Tag: Milwaukee Brewers

Finding Love and Happiness in Milwaukee: The Renaissance of Francisco Rodriguez

Used to be that Francisco Rodriguez was done. Right?

Sizzle slipping from his heater. Relegated to then-closer John Axford’s setup man in 2011 and ’12, and Jim Henderson’s in ’13. Going, going…

“That’s the funny thing about everything,” Rodriguez says while sitting at his locker during a recent trip to San Diego and staring back at a 13-year career that has him, at the moment, 11th on the all-time saves list at 343 and back at the top of his game. “I was supposed to suck. I wasn’t supposed to be in this situation anymore. Not saving games for people.

“For me, I know what I had left and what I didn’t. I never lost confidence at all. I patiently waited for an opportunity. And when it came, I took advantage of it.

“That’s all.”

On Thursday, Milwaukee opened an enormous four-game weekend series against St. Louis, a meeting made all the more important by the Brewers‘ ill-timed eight-game losing streak. Now they desperately need to get a few more save opportunities in front of K-Rod, pronto. This September swoon is threatening to wipe out a summer in which they’ve spent 150 of 158 days in first place.

If they can just regain their balance and composure the way their closer has regained his, there is still time to author a meaningful and happy baseball ending in a city Rodriguez has come to know and love.

“Adversity,” says Rodriguez, tied for third in the National League with 39 saves. “Every single ballplayer’s been through it in different ways. That’s part of life.

“One day you’re raising your arms. They can’t beat you. The next day, you’re on your knees.

“After the storm, the calm arrives. That’s what you wait for. As a human being, everybody goes through it, passes through it, and then there’s a bright future ahead.”

A few years ago, a hot-blooded and cocky Rodriguez would have had neither the minutes for reflection nor the patience to wait for that bright future.

After bursting into the game during the 2002 postseason with the brilliance of the North Star, Rodriguez took over as Angels closer in 2005. He immediately reeled off four consecutive seasons of 40 or more saves, setting the major league record with 62 in ’08 before signing a three-year, $37 million free-agent deal with the Mets prior to the ’09 season.

You may have heard how that one turned out: The Mets flamed out, and in August of 2010, K-Rod was arrested and hauled away from Citi Field after an altercation with his father-in-law became physical just outside of the team’s clubhouse.

The Brewers acquired him the night of the All-Star Game in ’11. Rodriguez, a man in desperate need of a fresh start, didn’t just spend the rest of that summer as Axford’s setup man, but he also went 2-7 with a 4.38 ERA and only three—count ’em—saves in ’12 while setting up again.

He had lost significant velocity on his fastball (from an average of 96 mph to 91), a significant chunk of his reputation and, by all appearances, any chance at a significant future.

Storms? Yeah, he’s hoisted the umbrella to weather a few.

“It was tough,” he says of his arrest and family problems in New York. “Challenging. Painful. Any bad word you can use to describe it. Only God and I know what I was going through every day and night.

“Looking back, it made me stronger. It was difficult. You have to walk in other people’s shoes.”

Iced out of the game during the winter of 2012-13 following his highly disappointing summer of ’12, he remained unsigned until the Brewers extended a branch on April 17 last year.

No, it’s no coincidence that Rodriguez, right now, is on a mission to put Milwaukee’s name on the October map.

“They gave me an opportunity last year when nobody wanted me,” he says. “They opened the door again even after I was horrible in 2012.

“The only way I can repay them is by getting the job done.”

He wasn’t even supposed to close this summer. That was going to be Jim Henderson’s job. But when Henderson couldn’t get things going this spring, Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke approached Rodriguez the day before the season started and said, “Hey, what would you think of closing?”

Roenicke didn’t have to ask twice.

“Over the years, his fastball has dropped in velocity,” says Roenicke, who was the Angels’ third-base coach in ’02 when Rodriguez first stepped into the majors. “Last year, he started throwing the changeup, and it immediately was a great pitch for him.”

That is the pitch that, at 32, has put K-Rod back on top. According to the charts at FanGraphs, he is throwing it 30.3 percent of the time this year, with his overall fastball usage dropping to 54.9 percent.

During his 62-save 2008 summer in Anaheim, he used the changeup only 16.8 percent of the time, his fastball 50.7 percent of the time and his slider 31.6 percent.

He has found peace, contentment and success in Milwaukee, to the degree that when the Brewers traded him to the Orioles last July because they were out of the playoff race, he knew he would re-sign with the Brewers for ’14.

“We like having him here,” Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun says. “He’s been incredibly successful, and he’s been great for us. I think people forget how successful he’s been.

“He’s one of the best closers of all time, and he’s young. I think people think of him being older than he is because he got to the big leagues so young. But he’s been so great for us all year, so consistent for us, and for us, we need to win the games we’re supposed to win.

“When we get to the ninth inning with a slim lead, we feel really good about our chances.”

Rodriguez, who has converted 39 of 44 save opportunities, always has been comfortable with Roenicke. He still remembers that Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin was in attendance the first time Rodriguez threw for pro scouts in Venezuela when he was 15 (Melvin was the Texas Rangers‘ GM at the time).

“It’s a nice family,” Rodriguez says of Milwaukee. “The trainers, coaching staff, equipment guys, clubhouse guys, players…everything is nice, and it makes you feel good.

“They’ve treated me and my family extremely well here, and you cannot put a price tag on that at all. You cannot buy peace and tranquility, and that’s what I’ve got here. I don’t have to worry about things.”

He and his wife have two children (a two-and-a-half-year-old and one-and-a-half-year-old) with another due in November.

“At this stage of my career, you want peace and a city you can enjoy with your family,” Rodriguez says. “A city that’s a nice place to be.”

Milwaukee is it. He talks of spending rare off-days shopping with his family, walking around the city, at the Wisconsin Dells water parks or even driving to Chicago for a visit.

“Always, there’s something different,” he says.

Same as in his career. He talks about “always reinventing yourself, year in and year out,” and as the Brewers battle and K-Rod leads, there are few truer examples of what can be one of the game’s hoariest cliches.

“I always look at the negative of my outing and try not to do it for the next one,” he says in a season in which there have been precious few negatives. “At the end of the day, I ask myself, ‘Was I prepared for the game or not? Did I need more stretching? Did I need more long toss? Did I need to throw more fastballs?’

“You try to get better, instead of going backward.”

In Milwaukee, he’s done a marvelous job of that. And now comes his most delicate save opportunity of the year: to help keep the slumping Brewers doing the same.

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Previewing the Milwaukee Brewers’ Road to the Playoffs

With only four weeks left until the much-anticipated month of October arrives, the Milwaukee Brewers have set themselves up for a chance at a run for the World Series, but it won’t be easy getting there.

The Brewers have seemingly been on a mission to not just make the playoffs in 2014 but do so as the champions of the NL Central division. They’ve held atop the division for most of the 2014 season and until lately looked to be in firm control heading into the final stretch. 

While the division begins to take shape for the final time this season, the Brewers find themselves one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals and two games ahead of the surging (6-4 in their last 10 games) Pittsburgh Pirates. Unfortunately, the Brewers have stumbled down the stretch and have lost six straight and eight of their last 10 games.

Historically, when the Brewers are in contention late in the season, general manager Doug Melvin has selling teams on speed dial and is looking to make a splash with All-Star additions like C.C. Sabathia and Zack Greinke. However, the Brewers’ front office seemed content with the team’s roster this year as the trade deadline came and went without any blockbuster deals (unlike some of the league-altering transactions by Oakland, Detroit, and division-foe St. Louis).

Following this year’s deadline, Brewers fans seemingly couldn’t argue with Melvin’s decision to pass on the trade market’s available starting pitchers. The Brewers won 11 of their next 17 games following the deadline and did so against some of the game’s best in Adam Wainwright, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw

A potentially devastating injury to starting pitcher Matt Garza put a strain on the pitching staff and created a more dire need for productive plate appearances by the Brewers’ hot-and-cold offense. One bright spot to the injury bug plaguing the Brewers’ starting pitchers was the stellar step-in performance by Mike Fiers (4-2) and the flashes of potential displayed by Jimmy Nelson.

