Things to read after shooting your wad….
The Milwaukee Brewers have traded for a left-handed-hitting platoon first baseman to replace their previous left-handed-hitting platoon first baseman. Aging but professional third baseman Aramis Ramirez and enigmatic but soulful starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo will be Brewers to start the 2015 campaign. Athletic but confounding second baseman Rickie Weeks is a goner (thanks for the good times, not so much for the errors, Rickie, and good luck in future endeavors).
Reverberant Ron Roenicke is back and some new coaches have come in….the Brewers also have a new scouting director. Those are the big notes from the last month since the MLB regular season ended and, well, it’s not sexy but fundamentally sound for now, I suppose. But it all feels like a Band-Aid on a shotgun blast to the gut. It’s a good start, but it doesn’t feel like enough. I want the Brewers to really go overboard and crazy this offseason. Not necessarily trading away prospects to get better, because that would be counterproductive for the likely rebuilding-phase future of this franchise. But they should think seriously about trying to go big(ger) in free agency. Use the credit card, Mark.
The problem is that the Brewers still have a long way to go to consider themselves on equal footing with the titans of the National League. The main elements of the narrative you’re likely to hear over the next 100 days are that the Brewers have little to spend, too rigid a roster to improve drastically, too few prospects to make an impact trade. Those all may be well and accurate, but that doesn’t mean we should be happy with the Brewers’ possible inactivity in the coming months. In contrast, I say we should be indignant and rather hard to please.
I want to be entertained over the winter, at the very least by bureaucratic transactions and minor league moves. But I would really like to be excited, inspired. I would like to feel as I did when I learned the Brewers acquired Zack Greinke before the 2011 season. JAZZED UP.
So we’ll see how that goes, but for now it seems like the word on the wind is that Brewers fans should invest their time in spending quality hours with friends and family, catching up on TV shows and movies perhaps shoved off to the side in previous months, playing video games and living life aside from tracking the Milwaukee ball club overzealously.
I’m actually glad they took care of some business early this offseason. If they hadn’t acquired Adam Lind, I’d probably be compelled to check the Internet every few hours to make sure nothing had happened, even well in advance of baseball’s Winter Meetings.
Hey, you never know with the offseason. Sometimes it’s a party early, sometimes on cue at the Winter Meetings and sometimes later on, after hours if you will. Sometimes you get lost and never have any fun at all. That’s the gamble. But hopefully beneath the mustache Doug Melvin is really keen on doing something that could be truly impactful and elevate this club to real contender status. Otherwise I think everything will have to go right for success beyond September’s end in 2015, and as Milwaukee’s Murphy’s Law applies to the Brewers, they are gonna be so screwed if they expect the baseball gods to help out.
Basically my meandering point is that I’m willing to hear nothing on the Brewers as long as Doug Melvin and Mark Attanasio are clandestinely making plans, talking behind closed doors, plotting their suds-filled takeover. Anything less than that will disappoint me.
Of course, breaks are allowed for holidays, but seriously, Brewers. We need a truly majestic, formidable and overarching strategy this time.
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On a side note: if you’re reading this, think seriously about contributing to Kyle Lobner’s Kickstarter campaign for the Brewers Frosty Mug. I plan to contribute to keep the Mug going. Kyle’s been very generous in providing linkage to The Brewers Bar over the years, getting more eyes and ears tuned into this blog and other Brewers blogs around the web.
Ten grand is a lot of clams to rake up, but I can’t imagine a Brewers blogosphere without Kyle’s contributions toward collecting Brewers notes from around the nation and the globe and spinning them into a lovely yarn every morning. If everyone pitches in a little bit, we’ll probably secure a future in which the Mug keeps pouring its lovely pilsners for us every morning. I salute Kyle for writing the Mug consistently for so many years. Web-writing doesn’t always pay well, and it’s understandable that Kyle needs a helping hand to keep the ball rolling. We’d all be dumber and less informed if Kyle has to shut the Mug down. So get over there and throw a few bucks in the jar.
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Let’s drink some beers this evening. Like maybe more than we should and then we’ll take a cab home.
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