How good must Betancourt be to satisfy Brewers fans?

First off, Happy Opening Day of Spring Training to you and yours!
There was a lot of talk last week and I had a couple thing going on so I didn't have a chance to get to it, but Yuniesky Betancourt stands to be at the center of a lot of controversy this season as the new Brewers starting shortstop. There was plenty written by the two man Brewers beat writers about him last week. Most of that downplayed his weaknesses with the team brass doing a bit of spinning the numbers and trying to sell the acquisition to the fans. Tom Haudricourt's piece in the Journal-Sentinel had a different take: He's no better than Alcides Escobar.
It was a bit different, but he's right. Clearly the two players are at opposite ends of their careers, so us fans looked at what Escobar did last year a bit differently than Betancourt's season, despite eerily similar numbers. Here they are, in case you were curious, courtesy of MLB.com. (Betancourt stats | Escobar stats)
That leads to a key question: How good does Betancourt have to be to satisfy Brewers fans?
To truly answer that question, it is clear he doesn't have to lead the team in home runs. The top five Brewers hitters can jockey for that honor with the likes of Rickie Weeks, Corey Hart, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Casey McGehee all capable of hitting the long ball. So, that responsibility is off the board.
He doesn't have to lead the team in RBIs. Again, last year four of those five guys had over 100 RBIs and that one that didn't many are expecting a career year as he nears toward free agency of the biggest payday of his life.
The answer is a tad complex, but straight forward. He just has to be a smart player. The team will win in spite of him if he has another season with a .299 on-base percentage and cannot live with his bevy of errors in the field. He will hit in the bottom-third of the batting order, but has been speculated already that he could he sixth. Still, odds are he will hit seventh or eighth and will need to take pitches in front of the pitcher and at least pretend like he has a clue. Expecting a drastic change from his erratic ways either in front of or behind another free-swinger in Carlos Gomez, may be too much to ask, but like Gomez, he must take the walks that are out there and not get himself out.
"Esky" as some fans in Kansas City called him, does have some pop and did lead the Royals in RBIs last season. They weren't staggering numbers by any means, but it's a start and he is capable of getting the big hit with runners on base. With manager Ron Roenicke thinking of hitting him sixth, he's looking for a way to give some pop behind McGehee and offer him some sort of protection. If he's hitting .238 that won't be much help at all, but he'll surely see pitches that will give him a chance to drive in runs. Roenicke may be onto something there. It wouldn't be uncalled for to try to give him a shot in the No. 6 slot.
Of course, it could go sour and the worst case scenario is that Betancourt has to slide down the order to No. 7 or No. 8. Or, as Roenicke hinted on the first day of camp, No. 9 was he's entertained the idea of hitting the pitcher eighth. He is a career .272 hitter and if he can have that average, the team will be overjoyed with him. It's the 3.4 percent walk rate everyone wants him to improve on. The guy could get it up to 10 percent, still not good, but better, and those same people would be overjoyed. It seems that simple.
What about in the field for Betancourt? He had exactly the number of errors as Escobar last season. As the Brewers brass has said, better pitching will put fewer balls in play and make guys look like better fielders. That's not a false statement and could help not only Betancourt, but everyone in the field for the Brewers are are marginal defenders. But for Betancourt in particular improving just slightly and not throwing the ball away, or throwing it at all for that matter, on close plays is what he needs to strive for.
Basically, no one is asking Betancourt to be great. Essentially, fans just don't want him to be "bad." Here's hoping he can at least pull that off.

Now to the Nussie Hunter portion of today's show and having had the Oscars on in the background while doing some prep work for a certain high school sports Web site that I have just signed on to do some work for, I couldn't help but notice Mila Kunis. While she didn't win any awards, she certainly caught eyes. Yes, there's a reason she's one of the Wilber's Way favorites.

Forte, not Cutler Bears most valuable weapon

Note: Before I get started today, I just wanted to say thanks and Happy New Year to all the loyal "Followers" of The Way. I have made it a resolution to make this more of a priority to write in the New Year. To think I made 100 posts during the first sixth months, but just 55 over the last year and it showed I have slipped. Well, it's time to get back at it. So here goes edition No. 1. Hope you enjoy it!


