Archive for the ‘Brewers pitchers’ Category
Odds and Ends — including the End of the WI State Supreme Court race
I have so many different things to discuss right now that I’ve decided to make this an “odds and ends” post — otherwise known as a “quick hits” post.
The first is that the race for the Wisconsin state Supreme Court has come to an end as JoAnne Kloppenburg conceded. The recount, which I viewed from the beginning as a mandatory one due to the closeness of the vote and the chicanery going on in Waukesha County in particular, brought her a few hundred votes closer to David Prosser but not nearly enough for her, apparently, to keep on fighting despite the hundreds of irregularities and errors found in Waukesha County alone. Ms. Kloppenburg is a very good lawyer and knows the law regarding recounts much better than I do, so she must’ve felt that it was unlikely she’d win a court case, so prolonging the race any further made no sense to her.
My reaction to all of this, however, is that while I found out by observing the recount in Racine County for a day that our election proceedings here are on the up-and-up, I really think the election was stolen and that Ms. Kloppenburg was the true winner. I cannot prove this, and it’s possible no one will ever be able to prove it — or maybe someone will after the fact, as some observers did in Florida after the Bush v. Gore incident, or in Ohio with the numerous problems there in the 2004 election — but it’s how I feel.
I also feel that the state of Wisconsin has missed out, because Ms. Kloppenburg had an outstanding record and would’ve made a great judge. Republicans, especially of the Scott Walker variety, liked to paint Ms. Kloppenburg as a “liberal,” but what she really was happened to be an independent, someone who’d worked for both Republican and Democratic Governors. We needed a centrist on our extremely polarized Supreme Court, and we didn’t get it — what a terrible day for Wisconsin, and what an awful thing to have to say . . . but it’s all true, and it’s sad.
Now onto a happier update. Vinny Rottino hit .373 in May for the New Orleans Zephyrs (the AAA affiliate of the Florida Marlins); this was after suffering a 1-for-26 slump to start the season. Rottino has stolen 7 bases, being caught stealing twice; he’s hit 20 RBI, 2 HR, has 10 doubles and one triple, and his current on-base percentage is .407. Rottino now appears to be playing every day in right field and is playing excellent defense and a fine overall game while putting together another quiet, but good season as a contact hitter.
Here’s a story from nola.com that was written on May 15, 2011, about the Zephyrs and the hot-hitting Rottino in particular:
Vinny Rottino continued his hot hitting Saturday night, and New Orleans Zephyrs relievers continued their shut-down pitching.
The result was a 5-4 Zephyrs victory against Tacoma at Zephyr Field.
Rottino, who has reached base in 21 consecutive games, drove home the go-ahead run in a three-run rally in the sixth inning and also scored two runs.
And here’s what Rottino had to say about it all, especially his 1-for-26 start:
“I never panicked,’’ he said. “That’s the key. I’ve gone through spells like that before at the beginning of the year. … Now I feel pretty good at the plate, just waiting for the pitcher’s mistake. That’s the main thing.’’
Rottino’s game is similar to someone like the Brewers’ Nyjer Morgan; he’s speedy (though not as speedy as Morgan), he plays excellent defense and has a strong arm, and he’ll rarely make mistakes on the basepaths. Rottino plays all positions except pitcher and second base (unlike Morgan) including catcher (though he’s more of an emergency catcher due to taking it up late) and would be an asset to any major league team whose General Manager is using his brain today.
Finally, there’s the Milwaukee Brewers update. They actually won their first game against Cincinnati last night and Corey Hart hit yet another home run, raising his season total to five. Hart’s still not all the way back to last year’s All-Star form, but he’s looking good in the outfield and is hitting steadily now, with some power . . . though I’m a big fan of Hart, the best thing about the ’11 Brewers is that so far, their pitching has been anywhere from OK to outstanding, with Shawn Marcum and Randy Wolf in particular pitching much better than expected. (Yovani Gallardo is still a little inconsistent, though his last two-three games have been great, and Zack Greinke is still rounding himself into form. As for Chris Narveson, while he’s a very nice man and can pitch, he’s had some really rough outings lately. And I keep thinking the Brewers would’ve been better off to keep Chris Capuano, who’s doing well for the Mets despite a 3-5 record because of how poor the Mets are playing as a team.)
So that’s it for updates . . . what I’d encourage you to do is to keep your eye on Rottino (when he finally makes it to the majors to stay, that’ll be one of the best human interest stories of the past several years as he’s now thirty-one years old and has been the apparent victim of what I like to call “age prejudice” as most teams would rather look at a really young guy than an older one with a steady batting eye and a steady presence in the field), keep an eye on the Brewers (especially their pitchers), keep an eye on Capuano, and watch for the upcoming Wisconsin recall elections in July.
Brewers win, 4-3, as Greinke pitches well; recount update
Folks, tonight I’m glad to be a Milwaukee Brewers fan. Zack Greinke pitched well in his first appearance at Miller Park, going six innings, giving up two runs with no walks and getting nine strikeouts. This excellent performance, along with some unusually fine defense, was why the Brewers won tonight over the San Diego Padres, 4-3.
Note that the much-maligned of late bullpen pitched reasonably well also, with LaTroy Hawkins pitching a scoreless seventh, Kameron Loe giving up a run in the 8th due to a run scoring while a double play was in the process of being made, then John Axford picked up his sixth save by pitching a scoreless ninth.
