Brewers’ Off Season Moves Both Perplexing and Promising

Brewer fans were assured this off season that Doug Melvin and company weren’t going to be satisfied with a one and done playoff run.  Regardless of how 2012 pans out for the Crew – and it’s not looking particularly rosy in light of the very real chance of losing Braun for the first fifty games – the team has been engineered to make a run at a consecutive NL Central title.

This isn’t to say there weren’t some questionable moves this off season.   The highlight of the 2011 Brewers team was its pitching, and while all five starters are returning in the spring, the bullpen took a significant hit, though not as big as initially expected. 

Most surprising was Alex Rodriquez’s decision to accept arbitration, who was unable to find a team willing to offer him a closer role out of the pen.  Although the Brewers weren’t exactly hoping to have him return as a very expensive set-up man, perhaps it’s for the best in light of the two pitchers Melvin let get away.  The aging LaTroy Hawkins and Takashi Saito, both of whom came off injuries in 2011 to make major contributions to the Brewers’ bullpen, were lost to free agency.  Perhaps Melvin decided to quit while he was ahead, the way in hindsight he perhaps should have done with Trevor Hoffman after his stellar 2009 season, but it’s difficult to understand in light of how inexpensively these players were snatched in the open market.  Hawkins signed a one-year contract worth $3 million with the Angels, and Saito signed a one-year deal with the Diamondbacks worth $1.75 million.  Why Melvin thought it wasn’t worth pursuing these players for these prices is perplexing.

Another surprise was Melvin’s unwillingness to sign a two-year deal with Jerry Hairston, whose contributions at second base and centerfield down the stretch and into the playoffs were impressive.  The two-year $6 million deal Hairston signed with the Dodgers might have fit in well for the Brewers, who have injury-prone centerfielders in Gomez and Morgan (not to mention terrible strikeout ratios) and second baseman  Weeks.  The Crew also lost Mark Kotsay (again, for a meager $1.25 million) to the Padres, so utility infielders and outfielders are currently in short supply, and the prospect of losing Braun makes these needs more pressing than usual.

On the other hand, the Brewers upgraded the left side of the infield, which was atrocious both on defense and offense last season.  At shortstop, the Brewers upgraded from Betancourt to Alex Gonzalez – a defensive upgrade only, as Gonzalez is as awful at the plate as his predecessor – and at third the Brewers let go of McGehee and signed Aramis Ramirez to a three-year deal.  It’ll be interesting to see what kind of numbers Ramirez can put up at Miller Park, as his 2011 stats for a woeful Cubs team were exceptional.   And Ramirez might also serve to fill another hole – that left by Prince Fielder in the cleanup spot.

As insurance against Braun’s possible suspension, and as a left-handed outfielder off the bench, the Brewers are currently looking at Norichika Aoki from Japan, and have until January 17^th to agree to terms.  Several other players have been invited to spring training, but the only real question marks at this point are the bullpen and utility infielders and outfielders.  Barring injuries, the Crew’s opening day roster is fairly well set. 

Ultimately, if the Brewers have difficultly out of the pen in the 6^th and 7^th innings, or if an outfield or infield injury comes to pass, fans might cry out to Melvin about the inexpensive players he let get away.  But one can’t argue that the team isn’t in position to be competitive, which is a significant change from years’ past.

For Wisconsin Sports Fans, 2011 was the Best Year Ever

The ’57 Braves must have been something else.

The Packers Championships in the 60s?  Wish I had been there.

The ’71 Bucks.  The ’77 Warriors.  The ’82 Brewers.  Three UW Rose Bowl victories.  Terrific times.

But for Wisconsin sports fans, 2011 was the greatest year on record, and I’m not quite sure young Wisconsinites get it.  They can’t recall a time when the Packers weren’t a contender (assuming they block out 2008).  To them, the Badgers football team has always been bowl-bound.  And sure, the Brewers had some tough years, but two playoff appearances in four seasons is nothing to scoff at.

They don’t know what we know.  We’ve suffered through bad seasons.  Really bad.  Horrendously bad.  Like 4-12 Packer teams, a Brewers franchise that avoided the playoffs for two and a half decades, and...well, you want to hear about bad?  Get this – the 2011 Badgers football team won as many games as in my entire tenure at UW-Madison.  (And it took me five football seasons to graduate!)

I’m not even joking about that last one.  UW won ten games in five seasons.  It was the Don Morton debacle.

