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Milwaukee Brewers position players report to spring training on Friday. That means Ryan Braun is coming to face the music. He’ll continue to face it throughout 2014. Maybe he’ll let it get to him.

Or maybe not.

Braun giving in to all the negative attention he’ll be facing this season would be a heck of a story, one that would definitely make my fingers find the nearest keyboard. But this is Ryan Braun we’re talking about. He has plenty of experience in dealing with negative attention. It’s really all he’s done recently.

It was in late 2011 that Braun failed a test for performance-enhancing drugs. Early in 2012, he escaped punishment on a technicality. On the eve of spring training that year, he acted totally innocent anyway. He then found himself involved in the Biogenesis scandal early in 2013 and was the first major leaguer to bite the dust when he was suspended for the rest of the season in July.

All PED suspensions are bad. But since Braun’s had the context of his past troubles…Yeah, it was worse. And with Alex Rodriguez officially out of the picture, Braun is Public Enemy No. 1 heading into 2014. To that end, history is already repeating itself.

But history will be repeating itself again if Braun makes like it’s 2012 and has an outstanding season (read: NL-high .987 OPS) in the face of all the negative buzz coming from the media and the fans. And while it won’t be as easy this time around, Braun can do it.

In particular, he seems ready for the media. The knights of the keyboard (as Ted Williams called them) will be after him in 2014, but they’ll have trouble getting through the suit of armor he’s crafted.

Think back to the first step in Braun’s 2014 comeback tour: the lengthy statement he released in August 2013 that, summed up, basically said, “I’m really sorry, you guys.”

Not a bad way to start, but Albert Chen of Sports Illustrated pointed out that Braun left the big question unanswered. Though he pledged to give a “specific account” of what got him in trouble, Braun only said:

Here is what happened. During the latter part of the 2011 season, I was dealing with a nagging injury and I turned to products for a short period of time that I shouldn’t have used. The products were a cream and a lozenge which I was told could help expedite my rehabilitation…

That’s it. Braun didn’t specify what kind of injury he had. He didn’t specify exactly which products he took, or how said products were administered. Nor did he mention Biogenesis or Anthony Bosch.

Chen therefore had good reason to warn that Braun had better be ready for “demands for him to go further in explaining himself.” But here’s the thing about that: Judging from his two meetings with the media since his suspension, he is.

The first meeting was in November at a charity function outside Miller Park. The very first question he was asked was why he lied about being involved with PEDs, and Braun let it bounce off his armor.

“Obviously I’ve been through a lot and as I expressed in my statement that I felt was pretty lengthy and specific, I got into a lot of details at that point. I’m not really going to go into any further details,” he said, via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

When pressed for additional information later in the session: “Again, I’m not going to get into the specifics and continue to go backward. I’m moving forward and I’m not going to get into too many specifics on that.”

When Braun appeared at the Brewers’ “On Deck” function in late January, it was the same old refrain. Once again via Rosiak of the Journal Sentinel:

Again, I appreciate there is still interest in this stuff, but I addressed everything in November when I was here for the charity event, and I think I addressed it pretty specifically in the statement that we gave.

There’s honesty, and then there’s diplomacy. Braun has been using the latter, and not just when it comes to the specifics about his troublemaking. He has canned answers for other hot topics:

• On Dino Laurenzi Jr., the sample collector he threw under the bus two years ago: “We’ve made amends and I think we’re both excited to be able to move forward and put this behind us.”
• On the possibility of being selected to another All-Star Game: “I really haven’t thought about that kind stuff. My goal is always to go and be the best player that I can be. I’m not motivated by individual accolades.”
• On the Hall of Fame: “I haven’t even thought that far ahead, and I think it’s almost disrespectful to even discuss the Hall of Fame. I’ve only played in the league for less than seven years.”
• On the 2011 MVP: “Like I said, I’m continuing to move forward. I think that’s all I can do. I’m not going to go back and discuss the things that have happened in the past.”

One thing Braun said in January is that “there’s no blueprint” for how to deal with a situation like his. But if you take his canned answers with how he apologizes at seemingly every turn, it’s clear that he and some helpers spent some time trying to devise some sort of blueprint while the spotlight was elsewhere after his suspension. He’s come back with his guns loaded and, indeed, has stuck to them.

Factor in how Braun has always been confident and articulate in his dealings with the media, and, well, you know what a guy like that becomes when armed with some coaching?

An anti-headline. That’s what.

