My twitter stream today brought me a high and a low in about 5 minutes.
J-S Brewers beat writer Tom Haudricourt tweeted that Nyjer Morgan had returned to the team from the DL and would be replacing Carlos Gomez in the two-hole of the batting order for tonight's game.
A few minutes later, Haudricourt tweeted that the tarp was on the field in Atlanta and they were expecting quite a bit of rain.
We had finally been released from the long nightmare that is Gomez batting second and it may be delayed. Let's hope that if tonight's game is postponed that Roenicke doesn't change his mind before tomorrow's tilt.
Nyjer Morgan got off to a tear for the Brewers, playing a few games in right in place of injured Corey Hart and even occasionally spelling Gomez in center. In 27 plate appearances, his line is an obscene .455/.500/.727 (That's Batting Average/On-Base Percentage/Slugging Percentage)
Unfortunately, a deep thigh bruise sustained when running over Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit put Morgan on the 15-day DL. We have to hope that he's able to keep even a modicum of the pace he had starting the season.
Meanwhile, Carlos Gomez has struggled at the plate, making many Brewers fans wonder why he was still batting second. His lack of patience at the plate shows in his anemic .278 OBP. That lack of plate discipline is enough to drive a good fan mad. The two batters before Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder need to be on base. They will score runs. Gomez is doing no such thing, swinging wildly at pitches and not taking walks.
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Free Nyjer Morgan! Until he regresses, there's no reason to be batting Gomez second. Roenicke swears he saw "something" in Gomez during Spring Training, using that to explain why Gomez has gotten so many chances. Unfortunately for fans, whatever that elusive thing is that Roenicke says was there in ST, but not when Gomez was a Twin, hasn't surfaced in the regular season.
He's an undisciplined hitter and until he can learn to see more pitches, he doesn't deserve a spot at the top of the lineup. Gomez does provide a lot of range defensively, but Morgan has proved he's still up to making spectacular plays in the outfield. With his inflated line, Gomez shouldn't see the field.
