Every team in Major League Baseball has hope this time of year as Spring Training breaks and Opening Day is just around the corner. For Milwaukee's Brewers those hopes are tied to three main things. Those three things are simple. Firsts, it's the performance of Ryan Braun. Second, the overall health of the team, and finally the depth of their starting rotation. If things come out right in all three of those areas, the Brewers could be in the hunt for one of the two National League Wild Card spots and finish the season with 85 wins.
Let's first look at Ryan Braun. Back in January, I wrote that the Brewers needed Braun to be what the back of his baseball card says he is. Looking at the team that has come north from Maryvale Baseball Park, this couldn't be more true. If you read some of the projections in the fantasy baseball circles many are calling for Braun to be a shell of the player he was before last season when he missed 101 games between injury and suspension. I can't see that happening and his spring numbers show that. He hit a home run off the second pitch he saw this spring. he is motivated and primed to carry the team again.
The key to him being able to do that is the second part of what will make the team successful: health. Last year from Braun, to Aramis Ramirez, Corey Hart, Rickie Weeks and Carlos Gomez the Brewers had key parts missing lots of time and it showed with what the team did on the field. This season, Hart is gone and Weeks is in a platoon, so they are not as big of a part of this team. The others, however, are back in town and need to have solid years if the Brewers want to be impact players in the National League Central. Ramirez has looked like his old self in spring and has gotten over his knee injury from a year ago. Just like last year, though, it could come out of nowhere. For Gomez, he plays with such wreckless abandon, an injury is not out of the question every time he make a catch at the wall or a diving play in center field.
Onto the starting pitching, where on paper, it would appear the Brewers have assembled one of their best staffs in recent memory outside of the 2011 team that won the NL Central. Yovani Gallardo will start Opening Day with Kyle Lohse and Matt Garza to follow, then Wily Peralta and Marco Estrada will round out the starting five. Lohse and Garza have shown flashes that they could be aces over the course of the last season while the youngsters in Peralta and Estrada will need to find consistency this season to cement their spots on the Brewers rotation.
Some publications have had the Brewers finishing fourth in the division again and I could see that if things hold pat from last season when the the Cardinals, Reds and Pirates all made the postseason. Milwaukee does have the potential to push through and mix things up a bit. The first six weeks of the season could be telling with a hearty helping of intra-division games on the slate that could set things up for who will be in it in June and July. Last season, the Brewers stumbled in May going 6-22. To end the season eight games under .500, the team cannot afford to have that big of a set back if playoffs are going to be a possibility.
PREDICTION
With the pieces the Brewers have this season and the chip on Braun's shoulder, this team can compete for a Wild Card spot and be 85-77 this season. Braun will have 35 homers and be in the MVP discussion.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment