Milwaukee Brewers 2011 Season - Final Report - The Offense

I haven't written a lot on here about the 2011 Milwaukee Brewers. That's because I haven't written a whole lot about anything on this blog this year because of family matters, and I'm not talking about Carl Winslow and Steve Urkel. Although at times I have been known to indulge in a late night marathon of the show on Nick at Night. Did I do that? But the lack of Brewers talk had nothing to do with the lack of things to talk about during the 2011 season. From  the moves made during the offseason (which were covered in the "25 Brewers in 25 Days" entries), the non move of impending free agent Prince Fielder, to rookie manager Ron Roenicke, to the slow start, the midseason trades for Francisco "KRod" Rodriguez and Jerry Hairston, to the white-hot month of August, to winning the NL Central, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS, losing to the eventual World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, Ryan Braun winning MVP and his subsequent failed drug tests to the recent offseason free agent signings and trades. That pretty much brings us up to date from the last post I did on April 10. 

There's a lot that went on this season and I know I only provided the headlines. I would have liked to go into more detail but by now you already know those stories. It took me until September 23 to honestly enjoy a game and to feel truly happy without feeling guilty about it. Loss and grief really change your perspective on things and change your way of thinking and feeling. In hindsight I wish I would have enjoyed the season a little more but it was impossible for me to do so at the time. So I figure I really can't regret that then. But now I have the entire offseason to think it over and rewatch some of the games that I missed during the year. 

Prior to the season I wrote a series of blog entries titled "25 Brewers in 25 Days" in the weeks during Spring Training leading up to the 2011 season opener. That's when I made some overall team predictions as well as individual predictions for all of the players who I thought would make the 2011 Opening Day Roster. If you don't believe some of the things that I forecasted or to read the original articles, check out the "From the Archives" links to the right under March 2011. In this segment I will focus on the overall predictions as well as the offensive players. I will be covering the pitching in a later post.

Preseason Overall Predictions: The Brewers will finish with a 91-71 record and win the NL Central Division

• The Reds will finish 2nd, the Cardinals 3rd, Cubs 4th, Astros 5th and Pirates 6th
• The Brewers will set an all-time attendance record
• The Brewers will not lose more than 5 games in a row
• Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks and Yovani Gallardo will make the NL All-Star Team (I originally picked Zack Greinke on 3/4/11 then changed it on 3/31/11 because Greinke will miss the first month of the season. Oh yeah, and Gallardo is a better pitcher. Yeah I said it, and I believe it.)
• By the end of the season, Sombreros will have taken over the left field bleachers and our numbers will be so big, the Brewers will be forced to recognize us with an official fan club like the Bucket Head Brigade

Season Overall Actual: The Brewers finished with a 96-66 record and won the NL Central Division. With 96 wins they set a franchise record by one-uping the 1982 team which finished at 95-67. Of course we all know what the 1982 team did (they lost in 7 games in the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals) but the 2011 team once again saw their postseason end at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals, this time in the National League Championship Series. 

• The St. Louis Cardinals finished 2nd (90-72), Cincinnati Reds 3rd (79-83), Pittsburgh Pirates 4th (72-90), Chicago Cubs 5th (71-91) and Houston Astros 6th (56-106).
• The Brewers had a 7 game losing streak from April 30th - May 6th (my 30th Birthday) which were all on the road - a big problem for the Brewers during the early part of the season.
• Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder made the NL All-Star team. Gallardo didn't make it most likely because his 10-5 record with a 3.76 ERA was rather pedestrian when compared with other elite pitchers in the National League
• The Sombrero got some TV time but not nearly enough to dedicate an "official" section to it. It might have worked if I stuck to my original plan - to order a few cases of sombreros from the Dollar Store and hand 10 out at each game we went to. That way there would have been more than 2 of them in the left field bleachers and we wouldn't have been hard to miss.

And now I will focus on the offensive players for the Milwaukee Brewers. My preseason prediction as made during the "25 Brewers in 25 Days" will be presented in red and their actual end of the season stats will be listed in green. The roster changes a lot from Opening Day to the end of the season, so there were some players in my articles who didn't make it to the end of the year and some players (like Jerry Hairston) who were added to the team midseason but deserve a mention in here. So here we go. This is one of my favorite things to do because I get to see on paper how well I know this team. Obviously you can't predict injuries (Rickie Weeks) or off years (Casey McGehee) that cause aberrations in my predictions, but that's part of the fun in all of this. My predictions don't take those into account because I don't want to think about those things marring what would otherwise be a very good season.

Prince Fielder
Preseason Prediction: .276 batting AVG, .404 OBP, 37 HRs, 105 RBIs, 103 runs scored and once again be able to have fun and do goofy home run celebrations like the "bowling pin explosion" in 2009 now that Ron Roenicke is going to let the players be themselves.
Season Actual: .299 batting AVG, .415 OBP, 38 HRs, 120 RBIs, 95 runs scored, 162 games played and the creator of "Beast Mode" which was the Brewers late season rally cry.
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Prince Fielder had a MVP caliber year and was the 2nd half of the best 1-2 punch in the Major Leagues. After many people thought he would get traded in the offseason to acquire some much needed pitching, he went on to put together one of the best seasons in his career. He ended up starting the All-Star Game and his 2-run homerun earned him the MVP of that game. They're were plenty of big prince moments throughout the year and I for one will miss his moonshot tape measure homeruns. We've never had a player quite like Prince before, and it will be tough to see him in a new uniform. But this is where the business aspect of sports really comes into play. For a mid/small market team like the Brewers who will top out at a $90 million payroll, they just can't afford to pay one player $22-25 million and still field a competitive team around him. We've already seen many times that offense and home runs don't mean shit unless you have quality pitching. I'd much rather have the pitching so buh bye Big Prince. But that doesn't mean that I won't miss him or the 6 years of exciting baseball that he brought to Milwaukee. It's just the way that it is and the sooner we accept it the sooner we can move on and talk about the 2012 team.

Rickie Weeks
Preseason Prediction: .275 AVG, .358 OBP, 27 HRs, 93 RBIs, 111 runs scored, millions of new fans (we're gonna need a bigger bandwagon) and no fan deaths despite the fact that he is a highly trained assassin.
Season Actual: .269 AVG, .350 OBP, 20 HRs, 49 RBIs, 77 runs scored, millions of new fans who voted him as a starter on the 2011 NL All-Star Team and he did behave himself by not pushing the self-destruct button on his wrist, laughing as he took out the entire stadium.

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Rickie Weeks was on his way to another banner year (his 2010 line of .269 avg, .366 obp, 29 HRs, 83 RBIs and 112 runs scored was a career best) before he severely sprained his ankle on July 27 that saw him miss all of August and most of September. And even when he did return you could tell that he was not 100%. If the Brewers weren't in the playoff hunt he would have been shut down for the rest of the season. Weeks does have a lot of power but his biggest asset is his speed, and that was taken away from him with the injury. I'm ecstatic that Weeks was finally recognized by the fans as being one of the premier 2nd basemen in the National League, and I'm proud to say that I finally own a Rickie Weeks #23 All-Star Game jersey. Now I just have to drop a couple of pounds to be able to wear it because the new style of jerseys run a little small, even for a XXL. Oh well. That's on my to-do list. It was hard watching Weeks try to push through his injury during the playoffs, and he was sorely missed. I doubt we would have won the NLCS with him healthy (because the pitching in the playoffs for the most part was horrendous) but more offense would have certainly helped. Weeks' offense is going to be counted on big time in 2012 because of the absence of Fielder but it is yet to be determined if he will bat leadoff or 5th in the lineup. Personally I think his power is too valuable to be wasted in the leadoff spot, but then again there aren't a lot of teams with power at the top. Either way, he is critical to the Brewers offense in 2012, as is him staying healthy for the entire season. We've got a lot riding on him, but Rickie is and still will always be my boy.

