2014 Brewers interest level?

[Invader3K]

Hey everyone. I heard an interesting topic on WSSP this morning that I thought would be worth discussing.

 

Chuck & Wickett were talking about how there doesn't seem to be a lot of "buzz" about the Brewers right now, even though they're a first place team and 12 games over .500 right now. First place most of the season, multiple players having great years, etc. Yet the talk right now for many seems to be on Packers practices and the Bucks' upcoming draft pick.

 

It does seem like the interest level is a bit more "muted" than in 2008 or 2011. Is it just "been there, done that" at this point, or are people still not buying into this team yet?

[Mike2k33]

I dunno, attendance seems fine and summer isn't even half a month old yet. Maybe WSSP isn't getting the volume of callers wanted to talk about the Brewers.

 

For me personally, I'm not as excited as I was in 2011. I think some of that has to do with the fact that the 2010-2011 offseason was way more exciting than this past off season. We expected to compete in 2011, we were "all in". This year? We signed Garza and we got Braun back from suspension. Good news on both fronts, but no where near "OMG, we got Grienke" territory. Plus, that's coming off the back of last season's complete garbage fire.

 

2013 is probably still pretty fresh in the minds of the fans and they're waiting for it to all come unglued. I say give it another month and if the Crew is still up a few games on the division I'm sure the city of Milwaukee will start to feel it again.

[jerichoholicninja]

I think my future father-in-law's words summed it up pretty well when he tried to talk Brewers with me: "They're doing well so far. But they always start hot and fade in the end."

 

Now there's really no truth to that but I think it sums up your very casual Wisconsin Brewer fan's opinion about the Brewers. They won't care about the Brewers until late July or August when the playoffs become a very real possibility and the news doesn't have to cover that the Packer's undrafted free agent, 4th string offensive tackle stubbed his toe and had to miss 10 minutes of no pads blocking drills.

[trwi7]

Yet the talk right now for many seems to be on Packers practices

 

And whose fault is that? That's all that entire radio station talks about. Don't get me wrong, I love the Packers but when you're constantly talking about friggin' OTAs, I'm changing the station because that is not interesting at all.

[Invader3K]

Yet the talk right now for many seems to be on Packers practices

 

And whose fault is that? That's all that entire radio station talks about. Don't get me wrong, I love the Packers but when you're constantly talking about friggin' OTAs, I'm changing the station because that is not interesting at all.

 

Not to go way off topic, but I find that 540 ESPN is the main culprit for really over-blowing the Packers talk (Jason Wilde being on constantly, etc). I think WSSP is a bit more rounded in their sports coverage.

[fondybrewfan]

I think it is more "been there done that" going on. 2011 was the first time in ages that anyone thought the Brewers were special. Now that the fans experienced that; competing now isn't as exciting

[liveforoctober]

This is a bit of a digression.. but we are kind of in a "golden era" as Wisconsin sports fans in terms of excitement for ALL teams. Considering the Packers are perennial playoff contenders with the game's best player and just signed Peppers/had a good draft, etc, the Brewers are here and look like legit contenders, the Bucks suck ... but are drafting #2 and have a good stable of young talent which means nothing but is worth watching/monitoring/being excited over ... the Badgers football team returns a top 10 team again, the Badgers basketball team just hit gold, and for the NorEasters, like me, the UWGB Phoenix have the best program they have had in two decades.

 

I realize UWGB bball and Bucky basketball shouldn't really take up much time on the airwaves at this point ... but as a straight Wisconsin sports fan there is A LOT to take in right now. I also am anticipating a bull rush of Brewer visibility once the All-Star clears and the Crew trades FOR someone rather than trade AWAY someone ... the buzz will pick up.

[PrinceFielderx1]

When the Brewers start selling out in July, August, and September we will look back on this thread and say what?

[adambr2]

I would agree that if we hadn't had '08 and '11, the interest level would be a little bit higher. So there's a little bit of familiarity with the situation already.

 

That said, I think most of it is the fact that there is 60% of the season left. So far so good, but when you're pretty drastically exceeding most expectations, some tend to still be cautiously optimistic.

[Warning Track Power]

Living in California makes it a little difficult for me to gauge the excitement in Wisconsin. Having said that, the Brewers are comprised of mostly the same players that won 74 games last year (minus Braun, somewhat Ramirez & Garza) and I think that is the driving factor. The wait and see factor that others have mentioned.

 

Moreover, the constant NFL talk everywhere in the USA has really made it THE sport. There is legitimately no offseason now. It also doesn't help when you listen to nationally syndicated sports shows like The Dan Patrick Show, Scott Van Pelt and The Herd, it is constantly about NFL, NCAA or the NBA.

 

Speaking specifically about Wisconsin, the Packers are always first and foremost on everyone's mind given the amount of coverage that the media back there give them. The Bucks have a chance to draft a potential top 5 talent in the NBA in 2 weeks. A player that COULD be the most transcendent talent in Milwaukee since Kareem and Oscar (yes better than Ray Allen and Sidney Moncrief) be it Wiggins, Embiid or Parker. Plus they have new owners, one of whom has a hot daughter, and potentially a new arena.

