Posts tagged Brewers at FanHouse

Kevin Mench, Brewers OF, is not at all excited about platooning with Geoff Jenkins in left field. Mench apparently thinks he's an everyday player, which he said, in no uncertain terms, to MLB.com:

"I'm just not groomed that way," Mench said. "If I'm only going to play against lefties, what is that, 20 starts a year, 150 at-bats a year? I have proven I can play every day so I don't know why I should sit for a year, get 150 at-bats, and have them take away from my livelihood. I couldn't care less about the money, I just want to play."

Then, later:

"I still don't know what is going on here," Mench said. "Early on, they said 'it might be like this,' but nobody has said one word to me since, so I'm basically still in the dark. I can read between the lines, I guess. But this is my sixth year in the big leagues and I think I have done enough to be told what is going on either way.

"I don't know how Geoff has handled it so well," Mench continued. "He's been in the same organization for nine years and they don't tell him about what they are going to do. Leaving him in the dark is just not right. That should not be how business is done."

I hate to break it to you, Kevin, but you're not exactly a slam dunk everyday player. Since coming over from the Rangers last year, your batting average was .230 and you OBP'd an abysmal .248. That's, um, really bad.

You do have a couple points in your favor, though. One: you've had good seasons in the past, including much of 2002-2005, in which you OBP'd right around .330 every year and slugged around .470. Those are not the best metrics of performance, but they aren't bad ... and you weren't bad then, either.

Still, Mench needs to take a deep breath here. He's still playing, probably quite often, and if he gets out to a good start he should have no problem earning a starting spot somewhere in that Brewers outfield. Just take it easy, buddy.

If you've been paying attention to Brewers camp this season, you're probably familiar with the Geoff Jenkins saga. If you're new to the story, I'll recap. Jenkins more or less told the Brewers to give him the starting job in right field or trade him. The problem is that Jenkins is pretty much a platoon player for any team at this point in his career because of his inability to hit left-handed pitching. Good thing for the Brewers, Jenkins has magically learned to hit lefties this spring based on an enormous sample size of... well, two.

Brewers outfielder Geoff Jenkins, who was outspoken early in camp against giving up at-bats against left-handers, is apparently letting his bat do the talking.

Jenkins had another solid game Friday, when a Brewers split-squad throttled the Giants, 21-2, at Scottsdale Stadium. He went 3-for-5 with three runs and an RBI, including a single off Giants left-hander Ryan Meaux in a six-run Brewers third inning. In Thursday's win over the A's, Jenkins went 2-for-3, including an opposite-field RBI single off lefty Erasmo Ramirez.

Yep, two singles off of lefties in spring training games means that pretty much everyone's problems are solved.

Brewers fans must be curious exactly what Jeff Suppan is bringing to the table to Milwaukee for $42 million over the next four years because that's a ton of cash. MLB.com has the answer to that question. He's bringing the three "ables."

"He's durable, accountable, reliable," Brewers pitching coach Mike Maddux said. "He's got the three 'ables.'"

Of course he's also bringing a rising WHIP (from 1.314 in 2003 to 1.453 last year) and just slightly better than average pitching (since 1999 his ERA+ has been between 100 and 109 five times, above that level twice, and below it once) at an incredible price. Oh, and he's 32 this year. His contract is not refundable.

If you don't love Prince Fielder, I think you might be un-American. I came to this realization while reading "Five Fun Facts about Prince Fielder" at the always great Brew Crew Ball. Let's add on to Brew Crew Ball's list.

His dad, Cecil, was the man. You probably know that but let's recap anyways. I remember my dad telling me a likely apocryphal story about Cecil hitting a home run into a dumpster in Detroit during his prime. I can find no evidence that the story was true. I don't care, it's just plain cool someone even bothered to make it up. One of the all-around most fun players of my childhood.

Prince probably wouldn't look out of place next to Eric "Badlands" Booker at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest and yet he stole seven bases last year and was only caught twice. This baffles my mind.

As good as he was as a rookie in 2006, he did his best work within the division. He hit 17 of his 28 home runs against Central opponents in 2006. He's also won't turn 23 until May, which means that he'll probably get wider, stronger, and even more amusing in the near future.

Geoff Jenkins has asked the Brewers to either make him the starting right fielder or trade him, telling the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

I've got to go (if not playing regularly). I need to go ... My mentality is I don't like to sit. I'll take a day off every once in a while but I don't like to sit. That's how I'm made.

I can understand wanting to play, I mean everyone does. But there's got to be a certain point where a player has to realize he's a platoon player, right? Jenkins was almost the definition of average last year with his .271/.357/.434 line in 55 PAs for the Brewers last year. His OPS+ (definition of OPS+ for the non-sabermetrically inclined can be found here) was 102 when 100 is an average player. At 32 it seems unlikely Jenkins will be getting much better. On top of it all, he couldn't hit a left-handed pitcher if his life depended on it last year.

Where does he think he can be traded to that he'd be an every day player? The anemic Pirates were an oft-mentioned potential home for Jenkins in the off-season and even they would probably platoon Jenkins with Xavier Nady. I guess if I was making $7 million a year I'd have an inflated sense of self worth, too.