A Schelling For Your Thoughts

If the first three games were any indication, the Milwaukee Brewers have a team that might compete for a playoff spot. But they’ll need to survive a tough April first.

Of their 28 games in the first month of the season, 19 are against teams that made the playoffs last season. The Brewers went 1-2 against the Atlanta Braves this week, and now they’ll get three games against the defending World Series champs in Boston. Coming out of April with a winning record will not be an easy feat.

The Brewers looked much improved over their first three games of 2014, but came away with just one win. Most importantly, Ryan Braun and Aramis Ramirez were back in the lineup together for the first time since last June. Braun went just 1-for-11 in the opening series, but Ramirez looked to be seeing the ball well, driving in three of the team’s four runs.

While the Brewers’ offense struggled against the Braves, the bright spot was their pitching. Each of the team’s top three starters — Yovani Gallardo, Kyle Lohse and Matt Garza — impressed in their first outings of the season. Over 21 innings of work, the trio allowed just four runs (good for a 1.71 earned-run average) on 11 hits with 19 strikeouts against five walks.

As they head to Boston this weekend, the Brewers will need to hit better than .184/.237/.230 to come away with more than one win at Fenway Park. During the six-game road trip, Milwaukee will take part in another pair of home openers, for both the Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies.

MILWAUKEE — Years ago, Carlos Gomez had a tendency to irritate Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. But it was more about what he didn’t do, than what he did.

For all the tools and energy the speedy young center fielder had, there existed that much more untapped potential. Just keeping Gomez playing under control was a challenge in itself.

“I think everybody knew it, from the time he was with the Mets, how much talent he had,” Gardenhire said. “(The question was) if he could ever harness it and calm himself down enough. You never want to take away a guy playing the game with the enthusiasm that he plays it with. But some of the things he had to clean up.”

Instead of irritating his own manager, Gomez now is causing headaches for the opposition.

Currently in his fourth year with the Milwaukee Brewers, the enthusiastic 27-year-old has put in a lot of work toward making himself a more well rounded player. He now more closely resembles the prototypical five-tool player that Gomez was expected to be when coming up in the New York Mets’ minor league system.

He’s hitting for average (.331) and power (10 home runs and a .611 slugging percentage). He’s got plus-speed (nine steals and three triples), plays league-leading defense in center field and has as strong an arm as you’ll see.

That wasn’t always the case.

When he arrived in Minnesota as a part of the 2008 trade that sent two-time Cy Young winner Johan Santana to New York, Gomez showed proficiency in only three of those tools. With the Twins, he was a speedy, light-hitting young outfielder.

He had the best ultimate zone rating (UZR) of any center fielder in baseball during his two seasons with the Twins, thanks in large part to his range.

But the offense wasn’t there.

Gomez hit just .258 in his first full major league season with a .296 on-base percentage. When he did get on base, he managed to steal 33 bases in 44 attempts, which ranked seventh in the American League.

Much of it stemmed from a lack of discipline at the plate and proper understanding of situational baseball.

“He was loose cannon No. 1,” Gardenhire said. “He’d tell us he was going to draw the guy in, the third baseman in. The third baseman was already in for the bunt.

“We said, ‘Go-Go, you don’t need to fake bunt and draw him in, he’s already standing in there.’ So then he would fake bunt, fake swing, fake bunt, all on one pitch.”

Gomez’s speed made it natural for teams and coaches early in his career to direct his focus toward putting the ball in play and letting his speed do the rest. But that approach never translated into much in the way of production for Gomez.

Whereas league leaders in on-base percentage tend to be around the .400 mark, Gomez had never gotten on base even 30 percent of the time until last season. His .260 average, 19 home runs and 37 stolen bases in 2012 also marked career highs.

The change came in the second half of last season, when Gomez began taking a more aggressive approach at the plate. Over his final 67 games, Gomez hit .281 with 14 home runs and 33 RBIs, while also stealing 22 bases in 25 attempts.

From that point through Sunday’s game, Gomez has hit .302 with 23 homers and 58 RBIs over a span of 115 games.

“I always think to drive the ball to the middle of the field and hit a home run,” Gomez said of his approach. “And that’s what happens when you have a flat swing, hit the ball hard and you see the ball good. A lot of good things can happen when you do that.”

Gomez hit a pair of solo home runs Saturday, accounting for the Brewers’ only runs in a 5-2 loss to the Pirates. He got around on a cutter up and in to hit the first one to left, and belted a fastball over the middle to right-center field for the second, notching his first career multi-homer game.

Even after watching video of the first home run, Gomez said he had no idea how he hit it. That ability to put the ball over the fence even when mishitting a pitch gives an idea of just what power Gomez possesses.

“If you go out and watch batting practice, he’s got as much raw power as anybody in the game,” said Brewers manager Ron Roenicke. “It’s a big advantage versus the guys that everything has to go perfect for them to hit it (out). He’s just gifted.”

