Considering that your Milwaukee Brewers made the playoffs for the first time in 26 seasons, I am genuinely crushed that I can't talk reasonably and rationally about the team this week. From "They suck" to "Their horrible" to "They suck", it seems to be the only conversation I can have about the Brewers this week.
First the set-up... I have a week or so of vacation days left and three months in which to use them. So when it was announced that the Brewers were playing Wednesday afternoon, I immediately took a half-day vacation and invited everybody that I knew that fit into one of these categories:
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Unemployed
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Retired
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Work from home
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Worker bees with possible vacation time to burn
Unfortunately (which goes to my true popularity) other than myself and My-Sugar-Na, only three others showed up; my bowling uncle UJ, my aunt, and my friend (formerly known as "My good friend, I'll call him Joe", but from here forward will be known as "Ray Sunshine"). I popped a coupla Nick N Willie's in the oven, poured my guests a Diet Coke with Splenda and started watching the game.
Without rehasing the entire game, the turning point was clearly the third inning when Bill Hall bobbled a bunt from the pitcher, and instead of getting the lead runner he instead had to throw to first to retire the batter but Rickie Weeks dropped the ball. Shortly thereafter, a Mike Cameron misjudged a major league fly ball in a thunderstorm, and in giving a professional baseball team 5 or 6 outs, the score was 3-0 in favor of the Phillies.
So for the next six innings, I wanted to talk about "the worst part of the fielding problems is that Yovanni Gallardo had to throw 20 more pitches", or that "the wind is really playing havoc with the fielders." Instead, Ray Sunshine kept hammering....
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"These aren't major leaguers"
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"Rickie Weeks is a collosal flop who should be released"
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"Oh, no! Why is (fill in the blank) warming up?"
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"Major league teams play defense"
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"Ned Yost never stressed fundamentals"
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(If a Brewers batter looks at strike one) "I could have hit that! You've got to be agressive"
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(If a Brewers batter made out swinging at the first pitch) "Come on! You've got to know how to work the count"
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(After Weeks was removed in favor of Craig Counsell as part of a double-switch) "Great, replace one .220-hitting-bobble-glove with a .220-hitting-no-range-old-man"
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And so on, to the point where My-Sugar-Na actually said "Well you're just a ray of sunshine today!"
I then watched the Dodgers beat up the Cubs, and the homestanding Angels lose to the Red Sox, and I said to myself that the Brewers didn't look any worse than the Cubs or Angels - both superior teams.
Then on Thursday, before I left for bowling I watched part of the game. I left after CC Sabathia gave up the grand slam to Shane Victorino. When I got to the bowling alley, Sabathia was still struggling and there was action in the bullpen. Ray Sunshine, who conveniently bowls with me, went on and on and on about how a struggling Sabathia is still better than the rest of the Brewers bullpen, and that Dale Sveum didn't get the team ready to play, etc.
And when that game ended with the Brewers on the short end of a 5-2 decision, my good friend, I'll call him Scott, said "Now that this garbage is done, can we turn on something that matters to the gambling public?" which turned out to be the South Florida / Pitt college football game.
Rounding out my long-winded set-up is an E-mail that I received a few weeks ago from my good friend, I'll call him John from New Berlin...
He said "All season I have been witness to the total ignorance of the football people who purport to be baseball fans because the team is suddenly in contention. Now and here’s proof that the players know the fans are ignorant also. Corey Hart made the out-of-right-field assertion that the Brewers were glad to go to Philadelphia -- a place famous for ornery fans -- to escape the boos. "It actually felt more like a home game than playing at Miller Park," said Hart, who finished 1-for-3 with a double. "We didn't hear the boos that we have been. That's the way it goes, everybody is expecting to win and it's been a battle. ... Obviously, it's not for a lack of hustle or a lack of effort. It's just one of those things that if a guy makes an error or a guy strikes out and you have your hometown booing you, it makes you ready to get out of there and go somewhere else.”
I went last Sunday afternoon (in early-Sept) and had a “discussion” with a guy who insisted that Prince Fielder should be bunting more often. He also insisted that Washington was an American league team. Another fan stated that Yost continually took some pitchers out too soon and left others in too long. I wonder how just he developed that knack to know exactly when a pitcher should be taken out of a game and never made it as a baseball manager in life. How do you discuss baseball with someone of such an intelligence level?
