The Small Market Savior

There are times when living in a small-market baseball town isn't fun. It is generally assumed that the superstars of the team will be in Yankee pinstripes, or hitting moonshots over the Green Monster when their contract is up with their small market team. Ryan Braun's new contract extension made sure that no such thing will happen with him.

By now, the deal is pretty well known, and here is a link for all the details. I love the idea of having Braunie on the team for the rest of the decade. In my opinion, the best part of the contract is Braun's decision to defer money in order to keep the Crew competitive and be able to sign big free agents. For a player to put his team over himself is the utmost example of class and shows me Braun is determined to bring a World Series winner to the Brew City.



It is a great feeling to know Brewer fans will never have to sweat out a late July deadline with the chance that Braun could be changing teams. Braun made the decision that playing in Wisconsin was good enough for him, and knows that along with Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, he can be the face of Wisconsin professional sports. I said this on Friday, but I will reiterate, having guys like Braun and Rodgers makes me proud to be a Wisconsin sports fan. Two ultimate class acts who want to win, and want to make themselves better.

I love that Braun had a killer series after his contract because the typical Brewer thing would be a horrific three games plus maybe he gets banged up since the Brewers have some voodoo curse on them at times.  Braunie bucked that trend with a couple homers, and some big base hits. I would be shocked if he didn't net National League Player of the Week for his performance against Philadelphia and Houston.  One of the biggest criticisms of Braun in the past couple of years was his slow starts to the season.  To think he is doing without Corey Hart in the lineup makes it absolutely phenomenal.  When Hart gets comfortable in this lineup, I cannot help but be giddy thinking this team should score five runs per night if not more.

The Ryan Braun deal is great for Major League Baseball because it gives all small market teams hope they can keep their home-grown superstars for life.  Right now, Oakland A's fans hope that some of their young pitchers like Gio Gonzalez and Brett Anderson this time around are different than guys like Barry Zito and Tim Hudson.  Kansas City Royals fans hope Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, and other promising prospects will stay in the blue and white for the next ten years.

We as Brewer fans hope the big guy who wears number twenty-eight  reconsiders testing the market and stays put here in Milwaukee keeping the best one-two punch in baseball here in Milwaukee.

-Charlie.

Brewers Getting Brooms Ready in Philly

I never thought I'd say those words but today the Milwaukee Brewers have put themselves in a position to sweep the Philadelphia Phillies. You have to go back to 2006 for the Brewers last sweep of the Phillies, when they did it at Miller Park.

Since then, the Phillies have been in back-to-back World Series and beat the Tampa Bay Rays the 2008 Fall Classic. They have also added pitchers like Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt to the equation.

Snap back to reality, I was prepared for the Brewers to get pummeled in Philadelphia after playing some real bad baseball in the Nation's capital this past weekend. I might be jinxing it with this post but I feel better about facing Cliff Lee than I do facing Roy Halladay, especially with Randy Wolf on the bump against Halladay.

Much to my pleasure, Wolf rose to the occasion and pitched very well last night. Correct me if I'm wrong Brewer fans, but that is two consecutive quality starts out of 2010's prized pitching acquisition. I'd be lying if I said Wolf got lucky a few times here and there last night but that's what has to happen for Wolf to keep us in the game.

And the offense did the rest.

We put up single runs in the second and third innings and in the sixth as Wolf continued to keep Phillies' hitters off balance. Then in the seventh frame, the Brewers busted the game open. The highlight of the inning was a first pitch, 3-run HR by Buster McGehee to welcome Philly reliever David Herndon to the game. Two of those runs were put on Halladay's tab giving him 6 ER over 6.2 innings.

Ryan Braun continues to swing a hot bat as well. He homered of Halladay in the third last night and was on base four times against the perennial Cy Young candidate. Before the Brewers' home opener they had various members of the local media on as part of an hour and a half pre-game show and I believe it was Journal Sentinel writer Michael Hunt who predicted that Braun would win the MVP in 2011. While it's way to soon for me to jump to that conclusion, he could find himself in the discussion if things continue to go well for him and the Brewers.

I'm fairly confident in the Brewers' ability to get the W today. In one career start against the Brewers (I know, it's a small sample size), Cliff Lee allowed seven runs in six innings back in 2009. Let's hope history repeats itself.