The Brewer Nation

Will We See See Sabathia in Brewer Blue?

2008-07-04T17:26:07Z

By: Big Rygg

First and foremost, Happy Independence Day to all of our domestic readers and those U.S. citizens that read us from the other side of our borders!

Now let's get down to business...

There has been a TON of acceleration regarding C.C. Sabathia's possible trade out of Cleveland. The destination that's being penciled onto his plane ticket has been reading: MKE (the airport code for Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport if you didn't know).

Heading back the other direction? Well therein lies some of the discrepancy in stories.

FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal is reporting that both (yes, both) OF Matt LaPorta and SS Alcides Escobar were offered to the Indians for Sabathia. Beat-writer for the local Milwaukee paper the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Tom Haudricourt, reports that he has it on "good authority" that the Brewers would never offer both of those players in the same deal for Sabathia. He has found out that the Indians had scouts watching the Brewers' Single A team (the Brevard County Manatees) the other day where 2007 Brewers Minor League Player of the Year Taylor Green plays ball and believes that Green might be a centerpiece in a deal.

There is also some talk about J.J. Hardy possibly being involved in a deal for Sabathia and then that Escobar would be used to replace Hardy on the big-league roster. (I'm officially on the record as not in favor of this scenario if we could get Sabathia with just prospects instead.)

The non-waiver trading deadline in Major League Baseball is July 31st and you usually will see many of the trades that are going to happen in this league happen on or just prior to that date. Part of the reports around the internet are saying that the reason the Brewers might be offering such a strong deal this early is so that the Indians will be convinced that they can't get anything better and will pull the trigger on the deal. After all, you only throw a starting pitcher every 5th day so the earlier you get that pitcher into your rotation, the more benefit you get for the deal.

But then again...maybe everybody is way off base here and no deal will happen.

Here's where you guys get involved...

Would you do a deal for C.C. Sabathia if structured as is indicated by the rumors?
Which deal?
If you'd deal for Sabathia but not want to do one of the supposed deals, what would you offer?
If you won't deal for Sabathia, who else do you think the Brewers should target?

Last Day to Vote!

2008-07-02T15:56:13Z

Come on people...if you're reading this right now, chances are good that you're on a computer. Head to http://www.brewers.com find the VOTE NOW link and vote for Ryan Braun as many times as possible!!!

Mid-Term Report Card

2008-06-30T05:00:49Z

By: Big Rygg

The mid-term tests have been taken and the scores have tabulated. It's time to see not only how this team is performing but also how they've improved with another year of instruction.

Thru 81 Games...

Wins/Losses

2007:
47-34 record, 30-13 at home, 17-21 on the road

2008:
44-37 record, 25-13 at home, 19-24 on the road

What these numbers mean...

Well, first and foremost, we're 3 games worse than last year. Notably, though, is that we've played 5 fewer games at home to this point. With the way we've played at home, especially recently, chances are good that if five of those road game losses would've been played at Miller Park instead, we'd have gone at least 3-2 in them to match last year's record. But that is, after all, just speculation.

Location is Everything...

Last year, thanks to a strong start coupled with Chicago limping out of the gate, we found ourselves in first place in the NL Central by 6.5 games. This year, we sit in third place, 4.5 games out of first place (though we do also have the third best record in the National League at the end of the day).

What's more, with that third-best positioning, we are 2 games behind the Cardinals for the Wild Card. Specifically, though, we need to take note that we are closer to the Cubs now than they were to us last year. The division is still very much winnable.

Grades

Starting Pitching: B

Ben Sheets has been stellar so far this year, we know that. In fact, he's really only had two poor outings, both of which resulted in his losses on the year. He should even have a couple more wins than he does since a couple saves were blown in his starts. Individual grade: A+

Jeff Suppan has been Jeff Suppan and sometimes that's the biggest compliment you can pay a pitcher. You know what you're going to get from Soup the vast majority of the time. He is currently 4-6 which is a bit lower than you'd like, and his ERA is a touch above 4.00 which is also a bit higher than you'd like out of a starter, but it's also a half-run better than his career average. Individual grade: B-

Manny Parra has eight wins coupled with only 2 losses. He's one win behind Ben Sheets and (though he officially qualifies as a 2nd year player) he's basically a rookie. He struggled early in the year and has had several short outings due to pitch count, but he's definitely learning how to pitch in the Majors and is coming into his own quickly. Once he consistently attacks the strike zone and gets ahead of hitters more often than not, he'll see his grade improve farther. Individual grade: B+

Dave Bush was sent down to the minors at one point this year, but was quickly called back into the starting rotation due to an injury to Yovani Gallardo and the ineffectiveness of Carlos Villanueva. The poster boy for "big inning issues", Dave Bush has had several starts blow up in his face when things seemed to be going just fine. His last two starts, however, have been things of beauty as he took a no-hitter into the 8th inning against Toronto and allowed only four hits to the Atlanta Braves a few days later. Individual grade: C+ (but on the rise)

Seth McClung was pressed into duty after beginning the year in the bullpen in the long relief role. He has pitched admirably since his job change, posting a 4-2 record in 7 starts. That is coupled with an ERA of 4.62 which leaves plenty to be desired. The bottom line with McClung, though, is that he's kept the Brewers in the majority of his starts. He's had four quality starts (one of which actually resulted in one of his losses) and has only had two rough outings. Individual grade: C+

Relief Pitching: C-

This is a tale of two seasons so far for this group. As a whole, all players and outings considered, is why this grade is as low as it is. Certain aspects of the bullpen have been outstanding (i.e. Torres in the closer's role, Shouse the majority of the time, Villanueva the majority of the time since we was switched back to the 'pen) and certain parts have been downright frightening (i.e. Derrick Turnbow, half of Gagne's outings, Guillermo Mota lately). We've also had a bit of a revolving door on the backend of the bullpen, with spots having been filled at times by Mark DiFelice, Tim Dillard, Zach Jackson, the released Julian Tavarez and currently manned by lefty Mitch Stetter. While most guys have performed well at times, only a couple have performed well consistently.

