BOX SCORES:

All good things must come to an end. Unfortunately, the Brewers’ undefeated start came to an overly abrupt 1-4 end in the past half week.

As with most of spring training happenings, one needs not worry about the team’s overall record. With the exception of the game against the Padres, all the Brewers losses could be accounted for by one bad outing by a pitcher that likely wouldn’t have made the team anyway. For instance, Sam Narron’s 0 IN, 5 ER performance against the Mariners, Rick Helling’s 4 ER performance against the Rockies, and Tommy Phelps’s 0.2 IN, 3 ER performance against the Royals.

There have been, however, some poor performances all around for the Crew in the past five games. Not only have the 49 pitchers brought into camp gotten exposed pretty badly, but also the defense has been atrocious and all but a few players have hit the skids. At least these poor performances will grant some clarity about who will likely make the team this year.

Most of the prospects are ready to pack their bags and get to minor league camp now, especially Rickie Weeks. Weeks has followed up a Bondsian showing in the Arizona Fall League with a rather Helmsian showing. Not only has he made three errors, but he also seems to be having some serious issues adjusting to proposed changes at the plate. Not even his Vinaesque ability to get hit by pitches can save his OBP.

As for the other prospects, there has been some bad and some good. I’ll start with the bad. Luis Pena, who is far from the big leagues, has issued six walks in three innings of work. Does it even matter that he has a 0.00 ERA and four strikeouts when he’s taking each batter to 8 pitches? Similarly, Ben Diggins seems absolutely lost on the mound, and Jose Capellan is fighting control/confidence issues of some kind. Likewise, Jeff Housman’s Henricksonish lack of a fastball has made him look foolish on the mound. And, speaking of Hendrickson, he’s making a strong case to start the season at AAA after surrendering five runs in four innings of work.

Many of the hitters have had their fare share of problems, too. However, three hitting prospects have outperformed their expectations. First, Dave Krynzel has continued to impress with his very good defense and newfound good approach at the plate. Beware the small sample size! Secondly, Prince Fielder has turned just about every head in Arizona. His numbers speak for themselves. God, I wish I could have seen the 500 foot home run he had against the Mariners! Lastly, Hurricane Hernan Iribarren has outperformed his expectations, which is ridiculous because I expected him to hit .700. Too bad we won’t see any of these guys this year.

What we will see this year is the league’s worst bench. Cirillo, Helms, and Branyan continue their fight over who doesn’t have to make the big-league roster, and right now it appears as if Branyan is winning/losing. Helms has shown, at the very least, an ability to draw a walk. Cirillo has at least put the ball in play and played passable defense. Branyan has done neither to this point. My biggest fear is that he not only doesn’t get the starting spot, but also doesn’t make the team at all. This is an unlikely end, but it is worrisome nonetheless. Branyan is the only one likely, or capable for that matter, to post an .800 OPS. Regardless of the third base position, this bench is going to be atrocious. As it stands, the bench would be Chad Moeller, Bill Hall, Wes Helms, and Chris Magruder. I challenge anyone to find a worse bench in baseball.

Although the pitching spots are very unclear at this point as well, there are some good things going on with this team. The entire outfield is playing great. Geoff Jenkins and Carlos Lee have really played well (see stats). Brady Clark made an amazing catch the other day that made SportsCenter’s top-ten plays. I didn’t get to see it, but I can quote Stu Scott on it, “Man, that was a phat catch dogg, was it not?” What an asshole! Anyway, Brady has quieted any critic to his play in center field and given us all hope that his second-half MVP award I gave him last season was no fluke (see stats). Also encouraging, Junior Spivey has played pretty well and not gotten hurt yet. Perhaps the most encouraging thing of the week, though, was Ben Sheets’ very strong inning of work (0 H, 1 HBP, 2 K, 0 R).

As I plan to do from here on out, I’ll give my “if spring training ended today, these would be our pitchers” prediction: SP: Sheets, Davis, Capuano, Glover. RP: de la Rosa, Bottalico, Adams, Wise, Kieschnick, Turnbow, Lehr, and Beltran until they need a fifth starter, who would be Obermueller. Good staff gang? What do you think?