The Ryan Braun situation has overshadowed him a bit, but Aramis Ramirez will report to camp this spring as the Brewers' most notable offseason acquisition. 2012 will be his 15th major league season (all within the NL Central), and he's already accumulated some pretty impressive career numbers.

Ramirez is tied for 113th in major league history with 315 career home runs. Here are some notable names he could pass on the all time list this season:

• If he hits one homer, he'll pass Jeromy Burnitz for sole possession of 113th. Burnitz also finished his career with 315 home runs, including 165 as a Brewer.
• He needs three long balls to pass Hall of Famer George Brett (111th all time), who hit 317.
• Five would push him past Cecil Fielder (109th), who hit 319.
• Jumping ahead, 22 home runs would move him ahead of longtime Milwaukee Brave Joe Adcock (94th), who finished with 336.
• Looking even further ahead, 28 would move him in front of Hall of Famer Ron Santo (87th), who finished with 342.

Ramirez is also tied for 128th all time with 1122 RBI. If he drives in 100 runs this year he'll pass Hall of Famers Joe Morgan (125th, 1133), Chuck Klein (105th, 1201) and future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio (113th, 1175), among others.

As the Brewers get ready to report to spring training, we'll be taking a look this week at various players who should, could or might approach notable milestones this season. We'll start today with a look at John Axford.

Axford, of course, set a franchise record and led the National League with 46 saves last season. He now has 71 for his career, which is fifth all time among Brewers. If he closes out 27 games this season he'll move into sole possession of second place:

41 of Axford's 71 saves have come at Miller Park. He needs seven more to pass Francisco Cordero for that record:

37 of Cordero's 47 saves came as a Brewer, while ten more came as a member of the Reds. Axford and Turnbow are tied for the career record for saves at Miller Park as a Brewer, with 41 each.

Last season Axford became just the second Brewer ever to record 40 saves, and the tenth ever to record 30. If he passes 30 again this season he'll join Dan Plesac as the only Brewers ever to save more than 30 games twice.

June has come to a close here in the 2011 Milwaukee Brewers Replay, and we’re ready to recap another thirty days of stimulating Brew Crew ball. With the help of a realistic computer game, and the input of online fans, we’re simulating the Brewer’s greatest season since 1982, and asking the question, "if certain things had happened differently in 2011, could the Brewers have made it to the World Series…. and won?"

So far after replaying 83 games, the Brewers sit atop the NL Central division with a win-loss record of 54-29 – second best in all of baseball. They finished June with a 16-11 record, three games under their performance in May (19-10). They are 10.5 games above the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs who are tied for second in the division. The Pittsburgh Pirates are 13 games back, and the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros have all but fallen out of contention.

(see complete league standings and leaders; AL and NL)

In real life, the Brewers were 44-38 at the end of June, and tied for first with the St. Louis Cardinals.

In our replay, the Brewers are projected to win at least 96 games by season’s end.

After June so far, we can see a few interesting highlights starting to emerge. The most notable of these is the addition of Mat Gamel to the lineup. In real life, Gamel was a non-factor in the fortunes of the Brewers during 2011, finishing the season with 26 at-bats and a batting average of .115. In our Replay, he started the season on the bench, coming in from time-to-time as a pinch hitter. During June, however, (right around June 13^th) I grew tired of Casey McGehee’s prolonged slump, so I polled the fans, and it was decided that we would sit McGehee, and give Gamel a shot at third base. Up until that point, Gamel had 7 at-bats, 1 home run, 1 run, 2 RBIs, and a batting average of .143.

Once in the lineup, Gamel was unremarkable. I started to wonder if things would remain that way. In terms of production, he wasn’t much of an improvement over McGehee. Defensively, he looked a bit better, but offensively…. not at all promising.

In our June 20^th game against the Tampa Bay Rays, however, Mat Gamel proved otherwise. He led the charge with a 4 for 5 game, scoring 4 runs, and driving in four runs, including a 3-run home run in the eighth inning (his second of the season). The Brewers went on to rout the Rays 13-3.

Since June 20^th -- the last nine games of June, Mat Gamel has gone 15 for 37, scored 7 runs, drove in 11 RBIs, and hit 3 home runs. His batting average during that stretch was a stunning .405. He’s played third base, and moved to the designated hitter spot for our recent inter-league games. So far in our Replay, he has played in 21 games with 67 at-bats. He has 9 runs, 14 RBIs, 22 hits, 1 triple, and 4 home runs. He’s hitting .328 at the close of the month.

At this rate, Gamel may have found a permanent spot in our line-up, all because Casey McGehee lost his mojo. Not bad for an early summer turn of events! One has to wonder too, could this indicate the possibility of a good real-life season for Mat Gamel in 2012? Perhaps. We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Fielder's introductory press conference was televised live on MLB Network, giving him a chance to show off some pretty awful cornrows. He was joined on stage by agent Scott Boras, Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, GM Dave Dombrowski and manager Jim Leyland.

Fielder's opening comments:

First of all I want to thank my wife, my lovely wife. She means the world to me and she's kept me on track to get here today so I want to say thank you to her. I want to say thank you to Mr. Ilitch and the Ilitch family. This is awesome. I don't really know what to say. I'm just excited that this is kind of a dream come true. So I'm excited. I want to thank Scott (Boras), this is my man right here, I messed up his hair earlier...I said when I was 18 when we got to this day I was going to mess his hair up. So it does get messed up. Yeah, I'm just excited to be here and can't wait to get it going.

