Friday, October 7, 2011

Series Review: Diamondbacks vs Brewers

If you remember, I had the Brewers winning before statistics, and then picked the Diamondbacks to win the series after the statistics. I said in the article that the numbers didn't pick a clear winner, but since the Diamondbacks had the better lineup (which sort of surprised me, and they had equal starting pitching), I leaned towards them. It seems that I should have stuck with the Brewers. This was a very close, exciting series with the exclamation mark put on by a walk-off hit in the 10th inning by Morgan in game 5. Perhaps the biggest tilt in the Brewers favor was the Gallardo/Kennedy match-up. Kennedy was a slightly better pitcher this year says the numbers, yet Gallardo outdueled him in the series (4.26 ERA for Kennedy, and 1.29 for Gallardo in the series). The Brewers had the better bullpen, and it showed. For the Diamondbacks, Putz was pretty mediocre and gave up the series winning hit, Ziegler was awful, Hernandez was alright, while Shaw was really good. For the Brewers, everyone was pretty much lights out, even Axford was good overall. When looking at the lineups, the first thing you notice is that Ryan Braun hit out of his mind (4 doubles, with OBP of over .500) He even out performed his awesome statistics. Fielder had a key homer in game 1, and walked a few times. Surprises were Betancourt and Hairston, with low statistical ratings but huge series's. This more than made up for Rickie Weeks' lackluster series. Arizona's lineup didn't do too bad, other than Parra was pretty miserable (even with a good performance in game 5).The Brewers had better pitching overall, in both starters and bullpen. That is why they won the series.

Pre-Statistics picks: 3-0
Statistic picks: 0-3
Teams with bigger payroll: 2-1

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