Yuniesky Betancourt
Preseason Prediction: .263 AVG, .292 OBP (which is unacceptable), 14 HRs, 78 RBIs, 136 games played, 17 errors
Season Actual: .252 AVG, .271 OBP (what's less than unacceptable?), 13 HRs, 67 RBIs, 152 games played, 21 errors
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Yuni B. came to Milwaukee as advertised, but honestly I didn't think that he would that good or that bad. When he was hot he went bonkers and carried the team offensivly. This was evident after the All-Star Break when his batting average rose from something like .240 to .270 in a month's time, which is pretty difficult to do in the latter half of the year when the at bats start to pile up. And then he made some of the best defensive plays I've seen all year - flipping it behind his back to Weeks or his perfect relay to Prince Fielder on a triple play. And then he committed 21 errors that can be counted in the stat line. The ones that don't show up are when he can't get to the ball because of his limited range or throws high and the runner reaches on an infield single. All I ask out of my shortstop is defense, as the players up the middle (catcher, 2nd base, shortstop and centerfield) are your most important ones defensively. If you watched him play defense at all this year you no doubt got frustrated, but not as frustrated as watching him at the plate. Sure, he did get hot at times and hit for a good amount of power, but in 556 at bats he walked only 16 times, for an on base percentage that was or near the league worst for an everyday player. The other thing that was frustrating about watching him was seeing him swing at the 1st pitching every time. I suppose if we want to stay positive we can say that he rarely struck out, but that was only because he failed to see 3 pitches in an at bat. He was a huge rally killer as well, and almost every time he came up with the bases loaded he hit into an inning ending double play groundout or popped it up in the infield when there was only one out, failing to get the runner in on a sac fly. One could go mad watching his plate discipline, and I have heard that they show his at bats to little leaguers as an instructional of what not to do. Yuni B. was a decent 1 year player but we only had him because we didn't have another shortstop. Personally I think we would have been better off without someone there and taking an automatic out, but Yuni B did do a pretty good job in the playoffs. But I'm glad that he is gone. There has to be a better option out there, right?

Casey McGehee
Preseason Prediction: .279 AVG, 21 HRs, 105 RBIs and perhaps a little more National attention, although Prince Fielder in a contract year and Ryan Braun's clothing line will distract them from seriously appreciating what he does.

Season Actual: .223 AVG, 13 HRs, 67 RBIs, 20 errors and the only attention he got was from the fans screaming for him to be benched because of his dismal year.

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Casey McGehee had an awful year and he would have been the first one to say it. As I pointed out in my "25 in 25" video on him he seems like a very hardworking blue collar kind of player and generally speaking those are the kind of people who are often the most realistic and critical of themselves. They don't like to get anything for free and like to earn all of their accolades. He certainly earned to be benched towards the end of the year but he didn't deserve to be traded this offseason to Pittsburgh in exchange for Jose Veras, a relief pitcher. But with Prince Fielder a free agent and the Brewers needing to pick up a power bat, McGehee was expendable because the best available power bat on the market was 3rd baseman Aramis Ramirez. McGehee simply didn't have a place on the 2012 club. But that will be discussed more in the future if I choose to do a 2012 season preview. McGehee's stat line in 2011 wasn't all that bad (except for the batting average) but after he came off of a 2010 season that saw him hit .285 with 23 HRs and 104 RBIs I suppose the fans just expected more of him. Later in the season he would be benched in favor of Jerry Hairston Jr. and McGehee would not start any of the games in the Postseason. It was a pretty hard fall from grace for the team MVP in 2011 and I was hoping that he would get a shot at redemption in 2012. He was such a good story having been picked up off of waivers and given a chance to succeed in the majors and he took full advantage of it. I wish him all the best in Pittsburgh but I will take Ramirez's offense and defense over McGehee any day. Tough luck for a guy who really was a fan favorite but that's the business of baseball.

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Ryan Braun

Preseason Prediction: .313 AVG, 33 HRs, 108 RBIs, 102 runs scored, heavily involved in creating the new Italian dishes and appetizers at Graffito and getting a restraining order against the two lunatics in the left field bleachers who keep harassing him.
Season Actual: .332 AVG, 33 HRs, 111 RBIs, 109 runs scored, not able to get anyone a waterfront table at Skips-a-fritos and more than able to ignore those wackos in the left field bleachers who won't shut up with Brauny this and Brauny that and end all of their insults with pal.
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Everybody loves Ryan Braun. And they should considering his 2011 stat line that ended up winning him the National League MVP award. For all intensive purposes he had a perfect year. His OBP was .397 and he stole 33 basis on top of all the other stats that people notice. On the defensive side of the ball he had 8 assists and only 1 error, although he still does play a little safe in left field considering his athletic ability and speed. In April he signed a 5 year contract extension for $105 million that will keep him in a Brewers uniform through 2020, essentially making him the face of this era's franchise. That most likely will also keep him him through the rest of his career (or at least the productive years of it) so I'm going to have to get used to Brauny being around town for a while. I just don't like the guy. And nothing that he has done or will ever do will convince me otherwise. And let me clear this up - I like everything he does on the field and we are fortunate to have a player of his caliber. He's the only superstar player we have now that Prince Fielder has skipped town. So before you give me shit about hating on Braun I got nothing against him as a player. It's the off field stuff that just rubs me the wrong way. From the way too PC media answers to his clothing line and restaurants to his gelled up hair-do to his "I'm better than you" swagger that I can't stand. He just seems like a dick. He's the kind of player that I would hate if he was on the other team. But since he is our guy I'll take everything that he has and more. He had so many clutch hits and moments during the 2011 season but none as big as when he hit a homerun against the Marlins on Friday September 23 that broke a tie and gave the Brewers a 4-1 lead in the game that would ultimately clinch them the National League Central Division title. He was pretty good in the playoffs as well but his 2011 season will most likely be tarnished by news that broke in December that Braun had failed a drug test in October that showed he had elevated levels of testosterone in his system. As I am writing this (February 12, 2002) we still don't know if he will serve a 50 game suspension for failing the test but even being associated with cheating and drugs will forever tarnish his 2011 MVP winning season and most likely his entire career. That for me certainly doesn't help me improve my already negative view of him but I'm still waiting to form an opinion until I hear the truth. So who knows man. But I'm still waiting on my buy 1 Shrimp Caprese get one free pal.

Carlos Gomez

Preseason Prediction: .272 AVG, .313 OBP, 7 HRs, 41 RBIs, 27 stolen bases, 139 games played, golden glove type defense

Season Actual: .225 AVG, .276 OBP, 8 HRs, 24 RBIs, 16 stolen bases, 94 games played and defense so good he sacrificed his body to make a play
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Carlos Gomez found his role in 2011. Along with Nyjer Morgan he was in a platoon in center field and started only against left handed pitchers. He also was brought in late in games as a defensive replacement and as a pinch runner on the bases. He was basically regulated to speed and defense, which are his 2 best assets. I really had hoped that he would finally learn some plate discipline and take some more walks so he could start everyday but his OBP was a paltry .276. His batting average also fell to a career low and he disappointed me because I had made a pretty bold statement that he was finally going to have that breakout year. It's almost a good thing that he didn't because he no longer has that "what if?" and "potential" tag on him because after 5 years in the big leagues by now he is what he is. And there is nothing wrong with that if he is used properly. Manager Ron Roenicke was showing during the 2011 season that he understood where to use Gomez and he ended up making some pretty amazing highlight reel plays including a tumbling catch in Arizona on July 20 in which he fractured his clavicle and went on the DL for a good 6 weeks. His 2011 season will be remembered for a moment in which he was perfectly used. He was put in the game in the top of the 8th for his defense and got his first at bat in the bottom of the 10th when he singled with 1 out. With Nyjer Morgan batting he stole 2nd base and the rest is history. In case you don't remember or were too drunk when it happened Morgan "tickled" a single up the middle scoring Gomez and the Brewers walked it off and earned a spot in the National League Championship Series. Crazy things happen when Gomez is able to just get on base and more times than not this exact situation (steal 2nd then score) plays out. If used properly like this Gomez will be an integral piece of this team in 2012.

 Corey Hart

Preseason Prediction: .278 AVG, 26 HRs, 91 RBIs, 21 stolen bases and the subject of many over the cubicle walls debate between Mike and I.

Season Actual: .285 AVG, 26 HRs, 63 RBIs, 7 stolen bases and nary a mention when Mike and I do our daily Brewers talk

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By now everyone should know of my disdain for Brewers right fielder Corey Hart.  I think that I've made it perfectly clear and I think it was a mistake that the Brewers are retaining his services through the 2014 season. He's going to make about $9 million a year and he puts up some pretty good numbers, but I just don't think that they are worthy of that salary even of that is the going rate for those kind of numbers. Oh well. Not much that I can do about that one so I might as well just deal with it. Hart kind of had an off year but it's kind of not his fault while at the same time he is to blame for it. Hart missed the first month of the year or so with a strained oblique injury and started off slow as far as the power numbers are concerned. Then at some point in the season he was moved into the leadoff position so that Rickie Weeks could drop to the #5 position and provide some protection behind Prince Fielder. In the #1 spot you are less likely to drive in runs so his RBI numbers fell in 2011. But I also blame him a bit because he always seems to have an up year followed by a down year. In 2008 and 2010 he made the All Star team and was on of the top outfielders in all of baseball. In 2009 and 2011 he hit fewer home runs and RBIs than in the years prior and mostly disappointed. While that gets me all riled up because he was mostly average in 2011 by his history that means that 2012 will be a banner year once again. So I'm willing to give Hart a pass this past year and hope for great things again in the future. I've exhausted all that I can say about him now because I have wasted too much of my life bitching about him. For further proof go to the Pookon's Ill Labels section on the right and click on Corey Hart. That will take you to many fantastic articles including my personal favorite (and the one that got picked up by Yahoo Sports and was included in their Top 10 stories of the day back in 2010) "Corey Hart is a Bitch." And that about sums it up for me.

Jonathon Lucroy

Preseason Prediction: .268 AVG, .320 OBP, 11 HRs, 62 RBIs, 127 games played and respect from the Brewers fans even though they kept the picture of the kid who came with the wallet.

Season Actual: .265 AVG, .313 OBP, 12 HRs, 59 RBIs, 136 games played and the next Brewers jersey that I'm getting and also the player I'm encouraging all Brewers fans to get behind this year.

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All I have to say is booyah motherfucker! In yo' face! In yo' face! Of all the players that I made a prediction on I was the closest on Lucroy although now I wish that he would have done better. I guess that goes to show that I had set my sights a little lower during this guy's second season but in a way that's a good thing. In 2011 it is my belief that he focused more on his game calling skills and defensive abilities rather than his offense. His bat was always there in the minor leagues and it will come along fine in the major leagues. But anyone who watched a good amount of Brewers games could tell last year that he wasn't always on the same page as the pitching staff, which led to George Kottaras being called upon to be the personal catcher of Randy Wolf. Lucroy is learning on the job in the major leagues and sometimes that might have been a little daunting for the 25 year old. But from what I hear he is one of the hardest working players both in the clubhouse and also studying game film and statistical research and his desire to improve is something that will take him far. He had to learn 2 new starting pitchers (Greinke and Marcum) as well as all of the new veteran arms in bullpen (Hawkins, Saito and Rodriguez) and did an admirable job. I'm not sure if working with veteran arms is good or bad but for a young catcher it would seem to be more difficult because they would rather call the game versus letting Lucroy do it. Doesn't give him a lot of flexibility to use his own skills and work to his strengths. Who knows what really happened but I was more than pleased with Lucroy and the pitching staff was one of the strengths of this team and 4 of the 5 starters had an ERA under 4.00. And all 5 of them had 10 or more wins. And the bullpen you ask? It was as lockdown as it gets and K-Rod and Axford shut the door in the 8th and 9th innings. How much of that credit goes to the pitchers themselves and how much goes to Lucroy? I'm not really sure. 2012 (his 3rd year in the league) will be a pretty good indicator of his long term success and I look forward to seeing him play another130 games.

Craig Counsell

Preseason Prediction: .270 AVG, .337 OPB, 2 HRs, 34 RBIs and the pride of Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee and the entire state of Wisconsin, even though they haven't come up with a stat for that yet.

Season Actual: .178 AVG, .280 OBP, 1 HRs, 9 RBIs and loved more for what he has done on and off the field in his career instead of this troubling year.
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Craig Counsell should buy Casey McGehee something nice because if  it wasn't for him being the lightning rod, Counsell certainly would've got the brunt of the criticism from angry fans. Oh he still got his fair share of grief, especially during a hitless 0-45 streak that lasted from June 10 to August 6 with most of the at bats coming as a pinch hitter, but not nearly as much as McGehee for a few reasons. Counsell isn't a regular player and therefore is not counted on to produce. Also his glove is far superior than his bat and he mostly comes in as a defensive replacement. And finally Counsell is a huge fan favorite and grew up in nearby Whitefish Bay so no matter what he does he will always be one of our own. Oh and did I also mention that he is 41 years old?That's why it made it so hard to hate on him. He was just a savvy old veteran who was nearing the end of his  career. It was really hard to watch him go out like this because Counsell has had so many great moments in his career that saw him be a big part of two World Series Championship teams (the Florida Marlins in 1997 and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001) as well as being instrumental in the Milwaukee Brewers success since rejoining the team in 2007. He will forever be one of my favorite Brewers players (along with Bill Hall) but 2011 will be a forgotten one of his 16-year career. His age and declining performance forced him to retire following the season but he has since accepted a position in the front office as a special assistant to General Manager Doug Melvin. And although the 2012 team will certainly miss him in the clubhouse he's at least around to help out should they need him. It was great to see James' friend and former neighbor one last time in 2011 but it's times like this that baseball becomes a business and a player batting .178 is just not cutting it despite what he adds with defense and clubhouse leadership.

Mark Kotsay

Preseason Prediction: .263 AVG, .330 OBP, 5 HRs, 33 RBIs and his wife will get creepy oogled by me on the club level when she sits up there with the other player's wives. I can't help it. I'm lonely.

