Tuesday, February 5, 2008

2008 Brewers Preview - Firstbase


It's time to start the second annual Brewer positional breakdowns! Hold your excitement, please. I'll hit about one a week, starting with the known quantities before Spring Training irons out the unknowns (I.E., bullpen). First up: Big Poppa, First base.

The Good: Pretty much everything. Prince is one of the most feared sluggers in the game. Period. He's in the Pujols/Ortiz/Howard category. More than that, he's a team leader who likes to fight (hear that Matt Capps?) or destroy a poor catcher at any given moment. He seems like a genuinely good guy, although his old man might disagree. Oh, and he's only 24....that's crazy.

The Bad: Fielder's fielding is still poor, at best. His 14 errors led all Major League first basemen. Does his boiler get in the way? Perhaps. I'm scrounging for a weakness here, but Prince's numbers were so impressive last year (.288, 50, 119)...can he possibly get better?? Is there a possibility that he's already peaked? I mean, what's in store for this year? .300-55-130?? Just throwing it out there.

2008 Predicted Stats: .292 avg, 48 Bombs, 115 Ribbies - Braun steals a few of his RBIs

Grade: A. What more could you possibly ask for...except better defense? Then again, I don't think Dougie is losing sleep thinking about Fielder's defense.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who's to be our back-up if Prince goes down , heaven forbid? Jim

Anonymous said...

Excellent question Jim,
Of the top of my head...the best option to just fill in temporarily would be Vinnie Rottino, assuming he gets the last spot on the team (it will come down between him & the new guy (Nunez?)).

Besides that, I guess you could argue that moving Braun over there might makes sense because our our outfield surplus, and as a long shot we could call up Matt LaPorta and stick him right into the mix.

Now lets never talk about Prince Fielder getting hurt again.

Anonymous said...

Joe Dillon.

Anonymous said...

Corey Hart?

Anonymous said...

I'd agree with Hart.....