The Top Ten Brew Crew Ball Posts Of 2011

December 31, 2011

 I don't think any of us could have predicted how wildly popular Nyjer Morgan would become.

I wanted to take a moment today, on this final day of 2011, to thank all of you for making this a great year for Brew Crew Ball. Entering the day today, roughly 1.36 million of you have visited the site this year. That's easily the biggest year in site history. The site also logged 110,000 or more visits in eight different months this year: Every month of the regular season, October and December.

As we put the finishing touches on a year today, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge 2011's most popular posts, ranked by page views.

10) On Ryan Braun Testing Positive For Performance Enhancing Drugs

Unfortunately, we start this list with 2011's worst news. The news about Ryan Braun's possible suspension broke on a Saturday night, and Noah was all over it the next morning with this post discussing what we did and didn't know at that point.

9) Your Newest Brewer, Francisco Rodriguez

We're only two posts in and this is already becoming a recurring theme: News broke out of nowhere, and Noah was there to compile what we knew and provide our first reaction.

8) Ryan Braun And The Five Stages Of Grief: Anger

In the wake of the Braun news, we did a five part series attempting to process the emotions and move on. As you might expect, anger was certainly the most popular of the five stages.

7) Comparing The Top Of The NL Central, Player By Player

Long before the NL Central race began, Noah had a line-by-line look at how the division's likely contenders compared to each other.

6) A Quick Thought On The Brewers' Decision To Acquire Nyjer Morgan

This was probably my biggest swing and miss of the year. It's hard to believe it now, but a significant number of us were solidly against the decision to bring Tony Plush to Milwaukee. I was one of them, and I ranted here.

5) If Teams Were Comprised Only Of Players They Drafted

Noah is really dominating the first half of this list: Here's his exhaustive look at what the major league landscape might look like if all players remained with their original organization.

4) Top Ten NLCS Quotes From Russian Play-By-Play Announcers

This was easily 2011's best FanPost, and it was pure brilliance. Argichi stopped by to show us what we were missing by watching baseball on this side of the world, instead of in Armenia. This was the origin of "Hello, I'm a bear."

3) Did Albert Pujols Just Have The Most Overrated Performance Of All Time?

The morning after Albert Pujols' three home runs in a blowout World Series win, I felt a need to pen a counterargument against the people calling it the greatest Fall Classic performance of all time.

2) Ryan Braun Reportedly Tests Positive For PED

Unfortunately, one of the biggest traffic drivers anywhere on the internet is shocking breaking news. As we all learned about this for the first time we congregated here.

1) Tony Plush Does Milwaukee: April 7 Edition

Because Nyjer Morgan didn't join the team until the end of spring training, most of us didn't get a chance to learn much about his personality (personalities?) and antics until we witnessed it firsthand. Rubie Q heard and transcribed one of Morgan's first radio appearances and gave us a glimpse at what we'd be talking about for the rest of the year.

Thanks to the contributors who penned those posts, and thanks to all of you for reading them!


Today In Brewer History: Eddie Mathews Moves On

December 31, 2011

On this day in 1966, one of the greatest players in Milwaukee baseball history moved on to a new team. The Braves (who had moved to Atlanta one year earlier) traded third baseman Eddie Mathews to the Astros as part of a five player deal. Mathews was 35 and had just finished his 15th major league season. He was the only player who appeared in games for the Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves.

The Braves' first season in Milwaukee was a breakout year for Mathews. He led the NL with 47 home runs in his second full season and set a career high with 135 RBI. He made his first of nine All Star appearances that season.

All told, Mathews played in 92.3% of all games played during the Braves' 13 seasons in Milwaukee, hitting .277/.385/.528 over that stretch with 452 home runs. If not for Hank Aaron, he'd almost certainly be the greatest player in Milwaukee Braves history.

