With a full week of baseball left in the 2009 season, the current edition of the Milwaukee Brewers have already allowed almost 100 runs more than the playoff-bound 2008 edition. While a large amount of that difference can be chalked up to losing CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets, a more abstract difference for this Milwaukee team is the absence of well-regarded pitching coach Mike Maddux, who left Milwaukee for Texas after last season. FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reported that the Brewers are interested in trying to bridge that gap by hiring Rick Peterson. The rumor shouldn't be surprising; Peterson worked both with Brewers' manager Ken Macha in Oakland and bench coach Willie Randolph in New York before being fired by the Mets along with Randolph last summer.
Peterson is of course famous for his work in Oakland, where he was pitching coach from 1998-2003 and where he mentored Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito. His work with the Mets, however, is not quite as well-regarded. Still, he'd probably be an upgrade at the spot over the tandem of the now-fired Bill Castro and Chris Bosio.
Still, as much as Peterson may be able to help someone like Manny Parra, the Brewers need a significant personnel upgrade to their pitching staff to jump back in to the NL Central race in 2010. I know I probably sound like a broken record on that point, but they don't have one remotely reliable starter besides Yovani Gallardo right now and soldiering onward with guys like Braden Looper and Jeff Suppan just isn't going to cut it. Even the best potters need clay to work with.