Season Actual: .270 AVG, .329 OBP, 3 HRs, 31 RBIs and I acted like a true gentleman in the presence of Jamie Kotsay. That's because of the restraining order. I never got within 100 yards so I could ogle her up close. Damn laws.

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When the Brewers signed Mark Kotsay my friend Katie, who is a die-hard Oakland A's fan who lives in Sacramento, California, told me to take care of him. Apparently she took a liking to him while he was there from 2004-2007 and became one of her favorite players during his tenure. I really liked the signing of the veteran outfielder because it gave us an option off of the bench and a more than capable replacement in the outfield when a starter needed a day off. I was pretty spot on with Kotsay as well because I knew his role. Braun and Hart were going to play almost every day unless they were injured and Morgan and Gomez settled into a nice platoon in centerfield. He got a little more playing time than I expected because of injuries to Hart to open the season and Gomez in the later part of the year. Overall he did his job, and that's all you can really ask for in a veteran bench player. Every year one of these kinds of players is signed and ends up in this role for one season and then is gone. I'm glad we got something out of him and I look forward to the next one year veteran that the Brewers will sign and add to the long list of players that played here for one year out of their 15 years in the major leagues.

Wil Nieves
Preseason Prediction: .225 AVG, 2 HRs, 18 RBIs, 54 games played
Season Actual: .140 AVG, 0 HRs, 0 RBIs, 20 games played
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By the end of the 2011 season I forgot that we even had Wil Nieves. That's how big of an impact that he had on this season. He was signed to be a veteran backup catcher known primarily for his defense to give Jonathon Lucroy a rest every 5th day. By the time May came around he had yet to produce an RBI and he was batting well below .200 (he's a career .221 hitter) so they decided to send him down to the minors and replaced him with George Kottaras. He was eventually traded for cash in July. He did nothing in his Brewers career except be one of those random players that 10 years from now I will throw his name out to friends during our epic battles of "Most Random Brewers Player" trivia game. That's when guys' names like John Vander Wal (2003) and Joe "The Garbage Man" Winklesas (2006) come up. My era of Brewers knowledge spans mostly from 2000-present so any of the players I throw out come from those teams. But since I've been around for nearly every home game and watch every road game, I remember these players. Helps me to always one-up my friends with the most random of players. I am king of the Random Brewers Player Game.

George Kottaras

Preseason Prediction: .234 AVG, 8 HRs, 24 RBIs, 59 games played

Season Actual: .252 AVG, 5 HRs, 17 RBIs, 49 games played and responsible for doing my taxes from here on out thanks to Tim "The Franchise" Allen of WSSP Sportsradio 1250 nicknaming him "The Accountant."

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George Kottaras started off the season with the Brewers out of Spring Training because of Lucroy's thumb injury then was sent down to the minors shortly after  Lucroy returned from the DL. He didn't stay down there long and in mid-May was brought back up for good when WIl Nieves proved to be useless. Kottaras fulfilled the same role that he did in 2010 - backup to Lucroy and Randy Wolf's personal catcher. He has a fair amount of pop in his bat and got his fair share of pinch hitting oppotunities in 2011. Former manager Ken Macha was reluctant to use his back-up catcher but current manager Ron Roenicke never shied away from it and Kottaras was allowed to come into the game in tight situations. Because Lucroy and Wolf never got on the same page he almost always caught Wolf and by luck of the draw ended up starting against a lot lefthanded pitchers. Even though irregular playing time and poor match-ups marred most of his season he still put up some pretty decent numbers. I have no problem with him as the backup catcher and I wouldn't be opposed to him assuming that same role in 2012. And with Randy Wolf under contract for the last year of his three year deal I don't see why he won't play every 5th day.

Erick Almonte

Preseason Prediction: .262 AVG, 3 HRs, 17 RBIs, 91 games payed (mostly as a pinch hitter, look for him to start less than 20 games) and not nearly as vital to the US citizens as Del Monte is in providing them with quality food products.

Season Actual: .103 AVG, 1 HR, 3 RBIs, 16 games played
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Erick Almonte sucks and he is a bum. I don't know why he made the team. In his "25 in 25" article I spent more time talking about one of the largest food companies Del Monte instead of him and that paid off. The video I filmed also had my favorite backdrop - Miller Park. Del Monte makes more money off of canned squash in a minute than Erick Almonte will make in his entire life so you tell me which one you'd rather suck up to. Almonte never gave me a gift basket filled with cans of French style green beans, lite pear halves, Kibbles 'N Bits and individual snack size fruit cocktail cups. Delmonte did. They know how to treat their high rollers. Del Monte's products are a step above the industry standard and are available at prices suitable for the American working family. They offer high quality products in many assorted varieties and have been nourishing families, enriching lives and bringing wholesome goodness to the table since 1892. As for Erick Almonte? Sadly he's still in the Brewers minor league system so this may not be the last we've seen of him. Dear God I hope so.

Jeremy Reed
Preseason Prediction: n/a
Season Actual: .000 AVG, 0 HRs, 0 RBIs, 7 games played
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I barely remember Jeremy Reed but he did make the Opening Day roster and was included in my "25 in 25" article on the backup outfielders. He lasted all the way until April 11th and was designated for assignment to make room for Lucroy (the Brewers carried 3 catchers for a little bit). No one seemed to notice. The only reason that he made the team was because Corey Hart opened the season on the DL. Once Brewers management figured out that he was not going to help out the team he was forgotten about and traded sometime during the summer for cash. They probably took that cash and bought a couple of scratch-off tickets. That would be a better investment than pocketing the money. At least with scratch-offs you have the chance of winning even though the odds aren't the greatest. When I wrote about him last March I didn't bother to say much because I knew he would be the first one out the door. Moving on.

Brandon Boggs
Preseason Prediction: n/a
Season Actual: .158 AVG, 2 HRs, 2 RBIs, 16 games played
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Now we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Brandon Boggs was probably slated to make the Opening Day roster as a backup outfielder but the Brewers traded for Nyjer Morgan a week before the season started and the rest is history. We all know what Morgan ended up doing (for a refresher course see the bottom of the article) but I don't certainly don't remember Boggs hitting 2 solo homeruns in 19 at bats. They must have been garbage runs late in meaningless games. Whatever the case may be he spent most of the season down in AAA and provided some outfield depth that we never needed because Braun, Hart and Morgan/Gomez were very productive in 2011. You'll see minor leaguers like this float around Spring Training and grab hold of different teams trying to hang on to a big league club. Sometimes they pan out but chances are if you have never heard of them they won't stick around too long. Last I heard he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates for 2012.

Josh Wilson
Preseason Prediction: n/a
Season Actual: .227 AVG, .266 OBP, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, 54 games played
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I actually kind of remember Josh Wilson. He was picked up off of waivers in May and made a couple of starts during the course of the season although he was mostly regulated to pinch hitting. He lasted until the end of the year but I think I forgot about him mostly because he didn't make the playoff roster. But he also doesn't stick with me because he didn't make much of an impact on the 2011 season. His stats alone suggest that he shouldn't have even been on the team but he probably stuck around because the other options weren't that much of an upgrade so you might as well stick with the guy who's been there before. I think he played average defense and was a body to stick out there because ghost players don't field the ball all too well. Times might have changed but when I was a kid all ghost players did was occupy a base and run to the next one when I got a base hit. Times were tough in my neighborhood and it was just me, my brother James and our friend Danny that played ball. When you only have 3 people you have to occupy the rest of the field somehow. Might as well be ghost players. Sure are enough ghosts to go around. And since I grew up as one of the Ghostbusters I ain't afraid of no ghosts. And most definitely not when they are my teammates.