Here’s a link to more about the game from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story: http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brewers/121536504.html
As for tonight’s mandatory recount in the Wisconsin state Supreme Court election, held on 4/5/2011, a judge allowed Waukesha County two and a half more weeks to get its entire count done. But as Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel pointed out, JoAnne Kloppenburg has an uphill battle on her hands if she’s to win this recount with only Waukesha County remaining as it is known to be the “reddest” Republican county in the entire state.
Here’s the link to his story dated today, May 9, 2011:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/121496219.html
And a relevant quote from Mr. Gilbert:
With the recount in the April 5 Supreme Court race now complete in every county but Waukesha, JoAnne Kloppenburg has sliced a mere 355 votes off David Prosser’s lead of 7,316 votes, underscoring the extreme odds against Kloppenburg emerging victorious in the fiercely contested judicial contest.
In effect, Kloppenburg would have to gain 6,962 votes in one county – Waukesha – after gaining a tiny fraction of that in the recount of all the state’s other counties.
In those 71 counties recounted so far, Kloppenburg has made a net pick-up of one vote for every 3,873 votes cast.
In Waukesha County, she would have to make a net pick-up of one vote for every 18 votes cast.
And that math actually understates the improbability of a successful outcome for Kloppenburg because about 30% of Waukesha County has already completed the recount process. So far, there’s a net gain of 18 votes for Prosser.
But here’s the main reason why Kloppenburg had to pursue the recount, IMO:
Without taking Waukesha County into account, Kloppenburg leads in the other 71 counties by 712,910 to 660,366, for a margin of 52,544 votes.
So you see how close this election was, state-wide, right?
Here’s the rub:
But based on the election canvass, Prosser carried Waukesha County by 59,505 votes out of a total of 125,021 votes cast.
The problem is, the vote total is in question all because of Kathy Nickolaus’s actions not just in finally figuring out she hadn’t counted the Brookfield tally until a day and a half after the election had ended (and everyone in the state save the folks in Brookfield who knew their vote totals weren’t properly reflected in the count thought JoAnne Kloppenburg had won by about 200 votes), but in several previous elections.
As I’ve said before, there are problems in Waukesha County that go back not just to 2008, but actually to 2004. (See this link for further details: https://elfyverse.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/recount-necessary-for-one-waukesha-county-voting-irregularities-go-back-to-2004/) Seven years ago, there were problems. Again, five years ago, there were problems. Then three years ago, there were more problems, yet nothing was ever done by the Government Accountability Board, the Wisconsin state Senate or Assembly (or both), or anyone else, because despite all these systematic problems, apparently no one was paying attention.
If this recount has done nothing else, it has at least assured me that the voters of Wisconsin will be paying attention to Waukesha County for a long, long time to come. And that the way Waukesha County conducts their future elections had best be a whole lot better — more ethical, above-board, understandable, comprehensible, and transparent — than they have for the past seven years. Minimum.
Otherwise, as I’ve said before, we in Wisconsin will have no faith at all that our elections mean anything at all.
Yovani Gallardo’s Gem of Saturday
Folks, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out Yovani Gallardo’s eight-inning, one-hit masterpiece of Saturday afternoon. The Brewers broke a seven-game losing streak because of Gallardo and John Axford (the Brewers’ closer, who came in even though it wasn’t a save situation). The Brewers won, 4-0, and it’s the first time in over three weeks that Gallardo has pitched not only well, but brilliantly (he also had a great game on 4/5/11).
I keep thinking — and saying — that Gallardo isn’t yet an “ace” pitcher, then he goes out and does something like that. Maybe Gallardo is about to mature into that unstoppable force most baseball fans call an “ace” sooner than I thought. (And good for him, if so.)
Brewers Update, and two novellas by Kate Paulk reviewed by me at SBR
Folks, I just reviewed two excellent novellas by Kate Paulk, both available at the Naked Reader Press (www.nakedreader.com) — they’re called “Knights in Tarnished Armor” and “Born in Blood,” with the first being a really funny farce written in epistolary style (letters to one another) and the other being a very nice prequel to Paulk’s novel IMPALER, also out from the fine folks at the Naked Reader.
Before I get, here’s a link to my review of those two fine novellas at Shiny Book Review:
Now, as for updates: Zack Greinke will pitch tomorrow for the first time in the regular season for the Brewers against the Atlanta Braves in the second game of a doubleheader (as Tuesday night’s game was rained out). This is very good news, and I know I, for one, will be riveted to the television to see how well Greinke pitches.
I also have a political update of sorts; the drive to Recall the Republican 8 netted only six of the Republicans — to wit, the petitions against Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) and Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) both failed. Grothman’s failed by about 5,000 signatures, while Lazich’s was far closer — apparently they were less than two-thousand signatures short there.
