With their 7-0 loss to San Diego on Friday, June 3, the Milwaukee Brewers finished the first one-third of the season (54 games in a 162-game schedule) with a 33-21 record. That is good enough for a first-place spot in the N.L. Central, two games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The 54-game mark represents the first one-third of the 2022 campaign. With their 33 wins, the Brew Crew is on pace to win 99 games for the season. That would be a new team record, surpassing the 96 victories the team won in 2011 and 2018.
There is a long way to go before the end of the season, but the team and a few individuals are on pace to make a run at a few records. Here is a look at a few marks that may be in jeopardy.
- Rowdy Tellez leads the team with 36 RBI, putting him on pace to finish the year with 108. The team record is 141, held by Cecil Fielder in 2009. Christian Yelich is the last Brewer to drive in 100 or more runs in a season; he had 110 in 2018. Tellez’s career mark for RBI in a season is 54, which he did in 2019 with the Blue Jays.
- Josh Hader has 18 saves and is on pace for 54. The team record is 46 held by John Axford in 2011, The MLB record is 62 by Francisco Rodriguez of the L.A. Angels in 2008.
- Corbin Burnes has 84 strikeouts and is pace for 232 for the season. Last year he finished with 234 K’s, good enough for third most in club history. The team record is 264 by Ben Sheets in 2004.
- Hader has a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of .600. Of Brewers pitchers with a minimum of 70 innings pitched, Hader has the best career WHIP at .806, a mark he achieved in 2019.
- The Brewers as a team have 70 home runs which ranks first in the National League. They are on pace to reach 210 HRs, which would still fall short of the team record 250 in 2019.
- The Brewers’ pitching staff has struck out 523 opposing batters through 54 games, a pace that would put them at 1,569 for the year. The team record is 1,618 in 2020.
- The bullpen has 23 saves in the first 54 games. That puts them on a pace for 69 for the year, which would significantly blow by the team mark of 54 saves set in 2017. The MLB record for saves in a season was set by the Chicago White Sox in 1990 with 68.
- The Brewers pitching staff has a team WHIP of 1.217. The team record is 1.179 set last year.
- The team batting average is .231, currently the third-worst in team history. The worst team batting average was .223 in 2020. The team also averages only 7.65 hits per game so far this season (that also ranks third-worst in team history). The team worst was 7.15 in 2020.
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This is the worst hitting Brewers team I can remember. I’ve had Brewers ticks for 25 years.
Yelich and Cain are PATHETIC! Embarrassing.
The fact that they are in first place speaks for Counsel.
However, my prediction, if they don’t start hitting, is that they will fall in the standings.
The data I believe says that all of baseball is suffering from poor hitting. There are several
reasons for this:
1-The Counsel effect: bringing in one pitcher per inning after the 4th-6th inning. This prevents hitters from getting used to the starting pitcher
2- infield shifts. This is a ridiculous rule. It takes away base hits.
3- The baseballs that they are using.
Personally, I’m tired of boring baseball. I want runs back. If it wasn’t for homeruns, the Brewers would be a pitiful hitting team. Fire their hitting coaches. Shake it up! I’m tired on a lack of hitting stars on the Brewers. Guys you could count on. I like guys who are hitting machines like Goldschmidt.
When I was growing up in the old days between 1963 and 1975, the worse players in baseball were hitting between .225 and .242. Now the whole Brewers team, even their so called stars, are hitting horribly.
They better come out of their slump, or else!
Dr. Bob: Thanks for your analysis. Can’t really disagree with anything you said. The Counsell effect is clearly a factor, plus they actually have a decent pitching staff that keeps them in low-scoring games. Very few of their hitters are aggressive at the plate. Yes, in “our” day, if a pitch was in the strike zone, you swung at it. Nowadays, batters are trying to coax more walks. It’s Money Ball for the 21st century. I don’t see how the Brewers can sustain their lead in the NL Central unless a couple of players start to carry the hitting load. Thanks, again, Bob.