So when looking back on 2011, it’s hard to convey to young folks just how amazing this year has been.

Consider the following:

The Packers lost a total of one game in 2011, won a Super Bowl and set a record for regular season wins.

The Brewers won 101 games in 2011, including a playoff run, and set a record for regular season wins.

Both Marquette and Wisconsin made the Sweet Sixteen in the men’s NCAA tournament.

And sure, UW football started 2011 with a loss in the Rose Bowl, but it ended the year with a chance to change the outcome.

Years like 2011 just don’t happen.  Maybe in cities where drinking beer is just a pastime, not a mission, but not in puny Milwaukee and Green Bay. 

So soak it up, young sports lovers.  2011 might go down as the pinnacle of Wisconsin sports years.  A year you’ll tell your grandkids about.  A year that will one day bring a smile to you as you suffer through season after season of botched fielding, inept tackling and sloppy dribbling.

Then again, you might instead recall 2012, a year that shows just as much promise today as its little sister did last New Year’s Eve.

Soak it up, indeed.

Writing for Baseball Digest

My first two writings Baseball Digest are now on-line, in what I hope to be the beginning of long-term relationship with the magazine. The first entry is a wrap-up of the Milwaukee Brewers' 2011 season (a little behind the curve), and the second is about the Brewers' off-season needs. The idea here is to get local writers to cover each of the thirty teams on a regular basis, and with any luck, we'll have regular entries throughout 2012. Stay tuned...

Brewers/Cable Essay broadcasted on 89.7 WUWM Milwaukee

Press play to listen to my essay broadcasted on 89.7 WUWM's Lake Effect program on Sept 19, 2011.

September 19, 2012 To Cable or Not to Cable

Paul Heinz

To Cable or Not to Cable - OR - Holy Crap! The Brewers are REALLY GOING to WIN their Division!

A little perspective:

In 1982, my friend John and I sat in the last row of the leftfield bleachers at Milwaukee County Stadium during Game 5 of the World Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals.  We won.  I was 14.

Guess what?  Now I have two fourteen year-olds.  If someone had told me back in ’82 that the Brewers wouldn’t win another division until I had children as old as I was back then, I probably would have become a Yankees fan.  I mean, come on!

But here we are.  It’s 2011.  I have two Freshman in high school, and this is the first time my kids will actually have something to brag about pertaining to the Brewers.

Let’s face it: 2008 was a mess.  The Brewers lost  15 of their first 19 games in September that year, leading to the firing of Ned Yost.  Yes, they won 6 or their last 7, but their final victory of the season, a necessary one, came against a Cubs team that was resting several of its starters.  That and a Mets loss allowed us to get into the playoffs.  True, it gave us a chance, but no one was thinking we could go all the way, even with CC Sabathia. 

This year is different.  As I write this, the Crew is 10½ games ahead of the Cardinals, and though stranger things have happened in baseball, I am confident (and this is big for a guy who’s usually skeptical) that the Brewers will in fact win their first division title since I was a pimple-faced, cocky little punk in 9^th grade at Brookfield East High School.

It’s all so glorious.

But the question remains: do I now purchase a cable TV package?  After all, both the Division and the League series are to be aired on WTBS, NOT one of the 6 or 7 channels we get on our rabbit ears antennae.

You see, in 2000, my family moved back to the Midwest after a 6-year stint on the East Coast.  After the move, other priorities took hold, and my wife and I spent the first month in our new house not worrying about cable TV, and instead we rented a lot of movies and watched what little we could on our antennae. 

Turns out we didn’t miss cable even a little.

Here we are, over a decade later, and probably about $6000 richer than had we gotten cable.  True, my children are considered weird, and their friends discuss shows my kids have never seen before, but they’ve gotten used to it, and we try to rent what few cable shows are worth watching through Netflix.  My "cableless" children seem no worse for the wear.

But alas, this year is DIFFERENT.  We’re talking MLB playoffs, baby.  If my kids are as unlucky as I, we’ll still be talking about this baseball season TWENTY-NINE YEARS FROM NOW!!  I'll be 72!  Holy crap.

So really, can I honestly NOT get cable?  I think not.

But then I have visions of a three game sweep by Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs, and me stuck with 256 channels of crap for the next twelve months.

But a victory.  A National League Championship Series appearance, or even...gasp!...a World Series.  I would pay a monthly cable fee ten times for that experience.

I’ll be calling Comcast in the morning.