Top five Brewers storylines entering spring training

As the calendar turns to February today, it's serious time to start thinking about Spring Training. The Brewers don't report until February 15, but things are already building as to five key storylines to follow when the Brew Crew gets into Marvale Baseball Park outside Phoenix.

Topping the list of what to watch for is Ryan Braun. Simply, how will he respond to his lowest year as a pro and probably person? On top of the suspension that forced him to miss the final 65 games of the 2013 season, Braun battled injuries and missed almost 40 more games. As I wrote last month, it will be interesting to see how Braun responds to being back this season. Any offense the team missed last season can be addressed with a healthy Braun in the middle of the lineup. Things are going to get dicey on the road this season when opposing fans let Braun hear it.

Are the Brewers asking Braun to deliver MVP caliber numbers? Simply, no. They are just looking for production in line with the back of his baseball card. That would be in the area of about a .312 batting average with 36 home runs and 112 RBI.

Braun won't need to do too much if the first base position, No. 2 on my list of Brewers storylines to watch, delivers more than it did in 2013. First, the Mark Reynolds signing, then the return of Lyle Overbay, have shown that the organization realizes it's a need, but doesn't mean it will be a shining star this season. 

The team was banking on Corey Hart sticking around, and his absence will create a mix and match solution for the short term 

The third story to watch is the Rickie Weeks riddle. What will the Brewers do with him in spring training. These things have a way of working themselves out, but the Brewers have basically hinted they plan to trade Weeks and start with the season with Scooter Gennett at second base. An $11 million guy in a platoon seems a bit much for the Brewers to handle and they would probably like to pawn off some of that salary, but would need to open up the spot fo Gennett, if he delivers in Spring Training, too. 

Pitching seems to always be a need no matter the team and the signing of Matt Garza makes it less of one for the Brewers. The bullpen, however, does have plenty of unanswered questions. Most of those revolve around roles for those who will spend their time in front of Friday's Front Row Sports Grill at Miller Park. Jim Henderson is slated to start the season as closer, but the signing of Garza has bumped Tyler Thornburg to the bullpen as a possible set up man, along with the newly acquired Will Smith from the Royals in the Nori Aoki trade. Brandon Kintzler's name has been mentioned as a setup man, as he came through in that role at the end of last season. Rob Wooten saw time and shined last year, as well, so he should be back. Beyond those names, things are open for discussion. Do the Brewers take a look at Francisco Rodriguez once again (He is available)? Does a non-roster invitee like Zach Duke make the team?

How that plays out will likely decide the No. 5 storyline of the spring. What does the future hold for manager Ron Roenicke in Milwaukee? As I wrote this week, whispers are circling that if things don't end well this season for the Crew, Running Ron, the Brewers could part ways with him. Now I don't see that happening, barring a complete collapse, but that won't stop people from talking. Roenicke has shown at times he thinks way outside the box with his stealing of bases and bunt calls from guys who should not give up an at-bat, but those are marginal things. As a whole, he has not lost the clubhouse at all in his time here. The last two seasons, the team could have cashed out on the season and they came back to finish strong. That's a sign of something that should mean he sticks around for at least another year.

A couple others worth mentioning that just missed the list...

How do Jean Segura and Carlos Gomez follow up their breakout 2013 seasons?

Can Aramis Ramirez avoid a major injury this season and be a factor at the plate?

Will Jim Henderson, who had not closed Major League games before, be able to back up his 2013?

Can Kris Davis make it as an every day left fielder?

How will Ryan Braun fare in right field?

Who will hit leadoff?

Weeks a player without a position to start season for Brewers

Rickie Weeks won't make any excuses about it. That's what makes him so likeable, but coming off the worst statistical season of his career before he tore his hamstring so bad it needed surgery to repair it, the Brewers' second baseman preps for spring training knowing his $11 million salary makes him a player without a position.

That's because after his injury last season, the Brewers gave full reigns of second base to Scooter Gennett after the injury and Gennett proceeded to hit .353 with a .381 on-base percentage. Weeks, on the other hand did not have a batting average over .186 for all of May last season and had to fight to finish with a .209 average before he was injured August 8 in San Francisco.

Brewers brass has been very clear this offseason about their plans for second base with manager Ron Roenicke saying he is set to start the season with Gennett at second. General Manager Doug Melvin and assistant GM Gord Ash are hoping Weeks comes to Spring Training in Maryvale healthy and can show he can play to show other teams he is a viable piece to trade for.

At 5-foot-10 Weeks is not an option at first base, and cannot play any other infield position, so keeping him on board as a utility infielder is out of the picture.

As for a bench spot for Weeks if he is platooned with Gennett, that does't seem likely either. Again the $11 million tab on his contract pays a part of that and the other part is left-handed Scooter hit just fine against right and left-handed pitching last season. The thought would be to see how he did for a full season. 

The bench will be a post for a later day, but if the Brewers go with five position players on the bench, one would be Logan Schaefer and Caleb Gindl would likely be kept as another outfielder. As for infielders, Lyle Overbay or Mark Reynolds would get one spot depending on which was not playing that night. Jeff Bianchi can play the other three infield positions and seems a likely option on the bench, as well. That leaves Martin Maldinado as the backup catcher on the bench. Where that leaves Weeks (and Juan Francisco) is trade bait.

Barring a Gennett injury in Spring Training that means Weeks, the longest tenured Brewer after Corey Hart left has limited time left as a Milwaukee Brewer. It's not a great time for him, but maybe a change in scenery will serve him well. He has not been the same since his severe ankle injury in 2011, the year he made the All-Star team.

As for where Weeks could end up, the Miami Marlins are the only team linked to him this winter publicly. The Brewers will likly only be able to get prospects for Weeks and will have to eat some of his salary themselves. He has done himself well in the clubhouse and he team would do what they could to put him in a position to succeed. It's a story worth watching when camp convenes in February.