Mathews split two more major league years between the Astros and Tigers before retiring following the 1968 season. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1978 and is still among the top 100 all time in each of these categories:

Stat Number Rank
Home Runs 521 21st
Walks 1444 23rd
RBI 1453 57th
Runs 1509 66th
Slugging .509 75th


Winter League Notes, 2011-12-31

December 31, 2011

Puerto Rico: Mayaguez W 6-4 at Carolina; Caguas L 5-2 at Ponce
Venezuela: Aragua W 4-1 (Game 1) vs Zulia

Batter Team Pos AB R H RBI BB SO E AVG Notes
Andy Gonzalez Caguas 3B 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 .237
Martin Maldonado Mayaguez C 5 1 1 0 0 1 0 .271
Sergio Miranda Mayaguez 2B 4 1 2 0 1 0 0 .268 3B
Juan Sanchez Aragua PR-DH 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .500


Brew Crew Blasts, #7: Get Used To Seeing Prince Fielder

December 30, 2011

This is Part Four of a ten part series looking at the Brewers' longest home runs in 2011, as measured by Hit Tracker Online. Parts One, Two and Three of the series ran earlier this week.

The fact that we've gone three full days in this series without discussing a Prince Fielder home run is something of an upset. Rest assured, though, we'll be talking about him more often than not the rest of the way.

Our first Fielder bomb came on July 5. The Brewers were trailing the Diamondbacks 7-1 in the sixth inning and this tape measure blast didn't actually help the situation all that much, but at least it gave us a nice highlight:

Hit Tracker Online says that ball traveled 443 feet and experienced a velocity of 112 mph coming off Fielder's bat. That's the longest home run Zach Duke had allowed since Fielder connected for a 450 foot blast off of him on May 29, 2006. That historic footage can be seen here.


NL Central repeat on Brewers’ minds for ’12

December 30, 2011

 Before the NL Central champion Brewers begin another march through the summer, here are 10 questions to ponder for 2012.

Friday’s Frosty Mug

December 30, 2011

Mug999_medium

We're just a few days away from one of the most notable arbitrary milestones in BCB history: The 1000th Frosty Mug. Join us back here on Monday for the first ever four-digit festivities, and at Rounding Third on Tuesday for The Night Of (Approximately) 1000 Mugs.

Some things to read while buying lots of kerosene.

We're 50 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale, and we've finally reached the end of the slowest week of the offseason. Our final installment of "Year In Review" posts comes from Doug Russell of OnMilwaukee, who listed three Brewer moments (Ryan Braun's MVP, his winter controversy and the Brewers' NL Central championship) among his top ten from Wisconsin sports in 2011.

Here's another reminder that having Carlos Gomez as a second center fielder is a pretty unique luxury: High Heat Stats named him to their 2011 Part-time All Star team.

Elsewhere in luxuries: Yovani Gallardo made just $3.25 million in 2011, and gets another modest raise to $5.5 million in 2012. Jim Breen of Bernie's Crew has a look back at the decision to sign him to a long term deal.

Here are today's Prince Fielder notes:

In the minors:

  • Francisco Rodriguez pitched another scoreless inning in Venezuela last night, allowing his first VWL hit in La Guaira's 6-2 win over Margarita. You can read about that and more in today's Winter League Notes.
  • Huntsville has hired a new broadcaster: Alex Cohen will be starting his first minor league job this summer and the team is going back to a traditional broadcast following a year of calling games from a couch in the stands. (h/t @Mass_Haas)

File this under "something to keep an eye on:" A reader on Brewerfan.net heard a report that the Brewers will be making a major sponsorship change at Miller Park this winter, but more details aren't available because the Brewer front office is shut down for the holidays. I'm guessing it has something to do with the Air Tran Landing Zone, which we've previously reported is likely to undergo a name change.

Around baseball:

Red Sox: Outfielder Ryan Kalish recently underwent shoulder surgery and will not be ready for Opening Day.

The most interesting news yesterday might have come from Houston, where the Astros have reportedly interviewed Keith Law about a collection of front office vacancies they're looking to fill. If you'd like to join KLaw (potentially) in Houston, Tangotiger notes that the Astros have a handful of other vacancies too.

Last week I reported that Law and Buster Olney listed the NL Central as baseball's worst division. This week Joe Sheehan of Sports Illustrated is picking the Reds, who finished a distant third in the division in 2011, to win the World Series. Somehow those two things just don't seem to match up. (h/t Nick Hurm)

The Athletics saga with San Jose is showing limited signs of ending anytime soon, but this is an interesting side note: A's owner Lew Wolff has purchased a hotel in downtown San Jose.

Today in baseball economics: The details of Albert Pujols' new deal with the Angels have been released, and things now look even worse for the 2016-2021 teams. The contract is heavily backloaded and will pay Pujols over $30 million per year during his post-40 seasons.