Offense: INC

You might think the "INC" stands for incomplete, but I don't take that cop out. In this case, it stands for Inconsistent. Certain games have been A++ and there have been several D- games along with a couple of F performances. I'd settle for a consistent B to B+ at this point, but that just hasn't been the case for this club.

Defense: B+

In what was supposedly our off-season focus, we brought in former Gold Glove Award winner MIke Cameron for the outfield and Jason Kendall to call games behind the dish. Cameron's addition allowed Bill Hall to move back to the infield while forcing Ryan Braun to move the left field. Well consider this a success. Kendall has helped tremendously in ways that many fans don't even realize. Braun has amassed a perfect fielding percentage to this point in the season and while Hall has had his share of errors while reacclimating himself to the third...well, they don't call it the "hot corner" for nothing. That's why guys like Scott Rolen should be even more admired than they are sometimes.

Overall Team Grade: B

This team, while performing well at times, really has a lot that it can improve on. The biggest thing has always been consistency with this team this year. Every team wishes it was more consistent to be sure, but if this team could simply perform up to its capabilities more often than it has to this point, we may even be in the lead in our division.

But therein lies the story... We've endured injuries and terrible play to and by key members of our bullpen, Rickie Weeks has been on the DL, Mike Cameron missed 25 games due to a suspension and then has struggled enough to be benched at times, J.J. Hardy has a shoulder that's bothering him, Bill Hall has fallen into a platoon with Russell Branyan, Yovani Gallardo suffered a season-ending injury on a hustle play, Carlos Villanueva was sent to the bullpen due to inconsistency and a seeming allergy to pitching past the 5th inning......and all of these things have left us where? 10 games out? 15?

Try 4.5 (and only 2.0 out of the Wild Card) thanks to the 3rd best record in the entire National League. That's good stuff, boys and girls.

But that's why the grade is what it is...we could be doing so much better despite what our opposition is doing.

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Anyway, I could break it down further probably, but those are my overviews of the aspects of the Brewers so far this year.

Agree/disagree? Please leave me some comments so that I know what you think!

Losing Must-Win Games

2008-06-28T12:23:39Z

by South Side Rob

I'm writing this piece after a decent night's sleep after the Brewers gave away a 3-run lead in Minnesota only to lose 7-6. I didn't want to write it right after the game because I was too upset. I tried to stay up and listen to the post-game show on W.S.S.P. in Milwaukee where Tim Allen and Steve "Sparky" Fifer take calls, conduct player interviews, and playback post-game audio from manager Ned Yost. I started to listen and even participated in the show by being the first caller. My question to the guys was very simple, "Why did Jason Kendall ask Guillermo Mota to throw a 0-2 fastball up and in to one of the best hitters in the major leagues?" The guys on the radio wondered the same thing. Listening to other callers blame other players on the game, I began to get really mad.

Then, Tim Allen mentions that they had some post-game audio from Ned Yost which I wanted to hear but they didn't play it right away, they continued to take calls from fans which is fine but for me, all I wanted to hear was what Ned had to say after this game. The other callers caused me to shut it down and go to bed.

It's now Saturday morning as I write this and one of the first things I do is go online and check out the post-game wrap from mlb.com to see if there are any quotes from the manager. The first quote, I agreed with which was that both teams hit a few home runs, struggled with pitching, and played some outstanding defense which, for people who saw the game could not argue. I remember thinking when the Brewers were leading 6-3 that this could wind up being one of the biggest wins of the year with both the Cubs and Cardinals losing earlier and the Twins coming into this game having won 9 straight. It was one of the biggest wins of the year....for the Twins.

A few things did bother me before the game started. Right away I was concerned about who was going to be the DH in the American League park. When I found out it was Prince Fielder, I still needed to know who our "extra" hitter would be in the lineup. It turned out to be Joe Dillon who then played first and made a defensive blunder in the game by trying to tag out a runner that laid down a drag bunt that was hit in his direction instead of flipping the ball to 1st base where Weeks was covering. Anyway, Joe Dillon hasn't had a hit for the Brewers since June 14th. Once Russell Branyan was called up, I wondered why Dillon hadn't been sent down? Without Dillon, you still have capable backups at every infield position so why keep an additional infielder who can't hit and can't field? I would have thought Gabe Kapler, who, is hitting .309 this season would be the obvious choice for our extra hitter.

The 0-2 letter high fastball to Joe Mauer was an real concern the second Kendall asked for the pitch high and inside instead of wasting a pitch low and away late in a tie game. In the 9th inning, with one out, Rickie Weeks singled to left. To me, right then and there, it was a NO-BRAINER that Yost would have Weeks try to steal 2nd base off of Joe Nathan, who, is not one of the fastest pitchers to home plate, who also throws a ton of sliders low and in the dirt. Well, J.J. Hardy did the best he could but was over-matched by Nathan who eventually struck Hardy out. Weeks never made a steal attempt during that at-bat. Why? Now, with two outs and a runner on 1st base instead of 2nd, and the Brewers still trailing by 1 run, Ryan Braun jumps on a hanging slider and drives a single up the middle. That hit should have tied the game but instead, we have runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs, and we are still trailing by one run. Prince Fielder wastes no time hitting a two-hop ground ball to first base for the game-ending out.

