Rickie Weeks Demoted

With their lead in the NL Central shrinking, it looks like the Brewers have finally had enough of Rickie Weeks' year-long rehab at second base. Weeks had his 2006 season ended by a wrist injury and he's spent some time on the DL this year trying to nurse it back to health. Unfortunately, he's never been able to get his bat going, putting up a .212/.330/.363 line that's shown neither the power nor on-base skills the Brewers expected from Weeks this year. As a result, he's going to AAA Nashville.

The question, however, is how much this will actually solve for Milwaukee. Weeks will probably be replaced at second base by the two-headed monster of Craig Counsell and Tony Graffanino, the guys that started the year at third base for Milwaukee before the emergence of Ryan Braun. Their play at third is what necessitated the calling-up of Braun in the first place. Counsell is hitting .242/.352/.341 and Graffanino is hitting .237/.314/.400. I guess if you combine Counsell's on-base percentage with Graffanino's slugging percentage, you've got a decent second baseman. Unfortunately, that's not really an option.

Still, the Brewers didn't have a whole lot of choice here. Weeks has been even worse than his line suggests since coming off the DL, so they really had to do something. I know Weeks is the second baseman of the future in Milwaukee, but at some point the Brewers have to realize that playing for this year is just as profitable as playing for the future (they are in first place and all), and I'd guess that a revelation along those lines just took place.