NLDS Preview – Milwaukee and Philadelphia

The MLB Playoffs begin tomorrow afternoon at 3pm eastern time at Citizens Bank Park with the Milwaukee Brewers visiting the Philadelphia Phillies. This game is the first of the divisional round because of the lack of its TV appeal. This is the Brewers first postseason appearance since 1982 and the Phillies third since 1993. The Phillies won the season series 5 games to 1 but never faced the Brewers ace C.C. Sabathia. Both teams are also on fire right now with the Brewers winning 6 of their last 7, and the Phils winning 5 of 7. Enough with the boring tidbits lets go breakdown the match-ups!

Offense:
Milwaukee Brewers: The Brew Crew is led by their sluggers, predominately Ryan Braun (37 homers) and Prince Fielder (34 homers), as well as three others with 20+. For the Brewers to win this series they are going to need to continue their long ball success and ride the hot bat of the Prince. Down the stretch, Fielder was a menace at the plate and at a time when his team needed him the most. His numbers in the last 18 games? .409 avg (27 for 66), 6 homers and 19 rbis. Fielder has also destroyed Phillies pitching this year, hitting 4 homers in only 20 at bats, sporting a .350 avg. Minus the power there isn’t much to like about this Brewers offense. The team hits for extremely low average, .253 overall the 7th worst in baseball. The team has some speed but the problem is none of those guys are that likely to get on base. If they do thou, watch out for Rickie Weeks and Corey Hart they could probably get into the heads of the Phillies pitchers.

Philadelphia Phillies: The Phillies are bolstered by one of the strongest lineups in baseball. So strong their lineup contains the last two NL MVP’s Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard (a front runner for this year’s MVP as well), as well as the best hitting second baseman in baseball Chase Utley. The Phils are a lot like the Brewers in the fact they’d prefer to beat you with the long ball. That’s no surprise thou as they play in a little league park called Citizens Bank. Howard led the team with 48 homers, followed by Utley and Pat Burrell with 33. Much like the Brewers the Phils have a hot bat of their own in Howard. He’s hit .352 with 11 homers and 32 rbis in the month of September, yes 32. This lineup does have a downside thou and that is also their ability to hit for average, they have a .255 avg just a couple ticks better then the Brewers. The Phillies can get away with this thou as the top of their order is an absolute terror on the bases when they get on. When Rollins and Shane Victorino get on the game is pretty much over. Team’s have to worry about keeping them from stealing a base as well the next two hitters Utley and Howard.

Pitching:
Milwaukee Brewers: The Brewers rotation is in some major trouble. You have to wonder, can they throw C.C. Sabathia into every game? The postseason rosters were announced not to long ago, and Ben Sheets was left off the roster. This leaves the Brewers with only one bona fide quality starter. That is not what a team needs when attempting to make a long playoff run. Yovani Gallardo is starting Game 1 for the Brew Crew, with Sabathia following in Game 2 on short rest, his fourth consecutive on short rest. The team has to go this route, as it would line Sabathia up for a start in Game 5 should the series go that far. Quite a few people may ask who Gallardo is? Yovani Gallardo was originally projected to be a key starter in this year’s rotation but had lingering effects from a knee injury and missed almost the entire season. His start this past week was his first since May. The only good thing about this is h has a fresh arm, but is he ready for the big game? The other Brewers starters are Jeff Suppan and David Bush. All of these pitchers are fly ball pitchers, not something you want against the Phillies. Their bullpen? They’re so bad I’m not even going to talk about it.

Philadelphia Phillies: The Phillies aren’t without their own questions on the mound, but they aren’t at a severe level like the Brewers. The Phils will be going with Cole Hamels as their Game 1 starter on long rest, something he usually hasn’t done that well with. I’m sure he’ll be up to the challenge. The biggest debate amongst fans and local Philly media has been whether you start Jamie Moyer at home in Game 2 or go with the inconsistent Brett Myers. The winner of that debate has been Myers much to the dismay of the fans. Myers lately has been pitching like he did before his demotion to Triple-A during the season. The Phillies surprisingly have a strong bullpen, something that hurt them many of times last season. They have arguably the best closer in baseball with Brad Lidge, who went a perfect 41 for 41 in save opportunities with an era of 1.95.

Coaching:
The Brewers have Dale Sveum who took over mid-way through September after the team fired Ned Yost. There isn’t much to say about Sveum except that the Brewers did catch fire after his promotion. The Phillies have Charlie Manuel who is quietly having one of his best managerial seasons of his career. Manuel’s one problem is that he sometimes over manages, and when he does he puts the team and game in jeopardy. It seems that at times he doesn’t trust his team in key situations, and when he shows that distrust the team responds negatively. Take for instance in Saturday’s NL East Division clincher, he didn’t trust Jamie Moyer to go a seventh inning even with how he was pitching. How’d the bullpen respond by almost blowing it, including Lidge nearing his first blown save.

Season Series:
The Phillies dominated the season series by winning 5 of the 6 games, and outscoring the Brewers 33-16. The top 3 in the Phillies lineup were abosolutely dominating against the Brweres pitching. Rollins, Utley and Victorino went a combined 24 for 48 with 3 homers, 10 rbis, and 5 doubles. The most telling stat, they scored 15 runs between them. The pitching was pretty good as well, doing enough to get the job done. Hamels had a pretty bad start in April but lights out against the Brew Crew two weekends ago. Myers even sports a complete game, two-hitter.

The Brewers pitching was absolutely horrendous with both Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan getting rocked. The one thing they do have going for them is the Phillies have not faced Sabathia yet. The hitters? They weren’t dominate but they did perform somewhat. Prince was dominate, while Rickie Weeks and Bill Hall each had productive games against the Phillies. The rest of the lineup hasn’t even showed up with not one regular batting over .225 against the Phillies pitchers.

Prediction:
My prediction is the Phillies are just to strong for the Brewers. The Phils also have the confidence of making the playoffs last season. In last year’s NLDS against the Colorado Rockies they were swept and the players do not want that to happen again. I think the Phils are going to be a team on a mission and absolutely roll over the Brewers. My call is for the Phillies to win the series in four.

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Tags: Milwaukee Brewers, MLB, Philadelphia Phillies