I know some of the folks recalling both the Republicans and a few of the Democrats (though I don’t approve of the latter, as I think the Democratic Wisconsin Senators — often called the “Wisconsin 14” — did the only thing they could in leaving the state for three weeks in order for every citizen of the state to get a chance to read Governor Scott Walker’s “budget-repair bill” for themselves), and I know that folks in the Recall Grothman and Recall Lazich camps needed more resources — they weren’t able to start as soon as the others (from what I could tell, the really big efforts to get both Grothman and Lazich out started about two and a half or three weeks after the others yet had to meet the same deadline) and didn’t have the same monetary resources as both Grothman and Lazich are in heavily Republican districts — yet both found many people willing to sign recall petitions to remove both Lazich and Grothman. This bodes well for the future, at least so far as getting a decent candidate of some sort to run against both of these Senators . . . Grothman has not fared well in the media, especially due to his famous “slobs” comment (where he called Wisconsin voters, some from his own district, “slobs” for protesting in Madison against Walker’s “budget-repair bill”), and one would hope that he will indeed go down to defeat in 2012 (which is when his, and Lazich’s, seat is set for re-election).
What it looks like to me is, there will be six recall elections from the “recall the Republican 8” push, and there will be one or two or maybe three recall elections from the three Democratic petitions which were turned in. I am hesitant to say whether or not more than one of those petitions will hold up because in at least one case, a dead person’s name was used and a signature forged on a recall petition against the three Democratic Senators — and I find that disgraceful.
Also, because we have a mandatory recount going on in the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court judicial race, the Government Accountability Board (which oversees that, and the recalls, among other things) cannot do much to look at the petitions against the Dems or the Rs until that recount has been completed. The GAB has mandated that the recount must finish by May 9, 2011, but the Waukesha County folks have already indicated that they wil be unable to do this as apparently many oddities have been found there. (So far, only about 15,000 votes have been counted in Waukesha County according to representatives from the Kloppenburg campaign.) Fourteen counties, including Milwaukee, Dane and Waukesha, have yet to complete their recount; the other counties in Wisconsin have completed their tallies (mind you, Dane and Milwaukee are the most populous counties in the state, so it’s not surprising they have not yet completed thier recount. It is surprising that smaller Waukesha is having so very many problems, but in another way I’m not at all surprised because as I’ve said and written before, Kathy Nickolaus’s procedures, at best, were highly suspect and have been since at least 2004.)
So that’s about it from here; watching the recount unfold, and continuing to read interesting stuff from the Naked Reader Press folks, along with a little baseball watching. (If the economy were a bit better, I’d even say it’s fun — as far as it goes.)
Baseball (Mostly Brewers) Updates: Marcum, Greinke, Hart — and a bit about Vinny Rottino
The Milwaukee Brewers look to be much better this year with the addition of pitchers Shaun Marcum (acquired in a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays in the offseason) and Zack Greinke (acquired in a trade from the Kansas City Royals in the offseason), but up until tonight we Brewers’ fans had little idea of how well either would pitch as Marcum hasn’t been fully right (he had an arm strain/shoulder injury in spring training if I recollect correctly) and Greinke remains on the disabled list (DL).
But tonight, Marcum pitched extremely well, throwing seven shutout innings in an impressive 6-0 Brewers win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh. Marcum mixed his pitches well and effectively, baffling the Pirates’ hitters while efficiently moving through the Pirates’ lineup — only one hitter reached third base, while Marcum gave up only one walk and four hits with four strikeouts recorded. (In the eighth inning, left-hander Zach Braddock came in and struggled a bit, which was why he was lifted in favor of right-hander Kameron Loe after Braddock only managed one out while allowing two walks with a wild pitch. Loe got the final two outs without undue drama, then left-handed side-armer Mitch Stetter came in and pitched a one-two-three ninth.)
If Marcum continues to pitch like this, Brewers’ fans will warm up to him in a hurry.
At any rate, the news on RF Corey Hart is positive; he took batting practice without pain and is expected to go on a rehabilitation assignment soon to one of the minor league teams in order to prove his injury is sufficiently healed for him to return as the everyday RF. Hart is now hoping for a return to the line-up by April 22, which is when the Brewers’ next home-stand begins. This is wonderful news, especially because Hart had a breakout year last year (Hart was my pick as Most Valuable Player for the Brewers in 2010). Getting Hart back will be a tremendous help.
As for Zack Greinke, he threw 25 pitches in a simulated game and felt no pain, which means his broken rib has probably healed enough that he, too, will be out on a minor-league rehab assignment soon. The hope now for Greinke is that by the end of April, he’ll be ready to pitch for the Brewers.
Please see this update from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for further details:
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/119722294.html
And finally, my favorite minor-league utility player, Vinny Rottino, currently remains in the Florida Marlins minor league system and has started the season with the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Marlins’ Class AAA affiliate (that is, their highest-level minor league team). So far the 31-year-old Rottino is batting only .065 with one hit in 12 at-bats, but has a .353 on base percentage due to taking several walks. (Stats taken from Rottino’s games through April 11, 2011.)
Here’s a link from the Racine Journal-Times, where the headline reads, “Pirates give Jaramillo a Chance; Taschner, Rottino still have Hope”:
http://www.journaltimes.com/sports/article_28fa5ae2-6585-11e0-bb13-001cc4c002e0.html
Here’s a relevant quote from the article, including a response from IF-OF-C Vinny Rottino himself:
Since signing with the Milwaukee Brewers as an undrafted free agent Feb. 3 2003, Rottino’s modus operandi has been to play every game with abandon and wait for his chance. His mindset remains the same eight years later.
And after hitting .307 with eight homers, 69 RBIs and 22 stolen bases for the Suns last year, Rottino believes he has positioned himself to make it back to the major leagues.
