February 18, 2009

Ralph Laughlin-Kalal

With the Brewers 2009 not look so good with the young amount of talent that needs time to grow, the following season does promising to the naked eye. Ryan Braun didn’t look to show any signs of a sophomore slump, batting .285 with a team leading 37 homeruns and 106 runs batted in, and he signed a long term contract during the season, and Prince Fielder is he for at least two more years. Other than those two guys there are a lot of uncertainties. With Jason Kendall 2009 option being picked up for catching a heck load of games, we all know that he’ll see a load of catchers. While manager Ken Macha has said that he would like to see Kendall take a day off at least once a week, which will give Mike Rivera a chance to see sometime behind the plate. Rivera isn’t a step back from game calling behind the plate, when he was in Triple-A he called and caught a perfect game from starting pitcher Manny Parra. Rivera was not only was productive behind the plate, is also productive at the plate. During the 2008 season he .306 in 62 at-bats while driving 14 runs while hitting safely 14 times. There are other options for catcher in the Brewers future. Angel Salome, the 79 ranked prospects according to Baseball Prospectus, could get the starting job in 2010. Salome batted .360, driving in 83 runs, and slamming 13 long balls are productive numbers for a catcher. Weather Salome has the starting Job in his, in 2010, could be up to 2008 draftee Brett Lawrie. Lawrie was draft out of Canada in last year’s draft and is already ranked 57. You could see him making a run at a roster spot on the Canada’s World Baseball Classic. Lawrie will get a good chance to learn a thing or two from Los Angeles Dodger catcher and Canadian, Russell Martin. Make the transition to the major leagues shouldn’t be to difficult for Lawrie because in his College days he used wood bats instead of the Aluminum used the US College’s. There is also the chance that Non-Roster invite and Racine native Vinney Rottino could get a job as a catcher or as a back-up somewhere on the field. Rottino thought was recently designated for assignment by the Brewers to make room for Free Agent signing Braden Looper. Rottino was a starting in the Triple-A all-star game last year, and could make the Brewers roster. First base is pretty much set right now with Prince Fielder at first. There were rumors during the off-season that Prince could go to the San Francisco Giants in return for Matt Cain, but those rumors were killed by General Manager Doug Melvin. Brad Nelson did prove to be a solid hitter after September Call-ups getting two hits in seven at-bats and coming up big in a game versus the Mets helping the Brewers to the playoffs. So we are going to move to the left and to second base. Rickie Weeks has endured a lot of critism during the Brewers playoff pushes. Fan have said that he shouldn’t be in the leadoff role, which I agree with, but fans have also said that he should be traded, which is a statement that I don’t agree with. I believe that Weeks needs to give up the lead-off role, and stop with such a vigorous bat wiggle. If push comes to shove, once highly ranked, Hernan Iribarren could step in and take the second base job from Weeks. While Iribarren doesn’t have the powers that Weeks have, Iribarren would be a better fit as a leadoff hitter. He has a higher average and On Base Percentage than Weeks, granted that Iribarren stats are against AAA opponist while Weeks is going against the best. There you also see Alcides Escobar move from short to second, but well get more about him later. Shortstop is J.J. Hardy’s job right now. While there were rumors that the twins wanted either Hardy or Escobar, but Melvin wouldn’t trade that kind of talent. JJ has showed to be solid defensive threat, but has become a good hitter. J had a very respectable hitting stretch going during the season. J does need to work on being a more consistent hitter during the season rather than being a streaky hitter. Escobar, ranked 51, could be the shortstop in the future and you could then see JJ shipped off or move to third base, or viscera. Escobar, if he ever were to get into the starting line-up, could be at the top of the line-up. In Double-A he batted above three-hundred and stole more than thirty bases. Third base has been handed to Bill Hall by new manager Ken Macha. Weather it will be a platoon at third or not is still up in the air. If there were to be a platoon, who would be the guy in the box against right handed hitting, veteran Mike Lamb or young gun Mat Gamel. Gamel could get the job out of Spring Training because Hall hurt his calf and could be out for some or all of Spring Training, but he will need to work on his fielding. In his time in the minors last year he committed 32 errors and had a fielding percentage of .846. His hitting is his bright spot though. In his minor league tour last year he batted .284, his short time in Triple-A killed his average, and smashed 20 homeruns and drove in 99 runs, and does have some speed stealing 20 bases over the last two years. . Like a had mentioned earlier, you could see a position change from Hardy or Escobar and take over the roll at third base, but only time will tell what could happen at the hot corner. Left field is Ryan Braun’s and nobody else’s and right fielder is Corey Hart, so we’ll skip those and move to Center field. Mike Cameron’s option was picked up and then there were also rumors that Cameron could be head to the hated Yankees for young switch hitting Melky Cabrera. But those Rumors were put on the back burner, but the trade could still happen if the Yanks need a player to make a playoff push. They could do something like they did last year in acquiring Xavier Nady. I believe that you could see Escobar in center because of his speed. Another infielder that could be is Hernan Iribarren, who is more ready to take that spot that Escosbar because he has started making the switch to the outfielder sense last year. If Cameron were traded this season, look to see Iribarren in that role. I still would like to see Tony Gwynn Jr. get a chance in centerfield, if he doesn’t it would be a hug waist of talent and you could see him traded. Gwynn does have the speed to play center, but his numbers have slowing decreased in Triple-A and the majors. Finally, the pitchers. Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra are starting pitchers of the future. Manny Parra did struggle down the stretch, having another year under him will be most beneficiary. Jeff Suppan contract is way too large to trade and most likely will finish his four year deal with the Brewers. Dave Bush is maybe the most underrated pitcher on the Brewers roster. His is an inning eater, and if he could get out of an inning, most notably the first, he could be a 12 to 15 game winner. Braden Looper will be a good fit for the Brewers in 2009. He could be a nice man to have in the rotation, but depending on the year that he has a good year, he will be out after one season as a Brewer. Mark Rogers, who was recently added to the 40-man roster, could be a force in the rotation. The only problem is that he hasn’t pitched since mid-2006 season, because shoulder injuries. Jeremy Jeffress, who was drafted in the first round in 2006, is getting closer to pitching in the major leagues. After being suspended in 2007 for “a drug of abuse” be has bounced back and produced nice numbers winning 15 games and has an ERA a hair over four. Chris Capuano, who will take the 2009 season to recover from Tommy John Surgery, could be back in the show in 2010. Cappy wants to use his time though to redeem himself. After losing twenty-two games in a row in 2007, he never did get chance to prove that his 2006 season wasn’t a fluke and that he can do it. Finally, the last starting pitcher that we’ll take about is Chase Wright, who you can find on the mound most notably for giving up the back-to-back-to-back-to-back homeruns to the Boston Red Sox on April 17, 2007. He has had a few good starts when he has been called upon by the Yankees. He could get a chance to battle for a rotation spot if not this year but next year. The Bullpen could be another certainty in 2009, with a look of the young and the old. During the off season the Brewers sign the greatest closer of all-time in Trevor Hoffman as well as Jorge Julio and Seth McClung will be the sixth man out of the Bullpen and also a long, but the young gun slingers will have to step up and produce. R.J. Swindle and Mitch Stutter will battle for the situational lefty void that was left by Brain Shouse. Mark DiFelice, Tim Dillard, David Riske and Carlos Vinanueva will battle for the late inning roles in Spring Training.

Keywords: Milwaukee Brewers

Posted by Ralph Laughlin-Kalal | Like this post? Share it: