The Milwaukee Rookies
For the next week or so, rumor has it that the Milwaukee Brewers are going to change their name to the Milwaukee Rookies.
Now, JJ Hardy has been in the majors all season and has struggled. His defense has been great, but his average is a measly .177. Heck, Wes Obermueller has a better average than that.
Dave Krynzel is also a rookie, but he doesn’t play on a regular basis. Still, with 7 at bats, he’s batting a whopping .000. Way to go, Dave.
Last week was the big “SPIVEY for OKHA” trade. I think it was a good move… one, we got rid of an infielder who is injury prone, and two, we picked up a SOLID 5th starter. If you think Obermueller’s 2 2/3 inning starts his past two times were “solid,” then you are smoking some crazy stuff. ANYWAY, part of that trade meant bringing Ricky Weeks up from AAA. The kid has only been up for 3 days, but he’s batting .250. Yes, .250. Better than either of the two rookies before him. With that is 3 strikeouts though, so I’m sure he’s just taking some getting used to.
Well, NOW, to complete the newly formed “Milwaukee Rookies,” the Brewers called up Prince Fielder today to DH in the interleague games this week. Granted, Fielder is batting .253 with 15 home runs and 47 runs batted in for the Nashville Sounds. He had a .507 slugging percentage, with 37 walks and 57 strikeouts. I guess with Damian Miller, Russell Branyan and Jeff Cirillo all hurt, our DH possibilities would be pretty limited. Chris Magruder? Hardly DH quality. Maybe Ben Sheets?
With 4 losses in a row and barely scoring 3 runs in most of those games, I suppose we have absolutely nothing to lose. After all, they said that Fielder is getting sent back down as soon as interleague play is done. But are we bringing up our great farm system too fast? What do you think?
I dont think they’re bringing them up too fast. There’s nothing wrong with getting some of these guys some playing time, even if they might not be quite ready for big league action. Krynzel and Fielder will both only be up for a short time, and Fielder will only be hitting while he’s up. I don’t see any risk in harming him either physically or psychologically by having him DH for a couple of games. Krynzel has been in the big leagues before, and he was only brough up for a short time. In fact I believe he was sent back down when they called Weeks up.
Weeks and Hardy are big league ready and the Brewers are right to have both of them in the majors. I think the plan is for them to seldomly be in the lineup together. They will have Bill Hall in there just about every day, subbing for one of them. That takes some of the pressure off of them and will allow them to transition smoothly to the big league level. Hardy’s bat will come around and Weeks is going to be a star!
Comment by Tim — 6/13/2005 @ 1:02 pm