“I’ve been given an opportunity to play baseball for a living and I know I keep saying that,” said Rottino, a 1998 St. Catherine’s graduate. “I really feel that after the year I had last year, I have a legitimate chance to get back to the big leagues.
“This is an organization where, if you perform well in the minor leagues and they think you can help the major league team win, they’re bringing you up. That’s a lot different situation from a lot of other organizations.”
Note that Rottino has played in the minor leagues for both the Brewers and the Dodgers prior to being signed by the Marlins in 2010. And while I greatly appreciate Peter Jackel’s column (I’d wondered what was going on with Rottino and said so in a blog post from a few weeks ago), Jackel failed to note that Rottino won an award last season from the Southern League (AA) — he won an award for “best utility player/performance.” That, along with his excellent batting average, on-base percentage and the most stolen bases he’d ever had as a minor-leaguer, must be why Rottino is so hopeful of getting a chance with the Marlins this season.
If you are as interested in following Vinny Rottino’s career as I am, please follow this link to Rottino’s minor-league page (where you can find out where he’s playing, how he’s doing and what positions he’s playing, too, for that matter):
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=OF&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=457130
I really like Rottino; his attitude is refreshing, and the fact that he’s still in there fighting at the (for baseball) advanced age of 31 is encouraging for anyone who refuses to stop believing in himself (or herself). Vinny Rottino is another example of persistence in the face of long odds, and I hope he breaks out of his early-season slump soon as when he’s right, he’s a good hitter, an excellent fielder (especially in the infield and outfield) and a fast and smart runner. I, too, believe that Rottino has what it takes to be a successful major league player as a utility man/defensive replacement/pinch hitter/whatever — and I hope he gets his chance this year.
Updates — Madison judge blocks budget bill; Tim Dillard pitches well; Vinny Rottino
OK, it’s update time.
First, we have a judge in Madison, Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi, who has temporarily blocked the recent “budget repair bill” from taking effect. Here’s a link to that:
http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/state-and-regional/d5edf984-518a-11e0-b180-001cc4c03286.html
Note this is a follow-up article, where it says the Attorney General of Wisconsin will file an appeal on Monday. (I wanted to give the most up-to-date information.) But it says what Judge Sumi did, and why the Attorney General will be appealing it . . . this is the best article, right now, about what’s going on in Wisconsin. (She said that the process of the “budget repair bill” with the Conference Committee appeared to violate Wisconsin’s Open Records Law, just as state Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, had said at the time.)
Next, pitcher Tim Dillard cemented his case to make the Milwaukee Brewers active roster (as a big leaguer, naturally), as he pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief today in a Spring Training game after the starter (whose name escapes me, sorry) ended up only going 1/3 of an inning and giving up four or five runs. (I normally would be more precise than this, but for two things: one, it’s still Spring Training. And two, I haven’t yet seen a box score of this game though I looked. If I am able to find one I will update this post to be more precise.)
I really like Dillard; I always have. Dillard is a right-handed control pitcher, and I’ve thought for years that if the Brewers gave him a chance, they’d be pleasantly surprised.
Right now with the Brewers, two pitchers are unavailable — Zach Greinke is on the disabled list and will miss at least two and a half weeks of the season with a broken rib (and other bruised ribs), and Manny Parra likely will start the season on the DL also because his back is bad and he’s been so far unable to pitch in a game during Spring Training. So there’s room for Dillard, and he’s pitching well at a time he needs to — with a new manager, Ron Roenicke, to impress — so I’m really and truly hoping this will finally be his time.
** Shaun Marcum also has a sore shoulder, though Marcum doubts he’ll miss any time at all. (Just thought I should notate this for the record. **
In other baseball news, I haven’t yet seen anything new on catcher-infielder-outfielder Vinny Rottino, who is now in the Florida Marlins system. He’d have to play outstandingly well to get called up as he is now about thirty-one years old, and he’s eligible for salary arbitration as he’d had cups of coffee in three separate seasons (so far his lifetime batting average in the bigs is something like .208 but that’s misleading). Rottino has speed and plays good defense in the infield and outfield; he was converted to catcher late and is more of an “emergency catcher” than anything else as he does not have a strong rate of throwing accuracy from that position, nor is his defense anything more than adequate as best as I can discern from statistics.
Still, I’m really hoping Vinny Rottino will somehow make it up to the bigs again, because he’s an excellent right-handed clutch hitter, and he plays good defense in the infield and outfield. I don’t know how well he pinch hits, but if he develops that skill as well, he may well prove valuable to someone despite his somewhat-advanced age for a rookie.
Considering Casey McGehee of the Brewers, who is a third baseman, didn’t make it up to the big leagues until he was twenty-six or twenty-seven, and will be twenty-nine this year, and he’s done very, very well, I think Vinny Rottino still has a shot. McGehee, unlike Rottino, has power and a lot of it, but there have been others who have made it due to their defensive skills before (and their hitting skills; Rottino has speed, remember, along with good defense, and he swiped over twenty bases last year in the minors — AA and AAA, respectively) and I am confident that if some team gives Rottino a chance as a utility infielder/outfielder, they will be pleasantly surprised.
If anyone knows how Rottino is doing in Spring Training (I believe he’s with the Marlins’ minor league squad), please let me know as I’ll be more than pleased to update this blog.
Brewers get Greinke, Betancourt . . . .
