Lou’s Brewers Banalities: June Edition

Jean Segura could slide, but it would be unnecessary. Photo: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

First of all, please accept my apologies for this being a week later than usual.  This month has been full of downs and…well, mostly downs and it has been hard for me to come up with enough to fill my banality bucket.  Alas, I have dug down deep into my jet black, jaded, bitter soul to provide you with my insight into the past month of Brewers baseball.  As is tradition, here is a catch up for first timers:

"If you are not sure what exactly a banality is, it is just a fancy way of saying “old news” or “cliché”.  Essentially, once a month I am going to lay out a couple of Brewers issues or topics that may be a little played out, but then I will give them my spin.  I have been told that my spin is sometimes stupid, uneducated, and even immature."

Jean Segura and the All-Star Game

How is he 3^rd  in the voting?  Troy Tulowitzki is an awesome ball player, but he will not even be on the field again until the end of July.  How can he be the leading vote getter?  That brings us to number 2, Brandon Crawford…who is having a very nice season, but this is clearly just the Giants fan base pushing one of their boys to the top of the polls.  Which, for the record, I have no problem with.  I am all for taking advantage of the system and fighting the man.  In this instance, I am just surprised that Segura is not getting more press on a national level.  He is a walking highlight-reel, who is only a few games away from 100 hits for the season (as of publishing, he had his 100^th hit on Tuesday night).  Which puts him third on the list of most hits FOR THE ENTIRE LEAGUE!!!!  I do not want to take away from Brandon Crawford and his season, but there is no f-ing way that he should start the AS Game over Segura.  Click on each of their names and you will be re-directed straight to Baseball-Reference…you be the judge.

K-Rod Gets 300^th Career Save

This happened.  I don’t like K-Rod.  Hope he gets traded.  People will say “But Lou, it’s history!”  I know and I don’t care.  If it helps his trade value, then it was awesome.

Ryan Braun’s Thumb

Having recently sprained the thumb on my right hand in a softball game, I can attest to the fact that this is the most frustrating injury of all time.  Do you know how much stuff you use your thumb for?  It is absurd!  Not to mention the odds of re-injuring it are 10,000 to 1 the moment you wake up in the morning.  Putting on your socks, re-injured…using a pen, re-injured…wiping your backside, guaranteed injury.  Now this is not the most painful injury, but I can bet it is one of the most “nagging” injuries you can ever have.  So before we all get on Braun’s case about possibily missing 6 weeks with a thumb injury…go out and buy yourself a finger splint, then wear it on your thumb for one day without taking it off.  I guarantee you will be singing a different tune before the day is over.  Feeling your pain number 8…feeling your pain.

The Nashville Brewers

That mini-title was in jest, but it is seriously looking more and more like that every day.  Due to injuries and slumps, we now have half of the Nashville Sounds 2013 Opening Day roster…on our roster.  (updated as of publish date from here on out) Scooter Gennett, Hiram Burgos, Caleb Gindl, Logan Schafer, Juan Francisco, Jean Segura, Jeff Bianchi, and (as of this morning) Johnny Hellweg are all babies!!  Yet they find themselves not just on the team, but getting significant playing time.  Injuries to Carlos Gomez, Ryan Braun, Marco Estrada, and whoever else is on that laundry list have forced the organizations hand.  Then you factor in HORRIBLE play from Rickie Weeks, Yuniesky Betancourt, the now departed Alex Gonzalez , and the entire starting rotation…what choice did management have?  I have started calling Miller Park “The Crystal Ball”, since it keeps showing me the future.  The rest of 2013 shall be reffered to as “The Team of Tomorrow, Today!!”.

Carlos Lee Retires

This made me sad.  I remember the day he was traded to Texas…because I was at Miller Park when it happened.  Sitting in the parking lot, tailgating with some friends, when all of a sudden the radio blows my mind: Carlos Lee and Nelson Cruz traded to Rangers in exchanged for Francisco Corderro, Kevin Mench, and Laynce Nix.  It was a terrible trade that paid little, to no, dividends.  That aside, El Caballo helped bring me back to baseball and more importantly, back to the Brewers after the baseball strike in 1994.  There was a long period of time were I stayed away from baseball and if not for Lee and Geoff Jenkins, I may never have come back.  Still hate Bud Selig, but at least I am back watching the greatest sport on earth.  Lee finished his career with 358 HR’s and 1,363 RBI’s. 

Racing Sausages Turn 20 Years Old

Someone get these fictional racing meat tubes a drink…oops!  Not yet, one more year.  This is a throw away topic, but fun none the less.  It is cool to think that for 20 years, this is still the thing people always talk about when they mention the Brewers.  As a man who made his way on this site with mustaches, clearly I am not opposed to nonsensical gimmicks.  Happy Birthday to the original 3: Bratwurst, Polish, and Italian.

The Future of Ron Roenicke

This one does not fall under the definition of a Banality, but it is something I wanted to touch on briefly – It is one thing to be given a bad team and asked to make them half-way decent.  It is quite another to be given a sub .500 team and watch them flail aimlessly into oblivion.  Ron Roenicke is in the second boat.  Despite all of the injuries, he still should be held accountable to a certain extent.  It is no secret that he is horrible at managing pitchers.  His “bunt to win” mentality is stale and lately has hurt this team more than it has helped them.  And now the team is SO aggressive on the base paths that it is starting to backfire…like a potato shoved into your tailpipe.  Here is what I think will happen: If they blow up the roster at the AS break, RRR is gone.  If they keep some of the primary pieces in place (Ramirez, Lohse, and Gallardo), RRR will return for one more season.

RtB Weekend

To finish off this month’s Banalities, I wanted to bring up our staff weekend.  If you have ever wanted to meet Colin, Ben, Curt, Justin, or myself…come on out to Miller Park next weekend (July 5, 6, and 7).  We will be Tweeting our location prior to the game, as well as doing live podcasts and even some Vlogging (video blogging).  While we will not have any free stuff to give away (at least not that I know of), we would love to talk with you and have a beer non-alcoholic carbonated beverage together.  Follow all of the guys on Twitter for more details as we get closer.