The Unceremonious End of the J.J Hardy Era

Friday was an interesting day for Brewers fans as they traded J.J Hardy to the Twins for Carlos Gomez. As a Brewer fan, a J.J Hardy trade was something that I saw coming from a couple time zones away. Still, it isn’t something I’m too thrilled about. On a personal note, J.J Hardy was one of my favorite Brewers and happens to be the only player I have a bobble-head doll for. Image by shgmom56 via Flickr The writing on the wall for J.J Hardy’s exit from Milwaukee has been crystal-clear since his surprising demotion to Nashville on August 12. While he didn’t play as well in ’09 as he had in ’07 and ’08 to me it seemed that he was just having a bad year (as indicated by a .264 BABIP) and not because his performance fell off a cliff (i.e. Bill Hall). Hardy’s replacement at short, Alcides Escobar still has some room for improvement but showed enough last year to get a chance to play every day. He played solid D and hit for pretty good contact. Since he will be only...