Inaugural 2008 posting: Brewers defense looks vastly improved

If you followed this Brewer blog last year, I argued until I was blue in the face that the Brewers' "pitching" problems were actually defensive problems. The Brewers defense was awful everywhere and, in my opinion, it ruined a decent Brewer pitching staff.I thought that conclusion was self-evident. After all, as I argued last season, in order to conclude otherwise, you had to believe that all of a sudden -- and en masse -- the entire pitching staff went rotten. Absent a conspiracy, that made NO SENSE.That said, I never really sensed anyone bought into my argument. The skepticism was understandable. We are taught to believe basehits are, primarily, a reflection of the quality of the pitches thrown. I certainly used to believe that. Part of me stubbornly refuses to stop believing it. But, generally speaking, its simply not so.Sure, pitchers can prevent balls from being hit into play (through strikeouts), and, to some extent I guess, pitchers can shorten the odds of balls...