Hello Brewershomeplate readers!  It’s been a long time since the unfortunate end to Milwaukee’s Postseason appearance, but with Spring Training fast approaching, it is time to provide a little insight into what I believe the Brew Crew will look like this year.

Offense:

First and foremost…NEXT TO NOTHING HAS CHANGED!  Every starter 1-8 in the lineup (although the order will probably be shifted) was a Brewer starter in 2008.  Although this is great for team chemistry that is many times lacking in today’s free agent era, the offense…well…it plainly and simply was mediocre at best last season.  Pitching carried the team through the season and into the playoffs, though the offense probably got a little more of the limelight what with Ryan Braun’s legendary home runs and such.  Conversely, the bench will be very different in ‘09.  Gabe Kapler (Tampa Bay Rays), Russell Branyan (Seattle Mariners), and probably Ray Durham either have parted ways with Milwaukee or are going to.  This is not good news, as those players managed to provide key sparks to the team when it needed it the most.  Notably, Branyan’s ability to hit a home run any time he strode to the plate, or Kapler’s hard-nosed defense and offensive saavy.  Durham managed to keep the struggling Rickie Weeks motivated at 2nd base and came up with quite an impressive highlight reel himself in the waning months of the 2008 campaign.  The bench this year will still feature the ever-dependable vet, Craig Counsell as well as late-season acquisition Mike Lamb, who will probably be a platoon starter with Bill Hall at 3rd base this year.  Several wild cards to make the bench are Trot Nixon (the ex-Boston Red Sox outfielder), Tony Gwynn Jr., Casey McGehee, a 3rd baseman plucked off waivers in the off season, and perhaps Matt Gamel, the highly touted 3rd base prospect.  Mike Rivera will again be Jason Kendall’s backup at catcher.  So look for the offense to be slightly more productive in ‘09, considering the chemistry and new hitting coach, Dale Sveum, who should relate to the players a lot more effectively than the departed Jim Skaalen did.

Pitching:

This is where things could get messy.  The two greatest starting pitchers perhaps ever to don a Brewers uniform are leaving.  CC Sabathia is a New York Yankee, and Ben Sheets is being courted by the Texas Rangers, and although he hasn’t signed with anyone (there is talk of elbow surgery in his future), he has made it clear being a Brewer is not interesting to him any longer.  That throws the young Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra likely to the top of the starting 5.  Dave Bush should be number 3, with Jeff Suppan behind him at 4.  The 5th spot in the rotation is a little more confusing, as Seth McClung could be a possible answer here, but his flashes of late-inning brilliance may place him in the bull pen.  Carlos Villanueva will be the set up man or long reliever, as he never really settled into a groove as a starter.  The new member to the pen is Trevor Hoffman, a much safer and predictable new closer than Eric Gagne was, because his best seasons were brought about by his pin-point control and wicked changeup (which he hasn’t lost by the way), not steroids.  Guillermo Mota, Salomon Torres, and Brian Shouse are gone as well as Gagne, and that could create a void Trevor Hoffman, Jorge Julio, and Mitch Stetter may or may not be able to succesfully fill.  Julio has been unraveling his past couple years, and Stetter is quite young (albeit he certainly has talent).  Hoffman is certainly aging, but is definitely serviceable (unfortunately, his mid 80s fastball is a little more hittable than Torres’ low 90s sinkers were)  So the pen should be about as good if not slightly better than in 2008.  The starting rotation will almost certainly not produce another 90 win season, BUT, there is enough talent there for new pitching coach Bill Castro to perhaps mold into a legitimate Wild Card contending staff.

Coaching

Dale Sveum is still a member of the Milwaukee coaching staff, but not in a manegerial role.  He is the hitting coach and Ken Macha, the ex-manager of the Oakland Athletics, is taking the big chair.  Willie Randolph, the ex-New York Met’s manager, will be the bench coach.  Needless to say Macha should do a better job making the tough decisions than Ned Yost did, and Willie Randolph will probably be a little harder on the players than Robin Yount or Dale Sveum before him were, which could certainly be what the younger players need to keep themselves motivated.  Mike Maddux, the wizard of resurrecting pitchers plucked off the scrap heap’s careers is now a Ranger coach, and long-time bullpen coach Bill Castro probably will not do quite as good a job as Maddux did.  But he knows his players and their tendencies well, and that is a very good sign.  All in all, the coaching staff is miles and miles ahead of where it was at this point last year.

