f the Brewers' 1405 plate appearances this year, 1170 of them -- 83% -- have been taken by right-handed batters. (Making the math easy, the Brewers have no switch-hitters, either.) They're on pace to have more than 5100 plate appearances by righties, which would be among the five highest figures in the expansion era:
Most RH PA, 162-game seasons
Year Team RH PA Pct. RSRk OPS+
1970 Padres 5397 87.8 11/12 92
1977 Padres 5279 83.0 6/12 97
1998 Astros 5261 81.7 1/16 109
1996 Astros 5105 81.4 8/14 100
2001 Astros 5104 80.7 2/16 100
1969 Padres 5098 86.5 12/12 75
1993 Rockies 5058 83.3 4/14 87
1978 Brewers 5011 80.5 1/14 116
1977 Expos 4997 79.5 11/12 96
1975 Dodgers 4987 79.8 8/12 96
The Brewers' structure is a bigger problem now than ever before because of the type of pitchers teams use in the late innings, all these hard-throwing right-handed relievers engineered to throw 15 unhittable pitches at a time. The Pirates used four pitchers last night for six shutout innings, all right-handed, and turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 win by keeping the Brewers off the board. This has been an ongoing problem for the Brewers. While they're seventh in the NL in runs scored, they're 14th in runs scored in the seventh through ninth innings. An average offense falls off the charts late in the game, not because they're un-clutch, but because they match up so poorly. No team in baseball has had fewer PAs with the platoon advantage than the Brewers have, and no team in baseball has a lower percentage of PAs with the platoon advantage. It's not all that close.
Fewest PAs with platoon advantage, by percentage
PA Pct.
Brewers 506 36.0%
Angels 633 41.5%
White Sox 582 43.5%
Cardinals 684 47.6%
Braves 702 47.7%
The Brewers have the wrong roster structure for modern MLB. From their standpoint, too many innings are thrown by power right-handed relievers, and not enough by left-handed starters. Especially against them; the Brewers schedule is, relative to the league, heavy on NL Central teams. The NL Central has just four lefty starters -- Locke, Wandy Rodriguez, Jaime Garcia and Travis Wood. (Tony Cingrani will likely be back in the minors once Johnny Cueto returns.)
Again, ya'll should definitely subscribe.
But seriously, this roster is a problem.
