brewers4eric

Vinny Rottino put together a huge season at Beloit in 2004 and played multiple positions. He always seemed like he was a candidate for the 25th spot on the roster, but never made the club out of spring training. I figured his fate as a career minor leaguer was sealed when they had him put on the catching gear in order to improve his versatility. I think he ended up on the Italian roster for the first World Baseball Classic, mostly because he had an Italian sounding name.

I went to Milwaukee last Sunday and witnessed Guerra's last start. Until I saw him pitch in person, I didn't have a good feel for how hard Pina had to work behind the plate. Guerra's control wasn't there, and I couldn't put a number on all of the balls in the dirt that Pina had to block. His splitter produces allot of swings and misses, but I was really surprised that Pina didn't need a week off between Guerra starts.

Based on the number of strikeouts that we racked up at the start of the year, and the number of free passes that our pitching staff gives up, I think it is critical to have a guy like Sogard at the top of our lineup. His ability to draw a walk and put the ball in play adds so much to our offense. When I saw his name on the list of invites to spring training, I didn't think there was any way he would make the team. I'm glad we have him.

I recently helped out at a baseball tournament with my son's team. I wrote a few thoughts down to help me calm my nerves, as it helps me to write out my thoughts. Let me know if you have any coaching advice, or if my experience is common with what you have encountered outside of northeast Iowa: I survived Ben’s first baseball tournament on Saturday. He had to be in Edgewood by 8:45 and we got home around 4:30. Before our first game, Coach Ken asked for my help, as he needed a third base coach. I’m happy to help out, I’m typically the parent that sits in the dugout, keeps the kids from knocking each other out with their bats, and reminds them to make sure they have their bat, glove, and helmet in their bag after each game. I’ve been performing this role since Ben started t-ball. The initial experience of coaching a group of third graders from a sports crazy school district led me to the following observations. First of all, ten and under baseball games have little entertainment value for casual observers. Since her Ipod battery was dead, Madeline was ready to leave before Ben’s first at bat and my brother that was visiting from Colorado ended up leaving in the valet mini-van shuttle to Manchester with Brenda at 11am. He caught most of the John Wayne double feature on TCM and enjoyed his choice of the leftovers in the fridge. Parents that normally just drop their kids off at practice, but were stuck hanging around Edgewood all day were suddenly offering advice and coaching expertise. One felt it was critical to line the kids up and run them through throwing drills before the first game. It was in direct competition with another, who wanted to make sure they all stretched. I just wanted to make sure that they didn’t hit any cars in the tight parking lot or spectators near the field when they warmed up. A parent from Edgewood Black noted my efforts and thanked me for protecting her toddler. About an hour before the third game, a group of parents started warming the kids up beyond the right field fence, which meant I could relax and enjoy my seat in the shade. Ken issued the new West Delaware hats to our kids before the first game. Three weeks prior, another parent had collected money for them, but I didn’t notice him writing down who he had collected money from. That included a few parents that wanted a hat for themselves. Most of the kids were anxious to get them, but I knew what was coming. Most of the hats were too big for third graders and too small for the parents. I was reminded that Henderson manufacturing had sponsored our city league team in 2016 and hats were getting randomly exchanged by our players each inning. Anticipating what would happen, I brought along a Sharpie marker to the tournament and directed the kids to write their initials on the rim of their hats. Ken offered me a hat but I turned it down, I knew it would be too small and I also knew there would be an irate parent that noticed he had given me a hat free of charge. As a third base coach unexpectedly representing West Delaware, I was totally underdressed in my red Iowa State mock baseball jersey and blue visor. I had already shelled out $31 for Ben’s jersey and $15 for his hat, and I don’t think I’ve ever owned anything orange in my life. I’ll need to borrow a Randy Gradishar or Karl Mecklenberg jersey before the next tournament in June. Some 6 year old at the concession stand also questioned my loyalty to Iowa State. I was going to bring up the men’s basketball season but I remembered that we lost to the Hawkeyes in December. He diffused the situation when he said that his grandparents were Cyclone fans. During the game against Edgewood White, while walking from our dugout to third base, their catcher told me, “your team isn’t very good at fielding”. While I was amazed at the trash talking abilities of a fourth grader, I only made the comment, “do you know what karma is, kid”? Based on the look of confusion, it wasn’t a part of his vocabulary. While Ben is batting that inning, he pops one up behind home plate. The catcher peels off his mask and sticks out his glove. He lines himself up and catches the ball square on his forehead. After a minute or two in the dust, he gets up and is led off the field in tears. I assured his teammates around third base and left field that he was ok, but those that heard our earlier exchange may have questioned my motives for clapping as he walked off the field. Ben is using an older model Easton bat that I bought him last year. It is one step up from what you would find at the goodwill store. I thought he needed a new one after he used a t-ball bat in first grade and an older kid made fun of him. This is in direct contrast to most of the West Delaware parents that have dipped