With his bad showing at the plate this season, and questions about his lack of value, Casey McGehee is making fans breath a sigh of relief that a contract extension wasn't signed. I am not one of them, and some fans should look past the initial numbers this season and try to remember what happened in previous years. This isn't some flash in the pan, got hot for two weeks, rookie call-up, as McGehee proved in over 1000 PAs the past two seasons where he boasts 170 RBIs and a batting average of .293. That is as consistent production from third base as you can ask for, but this season has been completely opposite from past seasons.
When I first took a good look at McGehee's stat sheet the glaring holes were obvious, like average, on-base, and slugging, but their had to be another story here than just bad mechanics or approach at the plate. Looking a little deeper you can see that his approach is about the same as his average, taking walks 7.8% of the time and striking out about 17% of the time. So, the next place I looked was his contact rates. Is he just swinging at bad pitches, or are players pitching around him? Neither appears to be true either since his O-Swing%/Z-Swing% are only slightly down, about 2%, however his Contact% has gone up and he isn't getting fooled anymore than usual at the plate.
In my mind the two stats that tell the biggest story on McGehee's slump is his BABIP and ISO. McGehee is one of the few batters in the majors to be pretty luck neutral, in that his BABIP is usually within a few points of his actual average, but down from .306 in 2010, he is sitting on a .252 and right now McGehee seems to finally have a black cloud over his head. With higher ground ball rates, and decreases in line drives and fly balls, Casey has seen his power go from an ISO of .179 to a paltry .094. With McGehee's lack of speed, and his usually average to below glove, he needs to find a way to bring his 100+ RBI power back into the Brewers line up. Casey seems to be trying everything to get his power stroke back, like changing his stance or just trying to hit for contact, but his best efforts so far have yielded no results except DPs and groundball outs.
Casey has been trying to work back, getting 3 singles in recent games, yet his average still sits at about .080 for the last week or so, with no production coming out of those singles either. With all these factors taken into effect the only conclusion I can come up with is it is a mental issue, and not so much a fundamentals problem. This guy can hit when he is on, no one would deny that, but is it possible that he is holding himself back at this point instead of settling into the role the Brewers and all fans want him to fill? Maybe it's just a matter of his bat speed being slower than past years, maybe it's pressure to perform at a high level because of the team around him, or maybe he is just the unluckiest player in baseball. One thing I do know is if he doesn't find a way to get on base soon he is going to be dropped in the order as opposing pitchers give Fielder nothing to hit knowing Casey and his .225 average are up next.
I believe Casey will turn things around soon, and while 100+ RBIs is probably out of the question now, 75-80 isn't a long shot if he can figure out his problems at the plate. Long story short: He is a fan favorite who loves playing in Milwaukee and is involved in the community, really those are all intangibles that his stats aren't going to show. Give McGehee a chance and I think he still may surprise us all before it's over.
-Alex
After dominating the NL since he was brought over from Toronto Shaun Marcum has shown he was worth everything the Brewers gave up to get the big righty. After going down with a hip strain on June 17th Brewer Nation held it's collective breath as we awaited the news on his most recent injury. Initial reports say that he is fine and Marcum expects to make his next start against the Yankees, a club that he has seen more than any other pitcher on the Brewers staff. The Crew is 12-10 in June, including a 20 game stretch in which the Brewers did not have a day off, and pulled one of the toughest interleague schedules in recent memory. We need Marcum healthy to compete with elite offenses as we have seen, so is this most recent injury a bump in the road, or a glimpse of things to come. 
The Brewer world has been screaming about the fact that Mark Kotsay was used in a late inning situation as a pinch hitter, and who can blame us? Mr. Kotsay has proved to be one of the Brewers’ two automatic out players, with no pop in their bats, while perfectly good bench players remain in AAA.
With our recent rant about how useless Yuniesky Betancourt has proved to be so far this season, I decided to retrace our steps to our current situation at Shortstop and really with the legend that is Tony Plush. When the Brewers decided to trade Hardy, he was on a career low slope, hitting for a slash line of .229/.302/.357. With a huge power loss and production falling Hardy was forced out the door by the organization’s top prospect Alcides Escobar.
I have been a pretty avid supporter of Ron Roenicke as manager of the Milwaukee Brewers all season. I think he has done a good job for the most part and he seems like a chum fellow, but his management of the bullpen today and really as of late has been horrendous. Granted, he doesn't have the likes of Takashi Saito, Zach Braddock, Brandon Kintzler, Manny Parra, etc. Still, that is no excuse to continue to ignore righty/lefty splits and use Tim Dillard or Mark DiFelice, give Kameron Loe exclusive rights to the 8th inning and to leave LaTroy Hawkins rot in the pen when he could be used in a high leverage situation. He has made the mistakes a few different times already this season and one has to wonder at what point will he correct his bullpen mistakes and start making the right choices?
I don't care what anyone says, I really like these yellow/gold/mustard jersey's. They were special for tonight's "Cerveceros" night celebrating Latino heritage in baseball. I think they should put "Brewers" across the chest of these and make them a third home alternate jersey. Adam McCalvy tweeted after the game that Kameron Loe told him the guys really liked them and asked the clubhouse attendant if they could throw them into their regular rotation. That would be sweet!
There are two roster moves I would like the Brewers to make. First and foremost is DFA Wil Nieves. I'm sorry but he brings no defining quality to this team other than catching Randy Wolf every 5th day. He is supposed to be a defensive catcher and he would have to be with how bad he is at the plate. The thing is, I have not seen this great defense he brings to the team, have you? It's not like he blocks every pitch in the dirt and throws out runners like Pudge Rodriguez in his prime. So why is he still on the team? He's on a march to batting under .100. It's time for Doug Melvin to pull the trigger and free George Kottaras, who in my opinion is not that big of a downgrade on defense from Nieves and clearly has a better bat and some power potential. With Kottaras on the roster I wouldn't mind seeing Lucroy get a few more days off that way he can stay fresh.
And he just needs YOUR help! Right now Weeks is second in the NL for 2B voting behind the Reds Brandon Phillips. Weeks is having his third straight All-Star worthy season and it would be great to see he and Braun both representing the Crew starting for the NL at Chase Field in Arizona on July 12th. Rickie should get in via players and coaches votes if not selected to start by the fans, but lets not leave it up to them to snub him again. Go over to MLB.com and vote your max 25 times with each email account you have. When you go to games at Miller Park, stuff the ballot box with even more votes for Rickie. Ryan Braun is pretty much a lock to start in the OF for the fourth straight season, but Rickie is right there and he has a shot at it, lets get him there.