 

The Brewers aren't an afterthought, there is just a TON going on with the Bucks which is why they have dominated the Wisconsin sports scene and the Packers draft, all of which have occurred since the Brewers' Opening Day.

[igor67]

It's also likely that the super hot start followed by playing essentially .500 ball for almost a month and a half has let the momentum simmer and kept people on the fence. If it had been more of a steady drive to 12 games over and into 1st place there would probably be a little more buzz. I think if they play even a little over .500 for the rest of June that by the end of the month people will start to get pretty excited about having been in first place for the effectively the entire 1st half of the season.

 

A trade for someone and/or promoting Nelson could also easily be the spark that gets people buzzing.

[pretendastronaut]

Homer on 540 was talking about this on Monday, but then he couldn't stay on the Brewers, and kept talking about receipts. Not exactly helping!

 

I think you'll see it change more as the summer goes on. School is just getting out, and that always has a huge impact on game attendance. More people at the games translates to more people talking.

 

They got a ton of buzz when they played out of their mind in April, so it's not like people aren't paying attention.

[hawing]

They won't care about the Brewers until late July or August when the playoffs become a very real possibility and the news doesn't have to cover that the Packer's undrafted free agent, 4th string offensive tackle stubbed his toe and had to miss 10 minutes of no pads blocking drills.

Isn't late July/August PRECISELY WHEN the media have to force feed us that level of Packers detail? I thought about putting that in blue and then decided not to.

 

More seriously, I can't gauge this as well as some of you might because I avoid practically all talk radio. I see at least as much Brewers swag on people in Madison as I usually do in the season.

[crossface21]

I think people are waiting for the bottom to fall out on this team. They weren't suppose to finish in the Top 3 in the Central according to all the "experts" so nobody wants to go all in on them yet. If they get to the All-Star break in good shape, I think you'll see the excitement ramp up pretty good.

[TooLiveBrew]

If the club can add one more legit middle of the order bat (especially at 1B), imo they're as serious a contender as anyone in MLB.

[brewmann04]

I have to think the Crew needs to add another bat along with an arm and this team can go far. It really does not mean much if the Media is on the crew they are winning and that all that matters.

[HiAndTight]

This is a bit of a digression.. but we are kind of in a "golden era" as Wisconsin sports fans in terms of excitement for ALL teams. Considering the Packers are perennial playoff contenders with the game's best player and just signed Peppers/had a good draft, etc, the Brewers are here and look like legit contenders, the Bucks suck ... but are drafting #2 and have a good stable of young talent which means nothing but is worth watching/monitoring/being excited over ... the Badgers football team returns a top 10 team again, the Badgers basketball team just hit gold, and for the NorEasters, like me, the UWGB Phoenix have the best program they have had in two decades.

 

I realize UWGB bball and Bucky basketball shouldn't really take up much time on the airwaves at this point ... but as a straight Wisconsin sports fan there is A LOT to take in right now. I also am anticipating a bull rush of Brewer visibility once the All-Star clears and the Crew trades FOR someone rather than trade AWAY someone ... the buzz will pick up.

 

 

I'm a huge Brewers fan like everyone on here...and I'm completely enveloped in this team right now.

 

But there are a couple reasons why I MIGHT have been even a little bit more excited in past years.

 

1-When we went to the playoffs the last couple times we had what looked like dominant front end starting pitchers. We had CC and Sheets, and we all know how good CC was and Sheets could be, and we were holding out hope that Yo, another guy who at the time we thought might end up being in that category were fronting our rotation.

 

In 2011 we had Greinke a better Gallardo and Marcum was our #3 and was having a very good year, led the league in SLG, HR's, 2nd in OPS and had Prince/Braun/Weeks and Hart all at or near their primes.

 

This team just seems to be built to win in the regular season moreso than the post-season and after making the playoffs a couple times recently, I don't think Brewers fans are quite as excited at the prospect of just making the post-season. They want to win. I realize that once you get in, crazy things happen. Kyle Lohse and Wily Peralta can out pitch Kershaw and Greinke. But I'm still not quite convinced we're AS good as our record shows.

 

2-And this has to do with the bold, for some reason I get a little bit more excited about a team that is loaded with young prospect, guys who you're waiting to see get called up, guys who are rookies or younger players and you have that sense of excitement about getting to see them. We have Nelson, but other than that, our lineup is pretty much just set.

 

 

 

Again, none of this means I'm not loving every inning of this season. What Lucroy is doing reminds me of Molitor(just the pure hitting ability...even the swing). Gomez is maybe the funnest guy in the league to watch. Braun might be the best offensive player in team history...and we do have some young guys who are fun to watch. Segura's game saving diving play behind 2nd base a couple nights ago, Khris Davis coming out of his slump and proving he's a legit big league LF'er who should put up an OPS of .850 or so(over 1.000 the last 4 weeks), Peralta is absolutely dominant when he's on...Will Smith, the list goes on.

