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Brewers add second baseman Kolten Wong

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St. Louis Cardinals Kolten Wong – Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

The Milwaukee Brewers have agreed to a two-year deal with free-agent second baseman Kolten Wong.  The Athletic was first to report the deal, which is expected to pay Wong $18 million over two years with an option for a third year.  The deal is pending a physical.

Wong broke in the Major Leagues with St. Louis and played all eight years with the Cardinals.  He won the National League Gold Glove at second base each of the last two seasons.  The Cardinals declined a $12.5 million club option for 2021, instead paying him a $1 million buyout.

Adding Wong at second base will most likely move Keston Hiura to first base.  Hiura was the Brewers first-round draft pick in 2017 and has had throwing issues at second base.  He committed six errors in 49 games there last season and 22 total errors during his first two seasons in the majors. [Read more…]

Brewers reliever Williams is finalist for NL Rookie of the Year

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Devin Williams

Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Devin Williams has already captured National League reliever of the year for the past 2020 season.  Monday, he was named Monday as one of three finalists for National League Rookie of the Year as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Williams is joined by Philadelphia third baseman/first baseman Alec Bohm and San Diego infielder Jake Cronenworth on the ballot.

Rookie of the Year honors will be announced next Monday.

The Brewers have had two Rookie of the Year winners in franchise history, shortstop Pat Listach in 1992 and third baseman Ryan Braun in 2007.

No relief pitcher has won rookie of the year honors in either league since Atlanta’s Craig Kimbrel in 2011.  No pitcher not used as a starter or a closer, has ever captured the honor in either league.

Williams went 4-1 with a 0.33 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 27 innings.  He also led Major League relievers with a 0.63 WHIP and .090 opponents batting average.  He captured NL reliever of the year  honors after teammate Josh Hader took home the award each of the two previous seasons.

Brewers Williams named NL’s top reliever

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Devin Williams

Milwaukee Brewers reliever Devin Williams has been named the Trevor Hoffman National League reliever of the year.  Williams is the first rookie and first pitcher without a save to win the honor in either league.

Williams served as a setup man to Josh Hader, who won the award in both 2018 and 2019.  He finished with the best ERA (0.33), WHIP (0.63) and opposing batting average (.090) in the majors and tied for the lead among relievers in strikeouts with 53 in 27 innings and strikeouts per nine innings (17.67).

Williams allowed just one earned run all season.  He held opponents without a hit in 31 straight at-bats, from August 14th through September 11th.

Williams fastball was routinely clocked in the upper 90’s, but his out pitch was his changeup.  Opponents struck out 41 times against that pitch.

Williams didn’t pitch in the National League wildcard series loss to the Dodgers.

Waupaca native to make Major League umpiring debut this weekend (AUDIO)

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It can take eight to ten years for an aspiring professional umpire to make it to the big leagues.  So things are right on time for 29-year-old Waupaca, Wisconsin native Nathan (Nate) Tomlinson.

After graduating from Waupaca High School in 2009, Tomlinson went right to professional umpires school in Florida.  That is when the long grind of trying to make it to the big leagues started.

Fast forward a decade and Tomlinson will make his Major League debut on Friday night.  He is scheduled to work the entire three-game series between the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park in Arlington, TX.

“It’s obviously an honor and a privilege,” said Tomlinson.  “It’s something that I’ve worked toward for the last, this is my tenth season, so it sort of feels like it’s all become worth it now.  Not that it wasn’t before, but this is sort of a little cherry on top.  Now the goal I guess is to stick, to stay.”

Tomlinson’s first assignment after umpiring school came in the Northwoods League, a summer collegiate wood bat league that has a number of teams based in Wisconsin.  From there, he went to rookie league ball, followed by a stint in [Read more…]

Brewers home opener postponed

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The Milwaukee Brewers home opener this afternoon against the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park has been postponed and rescheduled as a doubleheader on Sunday.

The rescheduling is the result of two positive COVID-19 tests in the Cardinals organization.  Major League Baseball made the move to allow enough time for additional testing and contact tracing to be conducted.

Saturday’s game between the two teams will remain as scheduled at 6:10 p.m..

The Cardinals are in Milwaukee, but have been instructed to self-isolate in their hotel in Milwaukee.

Major League Baseball will continue to provide updates as appropriate.

Brewers release 2021 schedule

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Even before the 2020 Major League season begins, the Milwaukee Brewers entire 2021 season schedule was released on Thursday.

The Brewers will open the 2021 season on Thursday, April 1 against the Minnesota Twins at Miller Park.  It will be the first time the Brewers will open a season with interleague play.

The Brewers get the next day off (Friday) before wrapping up the three game series on Saturday and Sunday.

Following the season opening home series, the Brewers will then head to Chicago to face the Cubs at Wrigley Field.  It’s the first of two trips to the Windy City for the Brewers in the opening month of the season.  The Brewers and Cubs will play a total of nine games against each other in April.