If not Weeks, who for Brewers first base spot?

We are in the home stretch of the Major League Baseball offseason and the Milwaukee Brewers still have not hammered down the team's No. 1 need it had entering the offseason, first base.

General Manager Doug Melvin tried with Corey Hart, which seemed like a slam dunk at the start of the winter, and failed with Hart signing with the Mariners. Then it was James Loney at the top of the list and he resigned with the Rays. So, now the Brewers are left looking at the scrap heap for a trade or staying in-house with the guys that spent most of the season struggling with it last season. Even worse, fans are clamoring for Rickie Weeks to slide over to first base. 

Let's work in reverse there and scratch off one of those options. Weeks is not the answer at first base. As Adam McCalvy wrote on his Brewers mailbag late last week, Weeks isn't a fit at first base, despite fans' outcry to move him there. Yes his $11 million salary is something you would want to find him a spot for, but it's looking like Weeks will land on the bench or be moved in spring training. Maybe for someone that can play first base.

Weeks is just 5-foot-10 and with his defense being an issue at second base, it would not make sense to make him a bigger part of the defense. As, McCalvy says, if you're going to put someone a first who is average defensively, he had better hit. Well, the way the last few years have gone for Weeks, it doesn't seem he could do that well, either.

Jaun Francisco seems to be the front-runner for the position more out of default than anything else. "Fat Juan" as he is referred to by Braves fans, showed why he was DFA'd by the Braves early last year, hitting just .221 last season with the Brewers which was lower than his average with the Braves. 

Can Francisco be servicable at first base? Maybe. He is reffered to over and over on Twitter as a lottery ticket that could hit .275 with 30 homers. The odds of that jackpot coming through is a long shot and I'm not sure the Brewers are willing to wait around for him to come though. He is a cheap option at the position which does bode well for him. If that's the best thing he's got going for him, though, it doesn't say much for the Brewers options.

A long shot at first base would be bringing Hunter Morris up from Triple-A Nashville. After hitting .300 and crushing Double-A pitching two seasons ago, Morris slipped in acclimating to AAA with his average sliding down to .247 with 24 homers and 73 RBI. The Brewers think he needs one more year with the Sounds before he could be ready to move up to the big league club.

The other options for the Brewers involve signing free agents or making trades. Melvin has been link to trade talks with the Mets for Ike Davis. He was awful last season and the Mets want too much (read: Tyler Thornburg), which Melvin turned down. Logan Morrison was another player the Brewers had links to, but he was already traded by the Marlins to the Mariners. Taking him out of consideration.

A comb through the available free agents with first base experience yield familiar names from Yuniesky Betancourt to Alex Gonzalez. With no talk about bringing either of them back, they seem out. 

There is one big name out there in Kendrys Morales, but signing him would result in the Brewers losing the No. 12 pick in June's draft. Something they wouldn't want to give up after losing their pick last season after signing Kyle Lohse. 

Yeah, it's a mess. The miss on Hart has put the team in a rough spot. Still having questions on pitching, it may be something the team waits until spring training to address when teams decide who they want to cut loose or becomes roster casualties. Stay tuned.

Brewers Nation: Don't panic as postseason looms

Call me the eternal optimist or a fan that thinks the last week of the Brewers season was what I called it a couple weeks back, a market correction. That's why I'm not worried about this team going forward to not only clinch the National League Central title and beyond into the NL Divisional Series.

And before you jump on me for blindly thinking like this, I'll tell you why. Of course there's Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, a healthy Rickie Weeks getting healthy and back in his groove, but most importantly a steady pitching staff that has been the backbone of this team all year.

Yes there have been (and almost always are) ups and downs over the course of a baseball season. That has certainly been the case for the Brewers, but over the last week to 10 days, it has been a bit of feast or famine for this Brewers team as it works itself out of the funk it was in against the Cardinals and Phillies at the start of the month.

The biggest key I can take out of the funk and even the great weekend showing in Cincinnati was that while Braun and Fielder have played well, most would agree they are not on the tears we saw them on at times during the season. These things go in cycles and you'd have to think things are coming back toward at upswing at the right time. Last Tuesday night's game against the Rockies showed what both mean to this team, combining to homer for both of the team's runs that led to the dramatic walk-off victory (Did you see us in the 223?). The two of them getting hot at the right time, in the playoffs no less would make this team almost unstoppable. While that may be a bit of me wishing, I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility as niether have shown signs of cracking under the pressure of clinching a division title in this race.

There are no trades that could help a team looking into the playoffs into September, but that's what the return of Rickie Weeks from the disabled list feels like for this Brewers team. Sure this team went on it's great 27-5 run while he was on the DL, but the offense was not what it was with him in it as the pitching carried this team. Manager Ron Roenicke will tell you this team needs Weeks if it wants to make noise in the playoffs.

Weeks finally played his first full game since coming off the DL Monday night and said he felt pretty good about things. It's been a slow process, but you can see he's starting to get his bearings back at the plate and will serve as great protection to Braun and Fielder hitting out of the No. 5 spot in the lineup with his power and speed that could set the table for the bottom half of the order to do some damage.

Of course a team is only as good as it's starting pitcher and this season has shown what that looks like in Milwaukee for the first time in a long time. Yovani Gallardo, Zack Greinke, Shaun Marcum, Randy Wolf and even Chris Narveson were the big part of the late July-August push that put this team where it is now. While they've had a couple hiccups in recent weeks, I'd give them a couple passes as you'd expect this offense to back them with a couple runs each night, so it's not all their fault for a couple of the losses, you just want them to stay consistent and for much of the last week, the top four especially have been spot on. There really isn't much question as to whether they can keep it up because they have for the entire second half of the season.

