40-year old lefty swinging OF Jim Edmonds came to spring training without a guarantee of a job with the Brewers. He then went out and won a bench job with a solid showing in spring training. He is showing so far this season that he has a lot left in the gas tank. Edmonds has played in 17 games for the Brewers so far this season and he is 17 of 57 (.298 avg, .868 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 1 homer, 5 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Edmonds has been stealing some playing time away from RF Corey Hart and CF Carlos Gomez and I see that continuing as long as he’s hitting the ball well. He has been a pleasant surprise for the Brewers so far this year.

It appears that 27-year old righty swinging 3B Casey McGehee is a late bloomer. He played in 116 games for the Brewers last season in which he was 107 for 355 (.301 avg, .859 OPS) with 58 runs scored, 16 homers and 66 RBIs. You had to wonder how McGehee would handle being the starting 3B for a whole season. Well, so far so good. He has played in 18 games for the Brewers so far this season and he is 23 of 70 (.329 avg, 1.030 OPS) with 12 runs scored, 5 homers and 18 RBIs. The Brewers need to him keep up the good work as he is Prince Fielder’s protection in the batting order. The Cubs might rue to day down the road that they lost McGehee on waivers to the division rival Brewers.

The Brewers have demoted veteran righty starting pitcher Jeff Suppan to the pen. He has started 2 games for the Brewers this season and he is 0-1 with a 8.68 ERA and a 2.04 WHIP. He has given up 16 hits (3 homers) in only 9 1/3 innings this season. Suppan deserves this demotion because he’s been pretty awful for quite some time for the Brewers. 28-year old lefty Clint Narveson will replace Suppan in the starting rotation. Narveson has pitched in 9 games (0 starts) so far this season and he is 1-0 with a 7.20 ERA anda 2.40 WHIP. He has given up 17 hits and he has walked 7 batters in only 10 innings so far this year. But, Narveson has been groomed in his minor league career to be a starting pitcher so he should still be better than Suppan even though that’s not saying too much.

The Brewers are 5-7 on the season which has them tied for 3rd place in the N.L. Central with the Cubs, 3 games behind the Cardinals. The Brewers have been outscored 75-61 so far this season as they are wasting a lot of good hitting with bad pitching. Maybe the Brewers can get something going this week as they play three games against the Pirates in Pittsburgh before coming home for three games against the Cubs.

26-year old righty reliever Carlos Villanueva is off to a excellent start this season for the Brewers. He has pitched in 6 games for the Brewers this season and he is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA and a 0.43 WHIP. He has only given up 2 hits and walked 1 batter in 7 innings while whiffing 11 batters. Villanueva is being very aggressive in the strike zone which has really helped him this season and the Brewers hope he can keep up the good work.