Another road-loss after losing a 3-run lead. Yost told the writer's after the game that Joe Mauer is one of the best hitters in the game today and not to forget that. We won't Ned. We also won't forget that your pitcher had Mauer behind 0-2 in the count with nobody on base and instead of bouncing a few pitches out of the zone to get Mauer to chase, somebody decided to challenge him with a letter-high fastball over the heart of the plate. Did Kendall call this on his own? Did Yost call it from the dugout? I though it was insane to challenge one of the best hitters in the game today. I still don't know what the Brewers were thinking.

Road Trip Preview (with a special look at tonight's game)

2008-06-23T22:22:08Z

By: Big Rygg

Here we go again.

The Milwaukeee Brewers are in Atlanta tonight for the beginning of yet another three-city road trip. In fact, the Brewers have been on the road officially 5 times this year. Of those trips, one has been three games (to open the year in Chicago), one has been six games (our most recent trip to Colorado and Houston) and the other three have been at least nine-game, three-city trips.

We first went to New York, St. Louis and Cincinnati over 10 days. We then were in Chicago again followed up by trips to Houston and Florida over another 10 day span. Our third trip was actually 10 games over what was supposed to be 11 days, but we were rained out the first night in Boston so we ended up playing 10 games in 10 days in Boston, Pittsburgh and then Washington D.C.

Conversely, we have only had two homestands of that length to this point but we, again, are about to head out on our fourth such road trip. This disparity coupled with our level of play on the road makes a lot of people wonder how the Brewers are seven games over the .500 mark.

The Brewers, to this point, are five games below .500 on the road. Last year, they ended up 17 games under at the end of the year. So, if we can somehow figure out the road woes before this year is over (and by "figure out" I basically mean come up with a way to play .500 on the road), then we should be sitting quite pretty come September.

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Now, as for this upcoming road trip, these are three teams whose home/road splits are also as drastic if not more so than Milwaukee's own.

Minnesota (40-36 overall) is nine games over .500 at home (25-16) while going 15-20 on the road. Arizona, owner of the NL West's best record of 39-37, are 24-15 at home and 15-22 on the road. Tonight's opponent Atlanta has one of the worst splits in the league of 27-12 at home (+15) and 11-27 (-16) at home for an overall record of 38-39 (4th in the 5 team NL East).

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But let's go ahead and focus in a little closer on Atlanta.

As I just mentioned, Atlanta's overall record at home is 27-12. Before we start worrying too much about that we need to take into account where those wins have come from.

First and foremost, Atlanta only has only won 8 games at home against teams that currently have winning records. Two of those games were against Arizona who, as I mentioned, are 15-22 on the road too. Four of them are from the Marlins who are under .500 on the road, but in all fairness had they won the four games they lost in Atlanta, they'd be over .500 on the road.

Atlanta, especially without John Smoltz (who is my answer when I'm asked who my favorite pitcher is, though I've never really thought about it for an extended period of time), has been fortunate to play many a bad team at home.

We should be just fine tonight and throughout this series, especially since we have Ben Sheets starting things off for us tonight. Let's just hope the team fairs better starting off this road trip than the last one which was started by Sheets in Colorado.

Tonight, Sheets squares off against Jo-Jo Reyes. The last time Reyes pitched against the Brewers was this season on May 28th at Miller Park in a game that the Brewers won 1-0. Reyes was pitted against Jeff Suppan in that matchup and gave up the one run in 7.0 IP.

How Good is Salomon Torres Anyway???

2008-06-22T03:11:37Z

By: Big Rygg

Yes, I am playing off South Side Rob's article title just one post ago, but it's fitting. Salomon Torres has been a God-sent for this team and our aspirations of post-season play.

Eric Gagne's struggles have been well documented this year. Prior to his stint on the disabled list (which is still on-going at the moment), Gagne had put together numbers that look like this:

1-2, 6.98 ERA, 10 SV (out of 15 opportunities), 19.1 IP, 5 HR, 15 ER, 16 BB, 2.02 WHIP

When Gagne went on the DL, Salomon Torres ended up getting the chance to save games more often than not. Torres' numbers since taking over for Gagne are:

1-0, 0.64 ERA, 10 SV (out of 10 opportunities), 14.0 IP, 0 HR, 1 ER, 3 BB, 0.86 WHIP

As you can clearly see, Torres has been phenomonal where Gagne has struggled a lot of the time.

Torres has had a rubber arm throughout his career, and that rubber has produced plenty of bouncing back for the Brewers this year. Torres has come into the game in the 8th inning a couple of times this year when he's been needed to get the team out of jams, and has locked down many a clean inning.

But with all this success comes the question: What should the team do upon Eric Gagne's pending return from the DL?

I ask "should" because we've apparently already been told what the team "will" do. Ned Yost has announced that Torres will remain in the closer's role until his performance dictates otherwise.

There is an unwritten rule in sports (all sports, not simply baseball) that a player won't lose his job because of injury. It's not always followed, but that's the accepted norm.

An example in Wisconsin sports where it was followed: J.J. Hardy injured his ankle in 2006 when he was trying to slide into home but instead slid into Sal Fasano's shin guard. Bill Hall became the starting shortstop and went on to team MVP honors backed by a 35 home run season. The next year, the team asked Bill Hall to move to centerfield to accomodate Hardy's return to the everyday lineup at the shortstop position.

