By John Pesetski
Special to FOXSportsWisconsin.com
PHOENIX — For the first spring in seven years, first base is a question mark for the Milwaukee Brewers.
With Prince Fielder having signed a nine-year, $214 million free-agent contract with the Detroit Tigers in January, the Brewers are counting on 26-year-old Mat Gamel to take over for the man who produced 230 home runs and 656 RBI in a Brewers uniform.
Gamel, who reported early to the team's Maryvale training complex, seems to have made a positive first impression on manager Ron Roenicke.
"He came in ready; he came in in-shape," Roenicke said of Gamel, a longtime Brewers top prospect who hasn't been able to stick with the major league team. "He knows last year he didn't come in in-shape and ready. He wasn't going to let that happen again. He wants to be a major leaguer. Whatever it takes for me to get him mentally confident in knowing he can hit at the big-league level, that's our aim."
Selected by the Brewers in the fourth round of the 2005 amateur draft, Gamel has consistently been one of the top run producers in the team's minor league system. He's also hit .300 or better in all but two of his seven seasons in the minors. In 2011, the converted third baseman played his first full year at first base and put together his best season yet, batting .310 with 28 home runs, 96 RBI and a .912 OPS for the Brewers' triple-A affiliate in Nashville.
Unfortunately, Gamel's minor league stats have not translated into success at the major league level. The young slugger has played for Milwaukee in each of the last four seasons but has been ineffective in limited duty, hitting .222 with five home runs in 184 career at bats. All five of those home runs came during 61 games with the team during the 2009 season.
Still, Gamel believes he's a different player than he was last spring and that he is finally positioned to succeed.
"I made a lot of changes this winter; I'm in great shape," he said Wednesday. "I cut out some of the bad foods I ate and really watched my diet. I also started working with a trainer, Grady Zapata, at home. He had me cross-training, doing a little bit of everything."
The changes have been more than physical.
"I have a different frame of mind than last year or earlier in my career," Gamel said. "I'm more mature, and I feel like I belong in the big leagues."
The Brewers seem committed to doing everything they can to keep the 2008 Topps Minor League Player of the Year confident and in a positive frame of mind.
"You need to succeed sometimes to believe, to have the confidence you belong," Roenicke said. "If Mat gets 60 to 70 at-bats (in spring training), that would be pretty good. If he's healthy, he's going to play. He could bat sixth, seventh or eighth. A lot depends on how he's swinging. I don't want to put pressure on him right away and put him in the fifth slot."
Gamel appreciates his manager's backing.
"Ron and the coaches have always been very supportive," he said. "Ron told me not to press, not to try to do too much. I don't have to go 4-for-4 to stay in the lineup. . . . This is a long process. I want to avoid the ups and downs."
Also getting work at first base this spring will be Gamel's 2011 Nashville teammate, Taylor Green. Rated this year as the Brewers' No. 8 Prospect by Baseball America, the versatile Green will spend time at second, third and shortstop, too. He also recognizes a difference in Gamel.
"We played together most of last year, and he ended up last season in great shape," Green said. "He worked hard, very hard, and had a good season in Nashville. He's a really good player."
Former San Francisco Giants first baseman Travis Ishikawa, signed by the Brewers in December, is also in camp, and right fielder Corey Hart will get spot starts at first, though Roenicke has been clear that moving Hart to first base is not his first choice.
His first choice is seeing Gamel, who is out of minor league options, finally excel now that he'll get a full-time chance to do so.
