Brews/Twins series

I know a lot of us who visit this board go to games around the country and I thought it would be sort of interesting if we started posting out reviews of what we saw.  You can only take so much out of the box score than what you see the action.  I try to watch as much baseball as I can with the baseball ticket but even that can't grasp everything from the game live.  I am a Brews fan so this will be sort of slanted in that way.  I also have a hard time hiding what a poor strategic manager I think Yost is and what a terrible everyday player Clark is.

I had a pretty mixed bag of thoughts on this past weekend's games I went to for the Brewers/Twins.  Liriano has pretty amazing stuff but his numbers don't indicate how lucky he got not serving up at least 4 runs.  Terrible base running by my personally favorite Brady Clark (Clark makes me sick at the plate and in the field) was 1 inning killer with 2 on and no outs getting caught in a run down on a caught ball to the outfield.  He has the base running awareness of a rookie. Also Weeks just missed hitting a 3 run homer off Liriano too.  He was brilliant the first 2 innings but his command completely left him facing the line up a second time.  I wish the Brews would have been able to take more pitches on him.  Prince especially seemed to expand his strike zone this weekend.  Liriano fast ball reached as high as 99 MPH the first 2 innings (according to stadium gun) and sat mostly in the 95/96 range.  His other offerings are unreal too.  He is a lot bigger than I originally thought he would be as well.  Very built and tall, not at all what I envisioned last year and bigger than what he looked like the 1 time I have seen him in relief on the ticket.  Johan II is very accurate for how he looks and throws on the mound but his slider doesn't have that amazing break to it that Johan does but his FB is probably better.

Another small note on Prince, who has been a revelation to watch so far, that worried me slightly.  After a called 3rd strike he did the drop his bat and helmet on the plate in front of the ump to voice his displeasure and just stood there being pretty cocky.  He started to show somewhat of an attitude the entire series that I have not seen from hm before.  I just hope this behavior gets nipped in the butt quickly.  There will always be bad calls and I think he needs to "pay his dues" just a wee bit more before he has an umpire crew not giving him calls all weekend long.  I guess watching what an absolute pro mauer is with everything he does shows there is a better more mature way of handling things.  More on Mauer later.

Saturday's game was the ugliest thing to sit through.  First off I wish I knew why the Brewers keep on giving Ben Hendrickson more opportunities when it is apparent he is a AAAA guy.  A perfect example of why Yost should go is that he left BH in to face a left handed hitting Morneau after the first 5 hitters pounded hits.  Of course Morneau hit the second pitch to the wall for a 2 run double making the score 5 to 0, game over.  After that Yost brings in a LH De La Rosa (more on him in a second) to face 5 RH batters in a row.  De La Rosa retires like the next 7 guys in a row.  All week Yost has been saying De La Rosa doesn't have the arm strength to start just yet.  Well BH didn't record a single out in the game and DLR had to go 4+ innings.  De La Rosa wouldn't be a bad guy to pick up in other leagues right now.  His overall numbers don't indicate how well he has been doing lately and his stuff is as good as anyone on the team (Sheets included) it's always been a question of his command which seems to be coming around.  He probably will be considered an option for the rotation when the Brews need a 5th starter and has a lot of upside.  Baker for the Twins was solid but looks like a mid rotation guy which is pretty good.  Consistently in the low 90's with good secondary stuff but nothing that blows you away.

Bonser on Sunday actually impressed me the most out of everyone I saw this weekend overall.  Not as good of stuff as Liriano of course but he really knows how to pitch.  At least he did on Sunday.  He has as much upside as Baker with a better fastball and other offerings seemed about the same as Baker.  He kept everyone off balanced and had great presence and command on the mound.  He wasn't afraid to use any of his off speed pitches later in counts. All in all he had a really nice start.  Capuano was his crafty self and he has improved a great deal since last year.  He doesn't nibble the corners and pounds the zone mixing in 4 different pitches.  He hides the ball really well and has a consistent late release point.  Once Bonser left the game and Cain came in the Brews bats sprung to life.  Weeks laced a triple and the come back was on.  Lee had his best ab of the weekend with a 2 run double.

The Brewer defense is really troubling and it showed in spades this weekend leading to a lot of Twin runs.  Hall is miscast at SS and this point makes me really pi$$ed off.  Why they buried JJ at the end of the bench to play Hall at SS is poor management.  JJ needs to play everyday and his defense is outstanding.  It's like Yost has it in his head that if JJ is in the line up he has to bat 2nd.  They should have just kicked him down to 7th or 8th.  Play Hall in CF if they really are that afraid to put Weeks in Center before next season which is a joke as well.    Just put him out there in CF (and put Clark out to pasture) he can't do any more harm than he actually does.  Weeks errors this year (which he leads ML in) don't give any indication for how truly bad in the field he is.  The messed up double plays, the hard hits right at him he misplays are not in that total.  On Friday he had 2 hits right at him any other 2B in baseball would have been able to handle that were counted as hits.  JJ at SS, Hall at 2B and Weeks in CF would be much better than what they current have and would make the pitching that much better.  Super fast defense up the middle of the field is the key to a lot of Braves victories over the past 14 years.  Last week there was a post about Weeks eventual position.  The responses to it were sort of interesting and pointed out they either don't watch the Brewers on the Baseball Ticket and go by the box score full time.  Week's errors and mishaps in the field are not just throwing related.  His footwork angles are all out of whack.  He has a terrific arm as well where he would be a real asset in the OF.  I saw him throw an absolute dart relay to 3b from deep in the corner to nail a runner this year.  Seeing Hunter play CF for the Twins gave me an idea for what could be.

All of this brings me to the magic of Mauer.  I have not been to any Twins games this year to better document Silvas or Loshes struggles but I wonder if it is because they didn't trust Mauer more.  I didn't see more than a couple of nod offs by the pitcher and I think this helped Liriano and Boonser a lot.  He knew when to come out to the mound in very subtle situations before they could have led to big innings and he is mesmerizing to watch.  The coolest cat on the field and was amazing to watch catch.  Nothing rattles him at all and his demeanor is the same from BP to the 9th inning.   The Brews love to send Weeks stealing and they didn't come to close to sending anyone all weekend long.  He had snap up and throw to 3rd base on Sunday that almost caught Cirillo off guard that was an absolute dart.  It was very risky to throw too in the situation in the only late inning close game of the weekend.  His hitting is as good as his defense.  In batting practice it was like watching a machine hitting hard line drives all over the field.  if you make a Twins game I highly recommend getting a great seat to watch him take his cuts.  CRACK...to RF....CRACK....to CF......CRACK to LF and repeat.  Flawless mechanics hitting that he repeats every time.  His line drives in batting practice and the game sound like HR's.  Unreal contact skills.  I saw him swing and miss at 2 bad pitches the entire series against an "amped up" Turnbow on Sunday.

Just my .02 cents.  If anyone would like pictures from the game let me know.  I have a bunch of pictures from AT&T Park from 3 weeks ago.  I went to the AZ and Padres series there.  All of the pictures are from 5 to 10 rows behind the plate and I got some cool pictures of Cain and Bonds.  I have many more pictures from other parks but my "eye" for what to take has improved greatly the past 2 seasons.