An example in Wisconsin sports where it wasn't followed: Brett Favre replaced an injured Don Majkowski at quarterback on September 20, 1992. Majkowski never took another snap under center in a regular season game for the Green Bay Packers. Yes, Majkowski had ligament damage in his ankle when he was injured, but instead of coming back to the Packers where his job "should have been there", Favre performed too well to justify following the unwritten rule so Majkowski wrote his signature on a contract to backup in Indianapolis as a Colt.

I could come up with plenty more examples on both sides of this argument, but my point is simply that it doesn't all happen whether you believe it should or not.

So I ask you, Brewer Nation, what are your thoughts about this? If Corey Koskie would've been healthy enough to play last year following the All-Star break, should he have been inserted back into the starting lineup to supplant Ryan Braun and derail his Rookie of the Year season? Then again, would Mike "Tiny" Felder, had he played well enough, have deserved to permanently replace one Robin Yount in centerfield after Yount went down with a knee injury in 1989?

Again, there are two sides with convincing arguments for both on this topic. I'm looking for your's, reader.

Personally? I think you have to take it on a case-by-case basis. Both players being equal, you absolutely give the former starter his job back, but I think you have to look at each case on its own.

What do you think?

How Good Are the Cubs Anyway???

2008-06-20T03:18:00Z

by South Side Rob

It's no secret, I hate the Cubs. Always have and always will. Thursday night, after the Brewers barely finished off Toronto for a 3-game sweep, I got settled in to watch one of the best teams in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays!

I spent the night online on one of ESPN's conversation blogs with of course about 50 arrogant Cub fans. What a shock. Anyway, during the contest, Cub fans bashed the Brewers this year calling them irrelevant. Then came the bottom of the 7th in which the Rays exploded for 7 runs mostly given up by their young dominant setup man Carlos Marmol and left-handed specialist Scott Eyre. I own the DirecTV extra innings package and this year, you can choose which broadcast you want to watch the home teams or the road so of course, I listed to Dwayne Staats and Joe Magrane of the Rays.

In that inning Marmol made Derrick Turnbow look like not such a bad option as he walked the first two batters he faced, then, he hit the next two batters (Gabe Gross being one of Marmol's victims). So, the bases still loaded and a run forced in, Scott Eyre replaces Marmol and serves up a grand slam to Carl Crawford. After Staats and Magrance composed themselves after that exciting bomb, Dwayne Staats mentions that the grand slam that was hit by Crawford was only the 2nd pitch that the Rays swung at so far in that inning and Crawford was the 5th batter of the inning and there was still nobody out!

After that happened, just about every Cub blogger disappeared on the blog which is no big surprise. While the game ended pretty quick after that 7-run 7th inning, I started to really think about the Cubs' record and how they achieved it. I went to ol' reliable at baseball-reference.com to look further into the Cubs' won-loss record. I know we all joked around about how many games the Cubs have played at home and how many times they had already faced the Pirates, but what I found makes me believe the Cubs will NOT win the NL Central division. I looked for the NL expanded standings and I found it. While the Cubs were being swept by the Rays, I thought, how many games have the Cubs won against teams with winning records? I was pleasantly shocked that the Cubs have only played 18 games against teams with winning records with a won-loss record of just 7-11. This is the best team in baseball? Now, the Brewers are slightly better against winning teams at 15-17 but at least we have played 32 of these games against the 18 the Cubs have had so far.

Then, I looked at division splits and the Cubs have an 18-5 record against the NL West which is baseball's weakest division by far so far this season. 23 games already against the NL West. Then, I looked to see how many games the Brewers have played against the NL West and they are only 8-4 for 12 games. I'm convinced that if the Brewers had the Cubs schedule thus far this season we would be close to if not better record-wise than those so-called lovable losers to the South. These numbers should tell Brewer fans that if this team can continue to score runs and get close to the effective starting pitching we have received, the natural order will be restored soon with the Brewers overtaking the Cubs in the division. That leaves the Cardinals. We'll deal with them some other day.

Back to the Rays for just a second. Right now, the Rays are 14 games over 500 for the first time in the 10-year history of the franchise. Can you believe it? As great as that is, I looked at the AL Expanded standings to find out how they've done it so far this season. To my shocking surprise, I see the Rays are 33-24 against teams with a winning record. Are you kidding me? They have played 57 games against winning teams by far, the most in baseball and winning 33 of them is also a major league best. Dwayne Staats also mentioned on the broadcast that this was the 3rd 1st place team the Rays have swept this season!

So, for comparison purposes, you have the Cubs at 45-28 and 7-11 against winning teams, then, you have the Rays at 43-29 and 33-24 against winning teams. Which team would you say is better? When I dropped these numbers on Cub fans in the blog, they didn't have a leg to stand on. Their responses where of the personal variety. Again, understanding the lack of intelligence that runs wild in Cumdom, this was no shock either...

I can't believe I'm a temporary White Sox and Ozzie Guillen fan this weekend. How bad has inter-league play affected my baseball scruples?

Extra URL, Same Top Notch Commentary

2008-06-20T01:04:40Z

By: Big Rygg

Ladies and gentlemen, in an effort to make it even easier to find us and tell your friends about us (after all, we love our readers and are always hoping to get new ones!), we've registered a much easier to remember domain name that redirects you right here. We hope that this will allow for ease of word-spreading.

The way we figured it, it's not always very easy to remember brewernation.mlblogs.com. People mess up and think it's mlbblogs.com (with two b's) or just leave out the mlblogs altogether.

So, while you can keep your bookmarks the same since mlblogs.com is still our home, you can now link to us at the following address:

http://www.thebrewernation.com

Please help spread the word of the longest-tenured Milwaukee-Brewer-centric blog at MLBlogs.com!

