like Minnesota-Milwaukee which is a six-hour trip, no one is making the trip to Milwaukee on Monday or Tuesday.  Cleveland and Cincinnati, Tampa Bay and Miami are other examples where it makes things difficult for the opposing fan to travel elsewhere.

This doesn’t stop at the box office either. Sure, most people coming into town will spend more money. They might buy a Hank t-shirt, stuff animal, etc, but they are also seeing the game at better seats.  Further, usually these opposing fans are probably staying at a hotel which is more revenue for the city along with spending money in the variety of bars and restaurants across the city. It might not be significant revenue unless the opposing team is really good and bringing in a great deal of fans, but it still is something missing in the last couple years.

Honestly, the series haven’t been as much without having Twins fans all over the city. As they have struggled, we haven’t seen as many around Milwaukee in the past couple years, but it is a good-hearted rivalry.  Additionally, it is really fun to be in an opposing ballpark giving the other fans shit in a scenario like this one.  You start singing Jason Kendall’s name like clocktower (JAAAAAAY-SON KEN-DALLLLLL, JAAAAAY-SON KEN-DALLLLLL) and talking about football in June because at times, Vikings fans have small-man’s syndrome (Love you guys).  MLB is taking away all of these things away from Brewers and Twins fans along with other rivalries around the league.  Hopefully, this is the last year with these split series during the week.

If they decided to these series on the weekend where MLB had four-game series split with Thursday/Friday being at the first place with Saturday/Sunday being at the second place. MLB can flip it every season allowing for both teams getting the weekend games.  This would still help drive people to the opposing ballpark. It is a lot easier to take off work at the end of the week telling the boss, ‘We are going to see Brewers-Twins in Milwaukee and spending the whole weekend down there.’  Taking two days off work and probably staying an extra day to party is not the worst thing in the world. Most people are not taking off Monday and Tuesday because one, there is not much nightlife happening and two, many people don't want to come back to their job on Wednesday.

The other thing baseball could think about is adding an extra series to interleague.   I doubt they want to do something like this because do you really want each team to get a weekend series with their interleague rival versus an extra division series?  Odds are probably not, but if they could figure out a way to make a schedule work, that would be the dream honestly. The one place where I could see them finding a way is trying to subtract an inter-division series.  But is it really beneficial to have them play another interleague series versus inter-division matchup like Arizona-Milwaukee?  For revenue standards, no question about it, but for potential playoff record against the National League, it could be troublesome.

This is one of the minor things the new commissioner will have to address next season.  Four-game series aren’t affecting the players rather it is affecting the fans whom want to cheer their home team in a city not their own. 

Charlie. 

Twins-Brewers Preview (6/2-6/5)

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
Monday:      Kyle Gibson (4-4 4.18) vs. Matt Garza (2-4 4.84)              6:20 pm FSNWI
Tuesday:      Samuel Deduno (1-3 3.86) vs. Yovani Gallardo (2-3 3.56) 7:10 pm FSNWI
Wednesday: Marco Estrada (5-2 4.03) vs. Ricky Nolasco (3-5 5.70     7:10 pm FSNWI
Thursday:     Wily Peralta (4-5 2.73) vs. Kevin Correia (2-6 5.87)         7:10 pm FSNWI

Five Things To Watch
1.) Brewers continued Interleague success - For the last couple years, Milwaukee struggled against
American League teams, but this year has been different. Brewers have won seven of their nine games against the American League taking each series against the AL East foes they have faced this season. Stark contrast from the last two years where the Crew went 6-14 in 2013 and 6-9 in 2012. Last year, the Twins swept the Brewers in this four-game series during Milwaukee's abysmal May, and Minnesota has good fortune usually against the Brewers as well.

2.) Early inning scoring for the Crew - One of the big things that has helped the Brewers with their offense revival is the early inning scoring. They tend to put up runs quick and fast. They added a first inning run in five straight games last week which is really impressive. Twins have not been pitching well this season so Milwaukee could be poised to continue their success in the early innings. Even with their shutout loss, the Brewers are averaging 6.8 runs a game since May 25th. Twins have a little bit lumber, but they will need to be hitting if they expect to win some games this week.

3.) Gibson or Deduno will give the Brewers trouble - The first two pitchers Milwaukee is facing they haven't seen very much. Kyle Gibson is virtually new to the Brewers bats, and Samuel Deduno gave Milwaukee some trouble last year going seven innings, four hits and only giving up a run. Granted, the 2013 May team is way way different than the team we are watching on a nightly basis. Even though, their early inning scoring been a theme of late, I could see both games at Miller Park featuring the Brewers jumping on these pitchers, the second or third time through the order.

4.) Twins pitching has been a sore spot this season - They are not a good pitching team by any means even if I am concerned about Gibson and Deduno in the first two games. . The second batch of Twins starters feature two guys, Kevin Correia and Ricky Nolasco, having five-plus ERAs. Only three relief pitchers are under a three ERA for the Twins right now with one of them being their closer, Glen Perkins. Minnesota overall team ERA is 4.41 with opponents hitting .270 against them. Scary thing to think about if you're a Minnesota fan given how well the Brewers offense has been in the last 10 games.

5.) Josh Willingham, known Brewer killer - This is one of the Babe Ruth's of Miller Park. Willingham had two grand slams in one game at Miller Park along with other bad things happening to Brewers pitching. Willingham is coming off an injury, and naturally, he is red hot coming into this series. He has a home run in three of his last four games including a game-tying ninth inning home run yesterday in a win against New York Yankees. He would be the one player for the Brewers to avoid this week.  

Appropriate YouTube video


If you missed Grantland's Jonah Keri talking to Luke Edwards, the star of Little Big League, also known as Billy Heywood. It is awesome stuff.  I am pretty sure he will be involved in Wednesday game, but I might be drunk.

Prediction 
I am satisfied with a split in any which way it happens. Whether it is two wins at Miller Park or two wins at Target Field. It could also be one and one, whatever works for the Brewers to get two of the four.

Charlie.