Let me start by saying this is not another speculative Carlos Lee trade column.
However, I do notice one curious thing about all the "Will they or won't they trade Lee?" discussion. Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin and Ned Yost insist they consider the Brewers a contender in the National League wild-card race. Meanwhile, Melvin and Yost have recently been pointed in their commentary about the team’s inconsistent offense. Yost, in particular, has bemoaned the team’s tendency to strike out too much. Heading into Sunday, Brewers hitters led the major leagues with 715 strikeouts.
But if both these things are true, there is no way the Brewers will consider trading Lee, who has whiffed just 35 times in a team-leading 349 at bats this year. Right?
Wait. This is not a Lee trade column. Seriously. In actuality, it’s about the Brewers’ uncanny whiffing ability, a Milwaukee tradition nearly as old as tailgating and Bernie Brewer.
In 2001, the Brewers whiffed an astounding 1,399 times, a club record representing an average of 8.6 Ks per game. To put it another way, the Brewers fanned nearly once an inning that season (not taking into account extra-inning games, of course). To put it a third and non-literal way, that’s like saying the team was playing with two non-strikeout outs per inning.
Since the Brewers joined the National League in 1998, no other team has approached 1,400 strikeouts in a season. Over the last three years, the free-swinging Reds racked up 1,326, 1,335 and 1,303 strikeouts to lead the NL -- and the second-place team in each of those campaigns was your very own Brew Crew, with 1,221, 1,312 and 1,162 whiffs, respectively.
Since 2000, the Brewers have been either first, second or third in NL strikeouts, never fanning less than 1,125 times in one season (6.9 Ks/game). This year, the Brewers are on pace to go down swinging (or looking, often with a runner in scoring position, it seems) 1,259 times, which computes to 7.8 Ks/game.
Worse, the Brewers entered the week with four players among the majors’ top 22 in strikeouts: Geoff Jenkins (93), Bill Hall (92), Rickie Weeks (83) and Prince Fielder (80). So every other position in the team’s lineup -- excluding the pitcher’s slot -- is fairly likely to strike out. Try sustaining a rally against those odds.
Knowing this, it’s no wonder the Brewers are an inconsistent offensive team. With the worst pitching and fielding (statistically) in the NL, a strikeout-prone offense is unlikely to generate the consistency necessary to truly contend for the postseason.
Strikeouts aren't the only measure of good hitting teams or players, of course. Adam Dunn leads the majors with 108 whiffs, but thanks to a .376 on-base percentage and 30 homers, he’s an effective offensive player. Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard (101 strikeouts) and potential American League MVP Jim Thome (93) also strike out a lot. But the difference between that trio and the Brewers’ foursome is its production -- Dunn, Howard and Thome each have at least 30 HR and 60 RBI.
To varying degrees, Jenkins, Hall, Weeks and Fielder have been important and productive members of Milwaukee’s lineup. And several of them are vital to the team’s long-term hopes. But their bad at-bats and the problems stemming from them -- a failure to move runners, stranded baserunners, erasing the possibility of a defensive mistake by the opposition -- are severely limiting the team’s chances.
Whose fault is all the whiffing? Some point at batting coach Butch Wynegar, who has seen the team strike out at least 1,200 times in each of his first three seasons. Others blame a lineup perennially built around home-run hitters; before Jenkins and Fielder, it was Richie Sexson or Jeromy Burnitz or Greg Vaughn who was doing the fanning.
It’s probably a combination of those things, and it’s also an approach. Lee is proof-positive that sluggers need not be fanners, and watching him bear down on a two-strike count or with a runner on third and less than two outs is instructional. Until more of the Brewers’ young hitters start to emulate Lee’s approach, it might not matter whether he stays or goes.
However, I do notice one curious thing about all the "Will they or won't they trade Lee?" discussion. Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin and Ned Yost insist they consider the Brewers a contender in the National League wild-card race. Meanwhile, Melvin and Yost have recently been pointed in their commentary about the team’s inconsistent offense. Yost, in particular, has bemoaned the team’s tendency to strike out too much. Heading into Sunday, Brewers hitters led the major leagues with 715 strikeouts.
