Game of the Week: May 3: Rockies at Brewers

[Grubs - Philly]

Colorado Rockies (17-12) at Milwaukee Brewers (21-8)

The Rockies find themselves off to a quick start on the strength of even offensive performances throughout a balanced, platoon-heavy lineup and pitching that’s been supportive, if not overwhelming.

The Brewers are once again setting fire to the NL Central, as this deep squad pillages a division that’s been in rebuild mode for several years. There’s no fat in the dugout, as Milwaukee carries 14 position players and employs a whopping five platoons, including at DH.

Roger Macari (1-3, 7.22 ERA) takes the hill for Colorado and lefty Holden Christian (3-1, 3.18 ERA) starts for Milwaukee.

Colorado Rockies by the numbers:

162: Runs plated by the league’s highest-scoring offense

1.027: Nolan Arenado’s OPS against lefties. At age 36, he’s lost a step and some bat speed, but his presence in the heart of the lineup is still impactful.

3: RBI by Trevor Story in 2027. He’s belted three homers from his 1B platoon, but all of them with no one on base.

4.17: The Rockies’ FIP; good enough for 6th in the NL

13: The Rockies’ NL rank in defensive efficiency, zone rating and errors

Milwaukee Brewers by the numbers:

4: The number of starting pitchers in the rotation. So far it’s worked swimmingly for Milwaukee, with out-of-this-world numbers from Hawkeye Arnold and solid-to-good performances from Kierstead, Christian and Andexler.

20.1: Innings thrown by long reliever Toby Dunlap. With an ERA just under 4, the bullpen workhorse was the key to this staff’s success…until a torn rotator cuff ruined his 2027.

1: Milwaukee’s NL rank in team batting average, OBP, OPS, batting WAR and wOBA

155: Runs scored, putting them third in the NL

6: The number of defensive substitutions the Brewers employ when started against lefties.

Questions for Erick Blasco:
Defense is an issue. Do you expect positive regression, or will fixing it require lineup changes. Or are you going to let it ride, a la Baltimore?

Trevor Story has a .927 OPS against lefties. He’s provided solid defense at first and already logged time at every other infield position. Given his production and utility, is it time to stack him higher than 6th? Would that be a lineup-stacking switch or a platoon at a different position?

Like the Brewers, you have 14 bats on your squad. The platoons seem to be holding for now. How do you feel about the strategy and where might you be likely to tweak things?

Questions for Luke Grimmelbein:
What happens to the four-man rotation now that Toby Dunlap is out?

Josh Blystone seems overmatched as one of your three closer options. How do you feel about his future usage?

With 14 position players, your roster strategy depends on healthy pitching and a bullpen that might have to eat innings if your starters tire later in the season. Does it feel at all precarious, or do you think you have enough pieces to make this work for now?

[brewersgm]

Questions for Luke Grimmelbein:
What happens to the four-man rotation now that Toby Dunlap is out?

Josh Blystone seems overmatched as one of your three closer options. How do you feel about his future usage?

With 14 position players, your roster strategy depends on healthy pitching and a bullpen that might have to eat innings if your starters tire later in the season. Does it feel at all precarious, or do you think you have enough pieces to make this work for now?

1. I've been experimenting with a 4 man rotation on weeks where we have an off day in the middle of the week. That way everyone can start on full rest and I can use some of the extra hitting depth I have at AAA. I think it works but for now I'm just going to give David Meeks/Brock Straub some run at the #5 starter and micromanage a bit less. With Dunlap out we've shuffled the bullpen a little and moved Enlow to long reliever.

2. Josh just needs to stop giving up home runs. The 2.69 xFIP looks sparkling but he's been plagued by the long ball in his young career. We see Josh as a long term bullpen piece but we've moved him to a middle inning role for now,
and moved up the veteran Michel Miliano to a late inning role.

3. Pitching injuries were an issue last year and seem to be an issue again this year. As I said earlier we're going to give some of our young starters some run as our 5th starter and micromanage less. I think we have the pieces to make this work. We also have a couple of pitching options knocking on the door that could be up in the Bigs later in the year.