My Projected Lineup by Position:

1B: Prince Fielder
2B: Rickie Weeks
SS: J.J. Hardy
3B: Bill Hall/Mike Lamb/Casey McGehee
C: Jason Kendall
LF: Ryan Braun
CF: Mike Cameron
RF: Corey Hart

My Projected Season Numbers

Final record: 87-75
Standings: 2nd place, NL Central, NL Wild Card runner up

Manny Parra bounced back from his string of mediocre starts with a strong outing on Sunday at Miller Park.  He limited the Washington Nationals to 1 earned run on 6 hits in 7 innings.  He struck out 9 and walked none.  The Crew fell behind in the sixth inning, when Parra yielded a run-scoring single to Lastings Milledge with two outs that scored shortstop Christian Guzman and gave Washington a 1-0 lead.  But thanks to a Bill Hall sacrifice fly to score Gabe Kapler in the bottom of the sixth, the game was knotted up right away.

Neither offense made a move until the top of the eighth inning, when the Nats pounded recently-reliable reliever Eric Gagne for 3 runs off of a double and back-to-back homeruns.  Ryan Zimmerman (the Washington third-baseman) fought back from down 0-2 to a 3-2 count, and on the 12th pitch of the battle, he doubled down the left field line.  Austin Kearns, also down 0-2 to Gagne, fought back and hit a booming homerun to put his club ahead.  The next batter, Lastings Milledge, also went deep to swell the Milwaukee deficit to 4-1.  In the bottom of the eighth, Prince Fielder walked with one out (a very unselfish approach considering his hit streak was on the line), Corey Hart struck out looking on a very close call, Bill Hall hit an single that Ryan Zimmerman could do no more with than keep it in the infield, and then Mike Cameron walked to load the bases.  After a pitching change brought the talented Joel Hanrahan into the game, backup catcher Mike Rivera sent a pitch to the left field wall that unloaded the bases and sent the sellout crowd into a frenzy.

With the game tied, the Brewers could not finish the game in their half of the ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth innings.  They managed to draw a season-high 13 walks on Sunday, but stranded a whopping 16 baserunners.  Thanks to solid performances from relievers Salomon Torres, who pitched the ninth and tenth innings, Carlos Villanueva, who pitched the eleventh and twelfth, and Guillermo Mota, who threw a scoreless thirteenth, the Crew was afforded a lot of time to get their act together.  Gabe Kapler was facing an 0-7 day at the plate in the thirteenth, but he wasted little time in clinching victory for the Brewers and the largely reduced crowd.  He hit a walk-off homerun to left for the first such homerun of his career and the first walk-off round-tripper by Milwaukee this season.  Thanks to a St. Louis loss, the Brewers climbed to 3.0 games ahead of Tony La Russa’s ballclub.

Offensive MVP: Mike Rivera (2-3/0R/12B/3RBI/3BB/0K)

Pitching MVP: Manny Parra (7IP/6H/1ER/0BB/9SO/0HR)

Alex’s Take:

This one sure took long enough.  The fact that Milwaukee is now up 3-0 in the series against a very beatable opponent shows that perhaps they have turned their home struggles around.  Sweeping the series would be very nice, but it should be considered a successful series regardless of Monday’s outcome.  The Brewers patience at the plate was extremely encouraging, but their nasty habit of stranding runners hurt them all day long.  They could have just as easily lost this game if one of the relievers had slipped up.  But thankfully, no one did except Eric Gagne in the eighth, and it turned out to be a very exciting 67th 2008 win for the Crew.

Jeff Suppan was atrocious on Sunday afternoon, giving up 8 earned runs on 11 hits in 6 innings of work.  He also walked one and struck out 3.  The Brewers were up 4-1 thanks to a Prince Fielder sac fly in the first, a Mike Rivera double in the second, and a two-run shot by Ryan Braun in the third.  But Suppan was hit and hit hard in the fifth, surrendering seven runs that were capped off by a three-run shot by Geoff Blum, his second of the day.  Milwaukee tallied one in the sixth off a J.J. Hardy single that scored Russell Branyan from second, but reliever Seth McClung gave up 3 earned runs off of 5 hits and 3 walks in only 2.0 innings pitched to crush any hope of a Brewer comeback.  Astros starter Randy Wolfe struggled, giving up 3 earned runs in 4.1 innings of work, but Chris Sampson relieved him and handcuffed the Brewers for the next few frames, giving up only 1 earned run.  In the ninth, Rickie Weeks tripled and scored on a ground-out by Hardy.

