Brewers Update
Spring training hit full stride in the past two weeks, and before long the regular season will begin. As before, I'll be following the Brewers closely, and I have some high expectations for the team - modest expectations they would be for nearly another major league team. But I've been reading the news and thinking about new ownership and management and the growth certain players underwent last season, and I think the Brewers will surprise some teams (and sportswriters) this season. They will not make the playoffs, but they'll win more games than last year, and my guess is for the first time in several years they won't finish last in the NL Central Division.
When I was a kid, I was a generic baseball fan, though I didn't really know about the leagues and the division and the rivalries, and who played for what team. I knew who Babe Ruth was, and that Wade Boggs played for the Red Sox and Don Mattingly played for the Yankees, but otherwise I was pretty clueless. I can't say I was a fan of any team except for the Minnesota Twins, and how convenient that they won a couple of World Series titles in that time. I didn't really know who the pitchers were, and I thought the Win-Loss record was the be-all end-all way to measure a pitcher's performance.
Now I've grown up a little, and while I still have almost no clue, I've fallen in love with the idea of a team called the Milwaukee Brewers. The basic assumption behind the Brewers is they lose more games than they win - nobody will pick them to head to the playoffs, nobody will mistake them for a dark horse World Series contender, nobody will take them seriously. But another (false) assumption behind the Brewers is that this will never change.
They do lose, and that's great for getting tickets. Earlier this week, at a training in Chicago, my classmates complained about the difficulty of getting tickets to Cubs games. But the club management for the Brewers have this wacky plan: they look at players nobody else wants, players nobody else has given a chance, and they roll the dice. The worst thing that can happen is they don't pan out and get cut. But sometimes things work out.
Witness the last couple of years: Dan Kolb and Luis Vizcaino, two pitchers written off as low-ceiling, mediocre relievers, were given a chance by Doug Melvin, Brewers' GM. He turned them into one of the better late-inning relief teams in the majors. Now, what good are a couple of great late-inning relief pitchers if your team can't score any runs? No good at all. So this off-season, he traded these two pitchers that cost the team absolutely nothing for a guy who can hit and a prospect that can throw the ball 100 mph.
Last season, Russ Branyan, a third baseman nobody's given any play time to, got picked up for a couple hundred thousand dollars - peanuts in baseball money. In 51 games he hit 11 home runs and walked 20 times. Imagine if you let him play in 162 games, he could hit 35 home runs and walk 62 times - pretty good numbers for a guy who cost some pocket change.
What do you get when you build a team like this, out of discarded pieces, out of other teams' trash? You get a hard-working group of guys, each of them thankful to have a shot. You get the stereotypical "lovable losers". You get a core of players with nothing to lose, and when you start supplementing them with talented prospects acquired through strategic trades and the draft, you get a recipe for success. All it takes is a little patience.
I can't wait to see these guys get kicked around this year, and maybe start kicking back.
When I was a kid, I was a generic baseball fan, though I didn't really know about the leagues and the division and the rivalries, and who played for what team. I knew who Babe Ruth was, and that Wade Boggs played for the Red Sox and Don Mattingly played for the Yankees, but otherwise I was pretty clueless. I can't say I was a fan of any team except for the Minnesota Twins, and how convenient that they won a couple of World Series titles in that time. I didn't really know who the pitchers were, and I thought the Win-Loss record was the be-all end-all way to measure a pitcher's performance.
Now I've grown up a little, and while I still have almost no clue, I've fallen in love with the idea of a team called the Milwaukee Brewers. The basic assumption behind the Brewers is they lose more games than they win - nobody will pick them to head to the playoffs, nobody will mistake them for a dark horse World Series contender, nobody will take them seriously. But another (false) assumption behind the Brewers is that this will never change.
They do lose, and that's great for getting tickets. Earlier this week, at a training in Chicago, my classmates complained about the difficulty of getting tickets to Cubs games. But the club management for the Brewers have this wacky plan: they look at players nobody else wants, players nobody else has given a chance, and they roll the dice. The worst thing that can happen is they don't pan out and get cut. But sometimes things work out.
Witness the last couple of years: Dan Kolb and Luis Vizcaino, two pitchers written off as low-ceiling, mediocre relievers, were given a chance by Doug Melvin, Brewers' GM. He turned them into one of the better late-inning relief teams in the majors. Now, what good are a couple of great late-inning relief pitchers if your team can't score any runs? No good at all. So this off-season, he traded these two pitchers that cost the team absolutely nothing for a guy who can hit and a prospect that can throw the ball 100 mph.
Last season, Russ Branyan, a third baseman nobody's given any play time to, got picked up for a couple hundred thousand dollars - peanuts in baseball money. In 51 games he hit 11 home runs and walked 20 times. Imagine if you let him play in 162 games, he could hit 35 home runs and walk 62 times - pretty good numbers for a guy who cost some pocket change.
What do you get when you build a team like this, out of discarded pieces, out of other teams' trash? You get a hard-working group of guys, each of them thankful to have a shot. You get the stereotypical "lovable losers". You get a core of players with nothing to lose, and when you start supplementing them with talented prospects acquired through strategic trades and the draft, you get a recipe for success. All it takes is a little patience.
I can't wait to see these guys get kicked around this year, and maybe start kicking back.
posted by Sam at
2:44 PM
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