Milwaukee Brewers: Us vs. The National League, the good and the bad

Now that the Milwaukee Brewers have finished the month of April, let’s take a look at how they compare statistically with other National League teams.

The Good

When looking at fielding statistics, the Milwaukee Brewers are doing very well so far this season.  They have the best fielding percentage in the NL at .992, and lead the league in the fewest number of errors with only nine.

The team has some bright spots statistically when it comes to hitting as well. The Brewers are currently the third best NL team when it comes to slugging with a .424 SLG % and fourth when it comes to OPS at .747. The team has also shown to be very good at hitting the long ball, because they are in first place, hitting 57 home runs through the month of April. Christian Yelich‘s hot April played a large role in a lot of these numbers.

The Milwaukee Brewers are the seventh best when it comes to team batting average at .252, but they are only six points behind the league leading Chicago Cubs. Last year the Brewers led the NL in stolen bases, and this year they continue to do well in this statistical category. They are currently in second place with 16, behind the Washington Nationals who have 20. To summarize the Brewer offense, they like to run and they like to hit the long ball.

When it comes to team pitching, there aren’t a ton of statistical bright spots, but the Milwaukee Brewers are leading the NL when it comes to save percentage. When comparing the number of saves to the number of save opportunities, the Brewers have converted 82% of the time. This is yet another, ‘Josh Hader is awesome’ stat.

The Bad

Despite having a very solid defense so far this year, the team pitching statistics are not very impressive. One pitching category the Milwaukee Brewers are not doing well in is team ERA. They have the third highest team ERA in the NL at 4.92. Opponents batting average against the Brewers is pretty high as well. Through April, teams are hitting .254 against the Brewers and only two teams in the league have a higher BAA.

The pitching staff has also given up quite a few home runs.  They have given up 49 so far and only the St Louis Cardinals have given up more.  The team WHIP is also not very good at 1.42 which is the third worst in the NL.

The team is currently 17-14, three games behind St Louis in the division standings. In looking at a handful of statistics through the month of April, its pretty clear that if the Milwaukee Brewers want to win the division and compete for a championship, the team pitching will need to improve.