I thought we traded this guy a few years ago...

2008-06-18T23:05:28Z

By: Big Rygg

Wasn't there a guy on the Milwaukee Brewers a few years back that we traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks? I think we got, like, six players for him or something like that...

Sounds familiar...let's see, I think it was Junior Spivey, Craig Counsell, Jorge De La Rosa, Chad Moeller-cycle, Chris Capuano and Lyle Overbay (that's six, right?). Yeah, we've spun a few of those guys off in the years since and released another. Only Chris Capuano is still with the team, but that trade happened, right?

That guy is currently hitting in the teen-range of the .200s with nine home runs, 60+ strikeouts, 20 something RBIs. He also beats the snot out of southpaw pitchers and sucks hard against righties.

We traded that guy, right?

Then why do I see him on the Milwaukee Brewers' 25-man roster right now?

Confused? Allow me to clarify...

A buddy of mine at work is a Seattle Mariners fan. I feel bad for him too. When I see news about the Mariners on the internet, I'll pass him along a link from time to time. I broke him the news about Bill Bavasi's firing which he was ecstatic about. "About (EXPLETIVE DELTED) time." was his response.

I saw an article today about one Richmond Lockwood Sexson and the fact that he might simply be cut by the Mariners and their new GM. He's in the last season of his contract anyway and since he's played fairly horribly for them over the past two seasons, he isn't going to be resigned. Also, since he's playing terribly this year so far, nobody is going to give the Mariners anything in trade at this point.

Well, in that article over about our affiliate site MLB.com (maybe you've heard of it), there was some dialogue about his statistics to this point in the year. He said "man, those sound familiar". He checked into the Brewers players' statistics and lo and behold but who does he find on the Brewer roster? Richie Sexson masquerading as a part-time third baseman!!! He's slouching about 8 inches, and somehow hiding about 60 lbs, but that's him!

Shocked? My friend is out of his mind? Here's the stat line comparison for 2008:

Sexson: 201 ABs, 44 H, .219 AVG, .295 OBP, 21 R, 9 HR, 23 RBI, 22 BB, 65 K
Hall: 213 ABs, 46 H, .216 AVG, .285 OBP, 22 R, 9 HR, 25 RBI, 18 BB, 60 K

Need more convincing that it's a Sexson in Hall clothing? Here are the righty-lefty splits for 2008:

Sexson (vs. lefties): 43 AB, 15 H, .349 AVG, .417 OBP, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 9 K
Hall (vs. lefties): 60 AB, 22 H, .367 AVG, .435 OBP, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 13 K

Sexson (vs. righties): 158 AB, 29 H, .184 AVG, .261 OBP, 6 HR, 17 RBI, 56 K
Hall (vs. righties): 153 AB, 24 H, .157 AVG, .223 OBP, 6 HR, 17 RBI, 47 K

That's eerie folks.

But allow me to get back to the onus of this post...Sexson might be cut outright by the Seattle Mariners, the team with the worst record in the majors. The team with the worst record in the majors and nothing really to gain by cutting Sexson might swallow the remainder of his contract and just cut bait. Oh, and before you think they have some top prospect knocking on the door at AAA? Their starting catcher Kenji Johjima has been taking ground balls at first base.

And yet...here the Milwaukee Brewers sit with one William Hall on their roster. Believe me, Hall has more value than Sexson does as he can play 3B, SS, 2B, CF and probably 1B and either corner OF spot in a pinch. He has his share of errors, but Bill Hall is no Jose Oquendo, okay?

But is the offensive deficiency enough to warrant some sort of off-the-wall move like the Mariners are considering with Sexson?

Personally, I'm a Brewer supporter and that includes the players as individuals. I think Hall offers more to us on our roster than off of it, but I'm putting the question out there to Brewer Nation to get your thoughts on it.

Should the Brewers follow suit (assuming the Mariners go through with it) and cut Bill Hall from the roster outright?

Homestand Haikus

2008-06-18T02:56:56Z

By: Big Rygg

I had several thoughts this evening (and over the last several days) about the team and baseball in general, none of which I really felt like writing an entire blog about right now. Therefore, I'll be spinning off several haikus to put those thoughts down.

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Road woes continue
Offense still remaining stagnant
Except at Juice Box

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Hart back to lead off
Still produces RBIs
Bats in runs again

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Braun up to fourth place
NL outfield All-Star start
Possibility

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Sheets gives up few runs
Good for 2nd in NL
What a contract year

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Sheets has missed one start
Seems like workhorse we drafted
What a contract year

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Thirty-seven wins
Coupled with thirty-three Ls
Underachieving

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Two out of seven
Interleague 2008
Standard procedure

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Multi-Homer games
Don't grow on trees in bigs but
For Braun they seem to

Missing in Action: Brewers' Road Offense

2008-06-11T12:31:07Z

by South Side Rob

Seth McClung goes 6 innings and gives up just 2 runs. I would say he has put his team in position to win. Remember, pitching doesn't win contrary to popular belief, it merely gives you the opportunity to win by keeping the opponents offense in check. The Brewers scored one run on Tuesday night. The only run-scoring hit was a solo blast by Ryan Braun.

In the 7th inning, the Astros had one of those innings where they managed to have 3 or more hits (Remember my report from last week). In fact, they managed 4 hits in the 7th inning. The result was 4 additional runs that they actually did not need to win the game because the Brewers scored just one run with their 27 outs on Monday.

Rickie Weeks is out of the lead-off spot (For 3 Games Now) and the Brewers offense has managed 2, 3, and 1 run respectively.

