The Brewer Chronicles

The Brewers didn’t waste much time replacing Johnny Estrada because as expected, they signed Jason Kendall to a one year for an unspecified amount.  Kendall is a career .297 hitter but his time with Oakland last year was pretty rough (he hit just .226).  He picked things up just a bit when he was traded to the Cubs but it was his fourth straight season in which he hit three homers or fewer so you’re not going to get a lot of punch.

Kendall is a nice contact hitter though.  He has just 538 career strikeouts in 6,225 at bats and that’s compared to 588 walks.  I’d put more stock in his career .375 OBP but he hasn’t touched that mark since 2004 when he was with the Pirates.  Still, this is a nice, low risk acquisition that should give the Brewers an upgrade behind the plate.

The Brewers hopefully shored up their bullpen with the acquisition of Guillermo Mota from the Mets.  In exchange, the Brewers gave up journeyman catcher Johnny Estrada.  It’s unclear how much the dugout incident back in August had to do with the deal but Estrada had a good but not great year.  His defense was lacking and he had a tough time throwing out runners but he hit .278 with ten homers.  In 2006, he hit an impressive .302 and he drove in 71 runs but it looks like the Brewers are looking to sign Jason Kendall, who’s had a rough couple of years.  Still, Kendall brings a patient bat to the lineup and I think he’d work out fine, at the right price of course.

Mota went from hero to goat in one season with the Mets.  After picking him up in 2006, Mota pitched very well but he fell apart last season and was one of the guys blamed for the Mets late season collapse.  Still, he has nine years under his belt and he’s struck out more then twice as many guys as he’s walked so his upside would be a solid set up man in the event the Brewers re-sign Francisco Cordero.

This was a lot closer then it should have been but Ryan Braun edged Troy Tulowitzki by just two points in the closest NL ROY race ever.  One guy actually voted Braun third which is a big of a travesty.  Anyway Braun blasted 34 homeruns and he didn’t even play the entire season.  Man, having Braun and Prince Fielder in the same lineup is going to be huge and it wouldn’t surprise me if both guys hit 50 homers in the same season.

Of course it’s the defense that’s holding Braun back.  He made 26 errors last year but if he belts 50 homers, I can live with it.

My post season blogging was pretty much a disaster not that things would be too pleasant to write about.  The Brewers collapsed again and now, with just three games left to play, the Brewers find themselves still two games back with three to play despite a three game skid by the Cubs.  Even worse, they have the Wild Card leading Padres left for three more games to round out the season while the Cubs play the mediocre Reds (without Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey, Jr.) for three games.

Prince Fielder belted his 50th homerun the other day and he’s definitely in the mix of MVP candidates.  He’d probably get a more solid nod if he blew up this weekend and led the Brewers to the division title.  When you look at the team’s stats. Fielder leads in just about everything that matters and it’s hard to believe this kid just turned 23 during the season.

Ben Sheets is done for the season so that’s a tough blow to take.  Even if the Brewers do somehow squeak into the playoffs, it’ll be without their ace.  And to stay on pitching for a moment, Chris Capuano’s season has just been downright bizarre.  He starts out 5-0 in early May and now hes 5-12 and his ERA is a touch over 5.00.  Sight, a few of those losses would have made a huge difference in the Brewers chances this season.

Still though, it’s the final weekend of the season and the Brewers are still in it.  At this point they need to just win out and not worry about the Cubs so at least Brewers fans have something to cheer about in these final days of the season.

It doesn’t look like the Cubs are going to make this easy.  The Brewers won their last three games, and all that meant was the Cubs didn’t pick up any games because they’ve won four straight.  Still, the Brewers have a 3 1/2 game lead (three in the loss column) and if I had to guess, it’s going to come down to the head to head series between the Cubs and the Brewers as to who will determine the division winner.

The loss of Ben Sheets hurts.  He’s the ace and not having him on the mound every five games means we go from having almost a sure thing win to a tough struggle with a guy who’s effectively our sixth starter.  Then again, rookie Yovani Gallardo has held his own in his two starts so hopefully he can keep it up while Sheets is down.

