Milwaukee Brewers Shake Things Up…

The Milwaukee Brewers hit rock bottom last night in a 13-6 loss at home to the lowly San Diego Padres. The loss dropped the Brewers to 55-57 on the season and 6.5 games behind the front running St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central. Overall, the Brew Crew have lost 23 of their last 35 games.

Brewers’ GM Doug Melvin apparently has seen enough. Melvin and the Brewers shook things up today by sending former All-Star shortstop JJ Hardy to Triple-A Nashville, designating 3B Bill Hall for assignment, firing pitching coach Bill Castro, and calling up prized prospect Alcides Escobar.

Let’s start with Hardy first. Hardy is one of my favorite players in baseball, but I have no idea what happened to this guy in 2009. In 2007 and 2008, Hardy averaged .280 with 25 HR’s and 76 RBI and was starting to look like a top-tier shortstop. This year however, he is hitting a very Al Pedrique-like—.229 with just 11 HR’s and 45 RBI.

Hardy has clearly struggled at the plate all year and with this demotion and the call up of Escobar, unless Hardy comes back as a third baseman, Hardy’s time in Milwaukee might be over.

If Escobar plays well at shortstop, what use do the Brewers have for Hardy? Here is my bold prediction: JJ Hardy is the starting shortstop for the Boston Red Sox in 2010.

If Hardy fell off the cliff this year, then Bill Hall jumped off and did a cannonball. After clubbing 35 HR’s and driving in 85 runs in 2006, the Brewers signed Hall to a four-year $24 million contract. Big mistake.

It is now looking like Hall’s '06 season was an aberration and his .254 with 14 HR’s and 63 RBI season in 2007 and .225/15/55 season in 2008 were the real deal. This year Hall bottomed out and was hitting just .201 with six HR’s in 78 games.

I think Hall could have some value to a team this year as a late-inning defensive replacement at third. Despite being terrible at the plate, he is still playing some good defense. For that role, I think the Florida Marlins would make sense.

The Brewers figure to be on the hook for the remaining $11 million on Hall’s contract.

The last move the Brewers made today was they fired pitching coach Bill Castro and replaced him with former Seattle Mariners’ pitcher Chris Bosio. The Brewers’ pitching staff ranked 27th in baseball with a 4.84 ERA and their starting staff ranked dead last in the NL in ERA with a 5.16 mark.

This has been a crazy day for the Milwaukee Brewers, but not surprising. Remember, this was the same team that fired their manager (Ned Yost) last year with 12 games to go in the season.

The shake up worked last year. Whether or not it works this year remains to be seen.