The Brewers Bar Weekly Hangover 6/14/15

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)

Brewers No Longer Worst Team in MLB: Given how the season has unfolded so far, it wouldn’t be surprising if Brewers fans internalized the belief that our home team is the MLB laughingstock of 2015.  I’ve certainly felt that way, and as a result I promise never to make fun of Cubs fans again (I’m bad at promises, though).  I’ve adapted by trying to enjoy the humiliation other teams must feel when they lose to the lowly Brewers.  When the goddamn Cardinals lost 1-0 to Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago, that was pretty slick.

But lo and behold, the Brewers have been playing above .500 for a little over a week, during which time they have not lost a series.  Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Phillies lost six in a row this week, and now have a record even worse than the Brewers.  It’s nice to know that there’s a fan base somewhere saying, “Wait, so now the Brewers have a better record than we do?  Damn it.”  Who knows where we’ll be in another week, but at this moment we’re not the equivalent of the last kid picked for sports at recess.

Buzzkill (Worst event/news of the week)

Turn That Racket Down: This is the first year of the Brewers Postgame Concert Series, and one assumes there’s a good chance it will return next season.  I had the opportunity to see O.A.R. after Saturday’s game, and although I’m not a fan of the band I do enjoy live music and was interested in how the show would come off.  I’m aware that other MLB teams have put on postgame concerts, so I figured it would be a quick set-up and a thoroughly professional affair.  Immediately after the game, the stage was wheeled out and put together behind second base in short order, with half a dozen massive speakers spread out on either side.  A couple hundred or so fans were let out on to the field, giving the band an audience to play to (they had wristbands, although I’m not clear those were acquired).  O.A.R. played for about an hour, they were well received, and it strikes me that concerts after a 3:10 game are the best from a scheduling standpoint.

There was one major downside from my perspective – it was too damn loud.  Maybe it’s a sign I’m becoming an old codger, but the volume was just brutal.  I thought a baseball stadium would be a large enough venue to swallow up some of the noise, but I thought wrong.  As someone who has seen his fair share of bands over the years, I think I have some idea of how loud the sound system needs to for an ideal concert experience.  In my mind, the O.A.R. concert was far too loud and the folks in charge of that sort of thing could really bring it down a few notches without ruining anyone’s day.

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

Taylor Jungmann: Another week, another prospect named T(a)yler pitching effectively in their major league debut.  (Not surprisingly, both Tyler and Taylor were among the top ten most popular baby names in the 1990s, although Taylor was for girls.)  Tylor Wagner didn’t have a great outing against the Diamondbacks, but he kept his team in the game, which ended up being the best Brewers win of the year.  Grading on a curve, for a Double-A pitcher making his major league debut Wagner did fine.  A couple of days later, Tyler Cravy held the Cardinals to one run and four hits in seven innings.  On Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Jungmann gave up one run and three hits in seven innings and got the win.  In addition, his first career strikeout came against Brewers-killer Andrew McCutchen.

At this rate, the next rookie named T(a)yler who pitches for the Brewers will go eight innings, give up one run, strike out the side in the first inning, and have an RBI double.  Today against the Nationals, Jungmann battled through five innings and technically gave his team a chance to win even though they were up against a nearly untouchable Max Scherzer.  Great hustle from Jungmann so far.

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

Jeremy Jeffress: Since the Brewers haven’t had that bad of a week, there isn’t really one player that stands out as not pulling his weight.  But I’ve got a format to stick with here, and Jeffress had a disappointing seventh inning against the Nationals this afternoon.  With two outs and nobody on, he gave up a bloop hit, an infield single, and then a two-run double.  That was a bummer.  Bad Jeffress!

Back on the Wagon (Thoughts on the week ahead)

Next week is the quirky interleague portion of the schedule where everyone plays two-game, back-to-back home-and-home series (Holy over-hyphen use, Batman!).  The Brewers take on the defending AL champion Kansas City Royals, whose fans are annoying some parts of the baseball world (including David Price) by stuffing the All-Star Game ballot box.  The last time the Brewers were in Kansas City in 2012, the home team won all three games in their final at-bat.  Since the Brewers aren’t playing their worst at the moment, they might be able to win a couple of these games against the first place Royals.

The last time the Brewers were in Denver, they swept the Rockies.  That was a different world, when the Brewers were the hottest team in MLB and some of us were fantasizing about attending World Series games at Miller Park.  In this world, the Rockies are also in last place in their division, so they might be beatable.  If the Brewers can continue this stretch of playing .500 baseball, they’ll be tolerable to watch.  All things considered, “tolerable to watch” is a fine position for the Brewers to be in.

(Image: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)