This team has all the tools it needs to be successful this postseason. The next week will be a bit of preparation for that as I'd expect Roenicke to tweak the pitching rotation to line things up for the NLDS, but playing meaningful games up until the final day of the season will pay dividends. Should be fun to watch unfold.

Brewers' Roenicke has strong case for NL manager of year

While the talk around the Brewers circulating on this off day is who deserves the MVP more Ryan Braun or Prince Fielder (on both Brewers.com and SI.com), there's another award a member of the Brewers should be in discussions for. That man is Ron Roenicke, who has a great case for National League Manager of the Year in this, is rookie campaign as skipper of a Major League team.
Most coaches and managers are only as good as the talent they have on the field, but there have been certain defining moments that have put the talent on the Brewers roster in great position to win like they have in the last month. Here are the top moves made by "Running Ron" and his staff in order as they've occured this season.

1. The first order of business for Roenicke was changing the attitude a bit in the clubhouse, making sure the players that had to like him (read Braun and Fielder) like him. That made sure everyone else followed suit. It is something that has shown up throughout the season and may be the biggest reason things have gone as smoothly. He's let the guys be themselves. It may have had something to do with the prior manager being very "old fashioned" with certain things. Roenicke has let the personalities of this team (see Tony Plush) come out.

2. The move to go with Marco Estrada might go down as the best move Roenicke and the Brewers braintrust made all season. There were a couple choices the team could have made and Estrada made the Brewers look like geniuses. His starts in April for Zack Greinke surprised a lot of people and kept the seat warm until the 2009 AL Cy Young winner was right to return off the DL. He didn't pitch awful, but wasn't great in working out of the bullpen so when Chris Narveson had to miss a couple starts, Estrada again filled in nicely.

3. His belief in Yuniesky Betancourt at short stop may have been by default, but after the All-Star Break Yuni made that loyalty pay off by being named the "Brewers Player of the Month" for July. Roenicke has sat Yuni for a couple days a couple of times, and been public in saying he's giving other guys a shot at the position, but it all seems to have been done to serve as motivation for a man we in the 223 call "Yu Bet."

4. Casey McGehee's struggles this season may have been the surprise of the season. This is another time where Roenicke stuck with his player while questions were abound as to how long it would last. Roenicke has given Casey days off, as well, but gone to him in big spots and McGehee has delivered with pinch-hit homers and clutch hits. It couldn't have been easy with Taylor Greene tearing it up in Triple-A Nashville and Mat Gamel even getting some looks when he was up during Interleague Play, but McGehee has made the loyalty pay off, as well. Casey's batting average is on the rise (over *edit .240 as of Sunday).

5. The way Roenicke got Francisco Rodriguez to settle into his eighth inning role with this team might be the move that pushed the Brewers to the brink. It hasn't been discussed much, but the years the two spent together with the Angels had to have played a role in discussions upon K-Rod's arrival that helped him settle into the role. Having John Axford in the midst of a team-record saves-converted streak hasn't hurt either.

6. When Rickie Weeks went down with a severely sprained left ankle July 27, no one would have been surprised if the team scuffled a bit and stayed even with the pack in the NL Central. Instead, this team has reeled off 27 wins in 32 games, holds the biggest division lead in franchise history and is the only team in franchise history to sit 27 games over .500 at any point in a season.

When it comes down to it, Roenicke has pushed nearly all the right buttons this season. You'd have to figure his closest competition for the award is Kirk Gibson of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has that team on the verge of unseating the Defending World Series champion Giants. The main talk around it is that since Gibson played, he's got the in on the award. I'd hope the BBWAA voters take note of Roenicke and what he's done with a team that was hovering around 5-10 games over .500 before taking off in late July to get where they are now. Where are they? Breathing down the necks of the "Big Bad" Philadelphia Phillies for the best record in the National League.

Can Brewers weather storm without Weeks?

The news of Rickie Weeks severely sprained ankle might go down as the biggest injury to this team since 2008 when Ben Sheets went down at the end of the season and it cost the Brewers a shot to advance in the postseason.
Doug Melvin and the Brewers front office had set their sights on a shortstop or third baseman, but now have to shift gears to possibly bring in a second baseman for three to six weeks. as the Brewers look to make a move in the NL Central standings.
The list of Brewers needs now becomes rather simple and I'm not sure which order to put them in. The lack of a left hander in the bullpen is cause for concern. It hasn't been exposed yet, but it's a weakness that could bite this team when playing a team with strong lefties (read the Phillies). The other need is now a second baseman. Both Melvin and Ron Roenicke have both made it clear you don't replace a Rickie Weeks, so it leads me to my next question, which way to the Brewers go with this move?
The answer might be answered by the rest of the guys on the team and in the lineup when Rickie is out. With Yuniesky Betancourt, Casey McGehee and Wednesday's second baseman, Craig Counsel, both having subpar years at the plate, it would seem offense has to take priority.
Felipe Lopez was acquired and sent to Triple-A, but I'm not sure that would be anything more than a last resort. I'd have to guess sending him to Triple A signals just that. The call-up of Eric Farris, who had played second at Nashville was nothing more than a temporary roster fill to have a second baseman in town if needed. I don't see him logging much time.
It's hard to say what's out there, and as Melvin and Roenicke have both said, teams know the Brewers are desperate and can hike the price and even a midlevel guy. Regardless, I still see something getting done. In 2008, the Brewers went after Ray Durham and he played well. They need to find the 2011 Ray Durham to hold things together at the bottom of the batting order and at second base until Slick Rick returns.
As big as the K-Rod deal was, I'd venture to say, this could be the biggest move Melvin makes this season.


