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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.

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 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 

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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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