Fiers is already drawing praise from his teammates.

“It has been incredibly impressive,” outfielder Ryan Braun told The Associated Press (via USA Today) regarding Fiers performance this year. “I don’t think anybody foresaw him coming up and being the best pitcher in baseball the last four starts.”

In an attempt to supplement the bullpen, the Brewers added Jonathan Broxton in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds, according to Matt Snyder of CBSSports.com.

It’s likely that Broxton‘s role will be to set up for Francisco Rodriguez initially, though it’s feasible Broxton will take over at closer at some point. K-Rod has allowed runs in three of his last four outings and sports a 4.86 ERA in his last 18 outings. Of course, Broxton‘s ERA in August is 5.23, so it’s not like either one is hot right now.

With the return of Matt Garza this Wednesday, a talented and reinforced bullpen, consistent offense, and a little luck, the Brewers are definitely worth the price of admission this month as they look to win their second division title in the last four years.

So as September begins, the Brewers will look to hold off the veteran Cardinals and surging Pirates to ensure their place in the hunt for the NL title. With 10 of the Brewers’ final 26 games against the Cardinals and Pirates (a key matchup begins Thursday with a four-game series against St. Louis), their fate lies within their own hands.

Win those divisional games, win the division. Win the division, all bets are off.

 

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Brewers’ Jonathan Lucroy Can Become 1st Modern Catcher to Lead League in Doubles

Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy, who hit his 40th double of the season Sunday, has a chance to become the first catcher in the modern era (since 1900) to lead a league in two-baggers, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Lucroy’s 40 doubles tie him with Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera for the major league lead, just one ahead of Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (39), who will likely miss the rest of the season because of a fractured hand.

Goldschmidt was previously on track to lead the National League in doubles, as he sat five ahead of Lucroy entering the game in which he suffered his hand injury.

With Goldschmidt out of the picture, Lucroy’s primary challengers for the NL lead are Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman (35), Washington Nationals outfielder Denard Span (34) and New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy (34).

Span seems unlikely to put up much of a fight, as he’s averaged just 31 doubles per 162 games throughout his career, in large part because he turns so many would-be two-baggers into triples. Murphy and Freeman are both more in the mold of the classic doubles hitter, though Freeman’s 35 two-baggers this year already represent a career high.

Lucroy’s 40 doubles mark a surprisingly rare feat for his position, as only two primary catchers have recorded that many in a campaign since 2008. Yadier Molina (44) and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (40) both did it last year, meaning no catcher reached 40 doubles in a season during the four-year stretch from 2009 to 2012.

In fact, Lucroy’s 40-double campaign is just the fourth by a catcher this millennium, which is perhaps less surprising once you account for the extra rest afforded to backstops in today’s game.

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MLB System Check 2014: Milwaukee Brewers’ Top Prospects

The Milwaukee Brewers Systems Check video offers a quick overview of the team’s farm system, addressing its strengths and weaknesses and how it can improve moving forward. The video also provides a breakdown of the Brewers’ top prospects for 2014, right-hander Jimmy Nelson and outfielders Tyrone Taylor and Mitch Haniger, including each player’s ETA in the major leagues and potential long-term role within the organization.

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Brewers’ Marco Estrada Threatening NL Record for Home Runs Allowed Before Break

With one final outing scheduled before the the All-Star break, Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Marco Estrada is three home runs away from setting the National League record for most homers allowed before the break, per ESPN’s Jayson Stark.

Estrada surrendered his 27th long ball of the season in Monday’s 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, with Phillies second baseman Chase Utley doing the honors. Despite all the home runs and his ugly 4.96 ERA, Estrada only saw his record fall to a still-respectable 7-6 with the loss.

While his season has largely been defined by negatives, the 31-year-old right-hander should be able to avoid an unfortunate piece of history, as his final start before the break will come Saturday against a St. Louis Cardinals team that ranks last in the National League with just 53 home runs this season.

When he faced the Cardinals on April 15, Estrada put forth one of his two homer-less performances this season, though he still allowed three runs over six innings.

According to ESPN’s Stark, the National League record of 29 first-half home runs allowed is shared by Phil Niekro, Fergie Jenkins and Jose Lima.