The Bears had been quiet in the crazy world that is NFL free agency to this point, but that all changed today. The big move of the day was one that upset me more than almost any other player on the team other than Brian Urlacher. The decision to trade Greg Olsen to the Panthers for a player to be named and a late-round draft pick, was one that was dictated by Mike Martz no doubt. We all knew he doesn't utilize a tight end, so Olsen was dealt for parts. Truth be told, he might have been my favorite Bear not named Brian Urlacher in the last five years. (Besides Rex Grossman)
The shuffling at tight end does not mean much to me behind Olsen, but it means the team is going to turn more to wide receivers and Matt Forte out of the backfield. Both of those positions were also in the news today with the possiblity of Forte holding out and Roy Williams becoming a target at wide receiver. My take on the Forte issue is quick. He knows a holdout is not good for either side, but at the same time, he is as big a part of the offense as Jay Cutler and is not getting paid anything near his worth. So he is going to do what he has to do. I am not worried he'll miss much time in the regular season.
On the Williams front, I'm not sure I'm sold on him. He took plays off in Detroit and in Dallas and will be the guy that does not have Jay's back when lame media types try to pin the game on him. That's not what they need in the locker room. He is a big target, however, and can get it done with his route running that sit well with Martz in the offensive scheme. That should be the biggest attempt at getting a No. 1 receiver in town for a while and moves Johnny Knox to the No. 2 guy and means we won't see Devin Hester unless it's a four-receiver set. Both things should make both guys better on offense.
It's a wait and see as things unfold on the rest of the possibilities that are out there. It's hard to choose what to and what not to believe when it comes to which teams are linked to which players. With camp opening Saturday and guys reporting tomorrow, things should unfold quickly. Stay tuned.

I now have a little two-part Nussie Hunter for you all. Melanie Iglesias won the Maxim Hometown Hottie Contest last year and is taking over the modeling game. She has a YouTube channel, too, which usually isn't worth a damn. She did put out a video the other day that was pretty cool that I saw on Twitter. Take a look at it. Here's also a photo for you traditionalists out there,
with a link to her Maxim gallery.

Stepping back from the ledge after Day 1 of Brewers season

There were a lot of things to digest from the first Brewers game of the season Thursday. It's safe to say though, the one that sticks around the most was the sick-to-your-stomach feeling left after closer John Axford allowed four runs in the bottom of the ninth to let what looked like a sure win, slip away.
Initially, yes, I was upset and disappointed. Yes, Axford has had a rough spring and this outing only adds to the chaos that has been his month of March. I am a little concerned, but following how he handles himself, I'm confident he can work out of it and get back on track.
What I don't understand are the people who automatically jumped off the proverbial bridge calling Axford washed up and putting him in the same sentence as Derek Turnbow. It's one game people. Yes, he got some pitches up and gave up a big home run (how odd does a shot to right field look to a right-handed hitter?), but this is 1/162 of the season. It's hardly the end of the world.
Now, it sounds like I'm being a tad hypocritical, but think about it for a second. Yes, I was encouraged by what Yovani Gallardo was able to do on the mound in his six solid innings. The top five spots in the order all got hits for the Brewers (while only Wil Nieves got a hit for the rest of the order). Rickie Weeks had a home run (as the first Brewer to lead off the season with a homer) and a double. Ryan Braun was on base four times and was absolutely crushing the baseball. All of that is great. But I'm also not thinking they are all amazing.
Axford will tell you he has room to improve. Heck, so will Kameron Loe, who gave up a homer himself, and so would Casey McGehee, who was part of a wild play that kept the game alive for the Reds in the ninth. But, those guys have earned a few chances and I'm confident their overall body of work for this season will be very solid and this will have just been a bump in the road.
Don't get me wrong, getting this win would have been great for the Brewers psyche. After going 3-11 against the Reds last season, the Brewers desperately need to turn things around against the team that won the NL Central last season and has plans of doing it again this season. Going into their stadium on Opening Day and playing as convincingly as they did for 8 and a half innings would have had to send a bit of a message to the Reds.
Baseball isn't like football where you can live and die with every game. This one will have to be nearly forgotten and put in the rearview mirror for the Brewers. The best part of it all is, there's a game Saturday and Sunday, giving them a chance to put it behind them and move on. That's what makes this game great.
Please, put your jump to conclusion mats away people!!!


With Opening Day upon, that has to mean Wrestlemania is very close, too. In fact, it's Sunday. It's one of those things you have to take in every year and appreaciate the entertainment that is WWE. It's so good. This year, Shawn Michaels is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. I have to think he is going to have a hand in keeping the Undertaker undefeated at Wrestlemania. Here's more of the brainchild of Vince McMahon in photos from the good folks at Sports Illustrated.

Time to jump right into the Nussie Hunter portion of today's post. I was checking out Coed Magainze today and came across a Nussie I probably should have known sooner. Her name is Rali Ivanova. She's a Twitter star, judging by the amazing TwitPics she posts. So much so, the good folks at Coed posted a TwitPic gallery of hers. Damn! Here's a sample and you can check out the rest, here. Oh, and don't forget to check her out on Twitter. I just followed her!