But if both these things are true, there is no way the Brewers will consider trading Lee, who has whiffed just 35 times in a team-leading 349 at bats this year. Right?
Wait. This is not a Lee trade column. Seriously. In actuality, it’s about the Brewers’ uncanny whiffing ability, a Milwaukee tradition nearly as old as tailgating and Bernie Brewer.
In 2001, the Brewers whiffed an astounding 1,399 times, a club record representing an average of 8.6 Ks per game. To put it another way, the Brewers fanned nearly once an inning that season (not taking into account extra-inning games, of course). To put it a third and non-literal way, that’s like saying the team was playing with two non-strikeout outs per inning.
Since the Brewers joined the National League in 1998, no other team has approached 1,400 strikeouts in a season. Over the last three years, the free-swinging Reds racked up 1,326, 1,335 and 1,303 strikeouts to lead the NL -- and the second-place team in each of those campaigns was your very own Brew Crew, with 1,221, 1,312 and 1,162 whiffs, respectively.
Since 2000, the Brewers have been either first, second or third in NL strikeouts, never fanning less than 1,125 times in one season (6.9 Ks/game). This year, the Brewers are on pace to go down swinging (or looking, often with a runner in scoring position, it seems) 1,259 times, which computes to 7.8 Ks/game.
Worse, the Brewers entered the week with four players among the majors’ top 22 in strikeouts: Geoff Jenkins (93), Bill Hall (92), Rickie Weeks (83) and Prince Fielder (80). So every other position in the team’s lineup -- excluding the pitcher’s slot -- is fairly likely to strike out. Try sustaining a rally against those odds.
Knowing this, it’s no wonder the Brewers are an inconsistent offensive team. With the worst pitching and fielding (statistically) in the NL, a strikeout-prone offense is unlikely to generate the consistency necessary to truly contend for the postseason.
Strikeouts aren't the only measure of good hitting teams or players, of course. Adam Dunn leads the majors with 108 whiffs, but thanks to a .376 on-base percentage and 30 homers, he’s an effective offensive player. Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard (101 strikeouts) and potential American League MVP Jim Thome (93) also strike out a lot. But the difference between that trio and the Brewers’ foursome is its production -- Dunn, Howard and Thome each have at least 30 HR and 60 RBI.
To varying degrees, Jenkins, Hall, Weeks and Fielder have been important and productive members of Milwaukee’s lineup. And several of them are vital to the team’s long-term hopes. But their bad at-bats and the problems stemming from them -- a failure to move runners, stranded baserunners, erasing the possibility of a defensive mistake by the opposition -- are severely limiting the team’s chances.
Whose fault is all the whiffing? Some point at batting coach Butch Wynegar, who has seen the team strike out at least 1,200 times in each of his first three seasons. Others blame a lineup perennially built around home-run hitters; before Jenkins and Fielder, it was Richie Sexson or Jeromy Burnitz or Greg Vaughn who was doing the fanning.
It’s probably a combination of those things, and it’s also an approach. Lee is proof-positive that sluggers need not be fanners, and watching him bear down on a two-strike count or with a runner on third and less than two outs is instructional. Until more of the Brewers’ young hitters start to emulate Lee’s approach, it might not matter whether he stays or goes.
Sports shots columnist Tim Gutowski was born in a hospital in West Allis and his sporting heart never really left. He grew up in a tiny town 30 miles west of the city named Genesee and was in attendance at County Stadium the day the Brewers clinched the 1981 second-half AL East crown. I bet you can't say that.
Though Tim moved away from Wisconsin (to Iowa and eventually the suburbs of Chicago) as a 10-year-old, he eventually found his way back to Milwaukee. He remembers fondly the pre-Web days of listenting to static-filled Brewers games on AM 620 and crying after repeated Bears' victories over the Packers.
