The Brewer Chronicles

The Brewers signed closer Francisco Rodriguez to a one year, $8 million deal and in effect, they avoided arbitration with the right handed pitcher.  He was very good when he came over to the Brewers as a setup man for John Axford but at this point, that’s a lot of money to be paying for a reliever at all.

It’s interesting because you wonder if the Brewers actually thought he’d take arbitration.  I’m sure they wanted the potential compensation but now they’re stuck paying a guy that might not have necessarily wanted to a big money deal.  Melvin said a trade isn’t on the table but it’ll be interesting to see where the Brewers are at in July and to see if they change their tune.

The Brewers signed All  Star third baseman Aramis Ramirez to a three year, $36 million deal.  After spending most of nine seasons with the Cubs, his old team will now see him quite a bit as he joins their division rivals.

Ramirez has 315 home runs in his career and he has a career .842 OPS.  Outside of an injury filled 2009, Ramirez has hit at least 25 home runs since 2002.  Injuries are a concern and it’s not unusual for Ramirez to spend a stint on the disabled list at once in a season.  He’ll be he guy who’s going to do his best to fill Prince Fielder’s shoes.  And he’s going to have an even tougher job with Ryan Braun potentially missing the first couple of months to the season.

This hurts.  The team is already losing Prince Fielder and now they’re probably losing NL MVP Ryan Braun for close to two months because he tested positive for a banned substance.  The whole thing is weird because a source said that there was never a test like this ever yet they’re not saying it was a steroid.

Basically Braun submitted a urine test that showed a high testosterone level and then a second test showed that it was artificial.  Braun asked for a second test and that one came up negative.

The Brewers farm system was gutted heading into the 2011 season but it looks like some help is on the way.  The Brewers are going to be able to take advantage of the final season of the old compensation rules and they’re set to pick up a few draft picks because of their recent decisions.  They offered Prince Fielder and Francisco Rodriguez arbitration and it’s expected that both will turn them down to test the market.  That means when the two sign elsewhere, the Brewers will get four rock solid draft picks because both are Type A free agents.  You wonder how losing these two guys is going to effect Brewers tickets sales.

The odd man out is Yuniesky Betancourt, who wasn’t offered arbitration.  Takashi Saito was also a Type A free agent but because of the way his contract was set up, the Brewers weren’t allowed to offer him arbitration.

The Brewers have quite a few big name free agents.  The two guys they trade for last year, Zach Greinke and Shaun Marcum, will be free agents.  Randy Wolf could be in that group but the team has yet to decided on his $10 million option.  If things get crazy, you could see a radically different rotation in 2012.

Ryan Braun walked away with the NL MVP award.  He was named on all 32 ballots and he picked up 20 first place and ten second place votes.  I really thought Matt Kemp was going to win it but Kemp finished second.  He picked up ten first place votes, sixteen second place votes and six third place votes.

Prince Fielder had a good showing and he came in third but he was all over the board.  He picked up a first place vote but he also picked up a tenth place vote.  He finished just ahead of Justin Upton who was also all over the place.

John Axford was the only other Brewer to pick up votes.  He received one eighth place and two ninth place votes.  Of course Fielder will be gone but hopefully Braun can continue his hitting to help ease the pain.

Here’s the top ten Brewers prospect as listed by Baseball America.

1)  Wily Peralta  RHP
2)  Taylor Jungmann  RHP
3)  Jed Bradley  LHP
4)  Tyler Thornburg  RHP
5)  Scooter Gennett  2b
6)  Logan Schafer  OF
7)  Cody Scarpetta  RHP
8)  Taylor Green  3b/2b
9)  Jorge Lopez  RHP
10)  Jimmy Nelson  RHP

Shaun Marcum had a tough postseason and it continued in game six.  The pen was also complicit in the 12-6 loss that eliminated the Brewers from the playoffs.  Marcum gave up four runs and he only pitched into the second inning.  Chris Narveson was then shelled for five runs in 1 2/3 innings.  Kameron Loe and K-Rod also gave up runs in the loss.

The offense was better then game five but they still got doubled up.  Jonathan Lucroy, Rickie Weeks and Corey Hart all hit home runs.  Jerry Hairston went two for four with two runs.

So ends the Brewers season.  It was a great run and I want to thank the Brewers for an awesome season.  Get your Brewers tickets as early as you can because maybe 2012 will be the year.

The Brewers lost game five and it was a pretty ugly game.  Zach Greinke had a mediocre start and gave upfive runs runs, the pen yielded a few as well and then the offense only managed to put up a single run.  Greinke pitched 5 2/3 and he gave up the five runs and just two of those were earned.  Marco Estrada was the only guy who got tagged and he gave up two runs in his inning of relief.

Corey Hart had three hits and he drove in the lone run.  Jonathan Lucroy went two for three and he scored the lone run.  The Brewers did have some chances and they were one for either with RISP.  The four errors also didn’t help.

Now it’s all up to Shaun Marcum, who hasn’t a good start this entire post season.  Let’s all cross our fingers.

Randy Wolf got it done and the Brewers were able to tie up their series with the Cardinals two games to two.  Randy Wolf gave up a pair of home runs early but then he settled down and ended up throwing seven solid frames.  He gave up the two runs on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts.  K-Rod and John Axford then took over and threw a shutout inning each to finish up the 4-2 win.

Jerry Hairston put the Brewers on the board with an RBI double in the fourth.  Yuniesky Betancourt then singled Hairston home to tie the game.  Ryan Braun then gave the Brewers the lead in  the fifth with an RBI single and Rickie Weeks scored an insurance run in the sixth on an error.  Nyjer Morgan, Ryan Braun and Jerry Hairston all had two hits in the win.

Game five is tomorrow.  Zach Greinke picked up the win in game one but he wasn’t on top of his game.  Let’s hope he’s better tomorrow and the Brewers can go back to Milwaukee with a series lead.

For the first time in the playoffs, the Brewers are down in a series.  Yovani Gallardo gave up four runs in the first inning and while the Brewers creeped back into the game, they never bridged that gap.  If you’re a half glass full person, the good news is Gallardo did throw five innings so the bullpen wasn’t taxed too much.  LaTroy Hawkins, Takashi Saito and Chris Narveson all threw shutout innings each to keep the Brewers in the game.

Mark Kotsay belted a solo home run in the third inning of the 4-3 loss.  Yuniesky Betancourt went two for four and he drove in a run.  Six hits isn’t going to cut it so the Brewers are going to have to do better.

Game four is now huge.  It’ll be Kyle Lohse against Randy Wolf.  Big, big game with the Brewers down two games to one.