Round ‘em Up: OPENING DAY!

Happy Opening Day to everyone!!! The Milwaukee Brewers and Ben Sheets will take on the Chicago Cubs and Carlos Zambrano at 1:20 to start the season. I personally am a little sad that the Crew is battling the Cubs so often in the beginning of the season, as it would be more fun down the stretch. Plus, Chicago will not see Mike Cameron as often. Oh well, on to the Round ‘em Up for the day:

• The Milwaukee JS reports the Prince Fielder is expected to play today, even though he is still a bit under the weather. It does not explicitly say that in the article, but when it says that Prince is “feeling a little better,” it’s not too hard to figure out that he’s still sick. Still, Prince at 75% is better than 100% of Mike Rivera or Joe Dillon playing first base.The JS also runs down the final cuts and the Brewers final 25-man roster. I didn’t post it yesterday because I thought everyone already knew the roster, but I’ve gotten a few emails asking. Here you go.
• I have a plethora of predictions for you today.The Hardball Times predicts the winners in each division. The Brewers get a pretty good showing in these lists. The Reds also get some love here. Who knew?! The Baseball Savant has the Cincinnati Reds taking the division, while Milwaukee is stuck in second place. The best part (and by best, I mean funniest part) is that he has the Pittsburgh Pirates taking fourth in front of Houston and St. Louis. Oh, and that the youth of Milwaukee’s rotation makes it unreliable, but Cincinnati’s young pitchers are sure-fire studs. Good logic there.

  David Pinto from Baseball Musings has the Brewers winning the division by a good amount. He says that the young Brewers should continue to get better, and the starting rotation is not as bad as everyone thinks. Another interesting tidbit is that David believes that Milwaukee’s talent is so good that if they do not win the division, Ned Yost should be canned.

  John Sickels from Minor League Ball has many predictions for this upcoming season. Ryan Braun and Corey Hart will compete for the NL Batting Title. It is nice to see Corey getting some love in these previews. What else does John say? Your 2008 Milwaukee Brewers will be in the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. John has the Crew losing in 5 games, but it still made my day. Actually, a Brewers win against the Cubs would make my day…

• John Donovan from SI.com has his 10 Fearless Predictions of the ’08 season. Prediction number two: Ryan Braun will have a better season in ’08 than he did in ’07. That is a big prediction, but statistics say that it could definitely happen. Ryan has performed well this spring, and he will be in the bigs for a month longer than in ’07. His stats can certainly improve. Will they? I doubt it. Not because of ability, but because pitchers will be much more careful with him. Ryan’s best friend this season could be Corey Hart. If Corey can provide protection behind Ryan this season, Braun could put up MVP caliber numbers.
• RealGM Baseball says that Carlos Villanueva was one of the 10 best pitchers of this spring. If Manny Parra wouldn’t have struggled in his final outing, he could have made that list as well.
• Do you need a stress reliever? Play Whack-A-Cub! See how many Cubs you can whack in 30 seconds. I got 41 Cubs in 30 seconds. Wonderful!
• Jeff Sackmann of Brew Crew Ball has an interview with a Cubs blogger. Normally I would have been appalled by this, but the blogger is not overly biased and is intelligent. Quite a refreshing thing for a Cubs fan, I must say.

JS Notes: Capuano, Weeks, Katin

Sorry this will be so short this morning, but I have to run.  Perhaps I’ll have time later today to get you a full-out Round ‘em Up.  Here are some Journal Sentinel goodies for you:

• The Brewers wiped the floor with Seattle yesterday, beating them 17-3.  Chris Capuano left the game in the fourth inning because of soreness in his elbow.  It’s beginning to look more and more like Cappy will either start the year in Triple-A or on the DL.  Either way, it seems clear that Chris Capuano will not be in the starting rotation on Opening Day.

  Brendan Katin had a huge day against the Mariners.  Katin, a former teammate of Ryan Braun at Miami, went 3-6 with a home run and six RBI.  Not a bad day for a player who had not played in a Spring Training game yet in ’08.  I wouldn’t get too excited about Katin though, he’s not played above Double-A and he’s 25 years old.  He has zero plate discipline and strikes out too much, even for a Brewer.

