What does it say about the “Dave Kerwin” situation that my blog has received a record amount of hits today, all thanks to the Dave Kerwin Gear? That’s in part to a link from Anthony Witrado on the Brewers Blog at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
But let’s consider this: from the time I started this blog in late January, to the time of the draft, my blog has been heavily focused on prospects and the 2009 draft. My previous record day was the day after the second round of the draft, with my Suddenly the Draft Looks Great post. That post was quoted and linked from Rob Neyer on ESPN.com.
So I guess the question to ask is: what does that say about Brewers fans?
Outside of football, I’ve never really been one to get caught up in rivalries. I don’t mind Prince Fielder. In fact, Prince Fielder is a part of one of my best fantasy baseball trades, when I got Hanley Ramirez and Fielder in a keeper league for Derek Jeter, Kevin Youkilis, and Austin Kearns (when Hanley and Fielder were rookies).
Ryan Braun was my first round pick in a lot of leagues last year, and won me a lot of fantasy baseball titles, as well as a money league. No one can argue that he’s not a great player.
I do think the whole “untuck the shirts for a victory celebration” routine is ridiculous. It seems like one of those initial ideas, where you come up with simple stuff before stumbling across an actual good idea. Almost like when they were having the conversation about “what should we do to celebrate our victories”, Prince Fielder stepped up and said “why don’t we untuck our shirts”, and rather than object and try to think of a better idea, they went with Prince’s “I’m just looking for an excuse to untuck my size XXXXL shirt early” idea. That’s why I poked fun at it, along with the Dave Kerwin situation.
So I guess it is fun to enjoy a rivalry once in awhile, and it would be nice if this one was a little less one sided in the last two years (although I’d go for the other extreme, like when the Pirates beat the Brewers all the time several years ago). Personally I think Brewers fans are upset because the Dave Kerwin comment was supposed to be an insult, and Pirates fans have adopted it with a cult like following. There’s even a Dave Kerwin on Twitter now.
So thanks to Brewers fans for all of the traffic today, thanks to Jason Kendall for the great nickname for our pitching coach, and thanks to Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun for the fantasy baseball production. Don’t worry, you’ll win a World Series one day…maybe.
Now hopefully the Pirates can take the series tomorrow afternoon.
The MVP Tracker
The MVP Tracker is updated with yesterday’s win. Here are the big impacts from tonight’s loss:
1. Ryan Doumit: -.165 WPA
2. Adam LaRoche: -.101
3. John Grabow: -.095
4. Freddy Sanchez: -.064
5. Ramon Vazquez: -.058
Good game by Virgil Vasquez tonight, getting a .204 WPA.
Other Stuff
-The Pittsburgh Pirates Prospect Watch for 7/21 is up.
-Get your Dave Kerwin Gear Here.
-Dejan Kovacevic links over to the gear from the PBC Blog. Now that both team’s newspaper blogs have linked to the shirts, the next goal is to get every member of the Pirates’ rotation wearing Dave Kerwin merchandise. What a great way to show support for their fearless leader’s alter-ego.
-Evan Meek put up two impressive innings tonight. He’s currently leading the “Replacing Matt Capps” poll on the right side of the site.
