With the Brewers playing a bit flat here in the middle of the season and the trading deadline not far away, the front office shook things up a bit with a few trades.
The first involved sending second baseman Brad Sherman and left-handed reliever Eric Marino (along with a borderline outfield prospect) to the El Paso Dawgs for a pair of relievers- right-hander Evan Perez and left-hander Victor Colon- and a young, defensively gifted but offensively challenged, minor league outfielder.
Sherman can flat out hit and the Dawgs should get good value from this trade but the reality was that the Brewers couldn't find enough opportunities to use him, what with Bobby Erbakan blocking the way at second and with the high level of importance the team places on infield defense up the middle. Marino, having given the Brewers a tremendous season in 1976 following a pretty solid '75, has had a very poor first half of the season (0-1, 1 sv, 5.85 ERA, 1.80 WHIP), largely due to his lack of control (5.8 BB/9). Granted, his BABIP of .359 also indicates a good deal of bad luck, but the feeling was that a change of scenery might be good for him and that the team needed someone perhaps a bit more consistent as their primary left-handed bullpen arm.
They hope that they got this in Victor Colon, who doesn't have near the stuff Marino does but has much better control, is an extreme groundball pitcher, and has the stamina to provide multiple innings with very little split differential. (Right handed hitters just killed Marino!) Neither Colon nor Perez are premium arms, but they should help solidify the 'pen a bit and look to fit well in the Brewers scheme.
Having gently introduced the concept of change to the team an its fans, the bigger news was to come a bit later in the day.