The Sunday Cycle: A collection of four of my thoughts from the prior week of Brewers baseball
Current Record- 24-14, First Place- NL Central
Single- First, to those loyal fans of the Sunday Cycle (all twelve of you, you guys are awesome), I apologize for the delay in posting this week, and lack of in depth analysis- I took a nice break from live baseball and followed the action via my carefully crafted twitter feed. We’ll start it off light with something that caught my eye- hats off to the Brewers fans for ranking 2nd in the NL in attendance this season to date. The Brewers have a great thing going with the Miller Park tailgate scene, and with a winning baseball team, the smallest market in major league baseball rarely disappoints. Again- not a lot of in depth analysis this week; compare this point to a two-out bases empty single.
Double- A beaten up Brewers team went 3-3 this past week, including a series win against a tough Yankees team. While this doesn’t compare to the league best .714 winning percentage in April, winning every other game could be what this team needs to do for the next couple of weeks while they try to make do without some critical bats in the lineup. Aramis Ramirez was added to the growing list of injuries Saturday when he exited the game with a hamstring injury that could land him on the 15-day DL for what could be longer than just two weeks. At 24-14, the Brewers would need to go 66-58 to reach the all-important 90-win mark. Without their 3-4 hitters, .500 baseball will be enough for now to keep this team on track towards the ultimate goal of playing in October.
Triple- I have to admit I was both surprised and unhappy to hear that Rickie Weeks was asked if he would spend some time at first base or left field and declined. I get that he’s a competitor, and on a bit of a hot streak in his past five appearances, but with Weeks’ lack of production for the majority of his 36 million dollar contract, I don’t get how he turns down playing time, especially for a team that is so injured at the moment. Part of my displeasure comes from surprise; Week’s work ethic has been well documented and highly praised by his teammates for years. While I may be a bias Scooter Gennett fan, I do believe the rookie has earned the job at second base since coming up last August, and is clearly the future at that position for the Crew. Fans of Weeks will note that his batting average sits a whole point above Gennett’s OBP (.318 vs .317), but a .282 average for Gennett is not exactly disappointing. My Coors Light Bold Prediction of the Week: Weeks will not be in a Brewer’s uniform by June 15th.
HR- Francisco Rodriguez allowed his first earned run of the year yesterday in his first blown save in sixteen opportunities. The Brewers backed up their closer by walking off in the bottom of the ninth to take home a series victory against a very good Yankees team. While it’s hard not to talk about Sunday’s game, I actually thought Saturday night set the stage for K-Rod’s biggest save of the year. The team had lost three in a row, had a big name ball club in town in front of a sellout crowd, and was leading by one run in a game that featured three lead changes. He needed just five pitches to send the Miller Park crowd home happy and complete his fifteenth straight save. Now the question becomes, can he bounce back and continue his dominance?