  Corey Hart seems to have found his stroke.  He finished the day 2-4 with two RBI and two runs scored.  Perhaps he’s finding his swing just in time for Opening Day.  Don’t even say “See? I told you so.”  Rickie Weeks is still struggling way too much and is on the shelf with hyper-extended fingers.

• In the other game, Milwaukee tied the Chicago White Sox after 10 innings.  Neither team was able to break the 4-4 tie, so the game was just called.

  Mike Cameron and Gabe Gross supplied all the offense on a home run a piece.  Cameron hit a three-run shot that tied the game up in the 5th, and it was a pitcher’s duel after that.

  Carlos Villanueva got knocked around for the first time this spring.  He gave up four runs, only three earned, in five innings of work.  Guillermo Mota pitched two scoreless innings to follow that to continue his nice spring.

• The last article I have for you is about Rickie Weeks and how he is pressing too much.  Surprised?  I didn’t think so.  The interesting information in the article is that Doug Melvin said that Milwaukee will most likely not make a trade this spring if things do not heat up.  He said that people are looking internally to fix their problems.  They don’t want to give up the prospects, which is always difficult to do.

Yost makes first cuts

The first round of cuts happened late last night.  Hernan Iribarren, Zach Jackson, Brad Nelson, and Luis Pena are all being sent to Minor League camp to get some regular work in.  Adam McCalvy says that none of these are surprising.

I beg to differ a little bit.  Luis Pena had not given up a single run this spring.  Not one.  It’s been well chronicled on the site about how much Ned Yost likes Pena, as well.  I’m a little shocked that he’s not getting more of a look for the big league squad.  I suppose cuts like this happen when a team has as much pitching depth as the Brewers have.  It’s a good problem to have.  I would not be surprised to see Luis in a Milwaukee Brewers uniform sometime this season.

Again, this has nothing to do with the Brewers, but I was shocked enough that I had to post it.  Jason Schmidt of the Los Angeles Dodgers has been struggling through pain and fatigue stemming from his surgery he had last season.  Apparently, Jason is tired of waiting for the pain to leave because he’s decided to pitch through the pain this spring.

Way to be a martyr, Jason.  You’re really going to pitch through the pain?  The pain and fatigue that tells your body there is something wrong with your body?  The pain that is a signifier that you should take a break and give your body a chance to get better?  I understand trying to pitch through the pain because you’re sick of Dodgers fans hounding you because you haven’t pitched much since being signed, but even the oft-injured Ben Sheets knows you just shut it down when you get injured.

Part of me thinks that Jason has lost it and is giving himself an out if he pitches poorly this spring.  If he pitches well, he’s the greatest player on the team because he toughed it out.  If he pitches poorly, he can blame it on his injury.  Not a bad PR situation to be in if you’re Jason Schmidt.  Still, this is one of the stupidest things he could possibly do right now.  Unless you count punching a wall and injuring your hand like that Detroit Tigers reliever.  That was pretty stupid too.

Sheets shelled in loss to Giants

The first place Milwaukee Brewers lost 8-4 to the lowly San Francisco Giants today.  It was a day to forget for Ben Sheets and most of the other Brewer regulars.

Records: Brewers (9-5); Giants (4-10)

Batting

Rickie Weeks started the game getting hit by a pitch and a stolen base.  Mike Cameron quickly followed it up with an RBI-triple and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Prince Fielder.  Besides that, nothing too interesting happened at the plate.  It was generally a yawner of a game.

Bill Hall struggled today, going 0-3 with three strikeouts.  Let’s hope he gets away from that trend quickly.

Pitching

Ben Sheets had not been scored upon yet this spring.  That changed today, however, in a big way.  The Brewers ace gave up 8 hits, 2 walks, and 5 runs in three innings of work.  Ben will likely try to forget this outing as quickly as possible.  It was not a good showing today by Sheets.

Zach Jackson did not fair much better.  He allowed 5 hits and 3 runs in three innings.  Zach continues to show that he is not quite ready for the big leagues.  He’s beginning to be known as a Quadruple-A player.  That is, one that performs well at Triple-A, but cannot transfer that success to the big leagues.

