The Brewers Bar Weekly Hangover 6/26/16

Each Sunday evening we will review our favorite and least favorite events of the previous week, and share our perspective on how the team is doing. Please enjoy responsibly.

Cheers! (Something good that happened)

Brewers Sign Their No. 1 Pick: There’s always a little bit of intrigue after the MLB draft as far as signing the top picks.  It wasn’t that long ago (2010) the Brewers failed to sign their No. 1 pick, Dylan Covey.  There were unexpected medical issues with Covey, but it goes to show you can never be sure.  Happily, the Brewers locked up their 2016 No. 1 pick Corey Ray in short order.

First-round draft pick, OF Corey Ray (@FutureIs_Bright), has signed and will be introduced today at Miller Park! pic.twitter.com/ODalPr6hAg

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) June 25, 2016

Interestingly, Ray’s $4,125,000 signing bonus was more than $250K below the slot value for the No. 5 pick. I must admit, I have not had occasion to look up where these “slot values” come from.  Ray’s signing bonus seems pretty generous.  I’m all in favor of adults working for the highest level of compensation they can get, but at the same time it’s comforting to hear about a guy willing to settle for less.  Settling is an important life skill that doesn’t get nearly enough acclaim.  It’s okay to settle.

Ray joined both the TV and radio broadcast booths after taking batting practice at Miller Park on Saturday. The guy had one hell of a day.  Not only did he get to mingle with big leaguers, but he got to shoot the breeze with Bob Uecker.  Here’s to a bright future for Ray.

Buzzkill (Something forgettable that happened)

What the Hell Happened to Domingo Santana? This was one of the players Brewers fans were looking forward to seeing during the first season of the rebuild.  Santana hits bigass opposite field homers like this.

[mlbvideo id=”607011083″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]

He guns down suckers at the plate like this.

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He stays on the DL with no clear return date like this.

Santana has not resumed baseball activities since beginning his second DL stint of the season June 10 and is unlikely to return until after the All-Star break. […]

“He’s making progress. He’s not at the point of doing baseball stuff right now, though,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “So it’s going a little slower than we’d like. He’s going to be a ways away still. … The All-Star break would be optimistic for me right now, that’s what I’d say.”

C’MON. Santana is one of the few Brewers who is fun to watch, but unlikely to be traded for playing so well.  This is a guy we should be able to enjoy for a few seasons.  We’ll be lucky if we see him for half of 2016.  Bloody hell.

Here’s to You (Standout player(s) or play(s) of the week)

Keon Broxton: Speaking of guys who are fun to watch, I happened to go the game on Friday, and as Broxton drew pinch hitting duty in the fifth inning, my companion said (paraphrasing), “C’mon, Keon, hit a homerun here.”  And he did.

[mlbvideo id=”852659583″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]

How often does anyone ever call a homerun at a game? It was Broxton’s first career homer and it was off of a legit ace, Max Scherzer.  Broxton will presumably be telling this story at least as often as Uecker talks about hitting homers off Sandy Koufax and Gaylord Perry.

Back on the Wagon (Thoughts on the week ahead)

The Brewers have a chance to get revenge on the Dodgers for making them look like chumps three out of four times in Los Angeles. The Brewers shot themselves in the foot with some unfortunate walks in Los Angeles, both intentional and unintentional. No more walks, fools. Make them hit their way on.

Then it’s “avoid the sweep” time in St. Louis. I can’t help but think St. Louis fans look forward to facing the Brewers the way Brewers fans used to look forward to facing the Pirates and Astros.  As long as the Brewers can pull out one win, those Cardinals fans won’t have quite as much to be smug about.  That’s right – hoping for less-than-usual opposing fan smugness is what we’ve got going for us next weekend.  Is this how Cubs fans felt from 2010-2014?  Oof.

(Image: Dylan Buell)