Taylor Green
Preseason Prediction: n/a
Season Actual: .270 AVG, .270 OBP, 0 HRs, 1 RBI, 20 games played
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3rd baseman Taylor Green was promoted from AAA Nashville on August 31 in a move that many fans had been clamoring for during much of the season due to Casey McGehee's struggles. Rosters expand from 25 to 40 on September 1st but anyone called up during September is not eligible for the postseason roster, which is why he was called up a day early. Green did make a few starts but most of his action came as a pinch hitter and he took to it well despite being a rookie. He had found plenty of success in the minors and was an Minor League All-Star during his healthy years and was Brewers Organization Player of the Year in 2007 when he was in A ball. Injuries derailed his ascension to the big leagues but I'm glad he finally got a taste of big league ball in 2011. And he hopefully also gained some good experience by making the Postseason roster and spending a couple of extra weeks with the team in October. The Brewers signed Aramis Ramirez to play 3rd base for the next 3 years so who knows what will become of Green (whose natural position is 3rd) but he still will have a chance to make the 2012 team as a backup utility infielder who could play 1st, 2nd and 3rd. And I know it's a very small sample size but he also proved he could pinch hit, which could make him very valuable in 2012. Time will tell but I'm sure this isn't the last we've seen of Green.

Felipe Lopez
Preseason Prediction: n/a
Season Actual: .182 AVG, .245 OBP, 0 HRs, 3 RBI, 16 games played
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When Rickie Weeks severely sprained his ankle in late July the Brewers got desperate for a 2nd baseman and they traded for Felipe Lopez hoping for the same results they got out of him in the 2nd half of 2009 - .320 AVG, 3 HRs and 32 RBIs in 66 games following a midseason trade from Arizona. But as you can see from the numbers above the 2nd time wasn't a charm. That only works for the 3rd time which I hope doesn't happen for Lopez. Hell it was worth a shot because the Tampa Bay Rays had enough of him and it only took some cash to get him. I'm guessing it was a sack of nickels. An unspecified amount in a beige sack with a $ sign on it of course. Like the kind that robbers used to steal from the bank vaults in the Old West. It was obvious that Weeks would be out for a very long time and when Lopez struggled they traded for Jerry Hairston Jr. and when he took over that made Lopez a goner. Most people probably won't remember his 2nd stint with the Brewers nor should they. I'm just glad they had the foresight to acquire Hairston because he was such a key piece in winning the NL Central and advancing to the NLCS.

Mat Gamel
Preseason Prediction: n/a
Season Actual: .115 AVG, .148 OBP, 0 HRs, 2 RBI, 10 games played
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Mat Gamel. What can you say about him in 2011. Not a whole hell of a lot but I'm glad for his sake he didn't give up his apartment in Nashville when he was called up to the majors during Interleague Play. That's because he was only up in the bigs for about 2 weeks and was sent back down to AAA to learn 1st base. With the impending free agency of Prince Fielder he was moved across the diamond. He was originally a 3rd baseman but it turns out that he had a worse glove than Ryan Braun. Do you even remember Brauny playing 3rd base his rookie year? And how bad he was? I can't really remember that too much because his bat won him the NL Rookie of the Year and forgave his defense. And Gamel is supposedly worse? His minor league numbers certainly back that up but we didn't see enough in 2011 to really judge because he was primarily used as a DH at American League ballparks. In 2012 he will be playing 1st base which will hopefully limit his error total and if his minor league offensive numbers are any indication he should be just fine. So disregard anything you've seen of him in the Major Leagues and give him a chance. 2012 is a make or break year for this former top prospect.

Jerry Hairston Jr.
Preseason Prediction: n/a
Season Actual: .274 AVG, .348 OBP, 1 HR, 7 RBIs, 45 games played
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Where would we have been in 2011 without Jerry Hairston Jr.? Obviously he was never a part of our plan on Opening Day but that's what makes the trade deadline so exciting. The K-Rod trade was the one that grabbed all the headlines and at the time the Hairston trade went under the radar. At first he wasn't getting a whole lot of playing time but by the end of the season he saw time at 2nd, 3rd and also in centerfield. His numbers don't jump out as being overly impressive but the game isn't played on paper. He filled in two huge holes (first for Rickie Weeks and then for Casey McGehee) and his defense was for the most part outstanding. He did make 2 crucial errors in the NLCS but overall he was a much better defender than Casey McGehee and started every game at 3rd in the Postseason. Often times it is those players that come out of nowhere that end up being the difference makers and you need one or two of them every year to push your team over the edge. I look forward to seeing who that guy will be in 2012 but we know for sure it won't be Hairston who signed a 2 year $6 million deal with the LA Dodgers. It would have been nice to have him back but not at $3 million per year. Thanks for the memories Jerry but I'll take my chances with the top card off of the deck.

Nyjer Morgan

Preseason Prediction: .285 AVG, .345 OBP, 2 HRs, 29 RBIs, 24 stolen bases and be the fastest Nyjer on the team.

Season Actual: .304 AVG, .357 OBP, 4 HRs, 37 RBIs, 13 stolen bases, 61 runs scored and able to run a personal relay race along with Tony Plush, Tony Hush, Tony Clutch, Tony Gumbo, Antonio Picante and Tony Tombstone.
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Nyjer Morgan ended up surprising everyone with his on and off field play in 2011. His reputation and antics definitely proceeded him and he was known as someone who played the game maybe a little too hard and was involved in fights and collisions on the field. His mouth often got him in trouble and he was viewed as a clubhouse distraction. That was with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals, two losing clubs that had nothing better to talk about than his behavior. I was worried about how his crazy personality would affect the team but it ended being one of the best things of the entire season. And the difference? Winning. When a team is winning things that were previously an issue can be overlooked by glancing at the overall picture. When the Brewers are winning nearly every home game and Tony Plush spouts out his post game, "Ahhhhhh! Gotta go!" and runs away we laugh because he seems like he's having so much fun. When you're 15 games above .500 have as much fun as you want. When you're 15 games below .500 you better shut your mouth. What's so fun about losing? Morgan and his multiple alter egos fit in well in Milwaukee this season and his Beast Mode move captivated the entire Brewer Nation. No player in recent memory caught the fascination of Brewers fans as much as Morgan and T-Plush merchandise was selling like hot cakes. They couldn't keep that shit on the shelves and he tickled Brewers fans all season long but nowhere near as hard as when he had the game winning hit in the 10th inning of the NLDS Game 5 that scored Carlos Gomez and sent the Brewers to the NLCS. For that alone he goes down in Brewers history and will be one of the most well loved players of all time. Hell of a debut in a Brewers uniform. It will be interesting to see what he has in store for 2012 and if he can duplicate the success he had in 2011. Another year like this would certainly help to alleviate the loss of Prince Fielder but I just hope that he doesn't come crashing hard back down to reality. And I also hope that the Brewers keep up their winning ways because if they don't then Plushdamentals and "Ahhhh! Gotta Go!" just aren't funny anymore. With the pitching staff returning in full from last year I don't see that happening, and I have no doubt we will repeat as NL Central Division Champions and return to the playoffs. Nyjer Morgan has been busy working on his hockey skills in the offseason. Let's just hope he hasn't forgotten how important he is to the team's success in 2012.