If Braun can continue to be that, 2014 will be a breeze. If he can handle the media, goodness knows he should also be able to handle the fans.

Sure, there was some griping among Brewers fans when Braun was first suspended—Kevin Massoth of MLB.com spoke to fans who used sentiments like “very disappointing,” “bad example” and “tarnished”—but the slugger pulled off a deft maneuver when he started calling season ticket holders last fall to apologize directly, and there wasn’t much ill will when he confronted fans at the “On Deck” function in late January.

The Associated Press (via ESPN) reported that there was a heckler, but only one. Apart from that, Dennis Punzel of the Wisconsin State Journal noted that Braun’s autograph session “attracted by far the largest crowd” and that the fans were largely positive.

“I was talking to people in line, and people all seemed to be happy he’s back. And you look at the amount of people in line for him, that should make him feel good,” said one fan.

File this under: “Well, shoot, what did you expect?”

Brewers fans had every right to feel betrayed when Braun’s suspension came through, but mass forgiveness was inevitable. Maybe some will support him begrudgingly, but the Brewers fans supporting him will far outnumber the Brewers fans shunning him. Surely many of the shunners will come around once Braun starts producing. 

Ah, but will Braun produce in 2014? He wasn’t so great in 2013, after all, and maybe that’s because he was off the juice!

Or maybe it was the injuries. Braun battled a neck injury in early April, and then spent much of the rest of the season battling a right thumb injury that landed him on the disabled list in June.

No hitter likes having a bad neck, and we’ve seen injuries in the hand and wrist areas be particularly damaging for power hitters. Maybe that was the case with Braun, as power was really the only area where he wasn’t himself at the plate last year:

In theory, a return to good health in 2014 will help fix this problem. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Miller Park is one of the most power-friendly ballparks in baseball.

Ah yes, but what about when Braun plays on the road? The environment will be a lot tougher, and not just because of the ballparks. The fans will be on him too!

Yeah, Braun knows. And as you’d expect, he doesn’t care.

“I really don’t think about stuff like that very much,” he said in January. “I try not to focus on the things that are out of my control. With that being said I’ve already experienced this already in the past a couple times. Dealt with it in 2012, dealt with it for the majority of 2013, so I think I have an idea of what I’m getting myself into.”

Braun is right. And if you go look at his splits (via FanGraphs) during his healthy season in 2012, you’ll get the sense that he wasn’t exactly intimidated by the general nastiness he encountered on the road:

Braun had a .396 Weighted On-Base Average on the road in 2012. That ranked sixth in MLB, making him one of the elite road warriors in the league that year. Not exactly the mark of a guy who can’t handle boos.

Again, it would be a heck of a story if Braun folded under the weight of his critics in 2014. You can picture him there at the plate, bat quaking in his hands and choking back the tears as the boos come cascading down. And there, up in the press box, writers rubbing their palms together and saying, “Good, good.”

But nah. Braun will have Brewers fans on his side, and he ought to be ready for everyone else.

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

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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The Milwaukee Brewers have reportedly reached an agreement with Francisco Rodriguez on a one-year contract. The relief pitcher previously pitched with the organization for parts of the last three seasons.

Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com first reported the deal was complete:

The Brewers made it official:

The #Brewers have signed RHP Francisco Rodriguez to a 1-yr. contract. RHP Donovan Hand has been designated for assignment.

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) February 7, 2014

Adam McCalvy of MLB.com had the contract details:

A baseball source said the sides were close Friday to sealing a one-year, Major League contract that would return the veteran reliever to Milwaukee, where he has pitched parts of the past three seasons. Rodriguez would earn a $3.25 million base salary, with $550,000 more available in incentives.

Rodriguez split last season between the Brewers and Baltimore Orioles. He posted a 2.70 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 46.2 innings.

However, McCalvy confirmed that he won’t be the closer:

In case there was any doubt, Doug Melvin just said it: Jim Henderson is still the closer. #Brewers

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) February 7, 2014

In 134 appearances for the Brewers, he’s compiled a 3.15 ERA and 1.23 WHIP. He mostly served in a setup role during his time with Milwaukee, registering just 13 saves. He racked up 291 saves during his time with the Los Angeles Angels and New York Mets.

Rodriguez will likely return to eighth-inning duty for the Brewers once again with Jim Henderson holding down the closer role, at least to open the season. It’s always nice to have a pitcher with K-Rod’s closing experience available as a security blanket, though.

