The Brewers only drew 501 walks for the season which put them very close to the bottom in the NL.  For a team that hit 231 homers you would expect that they would walk more.

Even worse, if it wasn't for Fielder and Weeks this team wouldn't walk at all.  Of the 501 walks the team drew 168 of them came from Fielder and Weeks.  That is more than a third of their walks!  The next Brewer on the list is Counsell with 41 but when you hit .220 and slug .309 walking a lot doesn't make up the gap.

None of Hall, Hardy, Jenkins, Braun, and Hart could walk more than 40 times during the year not to mention Mench's 16 or Estrada's 12 walks on the year.  This team has a ton of power but much of that is wasted because they just can't get on base.

So I guess I am advocating turning left field over to Gabe Gross who had 25 walks in 183 at bats.  Actually Gross has a lot of trouble against lefties so maybe a Gross, Dillon platoon.  I can see it now, Grillon.  Bat that platoon second.  Most of the time you have Gross there who is happy to take pitches and give Rickie a chance to steal a base and he pulls the ball a lot so he should advance the runner often as well.  You then have a nice left/left/right/left/right top five if Hart stays in the five hole.  Buy out Jenkins and spend that money elsewhere (read Fielder extension).

BTW, Harballtimes just accepted my first article. It was kind of hastily put together and not my best work but something none the less. You can read it here.