Pete J Says : Everyones favourites last year to be the leagues surprise team is back and this time we're all a bit more tentative about their chances.
Much of the expectation was born from a formidable pitching staff which will once again be a force if Ben Sheets can throw every five days. He is one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball and can match up against anyone and, when combined with emerging star Chris Capuano, gives the Brewers a firm base to build on.
Behind the big two are three steady eddies in Jeff Suppan, control maestro Dave Bush and Claudio Vargas all of whom could fit into the middle of a lot of good rotations. Backing them up will be a bullpen that should be solid but probably won't strike too much fear into the hearts of many. Francisco Cordero got back on track, to an extent, after a mid-season trade away from Texas where he had a very tough time last year, will close and be set up by Derrick Turnbow. Turnbow had tough time re-adjusting to the league and his control was way off, with some work in the Spring he should be back on track and fit in well in a less pressurised role or he might implode and fade without a trace landing more responsibility upon the young shoulders of Jose Capellan who dominated hitters in the AFL with his electric stuff.
The line-up will be interesting with Prince Fielder looking to be this years Ryan Howard (he might not hit 50 but 40 is well in his reach) and Bill Hardy looking to show last year was no fluke. Fielder started strong but faded down the stretch as the grind of the Big League season got to him as it does many a first year player.
Corey Koskie and Johnny Estrada are both nice additions on both sides of the ball but much of this teams success will hinge on the prodigious talents of Rickie Weeks who was on the way to a tremendous offensive year before being struck by injury. Weeks is a special blend of speed and power atop the order and was showing much improved discipline last year (albeit offset by a frightening amount of K's) and will be one of the leagues most exciting players for a number of years (also because of his will he/won't he fielding escapades).
If injuries do hit Weeks (or Koskie for that matter as both are pretty brittle) yet again, the club has a good array of talented utility men including Hall and newly acquired Craig Counsell and Tony Graffanino and Brady Clark is good value as a temporary leadoff man and centrefielder.
Once again this team could emerge from the pack if they can keep key players healthy (mainly Ben Sheets) and the youngsters continue to emerge. The bullpen should (notice that's a 'should') be OK but we'll have to wait and see, the rotation will be good and the offence will do much better than last year if Fielder continues to improve and Weeks stays healthy. All in all thats a good recipe to mix it up near the top of the Central and if it weren't for a man named Pujols, they'd have a shot at the division. Alas Pujols is out there and a playoff spot might be tough but the Wild Card is do-able with a bit of luck.
Conor C Says : A good one, two, three punch lines the Milwaukee rotation this year, and even with the departed Doug Davis, the brew crew are not in terrible shape. However even with stellar pitching, there is no way in which they can be competitive this year. Ben Sheets could get back to his old ways this year and if he does he is a legitimate ace, but most of their success will rest on Chris Capuano and FA signing Jeff Suppan. Capuano also has 'ace' stuff, but hasn't been able to harness it during his career, while Suppan is a solid middle of the rotation guy in any organisation.
David Bush and Claudio Vargas are very interesting tail end of the rotation pitchers who could make a big impact this year and really propel the Brewers further up the divisional rankings. In a funny way, the two most exciting rotations for the season are based in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. The youth in these two franchises' rotations is going to give both team fresh impetus and hunger and hopefully they can challenge the teams who have been dominating the last few years.
Offensively this team will probably falter, and if they spend another season dwelling in the basement, it will most likely be on account of a lack of runs. Carlos Lee is an unreal loss and power hitters like him don't grow on trees.
Pete J Say : How you can rate Pittsburgh's chances of mixing it up (albeit in a limited way) and not Milwaukee is beyond me. Even with the loss of Carlos Lee, you still have Fielder in his second full year (who should put up Lee-like numbers) and if combined with a full season of Weeks, Koskie and JJ Hardy, that should go a long way towards bridging the gap...with some luck.
Injuries had a huge impact on their season last year (along with some terrible D) and shaking them off will go a long way to drastic improvement on their record and very good rotation goes a long way towards lifting them away from the dregs.
I still believe they have the talent to surprise lot of people but .500 ball shouldn't be too outlandish a prediction. A lot of their yougsters are still on the up and Capuano and Sheets are already All Stars.
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