Each Monday 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)
Top Prospect Lewis Brinson is Doing All Right: In the middle of a rebuild, and after a crummy week at the major league level, it’s not bad to keep an eye on the up-and-comers. Thanks to Brinson, the future is looking considerably brighter than the present. Brinson had a four-hit game with a homer on Tuesday, and went 5-for-8 with another homer in a double header Friday. He earned a spot on MLBPipeline.com’s Prospect Team of the Week, along with two other players in the Brewers system. I had never heard of MLBPipeline.com’s Prospect Team of the Week until just now, but I consider it authoritative.
Naturally, there are no immediate plans to call up Brinson, probably because being rushed into the majors to play on a team that gets routinely destroyed by its division rivals would hamper his development. But it’s good to know someone is the Brewers organization had a good week. Speaking of getting destroyed by division rivals…
Buzzkill (Something lame that happened)
Cubs and Cardinals Still Own Crew: Last season, the Brewers finished with a semi-respectable 8-11 record against the Cubs. They even won their last two series against Chicago, which didn’t put much of a bump in the road to the Cubs’ over-praised world championship, but it felt good to end the season on something resembling a high note. Unfortunately, the Brewers have reverted to form against their I-94 rivals, surrendering late leads to the Cubs twice last week. Did any Brewers fan watch that third game and feel good about going into the ninth inning with a one-run lead? Christ.
Then we were treated to a four-game series against the goddamned Cardinals. The Brewers won that first game and lured us into a false sense of “maybe we can get a series split here.” The Brewers then proceeded to lose the next three games, each time more irritatingly than the one before. Give up 4 RBIs to Adam Wainwright on Friday. Give up two unearned runs in a close game Saturday. Watch Jimmy Nelson inexplicably fall apart on Sunday. The Fox Sports 1 team that called Saturday’s game helpfully pointed out that the Cardinals-Brewers “rivalry” is almost the most lopsided in baseball, with the Rangers’ domination of the Astros holding a slight edge. Good thing we don’t see them again until…oh c’mon, the Brewers have another four-game series against St. Louis next week? Make it stop.
Here’s to You (Standout player(s) or play(s) of the week)
Jett Bandy: The Brewers started 2017 with two unproven catchers, but both Bandy and Manny Piña have gotten off to hot starts. Piña is still hitting over .400 and can pick suckas off second base. He also hit a late homer against the goddamn Cardinals yesterday, which is always appreciated.
That said, I’d like to recognize Bandy because he had two homers this week, both of which contributed to rare wins against the Cubs and Cardinals. More please.
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Back on the Wagon (Thoughts on the week ahead)
The Brewers open a series against Cincinnati tonight, hoping the recapture the magic of the previous week when they had a winning record. It was against the Reds that the Brewers earned the historic win that put them over .500 for the first time since 2014. They’ll have to sweep the Reds and survive the return of Matt Garza to get back above average, but you never know.
The home stand concludes with a weekend series against the Atlanta Braves, i.e., the worst corporate welfare queens in professional sports. The history of taxpayer-financed stadium boondoggles is long and ignominious (and includes Miller Park, of course), but the Braves’ new ballpark is especially sleazy. Hopefully the Brewers can strike a blow for social justice by taking two out of three from these public-fleecing clowns.
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