Brewers still waiting for Weeks to bust out

MILWAUKEE -- Rickie Weeks' Spring Training began with such promise after the longtime Brewers second baseman made what he called a "minute" adjustment to the position of his hands. He was aiming for a quicker, smoother swing, along with more consistency should the team return to a right/left platoon between Weeks and Scooter Gennett.

More than two weeks into the regular season, that platoon is in place, the mechanical change is still in place, but Weeks is still waiting for some hits to fall. Gennett went 1-for-3 in Wednesday's 5-1 win over the Cardinals and owns a .278/.333/.333 slash line, while Weeks is hitting .143/.143/.190. Pinch-hitting on Tuesday night against Cardinals left-hander Kevin Siegrest, Weeks struck out looking at a fastball down the middle. Pinch-hitting Wednesday against right-hander Pat Neshek, Weeks struck out on a foul tip with the bases loaded. 

"I see him in [batting practice], he still looks good," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "But somewhere along the line, you need to have that feeling and get some hits and feel confident, and then hopefully that carries you for a long spell.

"There's a lot of platoon systems that work really well. The guy who's the right-handed hitter, he's the one who's got the games where you might not play for two weeks."

So the challenge for the manager is figuring out how to get Weeks going.

"It may be difficult," Roenicke said. "We're trying to win as many games as we can win, and I have to figure out who are the best guys to put out there that day. It's difficult on some of them. It's no different than a guy who is playing every single day [in the Minor Leagues], he comes to the big leagues and now he's a bench player. It's the same thing."

Weeks typically does not like to discuss tough times. When a reporter approached him last week to ask how the platoon was going, he said, "It's just one of those things you have to do."

Has Roenicke had more in-depth conversations?

"We talk about what I have planned, what I'm thinking," Roenicke said. "But I don't know past that too much."