Brewers Among League Leaders

Time for a quick look at where Brewers players rank among the league leaders in the all-important Triple Crown categories.

(All rankings are NL-only)

Batting Average
(7) Ryan Braun - .319
(16) Prince Fielder - .302
(16) Felipe Lopez - .302
(24) Craig Counsell - .293

Home Runs
(5) Prince Fielder - 26
(10) Ryan Braun - 22
(29) Mike Cameron - 15
(43) JJ Hardy - 11
(43) Corey Hart - 11

Runs Batted In
(2) Prince Fielder - 95
(5) Ryan Braun - 76
(48) Mike Cameron - 45
(48) JJ Hardy - 45

Wins
(9) Yovani Gallardo - 10
(9) Braden Looper - 10
(45) Manny Parra - 6

Strikeouts
(3) Yovani Gallardo - 154
(38) Manny Parra - 82
(45) Braden Looper - 73

Earned Run Average
(19) Yovani Gallardo - 3.59
(43) Braden Looper - 4.84
(47) Jeff Suppan - 5.27

It's obvious that Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun are the two best hitters on the team, in fact, they may form the best 1-2 bunch in a lineup in all of baseball.  (Shouldn't it really be called a 3-4 punch?)  After that, there are a couple of players at the top of the lineup that are bringing high averages, in Lopez and Counsell. 

The pitching is nowhere near where it was last year, but once again, Manny Parra is somewhat of a surprise at where he ranks among the league leaders.  If he had Mike Rivera as his catcher for all of his starts this season, who knows what his stats would look like.  Since returning from AAA, Parra has had Rivera as his catcher for four of his five starts since returning to the bigs, and he's 3-0 with a 3.94 ERA and 27 K's.

If Yo can work on becoming a little more consistent, and Looper continues to pitch as well as he has, and Parra continues to get Rivera catching him, the Brewers have a good enough 1-2-3 in the rotation to make a push towards the postseason.  It's the 4 and 5 spots in the rotation that need to improve, as they are almost a guaranteed loss these days.

Standings Check

Chicago - 57-49
St. Louis - 59-51
Milwaukee - 54-54
Houston - 53-55

Time for the Crew to keep clawing and scratching at trying to keep up with the top two teams in the division.  They're 3-3 on the current road trip, heading to Houston for an important series over the weekend.