5 Questions with Jeff from BrewCrewBall

I traded questions with Jeff over at BrewCrewBall our Brewers SBNation blog.  My questions and his answers are below.  If you want to see his questions for me and my answers, you can see those here.

1. If there is one player on the Brewers line up to watch out for... who is it and why?

 That is--and will be for a long time--Prince Fielder.  He started slow, but is picking it up, and is without a doubt my pick to be at the plate with the game on the line.  That said, there really aren't a lot of holes in the lineup.  Everybody (with the exception of Jason Kendall) has the capability of cracking 20 homers, and if Yovani Gallardo were playing every day, he'd be on that list, too.

2. What bothers you more... Prince Fielder's increasing pant size, or his .240 batting average?

As noted, the batting average is no problem.  He was cold out of the gates, but is already turning it around.  The big news this spring is that Fielder is now a vegetarian.  Even before that, he's gotten non-stop raves from the coaching staff about his commitment to fitness.  He's never going to be an underwear model (at least, I hope not), but he knows what happened to his father, and is not going to let it happen to him.

3. Will Sheets make it through this season without an injury causing him to miss more than a month? 

Your guess is as good as mine.  I'm optimistic, though his return from "triceps tightness" this week was uninspiring at best.  The one solid reason for thinking he can do it is that most of his injuries have not been of the recurring kind.  That isn't to say we can chalk every missed start up to bad luck--a pattern has definitely emerged--but I'm not among the fans who think he's a weakling.  

4. Are you happy you signed Eric Gagne?  Is there any hope for him?

He's certainly lost something, and I don't think he's going to be as good as he was in Texas last year, but all that said...the short answer is a very reserved yes.  $10MM is a lot, but it's only a one-year deal, and as long as he racks up 35-40 saves (he's already got nine), he'll be a Type A free agent and net the Crew two draft picks.  Beyond that, no one else in the pen (and there are contenders galore: David Riske, Salomon Torres, Guillermo Mota) has looked much better, and somebody's got to pitch the ninth inning.

5. Who is your favorite current Brewer... and why?

I'm partial to the underdog, and the closest we've got is Corey Hart.  He came up in the shadows of Fielder, Weeks, and Hardy, and at the rate everyone's going, he's going to be at least the second best of the bunch.  He's a great hitter (~900 OPS last year), solid defender, and also the fastest guy on the team.  It's possible he'll turn in a 30/30 year before he hits free agency, and this is a guy who a lot of fans outside Milwaukee think is an over-the-hill pop star.