May 15th, 2010
Forearm stiffness likely to delay Jeffress' return
Suspended Brewers pitching prospect Jeremy Jeffress is eligible for reinstatement on Friday but his return to the mound will probably be delayed by a minor arm injury, assistant general manager Gord Ash said.
Barring any rainouts at Class A Brevard County in the coming days, Jeffress’ 100-game ban expires on May 21. He might have been able to hit the ground running at Brevard County if not for a bout of tightness in his right forearm that developed last week at extended Spring Training camp in Phoenix.
Jeffress, Milwaukee’s first-round pick in the 2006 Draft, was suspended last June under the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, his third failed test for a “drug of abuse.” One more violation would result in a lifetime ban.
Unlike the Major League program, which strictly adheres to performance-enhancing drugs and amphetamines, Minor League players also can be suspended for using drugs like marijuana, cocaine and others. Jeffress has admitted in the last that he had a problem with marijuana, but he has been through a series of treatment programs during his suspension and has fulfilled all of his obligations, according to Ash.
“He has been very, very good about it,” Ash said.
Jeffress will resume his career at Brevard County when he’s ready, and the Brewers would like to promote him to Double-A Huntsville at some point soon thereafter. Club officials will face a decision after the season, when Jeffress must be placed on the 40-man roster or be exposed to the Rule 5 Draft.
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Packers draft pick Bulaga impresses in BP session
MILWAUKEE — When he got the opportunity to take batting practice at Miller Park before Saturday’s game, Bryan Bulaga — the Green Bay Packers’ top draft pick — just hoped he could hit a few balls hard into the outfield. He did a lot better than that.
Bulaga, who played baseball into his high school years, took batting practice pitcher Dale Sveum deep 14 times out of roughly 50 swings. With the Brewers’ position players looking on during their pregame stretch, Bulaga even hit a few into the second deck in left field.
“It took me about 10 pitches to even start hitting the ball,” Bulaga said. “I was hoping just to hit a couple solid ones, maybe just not make myself look like an idiot. But I did pretty well I guess.”
Not only did the offensive tackle out of Iowa impress those in attendance, he blew a few of his Packers teammates’ numbers out of the water.
When they took their swings two weeks ago, quarterback Aaron Rodgers and offensive tackle Mark Tauscher combined for just three home runs. Linebacker A.J. Hawk had two home runs a year ago when he had a similar opportunity.
Bulaga, who brought his girlfriend, brother and brother’s girlfriend with him to the ballpark, said having the Brewers players watching gave him some added motivation.
“I had to step it up,” he said. “I couldn’t not hit one out with everyone watching.”
As a native of Crystal Lake, Ill., Bulaga admitted he was a Chicago White Sox fan first and Milwaukee Brewers fan second.
“No Cubs fans in this family,” Bulaga said. “The Brewers are my second favorite team. I can’t lose faith in my White Sox though.”
– Jordan Schelling, Associate Reporter
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Macha responds to Fielder's frustration
Brewers manager Ken Macha does not mind that first baseman Prince Fielder vented some frustration about the team’s struggling pitching staff after another blowout loss Friday night. You can check out those comments by clicking here.
But Macha would prefer that his players focus on their own job and let him worry about the big picture.
“My thought about baseball is that everybody has got a job to do,” Macha said. “So you have to pay attention to your job and do that well, and when the day is done you have eight position players and the number of pitchers you used, and you add up what they did in their boxes and you either win or lose the game.
“One thing that’s great about Prince is he takes it to heart when we lose. He really wants to be on a winning team, a winning organization. He strives to win. So as long as guys are paying attention to their little boxes and doing them properly, I think the wins and losses are going to be my responsibility in the end. He needs to continue to work to get to the numbers that he wants to, and if he does that, that’s taking care of his box and he’s going to help us win games. I think our pitching will get better.”
Macha pointed to the Brewers’ three losses to the Braves, saying the team got “adequate” starting pitching. Before that, the starters pitched well in a three-game Brewers sweep of the D-backs. The bullpen has not pitched well of late, prompting the Brewers to add reliever John Axford on Saturday.
“That’s my responsibility, and I will be held accountable for us winning or losing games,” Macha said. “I’m glad that I have a player on the field who’s my cleanup hitter and has a tremendous amount of concern about is winning or losing games. … That’s the manager’s job. It’s inherent to this position.