As for the season-long mark, Lima stands alone in that category, having served up 48 long balls during the 2000 campaign while playing for the Houston Astros, per Baseball Almanac.

Including both leagues, Bert Blyleven set the standard by allowing 50 home runs as a member of the Minnesota Twins in 1986.

Judging by his 4.96 ERA, Estrada likely won’t remain in the rotation long enough to challenge either Blyleven or Lima if he keeps going this way.

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Tim Kurkjian Gets Destroyed in the Milwaukee Brewers Sausage Race

It wasn’t even close. At all.

ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian was thoroughly embarrassed Monday night after deciding against his better judgment to participate in the Milwaukee Brewers Sausage Race (click here for video).

Kurkjian spent the better part of an afternoon stretching and running stairs at Miller Park in preparation for the race. He even interviewed legendary Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker before the game for some friendly advice.

“Stupidly, I agreed to run in the sausage race tonight. Do you have any advice for me?” Kurkjian asked Uecker. “Is this the end of my career as a journalist?”

“I think this is the start of something really big,” Uecker said. “I think you got a road show coming up. … What could we call you? ‘Slim Tim and His Sausage-Casing Friends’? … What took you so long?”

Uecker‘s optimism was all for naught, however. Like a thoroughbred smashing its shoulders leaving the starting gate, Kurkjian found himself out of the race from the very beginning.

Busy chatting with the crowd, the ESPN analyst was facing the wrong direction when the signal to run came down—a dire setback for anyone running in a giant hot dog costume.

ESPN sportscaster Sean McDonough was on hand to call the race and took no prisoners as his colleague struggled about in the hot dog outfit.

“Tim…sorta doesn’t know what to do,” McDonough said. “John Kruk said he [Kurkjian] is really one of those mini cocktail wieners, based on his size.”

When the dust settled, Kurkjian finished somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 lengths behind the victor.

There are so many factors that contributed to Kurkjian‘s sweaty implosion at Miller Park that it’s difficult to decide where to begin the autopsy. Joe Lucia of Awful Announcing says Kurkjian‘s decision to wear pants was a red-flag indicator that this endeavor would only end badly.

“I spoke with Matt Lindner, a Chicago-based writer friend of mine who actually worked as a Racing Sausage during his time with the Brewers,” Lucia writes. “Lindner opined that Kurkjian‘s choice of slacks was ‘ill-advised at best,’ and that many of the runners in the race dress like ‘they’re going to gym class.'”

You’ve got to stay nimbly bimbly, Tim. You don’t see Usain Bolt running the hundred meters in Zubaz (though we’d like to).

With that said, Kurkjian owes his viewers a redemption tour. This time next year, he needs to walk back onto that field wearing shorts and facing the starting line.

Do it for the game, Slim Tim. Do it for journalism.

 

#TeamSlimTim

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It’s Not Too Early to View Streaking Brewers as NL Central Contenders

We’re still in the portion of the season when you have to be careful about taking anything at face value—especially with performances that seem out of character.

On that note, here’s me telling caution to take a hike so I can say this: You might want to take the Milwaukee Brewers seriously as NL Central contenders.

The Brewers won on Friday night, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2. They got all four runs off Francisco Liriano and received seven innings of two-run ball from Wily Peralta. Francisco Rodriguez struck out the side in the ninth for his third save.

That makes it seven in a row for the Brewers. The first six of those wins came away from home in a six-game romp through Boston and Philadelphia. At 8-2, Milwaukee has the best record in baseball.

The reasons for the Brew Crew’s success? Cliches, according to manager Ron Roenicke:

At last check, the Brewers were indeed leading the league in Weighted Clicks Created Plus, and their GAR (Grinding Above Replacement) was off the charts.

Speaking less sarcastically, the Brewers do hold the best run differential in MLB at plus-24. There’s naturally some flukiness at play there. And where there’s flukiness, regression tends to follow swiftly. The Brewers surely won’t finish the year with the plus-400-ish run differential they’re on pace for.

There is, however, plenty to like about these Brewers.

Let’s start by discussing Milwaukee’s biggest strength at the moment: its bullpen. According to FanGraphs, Brewers relievers currently boast a 0.91 ERA.

