Stearns still has faith in pitching staff
The concern level of some Milwaukee Brewers fans grew Tuesday when the team’s chief competitors in the National League Central, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, made moves to strengthen their lineups.
The Cubs sent a minor-leaguer and future considerations to Washington for second baseman Daniel Murphy, one of the hottest hitters in the league. The Cardinals were awarded a waiver claim by the Nationals on first baseman / outfielder Matt Adams, sending him back to his former club.
“It’s normal for those kinds of moves this time of year,” Brewers general manager David Stearns said. “Those clubs picked up two good lef-
ty hitters who are going to help them down the stretch.”
Stearns made moves before the July 31 non-waiver deadline for a pair of hitters, third baseman Mike Moustakas
and second baseman Jonathan Schoop, the first of which has worked nicely but not so much for the latter. Players have to go through waivers to be moved in August and Stearns said the deals by the Cubs and Cardinals would not make him antsy to reciprocate.
“No, we don’t really operate like that,” said Stearns, who also acquired reliever Joakim Soria, only to lose him to a groin
injury. “We try to take every decision in terms of what it’s going to do to our team. The teams around us, and the teams we’re competing with, are going to do their best to be as competitive as possible.”
Stearns has heard plenty of criticism from the outside about not improving his pitching staff, and the cries only grew louder this month when there was considerable slippage. Even with wellpitched games Sunday in St. Louis (2-1) and Monday night against the Reds (5-2), the Brewers’ team ERA for August was 5.80, last in the NL.
Asked about that slide, Stearns said, “I’m confident in this group. This is a group that has gotten us to a very good point in the season. This is a group that except for a two-week stretch at the beginning of this month has pitched pretty well and been pretty competitive.
“That’s what I expect to see going forward.”
Which doesn’t mean Stearns has stopped looking for an arm. But there doesn’t appear to be a Justin Verlander out there to ride to the rescue, as he did last season for Houston.
“We’re always looking to improve the team in any way we can,” Stearns said. “It’s always more complicated making trades in August. We were able to do one last year with (second baseman) Neil Walker. If the right opportunity shows up this year, we’ll certainly move to do it.”
No second-guessing: Former Brewers second baseman Scooter Gennett entered Tuesday ranked third in the NL in hitting with a .312 average with 18 homers, 72 RBI and an OPS of .850.
The Brewers, meanwhile, have started nine players at second base this season and 10 since they lost Gennett on waivers to the Reds in the spring of 2017. This season their combined .635 OPS at the position is worse than all but two teams in the major leagues.
Gennett has seen what’s been going on from but isn’t taking any particular pleasure in having proven the team that drafted him wrong.
“I’ve noticed that they’ve had some struggles there,” he said. “I loved playing here. It was great. The fans are great. The staff is great. The front office is great. They were good to me. They were good to my family.
“You never want to see them struggle in that type of way to where, ‘Man, we just can’t figure this out.’ I don’t want to see that. But that’s baseball, man. Stuff like that happens. I’m sure they’re scratching their heads like, ‘What the heck?’ ”