Results tagged ‘ Milwaukee Brewers ’
Series 3 Preview: Milwaukee at Cubs
Marco Estrada will take the ball Monday for the Brewers. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)
Year after year, there’s little question the Brewers can slug—in their first season without Prince Fielder, Milwaukee ranked third with 4.8 runs per game. But the departures of Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum have left some questions in the starting rotation, forcing GM Doug Melvin to cobble together pitching depth right until the end of Spring Training.
Just days before Opening Day, Melvin dipped into the organization’s spending money to sign veteran right-hander Kyle Lohse to a three-year deal (and thus forfeiting the team’s first-round pick in the upcoming draft). Coming off a great start against the Diamondbacks, Lohse is slated to take the mound Wednesday at Wrigley Field. He’s coming off an age-33 season in which he set career bests with a 2.86 ERA, 211 innings, a .234 batting average against, and a 4.4 percent walk rate. His 16.6 percent strikeout rate was also the second best of his career. It’s an open question of which categories Lohse will maintain or regress as he gets another year into his 30s.
The Cubs will also see right-handers Marco Estrada and Wily Peralta. A 2010 waiver claim from the Nationals, Estrada had exceptional command of all three of his pitches last year: fastball, curve and change. It’s not often you see a pitcher with a 90-mph heater striking out a quarter of the hitters he faced—and walking just five percent of all hitters. Meanwhile, Peralta is regarded as one of the Brewers’ top prospects and made the roster after an impressive September call-up. The 23-year-old Dominican pitches with gas, sitting in the mid-90s and able to touch above that. His slider also is a sharp, hard breaker that will get plenty of K’s. But his command and pitching feel are still works in progress that the Cubs will do well to plan against on Tuesday.
With Aramis Ramirez and Corey Hart both on the DL at least for the next few weeks, the offense will be headed by the homegrown core of 2011 NL MVP Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks and Jonathan Lucroy. Leadoff hitter Norichika Aoki overcame the doubters in his transition from Japan last year. He’s an all-around threat who will take a walk, steal bases efficiently, find the gaps and even take the ball out of the park from time to time. Lucroy is coming off a tremendous year (.320 AVG/.368 OBP/.513 SLG) from behind the dish, while Weeks hopes to bounce back from a career-worst season (.230/.328/.400). Either way, the Brewers should put up crooked numbers as ever in the NL Central.
[PROBABLE PITCHERS]
Monday, April 8—RHP Marco Estrada vs. RHP Edwin Jackson
Tuesday, April 9—RHP Wily Peralta vs. LHP Travis Wood
Wednesday, April 10—RHP Kyle Lohse vs. RHP Scott Feldman
—Sean Ahmed
Cubs set for injury-plagued Brewers
Former Cardinal pitcher Kyle Lohse joined Milwaukee in the offseason. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)
The following is from Vine Line‘s April Gameday Edition. Fans can purchase the full version of the official program and scorecard of the Chicago Cubs at various kiosks around Wrigley Field.
For years, it seemed like the Cubs and Brewers were constantly sparring for NL Central supremacy. But those days are over for the time being, with the Cubs trying to rebound from a 101-loss season and the Brewers perhaps dealing with a rebuilding year after a third-place finish in 2012. The offense, which carried the team last year, should still be solid, but the pitching staff is a big question mark—though the late-spring signing of former Cardinal Kyle Lohse should help.
The Brew Crew were already planning on breaking in a few youngsters in their rotation, signaling they probably wouldn’t be running with the Reds and Cardinals atop the division. But between losing slugger Corey Hart for the first two months of the season and having to do without Mat Gamel for the entire season, they’re dangerously short on depth in the lineup and counting on a pitching staff in transition.
3.7 Runs Scored/Game — 8th in NL
The heart of Milwaukee’s Opening Day lineup looked tough, as would any that had sluggers Ryan Braun and Aramis Ramirez batting third and fourth. But it appears the Cubs might catch a bit of a break. The Brewers likely won’t get a 100 percent version of Braun as neck stiffness has kept the 2011 NL MVP out of action since April 3 and the North Siders will entirely duck Ramirez, who was recently placed on the DL with a knee sprain.
The injuries and lack of a strong bench will certainly take the Brewers’ 2012 league-leading offense down a peg in the early going, but skipper Ron Roenicke is one of the most active offensive tacticians around. He loves to get runners moving, bunt and slip in the occasional late-inning squeeze play to pressure opposing defenses. With young shortstop Jean Segura settling in, Roenicke might have a quartet of 30-steal players. In the absence of Hart’s power bat, it will be interesting to see if Milwaukee green-lights the running game even more aggressively. One key will be whether center fielder Carlos Gomez and catcher Jonathan Lucroy retain last year’s power gains as they hit their prime, age-27 seasons. If they don’t, things will likely get a whole lot worse for this lineup in 2013.
6.5 Runs Allowed/Game — 13th in NL
Yovani Gallardo is a familiar face at the front end of the rotation, and Lohse (who is slated to pitch against the Cubs Wednesday) should be solid after a few career years in St. Louis. But after that, there’s a whole lot of wish-casting. Can Chris Narveson come back from a torn rotator cuff? Will top prospects Wily Peralta and Mark Rogers break through? Has the NL caught up to Mike Fiers, who did well his first time around the league last year before fading late? With that many question marks, a career utility pitcher like Marco Estrada is sure to come in handy.
The bullpen has experienced some turnover as well. The Brew Crew brought in veteran lefties Mike Gonzalez and Tom Gorzelanny to set up John Axford. The hirsute closer will have to prove he’s back from a season in which he almost lost his job due to a rash of titanic home runs. But when Axford is on, his swing-and-miss stuff rates among the league’s best. The Brewers need him to be that pitcher again if they hope to contend.
—Christina Kahrl
Front office road trip
Though our team might be out of the playoff hunt that didn’t exclude the Cubs front office from enjoying a road trip up the interstate to Miller Park, the home of the division-rival Milwaukee Brewers.
About 60 front office employees and their guests made the two-and-a-half hour trip up to Milwaukee. For the last three years or so, we’ve made a trip of some sort like this. Last year it was to Peoria, to see our Class-A Chiefs and then-skipper Ryne Sandberg.
Decked out in our best Cubs blue or some facsimile thereof, we cheered on our team to a 7-1 win. The enthusiasm was overwhelming….The staff bonding was palpable….We saw a great night of hitting from first baseman Derrek Lee and a solid outing from
right-hander Randy Wells. Also, rookie outfielder Tyler Colvin made a spectacular catch in the ninth inning, robbing the Brewers of a home run. Colvin then caught another running line drive to center to end the game. An auspicious start for the 2006 first-round pick, indeed.
But the main attraction was Miller Park’s famous Klement’s Sausage Race. The contest traditionally pits five cased meats against one another in a foot race that can only be described as whole-hog chaos.
Unbeknownst to us, however, our own Hayley DeWitte and Vijay Tekchandani were participating in the race! They successfully kept it quiet until it started filtering out into the stands where we were sitting. For those of you who don’t
know, Vijay serves as a community affairs assistant and Hayley is general manager Jim Hendry’s executive assistant. Hayley donned the “Hot Dog” costume, while Vijay became the “Polish”.
And they were off!
Out of the gate, Vijay the Polish had good position in the middle of the pack, but the Italian Sausage blew right by him, along with the Brat. Hayley the Hot Dog pulled up the rear of the pack. Down the home stretch, Vijay maintained his lead on the Chorizo, but the Italian and Brat were just too many lengths ahead to catch.
Alas, try as their little legs might, Vijay the Polish came in third and Hayley the Hot Dog came in a distant fifth.
Alas, try as their little legs might, Vijay the Polish came in third and Hayley the Hot Dog came in a distant fifth.
Despite coming up short of victory, the experience was “wurst” remembering.
“It was awesome,” Vijay said. “I was on Cloud 9. I actually false started before they said go, so I took a step back right from the start. But I was really concentrating on not falling, to be honest.”
–MIke Huang
