So we are officially half-way through the season and the Brewers are tied for first place in the NL Central, have three starters in the All-Star game, (well technically only two because of Braun's injury, but he did get voted in) and two players in the homerun derby. I thought I would take this time to reflect back on the first half of the season and give my predictions of where this team will go in the second half of the season.
Overall this team has played very well. Minus a few players who constantly seem to underperform, the team has been solid all around. The rocky start the Brewers faced turned into a fantastic month of May which included back to back sweeps of the Rockies and Nationals. That hot streak of baseball continued until early June until the Brewers reached interleague play which they struggled with but they came out of interleague and won four ouf of the last seven including two walk-off winners against the Reds and former Brewer, Francisco Cordero. So I'm going to go ahead and give different aspects of the teams grades, much like I did earlier in the season and go a little more in-depth with the grades. So here they are, you grades for the first half of the Brewers 2011 season.
Starting Pitching - B
I wanted to go more in-depth in this grading post than I did in my one earlier in the season so I decided to split up the pitching staff. Overall the starters have been good but not great. At times they do just enough to get the job done and thats all I can really ask for but there are times where we should be seeing more from them, especially Zack Greinke. Zack has been good in his starts but he isn't the ace we had hoped we would get when we traded for him. He gives up a lot of hits and runs but is able to keep his team in the game and he continues to rack up a ton of strikeouts. Still it would be nice to see him go seven scoreless innings one of these starts. Gallardo has become much more consistent but he still has those starts where he has absolutely nothing going for him. Marcum has been the most consistent but he has dealt with a hip injury that has prevented him from having very successful starts his last couple times out, but he should be back on track after the break. Wolf is a bend but don't break pitcher and I would say he is 50/50 in that sense. He is hot some starts, then garbage some others and the same can be said for Narveson. But overall they are getting the job done, I would just hope for some more consistency from them as a whole but other than that not much to complain about so far into the season.
Bullpen - C
This was always the Brewers biggest weakness this season and it continues to be the only real flaw so far this season. Axford and Hawkins are the only ones that seem to be able to get outs consistently. Axford has really come on after his rough start to the season and its great to see. The rest of the bullpen is another story. Loe and Estrada continue to give me headaches every time they go out. Braddock can't seem to get lefties out at a consistant pace, which is the main reason he is on the team. Saito just came off the DL so he gets a pass but overall the bullpen has been very disappointing. The addition of K-rod (just announced tonight) should help greatly, meaning we should have the 8th and 9th locked down and Hawkins could have the 7th, meaning we should have the end of each game on lockdown. But as for the first half, the bullpen was very disappointing.
Infield - B
This one was very hard to judge. Fielder and Weeks are great, heck they made the all-star team, but the other side of the infield is bad. McGehee is really struggling this year and although he is doing better as of late he is still slacking on the offensive side of the ball, and then there is Betancourt. I can not continue to sit and watch Brewers games with this guy on the field. When he was announced in the trade we were told he could hit but couldn't play defense. Well so far this year he can't hit and plays ok defense. While he has made some good plays this year he is pretty much useless when it comes to hitting. I am about to tear my hair out if I have to watch another one of his infamous, one pitch pop-up at bats. He never seems to come up with a clutch hit or even work the count! He continues to get out on weak ground balls and pop ups early in the count. Its driving me up the wall watching him do this game after game. As much as those two struggle, Weeks and Fielder are carrying the team. Fielder is having a MVP season and Weeks continues to impress me even more as the year goes on. McGehee should get back on track and Weeks and Fielder show no signs of slowing down so the infield should improve on offense. Defensively they have been fine but there is always room for improvement in that department, and that goes for the whole team.
Outfield - A
The only aspect of this team that continues to not only pass, but exceed my expectations is the outfield. They play defense well, anchored by speedy center fielders Gomez and Nyjer Morgan. They hit the ball great with Braun and Hart and even our bench outfielders like Kotsay continue to produce. There isn't much I can say about the outfield. Braun is doing well, minus his injury this last week, Hart is continuing his offensive pace he set last year and Nyjer Morgan has been one of the better pick ups the Brewers have made in the past couple seasons. The guy continues to get clutch hits, do all the little things right, and play great defense. This is clearly the best part of the team when it comes to each aspect of the game and it should continue in the second half of the season.
Overall grade - B+
This team did a good job of keeping around while everybody was hurt and now that everyone is healthy they are making their run for the division. Although they struggled through interleague play the Brewers have held their ground and continue to sit on top of the division or very close to it. The second half of the season should see the Brewers making their move to not only take the lead but hold it and eventually make the playoffs as the National League Central Champions. This team shows signs of greatness throughout the season and if they can find some consistent play from their best players, they could easily win six games in a row without breaking a sweat. It should be a very fun second half to the season and will hopefully contain great things for the team and us as fans.
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