Further data from FanGraphs shows that there’s more than just ERA to gawk at:

Brewers relievers have done everything that good relievers should be doing: rack up strikeouts, limit walks, keep the ball on the ground and keep the ball in the yard.

These are huge reasons why their performance has pleased not just ERA, but FIP as well. That’s Fielding Independent Pitching, which removes defense from the equation and tells us how good pitchers are based on strikeouts, walks, home runs and hit-by-pitches. 

The individual arms are good, too. Zach Duke and Will Smith are good for lefty-on-lefty matchups. Jim Henderson and Tyler Thornburg can both bring the heat. And while Rodriguez doesn’t throw as hard, Brooks Baseball can show that his increased reliance on his changeup has paid off in helping him get swings-and-misses.

This is not to suggest that 0.91 ERA is going to last, mind you. It’s not, because not lasting is what 0.91 ERAs do. But when you have a bullpen with good arms and a closer who can miss bats like crazy, you’re probably going to be looking at a body of solid relief work at the end of all things.

Not that it’s all about Milwaukee’s bullpen, of course. The Brewers have also gotten excellent starting pitching, as their starting rotation’s 2.31 ERA stands as one of the best in MLB.

That there’s a bulbous 4.04 FIP next to that 2.31 ERA says it’s not going to last. But rather than a total fluke, this rotation’s early success is a case of it picking up where it left off.

Brewers starters had a 3.36 ERA in the second half of 2013, second best in the National League behind the Dodgers. This was largely thanks to these four guys:

The least impressive performance there was authored by Peralta, but even that one was pretty good. Certainly good enough for what he is this year, anyway, and that’s a No. 5 starter.

And the reason he is a No. 5 starter, of course, is because the Brewers went out and signed Matt Garza.

Garza made his Milwaukee debut with eight brilliant one-run innings, and surrendered just three earned runs in six innings his next time out to put his ERA at 2.57. Health is going to be a key question mark with him, but he looks like he could be for the Brewers what he was for the Chicago Cubs: a starter who posted a 3.45 ERA across 60 outings.

Right now, the Brewers have arguably the best pitching staff in MLB. It’s not actually that good, of course, but I’ll wager that Milwaukee’s pitching was underrated coming into the season. Its early success is an excuse for it to be underrated no longer.

Which is good, because there’s a limit to how much I trust Milwaukee’s offense. It may boast a collective .769 OPS, but allow me to share two concerns:

  • The team’s walk percentage is 5.1.
  • The team’s batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is .336.

Repeating a trend from 2013, that walk percentage is the lowest in MLB. That’s concerning because walks, as a species, are generally helpful. The Brewers are going to need more of them once that BABIP comes down, and that BABIP will come down.

On the flip side, it does bode well that the Brewers were able to avoid having a bottom-feeding offense (19th in runs scored) in 2013 even despite their aggressiveness, as it’s something they did with little help from either Aramis Ramirez or Ryan Braun. Injuries and Braun’s 65-game suspension limited the two of them to just 153 combined games.

Thus far in 2014, however, things are looking up for both these guys.

Ramirez hit his first home run on Friday night, and I’ve long since given up on the notion that his bat will eventually run out of juice. He hit .283 last year even with his health issues, and has hit below .280 just once since 2004.

Braun, meanwhile, has snapped out of a cold start to the season by slashing .450/.455/1.000 over his last five games. The big stop along the way was his three-homer outburst in Philadelphia, which showed that he can play through loud booing just fine and that his wounded thumb might not keep the clamps on his power after all.

Braun and the Brewers will have to be very careful with that thumb. But if he’s able to stay on the field, it’s easy to like Milwaukee’s lineup with him as the centerpiece. A lineup with Braun, Ramirez, the increasingly awesome Carlos Gomez, the underappreciated Jonathan Lucroy and young talents like Jean Segura, Khris Davis and Scooter Gennett is a fine lineup indeed.

In the interest of full disclosure, all of this isn’t me standing up and saying, “See! Told you so!”