We always hear about how much preparation goes into a start for a pitcher. He comes to the ballpark early, watches tapes on opposing hitters, meets with the pitching coach and starting catcher to go over how they want to work certain hitters in certain situations during the game etc... I'm convinced that our opposing starting pitcher needs about two sentences from his pitching coach prior to taking the mound against this Brewer offense.

For example, I believe this is what the Houston pitching coach told Roy Oswalt last night prior to the game, "Very simple approach tonight Roy. Bust every Brewer outside and try not to miss in and don't give in when behind in the count. Trust me, you keep throwing them on the outside and you'll get them out or, they'll get themselves out." Owsalt went 7 innings, gave up one run on just five hits, did not walk a batter and struck out 10.

Right now, on the road, this Brewer offense scares nobody. Period. I read some comments from fans about last night's game such as not to worry, the offense will get hot etc... This tells me that they actually swallow words that come from the mouth of Ned Yost, who, was probably tipping his cap to Roy Oswalt and his performance last night.

Other than the Cubs and one 3-game series against the Pirates, who do you honestly feel the Brewers could possibly beat on the road? Anybody going forward? There is not a team that I think the Brewers can beat on the road. Everybody especially this season seems to be struggling on the road. I think only 3 teams actually have a winning record on the road. Remember, I said I think, I don't feel like looking it up right now.

We are in the 3rd month of a 6-month season and does anybody feel as good as they did last year at this point? I laugh when fans think this team is capable of just flipping a switch and going on a tear. Where is evidence of that? They are not going to have more than 9 straight games at home the rest of the season so, for them to do this, they have to start playing winning baseball on the road.

I'm afraid to say that my expectations are sinking every time I watch this team play a road game. Everything they accomplished in the last home stand is just about forgotten. None of it matters if they are only able to do these things at home.

Could somebody help me re-gain confidence in this team and specifically, this offense. Don't tell me, "They're going to get hot". I've been hearing that sky is falling expectation all season...

Rosenthal suggests Rickie Weeks For Brian Roberts ???

2008-06-09T17:37:39Z

by South Side Rob

Before anybody races to go on jsonline or the radio or Sportscenter, let me point out that this is something that was SUGGESTED by Fox writer Ken Rosenthal. If you click on Ken's name, it will take you to his column and if you read about half way down, it says Make this trade! Rosenthal also said in his column that he spotted 2 Brewer scouts in attendance recently.

This really could be anything and to tell you the truth, at first, my thought was no way. Sparky interviewed him on the radio this morning to talk about his column. Rosenthal even suggested that this may be to scout Roberts and/or possibly starting pitcher Daniel Cabrera who, has a high ceiling with talent but cannot throw strikes on a consistent basis.

It was reported that Roberts' contract does not expire until the end of the 2009 season which really makes the deal more interesting since Roberts is a proven lead off hitter that is also a switch hitter which brings another left-handed bat into the everyday lineup to balance the lineup a bit.

Another factor is the age difference. Brian Roberts is 30 while Weeks in only 25. That's not too bad if you ask me. Also, when Weeks struggled down in the minors, he fixed whatever problems he had offensively and this year, we have seen a marked improvement on the field. The only problem with Weeks is that he appears to be regressing offensively. Can the Brewers afford to wait for Weeks to turn it around if they are seriously making a post-season push?

We might not have enough time to wait. If I was Doug Melvin, I'd give this some serious thoughts especially since the Cubs threw just about everything at the Orioles this off-season to obtain Roberts. There's nothing nicer than trumping the Cubs.

I've also heard and/or read that the Cubs could be looking into obtaining another starting pitcher which the Brewers also need. The names that have come up are A.J. Burnett from Toronto and Randy Wolf from the Padres. If the Brewers could beat them to the punch, I'd only want to steal away Burnett and leave Wolf for the Cubs. Name a left-handed starter from the NL Central who is having a great or even good year? The ballparks in the NL Central are custom made for right-handed hitters especially Cincinnati and Chicago. If the Cubs want to pick up Wolf, they would be making a huge mistake in my opinion.

A.J. Burnett has had a ton of injury issues in the last few years so I hope the Brewers proceed with caution. He's healthy this season but he has spent plenty of time on the disabled list.

4 Pitchers Minimum

2008-06-09T02:08:49Z

by South Side Rob

The Brewers and Ned Yost managed to win a game in Colorado on Sunday. Congrats. 4 pitchers combined to beat the Rockies 3-2. This comes less than 48 hours from one of the toughest losses the Brewers had suffered all season when they blew a 4-1 lead late, only to lose 6-4 on Friday night. In that game, Carlos Villanueva replaced Ben Sheets in the 7th inning and needed just 10 pitches to set the Rockies down in order. In the top of the 8th, the Brewers sent Fielder, Hart, Branyan, and Hardy to the plate which means Villanueva's spot in the order did not come up. When the bottom of the 8th began, Guillermo Mota was on the mound. This is where Brewer Nation blew up for most. Me, I was okay with it. I've witnessed Yost long enough to know he has adopted Mike Scioscia's way of managing a bullpen with a small lead. After the first two batters hit singles to begin the inning, the tying run came to the plate in left-handed hitting Todd Helton. This is where I had the problem. Instead of going to get Mota at this point for left-handed specialist Brian Shouse, Yost stays with Mota who, proceeds to give up a double to deep center field scoring the Rockies 2nd run of the game and now placing the tying run on 2nd base. Garrett Atkins is next and works the count to a favorable 3 and 1 which he then blasts a triple to right-center field. Now, the game is tied, there's a runner on 3rd and Mota has yet to retire a batter. Yost now finally goes and gets Mota for left-handed specialist Brian Shouse to face left-handed hitting Brad Hawpe who was playing his first game after being placed on the disabled list. On the first pitch, Hawpe blasted a home run to right and the game was basically over after 5 runs, 5 hits, and no outs.