The one bright spot for the Brewers was the work done by the bullpen.  David Riske, Guillermo Mota, and Tim Dillard continued to show their fine work this spring by throwing a scoreless inning a piece.  The ‘pen has looked very good thus far in Spring Training, and Brewers fans across the nation hope that continues into the regular season.

On Tap

The Brewers will take on the Seattle Mariners again at 3:05pm CT.  Carlos Villanueva and Chris Capuano are slated to get their innings in tomorrow.  This looks to be an important outing for Capuano, as reports have surfaced that Doug Melvin is actively shopping the lefty.  He’s been very unimpressive this spring, surrendering 8 runs in four innings.

Brewers beat Cubs again

In a rematch between the two front-runners for the NL Central, Milwaukee’s bats came out loud and strong against the Cubs’ Rich Hill.  The Brewers won the game 6-4 and were able to rack up 13 hits against their rival from the south to continue their win streak.

Records: Brewers (9-4); Cubs (5-8)

Batting

Tony Gwynn Jr., Eric Munson, and Corey Hart all went 2-3 on the day.  Munson collected two RBI, but Gwynn and Hart had no runs batted in to show for their efforts.  They both did score, however, as Tony crossed the plate twice, and Corey scored one run.

Gabe Kapler continued his hot streak at the plate, going 2-5 with an RBI.  He’s now hitting .333 this spring.  He and Gwynn are putting up a battle for starting time during the first 25 games of the season when Mike Cameron is out with his suspension.  Alcides Escobar also had a nice day, finishing 2-4.

Pitching

Ned Yost said he needed to see some big improvement from Dave Bush in the next couple outings if he expects to make the starting rotation.  Bush’s first inning did not impress anyone, as he gave up three runs to put the Brewers in an early hole.  He did settle down nicely after that, however.  Dave pitched three scoreless innings after that, while striking out four Cubs.  Perhaps that does show improvement, but it still lets me know that he cannot avoid the big inning.

Manny Parra, on the other hand, continued to impress today.  He pitched four scoreless innings and by all accounts, looked fabulous.  He only surrendered one hit and struck out four batters.  His ERA is now 1.00 in nine innings of work this spring.  He’s going to make it very difficult for Brewers coaches to keep him out of the rotation.

Brian Shouse was the only other Brewer to pitch today, and he gave up one run on two hits in the top of the ninth.  Things could have gotten much worse for the lefty, but he induced a slick double play ball that Escobar and Dillon quickly turned over.

On Tap

Ben Sheets looks to continue his fine spring tomorrow against the San Francisco Giants at 3:05pm CT.  He’ll be facing Matt Cain.

Brewers pitchers shine in wins

Since Milwaukee had its first split squad games today, this will be the first time that I put both games into one post.  In case you didn’t see the scores, Milwaukee beat Seattle 2-0.  Milwaukee turned the tables on the Mariners from last week and only allowed them to put two hits on the scoreboard.  Oakland also fell to the Brewers, 5-2.

Records: Milwaukee (7-4); Seattle (4-6); Oakland (8-3)

Batting

There was generally no offense to speak of in the Seattle game.  J.J. Hardy recorded a two-RBI double in the third inning to score the only two runs of the day.  Rickie Weeks continued to struggle at the plate today.  He went 0-3 with a strike out.  He is now hitting only .130 this spring.  It looks like those “breakout” projections are going to be a little off unless he can pick it up sometime soon before Opening Day.

The Oakland game gave Brewers fans a little more offense, but most of it came from minor league players or reserves.  Tony Gwynn Jr. continued his fine play at the plate, going 2-4 at the plate.  Cole Gillespie played in his first Spring Training game of the year, and he started it off in a big way.  He went 1-1 with a three-run bomb in the 8th inning to put the Brewers up on Oakland for good.

Pitching

In the Seattle game, Claudio Vargas pitched brilliantly.  Claudio threw five scoreless and hitless innings, while only allowing one walk.  He had the best pitching performance by a Brewers starter so far this spring.  This certainly gives him a strong case for a starting rotation spot, or perhaps he simply increased his trade value.  We’ll have to see.