 

 

So those are my two reasons why other years have maybe been SLIGHTLY more exciting...but I would guess that some fans are just a little bit spoiled because we've been relatively competitive the last 7-8 years. But by in large, fans are going to the games and I think people ARE pretty fired up.

[HiAndTight]

When the Brewers start selling out in July, August, and September we will look back on this thread and say what?

 

 

Well, since the question is the Brewers interest as of June 12th, I don't think the level of interest, whatever way it goes is going to change the point of this thread.

 

I still also believe this team is playing over it's head. Sometimes teams have those magical seasons and they do it for an entire season. More often than not they regress a bit.

 

I keep expecting the Cards to start gaining ground and yet they're still 5.5 games back. So maybe this is one of those years where we keep it going. I certainly hope so.

[RightFieldCoder]

This team just seems to be built to win in the regular season moreso than the post-season and after making the playoffs a couple times recently, I don't think Brewers fans are quite as excited at the prospect of just making the post-season. They want to win.

This reminds me of Braves fans. Win ~16 straight division titles but the fan base is upset they couldn't pull in multiple WS titles. Meanwhile Milwaukee and Pittsburgh were failing to win more games than they lost. I want a WS real bad, but need to remember to enjoy having a good team. NY is magnitude larger than Milwaukee, but the Mets are only pulling in 20k a night because they are so bad.

 

PS. The media obsession with a football team 2 hours away over the local baseball team is why I hate that football team.

[TURBO]

 

PS. The media obsession with a football team 2 hours away over the local baseball team is why I hate that football team.

 

I am so unbelievably sick and tired of hearing about "that" team too. I am not a fan of "that" team, in fact, I have become an anti-fan.

 

My allegiance is to a different NFL team, so that sheds a little light as to why I am not a fan of "that" team.

 

The constant news and information gets so irritating. As a full fledged fan of MLB, I get increasingly annoyed with the coverage of the NFL every year as it seems to get worse and worse as the years pass by.

 

I opened up my fantasy baseball page the other day (yahoo) and was horrified to see the lead stories being based on the NFL. This is the middle of fantasy baseball season, and they can't help themselves, the NFL fantasy season takes top bill, even in June. Really angered me at the time. I wait all off season for fantasy baseball, and still, football gets top bill.

 

I digress....I am bitter.

[Warning Track Power]

The constant news and information gets so irritating. As a full fledged fan of MLB, I get increasingly annoyed with the coverage of the NFL every year as it seems to get worse and worse as the years pass by.

 

I opened up my fantasy baseball page the other day (yahoo) and was horrified to see the lead stories being based on the NFL. This is the middle of fantasy baseball season, and they can't help themselves, the NFL fantasy season takes top bill, even in June. Really angered me at the time. I wait all off season for fantasy baseball, and still, football gets top bill.

Amen to this. I am a HUGE fan of the Packers, but I don't care about OTAs or any of the other offseason things, save the draft. I don't need Green and Gold Today in March or in June. I would love to see how a Navy and Gold Today show in November would do. The amount of coverage the Packers get is sickening to be honest and I love that team.

 

On a side note, listening to SirusXM Fantasy Channel and they have a fantasy football show daily/weekly during the offseason. Why? On May 24 I am still 2-3 months away from my draft. Why do I need any advice at this point in time? Come on.

[trwi7]

On a side note, listening to SirusXM Fantasy Channel and they have a fantasy football show daily/weekly during the offseason. Why? On May 24 I am still 2-3 months away from my draft. Why do I need any advice at this point in time? Come on.

 

I never understood why anyone needs fantasy advice. The whole point of fantasy sports is to draft your own team and put it up against friends, co-workers etc. So why would you listen to what some "fantasy expert" says on who you should draft and who is a sleeper and who's overrated? Do that research yourself or don't play.

 

One of my biggest pet peeves is radio stations taking fantasy questions with their "experts." Seriously, shut up and talk about something that's even mildly interesting. I don't care who (insert fantasy "expert" here) recommends playing for Joe in Oak Creek's fantasy team.

[owbc]

The best quote I've seen is that it has been a "mature" reaction among fans. Attendance indicates that support is there, but I think people are right that it's too early to get excited. The fan support will be there in August and September if they are still hanging around 1st place.

[adambr2]

They were 20-7 before May. They are a .500 team since then (about 7 weeks),which I think is a lot more indicative of what they really are than 20-7 did.

 

If you told me today that they would lose the division lead but still get the 2nd wild card at the end of the season, I would take it.

[James Zumstein]

I believe it might have something to do with the fact that this team has some warts. For the most part, there is a huge drop-off in talent from our everyday players to our bench players, but that is the case league-wide, which is one of the reasons we have remained in first place all season long. In most seasons, dominant teams have 25 guys that all belong on a MLB roster. We are definitely short of that number, and until we get closer to that number, fans may remain slow to get too excited.