Milwaukee Brewers: So this is what 100 losses feels like

I compete in a computer baseball league called the Pure Fun Baseball League (PFBL-A), in which we play the Diamond Mind Baseball game. About this time of year, many of the ‘managers’ realize that their team is going nowhere this year and trade away current talent for prospects or draft picks in next year’s PFBL Rookie Draft.

Maybe it’s time the real Milwaukee Brewers make that connection and start dealing key parts before their values sink below a tradeable level. As it stands right now, not many Brewers would fetch a premium on the trade market.

Catcher Jonathan Lucroy, 1B Adam Lind, SS Jean Segura, OF Gerardo Parra, and closer Francisco Rodriguez are the only players–in my mind–that would be enough to tempt another team to send a decent prospect or two in return. And that would only be if the situation was right and the other team was willing to dicker, as opposed to acting like a buyer in a buyer’s market.

Time will tell what teams come-a-callin’ and who needs what. We’ll leave that for further conjecture another day.

Getting back to the 100 loss feeling…the Brewers have sunk to that ‘rarefied’ (sarcasm) level only once since they began play in 1970, and that was not too long ago–2002.

The Crew performed to a scintillating mark of 56-106 that year, finishing a mere 41 games out of first. Davey Lopes followed up his 89 and 94 loss seasons, respectively, by starting the 2002 campaign with three wins in 15 games. He was ousted, succeeded by Jerry Royster (both ex-Dodgers by the way, bleeding no ‘Dodger Blue’ in Milwaukee) who finished the season with a record of 53-94, completing the first-and-only three-digit loss season in the Brewha’s history.

This year, manager Ron Roenicke did his best Lopes impression and got canned after a mere 25 games (7-18), giving way to Milwaukee home-town hero Craig Counsell. Unfortunately, that change hasn’t been very positive either, as the Brewers have stumbled to an 18-28 start with the Whitefish Bay native.

What has gone wrong for Milwaukee this year? Ha, what hasn’t?

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Jim Henderson, Carlos Gomez, Scooter Gennett, Lucroy, Segura, Wily Peralta, Brandon Kintzler, and Khris Davis have all been on or are currently on the 15-day disabled list. Ryan Braun was also ‘day-to-day’ for a while and has not played up to his usual standards.

All teams battle injuries, but it is especially tough when the squad is struggling to win games and the stars go down for the count.

Milwaukee has won three games in a row twice this year. Believe it or not, that is their high for the season. They’ve done a lot better on the loss side: they have consecutive streaks of eight, seven, and six, respectively in the first 11 weeks of the season.

That folks, is how you lose 100 games.

Whether it takes players returning to 100%, trading players for new blood, or just a heart-to-heart chat session in the locker room, unless the Brewers can turn this around, it’s gonna be a long season.