into their 401k to buy the latest in bat technology. This also drew the ire of an Edgewood White coach that thought that some of the bats that our kids were using may have exceeded the diameter limit that must be in some official rule book written by the national federation for ten and under semi pro baseball. He must have also thought that I was an expert on this matter. After all, I was coaching third base. He proceeded to chew my ear off from the dugout while I was coaching third: “You’ve got to pull those bats off the rack coach, they make a huge difference, if our kids were using them we would hit every ball out of the park”. He must have surmised that I had a hearing loss, as he proceeded to repeat his statements four or five times, gaining volume with each stanza. After our half of the inning, I walked to our dugout, waved Ken down, and said, “some gas bag is chewing my ear off about the bats” to which Ken says, “yeah, he’s right behind you”. It led to a heated discussion where the volunteer umpire that now regrets volunteering gets drawn in and another Edgewood White coach has to stand between him and the gas bag coach and yell, “the tournament is for the kids, not you”. While all of this is going on I walked into the stands and talked to Brenda, who tells me that she works with the irate coach’s wife and that they would probably have an interesting conversation about baseball tournaments at school. After beating Oelwein, we lost our second game to Edgewood White. The tournament rules meant that everyone in the lineup batted each inning, regardless of outs, which led to typical scores of 25 to 15 in four innings. This was lost in the minds of some parents, who felt that we needed to be more aggressive on the bases. Two parents sought me out while I was eating my walking taco from the lunch stand and offered advice on aggressively sending runners during the third game. I later noticed that I had bit my tongue while eating. Until Saturday, I also didn’t realize that fourth graders were free agents capable of switching teams between games. One of the kids on West Delaware Orange attends school in Edgewood. Our kids were unnerved when he was playing for Edgewood Black when we arrived. Before our game with Oelwein, however, he switched jerseys and started warming up with our kids. After the Oelwein game, he again suited up for West Delaware Orange as we took on Edgewood White. Gauging his championship chances after our loss, he suited up for Edgewood Black against West Delaware Orange. I compare it to a deadline trade in July for a team with World Series aspirations. I was proud of the kids on our team that approached him between games and wished him “Good Luck”. I’m not sure how any kid that fields a ball would know where to throw it. The two Edgewood teams used a chant such as “two, then one” which they called out when a runner was on first. While it keeps the kids cognizant of where to throw the ball, it really gets old for opposing teams and spectators after the first half inning. I’ve seen it used at softball games, which is probably why you see softball parents popping handfuls of valium. Our kids, on the other hand, depended on listening to parents yelling from the stands to determine where to throw. In most cases, since they were being directed to throw to four different bases, they avoided any contact with batted balls and ran in the other direction. Between games, I discussed the chant with an Edgewood parent and she said, “my God, I wish they would quit that”, as her normally sedate three year old was joining in the chants from the stands. One of the parents that suggested aggressive base running volunteered to keep book during the last game. He must have thought that the best position to keep an accurate scorecard was standing next to the third base coach. The kids coming around third must have also been surprised when they had two coaches telling them what to do, especially when they were being told to “stop” and “run home” concurrently. During the final game, Ben hit a ball into the outfield. He was able to advance to third after a play on an advancing runner at the plate, and slid hard into the bag. He got up and asked me, “what did you think of that Dad”? I threw my arms around him and yelled, “I love you son”! We both laughed our asses off, but my assistant third base coach was upset that he was ignoring his shouts to run home. From my vantage point as third base coach in the last game, I noticed the third baseman from Edgewood Black chewing a strap on his glove. I offered him some sage advice, “you won’t be able to catch anything in that glove if you eat it”. He pointed out that he shouldn’t be taking advice from a rival coach. As we were exchanging handshakes after the game though, he said “thanks for the advice”. He must have reviewed the situation with his coaches in the dugout. West Delaware Orange took third place. The team got together on the field for pictures and received their third place medals from the tournament sponsors. Ken wanted me in the pictures, but I turned him down, as I wasn’t dressed for the occasion. Ben’s medal fell off the strap before we got to the dugout. I reminded the kids to make sure they had their bat, glove, helmet, hat, and medal before they left. Brenda used the hot glue gun to fix Ben’s medal when we got home. Edgewood Black took first. I’ve known their coach for a few years. In addition to being a PE teacher, he is the head basketball coach at Edgewood Colesburg High School and has a collection of five boys at home. I’ve always been amazed at how calm and collected he is based on his home and work environments. Being the secretary at the high school, Brenda said that she talked to him yesterday and he mentioned that he also stayed out of the pictures, noting “It’s about the kids”. He said that the coach I called ‘Gas Bag’ from Edgewood White told him, “That’s the last time I let you steal a tournament from me”. Coach Gas Bag’s wife is a teaching aide, she asked Brenda what she thought of the tournament, she replied, “I think the kids had fun”.