I didn’t have the Brewers pegged as the NL Central champs before the season, nor did I even have them down as a wild card. I liked what they had, but not enough to elevate them to contender status in a division that featured three (three!) 90-win teams in 2013.

But what we’ve seen in the early going is the Brewers turn potential into reality. And with the St. Louis Cardinals off to an iffy start and the Cincinnati Reds off to an awful start, the Brewers have earned themselves a leg up in a division race that might not follow the same script as it did in 2013.

The Brewers still have a long way to go before clinching anything. But since they’ve made things easier on themselves with their early win streak, and since they have enough talent to keep regression from killing their season altogether, hey, why not them?

 

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked. 

 

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Milwaukee Brewers Hit the Ground Running in 2014

After winning the NL Central Division in 2011, the Milwaukee Brewers and their faithful followers commenced on a steep downward spiral that nearly transformed into a harrowing free fall.

The team spent portions of the 2013 season in the NL Central cellar, which meant it was actually playing worse than the hopeless Chicago Cubs

After reaching the NLCS in 2011, the Brewers lost two of their three best players when Prince Fielder and Zack Greinke departed through free agency and a trade, respectively. Last season, the third domino fell when MLB nailed Ryan Braun to the wall on a PED-related suspension. 

Talk about a rough couple years…

To make matters even worse, one of the team’s former future stars, Rickie Weeks, hit a multi-year skid that made his immense salary the type of anchor that can often sink a small-market franchise like the Brewers. 

Had Weeks been the only problem in 2013, the Brew Crew may have been able to overcome that obstacle with some extraordinary performances from their other big-ticket contributors. Unfortunately, Braun was suspended, Aramis Ramirez spent much of the year on the disabled list, and Corey Hart was lost for the entire campaign.

Entering the 2014 season, things didn’t look a whole lot better for the Brewers as the number of questions facing the team seemed to outnumber the known quantities.

The Brewers lost their planned starter at first base, Corey Hart, to free agency. The team was also still married to Rickie Weeks at second base because of his guaranteed $11 million salary. The fact that Braun and Ramirez hadn’t played much in 2013 only added to the team’s question marks in 2014.

Consistent, effective starting pitching has also been a problem in Milwaukee since the team traded away its ace, Zack Greinke. During the offseason it looked like the Brewers would enter 2014 with only two legitimate starting pitchers—Yovani Gallardo and Kyle Lohse.

During spring training, much of the chatter around the team suggested the Brewers would only be competitive if at least a couple unknown factors panned out in their favor. 

The Brewers needed to find a serviceable first baseman. They needed either Weeks or his understudy, Scooter Gennett, to emerge as the clear starter at second base. They needed a healthy Aramis Ramirez at third base. They needed Ryan Braun to shrug off the suspension and return to the team hitting lights-out as he’d done since his rookie season. 

And they needed their somewhat-suspect starting pitching rotation to perform at the high range of its potential. The bullpen was, of course, another wild card.

Typically, one would expect that only a couple of those challenges would be answered favorably during the regular season. Baseball is a numbers game, and the Brewers simply didn’t have statistics on their side heading into Opening Day.

Amazingly, the least likely outcome appears to be playing out (at least early on), as the Brewers have kicked off 2014 with a 7-2 record and looked every bit an early contender in the process.  

After dropping two of their first three games at home against the Atlanta Braves, the Brewers went on the road and absolutely crushed some tough competition. 

The team went to Boston and pounded last year’s champions at Fenway Park. Then, the Brewers flew down to Philadelphia and continued where they left off by shelling the Phillies. The Brewers swept both teams in three-game sets.

So far, almost every outstanding question the team faced entering the season has been answered with a moderate to strong positive statement. 

Ryan Braun looked much like his old self when he smashed three home runs in a single game against the Phillies. Matt Garza, the Brewers’ surprise free-agent pitching acquisition, nearly threw a no-hitter in his first outing.

The Brewers’ entire pitching staff has been unusually efficient through its first nine games and has compiled a minuscule ERA of 1.95, which leads the league. 

Additionally, the team’s platoon at first base involving Lyle Overbay and Mark Reynolds has been more productive than spring training would have suggested. Milwaukee’s emerging star at second base, Scooter Gennett, is hitting .273 and looks to be entrenching himself as the new everyday starter. 