Also in the Seattle game, Derrick Turnbow seems to have found a nice groove, as he pitched another scoreless inning.  He struck one batter out and did not allow a batter to get on base.  Seattle’s first hit came against Eric Gagne in the seventh inning, but it didn’t much matter.  Eric shut the door on the rest of the batters he faced and also posted a scoreless inning.  It’s very nice to see those two have a couple nice outings in a row.  Minor leaguers Erasmo Ramirez and Tim Dillard also pitched scoreless innings to hold Seattle scoreless for the game.

Now to the Oakland game.  Non-roster invitee, Chris Narveson, also had a very successful outing for the Crew.  He pitched four scoreless innings with two strike outs, while giving up two hits and a walk.  The 26-year old used to be a prospect in the St. Louis organization before needing surgery on his arm.  It looks like he’s bounced back rather nicely and could provide some quality depth in Nashville this season.

Mitch Stetter worked one scoreless inning and struck out two A’s.  Luis Pena continued his fine spring by throwing another scoreless inning.  He may make a charge for a bullpen spot if he continues to pitch like this.  Everyone that’s seen him pitch this spring has said that he’s looked extremely good.  Seth McClung gave up one run on two hits, while striking out one.  That is certainly not a bad outing, but compared to all the scoreless frames Brewers pitchers put up, it does look that way.  Fantastic work by Brewers pitchers today.

On Tap

Dave Bush gets the start tomorrow against the Chicago Cubs at 3:05pm CT.  Dave looks to rebound from a couple rough starts.  Ned Yost called him out yesterday and said that Dave needs to show some major improvement to secure a spot in the starting rotation.

Cameron sparks Brewers win

Batting

Mike Cameron hit his second home run for the Brewers this spring.  His homer came in the bottom of the first and sparked the rest of the scoring for the Crew.  Mike also walked later in the game, which is exactly what Yost wants to see from him.

Joe Dillon smacked a two-run bomb off Royals pitcher Chin-hui Tsao in the 8th inning.  He also added an RBI-single later in the game to finish 2-4 and a three-RBI night.  Not too bad at all.  Ryan Braun extended his hitting streak to five games.  Alcides Escobar, Melvin’s prized prospect, had a nice day, going 1-2 with two-RBI double in the 8th.  He’s only hitting .167 this spring, but perhaps this will help him turn it around.  Corey Hart finally broke out of his little slump today.  He only went 1-2, but it’s a start.  He needed to get out of his little funk.

Pitching

Jeff Suppan had a shaky day at the office today.  He gave up three hits in the first inning, but managed to only surrender one run.  He finished the day with 5 hits and 2 runs against him, along with 2 walks and a strike out.  Not exactly what Brewers fans want to see out of their $40M man.

The bullpen, however, pitched brilliantly.  They went six innings and did not give up a run.  David Riske pitched well today, giving up one hit and striking out one batter in an inning of work.  Randy Choate and Guillermo Mota continued their fine pitching today, as they both pitched a scoreless inning.  Both are yet to surrender a run this spring.  Choate could be challenging for a spot in the bullpen if he keeps this up.  Steve Bray and Jason Shiell also worked scoreless innings today.

Records: Brewers (6-4); Royals (5-5)

On Tap

Claudio Vargas will take the mound for Milwaukee tomorrow.  The Brewers get a rematch with the Seattle Mariners tomorrow.  The M’s will trot out Miguel Batista out to start.  Here’s hoping that the Brewers manage more than two hits this time.  The game will start at 3:05pm CT.  Remember to set your clocks ahead an hour tonight!

Brewers rally to beat Rangers

The Milwaukee Brewers spotted the Rangers a three run lead, but they managed to crawl their way back to win. The 9-8 win puts the Crew back over .500 for Spring Training.

Records: Brewers (5-4); Rangers (5-4)

Batting

Ryan Braun hit a three-run shot in the fifth inning, his second homer in as many days. Braun finished 1-2 with a walk for the day, bringing his Spring Training average to .353. Jason Kendall continued his hot hitting as well, going 2-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. He’s now hitting .412 for the spring. I certainly hope, and so do many Brewers fans, that Kendall will continue to produce this well in April.

