Spring Training is just beginning and the Brewers have no shortage of fresh faces at their Arizona compound. To help fans get acclimated with this year’s crop of newcomers to the organization, the Daily Brew has been publishing a series of player profiles over the past several weeks. This is the eighth installment in the Newcomer Breakdown series, which covers major leaguers as well as selected minor leaguers; the first seven profiles covered Jerome Gamble, Derrick Turnbow, Justin Lehr, Julio Santana, Jose Capellan, Sam Narron, and Nelson Cruz.

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In 1999, Dave Nilsson batted .309 for Milwaukee with a .400 on-base average and .554 slugging average. At 29, the Australian-native earned a spot on the National League All-Star team and finished the season with 21 homers, 19 doubles, and 62 RBI. The Brewers declined to offer him arbitration, however, and Nilsson opted to spend the 2000 campaign in Japan so that he could play for Australia in the Olympics.

To fill the vacated catcher’s spot, the Brewers acquired good-glove, no-stick Henry Blanco and he hit .236/.318/.394 in 2000. The switch-hitting Raul Casanova split time with Blanco and batted .247/.331/.407, better than Blanco but more than 200 OPS points below Nilsson’s production from the previous season.

Since then, offensive futility has been the name of the game for the Brewers’ catching corps. Blanco and Casanova continued their mediocre performance in 2001, Paul Bako and Robert Machado reached new lows in 2002, Eddie Perez and Keith Osik clung to mediocrity through 2003, and Chad Moeller and Gary Bennett challenged the 2002 fivesome for worst of the bunch in 2004.

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