Wanted: a spark at the top of the order and power in the middle of the lineup

By Jeff Pearlman

Young gives hope to a team that hasn't had a true catalyst in years, but the Brew Crew's recovery from its decadelong malaise will be slow.  Brad Mangin ENEMY LINES An opposing team's scout sizes up the Brewers "The Brewers are going to struggle. They have a young rotation, they don't put the ball in play, Jeffrey Hammonds is a question mark in center, Geoff Jenkins was injured last year, and Curtis Leskanic is coming off arm surgery. They're still a work in progress. ... I've never seen a team strike out as much as they do. Jose Hernandez struck out 185 times and hit .250. Imagine what he'd do if he put some of those balls in play. ... Matt Stairs is a good signing. He's got only one speed. He swings like he's got a purpose. He'll platoon with Alex Ochoa in right. He's average to below average in the field and doesn't throw like Ochoa, but he's not a liability. ... Raul Casanova can swing it, and Henry Blanco can catch it, but the pitchers, especially the young ones, are going to want to throw to one guy. Blanco throws well, receives well and handles pitchers well. He's very underrated behind the plate, but he'll hit .210. ... Ruben Quevedo is a big guy, to say the least. I don't know if he'll lose anything on his fastball if he trims up, but he needs to give them more innings. He throws 90-plus with average major league movement and an average slider. His change is his best pitch: It's a trick pitch that he throws with good movement and a good arm angle. He has to prove he can go more than once through the lineup. He gets the ball up in the zone the second time through. ... Chad Fox is a good closer if Leskanic can't go. He has a turbocharged slider. You know it's coming and still have trouble with it."

They first came together in 1989 as a dynamic union of speed and power and grace and intelligence that, had they not been almost four years apart in age, might have sent shock waves through college baseball. Eric Young, in his final year at Rutgers, was asked by the coaching staff to play host to a hotshot high school senior named Jeffrey Hammonds, from just down the pike in Scotch Plains, N.J. "The kid was skinny," says Young, "and quiet."

Young showed Hammonds the baseball field and the dorms, the good places to eat and the better places to scope. By the time he left, Hammonds -- who was being heavily recruited by Miami, Michigan, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Stanford -- had all but made up his mind: Rutgers wasn't the school for him. "EY was great, a fun guy to hang with," says Hammonds, "but I would've gone to Rutgers only to stay close to home."

Thirteen years later the two are finally teammates, and how they fare will help decide whether this is the year that the Brewers emerge from baseball purgatory. For Young, the question is whether at age 34 he can be the top-of-the-order igniter Milwaukee hasn't had since Fernando Viña scored 101 runs in 1998. For Hammonds, 31, the issue is more delicate: Can he justify the three-year, $21 million free-agent contract the Brewers handed him before last season? For starters, can he stay healthy?

In his nine major league seasons Hammonds has been on the disabled list seven times. In 2000, when he had a career-high 454 at bats, he was an All-Star who batted .335 with 20 home runs, 106 RBIs and 94 runs for the Rockies. On the basis of that performance Milwaukee general manager Dean Taylor gave Hammonds the large bucks to sign in December 2001, only to watch his new franchise cornerstone hit .247 in 49 games last season before crumpling with a torn labrum in his right shoulder.

Hammonds spent the off-season rehabbing his body and mind. He lifted weights and ran every day, and on Jan. 26 he married Keisha Simpson, his girlfriend of three years, in front of 300 guests in Cincinnati. "She was with me when I went to L.A. to have surgery on the shoulder last July," says Hammonds. "When it was over, I looked into her eyes and said, 'This is a game, and I should be able to play without always injuring myself.' Keisha has given me a feeling of strength. It can make the difference."

Last year the Brewers set a major league record by striking out 1,399 times. Hammonds is an above-average contact hitter, and batting in the middle of the order, he'll surely whiff less frequently than the departed Jeromy Burnitz, whose 34 homers were offset by 150 strikeouts. "Hambone is just right to burst out and have that huge year," says Young. "He's going to light Milwaukee up."

The Cubs felt they didn't need Young, whose 31 stolen bases in 2001 were a career low, and let him go as a free agent. The Brewers signed him to a two-year, $5 million deal. At a press conference in January, Young asked about the club record for steals. Informed that it was 54, set by Pat Listach in '92, he predicted that it would be broken this year.

Last season manager Davey Lopes used seven leadoff hitters, and Milwaukee's .319 on-base percentage was the third worst in the NL. "If a team's going to win, it's got to have hope out of the chute," says Hammonds. "When you have a leadoff hitter who starts the party, everyone else just says, 'Damn! I'm going to join the party too.'" The invitation is in the mail. All Hammonds has to do is arrive in one piece.

Issue date: March 25, 2002