I'm surprised that I didn't get a chance to play 1st base for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2013. I showed up to the games and I wore a jersey. Yeah I was wearing shorts or track pants, but I'm sure that they still have some of Ray King's pants tucked away somewhere in the clubhouse. Maybe it was because I didn't bring my own glove to the game. Or the fact that I'm not an athlete. I couldn't have been much worse than Fat Juan Francisco though, right? He was a murderer at defense. LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR!! LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOOOOOOOOORR!! (Is that what that song is about? A mass murderer on a killing spree?) They let everyone who even had a dream about playing 1st base get a chance there. Too bad Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. isn't still alive. What? Too soon?
GM Doug Melvin vowed to not make the same mistake again and went out and got two 1st basemen in the offseason - Lyle Overbay and Mark Reynolds. Overbay has seen the most time at 1st in a 10-year career (Brewers fans remember the Big Ooooooooooooo from 2004 and 2005) and has logged 11,309 innings over 1,352 games at the position. Mark Reynolds has been primarily a 3rd baseman over his career but has seen 2,061 innings over 251 games at 1st base. That's certainly a whole lot better than the 532 innings over 67 games that Juan Francisco has seen at 1st. 3 of them went into Spring Training and one 2 of them could make the team. Which two was it? You'll just have to stick around to know who or I can just ****Spoiler Alert**** tell you right now - it was Overbay and Reynolds. Bye bye Fat Juan.
Check out my 3rd video, which covers the First Base for the 2014 Milwaukee Brewers, recorded at Oakland Municipal Stadium in Phoenix, AZ at the Spring Training Game between the Colorado Rockies and Oakland Athletics:
I recorded this video on my 2nd day down in Arizona. I woke up this morning and went on an adventure to find a liquor store. I was planning on going to an afternoon game but decided to spend time with my cousin Tyler instead. The best part about Spring Training is that there are plenty of games going on all around town and there are even some at night. I grabbed a bottle of Sailor Jerry and drove to nearby Phoenix Municipal Stadium to see the Colorado Rockies play the Oakland Athletics. I was flying solo tonight but then again, I'm never alone when I have my sombrero. Some random asked me if that was the official hat of the evening. I told her it was the official hat of life. #Sombrero. They didn't have leftfield bleachers or grass at Phoenix Muni, but I went all the way down the line in left to feel a little closer to home.
We now know that Juan Francisco was placed on waivers and will no longer be a part of the Milwaukee Brewers. We now know that Brewers fans are happy to see him go and that there will be less bratwursts consumed at Miller Park this summer now that Fat Juan is out of town. But what else do we know? Do we know that the 2014 Milwaukee Brewers 1st basemen will no longer be statistically the worst in all of baseball? Even though Overbay/Reynolds won't be great, there's no way they can be as bad as last year. Here's what I see them doing in 2014:
We now know that Juan Francisco was placed on waivers and will no longer be a part of the Milwaukee Brewers. We now know that Brewers fans are happy to see him go and that there will be less bratwursts consumed at Miller Park this summer now that Fat Juan is out of town. But what else do we know? Do we know that the 2014 Milwaukee Brewers 1st basemen will no longer be statistically the worst in all of baseball? Even though Overbay/Reynolds won't be great, there's no way they can be as bad as last year. Here's what I see them doing in 2014:
Lyle Overbay #24 - .242 batting avg, 9 HRs, 38 RBIs, 20 doubles, a great veteran presence in the clubhouse, stellar defense at 1st base and sure to elicit a lot of "Oooooh" faces from every man and woman at Miller Park this season.
Mark Reynolds #7 - .221 batting avg, 21 HRs, 54 RBIs, 145 strikeouts, able to decently play 1st and 3rd base and be the first baseball player to strikeout 9 times in a regulation game (9 innings).
According to my predictions, the Milwaukee Brewers 1st baseman will bat .231 with 30 HRs and 92 RBIs. With the exception of the batting average, that's pretty damn good. You're still struggling to replace Prince Fielder's numbers but that's OK because you will never replace a former 1st round draft pick and a potential Hall of Famer. But you do need some power numbers out of the position and good defense to save your infield some errors. Overbay brings the defense (and a left-handed bat) and Reynolds brings the power (with his right-handed bat). 1st base may still have some question marks in 2014, but at least the Front Office made the right decisions in going with the veteran players. Overbay is 37 and Reynolds is 30 and they've both been around the block a little bit. This team was sorely missing a veteran position player last year so here's hoping that Overbay or Reynolds could be this year's Mark Kotsay, Jason Kendall or Jerry Hairston Jr. Even if they don't put up those kind of numbers I'm almost certain they will bring to the 2014 Milwaukee Brewers some of those intangibles that don't show up in the stat line. That's what every winning team always has. Hopefully this means that we are a winning team.
- pookon -
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