The 32-year-old reliever is a four-time All-Star and led the American League in saves three times with the Angels. Although he’s dropped off from that peak in recent seasons, he should still provide good value for the one-year deal.

Milwaukee gets the veteran bullpen arm it needed with spring training on the horizon. Rodriguez gets another chance to prove himself on a short-term deal.

It’s an agreement that should work out well for both sides.

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The last Brewers pitching prospect drafted in the first round that developed into an impact major-league starter was Ben Sheets in 1999. Since then, the organization has struck out repeatedly when drafting a pitcher in the first round.

Milwaukee drafted college right-hander Eric Arnett in 2009, who’s now a 25-year-old reliever that has yet to graduate from A-ball. They targeted upside the following year and drafted prep right-hander Dylan Covey in the first round. However, Covey decided not to sign and ultimately honored his commitment to the University of San Diego.

And while many pitchers from the 2011 draft—Jose Fernandez, Gerrit Cole and Sonny Gray, for example—have each made an impact in the major leagues, Milwaukee’s pair of first-round picks from that year, college pitchers Taylor Jungmann and Jed Bradley, have struggled to climb the minor-league ladder and lack favorable long-term projections.

The Brewers finally landed a much-needed power arm this past June, drafting prep right-hander Devin Williams with its first pick (coming in the second round). The 19-year-old is a project and will need time to develop in the minor leagues, but the finished product has the potential to be a solid No. 2 or 3 starter.

The organization houses several under-the-radar position prospects that seem poised for breakout campaigns in 2014. Shortstop Orlando Arcia and outfielders Tyrone Taylor and Mitch Haniger are likely to open the season at High-A and, if everything goes smoothly in their respective developments, they could conceivably reach Double-A by season’s end.

Here’s a look at the Milwaukee Brewers’ top-10 prospects for the 2014 season.

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The St. Louis Cardinals are Major League Baseball’s model organization. 

This past season, the Cardinals won the National League Central with 97 wins and advanced to the playoffs for the 10th time since 2000. While they came up two wins shy of capturing the 12th championship in franchise history, it did mark their fourth trip to the Fall Classic in the last 10 years.

However, not every organization can be run as brilliantly from top to bottom as the Cardinals; many clubs struggle to simply field a competitive team in the major leagues, let alone a farm system with talent at every level. 

Specifically, the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers are two teams that have failed to contend on a yearly basis due to poor player evaluation and a tentative feel for the market.

Here’s a breakdown of why both organizations have struggled in the past and how they can improve moving forward.

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Thanks to this bit of clutch hitting, the Milwaukee Brewers reached a League Championship Series for the first time since 1982. With his up-the-middle single, Nyjer Morgan helped propel Milwaukee to a 3-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks to earn a berth in the 2011 NLCS. 

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Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun is digging a deeper hole for himself following his recent apology acknowledging his use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

Braun issued a statement Thursday—the full text of which can be found here—apologizing for his use of PEDs and further explaining his actions.  Yet his apology may be too little and too late. 

Braun, and his clouded reputation, shall forever be stained by this incident.  However, there are things the 2011 National League MVP can do to at least return his image to something respectable.

For starters, Braun should speak with the media.

The nature of that potential conversation shall be described shortly; yet how did Braun get to this point in the first place?

Braun is no stranger to allegations of PED use. 

In his 2011 MVP season, Braun had tested positive for PEDs, yet was able to successfully appeal a 50-game suspension; he became baseball’s first player to win such an appeal.

Despite the success of the appeal, one might think that Braun had learned his lesson.  His reputation, albeit tainted, was still intact and he had escaped suspension and the scrutiny that would have accompanied it.  It should have been a foregone conclusion that Braun would stay clean having come so close to ruining his character.

Braun did not take the wiser of the two courses.  In the wake of the second accusation of PED use, Braun may now seem more foolish than ever before. 

Despite not being directly linked to any specific PED from the hands of the Miami-based Biogenesis clinic, Braun’s involvement and subsequent actions certainly did not put him on the right path.

When Major League Baseball announced that they would seek Braun’s suspension, Braun’s statements and actions were anything but adequate. 

In a February 5 article written by Tim Brown and Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, Braun stated that he had nothing to hide and never had any relationship with the clinic’s operator, Anthony Bosch.

