Sports
As season ends, Brewer fans get ready for next year
The Pointer
Ggott172@uwsp.edu
Major League Baseball’s regular season is coming to an end, and unlike last year, the Milwaukee Brewers will not be in contention for a playoff berth. It has been a long, injury-plagued season after a start that saw them at one time 11 games over the .500 mark.
For a couple of Brewer fans, the time to begin looking forward to next year starts now.
Kevin Butters, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, keeps an eye on the remainder of the season, but with optimism for the future.
“I’m looking forward to next year with a healthy lineup and hopefully some new pitching,” Butters said. “Pitching was our biggest problem this year.”
The starting pitching rotation lost two key members in Ben Sheets and C.C. Sabathia last offseason. With Sabathia and Sheets last season, Brewers starters posted a 3.86 earned run average, good for second in the National League. This season, that rank fell to last in the National League among starting pitchers, with an ERA of 5.26.
“C.C. was a powerhouse last year,” Butters said. “This year we didn’t have that, we needed more starters.”
Alex Miller, also a senior at UWSP, saw the drop-off from Sabathia and Sheets as the glaring weakness on this seasons’ team.
“We had no C.C. and no Sheets, we had [Yovani] Gallardo, but Suppan was not a good number two,” Miller said. “I think next season Attanasio needs to use some of that money and buy some players because people are still showing up to the games and supporting the team.”
Both Butters and Miller believe the Brewers should try to bring back second baseman Rickie Weeks, who was lost for the season in May with a left wrist injury and see if he can duplicate the hot start he got off to this season.
“They need to see if he can do it again over a full season,” Miller said.
Weeks had a .272 batting average with 9 home runs and 24 runs batted in 37 games before he was injured.
Despite the down season, both students plan to renew their ticket plans and remain excited for the Brewers in 2010.
“Of course I’m excited,” Miller said. “You have to be, ‘cause it’s the Brewers.”