When the gift-wrap victory was given to the Rockies, I read on mlb.com, "Mota's been our eighth-inning pitcher for the majority of the year," Yost said. "It was the eighth inning, we went to our eighth-inning pitcher."

All of this leads to my point. Where in baseball does it say that you need a designated 8th inning pitcher? Back in 2002 when the Anaheim Angels beat the San Francisco Giants to win the World Series, I recall that the Angels had one of the most powerful bullpens I have even seen. Mike Scioscia had 4 different pitchers he could use in the 7th and 8th innings which were Ben Weber, Brendan Donnelly, Scot Shields, and a young 20-year old and talented Francisco (K-Rod) Rodriguez. He could also use two different pitchers to close out in the 9th inning using either K-Rod or Troy Percival. One game, the Angels would go Weber in the 7th, Donnelly in the 8th, and Percival in the 9th. The next night, he would go Donnelly in the 7th, Shields in the 8th, and K-Rod or Percival in the 9th. It worked just about every time and on national TV for everybody to see including Ned Yost.

This season, I see a pattern for Yost and he is trying to copy this type of rotation especially as of late using Villaneuva and/or Dillard in the 7th, Mota and/or Shouse in the 8th, and Solomon Torres in the 9th. No offense to our bullpen who has been pitching better than anyone of us thought, these are not the same type of talented pitchers that the Angels had back in 2002.

The Brewers have played 63 games so far this season. On 37 occasions, Yost has used 4 or more pitchers to complete a game. I understand that we have had a good share of extra inning ballgames (10 to be exact) in which its impossible to get by with less than 4 pitchers. In those 37 games, the Brewers are just 17-20. In the other 26 games, the Brewers have used 3 or less going a very nice 16-10.

Could Ben Sheets have gone a 7th inning on Friday? I think so. After 6 innings, he was cruising and had only thrown 100 pitches. In Ben's previous start, he went 8-2/3 and threw 121 pitches so I think he could have at least started the 7th. To be fair, in the top of the 7th when it was Sheets turn to bat, Yost went to the bench to get Dillon to pinch-hit for Sheets as the Brewers had Jason Kendall standing on 3rd base with nobody out after tripling home J.J. Hardy to begin the 7th. As you may recall, Dillon hit a real screamer (Actually, it was a weakly hit grounder) to the pitcher. When the inning was over, Kendall was still standing on 3rd base probably thinking can't anybody hit a sacrifice fly on this team?

Anyway, this is more about Yost handing the ball to 4 pitchers almost every night. Is this really necessary? Stats show that it's not and I have the belief that the more times you hand a different pitcher the ball, the higher the chance that pitcher will be off his game that night. Before you go to your first reliever of the night, there is one thing the manager, the team, and the fans already know. You know what you have so far with your starter. You've watched the starter pitch so many innings before replacing him so you know what you have and if they are on top of their game or not. If your first reliever pitches well, you know what you have because you just witnessed it. When you goto another reliever, you don't know what you have until he actually starts throwing. In Mota's case, it was 4 straight batters reaching and the lead the Brewers have built all night was gone. It's clear, Mota was NOT on his game Friday night.

Do you see my point? We knew what we had in Villaneuva, yet, because Yost has deemed Mota to be his 8th inning guy, he went to him without even thinking about sending Villaneuva out for a 2nd inning which is backwards thinking because we already knew Villaneuva was on his game. Don't you think he deserved to at least begin the 8th inning?

Well, its only one game. To me, its more than that. On Saturday, we lost. Yost knew what he had in starter Dave Bush which was virtually nothing. After the first inning, the Brewers were already losing 5-0. Friday's game could very well have affected Saturday's start. Nobody knows but it could have. Now that's two games which is the same amount the Brewers fell short of the playoffs last season.

Yost loves to talk about his new favorite word which seems to be accountability (I bet he couldn't spell it if you asked him to) but he only talks about that when the Brewers are winning. When their losing, he avoids that type of discussion. Probably because we are all looking to him for answers. Its like looking at the puzzling captain of the Titanic. Very scary.

To make things easy on us fans, maybe we should ask Yost before the game which 3 relievers he plans on using if we are leading after 6 innings. It would save us the suspense. I know our opponents are probably thinking the same way...

Day One: Summary

2008-06-06T02:08:47Z

By: Big Rygg

As you've seen, the first three picks were posted in the blog here within a matter of moments after they were selected.

Here now is the entire list of first day selections by the Milwaukee Brewers along with some comments about some of the selections from yours truly and some MLB.com linkage for your perusal.

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Pick #16 - Brett Lawrie, C, 5'11", 200lbs, Bats/Throws: R/R | Brookswood SS
Comments: Catcher is one of the thinnest positions in the Brewers' Minor League system. This was a pick that the team was very excited to make once Lawrie fell to them. With the reports all saying that this kid should definitely hit, you can rest assured that the Brewers will give him EVERY opportunity to remain as a catcher.
Enhanced Scouting Report

Pick #32 - Jake Odorizzi, RHP, 6'2", 175lbs, Bats/Throws: R/R | Highland HS (IL)
Comments: This high school pitcher has committed to playing college baseball with Louisville already, so it remains to be seen whether or not he'll want to forgo that committment to begin his professional career. Having said that, the scouting reports say that this kid has four pitches that he can throw for strikes right now. If that's the case, in my mind he projects (once his body fills out and he spends enough time mastering his controls) as a top-end of the rotation guy at some point. As we all know, there are SO many things that can happen between now and whenever that might be, but here's hoping he signs with the organization and gets to finding out when and if that will happen for him.
Enhanced Scouting Report

Pick #35: Evan Frederickson, LHP, 6'6", 238lbs, Bats/Throws: L/L | U San Francisco
Comments: A tall left-hander, Frederickson has the frame to really be a dominating presence on the mound. Whether or not he can harness his physical gifts will be up to his coaches, his drive and his determination to achieve success.

