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MILWAUKEE  BREWERS


2009

Brewers Team Report

The Brewers appeared en route to living up to expectations when they made it to July in first place in the NL Central. Then, the starting pitching imploded and the team went into a downward spiral that never stopped.

It didn't help when Dave Bush was lost for two months with an arm injury and Jeff Suppan was sidelined for one month with an oblique strain. A series of fill-in starters did little to hold the fort, and the Brewers found themselves playing from behind far too often.

The endless series of short-inning starts eventually led to the deterioration of an overworked bullpen, prompting general manager Doug Melvin to acquire help such as Claudio Vargas and David Weathers. Closer Trevor Hoffman remained a stalwart, however, converting 37 of 41 save situations and proving to be one of the best free agent acquisitions of the offseason.

Another tough blow was the mid-May loss of second baseman Rickie Weeks, who was off to a strong start (nine homers, 24 RBIs in 37 games). Weeks underwent wrist surgery and never returned, though his absence was covered somewhat with the midseason trade for second baseman Felipe Lopez.

Left fielder Ryan Braun and first baseman Prince Fielder continued to form one of the most potent 1-2 punches in the majors in the Nos. 3 and 4 spots in the lineup. Braun and Fielder each drove in 100-plus runs and scored 100-plus, putting them in select company in club history.

By tying Philadelphia's Ryan Howard for the league lead with 141 RBIs, Fielder smashed the club record of 126 established by Cecil Cooper back in 1983. Braun (203) became the first Brewer to collect 200 hits in a season since Paul Molitor (216) in 1991.

Together, Fielder and Braun combined to drive in 255 runs, tops among teammates in the majors.

Third baseman Casey McGehee unexpectedly emerged as a Rookie of the Year candidate after spending the first six weeks of the season on the bench. In 116 games, McGehee batted .301 with 16 homers and 66 RBIs.

On the flip side, shortstop J.J. Hardy played his way to the minors in August with his worst season offensively. Shortstop prospect Alcides Escobar was called up to replace him and by all appearances will man the position next season.

Because of the pitching implosion, Melvin did not put the blame on manager Ken Macha, who will be back in 2010 with an option added for the following season. But Melvin is on the lookout for a new pitching coach and said that was his first priority for the offseason.


2009 NL Central Standings (FINAL) TEAM W L PCT GB HOME ROAD DIV --------------------------------------------------------------------- St. Louis 91 71 .562 --- 46-35 45-36 46-34 Chicago Cubs 83 78 .516 7 1/2 46-34 37-44 47-32 Milwaukee 80 82 .494 11 40-41 40-41 42-37 Cincinnati 78 84 .481 13 40-41 38-43 46-34 Houston 74 88 .457 17 44-37 30-51 31-47 Pittsburgh 62 99 .385 28 1/2 40-41 22-58 24-52


Final 2009 Individual Statistics - Milwaukee Brewers

BATTERS BA SLG OBA G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS E
Corporan, Carlos 1.000 1.000 1.000 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Lopez, Felipe .320 .448 .407 66 259 44 83 116 20 2 3 32 37 41 0 3 8
Braun, Ryan .320 .551 .386 158 635 113 203 350 39 6 32 114 57 121 20 6 2
Escobar, Alcides .304 .368 .333 38 125 20 38 46 3 1 1 11 4 18 4 2 6
McGehee, Casey .301 .499 .360 116 355 58 107 177 20 1 16 66 34 67 0 2 15
Fielder, Prince .299 .602 .412 162 591 103 177 356 35 3 46 141 110 138 2 3 7
Counsell, Craig .285 .408 .357 130 404 61 115 165 22 8 4 39 42 54 3 4 5
Catalanotto, Frank .278 .382 .346 77 144 18 40 55 6 3 1 9 14 23 2 0 1
Weeks, Rickie .272 .517 .340 37 147 28 40 76 5 2 9 24 12 39 2 2 6
Hart, Corey .260 .418 .335 115 419 64 109 175 24 3 12 48 43 92 11 6 5
Cameron, Mike .250 .452 .342 149 544 78 136 246 32 3 24 70 75 156 7 3 4
Gamel, Mat .242 .422 .338 61 128 11 31 54 6 1 5 20 18 54 1 0 7
Kendall, Jason .241 .305 .331 134 452 48 109 138 19 2 2 43 46 58 7 2 8
Gerut, Jody .236 .373 .299 85 161 23 38 60 7 0 5 21 14 21 4 2 1
Iribarren, Hernan .231 .385 .286 12 13 1 3 5 2 0 0 1 1 5 0 0 0
Hardy, J.J. .229 .357 .302 115 414 53 95 148 16 2 11 47 43 85 0 1 8
Rivera, Mike .228 .342 .326 41 114 10 26 39 7 0 2 14 15 32 1 0 0
Hall, Bill .201 .341 .265 76 214 22 43 73 12 0 6 24 19 72 1 0 4
Looper, Braden .200 .200 .226 34 60 3 12 12 0 0 0 8 2 18 0 0 2
Bourgeois, Jason .189 .270 .250 24 37 6 7 10 0 0 1 3 3 7 3 0 0
Gallardo, Yovani .172 .310 .197 31 58 6 10 18 2 0 2 8 2 23 0 0 0
Suppan, Jeff .143 .167 .217 30 42 4 6 7 1 0 0 5 4 12 0 0 1
Parra, Manny .133 .178 .167 27 45 4 6 8 2 0 0 4 1 22 0 0 3
Duffy, Chris .125 .156 .222 19 32 3 4 5 1 0 0 3 4 12 0 0 0
Narveson, Chris .125 .125 .125 21 8 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0
Bush, Dave .118 .118 .211 22 34 2 4 4 0 0 0 0 4 16 0 0 0
Villanueva, Carlos .091 .091 .167 64 11 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 7 0 0 0
Burns, Mike .077 .077 .200 15 13 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 2 7 0 0 0
Patterson, Corey .071 .071 .071 11 14 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 1 0
Nelson, Brad .000 .000 .087 19 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 9 0 0 0
McClung, Seth .000 .000 .000 41 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0
Coffey, Todd .000 .000 .000 78 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
Smith, Chris .000 .000 .333 35 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
Julio, Jorge .000 .000 .000 15 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
DiFelice, Mark .000 .000 .000 59 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
Dillard, Tim .000 .000 .000 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Axford, John .000 .000 .000 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hoffman, Trevor .000 .000 .000 55 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Colome, Jesus .000 .000 .000 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Riske, David .000 .000 .000 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Butler, Josh .000 .000 .000 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stetter, Mitch .000 .000 .000 71 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Vargas, Claudio .000 .000 .000 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Weathers, David .000 .000 .000 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Swindle, R.J. .000 .000 .000 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0


PITCHERS W L ERA G GS CG GF SH SV IP H R ER HR BB SO
Vargas, Claudio 1 0 1.78 28 0 0 2 0 0 30.1 18 6 6 2 11 20
Hoffman, Trevor 3 2 1.83 55 0 0 46 0 37 54.0 35 11 11 2 14 48
Coffey, Todd 4 4 2.90 78 0 0 17 0 2 83.2 76 28 27 8 21 65
Axford, John 0 0 3.52 7 0 0 6 0 1 7.2 5 3 3 0 6 9
Stetter, Mitch 4 1 3.60 71 0 0 13 0 1 45.0 37 19 18 4 27 44
DiFelice, Mark 4 1 3.66 59 0 0 9 0 0 51.2 49 21 21 6 15 48
Gallardo, Yovani 13 12 3.73 31 30 1 0 0 0 185.2 150 78 77 21 94 204
Narveson, Chris 2 0 3.83 21 4 0 5 0 0 47.0 45 22 20 7 16 46
Smith, Chris 0 0 4.11 35 0 0 12 0 0 46.0 41 21 21 11 19 35
Weathers, David 1 3 4.88 25 0 0 4 0 0 24.0 26 15 13 3 11 10
McClung, Seth 3 3 4.94 41 2 0 8 0 0 62.0 62 34 34 11 39 40
Looper, Braden 14 7 5.22 34 34 0 0 0 0 194.2 226 123 113 39 64 100
Suppan, Jeff 7 12 5.29 30 30 0 0 0 0 161.2 200 106 95 25 74 80
Villanueva, Carlos 4 10 5.34 64 6 0 23 0 3 96.0 102 58 57 13 35 83
Colome, Jesus 0 0 5.68 5 0 0 3 0 0 6.1 11 4 4 1 0 3
Burns, Mike 3 5 5.75 15 8 0 4 0 0 51.2 60 36 33 10 17 39
Parra, Manny 11 11 6.36 27 27 0 0 0 0 140.0 179 108 99 19 77 116
Bush, Dave 5 9 6.38 22 21 0 0 0 0 114.1 131 84 81 19 37 89
Julio, Jorge 1 1 7.79 15 0 0 7 0 0 17.1 15 17 15 2 15 13
Butler, Josh 0 0 9.00 3 0 0 0 0 0 4.0 7 4 4 0 6 3
Dillard, Tim 0 1 12.46 2 0 0 0 0 0 4.1 7 6 6 1 5 1
Swindle, R.J. 0 0 16.20 6 0 0 2 0 0 6.2 12 12 12 3 4 8
Riske, David 0 0 18.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 4 2 2 0 0 0


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If you have any comments or suggestions, please write to me at: edmatarrese@juno.com / revised October 13, 2009.