Prince Fielder hit homerun number 30 over the weekend.  You wonder how long it’ll be until they start pitching around him more.  In the meantime, J.J. Hardy has been only good and without another big bat in the lineup, Fielder’s going to get less and less to swing at.

Corey Hart has turned into a pleasant surprise this year and he’s taken advantage of his chance in the starting lineup.  He leads the team with a .299 batting average and he already has set career marks in just about every offensive category.

With Sheets on the disabled list, Jeff Suppan has to step up and become the defacto ace.  At 8-8 and some pretty mediocre numbers, he’s been a bit of disappointment after a nice run in April.  The fact that he’s 8-8 means the boys have been hitting for him and now it’s time to return the favor.

The Brewers continue with their series against the Diamondbacks.  Claudio Vargas takes the mound and the Brewers will go up against Yusmeiro Petit, who’s been sharp in his three starts this year.

The Brewers continue to play extremely well at home.  With the win today, they won their 30th home game of the season which is the most in all of baseball.  And with the three game sweep over the Astros, the Brewers have won eight of their nine games in this most recent home stand.

And they’ve done it in a variety of ways.  On Monday, Ben Sheets gave up just one run in six innings in a 6-1 win and yesterday, the Brewers got their bats going with an 11-5 blowout.  Then today they needed eleven innings but the end result was the same.

Ryan Braun has lived up to his hype and despite going 0 for 5 today, he’s still hitting .328 with some nice power numbers (six homeruns, 26 runs, 21 RBIs in 29 games) to go with them.  And prior to today, he had driven in runs in his past seven games. which is the longest streak by a Brewer since 1957.  His OPS had gone over 1.000 but with the 0fer game today, he’ll probably slip back below that exceptional mark.

Damian Miller of all people had the big hit in today’s game.  He belted a three run homer in the eleventh inning to win it and he finished with four RBIs in the game.  The backup catcher saw his batting average rise by over twenty points with the three for five game and the homerun was his first of the season.

The only down side to all of the wins is that the Cubs have kept pace with a six game winning streak of their own so they still sit just 7 1/2 games back.  The silver lining is that the Brewers can take care of them this weekend because they travel to Wrigley field for a three game series with the Cubs.  More importanly, Carlos Zambrano threw today so he won’t be going for the Cubs.  Yovanni Gallardo throws for the Brewers tomorrow and he’ll go head to head with Rich Hill in a touch matchup for the Brewers.  Still two wins out of three would go a long way towards burying the Cubs.   A sweep would obviously be even better.

Good for Prince.  The Brewers slugger has a huge lead in the National League with 26 homeruns now and the next closest guy is Adam Dunn with 20.  Throw in a league leading 59 RBIs and a .379 OBP and you’re looking at a guy who’s an early MVP candidate.  And the voters have rewarded him as he now leads a tight race at first base for the All Star Game.  I knew Prince had a 50 homer season in him, I just didn’t know it’s be this soon.

The Brewers extended their lead over the (enter name of second place team, currently the Cardinals) to 7 1/2 games after a three game sweep over the struggling Giants.  They got some solid pitching in the first two games and while Claudio Vargas wasn’t all that great in the finale, he was picked up by the offence and he improved to 6-1 on the season.  Bill Hall hit his eighth homerun and he drove in five runs.  With J.J. Hardy an Fielder having the seasons they’re having, Bill Hall has only been okay so you wonder what’s going to happen when Bill Hall finally catches fire.

Ben Sheets is starting to pick it up as he gets back that ace tag.  His strikeout rate is way down, but he’s won his last four and seven out of his last eight.  Just as impressive, when Sheets gets the start, the Brewers are 9-1 in his last ten starts, which is the very definition of ace.  He also finally notched his first complete game and he’s been pitching into the seventh inning more regularly.  The Brewers have a nice lead, but they’ll need Sheets down the stretch if they really want to do something.

Francisco Cordero has been quite the pick up for the Brewers.  He has 44 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings and he has 27 saves in 29 attempts.  Not too shabby for a guy making just over $5 million.  Then again, he is playing for a contract so there’s some motivation there.  As is the chance to play for a ring.

Johnny Estrada has done what we expected when we dealt for him.  He leads the team with a .291 batting average and while there’s not a lot of pop, it’s there.  The defense has been below average but the offense more then makes up for it.  And you know what you get.  He doesn’t walk a lot, but he also doesn’t strike out a lot so you’re getting a catcher who puts the ball in play more times then not.