Weeks signing shows there could be life after Prince

I know it's late, but I needed to get this posted as I have something pretty big planned for a certain sports hero of mine's birthday.
The Brewers signing of Rickie Weeks to a four-year, $38 million contract Wednesday added to what was a great offseason for the Brewers (Check Tom Haudricourt's story on the signing from the Journal-Sentinel, here). Had Rickie left with Prince at the end of the season, the right side of the infield would have been in disarray. Now, with Rickie back, the Brewers get a player they know will work hard and has worked out. They even factored into the contract his health for a fifth year. Essentially if he's an every day player that fifth year will kick in. The Brewers call it a vested-option (Adam McCalvy's story on Brewers.com), Weeks' agent just calls it a five-year deal worth $50 million. Essentially, they're both right. Weeks expects to get 600 plate appearances in 2014, which would trigger the fifth year. If there is any question he'll get that PAs, Ryan Bruan got 687 last year in 157 games, so if he plays every day, like he did last year, that should come without a problem.
As I said last week, this NEEDED to get done. Now that it has, looked what it means to this team. The Brewers will have the likes of Ryan Bruan, Corey Hart, Casey McGehee, Yovani Gallardo and Rickie Weeks under contract through the 2014 season and possibly through 2015.
That looks like a solid 2-5 in the batting order to me (I really want to move Rickie down in the order to No. 3 or No. 4 if/when Prince departs) and at some pretty respectable salaries in today's era that should be managable enough for them to add some other guys to keep things competitive.
To me, that's the biggest thing after Prince goes. No matter what happens this year, I don't want to be the 1999 Chicago Bulls or the Florida Marlins that awful the year after winning championships because key pieces left. Obviously looking at it now, expectations will likely be down going into next year, but they won't be plummeting to awful depths like the Bulls did after Michael, Scottie and Phil all left town.
Dare I say the Brewers could still be relevant going forward for years to come? Prince will be a Class A free agent at the end of the season and when he goes, he'll net the Brewers two compensatory picks. Those who say the farm system is trash, myself included, will notice how much that will help refurnish the system.
This sets up Doug Melvin and company to make a couple moves going into 2012 and 2013 that should still keep a pretty darn good and entertaining team in Milwaukee.
And as part of the discussion that isn't part of the future, one of my storylines to watch going into spring training is pretty much now a moot point. Weeks has his contract. He won't have to worry about performing for free agent money now. I was more worried about how he'd handle it than I was Prince. Fielder has had talk about him signing long-term here now for years and he has shown he can push it to the side after the initial discussions in the spring. Rickie has not had those talks and them circling may have been a factor.
The Brewers need a season out of him similar to last season. He doesn't have to be great, but the batting average can come up from last year, lifting the on-base percentage in the process, stolen base numbers should skyrocket and his overall value will go through the roof this season. Heck, his home run numbers can even come down and I'd be happy with him. Just get on base and I'll be making my "C'mon RRRRRRRRRRRRRRick!" Chant from section 223 Row 6, Seat 7 for this season and a many more to come!

Going to get right into the Nussie Hunter portion of the broadcast right away now. Was talking with a friend of mine today and Sofia Vergara came up. She has come a long way from being the hot Latin chick on Entourage. She is now one of the stars on one of TVs best shows. That accent is just as good as her body, too.

Brewers need to sign Weeks to long-term deal

This is a post I have in at Wisco Sports Talk. Wanted you to get it here, first before it goes live.

In 2010, the controversy at Brewers On Deck was that Corey Hart was taking the Brewers to arbitration. This year, it was Rickie Weeks announcing a deadline to work out a long-term deal with the Brewers.
While some would argue he doesn’t deserve one, take a look back at what Weeks did last season, when he showed what he can do when healthy at the top of the Brewers batting order.
He played in 160 games last season (his previous high was 118 in 2007) and scored 111 runs, had 83 RBIs and blasted 29 home runs, all easily career highs. (Weeks’ page on Baseball Reference) That led to him submitting a $7.2 million number for arbitration, which was countered by the Brewers $4.25 million.
Regardless of how the arbitration hearing goes later this week, I would dare say this controversy is more of an uncertainty with the team than Weeks and many fans feel, especially after watching the Brewers trade away Brett Lawrie, the only other prospect in line at the position, this deal needs to get done. Things are more uncertain with Prince Fielder likely leaving after the season offense is going to be in high demand from the other players on the team going forward.
While some would hold back and wait for Weeks to show he can stay healthy for a year, there really is no time to do that with his free agency looming after this season. General Manager Doug Melvin needs to bite the bullet on this one and make this deal happen now before a bidding war breaks out.
My counter to wondering if he can stay healthy is looking at the 25 times he was hit by pitches  and sat just two games at parts of the season as mere “mental days” more than anything else.
The talk in the arbitration hearing is going to be about his somewhat low .269 batting average and average .366 on-base percentage. As a leadoff hitter, of course you want a little more in both spots, which the Brewers will surely bring up to bring the salary figure down in the arbitration hearing, but that doesn’t take away from what Weeks should look for long term.
I mean, as a leadoff hitter and a second baseman he has more pop than most guys that play his position. Of course, he had never played that deep into a season, so there is room for improvement. I’d even take a slight drop in home run numbers if his batting average came up to around .290 and his on-base teetered .400 for most of the season.
The key to it all is going to be experience for Weeks and that comes with being healthy. The Brewers have worked out long-term deals with Ryan Braun and Yovani Gallardo that have seen rather small numbers at the start of the contract and are backloaded years down the road. I propose something similar to that, giving low risk now and rewarding him down the road.
In the field, Weeks has turned things around and has become more consistent. We will see if that continues this season with Willie Randolph out of town. If he can keep it up, he’ll prove he was worth the contract.
Is signing Weeks a risk? Of course. But wasn’t trading four of your prime prospects for Zack Greinke a risk? Yes. Both should prove to be well worth it down the road if the players play up to what the back of their baseball card shows.