[Commissioner Erick]

Defense is an issue. Do you expect positive regression, or will fixing it require lineup changes. Or are you going to let it ride, a la Baltimore?

I do not. Unfortunately, my biggest defensive problem is Shortstop and there wasn't someone available who would be a positive defensive Shortstop and wouldn't be offensively incompetent. We're actually shocked Wenceel Perez has been as solid as he has, though we platoon him so he only bats from his stronger right-hand side of the plate. Alec Sanchez isn't a great Second Baseman, and David Dahl isn't a great Center Fielder. We hope our corner outfielders can continue to be plus defenders, that Arenado can be better at Third, but we're going to need to win with our bats.

Trevor Story has a .927 OPS against lefties. He’s provided solid defense at first and already logged time at every other infield position. Given his production and utility, is it time to stack him higher than 6th? Would that be a lineup-stacking switch or a platoon at a different position?

Last year, Story was a disaster at Second Base so at this point he's only a corner infielder. We want to play him a little bit more at Third Base actually, but we've decided to give Aramis Ademin time at Third to get Wenceel Perez' glove in the field to improve our defense. Sanchez has been wildly streaky this year, but we'll have him bat fifth today with David Dahl getting a rest.

Like the Brewers, you have 14 bats on your squad. The platoons seem to be holding for now. How do you feel about the strategy and where might you be likely to tweak things?

We have a lot of decent platoon bats and one is a Rule V guy that takes up a roster spot. Ideally we'd have another reliever, but we use our platoon bats so liberally. If we get an injury to a position player, we probably wouldn't replace that player with a hitter, but an extra pitcher. Also, since our pitchers are mostly pretty replaceable, we're likely to dump any injured player on the 60 day IL to free up some space.

[Grubs - Philly]

Colorado Rockies 3 — 1 Milwaukee Brewers

Roger Macari threw his best game of the year and Wenceel Perez came through with an early clutch double to propel the Rockies past the Brewers in the series opener. The Brewers' Luis Rivera notched an RBI double of his own in the first, but Macari had it on lockdown as he struck out 7 through six innings and handed it over to Dan Jennings, Jose Ruiz and Ryan Meisinger to finish things off. 

Questions for Erick Blasco:
Macari had a terrific game and a great week. What are your expectations for him this year?

You manager bot sent two guys who both got caught stealing. How do you feel about that aggression in a tight game?

Questions for Luke Grimmelbein:
Your leadoff DH platoon went a combined 3 for 5. Do you like the mid-game switch and if so, will you try to shift strategy even more toward favoring handedness matchups?

Noah Campbell hasn't been productive anywhere other than the traditional speed spots up top or down low in the lineup. Any idea what happened with him batting third?

[Commissioner Erick]

Macari had a terrific game and a great week. What are your expectations for him this year?

Yeah, he was terrific. I don't have high expectations for this season because he's still developing his stuff and his control. Ultimately I think his command will offset a lack of premium stuff, but that hasn't been the case most of this year. He was terrific working the corners against Milwaukee though. If we had a better defense, I'd be rosier on Macari, and I like him for the future when we can build a better defense. For this year, I'm expecting an ERA around 5 and hoping our offense can do some heavy lifting.

You manager bot sent two guys who both got caught stealing. How do you feel about that aggression in a tight game?

It always depends on the situation. Milwaukee is a terrific pitching team and we had some guys resting, so I was in favor of the aggression. The first time was with Boisierre on first, one out, and Perez on the mound. I don't expect Perez to do much there, and Nigro was on deck, so getting a chance to get to second where maybe a hit guarantees a run, or he can then advance to third on a grounder and score on a wild pitch, was something I approved. Christian is tough to run on though, so I give him a lot of credit.

The second time was in the eighth with Nigro on and Ademan facing Mark Warf. In a close game I do favor the aggression, but was less excited for this attempt. It looked like a hit-and run-to-me. However, Nigro is not a great base stealer, Ademan was facing a lefty and swung through the pitch, and Arenado was on deck. I would have preferred to see Nigro stay put.