Braun further elaborated:

During the course of preparing for my successful appeal last year, my attorneys, who were previously familiar with Bosch, used him as a consultant.  More specifically, he answered questions about [testosterone-to-epitestosterone] ratio and possibilities of tampering with samples.

Braun’s first explanation seems about as hollow as his most recent one.  The only difference is that Braun has now acknowledged PED use instead of denying it. 

Yet as previously mentioned, why would Braun even bother dealing with Bosch and his reputation within the Biogenesis clinic?

To make matters worse, Braun was then alleged to have gone after Dino Laurenzi Jr., the Comprehensive Drug Testing employee who had handled his 2011 urine sample.

Regardless, Braun’s interactions and subsequent denials further drove a wedge between him and the fans, as well as the media.

Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sums up the aftermath perfectly when he wrote:

Fans don’t take kindly to PED cheats and certainly not to someone who lied about it publicly for so long.  In other words, Braun’s reputation is trashed, his integrity non-existent and his achievements forever tarnished.  Think about that when you suggest he got off lightly because it “only” cost him $3 million or so in salary while suspended.

Before this scandal ever took place, Braun’s popularity was something to be commended.  Now, it seems as if Braun has little chance to rectify the situation and make things right with the fans and MLB.

In the wake of Braun’s most recent attempt to apologize and clear his name, his reputation may be worse off than before.

ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian elaborated via an article published by Bill Chappell of NPR by saying:

While Braun used a lot of the right words, we need more specifics than this.  And I really thought that after this, he would get in front of a microphone, maybe even take some questions.  But from all indications, this might be it until spring training, or whenever.

That would be the first step in correcting a series of poor decisions on Braun’s part. 

At this point, fans are becoming numb to Braun’s denial and subsequent apologetic comments.  At best, they seem hollow and still lack the credibility necessary for Braun to once again earn the respect within the game.

Major League players are also disgusted with Braun’s decision-making as well as how he has handled things up to this point.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer stated via an ESPN article:

I thought this whole thing has been despicable on his part.  When he did get caught, he never came clean.  He tried to question the ability of the collector when he was caught red-handed.  So that’s why the whole Braun situation, there is so much player outrage toward him.

Rather than make a statement reiterating only the words Braun wants to speak, he needs to step forward in front of a microphone, as Kurkjian said. 

Braun will need to face the facts, admit them and begin the healing process necessary in the aftermath of this scandal.

Former MLB pitcher, and current broadcaster, Mike Krukow also stated in an interview with the San Francisco-based radio station KNBR that Braun’s most recent attempt did not help his character at all.  Instead Krukow reiterated what others have already said: Braun needs to stand in front of a microphone and answer every question—tough questions—truthfully and honestly.

Instead, we are left with a hollow apology.

CBS Sports senior baseball columnist Scott Miller summed up how many are feeling about this recent apology.  He writes:

Far as I can tell, Braun’s apology doesn’t even come close to covering the ground he needs to cover.  Starting with his urine collector.  Are you kidding me?  Braun demonizes the poor guy who collected his polluted piss while the stained slugger desperately worked to wiggle out of a suspension two winters ago.  He is positively Nixonian in telling one brazen, unadulterated lie after another.

Instead, Braun should be doing much more than issuing hollow statements filled with discredit.  He also should be issuing a huge apology to Laurenzi Jr., as San Francisco Chronicle writer John Shea tweets above.

While his current apology to Laurenzi is a start, the fact that Braun referred to him as an anti-Semite deserves more than just a few words.

If Braun does nothing more to repair his image, his character will remain in shambles.  If this is a start of more action on his part, he could regain some credibility.

Fortunately for Braun, if there is any good fortune, there is still time to do this.

Braun can benefit from the fact that baseball and the media are growing tired of steroids in the game.  He can also benefit from the fact that society tends to be forgiving if it receives a heartfelt apology and time is allowed to heal the wounds.

Remember when Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte were linked to PED use? 

They both made apologies that were seen as adequate and both were able to move on and have successful careers without the scrutiny that Braun has brought upon himself.

The road ahead for Braun will not be as easy.  He has already tarnished his reputation as a player and his actions following this scandal have certainly not helped.

Even if Braun does right from here on out, he may never again be seen as the likable Milwaukee slugger who was once viewed as a perennial MVP candidate.  Yet he could better his situation and hopefully put himself back on track to earning the respect of both players and fans.

Braun could still turn this negative into a positive. 