Time to hunker down on Super Bowl XLV matchups

Super Bowl media day was Tuesday and while the day itself is full of crazies, yahoos and in the case of Ines Sans, hot crazies, hot yahoos.
There is absolutely nothing anyone who follows football takes from Media Day any more, but it is the kick start to Super Bowl week. Both teams had practice today and we can start getting into the meat of breaking down the game as it nears closer.
I'm not going to get too specific just yet as I have a bit of research to do on how the Steelers will handle some things, but I do have one thing of note to talk about.
No, it's not that Clay Matthews has great hair. I actually hate long hair on guys, but something more football related.
It is actually the debate on whether Ben Roethlisberger is a good quarterback or not. I was reading some things on my friend's Facebook pages that pretty much said he was worthless. While yes, off the field, he is not the best of guys, those who are on his team turn to him for leadership and he delivers. Yes, he has a great defense around him, but you can't ignore the fact that in big games he wins. You can go all the way back to his time in college at Miami of Ohio to see him winning big games. When he got to the NFL he has done nothing but win the game. He could have faltered under the pressure, but he has shined.
Some called him a game manager. Yes, he's not real flashy. And for a 260-pound quarterback he doesn't try to be. But when he's called upon to lead a big drive, you can't ignore what he has done. Just look at the great throw to Santonio Holmes to beat the Cardinals a couple years back. You couldn't have asked for better placement of that ball and Ben put it there.
Yes, Aaron Rodgers is becoming one of the best in the league, but you cannot ignore what Ben has done on the field. He wins games. The Steelers don't win games in spite of him, they win games because of him and the defense.


I didn't get time for a Brewers On Deck post to recap my day with the Brewers (Check the photos here) but again, there was controversy. Last year it was on Corey Hart taking the Brewers to an arbitration hearing and this year it is Rickie Weeks giving the Brewers a deadline for his multi-year contract.
After reading Gord Ash's comments on Tom Haudricourt's JS Brewers blog, it is being downplayed because that is the deadline the team had anyhow, but it is a bit significant. The way things sound they are so far apart it looks rather certain a deal won't get done, as Weeks submitted a number over $7 million for his arby hearing and the Brewers had one over $4.5 million.
The only difference from last year's deal with Corey Hart is that Weeks is coming off his best year as a pro and seems to deserve the money. I remember thinking Corey was dumb for taking it to a trial, but he ended up winning and then having a career year on top of it. Weeks seems set to go down the same path with his free agency looming.
If I were the Brewers, I'd swallow a little pride and get this deal done NOW. They cannot afford to lose him to free agency having just traded the prospect at the position away to bring in pitching. Rickie needs to be in the core of this team and deserves the payday.

Now to the Nussie Hunter portion of the broadcast of today's show. AskMen.com released it's list of 99 Most Desirable women Tuesday with Blake Lively being now at the top spot. I was unsure of the decision, but after checking up on her a bit closer, it may be a good call for a up and coming star. Here's some samples on top of the one below.

Who's to blame? Everyone has a part in this mess!

It's a Brewers off day today, so a lot of time to think about what is the latest cause of dropping to 4-11 at Miller Park to a team that was 5-14 on the road before getting to Milwaukee.
Got a chance to read a couple of things on what is to blame for the 29-7 beatdown over three games by the Braves.
The Journal-Sentinel story on the bullpen finally showing the innings that have been wearing on them of late and just imploding, giving up big run numbers in each of the three losses and turned ties or close games into blowouts.
Well, that is the obvious place to look. Hell, even Carlos Villanueva got worked and gave up his first runs of the season during the series.
The only pitcher out of the bullpen to not give up a run was Todd Coffey. And if my memory serves me correctly, he did give up a double that brought two runs in, but those were Mitch Stetter's runners.
The cause for that is the brutal showing by the starters that are averaging less than six innings per start on the year. How is that acceptable. This is all five guys in the rotation not being able to manage pitch counts and consistently get out of innings. That is just unacceptable. To be honest, I don't even know if I trust Yovanni anymore when he starts. Even if he strikes out 10 guys, he's likely only going five innings.
The other four, including Friday night's starter Randy Wolf, have not been much better.
In doing some more reading at a blog that is becoming one of my frequent reads, The Brewers Bar, a good point is brought up that this isn't just about the bullpen. In baseball everything is connected.
It's a good point. Monday night at the game Rickie had two errors that extended innings. Tuesday Alcides kicked a couple of balls and the offense left 11 runners on base and couldn't get the big hit that could have gotten Dave Bush the lead and maybe helped him settle in. At Miller Park leads have been few and far between and it's hard to say what getting a guy that lead will do.
That brings me to an offense that aside, from Ryan Braun and Casey McGehee hasn't seen any of the guys consistently get in a groove and make a statement. That includes Prince Fielder who has an on-base percentage just some 20 points behind his slugging percentage. Tell me you expected that from the big fella?
Some are calling for Ken Macha to be relieved of his duties as manager. Well, let me ask those people this question: Can firing the manager make pitchers throw strikes and last into the seventh inning? Didn't think so. So I'm not sure that's a move that wold accomplish much. That doesn't mean I don't think it can't happen.
With problems in almost every aspect of the game, maybe a different voice leading the charge is welcome. I'd have to say in a year where we may see Prince traded Doug Melvin has to make moves that will give this team a chance to get in the race and keep Prince in town as long as possible. The managerial move is one that has to be on the list if it comes to it.
With the Phillies coming to town, I'm not sure the weekend will see a bright resurgence from all the key parts of this team.

Enough of the depressing talk. Got a couple good links and vidoes from the Web I found today. First, the good stuff. If you know me, you know I'm one of the last people to support the singing of a Lady Gaga song. Well, I stumbled upon this on the Interweb yesterday. Damn impressive if you ask me for a sixth grader to be able to perform like this. Take a listen. So great!


Found some funny wrestler pics on Maxim.com today. Just seeing these big guys out of place is quite funny.
Just like the pic of John Cena holding an oversized tennis racket. Hahahaha!


Now finally, we come to the Nussie Hunter portion of the broadcast. Today, I'm introducing myself and you to one Giorgia Palmas. Who is she? Well, she's an Italian model and TV host. Take a look at these pics to get a full look at her. Here's a sample. I'd say I can't understand Italian, but I'd spend time attempting to figure out what she was saying.

Upon a closer look, the numbers can be deceiving...