Based on the number of strikeouts that our lineup was racking up in April, I've paid more attention to accumulated walks and strikeouts in 2017. Our pitching staff needs to cut down on the number of walks that we issue. Our defense is bad enough that we can't issue free passes.

After 41 pitches, I expect Knebel's arm to turn black and fall off at the shoulder socket.

I like the idea of having Aguilar's bat on the bench. But, I'm biased, as I can remember when we had Bob Hamelin in that role in 1998 ("The game isn't over until the fat man swings"). I favor the power hitter over the slick fielding no-power utility middle infielder. While I'm fascinated by the spring training battles, the results are often tempered by the fluidity of the 25 and 40 man rosters. We'll be racking up frequent flyer miles between Colorado Springs and Milwaukee all year.

The last three times I've travelled to Miller Park have all been Wily Peralta starts. Bear in mind that the trip involves a 3.5 hour drive each way. The results have been the same each time and it seems like the game is scripted: Peralta can't locate his slider in the early innings and his fastball gets hammered. The Brewers fall behind by five or six runs, mount a late rally but fall short due to defensive lapse or a base running mistake, typically a contact play with a runner on third. At least I get to see a parade of relievers in person. I'm always limited on the dates that I can make a trip to Milwaukee. I didn't see any games at Miller Park in 2016. I had a couple of opportunities, but they were both Peralta days. I'm not a masochist, although I have been a Brewer fan since 1978. I don't really want to see Peralta pitch out of the rotation or the bullpen. But, if he is a starter, I can at least watch the pitching matchups and plan my trips accordingly. The kids are already asking when we'll go to a game. Go Brewers

I can remember a similar lineup gaffe back in 1988. The Brewers had picked up a guy named Mike Young off the waiver wire. Treblehorn put him in the lineup behind Robin Yount in a game. I can't remember who they were playing, but either the opposing manager or the umpire couldn't decipher Yount from Young on the lineup card and the kid just about got thrown out of the game after he was called out for batting out of order. I think there was a picture of the argument on the front page of the Journal Sentinel sports section.

