The Brewers Bar Weekly Hangover 5/10/15

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! (Best event/news of the week)

Craig Counsell Gets His Opportunity: I’m still suspicious of the idea that panic-firing a manager one month into the season is the right move.  Still, it’s a pleasure to see Counsell take the next step of his post-playing career.  As you may be aware, he’s a “hometown hero” of sorts who grew up following the Brewers, his dad worked in the team’s front office, and Counsell played a number of non-championship seasons in Milwaukee.  By all accounts he’s a humble, stand-up guy with good baseball instincts.  As many commentators have pointed out, Counsell wasn’t a star player by any means, but he made himself useful enough to put together a 16-year big league career.  You’d hope a tenacious guy like that could inspire a struggling ball club.  As the man who holds a share of the record for most at bats without a hit, Counsell has first-hand experience dealing with baseball adversity.

Counsell’s first game as manager was a real treat.  Since managers get the blame when teams perform poorly, let’s give Counsell credit for the way he led his team to a comeback victory over Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.  Would Hector Gomez have hit his first career homer and ignited the winning rally without Counsell there to motivate him?

We’ll never know for sure…for the answer is probably no.  I’m also pretty sure Ryan Braun wouldn’t have been able to leg out that infield hit if it was Ron Roenicke in the dugout sulking in his general direction.  Counsell’s a baseball genius.

Buzzkill (Worst event/news of the week)

Welcome to Miller Park, Here’s Your Homer: It’s been hard not to notice Kyle Lohse can’t keep it the park these days, but I didn’t realize how extensive the homer problem was until Matt Lepay and Bill Schroeder started talking about it this week.  The Brewers are indeed worst in the league in homeruns surrendered, with 48 – including 15 in the last week alone.  The National League average as of start of play today was 28.  Lohse is the worst offender with 10, but Mike Fiers and Wily Peralta have six apiece, and Garza gave up his seventh this afternoon.  Jimmy Nelson had been doing pretty well before giving up three against the Cubs on Friday.  The only Brewers pitchers who haven’t given up a long ball are Michael Blazek and Will Smith.

I remember reading somewhere that Rick Kranitz gives his starters some kind of recognition if the opposing pitcher doesn’t bat until the third inning.  Maybe he needs to come up with an incentive for not giving up homers…or for only giving up one per start.  Baby steps.

Have One on the House (Brewers player who deserves a drink)

Wily Peralta: He hasn’t been outstanding, but Peralta had pitched well enough to win at least one of his first five starts.  Instead, the Brewers managed to lose of them, never scoring more than two runs while Peralta was on the mound.  His loss in Chicago after giving up only a solo home run in six innings was pretty galling.  For him to come back in his next start and go eight innings was a great turnaround.  And his offense actually put up some runs for a change!  It was a much deserved first victory of the season, and you have to respect Peralta for hanging in there.

Time to Sober Up, Pal (Brewers player who made me want to drink)

Brandon Kintzler: Given his big league experience, it was a bit of a surprise that Kintzler didn’t make the team out of spring training, but you’d figure he’d turn up sooner or later.  After Rob Wooten had a bad outing on Thursday and the team was in need of a fresh arm, Kintzler was happy to find himself back in Milwaukee.  Kintzler wasn’t blowing anyone away in Colorado Springs (6.35 ERA in 5.2 innings) but he hadn’t given up any homeruns.  For a team that leads the league in homers surrendered, that’s an encouraging stat.

Naturally, Kintzler gave up a homer to the first batter he faced on Friday.  Bloody hell.

Back on the Wagon (Thoughts on the week ahead)

Having attended Friday’s game, I can report without fear of contradiction that Cubs fans are officially back to being their old obnoxious selves – five seasons of finishing last in the NL Central has apparently done nothing to humble them.  But unlike many Milwaukeeans, I’m not going to judge all people from Chicago by the Cubs standard.  With the White Sox coming to Miller Park for the first time since 2009, I’m willing to bet we see a better class of Chicago fan (at least we’ll have antipathy towards Cubs fans in common).  Starting play today, the White Sox only had one more victory than the Brewers, so maybe they won’t make the home team look too bad.

After a day off, the Brewers begin on a long road trip that will take them from New York to Detroit to Atlanta.  The Brewers have been remarkably successful against the Mets at Citi Field, going 13-6 since the ballpark opened in 2009.  Of course, now the Mets are in first place and the Brewers are the worst team in MLB…but at least Milwaukee fans have some reason to believe a series win is possible.

(Image: JSOnline/Mark Hoffman)