Jean Segura: One of the bright spots for the Brewers this year.
It’s been one of those years for the Milwaukee Brewers. The kind that seem to go on forever with every possible disastrous turn of events sinking the team lower and lower into the depth’s of season’s despair. The latest, Johnny Hellweg’s pitiful ERA, is just another layer in the crap cake that’s being served at Miller Park this year. It’s hard to put too much on Hellweg however, the poor kid’s being thrown into the deep end with little or no support, but there’s little forgiving a 12.79 ERA through two starts. Yet, you can’t really put it all on the kid’s shoulders. Fielding errors in the last few games (with plenty of blame to go around- Segura, Ramirez) have added to the team’s lack of run production. Without Ryan Braun in the lineup, Ramirez on shaky knees, and no Corey Hart for the season, much of the hitting production has been left up to the likes of Carlos Gomez, Jean Segura, Nori Aoki and a round robin of youngsters yoyo-ing up and down from Triple-A Nashville (Josh Prince, Caleb Gindl, Scooter Gennett). The Brewers need more from the Jonathan Lucroy and Rickie Weeks, otherwise waiting around for guys like Yuni Betancourt and Juan Francisco to hit big means we’ll probably be waiting for a long, long time.
Then there’s the mediocre pitching all around. It seems that every time you tune in, Kyle Lohse is struggling, or John Axford stinks again, and lately, Hellweg getting knocked out of games early. A feared pitching rotation it is not. Silver lining? Both Carlos Gomez and Jean Segura were picked to represent the club at the All-Star Game. It’s not much but both have been putting in the hard yards and have kept afloat a struggling ball club. Carlos Gomez has been fielding a few beauties lately and Segura’s play at the plate has been significant.
Long season’s are part of every club’s cycle. 2013 will be a season to forget in Milwaukee but there’s still the opportunity for some of the youngsters to get in a few games and build on some promising futures. The Brewers could nab themselves some decent draft picks come next draft, so the team will continue to get some young legs in. It wasn’t long ago the Brewers were plying their trade in the NLCS (just two years ago), and in time and continued play from the likes of Gomez and Segura, Miller Park will be home to important games again. Just not this year.
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