If I were a player here I would NEVER come out for a curtain call just for the reasons stated above by Hart. I’m sure Sabathia has duly noted the way his teammates are treated by the “adoring” throngs if they leave runners on base or commit an error. I swear that 90% of these new fans never played hardball in their lives and think that it works about the same as softball with just a few rule changes. In some ways I long for the days of 78-84 because you knew real baseball fans were there, especially in September."
John from New Berlin won't believe this, but I was mentally forming this blog for weeks before he sent this to me. But he fact is that as a city, Milwaukee has lousy baseball fans. Fans that don't know the game, and fans that think because guys like Narciso Elvira, Izzy Alcantara, Jimmy Osting, Tom Brunansky, Charlie Hayes, Bill Pulsipher, Joe Winkelsas or the Mouton boys couldn't propel the team into the playoffs when they played, that it is acceptable to boo Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks or Joe Dillon because YOU'RE frustrated.
One bone of contention with so many people that I talk to is who the leadoff hitter should be. Personally, I like Corey Hart in that position. Yost liked Rickie Weeks, and Sveum has tabbed Mike Cameron. But everybody with an opinion on whomever is currently the leadoff hitter all agrees that THAT player shouldn't be leading off. The judge of a good leadoff hitter is mostly On-base percentage (OBP) and Stolen bases (SB) Let's look at these 2008 stats (these are for the year, not just the month of September when everybody stopped hitting at once)....
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Corey Hart - Batting Average (BA) .268 / OBP .300 / SB 23 out of 30 attempts
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Rickie Weeks - BA .234 / OBP .342 / SB 19 out of 24 attempts
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Mike Cameron - BA .243 / OBP .331 / SB 17 out of 22 attempts
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Entire Brewers roster - BA .253 / OBP .325
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Every leadoff hitter in the National League - BA .274 / OBP .342
This tells me a lot. It tells me that Hart is the best hitter of those three Brewers, but if he doesn't get a hit, he isn't getting on first base. Weeks doesn't have as high of an average, but must work the count and take a lot of walks. He is also quite good at stealing base. Mike Cameron is in the middle. Clearly, for a leadoff hitter, Weeks and Cameron are better choices than Hart, and that is why Yost was and Sveum is a major league manager and I am not.
But look at that last line. The average OBP of every leadoff hitter in the league is exactly the same as Weeks. That tells me that Weeks is average, not "useless" like Ray Sunshine insists. The only three other 2008 Brewers with a higher OBP than Weeks is Fielder (.372, and he ain't leadin' off), Craig Counsell (.355 OBP) and Ray Durham (.369) and both Counsell and Durham are old platooners. Other than that, there is NOTHING. Now, if you (or Ray Sunshine) want to argue that the Brewers need to upgrade the leadoff hitter, you can win that one easily. But don't be down on Weeks or Cameron because they are the best of a motley lot.
I could go onto the bullpen (which, by the way, ranks FOURTH in the National League in ERA, and in eight innings in the playoffs have not allowed one run.) But the common fan couldn't get past Eric Gagne blowing a save in Game 1 against the Cubs in April, or Guillermo Mota and Salomon Torres blowing a 5-0, 9th inning lead in Arizona in July. But trust me. I would win that arguement.
Look, my intent is not to knock all 3 million that paid $12 to $85 a game to watch the Brewers perform. God knows that there were many times in the mid-90s when John from New Berlin and I were the only two in the entire stadium. And it is you 3 million people that are paying Sabathia, Sheets, Gagne, etc,. and without you the team will be nowhere near the playoffs.
But if you are going to spend all that money, shouldn't you have some clue what you're talking about? Understand the team's limits. Their overall batting average isn't very high, they don't bunt, run or field better than most teams, and well, the starting pitching depth isn't great. Gang, enjoy this. This is the first time in 26 years the Brewers made the playoffs, and if they lose Sabathia it may be 26 more. Have fun, and I'll see you at this weekend's games (that's right, I'll be at BOTH games!)