Pick #53: Seth Lintz, RHP, 6'1", 170lbs, Bats/Throws: R/R | Marshall County HS (TN)
Comments: Another prep pitcher, which the Brewers have not had any real reservations about taking risks on. Lintz had committed to pitch at Kentucky next year, so we'll have to see which path he ultimately decides on for his career. He graduated HS as his class Salutatorian after going 12-1 in his senior year while compiling 1.33 ERA. His fastballs registers in the low 90s and he apparently touts a power slider as well. He'll need to develop at least a third pitch (if he doesn't already have one) to project as a starter in the big leagues.

Pick #54: Cutter Dykstra, CF, 5'11", 180lbs B/T: R/R | Westlake HS (CA)
Comments: The "family ties" episode that has spanned the last several years for the Brewers continues with another MLB legacy in the system. He hit .473 in 29 games during this year, and (like his father) had an even better on-base percentage of nearly 60 percent!! His OPS was a stellar 1.320. His defense, like a few other recent Brewer draft picks (see: Braun, Ryan & Gamel, Mat), is not nearly at the same level as his bat, but that's definitely something he'll have plenty of time to work on in the minor leagues. Cutter has a scholarship offer waiting for him at UCLA if he decides to go the college route for a few years, but to hear his dad (former Phillie and Met Lenny "Nails" Dykstra) talk, it sounds like he'll sign with the club and begin what could hopefully be a rapid rise through the system.

Pick #62: Thomas Adams, RHP, 6'2", 180lbs, B/T: R/R | Southern Illinois University (Carbondale)

Pick #94: Logan Schafer, CF, 6'1", 170lbs, B/T: L/L | Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Pick #128: Joshua Romanski, LHP, 5'11", 180lbs, B/T: L/L | University of San Diego
Comments: You just don't see many pitchers of this stature. Tim Lincecum is the anamoly, not the norm. That being said, the scouting report says that Romanski's future might be in the outfield, but other scouts say that they just don't think he could play there everyday and that his ceiling might be as a 4th outfielder in the bigs...which is still pretty damn good if you ask me.

Pick #158: Maverick Lasker, RHP, 6'2", 190lbs, B/T: R/R | Sandra Day O'Connor HS (AZ)
Comments: This is my pick in the draft that I will be paying attention to for the duration of his stay with Milwaukee's system, regardless of how high he ultimately rises. My dream would be to be the team's new PA announcer and get to rattle off the Opening Day roster and be able to call someone Maverick. Yeah, if he an Cutter Dykstra are on the roster together, that'll just be a bonus.

Pick #188: Jose Duran, SS, 5'11", 190lbs, B/T: R/R | Texas A&M

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Final Thoughts: As always, you can never have too much pitching and the Jack Zduriencik's crew appears to have picked several potential contributors for the bump. I especially love the Brett Lawrie pick as the thinnest position in our system is catcher. I read a report that said his bat is big league ready right now. That remains to be seen, of course, but it could be very fun to watch him over the next few seasons.

I've been following our farm system closer and closer each of the past several years now, and like to keep tabs on our prospects. Except at the very least one Minor League report per month going forward.

Summing it up, though, I haven't heard of all of these picks before today, but I know that Jack Z's crew has and quite frankly, that's good enough for me.

Compensation Round, Overall Pick #32 & #35

2008-06-05T21:13:22Z

Jake Odorizzi - RHP - Highland (IL) HS

6'2", 175 lbs, Born: 3/27/1990

Compensation Round, Overall Pick #32

Fastball:	Odorizzi throws both a four- and two-seamer. The four-seamer was thrown at 90-94 mph. The two-seamer came in at 88-92 mph
Fastball movement:	He had late explosion on the four-seamer. His two-seamer has more movement and it rides to either side of the plate.
Curve:	He threw it at 72-74 mph, it's a plus hammer at times.
Slider:	It's a rapidly improving pitch which he throws in the upper 70s with late break.
Changeup:	He has one, but it's inconsistent.
Control:	His overall command is good, though he doesn't always command the four-seamer.
Poise:	There have been some questions about his competitiveness on the mound.
Physical Description:	Odorizzi is tall and wiry with room to grow.
Medical Update:	Healthy.
Strengths:	Four average or above pitches and the overall ability to command them. He's got a quick, easy arm action and room to grow on his frame.
Weaknesses:	He doesn't always command the four-seamer consistently, his changeup is behind the other pitches and he surprisingly doesn't make hitters swing and miss as much as you'd think.
Summary:	A high school pitcher with "helium," Odorizzi is moving up charts thanks to an excellent repertoire, good command and smooth delivery. He's got four offerings that grade out as average or better, a projectable frame that has room for growth. The only things that could hold him back are some questions about his competitiveness on the mound and a commitment to Louisville.

Evan Frederickson - LHP - Virgina Tech

6'6", 238 lbs, Born: 9/23/1986

Compensation Round, Overall Pick #35