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Well that's the 2011 Season Wrap-Up for the Milwaukee Brewers offense. I'll cover the pitchers soon. Notice that I didn't say too much about the defense except for players like Yuniesky Betancourt and Casey McGehee who's range and defense really hindered the team. That's because with the exception of Carlos Gomez and Ryan Braun this is pretty poor team defensively and it ultimately cost them a trip to the World Series. Their pitching and offense was so good for the entire season that we were able to overlook the defensive flaws because it didn't really hinder us too much. But in the Postseason when every at bat and every play is magnified and highly scrutinized those defensive errors became huge. And with the exception of Yovani Gallardo the pitching staff fell apart in October doomed their chances at moving on to the next round. Pitching and defense win Championships and in the playoffs we just didn't have it. It didn't matter how well Braun and Fielder hit because we ended up just giving away too many runs. When you dig a hole every night it's hard to dig yourself out of it. 

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The offense overall wasn't a problem although at times there were some issues at the leadoff spot, the #5 spot and the bottom 3. That sounds like a big ass problem but when you have Nyjer Morgan, Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder in the lineup the rest of the guys really don't have to do that much. Corey Hart and Yuni B got hot at some pretty good times and Lucroy was steady all year. Going into the season we knew that the offense was going to be fine and hit a ton of homeruns. It would have been nice to see them be a little more consistent and take advantage of their speed and play more small ball but that's how it was in 2011. Can't really get mad at them when they were crushing the ball out of the park. Bernie loves to slide after all and they were just pleasing their mustached mascot. 2011 was one hell of a ride and the difference between this year and the 2009-2010 seasons (when they didn't make the playoffs) was the pitching staff. With the acquisitions of Grienke, Marcum and K-Rod the Brewers finally realized that pitching is the key to success. But that of course is a topic that will be covered at a later date. I'm running out of time though as the 2012 season is right around the corner. Sorry for the delay in getting this article out but life comes first man. I know that now more than ever. Take care my friends.

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 - pookon -
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www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/MilwaukeeIceman

"7 in 7" - Episode 2 - I Wanna Look like Jonah Hill - Day 3

Globo Gym is evil. So is White Goodman. Thankfully they don't own my gym because I don't think I could handle any of their abuse as I try to turn this Frankenstein into a Frankenfine. OK, that's actually a pretty good line. I suppose I could live with being accosted with insults as long as he keeps throwing out clever one-liners like that. All kidding aside that's all I could think about when I was thinking about how evil gyms are and why people are afraid to go to them. A gym is very intimidating because for the most part everyone who is there is already pretty fit. Let's just say I kind of understand how a minority feels like watching Friends - Mom? Why is there no one who looks like me there? You would think that with a population of over 8 million a random minority would wander into the shot. What a reality shock I got when I first went to New York City. Thanks for warning me TV. So it's tough for a fat guy to walk in there and work up the confidence to even step on an elliptical machine. But at least I got that taken care of. Now I can work on the rest of my goals.

Goals like meeting these chicks and tricking them to falling in love me. Think of me like a project, a lumpy ball of play-doh that you can mold into whatever you like. The possibilities are endless ladies! So line up now because when I'm hot and good looking I'm not going to give you the time of day because you could have had me back then and you passed. OK, so I'll probably still take you. I'm pretty accepting and forgiving. I'll welcome you into my open arms. My toned and muscular arms. Ah but who knows man. I don't think I'll ever be good looking enough to get any chick based on looks alone so I better start working hard at my job. Money might be my only ticket to success so I suppose I better start making a lot of it. That's not going to happen. Maybe I can go out with a blind chick. If she can't see how hideous I am then she can't run for the hills. Well until she starts touching me and stuff. Let's just hope that she doesn't have arms then. I'm really narrowing down the search for a mate right now based on those qualifications (and I likely won't find one) so I'm going to go on to a better topic. One that's a little more uplifting.

I found this on the internet. Hell of a tool the internet is. I was searching for evil gyms and I got evil movie worms instead. If there is a better size chart out there I'd like to see it. I doubt there will be one out there that features 3 of my favorite movies (Jedi, Tremors and Beetlejuice) in such a hilarious fashion. And it is factually correct too. Boba Fett, Three Ninja's Grandpa, Beetlejuice and any of the unlucky fuckers in Dune can totally attest to that. I don't know if anyone got eaten by these things in the books or movies because I have never had the pleasure of reading/viewing those works of art. It's next up on my series of giant worm novels. There's just too many of them that I can't keep up anymore. Every time I try to read Dune a new Tremors sequel comes out. But that's alright though because I just can't get enough of Burt Gummer. Broke into the wrong god damn rec room, didn't ya you bastard! When Burt blows a hole in the Graboid's mouth with the elephant gun I'll admit that I cheered. Don't mess with a guy that has that much ammunition lying around. You could tell that the Graboids don't have eyes and operate based upon feeling vibrations because if he saw the shelf of guns when he punched through Burt's basement wall he would have turned and ran screaming for the hills. But Graboids never learn. That's why they chased Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward into the desert even though Burt had some homemade bombs. And how did that work out for the Graboids? Well if you you've seen the movie I hate to spoil it for you but I'll give you a hint - KA-BOOM!!

I'm hoping that things work out better for me. Remember how I said I wouldn't bullshit you? I started this "7 in 7" adventure on Tuesday February 14th and was attempting to go to the gym every day. It took me one day to break that streak. I didn't go on Wednesday. I felt like total shit and I was exhausted without actually doing anything. I know I should have gone anyway to make this a true 7 workouts in 7 days (the best I can do now is 6) but I failed. Sorry guys. I can't think of a way to make it up to you but I know that if I keep going this week and continue it past the 7 day period then essentially I will have accomplished my goal which is to change my life. So even though it looks bad to have missed a day right now in the long run it will not matter. I know I'm trying to spin a positive into a negative but I did go tonight and I feel a lot better because of it. We'll see how I feel tomorrow but I'm hoping that I'm able to keep this up because I need to be in shape. If I had to classify my shape right now I'd probably say oval. I'm trying to get to rectangle someday. I'd probably settle for square but heaven forbid I get to triangle. All bets are off once it gets to that point. If it ever comes to that I won't have to worry about completing a task or changing my life within a seven day period because I won't be a human anymore - I'll be a fucking triangle! And if you didn't know, things didn't work out so well for Triangle Man. Sure, Triangle Man hated Particle Man and they had a fight and Triangle wins. Then Triangle Man hated Person Man and they had a fight and Triangle wins. So you would think that Triangle Man is a winner, right? Nope. Turns out Triangle Man has anger management issues and he's doing a dime in San Quentin for aggravated assault and reckless homicide. Triangle Man is a loose cannon and without the meds he just might be a cold blooded killer. Do you really want me to end up that way? You really want to be responsible for that?

