The month of July was not a particularly good one for the Milwaukee Brewers, as the team went 11-16 and saw its big NL Central Division lead become a three-team race with the upstart Chicago Cubs and under-.500 St. Louis Cardinals. Fantasy owners also felt this pain.
Ben Sheets got hurt (again). The reliable back of the bullpen got lit. Offensively, the team hit .247, and Ryan Braun was the only player to have a decent month.
While the Brewers aren't winning at a better clip in August (just 6-12 so far), at least fantasy owners aren't complaining as much about individual production. Here are the good things we can discuss about the Brewers in fantasy of late.
Prince is again king: It's not that Prince Fielder was bad in July, but he hit only three home runs and knocked in 10, numbers far below what he had been doing. Ryan Howard had caught him in home runs, and it sure looked the NL MVP race was wide open. Now that Fielder has slugged nine home runs in 17 games this month, he's got the momentum back and fantasy owners don't have to send in questions like, "Should I sit Prince for Greg Norton?" Fielder is back on a 51-125 pace, and should never be benched.
Bill Hall shows signs: Of course, for much of the season Fielder and Braun have been the lone Brewers hitting. A return to the 35-homer season Hall showed last year would be nice. His August batting average remains a paltry .207, but he has homered in his past two games, and considering how much power this guy has, and the fact he hit 18 homers after the All-Star break last season, he must be taken seriously. Also, remember he has shortstop eligibility.
Geoff Jenkins awaits your pickup: No, this isn't a dating site, but if you're looking for a productive right fielder on his best streak of the season, and a Brett Favre look-a-like, here's your guy. Jenkins has five home runs in the last nine days, and the fact he didn't start Monday against lefty Doug Davis is not a bad thing. Against right-handed pitching, Jenkins is slugging .529, which is comparable to Braun. Jenkins is hitting .315 this month, and is available in 90 percent of ESPN's standard leagues. As for Davis, incidentally, it's never, ever a good thing when one tunes in to see highlights and there's Jeff Cirillo pitching, and you know you had the starter in that game. Cirillo did a lot better than Davis.
Middling middle infield no more: Yeah, I had pretty much given up on both Rickie Weeks and J.J. Hardy, I admit it. Weeks hardly looked healthy from an earlier disabled list stint, and then he got outright demoted to Triple-A Nashville, which is rarely a good sign. Weeks isn't all the way back to what you expected when you drafted him as a top-5 second baseman, far from it. He hit .206 in June, and since the break he's at .172, with nary an RBI at all. But he can take walks, and he can steal bases, and he could be back at the top of the lineup for good after delivering six hits and four runs scored the last three days. Just don't expect any power. I still think the wrist bothers him. As for double play mate Hardy, maybe the pressure just got to him. Of course he's not a legit 30-home run hitter, but for him to whack 15 of them through May, then hit a cold streak in which he didn't homer from June 25 to Aug. 10, was a bit outrageous. Hardy has five home runs since being dropped to the No. 8 spot in the order 10 days ago. What do you care where he hits, as long as he's productive?
Guys you don't know: In those NL-only leagues in which every player warrants a look at some point, Gabe Gross and Joe Dillon are interesting. Gross hit well last season against right-handed pitching, compiling a .908 OPS. He reminds me of a Mark Sweeney type who will be pinch hitting for the next decade. Gross has been starting of late, and has a few home runs since the weekend. Dillon has been around a while, and always showed he could hit, whether he was with the Twins, Royals, Marlins or in Japan. He's 32 now, and hitting .440 since his callup. That won't last long, but take a look at what he was doing at Triple-A Nashville, with 20 home runs and a lot more walks than strikeouts, and you can see a late-bloomer finally cashing in on opportunity.
As for the Brewers pitchers, I stuck with Yovani Gallardo after the Coors Field debacle, and he got lit by the Cardinals. I stuck with him for this two-start week as well, and Gallardo rewarded us with six shutout innings. His next start is at San Francisco, and I will have him active in all my leagues as well. I trust few young pitchers, but when the guy has 60 strikeouts in 67 1/3 innings, while all his other rates look solid, he's entitled to a bad game or two.
I would cut bait on Chris Capuano though, because it appears the Brewers are. I stuck with the lefty a bit too long. The last time the Brewers won a game he started was back on May 7. Wow, that is a long time, 15 starts. Capuano has lost 10 of them, with a 6.67 ERA, and now he's bullpen-bound. Let him go. Manny Parra is the sleeper here, and Carlos Villanueva just got demoted to the minors, coming off his three-inning save Monday night, and I bet he gets stretched out so he can be a starter.
As for Mr. Sheets, who remains owned in 91.8 percent of ESPN's shallow leagues, and I would imagine just about every other league on someone's DL slot, I think fantasy owners are expecting him to return as that dominant guy. I hope it's so, but be careful. Sheets has missed more than a month, and in his simulated game Monday, as part of his rehab from the sprained right middle finger, Sheets developed a blister. I think he'll be back next week, but the Capuano demotion could adjust that. It's just that we're constantly disappointed by Ben Sheets, and I refuse to get my hopes up.
I know most of this has to do with fantasy but its still interesting.