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)
Some Folks Appreciate the Selig Experience Opening: The Brewers’ latest tribute to its former owner, the Selig Experience, opened its doors to the public on Friday. When the Experience was announced in December it sounded like it wasn’t for me, but there’s no accounting for taste and I can appreciate that the Experience opening was a happy occasion for plenty of people. There was an impressive list of VIPs that turned out for the non-public unveiling of the Experience, including Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, a couple of Jackie Robinson’s family members, Barry Alvarez, Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy, and baseball Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson. Some members of the media were impressed by the Experience as well. The Milwaukee Business Journal’s Rich Kirchen wrote in his report that the Experience “is guaranteed to strike an emotional chord or two for anyone who is a Milwaukee Brewers fan and a Milwaukeean.” Even if it is a flawed (and I would argue it is), if the Experience makes some people happy, it has some merit.
Buzzkill (Worst event/news of the week)
No Brewers All-Stars: After playing .500 ball for most of May, the Brewers are back to being unbearably awful. It’s not surprising that no Brewers were among the leaders when the first round of All-Star voting results was announced on Wednesday. Still, when you look at the ballot counts and see no Brewers anywhere, it’s a damn shame.
The first NL #ASG Balloting Update is in: pic.twitter.com/YlOO3VFCb9
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) May 27, 2015
Have One on the House (Brewers player who deserves a drink)
Khris Davis/Ryan Braun: Since the Brewers are so very bad, the best fans can hope for in the middle of a long losing streak is a great at-bat here or an exciting defensive play there. On Memorial Day, Davis and Braun gave us a nice break from our regularly scheduled torment with some fun homerun antics. First, Davis nearly had a homer taken away when he foolishly skipped over home plate and was called out when the Giants appealed. It was exactly the kind of careless nonsense that has dogged the Brewers all season and produced the worst record in MLB. Luckily, the call was reversed after review (although I must admit I think he really did miss the plate).
In Davis’ second at-bat, I assume every single fan in the stadium was thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if he hit another homerun and stomped in the center of home plate?” And that’s exactly what happened. Beautiful.
[mlbvideo id=”130769483″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Later in the game, Braun came to bat and launched the longest homerun by a right-handed hitter in Miller Park history. Who doesn’t love to watch numerous replays of bigass homeruns?
[mlbvideo id=”131200983″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Just like that, the Brewers had a lead for a few innings. Those innings were great.
Time to Sober Up, Pal (Brewers player who made me want to drink)
Brewers Catchers: Although Maldonado had one of his best games this afternoon with four hits and the walk-off hit (he also deserves credit for catching all 17 innings), he’s still only hitting .182. Centeno is 1-for-21 on the season, and he just looks lost every time he comes to bat. Before Maldonado’s heroics today, he and Centeno were 1-for-16 on the week. Maldonado’s defense is his main strength – he’s above the league average in terms of catching runners stealing – but he’s still prone to some maddening lapses. On Saturday, he dropped a throw at the plate that beat the runner, which is the second time he’s done that this year.
Over the last month I’ve suspected that Maldonado and Centeno let more wild pitches get by them than usual. Sure enough, at the start of play today the Brewers were tied for the league lead in wild pitches. While a number of those happened with Lucroy behind the plate, it shows there’s a weakness at the catching position that wasn’t there last year when the Brewers were tied for second fewest wild pitches in the league. Jonathan Lucroy’s injury has really illuminated why Maldonado and Centeno are backups.
Back on the Wagon (Thoughts on the week ahead)
As the month of June begins, most Brewers fans are probably more interested in trade rumors than getting emotionally invested in upcoming series. Individual games might end up being fun and dramatic in their own right, but there’s nothing at stake on the upcoming road trip to St. Louis and Minnesota. Probably the most interesting thing on the horizon is Will Smith’s appeal of his eight-game suspension. The way things are going for this team, MLB will probably extend Smith’s suspension for the rest of the season.
(Image: MLB.com)
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