Caution, Catastrophe, Destiny

How about them Brewers?

There are stories on Yahoo! Sports about how the Brewers are this year's Tigers.

I don't entirely agree with this premise, if only by taking a look around the NL Central. To me, the great think about the Tigers renaissance last year - excepting the corresponding Jim Leyland renaissance -was the fact that this was the restoration of a classic organization.

I mean, the Tigers have a history that includes Ty Cobb and Hank Greenberg (in the distant past) and Jack Morris, Doyle Alexander, Kirk Gibson, Lou Whitaker, and Alan Trammel (in my lifetime) - this should not be some woebegone American League cellar dweller who doesn't have anyone better that Rob Fick to put into the All-Star game - this is a franchise that should always be in the elite.

So when I think of the NL Central, I think of the Pirates (Wagner, Clemente, Stargell) and the Reds (Bench, Rose, Morgan) as the grande olde teames to rise up from the ashes.

By the same token, I do remember my early years following baseball, being utterly fascinated with Robin Yount and Paul Molitor - Brewers and future Hall of Famers.

This year's edition of the Brewers in many ways refutes George Will's Blue Ribbon Council on the game - Fielder, Weeks, and Hardy make up a young, cheap, and potent infield, and it's not thier fault that the unit is rounded out by Craig Counsell.

Looking at their pitching staff, Jeff Suppan is still working with mirrors, Chirs Capuano is still managing to fly under the radar Red October-style, and Ben Sheets hasn't come around yet.

Despite being burned many times in Fantasy leagues, I'm still drinking the Ben Sheets Kool-Aid and believe that he is bona fide ace material.

The guy who deserves credit for the Brewers pitcching - not just this year, but over the last few years (if you check the Brewers' stats the last two seasons, pitcing was not the problem) - is Mike Maddux.

In case you aren't sure, that's Greg's big brother. The guy who the 4-time Cy Young winner once claimed had better stuff than he did.

Now, granted, there are accounts that Greg Maddux complimented Matt Clement on having better stuff than he did (this is, of course, prior to Clement taking a Carl Crawford line drive to the head; and to get on a Red Sox tangenet for a moment, Clement is the mouse that has not yet roared for the Sox this year - he is due back in June, and could either take a role in the rotation, in the bullpen, or be useful trade bait - Clement and Tavarez for Helton!) but Mike Maddux was a decent pitcher. I remember him being a great middle reliever for Boston in the '90s, though a review of his pitching line contradicts that.

Still, Maddux took Dan Kolb from zero to hero a few years back, and Kolb's tutelage under Leo Mazzone somehow made him a worse pitcher. Of course, looking at Braves relievers in the '90s, it would seem that Mazzone was always better with starters anyway.

The Brewers are a great early-season story, but so were the Orioles in '04, led by Brian (These Vitamin B-12 injections Miggy Tejada is giving me are great!) Roberts, and they ultimately slid to their customary 4th place finish.

Of course, after Chris Shelton stopped hitting last year, the Tigers were supposed to be done, too.