Yesterday I talked about how the Brewers offensive numbers were surprising and made it look like the full culprit for the 10-15 start was the pitching staff. But not so fast.
As Tom Haudricourt points out in this morning's Brewers Blog for the J-S, those offensive numbers were deceiving. The Brewers have scored 128 runs in 25 games, but half of those came in five games. That's the three game series against the Pirates when they outscored the Bucs 36-1, the 17-3 beating of the Pirates at Miller Park last week and the 11-7 victory over Washington April 18. That means the team is averaging 3.2 runs per game in the other 20 games. With a pitching staff all over the charts, that just is not going to cut it.
With even Prince Fielder struggling at the plate the offense just has not been able to get it going in the slightest. We've seen this from this team before, though. Last year they'd go through rough patches where they looked silly at the plate. To say I'm surprised, I am not. But that leads me to another point.
How many times have you seen a picture of the coaches at a random point in the dugout? I know I haven't and that lead me to believe someone, with Haudricourt or another guy close to the Brewers, might now something is up with Macha being pushed out as manager. Would that fix everything or anything? I don't know, but at this point, the window is closing and something might have to get done from Doug Melvin's position.
I'll say this, there might be a lineup move, I'd make with Rickie Weeks struggling. It's one talked about with some friends of mine at work and that is moving Alcides Escobar into the leadoff spot of the lineup. He is the better of the two to leadoff and that gives Rickie the chance to slide down to either the No. 2 slot or a role where he can be a run producer. Get Escobar on and he is an instant threat to steal bases and cause chaos on the base.

Now that the staple of Brewers talk is out there, let's get into some Web goodness that we've missed her on The Way. I missed this last night, but my "mother" Amy and "pops" Vaughan showed me this today. Let me be clear, I hate Ke$ha, but have a soft spot for Bart and Lisa. This was rather funny. And, yes I know it's flipped, thanks to Fox for killing off the regular clips.


The next item of the blog combines hot girls with the No. 1 topic nerds love. Yes, you guessed it Star Wars. What's the best part of Star Wars? Yep, Princes Leia. Even better? Leia washing cars and getting wet.
Enter G4TV and Make a Wish to make that happen for us!

Slave Leia & Sara Jean Underwood: Star Wars Charity Car Wash

Attack of the Show | MySpace Video

Did you notice a certain someone doing the awesomeness in that video? Yep, Sara Jean Underwood, who has been featured on these pages before and a former Playmate of the Year, pulls of Star Wars looks damn well. Having it be white with amazingly tight white pants makes it damn interesting too. This is just a sample. There are plenty more good ones, here! Thank me later :)

Brewers pitchers... Not sure I can trust any of you!

Another loss today by the Brewers has Wilber's Way making its May debut. Being shutout for the third time in four games has me changing a bit of what I was going to write here.
Regardless, the Brewers have now lost 8 of their last 10 games and were outscored by the Padres 21-2 in four games. So while pitching was a question mark coming in, the offense made sure to not let us forget about it having problems and being inconsistent.
Doug Davis, who has had his problems, was not so reliable in Game 1 of the series and the guy that came on in "relief" of that one was Jeff Suppan. When all was said and done, the Padres won 9-0.


Dave Bush  did pitch pretty good in Game 2 of the series, giving up just three runs in seven innings of work. But the offense couldn't get anything going and fell 5-0.
It marked the first time since 2005 the Brewers had been shut out in back to back games.
It was the best starting pitching showing since Yovanni Gallardo was solid against the Pirates on Monday night at Miller Park, but this time the offense did not back the up. Just the bad luck of baseball.

The Brewers did get a win Saturday night behind Gallardo. But even that was a chore. Yo went seven innings and struck out 11 on 118 pitches and had to hit a home run, his fifth of his career.
Hawkins, who has seen his share of troubles came on in the eighth and Trevor Hoffman, who you all know about his struggles, returned to the city where he saved 552 games, and closed the game out.


That sets the table. Now I have to ask the question. Who do you trust on the mound for this team? The problem has been mainly the starting rotation. Here are the lines (From Baseball-reference.com):
Yovanni Gallardo: 3-2, 36 IP, 40 K, 16 BB, 32 H, 15 R, 12 ER, 3.00 ERA
Randy Wolf: 2-2, 37.1 IP, 27 K, 16 BB, 41 H, 18 R, 16 ER, 3.86 ERA
Dave Bush: 1-2, 29.1 IP, 15 K, 12 BB, 30 H, 17 R, 15 ER, 4.60 ERA
Doug Davis: 0-3, 22.1 IP, 24 K, 10 BB, 38 H, 23 R, 22 ER, 8.87 ERA
Jeff Suppan: 0-1, 14.1 IP, 11 K, 3 BB, 22 H, 14 R, 13 ER, 8.16 ERA
Chris Narveson: 1-0, 15 IP, 12 K, 9 BB, 22 H, 12 R, 11 ER, 6.6 ERA
Now you can't take everything by those numbers, but know this. The team ERA ranks 13th of 16 teams in the NL. The staff has given up the second-most hits in the National League. That heps rank them 14th in the NL in home runs allowed (33).
Where was the help Doug Melvin was supposed to bring in? Nothing has changed from last year, at all. Now people claiming Doug Davis should be taken out of the rotation, are crazy. Who are you going to put in that spot? They made the one move with Narveson going in. I'm sure we'll see Manny Parra starting at some point this year, but not in place of a healthy but struggling Davis.

