I'm going to try and decrease the amount of content because now is about the time in this series when the articles should be getting shorter. And for all parties involved this is a good thing. Trust me, I'm as tired of writing them as you are tired of reading them. So why continue? Because there are 25 men on the Opening Day roster (not 11) and rehab is for quitters. But it takes too much time to write these. That's time that I could be out at the bars picking up drunk chicks, dumpster diving for used textbooks, coming up with conspiracy theories about why George Lucas changed it so that Greedo shot first and sending out a police search unit to look for Sinbad's career. After all, he was so awesome in Houseguest. But talking Brewers baseball is more important that any of that shit, so I must continue.
So for now I will concentrate on new Brewers pitcher Shaun Marcum, who was acquired in a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays for minor league 2nd base prospect (and former 1st round pick) Brett Lawrie. It is no secret that the Brewers have been able to draft and develop offensive players. Take for example - Fielder, Weeks, Braun, Hart, Lucroy, Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain and the man who wins games Bill Hall. Here are the pitchers they've drafted and developed - Yovani Gallardo, Manny Parra and Mitch Stetter. Quite a difference, eh? So when your strength is offense and you need pitching, the easiest way to do that is to flip the offense for pitching in a trade. Most people (including me) thought that Prince Fielder would be the one to go, so when Lawrie was traded for Marcum straight up I knew two things instantly - the Brewers were confident that they could sign Rickie Weeks to a contract extension and they were keeping Prince Fielder in 2011. And that is exactly what happened.
In my opinion the Shaun Marcum trade was the steal of the offseason. And one that flew too far under the radar. I really didn't care for Brett Lawrie in the first place, so I gladly said goodbye to him. Marcum had pitched the last 5 years (although he did miss the 2009 season recovering from Tommy John surgery) with the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East, meaning that he was going up against offensive powerhouse teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays on a regular basis. And in the last few years he posted a spectacular ERA considering the talent he was facing: 2007 - 4.13, 2008 - 3.39 and 2010 - 3.64. If he can put up those numbers in the AL East he's going to have a field day in the NL Central. I don't normally like to sell teams short, but you can't tell me that the NL Central teams Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds compare with the previously mentioned AL East teams (including the Baltimore Orioles). The AL East is just a better division, and nothing says it better than the fact that the Toronto Blue Jays finished with a 85-77 record and finished 4th, 4TH MIND YOU, in the division. Tampa Bay (96-66) finished 1st, New York (95-67) was 2nd, Boston (89-73) was 3rd and Baltimore cried alone in the basement with a 66-96 record.
There is no reason to believe that he won't continue the trend of pitching with a sub-4 ERA this year, and it should improve because the NL Central has more teams (and more weaker teams at that) and he's facing a pitcher in the lineup instead of a DH. Granted more pitchers are starting to hit better (and the Brewers pitching staff is a good example of that) so you can't totally count them out, but you just can't compare one of the best hitting pitchers like Yovani Gallardo and his .254 batting average, 4 HRS, 10 RBIs to the best DH Vladimir Guerrero and his .300 AVG, 29 HRs and 115 RBIs. Granted that's a bit of a stretch, but even the worst DH is a better hitter than the best pitcher. So look for his numbers to improve in the National League.
When Timmy and I got our picture taken with him at the Brewers on Deck event in January, he asked us what was with the Sombreros. I refused to explain why we were wearing them and just told him that it was our thing. And then I teased and told him to look for us in the left field bleachers. I already mentioned that I wear a sombrero because I have pride in my new native land of Mexico, but other people in our gang wear it because the Sombrero is the symbol of the Revolution. And since Marcum is new to Milwaukee, he's on a need to know basis, and right now he doesn't need to know. But if all goes according to plan, there will be so many sombreros in the left field bleachers by season's end that he will not be able to ignore it. No one will be able to avoid the Revolution. Since I still don't know too much about Marcum except for what I think he will do in the NL Central, the Back Alley Burners decided to sing a song about him instead of swearing a lot and making a lot of noise in a public space.
The Shaun Marcum trade was overshadowed by the Greinke deal that went down 2 weeks later, but I would almost go so far as to say Marcum would have the better year. Greinke is the more talented pitcher, but with Marcum slotted in the #3 spot or possibly even the #4 if Roenicke decides to split up the lefties he will be facing weaker competition which will allow him to win more games. I already said Greinke would win 14 games with a 3.13 ERA, so I can't really can't say that honestly. But I can say that Marcum will put up a stat line similar to this:
15-10, 3.42 ERA, 161 strikeouts, 191 innings pitched and be the solid pitcher in the middle of the rotation that we always wished Dave Bush would be.
The best part about bringing in Greinke and Marcum is that it improves our biggest weakness from the last two years - our starting pitching. But the fallout from getting those 2 top of the rotation pitchers is that it bumps everyone else down to where they belong. You know how I feel about Gallardo as the future ace, but right now he's really just a #2, which is where he will pitch in 2011 behind Greinke. And last year the biggest mistake was having Randy Wolf pitch in the #2 spot. He's a #3 on a bad team and a #4 on a good team, which is exactly where he should be this year. Roenicke has said that he didn't want the lefties Wolf and Narveson to pitch back to back against the same team, so he might actually be the #3 starter but at the very least he's down towards the bottom of the rotation where he belongs. Some people still aren't sold on Randy Wolf and it will take a solid 2o11 from him to assure the fans that he's not the 2nd coming of Jeff Suppan. But that my friends, is a topic that will be covered tomorrow. Roll out the Barrel! We'll have a Barrel of Fun!
