The Brewer Chronicles

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.