Like I said, this isn't going to be all about the pitching. The last three series' dating back to getting swept by the Cubs, then dropping two of three to the Pirates has worn on this team, which has lost 8 of 10.
The offense, up until this point, was one of the best in baseball. The numbers show that.
After checking Baseball-Reference.com, I found some pretty interesting numbers that I didn't realize (maybe because the pitching was so awful).
The Brewers are second in the NL in runs scored (128), first in doubles (56), fourth in homers (28), first in on-base percentage (.355), third in batting average (.273), second in slugging percentage (.452) and second in OPS (.807).
Those are some pretty staggering figures. To me, that says this 10-14 start is something that is on the pitching. Yes the last week has been rough for the hitters. I'm not going to put it on all of them, but I am going to single out one guy, Rickie Weeks Now I'm not coming down on Rickie, just pointing out some numbers.
Since the Brewers drilled the Pirates for that 20-0 win on April 22, Weeks' average has dropped from .344 to .258.
It's been seven games since then and during that time Rickie is 4 for 34 (.118 AVG), with 17 strikeouts, just one RBI (which came on his home run) and he's taken only five walks. Here's the link, again on Baseball-Reference.com. For a team built around Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, having guys on base in front of them makes them dangerous. That makes Rickie getting on base imparative to the success of the team. It doesn't help that Macha is still struggling to find a suitable guy to put in the No. 2 spot. With Carlos Gomez and Jim Edmonds hurt, that has made things a struggle and put guys you wouldn't necessarily want in front of Ryan and Prince.

Ok, enough on the Brewers for now. That will resonate throughout Monday for me. We need some funny to lighten the mood. Leave it to Jimmy Kimmel and his unnecessary censorship. Damn funny!


I'm pretty sure these next two ladies are Brewers fans and would be very interested by the success of the team. Yep, the Maxim Hometown Hotties Contest is in full swing and we got a double feature of Nussies for you.
First is Franklin's Andrea. She likes Wii (take a look! Haha.) And Susana is from Richfield, which is like 15 minutes from me. The links take you to their profiles. There were a handful of other Wisconsin girls that made the initial cut. Be sure to check out the rest of the Hometown Hotties.
Here's Andrea.


Here's Susana

Pieces coming together for Brewers infield

Yesterday I talked about the Brewers starting rotation. To continue amping up for Opening Day (Monday can't come fast enough!), I'm going to go into the Brewers infield today and include the catcher in that talk.
There are a couple new pieces to the puzzle this year and one that is returning from yet another injury and for once you don't hear people calling for his head.
Let's start with the new pieces. At shortstop the Brewers dealt J.J. Hardy (AJ is still crushed) to the Twins in favor of handing over the keys to Alcides Escobar. After watching him finish the season and what he did in the winter in his native Columbia (he won the winter league batting title). He's continued that in the spring by hitting .321 with a homer and nine RBI. More impressive has been his defense. Had a brief conversation with Dennis Semrau (his first shoutout on the Way!) and he called Escobar the vacuum cleaner. The guy has amazing range.
I'm not worried about him this year. He should be in contention for Rookie of the Year. If he is the Crew will be in contention.

Speaking of Rookie of the Year, Casey McGehee returns to work the hot corner this year. He emerged as the starter after the first two months of the season and finished sixth in the ROY voting. That's quite a climb for a guy that was waived by the Cubs last winter and was the 25th guy to make the Brewers bench last season. Now he's the everyday third baseman and just like last year when he had a great spring to earn a spot on the MLB roster, he has proven he's for real with another solid spring. The team is going to need him to continue to play the defense he did last year (he started a triple play last year).
For Casey, it comes down to his performance at the plate because of where he finished last season. With the likes of Ryan and Prince in the lineup, Casey had the task of batting fifth behind both of them. The good news is he shined in that role last year. The bad news is that was last year. He's given pitchers and catchers across the NL a chance to come up with a way to pitch to him. I'm confident the man we call "Tits" will figure things out and perform this year again.


For those of you hoping Rickie Weeks would not perform this spring and continue what he had started before another wrist injury last spring, sorry, that does not look like it is going to happen. Yep, Weeks is on fire in the spring. He was blasting ball all over the yard today in spring ball and has all month in Maryvale.
He's going to make the Brewers see they made the right decision to keep him around this year over Felipe Lopez. On top of his offense, his defense picked up for the brief time he was in the lineup last year and I'm fairly certain we should see more of that this year. No need to worry!

Of course a talk about the Brewers infield isn't complete without mentioning Prince Fielder. Is there any reason to believe he won't be a monster at the plate again this year? No way. This guy just delivers year after year and that is why in 2012 he will be one of the highest paid players in the game. He will be what makes this team go. Brauny might have bigger numbers, but the true guage of how this team will do is all about Prince. He's gotten so much better in the field in the last couple years and I'd expect more of that. Just like I'd expect him to be a force at the plate. It's almost expected he his 43-47 homers every season.

Behind the plate Greg Zaun is set to be the regular guy, but don't expect more than 100 games out of him this year. They've named George Kottaras the backup and he'll be just as important as Zaun throughout the year. Zaun is the more defensive of the two and I'd almost expect some sort of personal catcher situation to unfold at some point early in the season. I'm not sure what I want out of my catcher more offense or defense. One things was for sure, with Jason Kendall the Brewers weren't getting either. So this should be an upgrade.

On the bench for the Brewers infield, Craig Counsell is back and Jeff Inglett joins the fold. Both can play multiple spots (read: all but first base) and are competent at the plate. Counsell had an amazing start to the year last year and paved the way for McGehee to take over at third when Weeks went down and he had to play there for a good chunk of the season.
Inglett has not wowed at the plate, but when he's been needed he has come through. They'll need him to be ready to come off the bench to make double switches and pinch hit. Of the guys the team had in camp, I would have liked to see Mat Gamel jump in, but his shoulder gave him issues and he's missing a lot of time after surgery.

As a final sum up of the infield, I'm actually pretty confident this is going to be a great unit. They've got the tools for sure and it might be the best defensive unit in years on the infield. It's great they can hit as well as they can, too.

Alight, with that out of the way, let's get into some good stuff. You all remember Scott Podsednik, I hope? Well, his wife is amazing. She's Lisa Dergan who happens to be a Playboy Playmate and a St. Pauli girl. A reason blondes are great? Just check this pic!