And finally, folks, for my third post of the night, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the Milwaukee Brewers recent trade for RHP Zack Greinke.
Yesterday afternoon, the Brewers traded SS Alcides Escobar, CF Lorenzo Cain, and two minor league RHP, Jake Odorizzi and Jeremy Jeffress, to the Kansas City Royals for Greinke and SS Yuniesky Betancourt. Greinke is a former American League Cy Young winner (he won in ’09 with a 16-8 record), and is considered one of the best pitchers in the major leagues despite having an off-year in 2010 with a 10-14 record and a 4.19 ERA.
I’m pleased the Brewers went out and got Greinke, because this is the second pitcher the Brewers have acquired in the off season (the Brewers got Shaun Marcum from the Blue Jays a few weeks ago, trading minor league 2B Brett Lawrie for him straight up). He’s an excellent pitcher and should really help the Brewers’ rotation — and as all know, the Brewers’ main problem the last few years has been pitching. Especially starting pitching. (When the Brewers lost C.C. Sabathia and Ben Sheets to free agency, they took a major step down despite all their good hitters — Corey Hart, Casey McGehee, and of course Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. Hitters can’t do much when the starters keep giving up around 5 ERs a game.)
But I’m not happy the Brewers parted with Lorenzo Cain; Cain had shown some power and a great deal of speed to go along with his excellent defensive skills in centerfield in his brief stint in the majors last year, hitting .308 with a robust OBP of .348 — pretty good for his first 147 at-bats.
The others — eh. I liked what I saw of Jeffress, and I’m sure he’ll have a good career if he can stay away from the illegal substances (he’s been busted twice under MLB’s anti-drug policy for marijuana use), but to get Greinke I have no problem with him leaving. Ditto for Jake Odorizzi, who seemed like a good prospect thus far — possibly the Brewers best pitcher in the minors (certainly the most-hyped), though he was still in A ball this past year.
To be perfectly honest, though, I was glad to see Alcides Escobar go; I felt his defensive play was at best overhyped (Escobar makes great plays, then muffs easy ones), especially compared to the SS who came before him, JJ Hardy (who is an outstanding defensive shortstop, possibly the best in the major leagues, and certainly in the top five when healthy), and his offense was, well, anemic at .235 with a .288 OBP and 10 stolen bases.
When I went to Brewers games last year, everyone I spoke with used the same words to describe Escobar: “Overhyped.” “Flash in the pan.” “Melvin’s an idiot — can we please have JJ Hardy back?” And I agreed — Escobar was described as “the real deal,” or “everything, and the bag of chips besides” — and he just wasn’t. (Perhaps no one could live up to that billing.)
Betancourt would appear to be a step up offensively, as he batted .259 with 16 HRs (to Escobar’s 4) and 78 RBIs (to Escobar’s 41), though he also has a very low OBP at .288. As for his defense, I’d describe it as adequate — he’s another guy who won’t make anyone forget JJ Hardy anytime soon — though as he’s not been labeled a “can’t-miss” prospect, maybe he’ll be less encumbered by expectations than was Escobar.
At any rate, this is a trade that looks very good on paper and I hope it works out well for the Brewers. I know that as a fan, I’m for it.
Ken Macha out as Brewers manager; more on Brewers.
The Milwaukee Brewers, who finished with a 77-85 record, fired manager Ken Macha today by the simple expedient of not picking up his option for next season. Macha said here (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/104276948.html):
“Nobody likes to be let go, but I understand baseball, too,” Macha said. “I’ve been around a long time and been through this stuff. I told (Melvin) this Milwaukee experience for me was tremendous.
“It’s too bad we didn’t win more games, but I appreciate him bringing me here. … The expectations were to put up more wins and we didn’t do that. That’s the game.”
Macha’s words were classy, especially as he found out he’d been fired last evening via the media rather than by his good friend, Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin. Macha continued:
“When you sit down and build your club … you really got to compare your club to the other teams that have won,” Macha said. “How do we stack up with say St. Louis? We signed Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins. … Yeah we filled some holes, but are we on the same level with (Chris) Carpenter and (Adam) Wainright? So maybe the expectations were a little high but you still have to win.
“We lacked that No. 1 guy going out there. That’s my thoughts. If you could put someone at the top (of the rotation) and move everybody else down, you’d give yourself a much better chance to win.”
Now, this is something I, as a fan of the Brewers, said all year long. Yovani Gallardo is not an ace. He is a good pitcher and would probably be just fine as the second pitcher on the Brewers staff, but he is no ace. And Randy Wolf, who’s a fine number three pitcher, has too much pressure on him as a number two pitcher — all of those roles, ace, number two pitcher, number three pitcher, are clearly defined now in major league baseball, and the ace of the staff is expected to be the guy who shuts down the opposition no matter what’s been happening with the rest of the club. (In other words, if the Brewers had lost six or seven in a row and Gallardo’s turn was up, he was expected to keep the other team in check while he was out there and get the Brewers a better chance to win thereby. Gallardo can do this, but he mostly doesn’t — that’s why he’d be better as the number two pitcher on the staff because he’d have far less pressure on him thereby.)
Going on in Anthony Witrado’s blog from today’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Macha also acknowledged his trying relationships with stars Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder while noting that several other players he had good relationships with thanked him after yesterday’s season finale, including Corey Hart, Casey McGehee and Wolf among plenty of others.
