Brewers Announcer Talks Route To Playoffs

Terry Bell: Today is one of our favorite signs of Spring – it’s baseball’s opening day. I met up with Joe Block, the radio voice of the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park, to ask him what it will take for the Brewers to contend for this year’s playoffs.

Joe Block: Well, I think that’s the key word Terry, is ‘contend.’ These are contenders, and you know, over the course of a long season, you don’t know what’s going to happen with injuries, players doing better than you think, players doing worse than you think, and trades and all sorts of things happen over the course of a year. But as of right now, I don’t see any reason why the Brewers aren’t contenders for the [National League] Central crown this season.

TB: One thing they needed was better pitching, and they got one of the best pitchers in baseball from last season, Kyle Lohse, just a few days ago.

JB: Yeah, that’s a great signing. Kyle Lohse, like you said, Terry, is coming off of a great year, he is really starting to come into his own here in his middle thirties. So even though he’s a little more experienced pitcher – a little older – he’s really going to help anchor this Brewers starting rotation.

TB: For the time being, the Brewers are missing a big bat and a reliable glove at first base in Corey Hart. Do you think they’ll be able to make due in the meantime ’til he’s healthy again?

JB: Terry, if you’d asked me that question a month ago, I don’t know if I could have given you an answer, but Alex Gonzales looked really good in spring training defensively…

TB: Last year’s shortstop.

JB: Yeah, he’s never played anywhere except for shortstop in the Major Leagues. Never an inning – never anywhere else. But he played a little third [base] in winter ball over the years, and now he’s going to be one of the Brewers’s utility infielders. And so he’ll open the year as the Brewers’ first baseman. We know he’s got a little bit of pop. Sure, it’s not going to be anything like Corey Hart, but maybe now that he’s a corner infielder, maybe he’ll start developing that kind of pop that he’s supposed to.

TB: I know you prefer not to talk about the previous season when talking about the upcoming season, but the core of this team played together at the end of last season, and played pretty well.

JB: Yes, and the way that they finished last year, 29 [wins] and 13 [losses] to close, which was tied for the best record in baseball for the final quarter of the season. That’s not just ten games or twelve games, that’s a quarter of a season. Now, a quarter of a season is not an entire season, can you put together some of that, at least for most of a season? Well, this Brewers team shows that it’s capable of doing that. I think that’s why [owner] Mark Attanasio and [general manager] Doug Melvin showed the great confidence they did in a lot of these young players.

Jean Segura is going to start the year – a rookie – at shortstop. He’s looked tremendous in spring training, batting .389 as we’re taping this. The starting rotation – when they signed Kyle Lohse, it wasn’t because…some of these young starters weren’t ready, it wasn’t born of panic at all – it was born of ‘hey, Kyle Lohse is a really good pitcher, and if we can make our team better, we can do that.’ So these other young starting pitchers – Wily Peralta especially – those guys are going to be asked to do some things again this year, too. And we’ll see some rookie relief pitchers – early, second-year guys – really start to contribute.

So this Brewers team has a lot of veterans, that’s why they’re thought to be contenders. It’s going to be those young guys too, that are going to have to create some more that magic again for this season.

TB: What does this team have to do – and what does it have to avoid – in order to make the playoffs?

JB: Well, any team has to avoid injuries. And something that shows why they can win is their offense, last year leading the National League in runs scored; leading all of baseball in stolen bases;[and] leading the NL in home runs.

We know this is a power team, but their base running has been the hallmark under [manager] Ron Roenicke his first two seasons. And that is going to be a reason why they could win a couple of those extra games, and now with the second wildcard, that just might get them into the post-season this year.

TB: That’s Brewers radio play-by-play announcer Joe Block. The baseball season in Milwaukee starts this afternoon against the Colorado Rockies.