I took my eight year old son to the Rattlers game. Hopefully he didn't pick up any bad defensive habits that I'll have to correct in practice this week. There were half a dozen plays where I was left scratching my head. I was hoping to see Trent Clark and Isan Diaz play, but left disappointed. At this point, Gatewood can barely get the ball from third to first when they are throwing it around between innings. Drossner was sitting at 90 on the stadium gun. He only had a couple of hard hit balls against him. Harber touched 93, he victimized himself with a poor throw to second on a double play ball. Harrison sat on a 3-2 fastball from Cedoroth and put it over the wall in left to keep them in the game, before the defense unraveled again in the bottom of the ninth. Allemond was locked in for most of the game. I wasn't impressed with the product on defense, but it is probably typical for this level.

I liked Khris Davis. When he was hot he could carry the Brewers offense. I'm not sold on Domingo Santana, but we've got a spot in the outfield and we might as well put him in the lineup and see what he can do. I realize we needed a rebuild, but it seems like every prospect we acquire was once a member of a Houston Astros farm club. If this is the route we're taking and we really want to speed it up, why not just have Attanasio trade the whole franchise to Houston for theirs? This is going to be a rough year.

I expect the tailgate parties in the parking lot to be epic, as always. As far as the product on the field, I've lowered my expectations to the point to where I only look forward to them being better than what we had back in 2002. That was the low point in my forty years of Brewer fandom and it can't possibly get any worse than that, can it?

You know it is going to be a rough season when several of the posts detail statistical based arguments on how bad the team will be. I don't think the 2016 version of the Brewers will be as bad as the 2002 team, which represents the low point of my Brewer fandom. My personal goal is that we'll turn things around in time to necessitate a deadline trade for Zach Greinke at the end of his Diamondbacks contract. Zach propels the 2021 Brewers to a World Series based on unfinished business from 2011. Go Brewers

This is the way the season ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.

We did a family trip to Kansas City last summer. Much of our time was spent chasing the kids around Worlds of Fun, but a friend of mine recommended the Steamship Arabia museum. The museum evolved from a group of friends that locate and excavate a civil war era paddle wheeler that had sunk in the Missouri River. If you have a few hours, it is worth a stop.

The start of this season reminds me too much of what we had back in the dark days of 2002. Davey Lopes got canned after the team started 3-12. Jerry Royster won his first four games as manager before the team tanked and went 49-94 the rest of the way. I suppose that we're encountering the end of the franchise turnaround cycle that started with the low point of the 2002 season. While I was surprised that they cut Roenicke loose when they did, I'm optimistic that Counsell can help the team turn things around. I keep looking at the roster and comparing it to what we had back in 2002. I'm confident that Counsell will keep our players from quitting on him. I don't think that Roenicke would have kept that from happening.

I liked Braun in the #2 spot last year. I think it made Roenicke resist the urge to bunt with a runner on first and no one out in the first inning.

I've got 10 of the 16 teams. Being an Iowa State alumni, I fell into the popular trap of picking the Cyclones for the final four. They fooled me with all of their comeback wins at the end of the Big 12 season. I did pick Wichita State to beat Kansas, but I would have never guessed that West Virginia would be one of the last two Big 12 teams left in the tournament. My sister is a Northern Iowa grad that moved to Louisville when she got married. Her husband worked in the athletic department for several years, knew Denny Crum, and their wedding reception was on the Louisville campus. She said that no matter who won, it was a loss for her. I saw Georgia State play Iowa State in Ames early in the season. Georgia State was a great story, and I wonder how far they would have went if Harrow was healthy. It was ironic that their coach couldn't move around after his injury, he would routinely be on the court shouting instructions during the game to the point where he was almost a sixth player on the court. I drew out a bracket for the wife and kids with the remaining 16 teams. The winner gets a dinner at the restaurant of their choice. My 7 year old son has Wisconsin, so I'm guessing we're headed to Chuck E Cheese again.

