Milwaukee Brewers

June is a great month, wouldn’t you agree?  School is out, golf weather has arrived, and we get the pleasure (for some reason) of both the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals.

In short, the first day of June marks the official start of the summer (unless you subscribe to that solar mumbo jumbo), which means months of carefree behavior, baseball and beer, boats, beaches, and ice cream.

However, for the 2010 Milwaukee Brewers, June marks the franchise’s make-or-break moment.

Corey Hart has always had potential and is a former All-Star. The 28-year old Milwaukee Brewers outfielder is having a career year so far with a league-leading 13 homers and 33 RBIs.

It's clear that unless the Brewers get more starting pitching that they aren't going anywhere this year. It brings up a great question that many baseball analysts have discussed: should the Brewers trade Corey Hart for a starting pitcher?

The Milwaukee Brewers have been a young team throughout the decade. Young players such as Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo, and Corey Hart have been the core of the team during the franchise turnaround.

But with some of the key players getting older, Milwaukee will need a set of prospects to produce at the Big League level.

The following are the top twenty-five prospects, according to www.milbprospects.blogspot.com.

Matt Cain threw a one-hitter tonight and was absolutely masterful.  He had great command, particularly of the fastball, and there wasn’t much the Diamondbacks could do.

The Giants are apparently on the verge of signing Pat Burrell to a minor league deal.  One report (from Fox’s Ken Rosenthal) has it that Burrell will get an option to opt out of the contract after two weeks, presumably if he hasn’t been called up to the major league club by then.

It wasn't pretty, but rookie reliever John Axford helped the Milwaukee Brewers close out a 4-3 victory against the Minnesota Twins to avoid a series sweep.

Over the weekend, owners in two-catcher formats got a new name to ponder: the Brewers' Jonathan Lucroy.

With Gregg Zaun going on the DL, the Brewers recalled Lucroy, who Baseball America ranked their fifth best prospect heading into the season.

Splitting time between Double and Triple-A, he posted the following line in 2010:

122 At-Bats
.311 Batting Average (38 Hits)
Two Home Runs
16 RBI
16 Runs
Zero Stolen Bases
.349 On-Base Percentage
.418 Slugging Percentage
.350 Batting Average on Balls in Play

On May 23, 2010 against the Minnesota Twins, Trevor Hoffman pitched game No. 1,000 for his career, coming on during the eighth inning in a 4-3 victory. He became the 14th player in major league history to accomplish this.

We then went back to our daily routines.

For a sport so focused on the milestone stats, it's interesting to see this one completely slip by. We have 500 home runs, 3,000 hits, 300 wins, and others. Yet, any milestone for games played is not really looked at as any accomplishment. It's a testament to little more than longevity, right?

It has been a while since I've written anything in this space. The reason for that is two-fold.

First, I am the proud parent to a new baby boy (he's a month old today, as a matter of fact)! Second, the team hasn't exactly given me much in the way of motivation to sit down and really put forth any concerted effort.

Trevor Hoffman is the all time leader in saves with 596 (as of May 21, 2010) in 18 seasons. 

After playing for the San Diego Padres for a long time, Hoffman was acquired by the Milwaukee Brewers before the 2009 season.

In 2009, Hoffman excelled as a closer with the second lowest season ERA of his career with 1.83—saving 37 games to add to his resume. It seemed like this guy was a machine, and his career would never end.

But Hoffman's 2010 season has been miserable.

Trevor Hoffman has now blown more saves than he did all of last year, but yesterday was the worst of the worst.

Coming in to protect a three-run lead, Hoffman could not even record an out. He looked like he was throwing batting practice to the Cincinnati Reds in the 5-4 loss.

Hoffman is having his worst season yet and a change has to be made.

With veteran LaTroy Hawkins on the DL, one has to wonder to whom manager Ken Macha will turn now that Hoffman is out of the picture.