I know all of my Packers fans friends are gloating today because their team knocked off the Bears Sunday at Lambeau Field. For a game that meant nothing, I thought the Bears played well enough to have a chance to win at the end, which they did. What do I take from it? Well, that was a bit hard to come to, but after a little thought I finally did. If a team can take away the special teams edge the Bears usually get with Devin Hester either returning the ball or forcing bad punts and big turnovers, the offense has a hard time going 80 yards consistently. But whose offense doesn't? I'm not worried about that.
Yes, most of the offensive attention goes to Jay Cutler, but with the production of the pictured above, Matt Forte, the Bears have a guy that for the first time since some player named Walter Payton to run for 1,000 yards and have 500 receiving yards. And to think he did most of that with just about half a season to work after Mike Martz didn't utilize him fully at the start of the season. He said so himself after Sunday night's game to the Chicago Tribune, "If we had run it a little earlier we may have 1,500 or 1,600 yards." He's not looking back and I'm pretty sure the offense not going to Forte more in Sunday's game was a way to not give too much away going into playoffs. He and Chester Taylor are the keys to the offense and are the balance needed from keeping Jay Cutler from going catatonic and throwing balls to the guys in the wrong colored jerseys.
Those back-to-back 20+ yard runs were great and we should have seen more from him. We can't let this go to waste.
And talk all you will about the defense giving up yards, the fact is, they don't give up points. So don't worry!


The playoffs and the road to Super Bowl 45 is set. Can you see any one team in the NFC having a bigger advantage over another team? I don't. I can see the Bears winning two games and going to Dallas and at the same time, I can see them laying an egg on my birthday and ending the season. That's how close I think this NFC field is. That's including the Seahawks who are 11-point home dogs to the defending champion Saints.
The Packers go on the road to Philly and I am leaning towards giving the Packers the edge. Both teams are completely different than what they were in Week 1 of the season with the edge when it comes to shutting down Mike Vick and that offense. If they can keep DeShaun Jackson from going nuts on them on both offense and on kick returns like they did Devin Hester Sunday, they have a shot. But the one thing the Eagles have to do is keep Aaron Rodgers from getting into any kind of rhythm and the complete lack of a running game will make this a nightmare for the Packers.
In the other NFC game, the Saints are the big favorite, but I wouldn't count them out. I like their secondary against Drew Brees to at least give the Seahawks a chance to do some damage and keep it close. If they do that, all it takes is one big play when it matters and things go their way. That said, I think the Saints can find a way to win this game because of the speed they have in Reggie Bush underneath. It's one thing to confuse a rookie in Sam Bradford, but to keep Drew Brees guessing, that takes something special.
Does the AFC picture even matter? A little, sure, but does anyone stand a shot against the Patriots? I'll have my full Wildcard Weekend preview later this week.

OK folks, time to get on to the Nussie Hunter portion of today's broadcast. There is news today one of our favorites here at Wilber's Way, Mila Kunis, is now single. And she was dating Macaulay Culkin of all people? Well, they have parted ways and has put him as the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter all day since news broke. We need to change that and get the attention back on her. So here you go with a great shot below and this link to more great photos of the best thing to come out of That '70s Show.

The dust finally settled on Black Wednesday at Miller Park

Wow, for about 90 minutes today, I didn't do much of anything at the office today. It was a day of combing the web looking up high school football information when a little message popped up on Facebook, then another and then I couldn't ignore it any longer.
Yep, today turned into Black Wednesday at Miller Park as coaches and players were put on notice (Hopefully your favorite beer man is still around!) .
General Manager Doug Melvin's ousting of pitching coach Bill Castro and demotion of J.J. Hardy came first. The Castro move, I saw coming. I mean, this staff is bad and someone has to go.
The Hardy move was a bit surprising, but a welcome one. The related roster move brings touted prospect Alcedes Escobar to the majors and gives him a chance to shine.
I'm all about this, as it's becoming clear nothing is going to get this team into the playoffs at this point with the Cardinals rolling atop the NL Central and the Giants cruising in the NL Wild Card race.
Not 15 minutes after I read that note by Tom Haudricourt, I refresh the J-S Brewers page and see a new post "Now Hall is Out" Whoa! Melvin really rolling today.
Bill really only spent three days in the minors the first time he was down after Corey Hart's appendix burst and he needed emergency surgery.
All of these moves are ones at this point in the season are meant to shake up the team. When Tom talked to Melvin around 1 today, he made it clear this was not the white flag of surrender. And heck, now the owner is chiming in. Trying to deliver a bit of damage control, it seems.
J.J. says he's burnt out and won't join the Sounds while they are in Salt Lake City. He'll wait for them to return to Nashville.
Castro is said to be one of the nicest guys in the game and I was waiting to see what he had to say about things. Tom H. got a hold of him and he's going to see if there's anything he can do within the organization.
Well, everyone on the team is saying the team is still in it and they believe, but I need a little life in this team again before I start thinking that way. The way the losses keep piling up and the Cardinals keep winning, it's not getting any better.

OK, that was enough negative and news for today. Time for some funny/lighter content.
Got a bit of a debate going on with this next item. Is it real or is it fake. It was a heated topic on Covino and Rich the other day. See for yourself. Pretty cool either way!



And because it was such a rough day, the Nussie Hunter decided to let me pick who we should feature today. Told him I needed a pick me up and he knew right who I was talking about. So Mila Kunis graces the pages today. Hope you enjoy. Now to get to this new-look Brewers game.