Prince: What does wearing the script D mean, coming home?

It's awesome. I really don't know what to say, I just never thought this could happen and it's happening now. It's an awesome moment and I'm glad I get to be here with my family and one of my sons up here. Like I said, this is an awesome moment and a real special day.

Mike Ilitch on how this happened:

Well it came about when (Victor) Martinez got injured and we sat down, Dave (Dombrowski) and I and some other key people in the organization about how we're going to handle this. I got a little dizzy with who's supposed to move here and who's supposed to move there and we've got Raburn here and fill ins for this one, that one. And I got to thinking "They're all going to have pressure on them to be able to match that .320 batting average, 100 RBIs, they're going to feel pressure filling that slot. I don't want to run into that. I was telling Dave, I think I'd feel better if we were just able to totally solve it. When he (Martinez) gets back, I think we'll have a very explosive team. So that's really how it got going. Then I decided we always wanted Prince...we missed him by one slot in the draft when Milwaukee picked him just before us, and we were ready for it but it didn't happen. So it's always been on my mind over the years and of course I followed him very closely, and I saw...what he did in Milwaukee was unbelievable. So I went to Dave and said, "You know, I think we should go after Prince. Let's make an effort and see if we can get him." After that it's a long story.

Mike Ilitch: Did anyone tell you you're crazy to do this?

Well, I've made a few moves in sports. I've got a couple of guys in the other sport on nine year deals. (Ilitch also owns the NHL's Detroit Red Wings.) That's working out beautiful. I know this is a lot more money but I go by my instincts like everyone else does in business and my instincts told me that this is going to work out fine. I'm not going to worry about it. I know what Prince can do and giving 100%...well he gives 120. So he'll give 120% and that's all you can ask of anybody and I feel very confident that things will work out. That's just how I feel about it. I feel good about it. I don't have any concerns. I'm not nervous about it. I know there's probably something wrong with me there...but anyhow. It's a green light.

Prince: Do you expect to play first base?

Yeah, that's what I was before I went into free agency so that's what I had in mind.

There's much, much more after the jump.

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As all of you are aware, Craig Counsell officially retired as a player from baseball on Tuesday to take a role in the Brewers' front office. With his retirement, we should look back on his long and rewarding career. It was a career that took him across the country, where he played a role in the success of several teams. It was a career that will go unnoticed by many people, but will be remembered by many others.

While Craig Counsell was originally born in South Bend, Indiana, he grew up in Whitefish Bay, a suburb of Milwaukee. The Counsell family had their original impact on the Brewers in the 1980s, when Craig's father, John, worked for the Brewers in their community relations department. During that time, Craig got to know some of the Brewers' stars, like Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. At the time, no one could guess just how the career of this young boy would play out.

After playing baseball for the University of Notre Dame, Craig Counsell was drafted in the 11th round of the 1992 MLB June Amateur Draft by the Colorado Rockies. He spent the next few years rising through the Rockies' minor league system, and earned himself a call-up in September of 1995. His major league debut came on September 17, 1995 against the Florida Marlins. He would only make four appearances for the Rockies, and was traded on July 27th, 1997 to the Florida Marlins.

In Florida, his MLB career got a kick start. He became the regular second baseman for the Marlins for the remainder of the 1997 season. He played 51 games that season, helping the Marlins reach the playoffs and eventually the World Series. It was in the 1997 World Series that Counsell scored the game winning run in the 11th inning of Game 7 against the Cleveland Indians, clinching the first ever World Series win for the Florida Marlins. He would remain the regular starter for the Marlins in 1998, but ended up playing mostly off the bench in 1999, and was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 15th. He would finish that season as a bench player, and was released in March of 2000.

Read more about the career of Craig Counsell after the jump.

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I've mentioned this a handful of times this week, but in case you missed it: The Brewers have had at least one former player receive at least one vote for the Hall of Fame every year since 1994. Over that time some relatively obscure players have been named on ballots, but today I want to talk about a player who wasn't.

In 1993, the last season where no former Brewers received Hall of Fame votes, Cecil Cooper was on the ballot (as was Darrell Porter). Cooper probably doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame, but he does have a significant list of career accomplishments:

• 2192 career hits. Value Over Replacement Grit noted that that's the highest total ever for a player who received no Hall of Fame votes.
  
• Five time AL All Star
• Three consecutive Silver Sluggers at first base

So what happened to Cooper? Well, we might as well start with this: The ballot was loaded. There were only five future Hall of Famers on the ballot in 1993, but 21 players who received enough votes to remain on the ballot in 1994. Six different players with over 30 career wins above replacement (rWAR) were knocked off the ballot that season. Cooper wasn't even the best player to receive no votes that season (by rWAR, anyway): Darrell Porter beat him out for that distinction.

Regardless of the circumstances, though, Cooper (and Porter) probably deserved better.

This is the final installment of a ten part series looking at the Brewers' longest home runs of 2011, as measured by Hit Tracker Online. The first nine parts in the series can be accessed here:

Dear fans of Prince Fielder's next team, whoever you may be,

I come to you today with a word of caution regarding your new slugger, in the interest of your safety and the safety of your concessions.

When Prince Fielder is up, no matter how far you are from the plate, you should be watching what's going on. And, for the love of all things holy, hold on tightly to your popcorn lest this happen to you:

That ball traveled 486 feet and was both the longest home run hit in all of baseball in 2011 and the longest in the history of Minute Maid Park. It was the farthest a ball has been hit in the majors since Wladimir Balentien hit one 495 feet back in October 2009.