Chris Romines, the Brewers 25-year old rookie first baseman, is measured as having above average speed, if only a bit above average. And while he isn't expected to be a base stealer (he has stolen 1 base this season and also been caught trying once), he is considered a decent base runner (the Brewers scouting staff considers him a 6 out of 10 in base running, a bit better than the OSA perception).
But not only has
Romines seemed to collect an inordinate amount of infield hits this season, but in yesterday's 11-2 victory over Montreal he got the scoring started in the 1st inning when he hit a ball into the left-center gap to drive in
Marty Crumbley (.363/.412/.565 in 136 PA's) and then just kept running, ending up with an inside-the-park-homer, the first of the season for the Brewers.
Romines in fact sparked the Brewers to the huge victory, which broke a 6-game losing streak, by going 4 for 5 in the game, collecting 2 doubles to improve his league-leading total to 34, hitting a single, driving in 4 runs while scoring 3.
To say that
Romines is not the likeliest of Brewers to get an inside-the-park job is a bit of an understatement, given that this team includes gap-hitting speedsters like
Javier Hernandez,
Val Guzman,
Justin Banks, and even the 36-year old
Joe McPhillips, who remains very fast. Not that he is the least likely, either. In fact, he has a respectable UBR of 2.1 and BsR of 1.6 this season. And he shows some quickness in the field also with a ZR of 2.2. He has also hit 7 triples this season.
When you put it all together the big picture is that the unheralded semi-prospect is on pace for a 5.5 WAR season and is clearly one of the best stories in a disappointing 1985 Brewers season.
Speaking of dreadful seasons, the woeful Milwaukee Cadets are the first team eliminated from post-season contention, a chronic condition for that team.