Well that's really all I got right now. Well I do have one more thing. Kind of like a parting thought or words of wisdom if you will. I'd rather be the biggest person in the gym than be the biggest person outside of it. At least in here I'm making a change. Out there I'm just another overweight American. In here I'm a difference maker. You might not see it that way but if I'm right then nothing else matters. I mean that with no offense but right now the only thing that matters is me. I have to get myself right and be happy with who I am before I can worry about others. That's not to say that I don't care. I do. I'm just having a really hard time showing it because I'm going through some shit right now. What I'm attempting to do goes against everything I believe in and I'm trying so hard not to quit. I don't want to be a loser anymore. I don't want to be a quitter. And most of all I don't want to be a failure. I want to be somebody. I want to be in the phonebooks. Well I don't really know what I want to be. I just know I don't want to be what I am right now.

 - pookon -

www.pookon.com

email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

http://www.facebook.com/MilwaukeeIceman

"7 in 7" - Episode 2 - I Wanna Look like Jonah Hill

It's not too often that someone would say that. In fact I doubt that anyone has ever said it and meant it. Who would want to look like Jonah Hill? I'd like to have his money and his humor (though I am doing just fine on my own with those two things) but until recently I didn't want to be him even though everyone already thought that I was. In every comment section where the Last Cup trailer played or when a review of the documentary was posted there was always at least one Jonah Hill comment. And who could blame them, right? Look at the picture on the left and say that it isn't me. I personally know that it isn't although I have grown my hair out like that and often wear a blue shirt. There were other pictures that show Jonah Hill when he was fat like me but I had to use this one because in this picture he is a spitting image of me. The likeness is uncanny and kind of creeps me out because it's like having a twin brother or a clone. But if you have been paying attention to celebrity fodder (and I know that you have because our country is obsessed with celebrity) then you would know that within the last year Jonah Hill got all skinny on me and he is no longer getting confused for me and vice versa. Something has to be done about this  because everyone needs a look-alike in case of danger. You never know when a decoy can come in handy. Hell it saved Queen Amidala's life in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. And if I try to look like Jonah Hill again it might just save mine.

Jonah Hill lost a ton of weight. I can't really put a number on it but just look at pictures and you can tell. Especially because now he looks all funny and shit with a weird big head and Will Smith Dumbo ears. But aside from that he's looking pretty svelte and I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a little jealous. People make it look so easy to lose weight but I suppose it isn't that hard when you have access to a personal trainer and nutritionist, not to mention access to all the best equipment and facilities. But he still had to put in the hard work that it takes to get yourself in shape. I can't say that I will ever look like Jonah Hill again unless he puts back on the weight but I certainly am going to try to lose some of mine so that I can live a healthier life. It's going to be a lot of hard work because I lead a pretty damn unhealthy lifestyle and what I am attempting to do this week is a complete and total life change from what I am used to. I plan on working out every day for the next 7 days while also changing my eating habits as an attempt to shock my body into accepting something new and be open to the possibility of change. This might not be the best way to do it especially because I talked about the effects and benefits of doing things in moderation. But I need to get into a routine and this is something that it is really important to me because I can no longer function in my day to day life at my present state. Putting on my shoes or walking 4 blocks has become so much more difficult than it should be. I can't handle this anymore and I'm hoping to learn a lesson by the end of the week. At the very least I hope to get at least a little bit used to putting my body through the rigors of a workout so that I am more likely to continue it when the week is over.

So that's basically it. I worked out tonight for a little over an hour and it was the first time in a little under a year that I did. I was working out a few times a week back before Timmy died and then everything kind of got mixed together. I was less worried about my physical health and more worried about my emotional stability. So I sat around and ate food and didn't get out much. I put on weight. I'm not going to pull any punches here on this blog during these adventures and I certainly won't bullshit you. The last time that I remember weighing myself I was around 370 pounds. Today I topped out at 400. That's fucking sad. I've always been a big guy (I can partly blame genetics but I mostly blame myself) but I never intended to be this big. That number is way too high and I will do everything in my power to lower it. Normally I would keep something like this confidential because it is a very sensitive subject for me but once it's out in the public I can't hide behind it anymore. A lifelong's worth of ridicule and fat jokes has left me to hide my shame. The only reason that I'm throwing a number out there is so that I might somehow be able to track the results from Day 1 to Day 7 and see if there is any positive proof of why I should continue to do this. In my mind I understand it but as I have learned during Week 1 is that my ideas are no good if they are kept bottled in my mind and I have to let them out in order to satisfy my need to create. 

And this is just really another chance to see if I can not only survive a week's worth of turmoil on my body but also to see if I can complete the challenge. I am notoriously bad at seeing things through so this "7 in 7" series is also meant to address that as well. So many things are happening at once that I am constantly learning and applying myself. So who knows. The only thing that I know is that I probably won't be doing a daily blog entry because that's not the point of this week's challenge. But as always if I do have something to say I will make sure to put it here. Chances are I will be too tired to lift my fingers to type but then again I may have developed super strength by then. This is going to be bad. In that good sort of way. Like making out with a chick with tattoos and piercings. I feel like I'm badass by association. Living life a little dangerously and taking a walk on the wild side if you will. And hopefully when this quest is finished I'll be hot enough to get any chick, not just the ones that dig me for my tattoos and money. Yeah, because I have so much of both that it's a staggering and alarming number that freaks the hell out of people. And now I'm just wasting time when I should be sleeping. It's now 3:00am, or the middle of the freakin' night for the lay person. I don't know why I stay up all night but it must be that adrenaline thing that athletes talk about. I don't want to go to sleep because I have a feeling that my body is going to really hate me in the morning. So much more than usual. I guess we'll just have to find out. One thing for sure is that this is the beginning of a very long week.

 - pookon -

www.pookon.com

email: pookondotcom@gmail.com

http://www.facebook.com/MilwaukeeIceman

"7 in 7" - Wasting Away Again in TVLand - Day 7

On Sunday (not Friday) I was just sitting around the house not doing much. I would have called my best friend to come over and sit on the front porch with me but it was winter and my best friend lives up in Black Duck, Minnesota. So instead I hung out in the living room with Jenny Reck. She was doing laundry and I was sitting around listening to music. It was a very unproductive day for me. When she said that she was going to take a nap I decided that is was time to go find my electric guitar and rock out. I had been looking forward to this moment all week and I finally had the time to do it. I searched high and low for a working electric guitar but the only one that I found was one that Timmy has built for me like 4 years ago. It's not a very good guitar but that's ok because I'm not a very good guitar player. There could be a pretty good reason why this guitar wasn't the best. He could have lacked the knowledge or tools needed to make a quality guitar. Or maybe he just never got around to finishing it. But the truth is I'm thankful just to have it. I never valued it before because it didn't have any value to me but now I can realize just how cool it is that my little brother made me a guitar. He wired it and finished it himself. That having been said I apologize if the videos before aren't any good. For starters I don't think I've ever played an electric guitar before and I don't really know how to use an amp properly. And then I forgot some of the words and chords to the songs that I was playing. And finally when you break it down I just kind of suck at guitar. But I am trying to get better.

Here I am playing a song by 4 Non Blondes called "What's Up." If you were alive in the 90's then you certainly are familiar with this song and it has gained popularity for being one of those one hit wonder kind of songs. It has always been a personal favorite of mine because it allows me to sing in my head voice, be obnoxious and sing really loud. I usually reserve this kind of nonsense for when nobody is around but thanks to the beauty of the internet I will now share it with all of you. You're welcome.