Vinny Rottino gave the Brewers the lead for good with a go-head two-RBI single in the 8th inning. Vinny is going to make the backup catcher position a very difficult battle and decision for Ned Yost.

I reported yesterday that Corey Hart has struggled mightily in Spring Training thus far, and that did not change today. Corey went 0-3 with two strike outs. He’s now batting a measly .190 this spring.

Pitching

Chris Capuano got the start today, and everything seemed fine through two innings. He cruised along nicely until disaster struck in the third. Chris gave up six runs without recording a single out. His performance forced Yost to end his day early, and Luis Pena finished the inning for Cappy. This goes with the criticism leveled on Cappy today in my Player Profile. He does fine to start the game, but when batters have a chance to see him once or twice, they crush him.

Carlos Villanueva aslo got his work in today. His day was a bit mixed. He only gave up one run in three innings, striking out two batters, but he also gave up three hits and three walks. Those stats are a little worrisome, but it’s only three innings of his spring. He’ll bounce back. He was able to limit the damage against him, unlike Capuano earlier in the game.

Seth McClung recorded the save for the Brewers, striking out two in the 8th inning. Brian Shouse struggled a bit today. He only gave up one run, but surrendered three hits in one inning on the mound. Past performance on Shouse tells Brewers fans that he’ll come back again in a couple days and throw the ball well.

On Tap

Milwaukee stays in Phoenix to play the Kansas City Royals tomorrow at 2:05pm CT. Jeff Suppan is slated to get the start for the Crew. He looks to pitch a bit better than he did in his last outing, in which he gave up two runs in three innings.

Mariners shut down Brewers bats

Ben Sheets may have won the battle of the aces against Felix Hernandez early in the game, but the Milwaukee Brewers were unable to pull out the victory against the Mariners. The Crew only managed two hits in the game and lost 5-2.

Records: Milwaukee (4-4); Seattle (4-3)

Batting

The Brewers struggles mightily at the plate today. They only managed two hits and did not draw a single walk against the Mariner pitchers today. Ryan Braun and Rickie Weeks both socked home runs off of Felix Hernandez early in the game, but those were the only hits all day for the Brewers. That’s simply an awful day at the ballpark for the hitters today.

Corey Hart continued to slump at the dish. He was 0-2 with two strikeouts today. Let’s just hope that he’s progressing slowly this spring and that he’ll turn it on in a couple weeks. Matt LaPorta struggled for the first time in a Brewers uniform today, going 0-3 with a strikeout. Nothing to worry about here, just something to note.

Pitching

Ben Sheets cruised again in his three inning stint. He gave up only two hits in those three innings and struck out three. It’s been great to see Benny throwing the ball so well in Phoenix. He’s been notorious in the past couple seasons for struggling in the Arizona dry-heat.

Zach Jackson got saddled with the loss today. He gave up three runs, but they were all unearned thanks to Rickie Week’s third error of the spring. Rickie needs to pick it up defensively at the second base position if the Brewers are going to compete in the NL Central this season. He’s continued to improve every season, but this is not a good sign for things to come in ’08.

Derrick Turnbow and Eric Gagne both threw scoreless innings for the Crew today. Derrick continued his fine pitching this spring, and it is nice to see Eric perhaps get a little more comfortable in a Brewers uniform. It’s way too early to tell, but it’s still a good sign. Mitch Stetter gave up a two-out, two-run home run in the 8th inning that put the game out of reach for the Crew. From the sounds of it, Mitch did not pitch too badly for the most part. He simply made a bad pitch with two outs. Still, his struggles this spring thus far make it unlikely that he’ll make the Opening Day roster. There’s plenty of time though.

On a defensive note, Jason Kendall threw out the M’s second baseman, Willie Bloomquist on a strike ‘em out-throw ‘em out play. It may seem rather insignificant, but Kendall showed some people that he can throw out a runner at second base. Perhaps Yost’s “mechanical adjustment” is making a difference already. Wouldn’t that be nice?