“I don’t want hitters looking at the pitchers or pitchers looking at the hitters. I said last night about the finger-pointing, there should be none of it going on. Everybody take care of what they can take care of. Let me worry about the other stuff.”
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Axford up, Stern back to Minors
The Brewers are still in their sixth week of playing regular season baseball, and they already need reinforcements for an overworked bullpen.
The team on Saturday optioned outfielder Adam Stern back to Triple-A Nashville and promoted right-handed John Axford in time for an afternoon game against the Phillies. Axford gave the Brewers a 13-man pitching staff, and manager Ken Macha said it would remain that way for the “near future.”
“Whether that’s a week or 10 days, something like that,” Macha said.
Axford was excellent in Spring Training and continued to pitch well at Nashville, where he was 3-2 with a 2.03 ERA (13 1/3 innings, 3 earned runs) and two saves in 12 games.
Brewers relievers had combined for a 5.68 ERA entering Saturday’s game, the second-worst mark of all 30 Major League teams to Arizona’s 7.49, and a league-worst .292 batting average against. They had also been called upon to work 117 1/3 innings, the seventh-highest total of the 30 teams.
Milwaukee’s struggles at the back end of the bullpen with usually-reliable veterans have exacerbated the problem. Closer Trevor Hoffman already has four blown saves, matching his total from all of last season, and a 12.00 ERA in 12 appearances. Setup man LaTroy Hawkins was hit to the tune of a 9.23 ERA in 13 appearances while pitching with weakness in his right shoulder before finally succumbing to the disabled list. Hawkins will be re-evaluated on Monday.
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Counsell starting at SS, Hart drops in order
With Alcides Escobar struggling at the plate lately, batting just .217 on the season, veteran infielder Craig Counsell will get the start today at shortstop. Counsell, who is second on the team wit a .309 average, will bat second, bumping right fielder Corey Hart from that spot.
Hart, who went 0-for-5 last night in the two hole, will bat eighth today, behind catcher Gregg Zaun and ahead of pitcher Chris Narveson.
Here’s the rest of the lineup:
Weeks 2B
Counsell SS
Braun LF
Fielder 1B
McGehee 3B
Edmonds CF
Zaun C
Hart RF
Narveson P
And the Phillies lineup, which remains the same as last night:
Victorino CF
Polanco 3B
Utley 2B
Howard 1B
Werth RF
Ibanez LF
Valdez SS
Hoover C
Blanton P
– Jordan Schelling, Associate Reporter
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Interesting postgame with Prince
The Phillies scored early and often in Friday’s 9-5 win over the Brewers at Miller Park, continuing a trend that might be getting to Prince Fielder and the rest of the hitters. It marked the Brewers’ sixth straight home loss, and opponents have scored at least six runs in all of those games including at least eight runs in each of the last four.
Here was the postgame exchange between reporters and Prince Fielder:
“We’ve been hitting well. We’ve been doing the best we can. It’s tough, but unfortunately we didn’t score enough runs tonight.”
Everybody understand? OK, next question: Is it frustrating at times?
“Yeah. You don’t like losing but it is what it is. We have to come back tomorrow and see what happens.”
Is it a matter of getting timely hits?
This one made Fielder smile.
“I guess we need to get more timely hits. Yup, we just have to keep getting more hits. Just try to outscore the other team, that’s all we can try to do and unfortunately, we came up a little short.”
Is there more pressure at home considering the poor record?
“I don’t think so, It’s just how it is. Unfortunately, it’s always the offense that gets blamed. I think we have to keep doing what we’re doing. We scored five runs tonight. Tomorrow, hopefully, we get more than they do.”
Are there any signs that the day is coming that they don’t need to get so many hits?
“I don’t know. I think we just need to keep doing our job; keep hitting the ball, try to play good defense and see what happens. After that, its out of our control.”
So, there you go. Very interesting stuff. Randy Wolf certainly stood up and took the blame for what he called an “embarrassing” outing against the Phillies, but you have to wonder whether there’s a danger of the clubhouse becoming divided between pitchers and hitters. That’s never a good thing.
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Adam McCalvy
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