Gomez’s multi-homer game Monday was even more impressive.

He hit a pair of no-doubters, crushing a changeup 436 feet to the second deck in left field in the fourth inning and depositing a slider 405 feet into the bullpen in left-center in the sixth. More importantly, though, Monday’s homers had a bigger impact on the game.

The first cut the Brewers’ deficit to 2-1 and the second made it 4-3.

While it remains to be seen if Gomez can maintain this success over the course of the season, it’s clear his more aggressive approach is paying off so far.

“Before, they threw mistakes and I’d be more trying to hit a ball on the ground and not realize what special power I have,” Gomez said. “I thought only to put the ball on the ground and run, but now I’m free to swing. I do my stuff. I do me. I try hit the ball hard every swing. One strike, two strikes, it’s all the same.”

Clint Barmes just wanted to keep playing baseball.

Having completed his freshman season at Olney Central, a junior college in southeastern Illinois, Barmes intended to return home and play in a local summer league.

“It wasn’t a real strong summer league,” Barmes said. “But just to keep playing.”

Barmes’ teammate Shawn Garrett was set to play summer ball elsewhere, but later signed with the San Diego Padres, who had drafted Garrett a year earlier in the 1997 draft. That decision left the Kenosha Kroakers looking to fill an open spot on their roster.

Enter Barmes.

Olney Central baseball coach Dennis Conley contacted the team, giving them Barmes’ name. The Kroakers contacted the young shortstop, and Barmes set off for southeastern Wisconsin to play in the eight-team Northwoods League.

“That was when it all kind of turned around for me,” Barmes said. “You look at my numbers from my freshman year to my sophomore year in college, and there’s a pretty noticeable difference. Almost 100 points in my average.”

Barmes, now an 11-year veteran with the Pittsburgh Pirates, is the poster child for what the Northwoods League is all about.

Opening its 20th season this week, the 16-team league has more teams, more games and draws more fans than any other summer collegiate baseball league in North America. Talent-wise, the Northwoods League also is on par with other elite leagues like the Cape Cod and Alaska leagues.

“It was a really good league,” said Pirates reliever Mark Melancon, who played for the Duluth Huskies in 2004. “If you didn’t go to the Cape, this was probably the next best league.”

The Northwoods League opened in 1994 with five teams in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota: the Kenosha Kroakers, Wausau Woodchucks, Manitowoc Skunks, Dubuque Mud Puppies and Rochester Honkers.

It took five years before any alumnus of the league would reach baseball’s highest level, but there has been a steady stream since — now 102 total. Right-hander Jeff Weaver was the first to break through, making his debut on April 14, 1999, with the Detroit Tigers.

Other notable alumni include speedy outfielder Juan Pierre, Tom Gorzelanny, Josh Willingham, Andre Ethier, Ben Zobrist, Max Scherzer, Casey McGehee, Ryan Spilborghs, Jordan Zimmermann, Allen Craig and Chris Sale.

“One hundred guys, almost 20 years, so that’s like five a year,” said Willingham, a member of the 1998 and ’99 Austin Southern Minny Stars. “It says that they get good players to play in the league. It was a good league then, and I’m sure it’s only gotten better.”

In April, a pair of Milwaukee Brewers became the 99th and 100th alumni to make their major league debuts: 2008 Green Bay Bullfrogs shortstop Josh Prince and 2006 Brainerd Blue Thunder right-hander Hiram Burgos.

Prince played for the Bullfrogs following his sophomore season at Tulane, and was drafted by the Brewers in the third round a year later. He was the first Bullfrogs alumnus to make his MLB debut since the club joined the league as an expansion team in 2007.

Two other Green Bay alumni, catcher Rocky Gale and outfielder Daniel Robertson, have worked their way up to the Class AAA level in the San Diego Padres organization. Another, outfielder Mitch Haniger, recently was promoted within the Brewers’ minor league system from the low-Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers to the high-Class A Brevard County Manatees.

Following Prince’s call-up, Green Bay Bullfrogs owner and president Jeff Royle celebrated the day as a success for the entire organization, saying that it “speaks volumes to the level of baseball we have in Green Bay each summer.”

For many players, though, their future success is not directly attributable to the league like that of Barmes. But it certainly plays a part.

For hitters, it’s often the first chance they have to use a wood bat over an extended period of time. On the mound, pitchers get the feel for what it’s like to be in a five-man rotation.

Some, like Barmes 15 years ago, play because they just want to keep playing baseball.

“I took it more like just for experience, something that I wanted to do,” Burgos said. “It was a long year. I only threw like 20 innings my freshman year, so that’s why I decided to go play for Brainerd, to get some extra work in and prepare for my sophomore year.”

Likewise, the continued success and improvement of the league is not necessarily attributable to the now-proven success of its players at the big-league level. But it certainly doesn’t hurt to be able to promote those on the current rosters as future major leaguers.