Timmy's guilty pleasure music group was The Cranberries and his favorite song was "Zombie." Timmy had a thing for zombies and he adored all of George Romero's "______ of the Dead" movies and even wrote his own song about zombies. It featured lyrics that came right out of those movies like heading towards the local retail store when they start taking over the world. I learned this song a while back and like to play it often because it makes me think of Timmy. Plus it gives me a pretty good chance to showcase my vocal stylings and range. It's pretty ridiculous but somehow it works for me. I just hope that someday I'm able to get better at guitar so that I can take my show on the road and impress the ladies with my renditions of 90's pop songs.

So that is basically my life now. I still live at my Mom's house and I hang out in my basement "No Girls Allowed" clubhouse and figure out new ways to turn away the opposite sex. I'm sure that chicks dig me hard core because I'm a trivia master and I would wear pajama pants and sleeveless shirts all day every day if my work didn't have a dress code. I wish that I had my own cable access show and that people around town worshiped me because of my local celebrity status. Well I do kind of have that going for me because people do recognize me as either "that guy from the beer pong movie" or "that guy in the bleachers with the sombrero" and at Saturday night's Bucks game Jenny and I did have backstage laminates. So we're pretty close to being Wayne + Garth with the exception of the cable access show. But it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine. When I lived with Aaron, Brodey, this dude Craig and TJ slept on our couch for $80 a month we considered putting a show on public TV and doing new episodes every week. It would have been a pretty sweet and in retrospect I wish that we would have done it if only for a few months. It would have been pretty sweet to look back on a reminisce about the good old days. But that didn't happen and I can't linger on it any longer. Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, have to, have to?

So this is basically the end of this adventure. For 7 straight days I didn't knowingly or purposefully watch TV or movies and chose to instead use that time to write or play guitar. And you know what I have learned? It's something that I already knew but is still very important - moderation is the key. That having been said I would still rather choose to fully indulge myself in these lovely ladies or the massive beer mugs they are holding. Can it be both? There would be no moderation. I would go to town. You better believe it. Especially because the blonde looks like this chick I went to college with and had a major crush on. She was also a communications major and we had a lot of the same classes. Damn man really takes me back and makes me forget about what I was writing about. Scan back a few sentences and...OK now I remember - moderation. Watching TV or movies isn't bad but if you do it all day every day and don't accomplish anything else then it is a bad thing. There is so much to do in this world and sometimes we lose our focus and end up getting stuck in a cycle. It's so easy to veg out and watch someone else's life unfold on TV instead of living your own. Life is tough and sometimes people choose to escape from it. Well I'm tired of running away from mine and although I can't promise to always dedicate an entire week to writing I can promise that I will always take time to do it. I have realized that I need a creative outlet for my ideas because if they fester inside of me I drive myself crazy. I have to let them out and like I said in an earlier post the best way that I know how is to use my words. So look forward to plenty more blog posts in the future and if you've been along for the ride for this "7 in 7" thing I promise you that you ain't seen nothing yet. I can take this virtually in any direction and the possibilities are endless.

Remember yesterday how I said I wanted to make Mila Kunis my girlfriend? Well that would be cool and all but I would totally make Natalie Portman my everything. I've had a thing for her since Day 1 and after watching Star Wars Episodes I, II and III tonight I am more convinced than ever. I have decided that after every 7 day challenge I would give myself a buffer day or a recovery day before starting my next challenge. I am writing this during that day and I went to go see Episode I - The Phantom Menace in theaters in 3D and I can honestly say that she looked fantastic. And before you get all up in my face about the fact that she was so young in the first movie I'll have you know that she was born in 1981 and that we are the same age, so there's nothing creepy about it. I mean I don't have a framed poster of "Where the Heart Is" on my wall or anything. That would be wrong. And she's married and has a kid and shit. She's happy. What would she want with some loser like me? But one can dream, right? Sometimes I just sit back and put on the Ozma song "Natalie Portman." Check it out sometime. It says exactly what I want to say and it couldn't be closer to the truth. This week I have had the opportunity to sit and listen music and I can totally understand why people use it as a form of expression. Someday I hope to have the skills required to be able to write a song so truthful and moving that it expresses everything that I am feeling. Until I reach that point I will just have to use other people's songs to accomplish that. But it's better than nothing, right? Besides I still have a lot of work to do if I am ever able to get a girl like Natalie, let alone any girl, which leads us to my next "7 in 7" challenge.

I am totally unattractive. No girl in their right mind would want to be with me as evident by my lack of girlfriend at the moment. I'm pretty sure that I have the brains, award winning personality and fantastic sense of humor that the female of our species crave but I'm really lacking in the looks department. Despite all the nonsense that people throw around like beauty is in the eye of the beholder and inner beauty is what really counts, physical appearance matters a whole lot because that's the first thing they see and the lasting image that permeates the mind when your name is brought up. I'm an ugly person and I'm also heavy in the midsection. Well might as well stop dancing around the issue - I'm fat and I could stand to drop a couple hundred pounds. This shit has gone on too long and I have become complacent with being single and lonely. Is it a coincidence that I am writing this on Valentine's Day and the only one that I have to spend it with is my cat Coach Gordon Bombay? Yeah maybe but it's more of the fact that I'm just getting sick of this shit. I can't love anyone, nor can anyone love me until I love myself. And at my current state no one could love me. That's why I have to improve my outside appearance so that it matches what it inside. And the only way that I know how to do that is to work out, eat right and hopefully lose some of this weight I've been carrying around. It's no secret that I'm large and in charge and that people call me the white Fat Albert behind my back. Oh c'mon. I've heard you whisper "Hey hey hey!" as I've walked down the hallway. And I would get made if it wasn't true. Hell people used to say that I looked like Jonah Hill but know he went and lost all that weight. So I'm just going to have to go ahead and do that as well so I always look like someone. Looking like me has never really worked out so I might as well copy someone, right?

The whole purpose of this "7 in 7" series was to take away something, add something, or change something in my life in a short period of time so I would notice the difference. When I took away TV and movies for a week and replaced it with writing and playing guitar I realized that I really don't need TV and movies in my life and that I am better off if I devote my time to something that matters more and gives me more enjoyment. When the 7 days are over I will resume watching TV but I hope to do it less often and not let it rule my life any longer. It is only in the absence that we can truly appreciate what we do have. Giving up something that tied me down has kick started my passion for writing and I'm now doing it more than ever. So that is why I proposed that I work out at the gym for 7 days in a row (starting Tuesday February 14) in a effort to kick start myself into the habit of taking care of myself. I tried to care at one point and I currently have a membership to Anytime Fitness that is going to waste. It's time to use it and make better of myself. During these next 7 days I will be working out every night and I will also try to eat healthy as well. This means cutting out all snacks, fast food and all of the other garbage that I put into my body. It will be one of the toughest weeks of my entire life but I need a shock to wake me up from the deep slumber that my life has become. The hope is that by the end of the week I'll be tired as shit but I will also feel a lot better and maybe try to get into some kind of routine where I will be working out on a regular basis. Who knows if it will work but I have to at least give it a go. You never really know until you try and one thing that I know for sure is that I will die if I keep living like this so something has to change. And in the end that's all this "7 in 7" thing is. To experience something different and hopefully be more accepting of change for the better. I guess we'll see what happens in a few days if I'm able to move enough to type something here. I have a feeling that my lazy ass is going to quit this one and not make the 7 days but then again I have surprised myself. Once I kissed a girl. Growing up I never thought I'd do that. So there is hope for me yet. But damn to hell the person who thought of this idea... 

 - pookon - 

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