The Brewers will face teams from the American League Central during interleague play in 2021.  They’ll close the regular season with six road games, at St. Louis for three and in Los Angeles against the Dodgers for three.

The Brewers longest home stand will be 10 games from Sept. 17-26 against the Cubs (3 games), Cardinals (4 games) and Mets (3 games).  Their longest road trip also covers 10 games from Aug. 9-19 against the Cubs (4 games), Pirates (3 games) and Cardinals (3 games).

 

2020 Minor League Baseball Season canceled

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Fox Cities Stadium

Major League Baseball has informed Minor League Baseball that it will not be providing its affiliated Minor League teams with players for the 2020 season.  As expected, the result forced Minor League Baseball to officially cancel its 2020 campaign.

“These are unprecedented times for our country and our organization as this is the first time in our history that we’ve had a summer without Minor League Baseball played,” said Minor League Baseball President & CEO Pat O’Conner.  “While this is a sad day for many, this announcement removes the uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season and allows our teams to begin planning for an exciting 2021 season of affordable entertainment.”

The cancellation of the season comes at a difficult time for Minor League teams, many of which are simply trying to stay afloat financially.

“Each club is different as you know, but overall, we are in need of some help,” said O’Conner.  “We’ve [Read more…]

Minor League teams waiting for season to be canceled (AUDIO)

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Fox Cities Stadium

As Major League Baseball and the players association continue to negotiate a possible return to the field this summer, minor league teams have been left behind with little hope of a baseball season.

The Milwaukee Brewers single-A affiliate, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are among the teams around the country that are expecting to hear of a cancellation to the season soon.

Timber Rattlers President Rob Zerjav told WRN on Monday that there’s no way minor league teams could have a season without fans in the stands.  Zerjav said they’re already losing money and it would be worse playing games without fans.

The Timber Rattlers officially opened back up on Monday, but Zerjav said they’re focussing their efforts on finding other ways to generate revenue, other than playing baseball games.

The Timber Rattlers home field (Fox Cities Stadium) has banquet facilities and has hosted weddings in the past.  They’re cooking up fish fry’s on Friday nights and doing other meal deals for fans.  They also own and manage the Northwoods League team in Fond du lac (Dock Spiders) and Zerjav is confident that team will start play on July 1.

In the meantime, the Rattlers are waiting for Major League Baseball to pull the plug on their season.  Zerjav said it’s not a matter of if, but more likely when.

AUDIO: Rob Zerjav said there’s too many things stacked against minor league teams to play this season :15

AUDIO: Rob Zerjav says they can’t afford to play games without fans :07

AUDIO: Rob Zerjav said it hasn’t happened yet, but cancellation is pretty much a done deal :09

Yelich voted to start 2019 MLB All-Star Game

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Christian Yelich (File Photo)

Baseball fans around the country, including those in Wisconsin, have voted Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich into the starting lineup for the 2019 MLB All-Star Game, which will take place on Tuesday, July 9 at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio.

It’s the second career All-Star nod and the first All-Star Game start for Yelich, who finished as the top vote-getter in the National League.

Yelich becomes the first member of the Brewers to start in the Midsummer Classic since 2014, when Carlos Gomez (left field), Jonathan Lucroy (catcher) and Aramis Ramirez (third base) earned starting spots.  Yelich is also the sixth outfielder in franchise history to start in the All-Star Game, joining Ben Oglivie (1980), Jeromy Burnitz (1999), Ryan Braun (2008-10, 2012), Corey Hart (2010) and Gomez (2014).

Second baseman Mike Moustakas and catcher Yasmani Grandal also represented the Brewers on the MLB All-Star Starters Election ballot, with both finishing third at their respective positions.

The rest of the All-Star rosters for both squads, totaling 24 for the NL and 23 for the AL, will be determined through a combination of “Player Ballot” choices and selections made by the Commissioner’s Office.  The balance of the rosters will be announced on ESPN at 4:30 p.m. CT this Sunday, June 30.

Fiers tosses second career no-hitter

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Mike Fiers

The game was delayed more than 90 minutes because of a lighting malfunction, but the Oakland A’s eventually blanked the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 as starter Mike Fiers tossed his second career no-hitter.

Fiers pitch count was at 109 after seven innings and he was told by manager Bob Melvin that one more baserunner would end his night, even if he still hadn’t allowed a hit.

The former Brewers pitcher managed to breeze through the final two innings for his second no-hitter.  The first came in 2015 when he needed 131 pitches to lead the Houston Astros past the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Fiers is just the 35th pitcher in major league history to toss multiple no-hitters in his career.  It’s the first no-hitter of the 2019 season.

Fiers walked two and struck out six.  He improved to 3-3 on the season.