In that first season, the league drew a little less than 70,000 fans. Ten years later, that number was up to more than 625,000 fans. Last season, it hit a new high of 932,245.

That puts the average attendance at more than 1,700 fans per game, a number which is boosted by the popularity of the Madison Mallards. Nearly a quarter of the total Northwoods League attendance passes through the gates at Warner Park, better known as the “Duck Pond.”

Drawing more than 6,200 per game a season ago, the Mallards’ average attendance surpasses that of the Class A Timber Rattlers by nearly 2,000 fans.

“I went to Madison. I remember all of them were good places to play ball,” said Gorzelanny, who played for the St. Cloud River Bats in 2001. “It was a fun league. In college, it’s as close to minor league ball as you can get with the atmosphere, traveling and schedule.”

In the early years, Northwoods League teams played a 56-game schedule between June and August. Today the teams play 70 games over a 75-day stretch from late May to early August.

Typical series last two games, while homestands are kept short, increasing the amount of travel. Comparatively, the Timber Rattlers’ schedule features 140 games in 152 days.

“It prepares you to play at the minor-league level,” Willingham said. “You’re playing all summer, you’re playing in different cities, city-hopping basically. And you’re playing every night. That’s the main thing it does, it prepares you to play in the minor leagues.”

MILWAUKEE — Edwin Maysonet is taking full advantage of his opportunity with the Brewers. And from the looks of it, having a lot of fun while doing so, too.

In five games since being called up, Maysonet is 3-for-4 at the plate, including his first career grand slam in the sixth inning of Saturday’s 8-2 Brewers victory.

After first baseman Travis Ishikawa was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out, Maysonet crushed an 0-1 sinker from Chris Volstad over the left-field fence. Maysonet, who did not play in the Majors the last two seasons, had not homered since his first career blast on May 29, 2009.

He knew he had it too, pointing to Brewers shortstop Cesar Izturis in the dugout on his way to first base.

“Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir,” Maysonet said with a smile. “It feels amazing. You’re helping your team win, and especially in that way. It’s amazing.”

Maysonet got the start on Saturday in place of the injured Rickie Weeks, who is day to day after being hit with a pitch on his left hand and wrist Friday night. Weeks may be back in the lineup on Sunday, but Saturday afternoon belonged to Maysonet.

The 30-year-old infielder did not waste his first start with the Brewers, giving a curtain call to the sellout crowd of 42,339 at Miller Park after the grand slam. All this from a guy who said himself he did not expect to have a big role on the club after his callup.

“I know, right?” Maysonet said. “It’s amazing. Great day for the Brewers.”

It was the first grand slam of the season for the Crew, and the club’s first by a position player in nearly two years. Shaun Marcum, who also started Saturday’s game, had the Brewers’ lone grand slam last season, on July 4 versus the D-backs.

Eight runs were more than enough Saturday for Marcum, who gave the Brewers just what they needed after running through every reliever in Friday night’s marathon victory.

“He’s got four pitches, and he’s got command of all of them. He can expose things, and he did a great job of it today,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “He can maneuver the ball around, in and out, and he cuts it and changes and throws a slow curveball, and he’s very deceiving in his motion, and how quick he is to the plate makes him deceiving as well.”

Marcum tossed seven innings, allowing just one run on three hits, and retired 16 of the last 18 hitters he faced. He also walked a pair and hit a batter, to go along with six strikeouts.

“He threw really well,” said catcher Jonathan Lucroy, who extended his hitting streak to nine games with a 3-for-5 day. “That’s the Shaun Marcum that we’re used to seeing. Executing down, mixing, changing speeds.”

It was the third outing of seven innings this season for Marcum, and the first at Miller Park. His previous best outing came on May 1 at San Diego, when he tossed seven shutout innings, allowing three hits and walking four with six strikeouts.

Marcum lowered his ERA on the season to 3.07, best among Brewers starting pitchers. He has not allowed more than three earned runs in a game this year, and has pitched at least six innings in all but one outing.

Marcum has returned to form nicely of late after struggling last postseason.

“Once he starts getting in that rhythm, it’s fun to watch, because he can really mess up some good hitters by the speed change and the different ways his ball moves,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. “It’s never straight.”

The entire staff has come around this month for Milwaukee. Marcum’s was the fourth straight quality start for the Crew. Over that stretch, Brewers starters have posted a 1.00 ERA, allowing just three earned runs over 27 innings pitched and holding opponents to a .140 batting average.

Combined with the eight-run outburst from the offense, the Brewers turned in one of their most complete performances of the season on Saturday. They’ll look to build on it on Sunday and potentially pick up the club’s first sweep of the year.

“We’re finally playing ball the way we want to play,” Marcum said. “Everything’s going pretty well for us right now.”

Jordan Schelling is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.