Milwaukee Brewers Information
The 2010 Milwaukee Brewers will begin their 42nd season in baseball and look to improve on their 80-82 2009 season in which they missed the post season. With Pitcher Ben Sheets back in the fold, his elbow tendon fully repaired, the Brewers are hoping that his January 90 MPH fastballs will still be firing in the fall. The franchise is also hoping to complete a deal that would keep first baseman Prince Fielder in a Brewers uniform for a number of years to come.
In the offseason, the Brewers lost Jason Bourgeois, Corey Patterson, Mike Cameron, Jason Kendall, J.J. Hardy and Mike Rivera. Two major moves for the Brewers was the signing of Randy Wolf and trading J.J Hardy to the Twins for Carlos Gomez.
The team also inked Adam Stern, Mark DiFelice, Craig Counsell, Trevor Hoffman, Claudio Vargas, George Kottaras, Chris Capuano, John Halama, Gregg Zaun, Trent Oeltjen, Luis Cruz, Chuck Lofgren, Randy Woilf, J.J. Murray, La Troy Hawkins, Kameron Loe and Matt Treanor. The franchise is also actively seeking out Mark Mulder and season ticket holders are hoping that Mulder will come on board.
In their 34 year history, the Milwaukee Brewers have only made one playoff appearance, but they played quite well despite their obvious lack of playoff experience. The appearance came in 1982, and the team was led by all-star and future hall of famer Robin Yount and slugger Gorman Thomas. The Brewers finished with the best record in baseball, and defeated the California Angels in the ALCS before falling in the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1998, the Brew Crew made the move from the AL to the NL, and joined the Central division. In 2004, the group led by Ned Yost will have to compete with the likes of the Houston Astros, St Louis Cardinals, and Chicago Cubs. Yost is in his first year as manager, but he has worked numerous years as a professional base coach, and he will inherit a young group of ball players with a lot of potential.
Miller Park, named after the brewing company, is one of the more modern parks in baseball. It was completed in 2001, and can hold 43,000 people. It’s a baseball only park, and even features a slide in right field for Bennie the Brewer, the official mascot. Anytime the Brewers hit a home run, Bennie slides down to celebrate with the fans.
The biggest obstacle the Brew Crew will be forced to overcome probably won’t be the lack of major league experience or a first year manager. It will almost certainly be the loss of all-star first baseman Richie Sexson to the Arizona Diamondbacks in an off-season trade. Sexson was a beast, standing at 6’8’’, and he hit some absolutely towering shots last year. He finished up with 45 homers and 124 runs batted in, but he was also somewhat of a team leader in the clubhouse. He was a player that had been through a lot in his time in the league, and he was a good teacher to the younger ball players. In 2004, the Brewers will look to play a more conventional style of baseball, in large part because of center fielder Scott Podsednik. Podsednik has incredible speed and will be responsible for getting on base any way possible in order to set the table for the rest of the lineup. The Brewers don’t have that big power hitter now, but they do have a solid lineup of guys that can put the ball in play, something they couldn’t do last year when they led the league in strikeouts, averaging one almost every 5 official at bats.
The pitching shouldn’t be much of a problem for the Brewers, since they play in a pitcher friendly ballpark. Ben Sheets will be the ace of the staff, and Danny Kolb will enter his second season as a legitimate closer and after stepping up reasonably well in 2003, many anticipate another fantastic season. The Brewers will have to compete with some of the best teams in the NL, but with a young nucleus, it’s not out of the question to think they could be good for a long time.