Just a couple of weeks ago in this space I talked about areas that were weaknesses for this Brewers team and one of the glaring ones was Carlos Gomez. The center fielder lost his starting job last year because of his performance in the batter's box, but with the trade of Lorenzo Cain to Kansas City, Gomez has earned another chance. As I said last night in this space, I don't get too worked up over spring training, but can get encouraged by what I see.
History will show that Casey McGehee was a long shot to make the 2009 roster as a non-roster invitee to camp, but hit his way onto the team that spring and became the starter at third base within a couple months. The rest is history.
Go-Go has an equal task of proving he is the right man to start in center field for the Brewers. Neither myself or the team have much concern about his ability to play in the field. He came into camp knowing he had to work on his approach at the plate and to this point, he has.
In playing in 10 games, in which he has 33 ABs, he has 12 hits, good enough for a .364 average. (Full spring stats are here) Again, I'm not getting too excited over this, but it shows his work with hitting coach Dale Svuem have helped him considerably. It is a small sample, but he has yet to take a walk and the one area he has to improve most is in his on-base percentage. He has a career .296 OBP so it's an area he has to work on. Roenicke has said not to expect big changes from him, but if there is a move in a positive direction, it could be sign of things to come if he continues to work on it.
He told Tom Haudricourt of the Journal-Sentinel he has been working on keeping his head straight when he swings. What you watch for is how that will continue if he hits a cold spell during the season and has to hit himself out of it. That's when he would have to push the most to get out of it. If he can stay true to what he has been working on and work himself out of those ups and downs during the season, he would be better for it and would become the player the team wants him to be.
If he doesn't, well the search would be on and he'd be one of the guys to get moved into a platoon in center field. At this point, it's worth another shot for Gomez and if he can hit .270 and have a .330 OBP the Brewers and fans would be thrilled. It's not an unreasonable leap to doubt that he can do it, but in four seasons in the Majors, he hasn't shown that he can just yet.
Switching gears to a little pop culture now. The Fighter was one of the best movies I've seen in a couple years. I was just happy it was a sports movie too. There is talk today Mark Wahlberg is working the idea around Hollywood about "The Fighter 2" continuing the story of Micky Ward onto his three epic battles with Artoro Gatti. He wouldn't break them up into separate movies, but do just one more movie with all three fights in there. After watching the video below, I'd say it has the makings to be something special, at least in the fight scenes.
Onto the Nussie Hunter portion of today's broadcast. I'm sure if you've paid any attention to the rags you've heard of Justene Jaro. Well, here sister Dawn is equally as amazing. Take a look at the sample below, then follow it up with a few better looks at DJ Mick.
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