Bad news coming out of Milwaukee this evening, as the Brewers have recently learned that they're going to lose second baseman Rickie Weeks for the remainder of the 2009 season. Weeks tore the tendon sheath in his left wrist on Sunday and the injury will require surgery that will keep Weeks out at least four months. It's the same injury weeks suffered in his right wrist in 2006 that ended that season and caused him trouble into 2007.
It's almost unspeakable bad luck for Weeks, as he was off to a great start in 2009 and seemed to finally be fully healthy and ready to live up to the expectations that the Brewers placed on him years ago. Through 37 games, Weeks was hitting .272/.340/.517 with nine homers (his career high is 16) and even made Snyder's early All-Star ballot last week. He's still only 26, but to suffer another injury like this is devastating.
NEW YORK – Basic math: subtract two pitchers who went 24-11, another who saved 28 games and two managers and what do you get?
Well, besides a boost in attendance, the Brewers say they can be even better in 2009 than last year, when they went to the playoffs for the first time since 1982.
"I think we can [be as good]," veteran infielder Craig Counsell told FanHouse last week. "We have an offense that really should be better than last year – young guys in the prime of their careers."
The season is already off to a disappointing start for the Brewers and their third baseman, Bill Hall. Entering Spring Training, Hall had his eyes on a return to his 2006 form -- when he hit 35 home runs. Instead, he injured himself during conditioning activities and may not be ready for the beginning of the season.
Hall has been diagnosed with a partially torn calf muscle in his left leg. The injury typically takes four to six weeks to heal, and we're just over seven weeks away from Opening Day. He'll have missed most of his spring training reps by that point.
UPDATE: FanHouse's own Bruce Ciskie has just e-mailed me to let me know that while Hardy dislocated his left, non-throwing, thumb in the celebration last night, it's been popped back into place (what a visual) and he's playing tonight. The Brewers haven't commented yet, but he is in the starting lineup.
Whenever I watch a wild dog-pile at home plate celebrating a walk-off hit for someone, I invariably wonder why people don't get injured more often in those celebrations. Word has trickled out of Milwaukee today that J.J. Hardy may have done just that last night. Tom Haudricort at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has found reason to think that Hardy suffered a hand injury while celebratingRyan Braun's tenth inning walk-off grand slam last night.
[Brewers' media relations director Mike] Vassallo said [assistant GM Gord] Ash told him he would have no comment on the situation until Hardy reports to the ballpark today and is examined by medical personnel. That makes it sound as if something indeed happened to Hardy last night. Otherwise, Ash would have merely denied the speculation and said there was nothing to it.
So, it's not official but it sure sounds like something is up. Otherwise, Ash would have blown the speculation out of the water. Sounds as if the Brewers are waiting for an update on the situation as well.
Playing the Cubs with the pennant on the line and Craig Counsell starting at shortstop. That's what the Brewers face this weekend if Hardy hurt himself seriously enough to have to miss time. And it was celebrating a win over the Pirates that took ten innings. I know it was a big win in the playoff race and all, but I feel like celebrating after beating the Pirates is a really stupid way to injure yourself.
Injuries never really come at good times, but this is an especially poorly timed one for the Brewers because they've been playing a little better lately and because the Cubs are absolutely dominating the National League Central right now. It's still early, but the Brewers probably need to regroup and think abou the Wild Card unless something rather dramatic happens in the next couple weeks.
Maybe the spark will come in the form of Weeks' injury. As I mentioned, he's been terrible this year. Then again, Craig Counsell (his likely replacement in the starting lineup) has actually been worse. The guy they're calling up, Hernan Iribarren, actually has about the same line as Weeks this year, only in AAA. Maybe the Brewers should be looking elsewhere for their spark.
Buried deep within this Journal-Sentinel story today (the link to which was buried even deeper in this Buster Olney dispatch) is a note about Craig Counsell's sad decision to change his batting stance. Since Counsell hit so poorly last year, The Diminutive One has decided to change his quirky, bat-to-the-sky stance:
"I knew coming into the off-season I was going to change some things. I'm attempting to be a lot more still at the plate with my head and trying to stay under my legs a lot more. What I was doing was kind of high maintenance. When your playing time is a little more infrequent, it's even tougher to keep your timing. This is a little simpler. And in the end, it's a lot more sound fundamentally, really."
It's probably an understatement to call what Counsell was doing "a little high maintenance." That stance was the baseball equivalent of Heidi Montag. (Pop culture! It's relevant!) Maybe the new approach will help Craig improve his contact and bat speed. But that doesn't mean it won't make me sad. Farewell, you silly stance, you:
For the past month or so, the Brewers have been trying not to panic with their NL Central lead disappearing fast. They've been doing a decent job of it (they are still in first place, afterall), but I think it's going to get much tougher to do in a very short order.
It just seems like all of the wheels are coming off at once on Milwaukee's train. Sheets will be back soon, but he really can't be back soon enough given the struggles of the Brewers' rotation. The Cubs have been sliding a bit in the past week, which is the only reason that the Brewers are still in first. They're going to have to hold on for dear life or hope something pulls them out of this slump, though, because things are not looking up for them right now.
With their lead in the NL Central shrinking, it looks like the Brewers have finally had enough of Rickie Weeks' year-long rehab at second base. Weeks had his 2006 season ended by a wrist injury and he's spent some time on the DL this year trying to nurse it back to health. Unfortunately, he's never been able to get his bat going, putting up a .212/.330/.363 line that's shown neither the power nor on-base skills the Brewers expected from Weeks this year. As a result, he's going to AAA Nashville.