- pookon -
www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
So for now I will concentrate on new Brewers pitcher Shaun Marcum, who was acquired in a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays for minor league 2nd base prospect (and former 1st round pick) Brett Lawrie. It is no secret that the Brewers have been able to draft and develop offensive players. Take for example - Fielder, Weeks, Braun, Hart, Lucroy, Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain and the man who wins games Bill Hall. Here are the pitchers they've drafted and developed - Yovani Gallardo, Manny Parra and Mitch Stetter. Quite a difference, eh? So when your strength is offense and you need pitching, the easiest way to do that is to flip the offense for pitching in a trade. Most people (including me) thought that Prince Fielder would be the one to go, so when Lawrie was traded for Marcum straight up I knew two things instantly - the Brewers were confident that they could sign Rickie Weeks to a contract extension and they were keeping Prince Fielder in 2011. And that is exactly what happened.
In my opinion the Shaun Marcum trade was the steal of the offseason. And one that flew too far under the radar. I really didn't care for Brett Lawrie in the first place, so I gladly said goodbye to him. Marcum had pitched the last 5 years (although he did miss the 2009 season recovering from Tommy John surgery) with the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East, meaning that he was going up against offensive powerhouse teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays on a regular basis. And in the last few years he posted a spectacular ERA considering the talent he was facing: 2007 - 4.13, 2008 - 3.39 and 2010 - 3.64. If he can put up those numbers in the AL East he's going to have a field day in the NL Central. I don't normally like to sell teams short, but you can't tell me that the NL Central teams Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds compare with the previously mentioned AL East teams (including the Baltimore Orioles). The AL East is just a better division, and nothing says it better than the fact that the Toronto Blue Jays finished with a 85-77 record and finished 4th, 4TH MIND YOU, in the division. Tampa Bay (96-66) finished 1st, New York (95-67) was 2nd, Boston (89-73) was 3rd and Baltimore cried alone in the basement with a 66-96 record.
There is no reason to believe that he won't continue the trend of pitching with a sub-4 ERA this year, and it should improve because the NL Central has more teams (and more weaker teams at that) and he's facing a pitcher in the lineup instead of a DH. Granted more pitchers are starting to hit better (and the Brewers pitching staff is a good example of that) so you can't totally count them out, but you just can't compare one of the best hitting pitchers like Yovani Gallardo and his .254 batting average, 4 HRS, 10 RBIs to the best DH Vladimir Guerrero and his .300 AVG, 29 HRs and 115 RBIs. Granted that's a bit of a stretch, but even the worst DH is a better hitter than the best pitcher. So look for his numbers to improve in the National League.
When Timmy and I got our picture taken with him at the Brewers on Deck event in January, he asked us what was with the Sombreros. I refused to explain why we were wearing them and just told him that it was our thing. And then I teased and told him to look for us in the left field bleachers. I already mentioned that I wear a sombrero because I have pride in my new native land of Mexico, but other people in our gang wear it because the Sombrero is the symbol of the Revolution. And since Marcum is new to Milwaukee, he's on a need to know basis, and right now he doesn't need to know. But if all goes according to plan, there will be so many sombreros in the left field bleachers by season's end that he will not be able to ignore it. No one will be able to avoid the Revolution. Since I still don't know too much about Marcum except for what I think he will do in the NL Central, the Back Alley Burners decided to sing a song about him instead of swearing a lot and making a lot of noise in a public space.The Shaun Marcum trade was overshadowed by the Greinke deal that went down 2 weeks later, but I would almost go so far as to say Marcum would have the better year. Greinke is the more talented pitcher, but with Marcum slotted in the #3 spot or possibly even the #4 if Roenicke decides to split up the lefties he will be facing weaker competition which will allow him to win more games. I already said Greinke would win 14 games with a 3.13 ERA, so I can't really can't say that honestly. But I can say that Marcum will put up a stat line similar to this:
15-10, 3.42 ERA, 161 strikeouts, 191 innings pitched and be the solid pitcher in the middle of the rotation that we always wished Dave Bush would be.
The best part about bringing in Greinke and Marcum is that it improves our biggest weakness from the last two years - our starting pitching. But the fallout from getting those 2 top of the rotation pitchers is that it bumps everyone else down to where they belong. You know how I feel about Gallardo as the future ace, but right now he's really just a #2, which is where he will pitch in 2011 behind Greinke. And last year the biggest mistake was having Randy Wolf pitch in the #2 spot. He's a #3 on a bad team and a #4 on a good team, which is exactly where he should be this year. Roenicke has said that he didn't want the lefties Wolf and Narveson to pitch back to back against the same team, so he might actually be the #3 starter but at the very least he's down towards the bottom of the rotation where he belongs. Some people still aren't sold on Randy Wolf and it will take a solid 2o11 from him to assure the fans that he's not the 2nd coming of Jeff Suppan. But that my friends, is a topic that will be covered tomorrow. Roll out the Barrel! We'll have a Barrel of Fun!
- pookon -
www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
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