It is an obvious conclusion that he needs to stay clean from this point forward.  He could be a spokesperson for continued testing in the hopes that his experience may actually provide some benefit to baseball years down the road.

This, in turn, would show that Braun is a human being who has dealt with struggles in the past and has concerns about how PEDs could affect baseball in the future.  Fans would like to see that.

If anything, Braun needs to step in front of the media and answer questions as both Krukow and Kurkjian suggested.  He needs to answer each and every question with integrity and honesty.  Braun also needs to make a deeper apology instead of the flat statement he issued on August 22.

Braun needs to apologize to his teammates.  He needs to apologize to each of the players that faced him up to this point.  He needs to apologize to his coaches.  Most importantly, he needs to apologize to the fans. 

After all, fans are the sole reason baseball exists.

Peter Panacy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report.  Follow him @PeterMcShots on Twitter.

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The hits just keep on coming for Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun in the wake of his 65-game suspension for involvement with a Miami Biogenesis clinic. Many of Braun’s current teammates have been questioned by the media, but it is a former teammate in Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke who is now making headlines.

According to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times, Greinke is extremely disappointed by the entire situation. Greinke was Braun’s teammate in 2011 and part of 2012, and he was one of many who believed him when he said he was innocent of performance-enhancing drug allegations.

The main thing is, yeah, he lied to us. He forced us to lie for him, threw people under the bus in order to help himself out and didn’t care, blamed others for his mistakes and it’s just a lot of things you don’t expect from people.

Greinke could have been referencing Dino Laurenzi Jr., who took a drug-testing sample from Braun back in late 2011. The result of that test set the wheels in motion for Braun’s current suspension, as he was originally suspended for 50 games.

Braun got the suspension overturned due to a protocol breach in the handling of his sample, but he took the opportunity to bash Laurenzi publicly even though he had gotten away with something very serious.

According to Hernandez, Greinke said that Braun put up a very convincing front: 

Oh, yeah, 100% believed him. Everything was so convincing. He had people to blame. He seemed like a really good guy. He was a good teammate at the time. You don’t know the guys that he was pinning it on. I’m not positive, but I think everyone 100% believed him at the time. Especially the next year, he looked just as good as the year before. His numbers his whole career, Hall of Fame numbers. How could you not believe him? He was so convincing.

While Braun’s history with performance-enhancing drugs calls into question the elite numbers he has put up over the course of his career, Greinke believes that the perception of Braun as a person is even more important.

Not even talking about the player. It’s just the person. Just the fact that he was willing to use anyone that got in his path. The closer you were to him, the more he would use you. It’s just disappointing that a human being could be like that.

Greinke believes Braun owes a lot of people an apology, saying, “The fact that even to this day he hasn’t had a real apology is really upsetting to me. I thought about it a bunch. He still hasn’t really apologized.”

Greinke‘s sentiments are likely shared by many of the players and fans who believed Braun over the past year.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter

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The Milwaukee Brewers completed a deal that sent reliever Francisco Rodriguez to the Baltimore Orioles for prospect Nick Delmonico on Tuesday, according to Dayn Perry of CBSSports.com.

Delmonico is a 21-year-old infielder from Tennessee who was drafted in the sixth round of the 2011 MLB draft by the Orioles. He was tabbed as the No. 4 prospect in the Orioles’ organization by Baseball America after the 2012 campaign.

Delmonico was drafted straight out of Farragut High School in Knoxville. Since then, he has played Low-A ball and High-A ball for the Orioles.

In 2012 with Low-A Delmarva, Delmonico batted .249 with 11 home runs, 54 RBI, 49 runs and eight stolen bases in 95 games (338 at-bats). In 2013 with High-A Frederick, Delmonico has batted .244 with 13 home runs, 30 RBI, 33 runs and five stolen bases in 60 games (225 at-bats). 

While Delmonico’s average isn’t much to write home about, his OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of .822 would rank eighth in the Carolina League this season if he had enough at-bats to qualify. He ranks 19th in the league with 36 walks and fifth with 13 bombs.

On the major league level, Delmonico posted one hit in five plate appearances in spring training for the Orioles in 2012. He’s notched defensive innings at first base, second base and third base as a pro.

There is still a lot of room for Delmonico to grow. As a high schooler with Farragut, he led the Admirals to four consecutive championships, finishing his career with a .450 batting average and 45 home runs, and setting school records in single-season RBI and walks, and career walks.

