Moosed

Anybody see Fatt Stairs absolutely destroy the baseball last night? Tie game, 8th inning. Jon Broxton serves a 95 MPH fastball straight down main street and Stairs just moosed it into the RF bleachers - about 7 rows from leaving Dodger Stadium. Crushed, moosed, tattooed, hammered, Whammy!!...whatever you want to say, it was awesome.

How weird is it watching Matt Stairs, Geoff Jenkins, Gabe Gross, and Grant Balfour still playing meaningful baseball games'?

2008 Brewers Recap...Part 1

The various beat writers have begun to hand out season grades and year-end wrap ups for our beloved Milwaukee Brewers. I always usually enjoy Tom H's review...but for some reason this year he gave Bill Hall a D. Get serious Tom. F. F. F. F.

I'll be taking things from a slightly different approach over the next week or so...doing various recap parts tackling topics like overrated/underrated players, impact players, why I think certain things happened...etc.

So to start: I'd like to mention two occurrences that happened during the year. One had a positive effect on the team, the other negative (both directly and indirectly).

Positive - The move of Carlos Villanueva to the bullpen:
I will admit, before the season when people were saying he didn't have a starting rotation spot locked up...I thought they were nuts. I thought he was the 4 starter...pencil him in all year. Well, I was wrong. Check out these splits.

 I Split         G   GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP    ERA   H   R   ER HR  BB IBB  SO HBP
+-+------------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+------+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+
  as Starter     9   9  0  2  5  0  0   0  49     6.43  64  37  35 12  16   0  31   1
   as Reliever   38   0  9  2  2  1  0   0  59.1   2.12  48  16  14  6  14   1  62   2

Wow...talk about night and day. Everything went down. HRs...SO/W ratio...and ummm...yeah the ERA went down a bit too. The reason the experts will tell you is that as a changeup specialist...batters figure him out the 2nd (and especially 3rd) time through the batting order. Ok...I'll buy that. It might just be that he doesn't have the gas to go 7-8 innings consistently...ever. He's a wild card for the rotation again next year. All I know is that he's young, a damn good reliever, and that will come in handy next year. I say leave him in the bullpen for the time being.

Negative - The injury to Gabe Kapler:
We all know the direct loss. As the 4th outfielder and #1 bench guy, the guy was a force. He exceeded everyone's expectations to the tune of .301/.340/.498. He did it pinch-hitting. Played good d. He even rocked it out at Chiptotle with Yours Truly.
But the indirect loss was even bigger. When he went down (around the 10th of September), our country music loving all star was on his way to his September collapse into mediocrity (.192 OBP in Sep & Oct...EGAD!). It's tough to think that there was a good chance that Gabe Kapler would have been getting the majority (if not all) of the RF starts when Corey Hart started to tank. Unfortunately, there were no other servicable options. So...years from now...when you think of Corey Hart and his game 1 strikeout, game 2 swing at the first pitch with the bases loaded, and basically every one of his HORRIBLE at bats the last 6 weeks of the season...try and remember that if Gabe Kapler hadn't tore his back or whatever...he may have been getting some of those at-bats. Ahhh...what might have been.

Trade Prince Fielder!

It's time to trade Prince Fielder! It really is! Right now we can get a lot of value for him! Maybe a starting pitcher! He's having a disappointing year! No way is he going to hit 50 home runs again! He topped out last year!

Wait? What are you saying? Oh please...don't talk to me about stats. Fine...you want to look at them...ok.

So what if he is LEADING the team in BA? So what if he is LEADING the team in OBP? So what that he is 2nd in home runs and in slugging percentage? So freaking what that he has the NUMBER 1 offensive VORP on the team? Or the highest EQA? So what?

Trade him for more prospects. Maybe a double A 20 year old pitcher with potential. It's what we do as the Brewers. It's obvious that Prince wants to leave after this year...he hates his contract! We can't pay him. What's that you say? Ohhhh...we own him for 3 more years after this one? Really? Oh well...I say trade him anyway.

Look at his breasts! He's got bitch tits! Do you think a guy like that can play 10 years down the road? Come on! Let's trade him for another guy that looks like Gabe Kapler! Have you seen pictures of Gabe with his shirt off? He's hot! What's that? You're looking to win now with him at the height of his career and then maybe dump in off a few years down the road? Screw that! I hear he sucks in the clubhouse! I hear he's not vocal! He's not a team player!

Trade him! We've got two guys in Double A that are tearing the shit out of the ball! Plus they're white guys (wink wink nudge nudge)! We don't need Prince! What's that? Yeah I know Double A is not the same as the majors, but these guys are hitting bombs! What? Prince is hitting bombs too? F that! He hasn't passed Braun yet! Ryan Braun is awesome! He signed a long-term contract!

Wait...those two guys in the minors...can they play RF or 3B? They can? Oh...well I SUPPOSE next year after they play a full year in double A and then the Arizona Fall League they can be given opportunities to win the starting jobs and RF and 3B...I suppose we can do that. We can trade Bill Hall or Rickie Weeks I suppose to make room for them. Corey Hart could probably play center field I suppose. I suppose in 2009 we could have Braun, Hart, & LaPorta in the OF and Gamel & Prince in the infield. I suppose.

