Today was the second day of workouts at Brewers Spring Training at Maryvale Baseball Park, leaving me little time to reflect on the offseason that was for Principal Owner Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin and the Brewers going into the 2011 season. I'm not sure any person in the fanbase felt the team would appear to be this good on paper with the season six weeks from starting. That begs me to ask the question is this the greatest offseason in Brewers history?
After doing a little bit of research and pondering my media guides accumulated over the last few years, only the offseason leading up to the 1981 season seems to compare. That winter General Manager Harry Dalton went to the Winter Meetings looking to improve the team and did he ever. When it was all said and done, he had acquired Ted Simons, Pete Vukovich and Rollie Fingers. All three were vital parts of the Brewers winning the second half of the 1981 AL East and making the playoffs and winning the AL Pennant in 1982. All three are all also part of Brewers lore as some of the greatest of all time and Rollie has his number retired by the team. I'd say that's pretty good.
This offseason Melvin went out and got the 2009 AL Cy Young winner in Zack Greinke and another ace in Shaun Marcum to add to his rotation. Those moves alone were great for a team that badly needed pitching and addressed the failed moves made by Melvin the last two years with signings of Braden Looper and Doug Davis that were thought to address needs, but were more reaches and temporary stop gap moves just to fill out the rotation.
Throw in the way Melvin made both trades to bring Opening Day starters in from last season, keeping Prince Fielder in town, and it's the best move he didn't make. That alone keeps the offense on the same path from the last few seasons with pitchers having to get through a pretty solid 1-2-3-4-5.
That No. 1 in the order is also part of his great offseason. Signing Rickie Weeks for this season was not in question. It was whether or not Weeks was going to be around and the Brewers were in danger of losing the entire right side of their infield going into next season. Weeks showed what he could do when healthy and as I said in Wednesday's blog, was great for now and the future as when Prince leaves town he is likely to slide down in the order to help keep some pop and RBI opportunities alive.
All of those moves are big, but the biggest move to me could end up being the hiring of Ron Roenicke as manager of this team. He was the darkhorse pick and the guy that came out of nowhere, but Wisconsin sports fans will remember a certain coach of their now Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers was also the darkhorse in that hiring process, too. The job was supposed to go to Brad Childress. Sure he got to an NFC Title game before the Packers, but McCarthy is now the one with the Super Bowl Ring and the trophy to his credit, now.
Roenicke seems to have an idea of what he wants to do with this team and with the pieces in front of him doesn't seem to worried that this team can't do everything he wants to this year. Usually it takes a couple years. Anyone who knows what they are talking about says a manager and coach is only as good as the players on the field and if Roenicke keeps everyone grounded and pulls the right strings with this team, the Brewers could be great right away for Roenicke.
Add in some minor moves like Melvin keeping Craig Counsell in town for another year and the signing of Mark Kotsay as a bench utility player and everything seems to be coming together for this team.
Is it the best offseason EVER for the Brewers? The season will tell us for sure, but to start, it certainly could be the best since 1981. Either way it has certainly brought baseball excitement to Milwaukee and should make for a fun season at Miller Park.
Shifting gears a bit, the NBA All-Star weekend is upon us. I don't really care about the NBA, but pay attention to the Slam Dunk Competition a little bit and there is one guy everyone is watching. His name is the amazing Blake Griffin. The good folks at DeadSpin have put together all 140 of his dunks in a video. Be sure to check them out and use it as your precursor to the Slam Dunk Competition Saturday night. It should be fun.
Here’s A (Nearly) Exhaustive Video Compilation Of Blake Griffin Dunks from Deadspin on Vimeo.
Now, into the Nussie Hunter portion of the broadcast. It's been unseasonably warm here in Sconnie the last few days and it has gotten me thinking about spring and the beach. I found this gallery of Michelle Lewin on my daily run on Guyism and she fits the bill for today. Check out the preview below and be sure to check that link for more!
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