On top of that, the team’s new face in the outfield, Khris Davis, has acquitted himself very well. Braun and Ramirez are also mostly healthy and playing at a level in line with their high-quality historical averages. As if that weren’t enough, the team’s emerging stars, Carlos Gomez, Jonathan Lucroy and Jean Segura, have picked up right where they left off last year. 

The net result is that the Brewers’ on-field product looks more balanced and complete than possibly any squad in franchise history. The Brewers are in first place and do not appear like they’ll be slowing down anytime soon.

With 162 games during the year, the professional baseball season is obviously more of a marathon than a sprint. Sustaining their extremely high level of play will be difficult for the Brewers, and there’s no doubt the team will have to overcome its fair share of adversity if it truly wants to contend for its first World Series title.

However, the fact that the Brewers are playing such complete ball cannot be minimized, either, especially given the adversity they’ve faced in recent years.

Team chemistry is a difficult quality to measure, and the Brewers appear to be drawing directly from this mystical energy source through their first nine games.

Going forward we’ll find out if the Brewers can remain healthy and productive enough to translate their early season success through the summer and beyond.

The fact that the team has shrugged off some preseason question marks and transformed into a unit with few discernible weaknesses suggests the Brewers may go far in 2014. 

 

Statistics are accurate as of Friday, April 11.

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Ryan Braun Proves He’s Still Star-Caliber Player with 3-HR Night

The return of Ryan Braun from an historic 65-game suspension hadn’t gone the way anyone associated with the Mliwaukee Brewers outfielder had hoped. Blame it on nerves, or a nagging thumb injury, but whatever the case, the former MVP hadn’t looked good through the first week of the 2014 season.

Then came Tuesday’s offensive explosion, and just like that Braun showed off the kind of power that made him a five-time All-Star and the 2011 National League MVP.

Braun belted three home runs and drove in a team record-tying seven runs in Milwaukee’s 10-4 win at Philadelphia. Coming into the game he was hitting .150 with no homers or RBI, with just three singles in 20 at-bats this season.

“I didn’t think there was any chance I could possibly have a day like this,” Braun told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt. “The game works in mysterious ways. It’s a crazy game sometimes.”

Braun hadn’t homered since May 22, and appeared to be plagued by the same thumb ailment that limited him to just 61 games last season before he was suspended 65 games by Major League Baseball for his connection to Florida anti-aging clinic Biogenesis.

His return last week was met by a standing ovation from his home fans in Milwaukee, but when the Brewers hit the road, the boos rained down. First in Boston and then in Philly. Braun had no answer for those jeers until Tuesday, when in his second at-bat in the fourth inning he belted a three-run homer to left and then calmly trotted around the bases to a chorus of not-so-pleasant reactions from the Citizens Bank Park crowd:

Braun hit a solo shot in the fourth, then smacked another three-run bomb in the eighth for his second career three-homer game and first since April 2012.

Before 2013 Braun was one of the game’s best all-around hitters, averaging 33 home runs and 107 RBI with a batting average better than .300 in five of six seasons. A failed drug test during the 2011 playoffs tarnished his image, though his adamant claims that the results were tainted kept his reputation mostly intact.

But his link to Biogenesis, and his subsequent suspension moved Braun from the list of heroes to those hated by the average fan. And the slow start following his return only furthered the belief that Braun’s numbers were a result of performance-enhancing drug use.

One three-homer game won’t completely change popular opinion—in fact, Phillies fans used Tuesday’s results to enhance their hatred of Braun—but it does show the 30-year-old does still have the makings of a top-tier player.

Braun told Haudricourt that a key to Tuesday’s performance was his decision to put padding inside his batting glove instead of wearing it on the outside of the glove to protect his thumb.

“The less invasive anything is, the more comfortable it is for me as a hitter,” Braun said. “Hopefully, we found something else that works.”