This weekend is a three game set against a poor Royals team and the Brewers have a 1-0 lead in the third.  Two out of three and maybe a tough series by the Cards sure would be nice.  I’d like a ten game lead by the All Star break.

The Brewers record in their last ten games isn’t very pretty (3-7) but they have won two of their last three and they’ve done it when the rest of the division is cooling off.  The end result is a 6 1/2 game lead over the Astros and the Cubs with four more games left in their west coast swing.

Prince Fielder is beginning to heat up.  He hit two homeruns on Monday to bring his league leading total to 14 (tied with teammate J.J. Hardy) and he now has a six game hitting streak.  While his batting average hasn’t gone up much during that stretch, he’s picked up some points on his OPS.

And then J.J. Hardy continues to impress.  He hit homerun number fourteen a couple of days before Fielder hit his and he leads the league with 41 RBI.  His career best is 50 so he should be pushing past that pretty soon.  The only knock on him has been his defense, which has been slightly below average (-1 fielding runs below average). 

Jeff Suppan continues to throw the ball well.  He’s now 6-4 and he leads the team in innings pitched and ERA.  His batting average against of .282 isn’t all that great but he’s kept the walk total down and then of course he’s gotten the run support.

The Brewers play the final game in a three game set against the Dodgers and then it’s off to San Diego for three this weekend.  It’ll be interesting playing in such an extreme pitchers park so hopefully the pitchers can get it done while they’re there.

The bad news is, the Brewers no longer have the best record in baseball.  The good news is, they have an eight game lead in the NL Central.  A tough Mets team did a number on the Brewers over the weekend and while you never like to lose a series, it’s the first time since they played a three game series with the Cubs on the opening weekend of the season that they’ve lost a series.  When you go over a month without dropping a series, it’s definitely a good thing.

And while J.J. Hardy is the one making all of the news, Prince Fielder is doing what he’s paid to do, and that’s hit homeruns.  His eleven long balls ties him for the National League lead and he’s posted a very impressive .957 slugging percentage.  I’d say his 28 homeruns from last year will be passed sometime in late July or early August and 50 isn’t out of the question at this point.  And if J.J. Hardy cools down, you’re looking at an MVP candidate here because he’s only four RBIs back of Carlos Lee for the league lead.

And I apologize for the abscence but the network has been having some website problems and it’s prevented me from posting.  It’d be nice if the Brewers could take three of four from the Phillies this week and that would get me right back in the writing mood.

The Brewers took care of business this week and took two of three against the struggling Cubs.  The pen was awesome in the first game and then they got a good start from Jeff Suppan in the other win and while the wheels fell of the wagon in the finale, two out of three isn’t all bad.  

On Monday, the Brewers scored two runs in the eighth to tie and send the game into extra frames and then Prince Fielder hit his second homerun of the game to win it for the Brewers in the twelth.  Fielder’s two long balls bring his season total up to four and J.J. Hardy also went yard in the 5-4 win.  Claudio Vargas was hit hard and he gave up four runs in four innings but the pen really got it done.  Six relievers combined to throw eight innings of shutout ball with Carlos Villanueva picking up four of those and also getting the win.

Jeff Suppan got it done yesterday.  He gave up just eight hits and one walk with three strikeouts in eight shutout innings to improve to 3-2.  Francisco Cordero got the final batter out in the game and he picked up save number eight.  Prince Fielder drove in two with his fifth homer and Kevin Mench hit a solo shot in the 4-1 win.

Today’s game was scary because Ben Sheets left with another injury and this time it looks like it’s a pulled groin.  He did throw three shutout innings but the bullpen was hammered for nine runs.  Elmer Dessens took the loss and he gave up five unearned runs but each of the four relievers gave up at least a run.  Rickie Weeks hit a solo homerun and Johnny Estrada finished the game with two hits and a run.

So as of 8 pm or so local time, the Brewers had a 2 1/2 game lead in the Central.  Next up is three against the Astros, who got hot but have since cooled off a bit.  A series win is in order though, and hopefully the Brewers get it done in Houston.