There are some durability issues surrounding Delmonico, however. He’s battled numerous injuries dating back to high school, from his wrist to his back to his knee. He also sustained a concussion in April.

The lowdown on the young infielder is that he has pop at the plate, and his ability to draw walks makes him more valuable than his low batting average would indicate.

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From the sound of things, the Milwaukee Brewers are going to hold a yard sale and one of the items up for grabs on the front lawn will be Yovani Gallardo.

If it comes to that, the Brewers aren’t going to be looking to just give him away. But given the season Gallardo is having, that may be their only real option.

Entering Tuesday’s action, the Brew Crew is 21-35 and in last place in an NL Central division that features three of the four best teams in the National League. The Brewers have some quality players, but they don’t have much hope of making a spectacular comeback with their starting pitching (single word description: “bleh”).

Hence the inevitable yard sale. Brewers general manager Doug Melvin told Michael Hunt of the Journal-Sentinel that the club will have the future in mind if and when it makes trades this year, and notables like Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com and Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com have singled out Gallardo as one of the club’s top trade chips.

And that makes sense on a surface level. There’s always a demand for top-tier starting pitchers during trade season, and Gallardo is one of those by reputation. He earned this by compiling a 3.68 ERA over 782 innings between 2009 and 2012, making at least 30 starts each year.

Also working for Gallardo‘s trade value is the fact that he’s under control through 2014 with a team option for 2015. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, that option can only be voided if Gallardo is a big player in the Cy Young voting between now and 2014.

It seems unlikely that he will be a Cy Young contender this year or next, though. Not given the kind of season he’s having, and that’s also where things get tricky in relation to his trade stock.

Through 12 starts, Gallardo has an ERA over 5.00 and a WHIP of 1.49. Opponents are hitting .282 against him with a .451 slugging percentage, and he’s not striking batters out at the rate he’s used to with a K/9 of 7.4.

There’s one ERA estimator that says Gallardo hasn’t been that bad. FanGraphs has his xFIP at 3.79, which isn’t that far off from the 3.55 xFIP Gallardo posted last year. This being xFIP—a stat that replaces a pitcher’s home run total with an estimate for how many home runs he should have allowed—the indication is that Gallardo has been unlucky with the long ball.

There’s that if you want to be optimistic. But while there is such a thing as misleading regression, Gallardo‘s looks like it’s of the real variety.

This is a struggling pitcher we’re talking about, so you’ll have to excuse my eyes for rushing to see Gallardo‘s velocity readings. They were down last year and, sure enough, they’re down again this year.

Here’s Gallardo‘s average fastball velocity since 2011 according to Baseball Info Solutions by way of FanGraphs:

• 2011: 92.7
• 2012: 91.8
• 2013: 90.5

The progression: “Pretty good” to “OK” to “OK, what the heck is going on?”

This is nature taking its course, as there’s nothing unnatural about a pitcher losing velocity with age. Gallardo is not blind to what’s been going on, as Eno Sarris of FanGraphs pointed out that Gallardo has gone to his sinker more rather than stick with his four-seamer as a primary heater.

The idea there, naturally, is to embrace pitching to contact to get more ground balls. The trouble is that Gallardo‘s ground-ball percentage is actually down from where it was the last two seasons. And according to BrooksBaseball.net, opponents have a higher batting average and higher ISO against Gallardo‘s sinker than they do against his four-seamer.

*ISO is Isolated Power, which is basically slugging percentage without singles mixed in.

Worth noting: Gallardo has served up four homers on his sinker, and two on his four-seamer.

That’s six homers allowed on hard stuff out of a total of nine given up. It’s certainly normal for pitchers to surrender more long balls on heaters than on secondary offerings, but the fact that the homers are still coming while Gallardo is apparently trying to get more ground balls is not a good sign. 

Gallardo has always been homer-prone, mind you, but it’s a habit that looks all the more worse this year in relation to his .282 batting average against and 3.5 BB/9. That’s about par for the course for Gallardo, as his BB/9 has been in the 3.5-3.6 range every year of the last four except for 2011, when he had a 2.56 BB/9. That looks like a pretty clear outlier now.

His control hasn’t been too far off, however. Per FanGraphs, there’s a disagreement between Baseball Info Solutions and PITCHf/x over what Gallardo‘s Zone% is, and that could be because he’s thrown a lot of balls right on the edges of the plate.

