Brock Beauchamp

Welcome to the brief rundown of our newest feature, achievements! I have spent a rather unhealthy amount of time developing it for the site. I hope you enjoy experiencing it as much as I enjoyed building it. Achievements, or awards, or gamification… you’ve probably run into it before in other avenues of your digital life. Achievements are most common (and were largely born out of) the console video game world, beginning on the Xbox platform in the mid-2000s. Basically, it boils down to this: do stuff, get (sometimes silly) awards and badges for doing it. Over the past month, I’ve designed over 60 custom badges that you can be awarded for performing sometimes mundane, other times complex, tasks across the Brewer Fanatic platform. Comment on a post, get a badge. Write a blog post, get a badge. Vote on a poll, get a badge… you get the point. Do some of these tasks multiple times and sometimes (many times) you’ll get additional badges. If you visit your user profile page, you’ll see it now looks different, with achievements being prominently displayed near the top. With over 60 badges available right now, some of you older, veteran Brewer Fan users will start accumulating achievements the moment you begin participating in various aspects of the site, as many (as many as possible, but not all) of the achievements are back-dated to the time you began using the site. So explore the site, try completing some random tasks like post a status update, and see if you get a badge for doing it! As you "achieve" new things, on top of badges, you will also be awarded points. Once you hit certain milestones in points, you raise in rank (out of 14 ranks in total). In the image above, my rank is "draft eligible", the third rank you will achieve. Here is a sampling of a few of the badges you can be awarded right now: Some achievements will be won seemingly at random but I assure you, there is a specific set of items that awarded you the badge (and sometimes, those items need to be completed in a specific order). And some badges will be awarded manually for “exceptional” things done on the site. Those will be the hardest to collect and the rarest achievements available on Brewer Fanatic. And if anyone manages to get them all or one of the *really* difficult-to-uncover achievements, we may have some special prizes available to users who can accomplish those rarest of feats on the site…

As opposed to the previous default state of the site, you may want to set a custom feed as your Brewer Fanatic landing page. It's that useful. Instead of having to click through the (kinda insanely large now) site, you can tailor a feed to show basically whatever you want: select authors, topics you've followed, fellow users, unread content only... the list goes on. First, to find your personal feed, near the top right of the screen you will see a newspaper icon in the red bar below your user information. That brings you to the default view, which is Unread Content. Here you'll see a variety of options to tailor your custom stream to do almost anything you like on the site. I'll spare you going through each item in detail individually, as it's all quite self-explanatory. You can choose tagged content, type of content (news, forums, blogs, status updates, etc.), read/unread only, content you've participated in or started, followed content, and finally, how it's sorted. Depending what kind of device you're using, you can also choose Condensed or Expanded. Condensed just gives you the title and link while Expanded offers a truncated version of the content as a preview. Once you've decided on your changes, you can save this stream using the save prompt below. You're allowed to have multiple custom streams so name this new stream and it joins the others. Once you're done customizing your stream, Click Stream Options at the top right of the selection drop-down, and your choices become your default custom stream. Every time you click that newspaper or visit your stream, the selections you've made will remain in place. That's it, enjoy the new site!

Brewer Fanatic Tips & Tricks, Part One: Tables! With this series of blog entries, I'm going to try to cover some of the features of the new site in a few paragraphs. Using the old site, as I'm sure many of you are aware, tables were basically unusable. That has changed! I'll tackle B-Ref tables quickly in this post but you can do similar things with FanGraphs or other sites that use table data (which is how almost all stat sites display their content). First, pop on over to Corbin Burnes's B-Ref page: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/burneco01.shtml I'm going to grab his 2020-2021 season stats. Just above his stat table, you'll see Share & Export. Click and then select Modify, Share, & Export Table. Boom, you can then select what stats you want to display and which you want to remove. I've removed all seasons except the last two. I also removed team and league because "duh". Then click the big X in the top right of the yellow square and you have your filtered table. Grab that table by moving your cursor to the top left of the table (just to the left of Year in this case) and while holding down the button of your mouse/trackpad, drag toward the bottom right of the table. The table will begin to highlight in yellow as you select the cells. Grab them all and let go of the mouse/trackpad. Then copy what has been selected (control+c on Windows, command+c on macOS). Pop over to Brewer Fanatic, start typing a comment, and paste your content (control+v on Windows, command+v on macOS). Standard Pitching Year Age W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W Awards 2020 25 4 1 .800 2.11 12 9 2 0 0 0 59.2 37 15 14 2 24 0 88 3 0 5 240 216 2.03 1.022 5.6 0.3 3.6 13.3 3.67 CYA-6 2021 26 11 5 .688 2.43 28 28 0 0 0 0 167.0 123 47 45 7 34 0 234 6 0 5 657 176 1.63 0.940 6.6 0.4 1.8 12.6 6.88 AS,CYA-1,MVP-15 4 Yr 4 Yr 23 11 .676 3.39 102 41 16 0 0 2 313.2 257 125 118 30 89 2 427 12 1 14 1284 128 2.67 1.103 7.4 0.9 2.6 12.3 4.80 162 162 11 5 .676 3.39 49 19 8 0 0 1 149 122 59 56 14 42 1 203 6 0 7 611 128 2.67 1.103 7.4 0.9 2.6 12.3 4.80 Note: you can use this method for most websites and spreadsheet data so whatever table data you have available you need to copy and paste, this method will likely suit your needs.

