Narveson finished 2010 with a 12-9 record, a 4.99 ERA, giving up 21 home runs and accumulating 93 earned runs.  Those stats are ok, but when compared to only a couple other pitchers in any starting rotation, turn out to be not so good.  Now, flash forward to 2011.  I know it has only been about 10 games and Narveson has only pitched on two occasions, but am I the only one that sees a totally different Narveson on the mound?

So far in the two starts for the 2011 season, Narveson is 2-0, giving up ZERO runs and only 9 hits in 13 innings of work.  Striking out 14 (on pace for 140+ in 20 starts) at the plate and with an ERA of 0.00 is pretty good for a BREWERS pitcher.  Granted he is going to get knocked around, but what can be said about confidence when your season starts like this?  A LOT.  Maybe that was part of the issue last season, we don’t know that, but nonetheless, he is certainly more calm than I remember seeing him on the mound.

Do you have as much confidence in Chris Narveson as it appears that I do?  After all, he is no Randy Suppan Wolf, right?

Picking up a couple pitchers, in Marcum (one year deal) and Greinke (two year deal), was just the tip of the iceberg for the Brewers this offseason.  They also had other players that needed to be signed and young players they needed to remember from last year.  Watching some young talent get traded away for a pitcher and shortstop sure was tough, but as a Brewer fan, I knew it was something that only made sense.

The Brewers extended the contract they have with Ricky Weeks for another 4 years and that one could be worth about $50 million, but more importantly, that keeps Ricky in Milwaukee with the already tight offense for a couple more years.  Players like Counsell, Braun and Lucroy really came around in the 2010 season and seem a bit more “chipper” since the departure of skipper Macha at the end of last season.

New closer John Axford is taking his role on the Brewers very seriously and is enjoying all the things he is learning while training with Trevor Hoffman.  Axford has a wicked mustache, which you can catch up with on Facebook, a calom style and is really just down to earth.  You can pretty much follow is every move on Twitter these days @JohnAxford.

The front office was a busy one to say the least, but there are still some questions out there.  One, of course, is regarding Fielder and what will happen with him this season.  With an up and down over the last couple of years, we can only hope that he does well.  Some aren’t really thinking he will be around much longer, but if the Brewers do well and Fielder stays “standard”, then the Crew might be able to sign him at the end of the season for less money than any other team might pay if he does “outstanding”.

Throw in a brand new $5 million scoreboard and the Brewers are set to take it to the next level.  I, with the help from other authors here, will be trying to keep up with every move they make on their way to the playoffs this year.

What do you think about the Brewers offseason situation?

Not Bad!

Watching the last 20 games or so, it was evident they Brewers are not consistent and I am not sure they can be right now.  With such a young group of pitchers and a powerful group of hitters, logic says the balance should be way off.  Of course, that does not include the random base running miscues (looking at you Braun, McGehee, Kottaras), errors on the field and occasional wild pitch (or four, yeah you Parra).

Over the last 20 games the Brewers are 11-9, with 24 home runs, 81 RBI’s and an average of .257.  Those stats are not that bad, especially for a team that might not even hit .500 this year.  But, we cannot forget things like the 156 men left on base, or the 166 strikeouts they had over the same time period.  Stats speak volumes and right now these look like they should for a team that should have a better record than the Brewers.

Not Fun!

Getting swept by the Giants hurt and I think that every single Brewer fan was about to hang up the entire season based on those 4 games alone.  But the Brewers always come back, it’s like the NBA playoffs in a way, at least to me.  The NBA finals take forever to get to, always go to 7 games and the drama just keeps building.  The Brewers are playing in a similar fashion this year.  They are playing well and winning games, all of a sudden, their record takes a nose dive and they are just about to lose some fans when…BOOM!…they are back alive and looking like a team that has already played 88 games together this year.

Still a Fan!

We get to see slides like Ryan Braun who went 0 for 19 before he finally getting out of that slump with a couple of home runs and a game winning base hit over the last week.  As fans we also get to see things like Carlos Gomez bunt for a base hit and slide head first into first base, how exciting is that?  The Brewers are no doubt an exciting team to watch, but as a fan, you are also obligated to “get through” the tough ones.

Some Stats to Back it Up

Over the last 7 days Corey has played 6 games with 24 at-bats.  He has hit 1 triple, 2 homeruns (bringing his team leading total to 9), 4 RBI’s and 4 runs scored.  His batting average is only .208 with 7 strikeouts, but that is not taking away anything from how he has been doing this month.

With players sucking it up, looking at you Prince, it is nice to see other players picking up some slack.  Even if he has to be reminded when there are two outs every inning.