Skipping ahead in the blog:
“If the effort wasn’t reciprocated, then there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. You can’t force guys to do that,” Macha said. “Some guys were open to discussion and some guys weren’t, I guess, but that’s the same with every club.
“I talked a lot to Ryan, almost every day, but he does his own thing. He’s going to do what he wants to do.
“With Prince, I think he had some issues this year to deal with, the contract probably being the main thing, and at times he was hard to talk to. I don’t know if there were any guys on the staff that talked a whole lot to him this year.
“Those are the two guys, but the rest of the guys it was all positive. I opened up to (Braun and Fielder) but you have to have a back and forth. The faces of the franchise, that’s what they are.”
After reading all this, while I remain convinced Ken Macha was always the wrong man for this job, I feel rather sorry for him. I’ve been in positions where I came into a job and wasn’t really given a chance, and it sounds like that’s exactly what happened between Macha and Brewers’ stars Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, who were both extremely angry after Ned Yost was fired in 2008 with only twelve games remaining in the season. (For the record, I was, too. I liked Yost a great deal.)
Macha had nothing to do with Ned Yost’s firing whatsoever, but I think because he was known to be such good friends with Brewers GM Doug Melvin, those two players in particular never gave Macha much of a chance. But what really surprises me is that apparently no one could reach Fielder this year — which explains Fielder’s extremely poor year, where he dropped in home runs from 46 to 31, dropped in RBI from 141 to 83, and dropped in batting average from .299 to .261. Fielder is the Brewers clean-up hitter, yet he had the fewest RBI of anyone who batted in the top five of the Brewers batting order, as you’ll see by this quick list:
Brewers RBI leaders:
Casey McGehee, 104 (bats fifth) — .285 BA, 23 HR, .464 slugging percentage
Ryan Braun, 103 (bats third) — .304 BA (led team), 25 HR, .501 slugging percentage, .365 on base percentage
Corey Hart, 102 (bats second) — .280 BA, 31 HR (8th in league), .525 slugging percentage (led team)
Rickie Weeks, 83 (bats first) — .269 BA, 29 HR, 184 strikeouts (led team), .366 on base percentage
Prince Fielder, 83 (bats fourth) — .261 BA, 32 HR (sixth in league), .401 on base percentage (led team), 114 walks (led team)
Now that you’ve seen that list, here’s some more information. Corey Hart started the season on the bench because he’d had a horrible Spring Training; he played so well Macha had to play Hart, and eventually Hart not only made the National League All-Star team, he took part in the Home Run Derby as he was among the league leaders in home runs at that time. Corey Hart finished with career highs in home runs and RBI and greatly improved his defensive play in right field; pretty good for a guy who started out on the bench, eh?
Then there’s Casey McGehee, who in his second full season led the team in RBI. McGehee is a third baseman who was an older-than-average rookie last year that GM Doug Melvin picked up prior to 2009 — McGehee had been buried in the farm system of the Chicago Cubs, but was a good, solid hitter and Melvin knew it. Signing McGehee, who started 2009 on the bench and eventually became the starting third baseman, then continued on in that role in 2010, was probably one of Melvin’s best — and most unheralded — moves of the past two years.
The other three guys — Weeks, Braun and Fielder — were all expected to do well. But Weeks, in the past, had trouble staying healthy due to problems with his wrists that required operations; that he finished a whole season credibly, improved his defense, and led all major league lead-off men in RBI was impressive. Braun got hit on the hand by a fastball thrown by Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson early in the season, had a huge dip in all batting stats during the summer, but rallied to have his usual excellent year in RBI, batting average and on base percentage (this includes hits, walks, and getting on base via errors). It was only Fielder who had a rotten year, especially by his standards — and as Macha said, that’s probably due to contractual reasons as Fielder is eligible next year for arbitration, then is a free agent, so for the moment does not have financial stability assured. (That Fielder is a client of hard-nosed agent Scott Boras is another concern, but of course Macha would never mention that even though everyone knows it’s part of the problem. The Brewers offered Fielder $100 million for five years — $20 million a year — but Boras said that wasn’t enough. That didn’t go over well with Brewers fans at all, though no one blamed Fielder, a bluff, genial, good-hearted man, for Boras’s actions even though Boras works for Fielder, not the reverse.)
Since this will probably be my final blog about the Brewers for a while, I may as well give my end of the season awards now.
Brewers Most Valuable Player: Corey Hart (Casey McGehee, second) — this is because when the Brewers still had a shot to get back in the pennant race and everyone else slumped, Hart carried the team through much of May and June.
Rookie of the Year: John Axford, who took over the closing job from Trevor Hoffman and never looked back, going 8-2 with a 2.48 ERA, and saving 24 out of 27 games.
Brewers Most Valuable Pitcher: John Axford.
Comeback Player of the Year: Chris Capuano — Capuano’s stats of 4-4 with a 3.95 ERA in 24 appearances (and nine starts) are a little misleading, though they’re perfectly fine. As it stands, “Cappy” is the first player to effectively pitch in the major leagues after a second “Tommy John” ligament replacement surgery on his pitching arm. He also is a study in perseverence, as his second comeback required nearly two full years of rehabilitation. Capuano deserves serious consideration as major league comeback player of the year.