But screw it. Trade Prince now. Trade his jiggly breasts. We're only 2 games out of the wild card and 7 games over. We need a pitcher. Trade him.

Team Gabe Strikes Again!

Game winning single in the 11th by Gabe Gross vaults the - gasp - Rays into first place.

From The Chuckie_Hacks@Yahoo.com Inbox

From loyal reader and MVP commenter Garcia:


I was down in Orlando this past weekend and saw a familiar face....The intro song was by Switchfoot ... "We were meant to live"~~Garcia

Gabe Kapler digs Chipotle!

Gabe Kapler is the man. Seriously.

I'm having lunch with some co-workers this afternoon at a place with a few outdoor tables. All of a sudden, I see Gabe freaking Kapler walk into the Chipotle that was next door. The only piece of paper I could scrounge up was an old parking ticket from one of the chicks I was with. It didn't matter. I had to get his autograph. I wouldn't be a legitimate blogger if I didn't do it.

Walking up to him was a little weird as he was half deep into his chicken burrito. He had it loaded with green tabasco sauce. Here's the exchange:
Me (whispering): "Excuse me...you're Gabe Kapler right? (He was shorter than I thought...I had to be sure)"
Gabe: (nods his head).
Me: "Sorry to interrupt your burrito...but could I get an autograph?"
Gabe: "Sure."
Me: (Sheepishly handing him a parking ticket) "Uhhh...this is all I have...sorry."
Gabe: "No problem man."
Me: (As he signs): "It's great to have a guy like you on the team."
Gabe: "Thanks for your support."

And that was that. I head back to my table. Later Gabe came walking out...wearing jeans and sandals...and walked right by us on the way to his mercedes. Both of my female co-workers said they would do him.

Gabe Kapler is now my 7th favorite Brewer of all time. It's become clear we have several things in common:
-Chicks dig us
-We both take care of our bodies
-We were both excellent baseball players in our prime
-We both rock out Chipotle

I've got a feeling Gabe is going to have one hell of a series against the Phillies.

The Milwaukee Brewers now walk alone...

With Gabe Gross gone, the Milwaukee Brewers have lost their divine support. There will no longer be two sets of footprints...and we won't be getting carried during the rough times in August.

Damn!

But seriously, the Lord as a Rays fan? I don't see it. There's a reason he changed water into wine...he was a fan of the sauce. It was only natural that he be a Brewer fan.

This Outfield Only Has Room for One Gabe

On a day when Gabe Gross had his best game of the season and scored the winning run in an extra-innings affair against St. Louis, we learn that he has been traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for a Class A pitcher carrying a 6.35 ERA. I can only assume that this means that Tony Gwynn Jr. is set to re-join Milwaukee in time for tomorrow's game.

Thus ends Team Gabe - I maintain that those of us brave enough to listen to/watch that game today saw history: It must have been the first time in MLB history that two guys named Gabe batted back-to-back in the lineup and played next to each other in the outfield of a major league game.

Good luck in Tampa, Gabe.

EDIT:

I did some quick searching about the prospect that Milwaukee got from Tampa. Here's what a Rays Blog had to say about pitcher Josh Butler before the season started.

Talk about a tale of two seasons. Butler had arguably the best numbers of a very talented Columbus Catfish staff, but got called up to Vero Beach toward the end of June and simply got rocked, missed nearly a month of starts, came back and was slightly more effective.
The University of San Diego product was a surprise 2nd-rounder in 2006, as his draft stock had been falling in concert with his productivity, which sparked concerns over his durability. At his best, Butler throws a low-90s fastball with good sinking actions as well as two serviceable breaking pitches and a changeup. But something really got out of whack in Vero Beach: In 49 innings there, he allowed 9 homeruns. In his previous 357 innings(combined college and pro), he allowed a total of 13.

Before the 2006 draft, BaseballAmerica mentioned that a taxing delivery might be to be blame for his decline over the course of his junior year. The report was that he didn't incorporate his lower body enough, and that's practically inviting an arm injury. Judging from the poor 2nd-half statistics and the time missed, I'd say the concerns over his delivery are as alive as ever. Part of the decline can be chalked up to being promoted a level, but the sharp HR rate increase makes me think it's something else, such as not finishing on his delivery and leaving more balls up.
2007 was the second straight year Butler underwhelmed toward the end. I can probably be accused of saying this too much, but I think it applies to Butler perhaps more than anyone: I think he should make a move to the bullpen. If it is a durability issue, limiting his innings could help. Also, if efforts are made to clean up his delivery, pitching in shorter spurts might allow him to better focus on incorporating those changes.

Then again, perhaps his poor finish was a result of the injury(I can't for the life of me find out why he missed those 3-4 starts). He was dominant in his final outing(7 innings, 2 hits, 7 strikeouts), so it might be best to see if a fully healthy Butler can be successful in Vero Beach as a starter. Either way, VB is almost certain to be where he opens 2008, and he's still got plenty to prove.