On Tap

The Brewers will have a rematch with the Texas Rangers tomorrow at 2:05pm CT. Ned Yost will change up the schedule a bit and start Carlos Villanueva, with Chris Capuano also pitching to get his work in.

Doubles galore in Brewers win

The Brewers moved over .500 in Spring Training today with a 12-6 win over the Texas Rangers.

Batting

Craig Counsell lead the Brewers today, going 2-3 with 3 RBIs and a run to spark the Brewers to a 9-0 start.  It was very impressive to see Craig come out and see the ball well, especially since fans were beginning to wonder whether or not he can help enough offensively to make the team.

Bill Hall and Gabe Kapler both had a very nice day as well.  Bill went 2-4 with 2 runs and an RBI, while Gabe finished 1-2 with a two-RBI double.  Gabe has seen the ball very well the last couple days.

Pitching

Manny Parra pitched extremely well today.  He went 3 innings, gave up 2 hits, no runs, no walks, and four strikeouts.  Tom Haudricourt said that Manny Parra looked very, very good.  He’s been my favorite candidate for the 5th spot, but he’s beginning to try to kick that door to the starting rotation open.  I don’t think that Yost can keep him out of the rotation if he continues to pitch like he did today.

Dave Bush, on the other hand, struggled today.  He cruised through his first two innings, but he hit a wall after that.  Bush gave up five runs in the 6th inning, even though only three of those runs were earned.  In five innings of work this Spring Training, Bush has given up six earned runs and 10 hits.  He’ll need to pitch better than that to make the starting rotation.

Other than the two starters, David Riske struggled a bit, giving up three hits and a run, but Guillermo Mota and Randy Choate have continued their fine pitching.  Neither of them have given up a run this spring.  Perhaps Mota is not as bad as we all thought?

Records: Milwaukee (4-3); Texas (4-3-1)

On Tap

Milwaukee will play the Seattle Mariners tomorrow.  It will be a battle between Felix Hernandez and Ben Sheets.  It should be a fun game for the first few innings.

Most Important Relievers

The Sports Bubbler continued today with its bullpen preview.  They present their case that says Derrick Turnbow and Brian Shouse are the most important relievers this year.

I agree with their sentiment that Derrick is criticized way too much, as he did convert 87% of his leads last year.  It just so happens that when he’s off, many runs are about to cross the plate.  Brian Shouse, on the other hand, impressed me a lot last year.  I had been critical of him at times the previous season, but that changed last season.  How can you be critical of a guy who only allowed 24.6% of his inherited runners to cross the plate?  Not to mention converting 88% of his leads.

While they are important cogs in the machine, Turnbow and Shouse are not the most important pieces of the ‘pen.  They are known quantities.  Pitchers like Eric Gagne and Guillermo Mota could be huge for the Crew this year if they can bounce back after rough second halves of the season.  The unknown pitchers are the ones that are the most important in my eyes because I have no idea what to expect from them.  They have to pan out for the bullpen to be good this year.

Update on the Oakland game:

Brewers are winning 3-0 in the bottom of the 1st.

Normally I would not update you during the game because you can do that yourself, but I could not contain my excitement.  It is the first inning of the first Spring Training game and Ryan Braun already has a 2-run home run off of Joe Blanton.  Prince blasted an RBI-double just before Braun’s homer that scored Mike Cameron, who got a base hit in his first Brewers appearance.

In case you didn’t know, Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun are beasts.

Spring Training begins Today!

Ah, Spring Training is officially upon us.  The Milwaukee Brewers will take on the Oakland A’s starting at 2pm central time.  The batting order for the Brewers is very interesting.  I’m reluctant to read too much into it, as it’s just the first game, but it seems like Yost was not just kicking ideas around fruitlessly.  Here’s the lineup today:

2B – Rickie Weeks
CF – Mike Cameron
1B – Prince Fielder
LF – Ryan Braun
RF – Corey Hart
3B – Bill Hall
SS – J.J. Hardy
DH – Gabe Gross
C – Jason Kendall
P – Claudio Vargas (not batting)

As you can see, Yost has Cameron batting 2nd and moved Hardy down to the 7th spot in the order.  He had talked about doing that, and it does make a lot of sense because Cameron sees a lot of pitches per at-bat.  Prince Fielder is third in this lineup, batting in front of Ryan Braun.  Yost is committed to freeing up Ryan on the base paths a bit and letting him steal more to utilize his speed.  Batting in front of Prince hinders this ability because if Braun steals second, the opposing team would usually just walk Prince.  With this lineup, teams have to pitch to both monsters.