Braun also shortened his swing and did away with a pronounced leg kick, thus quickening his bat speed and taking pressure of the thumb, he told Haudricourt. Assuming those moves continue to work, Braun’s early-season struggles might soon be a distant memory.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


Ryan Braun Poised to Return to Superstar Form After 3-Home-Run Performance

Coming off of a 65-game PED suspension that ended his 2013 season prematurely, there were legitimate questions as to what kind of player Ryan Braun would be for the Milwaukee Brewers this season.

At least for one day, he looked like the superstar player of old, breaking out of an early-season slump with a three-homer game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday.

The question now is, can Braun keep it up and be one of the most dynamic, all-around offensive players in the game?

He looked great this spring, showing now signs of rust after missing so much time last year in going 15-for-36 (.417 BA) with five doubles and three home runs. That, while he made the transition from left field to right field, after spending the past six seasons in left.

His Cactus League success didn’t translate once the regular season kicked off, though, and while the Brewers jumped out to a 4-2 start, he was just 3-for-20 at the plate through the team’s first six games.

More concerning than the slow start, however, was the resurfacing of a nagging thumb condition that cost him 27 games last season.

The condition was described as “nerve damage at the base of his thumb that is causing numbness that makes it difficult to grip the bat or throw a baseball,” in an article by Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Braun went on to describe the injury at length in the aforementioned article, but the gist of it is that when the issue flares up, he is unable to keep two hands on the bat when he makes contact with the ball.

There was a pair of surgery options laid out for him while he was serving his suspension, but neither was attractive, as one would have left the thumb permanently numb and the other would have resulted in exposed nerve endings that would have been susceptible to pain.

So it seems, for the time being at least, Braun will simply have to make the best of a bad situation.

It was enough of an issue that he sat out the team’s Saturday-night game against the Red Sox, but he rebounded with a 2-for-4 game on Sunday before his monster game on Tuesday.

Let’s take a closer look at the three blasts, complete with video courtesy of MLB.com.

The first came in the the third inning off of starter Kyle Kendrick, as he took a 1-2 fastball out to left field. Kendrick missed his spot out over the plate a bit, but the pitch was still low, and Braun did a nice job going down to get it.

The second blast came just an inning later, and was again off of Kendrick. It was another fastball, but he left this one up pretty badly, and Braun did a nice job taking it the other way to deep right-center field.

After flying out to center in the sixth, Braun came up for his final at-bat of the game in the eighth inning, facing reliever Brad Lincoln. He jumped on the first pitch again, crushing what looked to be a hanging curveball to deep left-center field.

These are certainly not squeakers over the wall by any means, and while two of the homers were on balls up in the zone, Braun is still flashing some good power here for someone just a couple of days removed from being in enough pain to miss a game.

Chances are, the thumb issue is going to be something that crops up at least a few more times this season, but there’s nothing like a three-homer game to put minds at ease. B/R’s MLB lead writer Jason Catania agreed with that logic:

The Philadelphia fans were letting Braun hear it all day, and that’s likely going to be the case everywhere he goes this year. That could be a detriment to some players, but for Braun, it will likely only put a chip on his shoulder.

In fact, MLB.com beat writer Adam McCalvy tweeted after the game that Braun at least partially attributed the hostility of the fans to his big day:

Being motivated by boos is a mere footnote to the far more significant takeaway from that tweet that he made changes to his swing.

Whether those changes are part of a long-term solution to avoid further issues with the thumb, or this was just a happy coincidence, it’s still awfully impressive that someone tinkering with a new swing can hit three bombs in the process.

Looking at the bigger picture, Braun still has the skill set to be a superstar in this league and a serious X-factor for the Brewers. It’s just a matter of him finding consistency both in his health and his performance at the plate.

This is a team that led the NL in runs scored in 2012, but fell off greatly last season with Braun suspended and Aramis Ramirez on the shelf. Those two are both back in the lineup now, alongside a starting rotation that was bolstered by the addition of Matt Garza and a bullpen that was quietly one of the best in the NL last year.

If Braun can return to form and post an MVP-caliber campaign, this team has a real chance to contend, and you can count Bob Nightengale of USA Today among those who agree:

And if Tuesday’s eruption was any indication, there’s an awful lot to like about a three-homer game from Ryan Braun, beyond just a 10-4 victory over the Phillies.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


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