Highlighting and Lowlighting the Brewers' Week

While the Brewers are struggling this year, there are still good and bad things about each series, this is why we created Highlights & Lowlights to praise and criticize at the same damn time.

Highlights
Not having the Cardinals clinch at Miller Park - HAHA SUCK IT HARD ARIZONA.  Look, I could not complain if St. Louis went down Bernie's slide after being very critical of Arizona's response to the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the NL West crown at Chase Field. It was nice to see the Brewers get at least a game from St. Louis.  One of the biggest things for next season is the Brewers have to be better against the Cardinals in general.

Carlos Gomez - Great week for Gomez in general. He had a masterful Cubs series and then played pretty well against St. Louis. It is pretty clear he was bothered by injuries for the month of August and a little bit of September. Now that he is fully healthy, it appears Gomez is playing better again.  GoGo had a couple home runs this week including a big triple last night against St. Louis in a series he did not play as well as the Chicago one. Hopefully, he finishes strong in the final week.

Aramis Ramirez - You just sort of wonder with Ramirez. He spent most of the year banged up, but Rami looked great this week against Chicago and St. Louis. Ramirez had a couple home runs and also drove in multiple runs including a five RBI game on Friday night. I still believe Ramirez has some left in the tank, but the Brewers need to have someone there to back up Rami if he goes down with multiple injuries next season.  

That was Norichika Aoki's first double since Aug. 9 and just his third since July 22.
— Andrew Gruman (@AndrewGruman) September 23, 2013

Nori Aoki - He had a great series against St. Louis going 8 for 11 also taking some walks, but this is sort of a telling stat by FOX Sports Wisconsin Andrew Gruman. Aoki is not producing to the levels we saw last season. With the Brewers having a loaded young outfield, Ryan Braun can move to right field. I think he a big enough arm and the Brewers add more power to their already big lineup if Khris Davis is in left field.

Tyler Thornburg - Truly making a case for why he deserves to be the fifth starter when the 2014 season rolls around in March. Thorny looked great again this week once again going six innings, something he has done for all of his starts this season. In the last three starts, Thornburg has only allowed four runs and the only real issue is he still walks a couple guys a game. He is a starter to at least begin the season, folks.  

Sean Halton - Pretty good week for the young Brewers first baseman as he hit a grand slam on Wednesday night pushing the Brewers ahead in the game against the Cubs. He had another homer that week as well. Halton is a fine player, but certainly not the answer at first base. I do not think Halton is a good enough player to be an everyday player although he could be a vital bench player next season.

#Brewers avg 31,248 fans in 2013, outdrawing the playoff-contending Reds, Pirates, Orioles, Indians, Royals and Athletics. Good job, fans!
— Mike Vassallo (@MikeVassallo13) September 23, 2013

Miller Park support - Also add the Tampa Bay Rays who the Brewers outdrew this season. It speaks to the team and the city honestly. Both have done a great job supporting this team through thick and thin. There are still knuckleheads out there (Green Bay has plenty of them too), but this team gets support unlike any time before. They like I will hope there is October baseball next year.

Lowlights
No Jean Segura - This is sort of a bummer. Another Brewer went down with an injury and naturally to troll Wisconsin fans alike, it is a hamstring injury. I doubt we will see much of Segura to finish the season. Honestly, if he is hurt, just let him sit out the rest of the season unless he feels 105 percent. (JUST KIDDING, LOSE EVERY GAME THIS WEEK, TANK! TANK! TANK!)

ESPN's Ryan Braun lovefest - ESPN Sunday Night Baseball decided to remind Brewers fans about Ryan Braun and made some unqualified opinions on the Brewers fans. There is really no need to try to open a wound that is practically closed. There has been so little discussion about Braun since mid-August honestly. Sure, it is worthwhile talking a little bit about it, but taking up almost a whole inning talking about him is not great.  The worst part is I DVR'd the part of it and watch it because I am a complete loser.

Rob Wooten - First real bad game from The Owl on Saturday night. It happens and I am encouraged by all the young relievers for the following season.

Mike Gonzalez - WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE.

Kyle Lohse - It is crazy how bad Lohse has been against the Chicago Cubs this season. In general, Milwaukee has played well against Chicago this season, but this was the only team Lohse seemed to have problems with this year.