Jason Kendall is batting in the 9th spot, just as Yost talked about.  It is a little too early to get too excited about this because there is no pitcher’s spot in the order, but it could be signs for things to come.  Maybe Kendall will bat 9th in the regular season.  If you would like to read it, David Pinto from SportingNews believes this to be a good idea for the Brewers.  In his analysis, the advantage in switching Kendall to the 9th spot is only 0.1 runs per game, but he applauds Yost for doing anything to make his team better and thinking out of the box.

Do you all want Kendall in the 9th spot in the batting order?

“Home” Brewers are victorious

Brewers players finally got to take a break from doing drills constantly today and played a little intrasquad game.  The “home” team came away victorious today, but the teams will square off again tomorrow before playing their first true game against Oakland on Thursday.

The game today was abbreviated, only 4 1/2 innings, and the final score was 2-1.

Bill Hall was the hero of today’s game, as he smashed a two-run double off the fence to score Hernan Iribarren and Craig Counsell in the third inning.  Claudio Vargas gave up the winning runs, as Hall’s drive nearly cleared the top of the fence for a home run.

Gabe Gross plated the only run for the “visiting” team on a two-out single.

Spring Training preview: Defense

Here’s a defensive chart from Baseball Think Factory:

Team	1B DRS	2B DRS	3B DRS	SS DRS	LF DRS	CF DRS	RF DRS	C DRS	DRS SUM
PHI	-13	20	-1	-2	-5	3	13	8	23
NYM	-1	-4	1	15	-4	12	2	-2	20
ATL	3	-6	9	-9	8	-3	0	-1	-1
WAS	-14	1	13	-14	-2	1	7	6	-2
FLA	-1	-18	-28	-13	-11	-5	8	-1	-70

STL	12	5	24	-10	-2	-6	-7	8	25
CHC	-1	13	3	1	3	9	0	-8	21
CIN	8	1	-1	0	-3	1	-2	1	7
PIT	9	-14	-10	-6	-2	16	-11	-1	-19
MIL	-8	-12	-5	-10	3	-14	0	-2	-48
HOU	-5	-7	-16	-1	-23	-5	-6	2	-61

SF	10	-6	26	25	-9	-4	-6	2	36
COL	10	19	-14	16	14	-8	-6	-2	30
SD	1	9	2	9	15	-1	4	-22	17
ARI	-3	4	-2	-9	12	2	6	6	15
LAD	-7	-8	-1	8	7	2	1	6	8

Total	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Max	12	20	26	25	15	16	13	8	36
Min	-14	-18	-28	-14	-23	-14	-11	-22	-70
Range	26	38	54	38	38	30	23	30	107

The Milwaukee Brewers were one of the poorest defensive teams in the National League, with only Houston and Florida posting worse numbers. If you compare Milwaukee’s -48 DRS sum to Chicago’s 21, one can easily tell that a weak defense was one of the leading reasons to why the Cubs were able to win the NL Central down the stretch.

Doug Melvin’s emphasis on improving Milwaukee’s defense has been well-chronicled this off-season, and I think it would be prudent to delve into how the Cameron and Kendall signings, along with Hall and Braun’s position changes, will affect Milwaukee’s defense. I understand using these numbers will only allow a superficial assessment, but it is still worth exploring.

Mike Cameron looks to improve one of the weakest positions on the field this season. Milwaukee’s center fielders put up the worst defensive numbers in the NL last season, as is evidenced by the -14 DRS in the table. Mike Cameron, on the other hand contributed to the -1 rating for the San Diego Padres from last season. If one plugs in the -1 the position, Milwaukee’s center field defense immediately becomes league average.

