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| | Wednesday, April 19 Milwaukee Brewers | ||||||||||
| By Matt Szefc ESPN.com
Record: 74-87, 20th overall Payroll: $43.0 million, 19th overall Runs scored: 815, 9th in NL Runs allowed: 886, 14th in NL What went right? Rookie Ron Belliard took over at second base for Fernando Vina, who played just 37 games due to a knee injury, and did very well. In 124 games, Belliard, hit .295 and had 135 hits, fifth-best on the team. Jeromy Burnitz had a monster year, hitting 33 homers and driving in 103 runs despite missing a month. Hideo Nomo impressed after the Brewers picked him up off waivers and finished the year with a team-high 12 wins. Catcher Dave Nilsson also rebounded from a subpar 1998, finishing with a career-high 21 home runs while also hitting .309. What went wrong? The pitching staff was abysmal as they allowed 886 runs, third-most in the NL. Bob Wickman, the Brewers' closer, was the only pitcher who saw significant action that had an ERA under 4.00. Sean Berry, who started the season as the Brewers' starting first baseman, didn't produce and eventually was replaced. In retrospect, the critical decisions were: 1. Having so few reliable pitchers on their staff. Because of their inability to spend money, the Brewers had to go with several untested arms and for the most part none of them came through. 2. Lefty Jim Abbott stuck with the team out of spring training, earning a spot in the rotation, but he struggled from the start. He eventually was released on July 22, but not before he had compiled a 2-8 record with a hefty 6.91 ERA. 3. Signing Berry to a free-agent deal prior to the season and then giving him the first base job out of spring training. The Brewers finally gave up on injury-plagued John Jaha, but Berry had just two home runs and 23 RBI in 259 at-bats while Jaha had an All-Star season with Oakland. Looking ahead to 2000 Three key questions 1. Will the additions of Jamey Wright, Jimmy Haynes and Juan Acevedo help a revamped Brewers' pitching staff? All three are major question marks, which leads you to believe the Brewers may still be in big trouble in the pitching department. 2. Will Jose Hernandez be able to fill the void left by the departure of Jeff Cirillo, who hit .326 and had 198 hits last season? Hernandez hasn't come close to matching those numbers in any of his eight big-league seasons. 3. With light-hitting Henry Blanco now the No. 1 catcher, who will pick up the offensive slack left by the departure of Dave Nilsson? Can expect to play better Marquis Grissom had an up-and-down year last season -- he hit 20 homers, second most in his career, but also struck out a career high 109 times. New manager Davey Lopes is expected to go with Grissom in the leadoff spot to get his run-and-gun style of play going that Grissom so performed well in during his days in Montreal. Can expect to play worse Last year was only Geoff Jenkins' second year in the majors so he could be growing into a solid player, but his .313 average, 21 homers and 82 RBI seem like numbers that can't be matched again. If he does in fact put up those numbers again or surpasses them, you didn't hear it here that we predicted a downfall.
Projected lineup CF Marquis Grissom 2B Ron Belliard LF Geoff Jenkins RF Jeromy Burnitz 3B Jose Hernandez 1B Kevin Barker SS Mark Loretta C Henry Blanco Rotation/Closer Steve Woodard Jamey Wright Jimmy Haynes Juan Acevedo Jason Bere Bob Wickman A closer look The Milwaukee Brewers of the 1990s were in a word, mediocre. Very mediocre in fact. Never truly terrible, but never a solid team. So, will the mediocrity ever end? Are the 2000 Brewers doomed much like the team has been over the last seven years, all of which have ended in below .500 seasons? Probably. That said, Milwaukee has made an assortment of moves this offseason in an attempt to improve, the first of which was the hiring of new manager Davey Lopes. Lopes is expected to install a run-and-gun style of offense that he feels will better suit the club's personnel. Heading that offense will be center fielder Marquis Grissom, who hit just .267 last season. The Brewers had discussed trading Grissom earlier in the offseason, but Lopes now wants Grissom to bat at the top of his revamped order in hopes that he will provide a spark to a relatively young lineup. But for the most part, scoring runs wasn't the Brewers' main problem in '99. Rather it was their pitching woes -- they allowed 886 runs, third-worst in the NL. And many of the offseason moves were made to improve their pitching staff. But did any of those moves improve the staff? Three of the guys they acquired -- Jamey Wright, Jimmy Haynes and Juan Acevedo -- could be on the Brewers' five-man starting rotation when the season starts. Wright, Haynes and Acevedo are all high-potential right-handers, but all have struggled in their careers so far. Wright, in fact, spent three full months in the minors while with the Rockies. On the bright side, leaving Coors Field could help him reach his potential. Haynes and Acevedo, meanwhile, both posted extremely high ERAs for the Athletics and Cardinals last season. Haynes finished with a 6.34 ERA while Acevedo was at 5.89 while used mainly out of the bullpen. So, with a roster that consists of a suspect pitching staff, the Brewers should be hard-pressed to close out County Stadium on a high note. And just think, this coming year was expected to be exciting simply just because of the opening of the Brewers' new home, Miller Park. That opening, however, has been delayed until April of 2001 because of a crane accident that killed three workers and caused millions of dollars in damage. With a season of grooming, maybe by 2001 Lopes will have people in Milwaukee excited about baseball again. Just don't expect that time to come before then. Matt Szefc is the assistant baseball editor at ESPN.com. | ALSO SEE Brewers minor-league report ESPN.com's Hot Stove Heaters  | ||||||||||