The Brewers had many good players who had fine years for them in 2010; they just did not jell as a team. Here’s hoping that next year, the Brewers will be much better and give the fans a great deal more excitement overall.
Updates on Past Blogs: Kratz out, Capuano finishes season.
Today I wanted to write a quick update about what’s going on with some of those who’ve been featured in my past blog entries.
First and best, Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz is now the former DA of Calumet County as he has resigned. As I’d previously written — and hoped would happen — Governor Jim Doyle (D-WI), who used to be the Attorney General of the state of Wisconsin before he was elected as Governor, had started the process to formally remove Kratz from office, which put an enormous amount of pressure on Kratz to resign. Doyle had said in this article from 9/21/2010 (http://www.htrnews.com/article/20100921/MAN0101/309220021/Wisconsin-Gov-Jim-Doyle-sees-Calumet-County-DA-Ken-Kratz-sexting-case-as-very-serious-issue-), which was widely covered by Wisconsin newspapers:
An outraged Doyle said Monday he would start the process to consider removing Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz and that he hopes to make a decision in a month. At a news conference five days after The Associated Press broke the story, Doyle said any prosecutor who would have behaved that way on his watch would have faced repercussions.
“I consider this to be a very, very, very serious issue,” said Doyle, a former district attorney and attorney general who leaves the governor’s office in January.
“It’s one that personally strikes to a lot of things I have worked very hard on in my career: crime victims’ rights and domestic violence. It troubles me deeply that somebody turns to the criminal justice system for help and receives the kinds of texts we have seen.”
And Gov. Doyle delivered, as Kratz, as of today, has resigned his position as DA. Kratz’s resignation was covered widely as well; one account of it is here at this link:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20101004/GPG0101/101004091/1207&located=rss
Kratz’s resignation was quiet and done via press release, which stated:
“It is with deep sadness and regret that I announce my resignation as Calumet County district attorney, effective immediately,” Kratz wrote in a statement. “I have lost the confidence of the people I represent due primarily to personal issues which have now affected my professional career.”
I am very happy that Kratz is gone, and hope the people of Calumet County will now rest a bit easier with Kratz’s resignation.
Next, Brewers pitcher Chris Capuano completed his comeback season; as previous blogs have reported, left-hander Capuano came back this year from his second “Tommy John” ligament replacement surgery in his left arm and pitched effectively, going 4-4 with a 3.95 ERA in 66 innings, starting nine games and appearing in 24. The rest of his statistics are available many places, but I prefer FanGraphs.com, an excellent baseball resource site for the serious fan; here’s that link:
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1701&position=P
Capuano started his final game last Saturday and struggled against the Cincinnati Reds, giving up three runs, ten hits and a walk in 3 2/3 innings. After the game, a 7-4 loss (Capuano did not lose the game due to the Brewers offense tying the game at 4-4 in the seventh inning), Capuano said:
“It was a battle,” said Capuano. “It was one of those games when even when I had them hitting my pitch, they found holes. They hit a couple of balls hard.
“They never took the pressure off me, never really allowed me to settle into a groove. As a pitcher, you’re aware of the pace of the game (3 hours, 39 minutes). I was saying, ‘Let me have a clean inning. Let me move this game along a little bit.’ ”
But as Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter Tom Haudricourt said at this article (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brewers/104209094.html):
Capuano wasn’t going to let the shaky outing tarnish the comeback season he enjoyed after sitting out two years following a second Tommy John elbow surgery.
He quoted Capuano, who said:
“Physically, I’m feeling great,” said Capuano, who is eligible for free agency. “That’s everything that I hoped for out of this year. I had an uphill battle today. They’re a good team; they have a good offense.
“I don’t know what to expect (on the market). I’m glad now I can take a rest from throwing. I really haven’t stopped throwing since this rehab program began.”
I’m very, very proud of Chris Capuano, and I’m glad the Brewers re-signed him to a minor league deal last year. Capuano is an outstanding example of patience, resilience and endurance, and I truly hope the Brewers re-sign him for next season as he’s shown he can still be an effective major league pitcher.
Persistence Pays Off, Part II — Chris Capuano Wins Again. Also Ben Sheets Surgery Update.
This past week hasn’t been much fun; I celebrated my birthday while dealing with a nasty sinus infection, and thus my blog was inactive during that time as I hadn’t much to write about — or at any rate, what I would’ve tried to write wouldn’t have made much sense due to feeling so terrible.
But last night, I had another epiphany, and thus, a second blog post about Brewers left-handed pitcher Chris Capuano. Capuano, as you might recall, has returned to the major leagues after having a second “Tommy John” ligament replacement surgery performed in mid-2008. His rehabilitation was extensive, and without a whole lot of faith in himself, along with a great deal of hard work rehabilitating his surgically-repaired left arm, he’d never have returned to pitch again, period — much less in the majors.
But he has, and he has pitched for the most part with amazing efficiency — or to be less unnecessarily wordy, he’s been very good indeed, one of the best pitchers the Brewers have had during this lost season of 2010.
Last evening, Capuano came in after Yovani Gallardo — the Brewers’ best starting pitcher, and their supposed “ace” of the staff thereby — gave up six earned runs (ERs) in only three and one third innings pitched. He left the bases loaded, too, meaning if those runners had scored, nine runs would’ve been charged to Gallardo.