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Reds v. Brewers Preview (9/13-9/15)

(Ed. Note: Since the next two series are against teams the Brewers have played against multiple times recently, we are just going to have new Brewer articles on Monday and Friday but Highlights/Lowlights will stay)

Pitching Probables & TV Times
Friday: Mat Latos (14-5 3.02) v. Kyle Lohse (9-9 3.59)                      7:10 pm FSNWI
Saturday: Homer Bailey (10-10 3.39) v. Johnny Hellweg (1-3 8.64)     12:05 pm FOX
Sunday: Bronson Arroyo (13-11 3.58) v. Yovani Gallardo (11-9 4.19) 1:10 pm FSNWI

Five Things to Watch
1. Do they really have to face Bronson? - I think my least favorite National League Central pitcher is Bronson Arroyo because he pitches well against the Brewers by just throwing junk.  Brewers Twitter likes to make jokes about him being a Brewer next year and if that happens, I will need some whiskey and a long conversation with myself. That would be worse than the thought of Aramis Ramirez being a Brewer (Now I love it).  Good news, he pitches Sunday so the odds are 96 percent of Wisconsin will not be watching it.

2. Why are the Brewers on FOX? - I know the actual reason because they are playing the Reds who are vying for a playoff spot maybe even the National League Central crown. But does part of America really want to watch the Brewers play baseball?  This is not as bad as the Brewers playing in primetime next Sunday night. Milwaukee is like the disappointing child I would never want to show in public, but I still love them unconditionally.  

3. Johnny Hellweg versus the Reds - At first, I thought he would have to pitch at Great American Ballpark, but being at Miller Park against Cincinnati's offense will still not be easy for the young Brewers pitcher.  For any young pitcher, the biggest part of the start is the second time through the order. Hellweg needs to get the groundballs that he got last Saturday pitching against the Cubs.  

4. Yo's bounce back looks to continue - Maybe the one person to stop Arroyo's reign of terror will be Yovani Gallardo whose been excellent since coming off the Disabled List. He goes Sunday against Arroyo and even with his season being sort of topsy-turvy, Yo has done well against the Reds so far this season.

5. Can the Brewers win a home series? - The Brewers have not won a series at Miller Park since mid-July when they swept the Miami Marlins. They had a split against these very Reds in mid-August, but that's been their best result at home. While I want them to tank, it would be nice to take a couple games from the Reds and make the National League race more interesting.

Charlie.  

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Nationals-Brewers Preview (8/2-8/4)

Pitching Matchups/TV Times
Friday:     Jordan Zimmerman (12-6 3.19) v. Tom Gorzelanny (2-4 2.83)
Saturday: Dan Haren (5-11 5.49) v. Donovan Hand (0-2 3.56)
Sunday:   Taylor Jordan (1-3 3.31) v. Kyle Lohse (7-7 3.22)

Five Things to Watch
Increased attendance due to vouchers? - As most of you know, the Brewers will start giving away 10 dollars for every fan that walks through the door in August to basically say sorry for their season and Ryan Braun. My assumption is there will see a little bump in attendance this week plus there is a bobblehead on Sunday. In the Miami series, they drew 30,000 on Friday and Sunday, then 37,000 on Saturday night. My guess is they will be over 35,000 on Saturday/Sunday and closer to 30,000 today.

Kyle Lohse's continued pitching dominance - In his three starts since the All-Star Break, Lohse has been damn near unstoppable.  He has only given up one run in his three stars with only three walks (All happened against Chicago) and has 16 strikeouts. Lohse's ERA is down to 3.22 as well. Washington is easily the toughest team he has faced since the All-Star Break but as we will talk about in the next point, it might be easier than others believed.

The Nationals cannot score runs - This has been a problem for the Nationals all year long and a reason why they are four games under .500.  They are second to last in runs in the National League with only the putrid Miami Marlins are worse. From the numbers alone, it seems like Washington's batters applies a boom/bust attitude and it is home run or nothing. They are seventh in the National League in home runs yet near the bottom of the league in anything else meaning a lot of their bombs are solo ones as well. Brewers pitchers have been much better in the last two or three months so the Nats might not be out of the woods with their hitting ineptitude.

Jordan Zimmerman returns home and will he pitch better? - For those unfamiliar, Jordan Zimmerman is from Auburndale, Wisconsin and pitched at UW-Stevens Point.  Zimmerman is struggling big time lately giving up seven and five runs in his last two appearances and he scuffled his feet when he pitched against the Brewers in Washington. My prediction is Zimmerman will be pretty composed and pitch his ass off. I am not saying that because I am negative about the Brewers, rather hometown kids show up for their games when they are not there often.

WIll Caleb Gindl's hot play continue at Miller Park? - We talked about this during the other previews with Braun's departure from the team; if we would find a bright spot from Caleb Gindl or Logan Schafer. Gindl is excelling on offense thus far.  In the last five games where Gindl started, he has multiple hits. The only thing is he'll need to be better defensively. Hopefully, that will come with time.

Notable Musician from DC


Even though I am behind on him, I will recommend Wale for the weekend. I am a bigger fan of pre-MMG Wale, but both work for the weekend tunes.

Tweets to follow
I do not follow any Nats beat writers, but I do follow Dan Steinberg and Sarah Kogod, both Washington Post writers worth following.

Charlie.

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