With their 20th-round pick in this year's draft, the Brewers chose Washington State shortstop Shea Vucinich. He took some time to chat with me on Thursday. This interview was conducted by Eric Johnson. Brewerfan: Have you been celebrating? Shea Vucinich: Yeah, with the fam. They're pretty excited. BF: I can imagine. So, did you know the Brewers were interested? SV: Yeah, I had talked to quite a few teams, but three that showed more interest than the others were Milwaukee, Texas, and Colorado. BF: Did the Brewers tell you about when they wanted to draft you? Approximately what round? SV: Yeah, you know, they were very straightforward with me for the entire process. They predicted between [round] 15 and 25, so they got it right on the money. BF: Were you listening to the draft when your name was called? SV: Actually, I heard watching the show on ESPN could be quite nerve-racking, so I was out golfing with some teammates, and I actually got a text from a summer teammate from the Cape [Cod League] and he congratulated me. That was my first knowledge of getting chosen. BF: Do you plan on signing? SV: I actually did that night. I'm officially in the Brew Crew. BF: Well, welcome aboard! SV: Thanks, I appreciate it. BF: When do you leave for Arizona? SV: I actually head out to Helena on Sunday. BF: Oh, very nice, you get to skip the summer heat in Arizona. SV: Yeah, I had enough of that in Arkansas last weekend. BF: So, can you describe yourself as a ballplayer a bit? SV: Um... [pause] Tough question. I hate talking about myself. [pause] My work ethic is definitely what has gotten me to where I am. I'm very competitive and hate to lose. I've learned to respect the game, because no matter how good you're doing the game can humble you in a heartbeat. Sorry, that was a toughie for me. BF: Is there an MLB player you'd compare yourself to? SV: If I had to choose one person, I'd have to say David Eckstein. I still don't think it's right to compare myself to a big leaguer until I'm at that level. BF: It looks like you hit for a pretty decent average as a freshman but tailed off a bit the next two years. Were you trading average for power a bit? SV: Going into my sophomore year, I developed a bit of a leg kick hoping for some power. That possibly took toll on my average. I think being a freshmen is sort of an advantage, just because no teams have your scouting report yet. I also hit in the nine-hole most of the season. That could have been a factor. BF: Do you think of yourself as more of a power hitter or contact hitter? SV: Contact, for sure. BF: You did hit two homers in a game in the Cape Cod League over the summer, though. SV: Yeah, at times you just feel good in the box and the ball looks extra large. It was one of those days. BF: How's your comfort level with wood bats? SV: I actually enjoy wood bats more than metal, just because I'm more of a contact hitter. BF: You prefer the "crack" to the "ping". SV: Without a doubt. BF: Did that contribute to your decision to go pro? SV: No, it was a factor of getting some exposure at a younger age, getting away from school a little bit, and pursuing a dream. BF: Was it tough at all to leave Wazzu though, in the midst of a baseball renaissance? SV: For sure it was. I give all the credit to this year's seniors for that turn around. They started turning the program around four years ago, and I really enjoyed being a part of it. BF: From what I read, [WSU teammate] Seth Harvey's also signed and also headed to Helena. It must be nice to have a teammate heading out there with you. SV: It definitely is. Seth's a great ballplayer and even a better person. He's one of those guys that everyone wants to be around and can lighten the mood of any situation. And that's needed a lot in baseball. BF: Can you give us a mini scouting report on him? SV: Seth has a good fastball, and he's developed a changeup that he's grown to go to more and more. BF: Okay, getting back to you for a second, how would you describe your approach at the plate? Are you swinging, or are you patient? SV: Stepping into the box, you can't think at all, you just have to react. I just focus on being on time for what I'm looking for and staying inside the ball. BF: And how about on defense? I've read that you're pretty good with the glove. SV: Defense is definitely my strength. If I'm not producing offensively, I have that as a backup. I did gymnastics for ten years, so that's played a huge factor in the athleticism on the field. BF: You're the first player I know of with a gymnastics background. Can you talk a little more about how that's helped you? SV: It's helped in my overall strength. Balance is really important when making a play on the run, and I'm pretty aware of where and what my body is doing from all the flipping. BF: I would imagine that it also helps your body control when hitting too, with things like keeping your hands back on off-speed stuff. SV: It for sure does. BF: Apart from baseball, what do you like to do? SV: I absolutely love playing Wiffle ball. Growing up in Idaho, the outdoors are very important--fishing, camping, et cetera. And I can't get enough of my family. BF: Being from Idaho, Montana will probably be pretty comfortable for you, and I hear the fly fishing is outstanding. SV: Oh yeah, I've been in the area and have some friends in Helena. They know all the spots. BF: Okay, now for the topic on everyone's tongue: Pac-10 expansion. What's your opinion? SV: Oh man. After playing all the Pac-10 teams this year, I'd have to say it couldn't get much harder. It would make it extremely hard for some really good teams to make the tourney in June. I'm not a big fan of it. [laughs] BF: I can imagine you wouldn't be too thrilled about adding Texas baseball to the equation. SV: Although I love the competition, no. BF: Okay, well that's about all I've got for you. SV: I think you did a great job with your questions. You summed it all up. BF: Hey, thanks! I don't often get feedback from the interviewees. SV: Well, I'm not trying to big-league anyone. [laughs] View full article