I've got a quote taken from a Bring Back the Stein post written on a note that hangs above my work desk: "To be a Brewers fan has always been to suffer gloriously in an attitude of defiance... more purely and honestly than the ersatz posturing of Cubs fans". I always thought that the Steins posts were some of the best pure prose you could find.

I'm ok with the signing, as long as they fine him 3 million for reporting to camp late.

I'm a firm believer that a team needs eight solid options for the starting rotation over the course of the 162 game season. Gallardo wasn't spectacular, but he took the ball every five days and logged around 200 innings. I like our options for the first five slots and am comfortable with Taylor Jungmann as number six. Beyond that, I'm a little worried. It's not like Victor Santos is our number three, but we need some other options to look at in spring training. I've been a Brewer fan for close to forty years. Historically, the number of times that the team has traded a legitimate starting pitcher has been so rare based on the limited number of rotation options that we've had on the roster. I guess I'm in a little bit of shock over the trade, but I'm also anxious to see if Sardinas, Knebel, and Diplan will pan out over the long haul. Go Brewers.

1. I was saddened and disgusted when Molitor left. At the time, I kept thinking about a statistic I had seen in the 1987 Street & Smith's baseball yearbook where they showed the team's record in games where Molitor was out of the lineup. It must have been around 10 - 40. I knew it was going to be a long time before we sniffed a winning record. They interviewed Molitor after his first World Series win with the Blue Jays and he made some comments about the series win offsetting some of the emotions he felt after he left the Brewers. 2. The Brewers were hung up on finding a left handed power bat when they traded Bichette for Reimer. I can remember Bichette having a cannon for an arm. Reimer looked like he needed a batting helmet to protect himself when he was in the outfield. 3. Cirillo was my favorite player at the time that trade went down, but I wasn't as disgusted as I was when Molitor left. The pitching was so thin, however, they I'm not sure how they would have replaced the crappy innings that they got out of Jamey Wright and Jimmy Haynes. 4. I can remember the Brewers using Craig Counsell as a late inning defensive replacement for Braun at third base. It reminded me of our JV baseball coach stopping a game to pull a kid from shortstop after he made three errors on three consecutive plays. 5. I think they attempted to trade Burnitz to San Diego for Phil Nevin, which would have been a better deal. The Brewers put way too much value on Glendon Rusch, who was one of those lefties that always seemed to find a spot on a team. I never knew why a team so bereft of talent would need a late inning pinch hitter like Lenny Harris on their roster. Mike Brantley was my "pick to click" one year on the Brewerfan Minor League forum. It always seemed like he walked more than he struck out in the minors, plus I liked him because I am old enough to remember his dad playing for the Mariners. I always thought the Brewers screwed up the players they protected in the expansion draft after the 1992 season. It bothered me that we lost Darren Holmes. I always liked his breaking stuff.

The hot start was a pleasant surprise. I will echo hawing's sentiments. Our roster resembles some of the all hit/no glove teams of the 1990s, with the exception that we're strong up the middle with LuCroy, Segura, and Gomez. The rotation has some depth, the bullpen will probably determine if we improve on 82 wins. Go Brewers

I have a connection to "the Straight Story". I grew up about 20 miles west of Prairie Du Chien and can recall seeing the lawnmower on highway 18 with the trailer and wondering what the story was on the driver. Years later there was a casting call for extras in Clermont when Lynch was filming the movie based on the story. I guess Lynch thought the bridge at Lansing was more scenic for the film, as opposed to the one between Marquette and Prairie Du Chien.

Twin Peaks was my favorite show back in the day, but I was never really able to figure out the series finale. I ran across a book about David Lynch in Barnes and Noble and read it to try and get some insight into his insanity. Now I probably understand more than I really want to.