It\u2019s fair to make a case for the Milwaukee Brewers as baseball\u2019s smartest franchise outside of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t spell out that case here, and I doubt many Padres fans care about the Brew Crew \u2014 even if they\u2019d get a laugh out of the 7-foot sausage mascots who indulge in sprint races during the sixth inning.<\/p>\n
As we consider what this year\u2019s Brewers can tell us about the Padres, just know this:<\/p>\n
No one in MLB is surprised to see them outperform their small-market status in yet another regular season. They took Major League Baseball\u2019s best record (74-45) into Tuesday\u2019s game in the East Village, a .622 win rate built on smart pitching and defense, adept contact hitting and sharp baserunning.<\/p>\n
With the Brewers visiting San Diego this week, I delved into their seasons in order to learn more about the Padres.<\/p>\n
Where did that lead me? To a surprising place.<\/p>\n
I see the two rosters as equally October-capable.<\/p>\n
Brew Crew fans will rightly accuse me of drinking too many IPAs. After all, the Padres sat 11 1\/2 games behind their team heading into Tuesday.<\/p>\n
But as Brewers fans know all too well, October baseball differs a lot from the 162-game version.<\/p>\n
Home run power matters more in the postseason.<\/p>\n
A lot more.<\/p>\n
The past six World Series champions have finished first, third, fourth, third, third and second in home runs in the regular season.<\/p>\n
The Brew Crew sits last in home runs, a Kryptonite alert.<\/p>\n
Rising to 20th in home runs, the Padres have MLB\u2019s sixth-best long-ball total since the All-Star break, nine coming from Jackson Merrill, six apiece from Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ty France, and four from Manny Machado, the team leader.<\/p>\n
A vital distinction must be made.<\/p>\n
While the Brewers will go to the playoffs absent a collapse, the Padres still have to overcome either the Phillies or the Diamondbacks while also holding off their own pursuers.<\/p>\n
While the Diamondbacks may regret not trading for starting pitching this summer, the Padres and Brewers will expect recently acquired players to boost their stretch runs.<\/p>\n
Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller had to address the starting pitching, and he did so by dealing for a pair of veterans having above-average seasons, Robbie Ray and Casey Mize.<\/p>\n
The Brewers\u2019 Matt Arnold obtained four pitchers: starter Dustin May and relievers JoJo Romero, Antonio Senzatela and Codi Heuer. Also, he acquired a backup catcher.<\/p>\n
But it was the pitcher the Brewers didn\u2019t land that dominated the post-deadline reactions.<\/p>\n
Tarik Skubal, the Tigers\u2019 ace, went to the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
The price was three prospects, headed by outfielder Zyhir Hope.<\/p>\n
Scouts suggested that the Brewers could\u2019ve given the Tigers a better minor league package than L.A.\u2019s without gutting their farm system. Skubal could\u2019ve teamed up with Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski, 24, who leads MLB in ERA and strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Can we assume Preller would\u2019ve traded for Skubal, had he been in Arnold\u2019s position?<\/p>\n
We cannot. Skubal can be eligible for free agency in November, and there\u2019s no reason to believe the Brewers could\u2019ve signed the Scott Boras client to a long-term deal.<\/p>\n
Going large for rentals is easier when you\u2019re confident about signing the player, as the Dodgers no doubt are with Skubal.<\/p>\n
When Preller dealt future MLB All-Stars James Wood and CJ Abrams to get Juan Soto four summers ago, a big factor was that Soto would be under Padres control for up to three postseasons.<\/p>\n
Similarly, it\u2019s through 2029 that the Padres control closer Mason Miller, their big addition last summer.<\/p>\n
Preller got Miller by trading prospect Leo De Vries. No other prospect traded last summer or this summer was ranked as highly by former scouts with ESPN and The Athletic.<\/p>\n
Did the Brewers make a serious attempt to trade for Skubal?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my understanding,\u201d manager Pat Murphy said Monday in San Diego. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot to that. There\u2019s just a lot to the whole thing. So, I just leave that alone. We\u2019re trying to move on, do whatever we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long ago, Preller hired Murphy as interim manager of the Padres.<\/p>\n
Did seeing Preller deal for two pitchers this month surprise Murphy?<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely not, absolutely not,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m too familiar with their passion to win, and their passion to do things that others don\u2019t expect.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a slam dunk that Dodgers newcomer Skubal will hugely outperform Brewers addition May.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee thrives often with veteran starting pitchers it got in a non-splashy trade or in lower-cost free agency.<\/p>\n
When evaluating established stars, the Brewers also get a lot right, such as when Arnold and staff parted in recent years from shortstop Willy Adames, ace Corbin Burnes, closer\u00a0Devin Williams and, most recently, ace Freddy Peralta.<\/p>\n
Like the Padres, the Brewers own their niche.<\/p>\n
Now we\u2019ll see if either team can slay the dragon in October, provided the Padres get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s fair to make a case for the Milwaukee Brewers as baseball\u2019s smartest franchise outside of Los Angeles.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":["post-430347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}