Talkin' Baseball: Can we keep it up?

Don’t look now, but the Milwaukee Brewers are eating lightning and crapping thunder. After starting the season at 4-9, the Brewers have gone on an incredible 19-5 tear through the lower echelon of the National League. The Crew hasn’t lost a series since April 22, thanks to one of the best offenses in the NL and, surprisingly, one of the better pitching staffs.

If only we didn’t have to worry about another 125 games. The Brewers currently find themselves at 23-14 and with a slim lead over the Cubs and Cardinals in the very competitive NL Central. With both the Cards and upstart Reds coming to town for the next Brewers home stand next week, things are bound to get shaken up in the division sooner rather than later.

Here’s the obvious question: Can we keep this up? Or has pounding terrible teams like the Pirates, Astros, and Diamondbacks made the Brewers look better than they are? Let’s start by looking at what we expected to work: Ryan Braun has been brilliant, hitting .313 with eight homers and 28 RBIs. Now that Manny Ramirez and his shrunken testicles have been exposed to the world, I’m not sure there is a better natural hitter in the game than Braun. My only fear is that his cocky prick shtick will eventually provoke a pitcher to beat his brains in with some 100 mph inside heat. Not that I had a problem with Braun burning two holes in the side of Ryan Dempster’s skull after slamming that “fuck you” homerun in the 12-6 win vs. the Cubs on May 9. But if Bob Brenly is openly calling for Braun’s head, I can only imagine what they’re saying in NL clubhouses. Watch it, Ryan. Just because you roll with 50 Cent in the off-season doesn’t mean you can take a shot (or nine) like Fiddy.

Also meeting expectations is Trevor Hoffman, who came off his early-season stint on the DL and picked up right where he left off as the best closer in Major League Baseball history. You can’t argue with this line: 10 games, nine saves, 0.00 ERA. Hoffman has been so great that I’m already taking him for granted. There’s no suspense to a Hoffman save; he just comes in and gets three guys out, in order, in about three minutes. (He’s only given up three hits so far this season.) But it’s worth remembering that only a year ago, the Brewers were using the dreaded “closer by committee” system in order to give Éric Gagné a “mental break.” Whenever Hoffman’s workman-like awesomeness starts to bore me a little, I try to picture Gagné’s disgusting goatee, and all of a sudden I feel a fresh wave of appreciation. 

So, Braun and Hoffman are who we thought they were. What about the players that are doing better than expected? Can we count on these guys to come through later on when it really counts? Here are my thoughts on three of the most surprising Brewers:

Rickie Weeks
Weeks’ early ’09 success is directly linked to the so-called “Rickie Weeks Project,” a tag team spring training overhaul of the second baseman’s game by Dale Sveum on the hitting side and Willie Randolph on the fielding side. The main goal was to get Weeks to slow down and let the natural ability that has long made him one of the most tantalizing (and subsequently frustrating) players in the Brewers arsenal take over. While Weeks struggled in the leadoff position last season, he’s thriving now, batting .272 with nine homers and 24 RBIs.
Can he keep it up? I’m guardedly optimistic. Weeks has always been streaky—people still talk about the crazy run he had at the end of the ’07 season—but this is starting to feel like the real deal. [UPDATE: Did we jinx Rickie?]

Dave Bush
Something happened to Dave Bush during the NLDS against the Phillies last season, when he went from being an inconsistent afterthought to one of the Crew’s most reliable pitchers. So far that’s carried over into this season, with Bush going 2-0 with 3.83 ERA. He’s pitching even better than those numbers suggest—he’s only allowed more than three run once, he’s pitched more than six innings in six out of seven starts, and, most memorably, he was five outs and one Matt Stairs homerun away from a no-hitter on April 23. In his most recent start on Thursday against the Marlins, he allowed just two earned runs in seven innings.
Can he keep it up? Like Weeks, Bush is streaky, equally capable of being lights out and totally stinking up the joint before every start. But, again, I’m guardedly optimistic that he could be part of a one-two punch with Yovani Gallardo.

Mike Cameron
I was one of the people pushing for the Brewers to trade Mike Cameron in the off-season in exchange for some pitching help, but you can’t deny that he’s been one of the Brewers’ most dangerous hitters. Less tangible is the impact that he has on the younger players on the team. By all accounts, Cameron is one of the true class acts in Major League Baseball—steroids suspension notwithstanding—and having him there as a mentor is almost as valuable as his power numbers and expert fielding.
Can he keep it up? I'm not so sure. Cameron is currently batting .292, which is about 50 points higher than his averages the past two seasons. He’s also only struck out 24 times so far vs. an average of 151 punchouts over the ’07 and ’08 seasons. You have to assume that Cameron is going to whiff another 130 times before this season is finished, and won't offer the same protection for Prince Fielder. His value as trade bait is sky high, but as Brew Call Ball points out, the Brewers don’t really have any attractive alternatives at center. Still, considering he’s going to be a free agent after the season, we probably need to move him.