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The Brewers have gotten off to a terrible start, and despite hiring Craig Counsell, it's likely that they'll still sell off a lot of pieces. They're eleven games out of first place, and don't project well at all. While it's nice to try as hard as possible, there's no point in ignoring the simple truth that the Brewers are bad.
| W | L | GB | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardinals | 22 | 9 | - |
| Cubs | 16 | 15 | 6.0 |
| Pirates | 16 | 16 | 6.5 |
| Reds | 15 | 17 | 7.5 |
| Brewers | 12 | 21 | 11.0 |
Derek Harvey of Brew Crew Ball notes that no matter what, players like "Kyle Lohse, Francisco Rodriguez, Jonathan Broxton, Neal Cotts, Gerardo Parra, and Aramis Ramirez" will be available. The question is whether or not the front office will decide to trade Carlos Gomez or Jonathan Lucroy. If they do, that would signify that they're in full rebuilding mode, and have given up any hope of competing at least in the next two seasons.
NL Central news and notes 5/12:
- On the first night that Wrigley Field had some of its bleachers open, Kris Bryant christened them with a two-run HR in the bottom of the first inning. While the Cubs have been fun to watch this year, their bullpen is performing worse than expected. It's the biggest weakness and will need to be addressed in the near future.
- The Pirates are "begging for trouble by letting Mark Melancon close" according to Bucs Dugout. Melancon's velocity has been sporadic in 2015, and while it returned to the 92 mph range on Saturday, it fell below 90 mph the following day. "He's a fundamentally different guy. The new Melancon might be good enough to be somewhat effective as a middle reliever. But he probably isn't good enough to pitch high-leverage situations."
- Former independent league pitcher John Holdzkom has been shut down with shoulder fatigue. In 11.1 innings at AAA, he'd walked 13 batters and was clearly not right. He was an amazing success story last season, and pitched marvelously in nine innings, but there's currently no timetable on when he might be back.
- The Red Reporter is wondering if Jay Bruce is broken. "Mo noted the consistency that Jay's batting average had hovered just over the Mendoza line for most every month since the middle of 2013, and while he acknowledges that batting average isn't the perfect metric for evaluation, it is a metric that displays something".
- Matt Carpenter needed to be removed from a game due to dizziness, and sat out an entire series due to extreme fatigue. John Mozeliak said that "it was a culmination of dehydration and fatigue and those symptoms are not something we're overly familiar with." While they didn't know exactly how to proceed, it's fantastic to see the Cardinals take the safer route, and allow Carpenter to rest as long as he needed.