So what did Capuano do? He mopped up the damage, that’s what. He got out of the fourth inning with none of Gallardo’s runs scoring — and pitched 3 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball. Eleven men up, and eleven men down — no hits, only one walk, and one double-play ball which wiped the walk off the board.
This was Chris Capuano’s first win at Miller Park since May of 2007. And in it, he also went one for two in hitting — getting his first hit in the bigs since 2007. See this post about the game, although it did not stress enough to my mind the magnitude of Chris Capuano’s second win:
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brewers/101197154.html
At any rate, you probably see where, if Chris Capuano were a different sort of person, all that rehab might’ve put him off from returning to baseball. You can also see that Chris Capuano, fortunately for the Brewers, has more dedication, drive and determination than most people — because it’s incredibly difficult to recuperate from one “Tommy John” surgical procedure to pitch well. It’s even more difficult to recover from two.
Chris Capuano’s stats for the season are now two wins, two losses. He’s started two games, winning one, losing one. He has a 3.86 ERA in 28 innings pitched, with 8 walks, 27 strikeouts (Ks), and has given up three home runs. These may not seem like outstanding stats, but consider how hard this man has worked — then consider the Brewers staff pitching ERA average of 4.90, and the fact that only Yovani Gallardo, Zach Braddock, Kameron Loe and John Axford have lower ERAs on the entire Brewers staff of thirteen pitchers.
Chris Capuano is now thirty-two years old. He’s recovered from two surgeries that are life-altering for pitchers; usually, if a pitcher works hard and is fortunate, he can recover from one such procedure. Only rarely has a pitcher recovered from two on the same arm — and Chris Capuano is, if not the first, possibly the second pitcher in the majors to have returned from two “Tommy John” surgeries.
I mention this because another of my favorite players, former Brewers pitcher Ben Sheets, recently had a surgery so extensive that it was reported by Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (Web site www.sfgate.com) as a “surgery (that) involved every structure in the elbow — both tendons and the ligament — ” that Slusser was:
“amazed he was pitching with that kind of damage, and he wasn’t getting shelled; he was adequate. That’s extraordinary. There was basically nothing working in his elbow.”
The rest of Slusser’s blog from 8/11/10 is available here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/athletics/detail?entry_id=69876
Sheets, like Capuano, is thirty-two years old. He’ll be nearly thirty-four (and that only because he has a July birthday) if — and when — he can attempt a comeback. His surgery has been called the “most extensive” in the history of baseball — this headline at NBC Sports Hardball Talk on 8/11/2010 says it all:
Ben Sheets just had the most massive surgery in the history of pitching
Or how about this headline from the Contra Costa Times of 8/11/2010 —
A’s update: Pitcher Ben Sheets faces long odds after undergoing Tommy John surgery
http://www.contracostatimes.com/sports/ci_15749396?source=rss&nclick_check=1
This article points out that Sheets is looking at nearly a two-year rehab cycle to rehab his surgically repaired right elbow, complete with both tendons and the “Tommy John” ligament replacement surgery. And he’s a pitcher, unlike Capuano, who’s always relied on his plus-fastball and his plus-curveball (meaning he throws high heat, really fast, over 90 mph fastballs with serious movement on them, and the curveball he has moves so much that it’s not only hard to hit, it’s hard to catch, besides) to win in major league ball, whereas Capuano was always a control pitcher. These surgeries do take a toll on the arm and they do lower the velocity on the fastball for most pitchers; it will be harder for Sheets to be effective in the majors afterward even if his rehab goes successfully. (As I sincerely hope it will.)
Sheets ended his season with a 4.53 ERA, a 4-9 record (a bit deceptive; the A’s didn’t give Sheets much in the way of run support), and a walks plus hits per inning (WHIP) rating of 1.39, the highest in his career. But as Ms. Slusser said, basically nothing was working in Sheets’ elbow; it’s amazing Sheets struck out 84 guys while walking 43 in 119 1/3 innings, considering that datum.
At any rate, Chris Capuano was always known to Brewers fans as a “workout warrior” while Ben Sheets was considered, at best, to be a guy who would rather pitch than do running, stretching, weight training, or anything else pitchers are supposed to do these days to keep themselves in shape. This perception of Sheets by Brewers fans is probably less than accurate, especially considering Sheets’ recovery from his surgery after the 2008 season for a torn labrum (a different elbow ailment) took all of 2009 to rehab. So it’s obvious Sheets can and will rehabilitate serious injuries — the main question here is, can he do it twice, as has Capuano? And can he do it at an advanced age for any pitcher, much less a power pitcher like Ben Sheets?
Granted, Capuano (who’s now 32) was able to come back from two serious surgeries. But it took him nearly two years the second time, and he had to swallow a great deal of pride, no doubt, when he signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in ’09 (he was in the low minors, mostly rehabilitating, toward the end of August last year), then again in ’10.
Chris Capuano has shown that it’s possible for someone with a strong will and a strong gift to win out over a recalcitrant body. I hope Ben Sheets will be able to do the same; I hope his body will let him. I do know that Sheets should be well aware of Capuano and the struggles Capuano had returning to the majors, because Sheets and Capuano were teammates for many years, though were never known to be close friends.
At any rate, the lesson here for writers, or for anyone at all, is the same as my first post about Chris Capuano — persist. Keep trying. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Or if you do, shake it off and keep trying some more. Because that is literally the only way — the only way — to win.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 