Zach Duke, Other Links That Suck

The Milwaukee Brewers’ ridiculous start has some people talking.  The Pirates were the talk of baseball last season.  And now, this season that talk is starting to surround Milwaukee–the big bully that has had some serious success (or perhaps some lucky swings on some hanging breaking balls) against the Bucs.  With only two healthy players on their bench last night, they dropped the Cardinals in extra innings on, wait for it… a Lyle Overbay single.

In Baseball Prospectus’ Ten Things We Learned in April:  The Brewers Are Good.  The article talks about the hot start by the Brewers and focuses on the success of their bullpen which includes Zach Duke putting up a 34 percent strikeout rate.   Yeah, the soft tossing, pitch-to-contact Zach Duke we knew so well in Pittsburgh is now a lights-out setup guy.  Yeah, the same Zach Duke that inspired this photoshop after a particularly poor start:

(The biggest K% we found on Duke was 17.9 with the Nats and then 17 with the Pirates in his rookie year.  But anyway, here is the clip:

"They’ve (Brewers bullpen) held batters to hilarious .194 average with a 31.1 percent strikeout rate and 6.9 percent walk rate in 78 1/3 innings. Francisco Rodriguez has led the charge as the closer, having not yet yielded a single run, while former prospect Tyler Thornburg, trade acquisition Will Smith, and former closer Jim Henderson give the pen its depth. And Zach Duke is apparently a sick reliever?"

The Brewer bullpen has insane strand rates and BABIP numbers are amazing.  The article then compares the Brew Crew to the Bucs….but tosses in the powerful offensive possibilities.   The Brewers offense only has Carlos Gomez and Ryan Braun hitting well.

Heh, we told you these links suck.

Not to be left out, FanGraphs also got into the Brewers act with their article titled  The Brewers Amazing and Worrisome Bullpen.  The win probability added by the Brewers’ pen is ridiculous.  Be sure to check it out.

The Reds three game losing streak is over  they beat the Cubs on a Billy Hamilton homer.