March 30, 2005
Brooks Runs Dry
Rock'em Schnockem reports on the release of Brooks Kieschnick. He thinks San Francisco could use a player who could go both ways. :-)
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Kieschnick's a rarity in this day of specialists, both in pitching and hitting, a guy who can do both. I'm sure a team will pick him up before opening day. He's had a decent ERA over his career and his hitting is very good. Having a relief pitcher that can hit for himself helps when you are running low on bench players during a long game.
Since the Brewers are only taking eleven pitchers into the season the move makes sense, but they let a fan favorite go. Everyone around the organization (I just left AZ) seemed sort of bummed about it. The other thing is that Obermueller has a bat so that gives them that pitcher-that-can-hit if the bench gets too thin.
The worst part is that the Brewers lose deep threat potential without Kieschnick, since they are only keeping 4 OFers (2 with bomb potential) and forty five (semingly) middle infielders. Hopefully Cirillo will discover that big 6-7 HR/year potential!