In former Brewers:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some shopping to do.

Drink up.


Winter League Notes, 2011-12-30

December 30, 2011

Dominican playoffs: Gigantes L 4-1 at Escogido
Puerto Rico: Mayaguez W 4-1 vs Caguas
Venezuela: La Guaira W 6-2 at Margarita

Batter Team Pos AB R H RBI BB SO E AVG Notes
Erick Almonte Gigantes 1B 4 0 3 0 0 0 0 .250
Martin Maldonado Mayaguez C 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 .274
Edwin Maysonet Caguas 3B 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 .306
Sergio Miranda Mayaguez 2B 3 1 0 0 1 1 0 .259
Pitcher Team IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Dec Notes
Francisco Rodriguez La Guaira 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0.00


Today In Brewer History: Happy Birthday, Grant Balfour

December 30, 2011

 Grant Balfour wasn't a Brewer for very long, but he's been very good since leaving Milwaukee.

On this day in 1977 Grant Balfour was born in Sydney, Australia. The Twins signed him as an amateur free agent in 1997 and he made his major league debut in 2001, getting a brief cup of coffee in Minnesota.

Balfour was back with the Twins as a reliever in 2003 and '04, but an injury threatened to derail his career and cost him the entire 2005 and most of the 2006 seasons. Finally healthy in 2007, Balfour found another chance with the Brewers and put up huge numbers in the minors, posting a 1.87 ERA and striking out 14.1 batters per nine in 32 outings between Huntsville and Nashville.

Unfortunately, that success didn't immediately carry over to the big leagues. Balfour posted a 20.25 ERA and was designated for assignment after just three outings as a Brewer. The Rays, however, hadn't given up on him and acquired him (in exchange for Seth McClung). Since the start of the 2008 season Balfour has been one of the game's best relievers, posting a 2.85 ERA over 243 outings.

Balfour turns 34 today. With help from the B-Ref Play Index, we'd also like to wish a happy birthday to:


Brew Crew Blasts, #8: Corey Hart’s Fast Start

December 29, 2011

This is Part Three in a ten part series looking at the Brewers' longest home runs of 2011 as measured by Hit Tracker Online. Part One of the series ran on Tuesday, and Part Two ran yesterday.

From the moment the 2011 schedule was released, I think many of us suspected that the Brewers' eleven game post-All Star Break west coast road trip would be an important measuring stick for this team. They left Milwaukee half a game back of first place in the NL Central, and would need a solid performance to keep things close.

After splitting a four game set in Colorado, the Brewers moved on to Arizona and dropped the first game there. They picked up a big win the next night, though, and Corey Hart got the scoring started early:

Hit Tracker Online measured that blast at 443 feet. It was Hart's first leadoff home run since July of 2007, and he went on to hit four more in 2011.

The Brewers went on to score four more runs off Barry Enright in the first inning and won the game 11-3. They eventually split the four game series in Arizona and lost two of three in San Francisco to close out a 5-6 road trip and return home tied for first place. They then went 26-5 in their next 31 games to open up a 10.5 game lead.


The Thursday Thinker: Celebrating The Overcycle

December 29, 2011

 Prince Fielder did a lot of cool things as a Brewer, but he never once hit for an overcycle.

Writing about Richie Sexson this morning made me think of something I kick around from time to time.

The cycle is one of baseball's most notable individual performances, but in most cases it's something of a freak occurrence. Getting a single, double, triple and home run in the same game is certainly a notable feat, but a player who hits two doubles and two home runs has done more to help his team and will get less attention for doing so.

Today we're celebrating the players who have done more and gotten less credit. In franchise history there have been eleven "overcycles:" Games where a player had at least four hits and more than ten total bases. How many of the players involved can you name in five minutes?

The rules remain the same: Post your score in the comments but do not comment on any specific answer until after 6 pm Central time, so everyone gets a chance to try it out without having it spoiled for them. And, of course, there's no reason to cheat here, because there aren't any prizes.

Given five minutes to guess, it's possible a fair number of you will get ten of these. I'll be surprised if anyone gets eleven, but if you do be sure to post your time along with your score in the comments.

Have fun, and don't forget to post your score in the comments!

If you've finished that one and you're looking for more Brewer Sporcle today, here are this offseason's other quizzes: