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The Milwaukee Brewers have gotten off to an unlucky start in 2016. During spring training they lost their closer to an injury, and since opening day they’ve lost two starting pitchers as well. All is not lost in Milwaukee, as a fresh batting approach has kept the Brewers competitive.
Looking at the Brewers’ offense not much exceptional sticks out at you. They are 15th in MLB in batting average and 14th in slugging percentage. The addition of Chris Carter at first base was supposed to help the power, but they are still only 13th in MLB for home runs. Yet, they are overproducing as the 11th-most runs scored in MLB and seventh best in the National League. Looking more closely, the Brewers are seeing more pitches than other teams and the results are helping.
The Brewers are eighth in MLB in OBP and fourth in walks taken. Given their lack of an elite player beyond Ryan Braun, this is an impressive number. They accomplish this by letting numerous pitches go by. They are also third in strikeouts. In order to get to four balls, you often have to watch a strike or two fly by. The Brewers have finally solved the OBP formula for scoring runs, but this shouldn’t be seen as an OPS success. The Brewers are only 11th in OPS in all of baseball. They are getting this done with walks and wearing down the opposing pitching. This doesn’t travel as well as pitching, but they are close to .500 at home through the rough start of the 2016 season.
The Brewers made offseason changes to their roster to be more competitive in 2016 and beyond. Due to some injuries, the season hasn’t started the way they would have liked. The fans can take solace in the fact that the offense is beginning to work the way it was intended thanks to a batting approach that is helping the Brew Crew score more runs than their talent suggests.
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