Here’s a plot of Gallardo‘s called strikes and balls from TexasLeaguers.com:

It’s possible Gallardo is a slight adjustment away from being a well above-average strike-thrower, which is something that he’s not right now with a mediocre strike percentage just below 60. Teams interested in trading for him could be thinking as much.

If I’m a team interested in trading for Gallardo, I’m also telling myself that his sinker just needs some work. If it’s developed beyond the experimental phase, he’ll get the ground balls he’s looking for and his dwindling fastball velocity won’t be such a major concern.

But that’s just the thing. If I’m a team looking at Gallardo, I’m looking at him as more of a fixer-upper than a legit ace who’s going to lead me to the playoffs. Such pitchers aren’t worth selling the farm for, even if they are under club control for potentially two more full seasons.

So the Brewers need Gallardo to do them a favor and start stringing some quality outings together over the next few weeks as the season gets closer to the July 31 trade deadline. If he starts to resemble his old self, the Brewers will be able to shop him as a top-of-the-rotation guy worth a nice basket of prospects.

If Gallardo doesn’t get himself straightened out, the Brewers will have to take a fixer-upper price for him.

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

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter. 

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The Milwaukee Brewers are mired in a Catch-22 with Rickie Weeks. The 30-year-old second baseman is flatlining on a club that was expected to contend heavily in the National League Central division. Instead, the Brewers are more than 10 games out of first place with a record of 16-24.

Concerning the Brew Crew’s woes, there is plenty of blame to throw around.

Predictably, the bullpen has looked atrocious at times.

Ace Yovani Gallardo is struggling mightily, watching his strikeout rate dip to a career low while suffering through a 1.46 WHIP.

Starters Marco Estrada and Wily Peralta were expected to have large, positive roles with the staff this year. Instead, they have combined for a 6-6 record and 5.63 ERA.

Let’s not forget the injured Corey Hart, who has yet to hit the diamond thus far.

The disappointment of the Brewers is amplified by the sluggish Weeks, though.

As most fans in Milwaukee know, Weeks is touting a .176 batting average. He has driven in only 10 runs while smacking three home runs. Weeks is also striking out in a career-high fashion. 

Additionally, Weeks’s fly-ball rate on batted balls has dipped to 23.4 percent, down from an average of 38.13 percent over the course of the previous four seasons. 

So what should the Brewers do with Weeks?

Mind you, making a decision on Weeks is a difficult task for the frugal Brewers since he is the third highest-paid player on the club.

According to Spotrac, the Brewers second baseman will earn a total salary of $11 million this year. His salary will jump by $1 million in 2014 with a team option for 2015 worth $11.5 million. According to ESPN’s Jack Moore, the Brewers can opt out of the contract prior to 2015 “if Weeks isn’t a full-time player in 2013 and 2014.”

Weeks’ current contract came off of a career year in 2010, when he tallied 29 HR and 83 RBI. Since then, everything has been downhill. He currently possesses a wins above replacement (WAR) of -0.5. Since his peak WAR of 5.8 in 2010, his WAR has dropped an average of 2.1 points per season since. 

Those familiar with MTV would agree that Weeks “catfished” the Brewers with the five-year contract he signed in 2011.

To compound matters, the Brewers are limited in their options.

Sure, they could platoon Weeks with utility infielder Jeff Bianchi, but Bianchi himself carries little swag at the plate. 

The front office could turn inward and snag Scooter Gennett from Triple-A, but that would only initiate his service clock, something the organization wants to prevent. Gennett himself is proving to lack substantial power at the plate, accumulating zero home runs thus far in the minors.

Since the two aforementioned options are not viable, maybe Milwaukee will look at the available free agents.

According to MLB Trade Rumors, the most enticing free-agent second basemen include Ryan Theriot, Freddy Sanchez, Orlando Hudson and Adam Kennedy. No one can fault the Brewers for turning the other way in this circumstance.

At the end of the day, Milwaukee fans need to brace themselves for the worst and hope for the best. They are stuck with Weeks at second base. 

It’s unfortunate, too. Brewers fans are witnessing breakout seasons from Jean Segura and Carlos Gomez. Ryan Braun continues to produce at a lofty level while Aramis Ramirez remains one of the game’s best corner infielders.

Weeks’ lack of production is reflective of a season that has gone awry early on. No one can seriously believe Weeks will turn it around. He has been in decline since hitting his zenith in 2010. Therefore, fans in Milwaukee must continue to swallow those bitter pills as they watch a club with extensive potential continue to plummet in the NL Central.

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