Everyone knows that Ryan Braun struggled at third base last season. With Craig Counsell and Tony Graffinino taking 1/3 of the starts at 3B, the defensive rating still comes to a -5 DRS. It is reasonable to assume that without Counsell or Graffinino starting at the beginning of the year and occasionally filling in during the later innings, Braun would have brought the third baseman’s ranking near the bottom for Milwaukee. There is no way to measure the improvement Bill Hall will bring to the third base position, but it is certain that Milwaukee’s defense improves. Assuming that Hall will still split time with Counsell occasionally, I will arbitrarily increase the rating to a modest 0.

With Bill Hall moving to third base, Braun will transition to left field. This transition will certainly come with some growing pains, so it is unreasonable to assume that Braun will be able to match the fine defense provided by Geoff Jenkins and to a lesser extent, Kevin Mench. The rating will certainly travel to the negative side, but Ryan should certainly perform better in the outfield than he did at third. I will decrease the rating to a -1, as Braun’s big arm and athleticism should allow him to quickly learn the left field position.

At this point, Milwaukee’s defense has improved by 14 points so far on this DRS scale.

Now on to Jason Kendall. Much has been made of Kendall’s poor defense, and this table echoes that sentiment. Kendall played for two teams last year (Oakland and Chicago), and both of their ratings are negative (-5 and -8, respectively). Since Kendall played much more of the season with Oakland, one can assume that his defense affected Oakland’s rating more. I feel comfortable assigning Kendall’s defense a -6 for Milwaukee, which is a decrease from the -2 DRS that Milwaukee’s catcher position had last season. This decreases Milwaukee’s defensive improvement to only 10 points.

That takes care of the new faces and position changes for Milwaukee. One more position needs to be addressed, however. Rickie Weeks has improved his defense at second base in the past two seasons, but it is still below average (a -12) for the National League. With Rickie’s athleticism and range in the infield, he should continue his improvement. He is now injury-free and his heightened confidence at the plate should translate somewhat to the field. A conservative estimate for Rickie’s improvement would be a -9.

With this analysis, Milwaukee’s defense only improves by 13 points. That said, the defense as a whole should improve with the strong emphasis on defense in Spring Training. It may simply be a Brewers’ bias coming through, but the team’s defense as a whole should improve. For the purposes of this assessment, I will take a stand and give Milwaukee’s defense a conservative upgrade of 9 points as a whole. This puts the improvement to 22 points, and -26 overall. Unfortunately, this would still rate the Brewers as a below-average defensive team. I think that is a fairly accurate assessment of the team’s defensive ability. With the offensive firepower the Crew has to offer, however, they should be able to balance out the defensive problems somewhat.

In all, expect Milwaukee’s defense to improve this year. Just don’t expect it to take giant leaps forward. Milwaukee’s offense will have to carry the team, and the starting pitching will have to pitch deeper into games. That said, anything is possible with this young Brewers team. It should be a fun year to watch.

Spring Training preview

PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT TODAY! The season is right around the corner…

If you have not read Tom Haudricourt’s Spring Training preview piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, you should. There is no new news coming from the article, but it puts everything together pretty nicely.

The only new information that can be gleaned from the article is that the bullpen is already set.

“We pretty well can pencil in the bullpen, unless somebody falls on their face,” said Melvin, who is counting on newcomer Eric Gagne to re-establish himself as a reliable closer.

“In previous years, we’ve had to count on somebody from Triple-A to fill that last one or two bullpen spots. We have more experience out there now, guys who can go multiple innings, guys who can go back-to-back days.”

This Milwaukee team has more depth than the team has had in many years. The “win-now” mentality shown by Melvin and Yost has brought in veteran players to compliment the young core of players, yet Melvin has not had to sacrifice the farm system to get these players (see the Mariners, Mets, and Astros). As I have said before, Milwaukee cannot sacrifice the farm and gamble everything on winning this season. Small-market teams have to produce their own talent to compete, and it is beginning to look like Brewers fans may be able to enjoy a string of winning seasons.