Offensive MVP: Astros 3B Geoff Blum (2-4/2R/2H/2HR/4RBI/0BB/1K)

Pitching MVP: Astros RP Chris Sampson (2.2IP/2H/1ER/0BB/2SO/0HR)

My Take:

So long first place.  This was one of the tougher losses of 2008, but it is simply part of the ebb and flow of a 162 game season.  It would have been nice for the Brewers to have a little momentum going into their 4 game series with Chicago, but that’s just not the way it turned out.  Suppan is often up and down throughout a year, so he could easily bounce back next time.  The upcoming four games will say a lot about whether the Brewers are truly a contender or just a pretender, but even the outcome of that series should be taken with a grain of salt.

J.J. Hardy led the Milwaukee Brewers with three rbi as they defeated Randy Johnson and the Arizona Diamondbacks by the score of 8-6 on Tuesday night.  Hardy hit a solo home run off Johnson in the second inning and finished the game with three rbi to lead the team.  They were able to knock the Big Unit out of the game after only 3 2/3 innings.

Joe Dillon hit his first home run of the season in the second inning off of Johnson as well.  Dillion finished the game with two rbi as they both came on the home run.  Mike Rivera had a rbi double and a rbi single in the game to record two rbi in the game.  Corey Hart contributed with one rbi in the game as well.

Jeff Suppan pitched five innings while giving up nine hits and five runs to pick up the win.  Suppan didn’t have his best stuff out there on the mound but he was able to get through five innings and improve his record to 5-6.  He should really thank his bullpen and offense for picking up the win for him.

Mitch Stetter, David Riske, Guillermo Mota. and Salomon Torres all pitched one inning of relief for the Brew crew.  Mota was the only reliever to give up any runs as he gave up two hits and one run in the eighth inning.

The Brewers will now try to take the series lead on Wednesday night.  Brewers Blog

The Milwaukee Brewers were attempting to sweep the Atlanta Braves in their three game series but the Braves had other thoughts and defeated the Brewers 4-2.  It was still a good series for the Brewers however as they took two out of three games from the Braves down in hot Atlanta.

Jeff Suppan suffered his sixth loss of the season as he fell to 4-6 after taking the loss on Wednesday.  Suppan pitched six innings and allowed nine hits and four runs to score.  Suppan did strike out five batters but still had trouble getting outs in the game.

Mitch Stetter and Guillermo Mota finished the up the game for the Brewers on the mound.  Stetter pitched 1 2/3 innings while Mota recorded the final out in the eighth inning.

The Brewers scored both of their runs on rbi doubles in the third inning.  Mike Rivera doubled to score Mike Cameron and then Rickie Weeks doubled to score Rivera.  The Brewers as a team were limited to only six hits during the game.

So after taking two of three from the Braves, the Brewers will now be off on Thursday as they fly to Minnesota to begin a three game series on Friday evening.

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Brewers Blog

The Milwaukee Brewers were blown out 7-2 on Thursday night by the Florida Marlins.  The Brewers were only able to score runs in the fourth and eighth innings in the game.

Mike Rivera and Carlos Villanueva had one rbi each in the game for the Brewers.  That is not going to get it done against any major league team.  The big guys for the Brewers simply didn’t step up and get the job done.

Carlos Villanueva took the loss as he was roughed up in five innings of action.  Villanueva gave up ten hits and seven runs.  Seth McClung and Mitch Stetter pitched the final three innings without giving up a run.

Brewers Blog

Manny Parra was throwing a no hitter through five innings, but in the sixth inning, that is when the Giants started to come back and made it a close ballgame.  Once the Giants made the score 3-2, Ryan Braun and Gabe Kapler both hit homeruns that extended the lead and the Brewers went onto to win the game by a score of a 5-4.

Mike Rivera also contributed with two RBI’s in the game.

Eric Gagne pitched a perfect ninth inning to pick up his first save of the season.

Brewers Blog