| the 'stache |
09-12-2019 09:58 AM |
If Wisconsin sports teams didn't have bad luck...
...they'd have no luck at all.
The Brewers' reigning MVP Christian Yelich, as you've all no doubt heard by now, is done for the season. Just as things were starting to get interesting for the team. If the season ended today, the Brewers, if I am seeing things correctly, would make the playoffs. We have caught the Cubs for the second wild card, and by virtue of winning five of the last six against them, we have the tiebreaker, taking the season series ten games to nine.
I feel terrible for Yeli, and I empathize, having broken the Patella in my left knee two Springs ago. I just saw that, thankfully, he won't need surgery, so I expect he'll be ready to go at the start of the next season. But this puts a real damper on his chance to repeat as MVP. He was leading ESPN's Award Index coming into yesterday's game. While his BBR WAR was lagging behind Cody Bellinger 8.1 to 7.1 (he has played 12 fewer games, and has a lesser dWAR), Fangraphs has Yelich way ahead, 7.7 to 7.1. Yelich's wRC+ is 173, to Belinger's 163. And Yelich's clutch metric blows Belinger's out of the water. Yelich is at 0.37, and Belinger is at -0.76.
This keeps happening to the Brewers. Two years ago, we lost our ace Jimmy Nelson when he ripped up his shoulder sliding back into first base. It's pretty clear watching him struggle on the mound that he'll never be the same again. He missed all of last year, and most of this year after finishing 9th in the Cy Young in 2017. This year, our closer Corey Knebel has missed the entire season. Our Rookie of the Year candidate Keston Hiura has been out since the end of August. Mike Moustakas hit two home runs last night-he'd only had 5 at bats in September because he was out injured. Our current ace, All Star Brandon Woodruff, has been out since July 21st with an injury.
Now this.
We have too many guys out right now, so I didn't expect the team to make any real noise in the playoffs if they got in. But they've won 9 of 11, and while three of those games were against the Marlins, the rest were against the Cubs and Astros. Guys are stepping up, and I hoped, "maybe, just maybe". Now, the damned rug has been pulled out from under us.
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