The question, however, is how much this will actually solve for Milwaukee. Weeks will probably be replaced at second base by the two-headed monster of Craig Counsell and Tony Graffanino, the guys that started the year at third base for Milwaukee before the emergence of Ryan Braun. Their play at third is what necessitated the calling-up of Braun in the first place. Counsell is hitting .242/.352/.341 and Graffanino is hitting .237/.314/.400. I guess if you combine Counsell's on-base percentage with Graffanino's slugging percentage, you've got a decent second baseman. Unfortunately, that's not really an option.
Still, the Brewers didn't have a whole lot of choice here. Weeks has been even worse than his line suggests since coming off the DL, so they really had to do something. I know Weeks is the second baseman of the future in Milwaukee, but at some point the Brewers have to realize that playing for this year is just as profitable as playing for the future (they are in first place and all), and I'd guess that a revelation along those lines just took place.
As if a 25-11 record and an 8-game division lead on Mother's Day wasn't proof enough, yesterday afternoon gave us even further proof that every single thing possible is going right for the Milwaukee Brewers. In their 12-3 romp over the Mets yesterday, the Brewers scored two runs on a sac-fly double-play pop-up to shallow right field. Confused? Let me attempt to clarify.
With the bases loaded and one out in the fourth inning, Prince Fielder hit a shallow pop-up to right field. Since the ball was caught by second baseman Ruben Gotay, who was backing up into the outfield, Craig Counsell scored from third. On Gotay's throw to the plate, JJ Hardy broke for second while Tony Gwynn Jr. broke for third. Paul LoDuca threw to second and got Hardy in a rundown, but during the rundown the Mets forgot about Gwynn, who took off for home. Hardy had enough baseball sense to stay in the rundown long enough for Gwynn to score before he was tagged out. Since Hardy wasn't a force out, the run counted. It was a great play by Hardy to stay in the rundown, knowing Gwynn was trying to score. In fact, yesterday was a great day for Hardy, who also hit a grand slam and drove in one other run with a sac fly. Ned Yost was rather pleased with his team's baseball awareness:
"Smart, aggressive baserunning is what that is," Yost said. " 'Couns' read it perfectly and took off; J.J. got in the rundown. It just worked perfect.
"It's good baserunning. What we've worked on since the beginning of spring training is trying to help ourselves offensively with our baserunning. That was a good example of it."
The Brewers will send the 5-0 Chris Capuano to the mound today to try and win the series from the Mets while the Mets will counter with Oliver Perez, whom the Brewers have a pretty decent track record against from his time with the Pirates.
Beyond the Cards drubbing of the 'Stros, there were actually two other games of note involving the other four NL Central teams today, making it a pretty good day for the division.
It took a week, but the Pirates finally got the 2006 NL batting champ back into their lineup today in Cincy and Freddy Sanchez picked up where he left off last year. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and Zach Duke pitched very well for six innings (before getting shelled in the seventh) while the Pirates did one of the very few things they're good at, beating Eric Milton and by extension the Reds, 6-3. To build on to Red's Canadian meme from earlier, BC native Jason Bay hit his 2nd homer of the year to finish the Reds off and Pittsburgh's Brad Eldred made the most of his first playing time this year by homering and doubling in another run. Ken Griffey Jr. had 2 RBIs for the Reds and Xavier Nady went a full nine innings without batting any flyballs over the fence with his glove.
Meanwhile in Milwaukee, Wade Miller made his first start in Cubbie blue and he didn't look much like the Wade Miller of old, giving up six earned runs in less than 5 innings of work. Geoff Jenkins and Gabe Gross both went deep against Miller for the Brewers and Craig Counsell knocked in three runs to help the Brew Crew a 9-4 win to even off both teams' records at 3-3.
Pittsburgh and Chicago both move on to their home openers against the Cardinals and Astros, respectively, while both the Brewers and Reds will head on out towards warmer weather in Arizona and Florida.
Bad news coming out of Milwaukee this evening, as the Brewers have recently learned that they're going to lose second baseman Rickie Weeks for the remainder of the 2009 season. Weeks tore the tendon sheath in his left wrist on Sunday and the injury will require surgery that will keep Weeks out at least four months. It's the same injury weeks suffered in his right wrist in 2006 that ended that season and caused him trouble into 2007. 
NEW YORK – Basic math: subtract two pitchers who went 24-11, another who saved 28 games and two managers and what do you get?
The season is already off to a disappointing start for the Brewers and their third baseman, 
UPDATE: FanHouse's own 
The Brewers have their share of problems. They've lost 
For the past month or so, the Brewers have been trying not to panic with their NL Central lead disappearing fast. They've been doing a decent job of it (they are still in first place, afterall), but I think it's going to get much tougher to do in a very short order. 
With their lead in the NL Central shrinking, it looks like the Brewers have finally had enough of 
As if a 25-11 record and an 8-game division lead on Mother's Day wasn't proof enough, yesterday afternoon gave us even further proof that every single thing possible is going right for the Milwaukee Brewers. In their 12-3 romp over the Mets yesterday, the Brewers scored two runs on a sac-fly double-play pop-up to shallow right field. Confused? Let me attempt to clarify.
Beyond 
