[BirdWatcher]

With just over 50 games in the books it might be a good time to look at some team trends thus far.

Surprises:
The Brewers are 3rd in the league in runs scored and that is a bit better than was forecast for this team, but even more surprisingly the Brewers are 3rd in the league in HR's. They are 4th in stolen bases, which for us is a very low ranking, but this is at least partly driven by the sparse playing time for Ruben Souffront and Pat Rondeau, two of our speediest players. Rondeau, in particular, even when he does play rarely gets on base so he has had little opportunity to even try to steal bases (he has 1 steal.)
The Brewers have at times in the past been a better road team then home team but this year their road winning percentage is a mediocre .427 while we are winning at a healthy .679 clip at home.
It is also a bit surprising that the team is 7th in OBP as this is usually an area of strength. This is likely due to some early season struggles by Ryan Rodgers, who has a healthy .368 OBP but has led the league in this category the past 2 years with OBP's of .431 and .479. Also, Tanner Yurek, normally one of the leaders in the team in this category, is having an atrocious year at the plate and while he is still drawing walks at a pretty good clip, with a batting average of .216 his OBP is just .317.

Perhaps the biggest area of concern is that the team defensive efficiency ranks 8th out of 10 in the league. It is hard to explain this, though a few possible contributors to this are that third baseman Jamison Bash does not have the range that Jared Stephenson did, though Bash is not terrible by any means. Also, second baseman Tanner Yurek is not only struggling at the plate but continues to show decline defensively as well, though he still remains at least average if not slightly above average defensively.

The Expected:
As expected and as usual, the Brewers have allowed the fewest runs against in the league. While the starting pitching staff had some early season difficulties, they are now 2nd in the league in ERA while the bullpen remains the best in the league with a minuscule ERA of 1.68.
Also as usual, the Brewers have a much better record against right-handed starters than left-handers.
It is also unsurprising that the Brewers pitching staff leads the MGL in strikeouts while placing pretty much middle of the pack in walks allowed.

Who's Hot:
Andrew Kennedy leads the team in batting average at .338, has a very decent OBP in spite of not being a guy who takes a lot of walks, is 3rd in RBI on the team and has played very solidly in both leftfield and at firstbase.
Chad Brown is having a solid season at the plate as he is hitting .309. He also leads the team in stolen bases at 9 while only being caught trying once. He is tied with Kennedy for 4th on the team in WAR at 1.3. While he is no longer looking like a gold glove shortstop, he remains well above average defensively in spite of being somewhat error prone (12 errors.)
Daniel Torres, at age 36, is 3rd in the league in ERA (2.09) after leading the league in that category in 1970. He is 7th in the league in rWAR.
Veteran thirdbaseman Jamison Bash has been tremendous at the plate in his first season in a Brewers uniform, with a slash line of .295/.372/.630 with 8 doubles, 16 HR's and 35 RBI. This puts him on pace for 25 doubles, 51 HR's, and 111 RBI.

Note: both Daniel Torres and Jamison Bash can be free agents at the end of the season and both have signaled their desire to remain Brewers but thus far there are no indications that negotiations are underway.

Who's Not:
Pat Rondeau is off to by far the worst start of his WPK career as he is hitting just .200/.208/.280. He remains a very gifted defensive outfielder and has premium speed but with this complete lack of offense he is seeing little playing time.
Tanner Yurek, who had one of his finer seasons in 1970, is showing significant decline at age 30, both at the plate and in the field. Yurek is hitting just .216/.317/.320 and has a zone rating at second of -0.9.
Captain Abel Pennington, at age 29, is having one of his poorer seasons as a member of the Brewers starting rotation. Pennington is 1-2 with a 4.11 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP. His BABIP is pretty consistent with his career norm, and even a bit better than in 1970, so there is little indication of bad luck playing a role.


One bit of potential good news for the Brewers is that they have a better run differential than the 1st place Speed Devils, who are exceeding their pythagorean win expectation by +4 while the Brewers are underachieving by the same measure -2. The second place Velocity do have a slightly better run differential than the Brewers and are under-achieving -1.