In anticipation of the coming baseball season, we will be previewing all 30 teams over the next month. To see all of our team previews, please click here.
The Brewers really didn’t do much this offseason, other than letting players leave. In fact, barring injury, amazing performance at camp or an unsuspected trade, all 8 position players will be exactly the same as they were last year.
The pitching staff will look very different this year. They lost the ace of their staff for the last 8 seasons in Ben Sheets. They lost him to, well, no one. He failed his physical after getting offered a deal from the Rangers, and is not going to be on an opening day roster. The Crew also lost their rent-an-ace in CC Sabathia to the Yankees. They brought him in from Cleveland to get them to the post season, and he did just that. I have nothing but love for CC and the 1000% effort he put forth in Milwaukee. He may have been playing for a contract, but he put his arm on the line every 4thday for a month and carried the team (Ed. note: If you can’t tell, I would love CC back on the team but not at $100+M).
The Brewers starting rotation will be led by two young guys with about 2 full seasons between them. Yovani Gallardo will be the new ace of this staff. I think the kid will be great someday. He will joined at the top of the rotation by Manny Parra. Parra was great in his first season, until he ran out of gas in September and was rellagated to the bullpen. Parra, the lone lefty of the starters will be fine in his second full season. He will take what he learned last year and build on it. His ability to pitch more innings than he has in his career will come along with the experience. The remaining three starters will be Braden Looper, Jeff Suppan and Dave Bush. Bush has been decent, especially at Miller Park. Looper has been predicted to throw 187 innings with a 4.85 ERA, so we shall see. Jeff Suppan will suck as he has every since he signed that deal on Christmas Eve of 2006. The sooner he is off the books, the better for the Brewers. They could use some depth to the meager rotation. It will be interesting to see what happens when one of these guys goes down with an injury.
As with every team, the bullpen will look different from last year. Most notably, last year’s closer, Solomon Torres, retired and was replaced with the all-time saves leader in Trevor Hoffman. Carlos Villanueva, who was excellent out of the bullpen last year will remain as the long reliever in ‘09. The one addition to the bullpen that I’m excited about is Jorge Julio. He showed signs of greatness above-averageness in Atlanta and hopefully can improve with the Brewers.
Two positions where the Brewers will probably struggle at is third base and catcher. Jason Kendall did a nice job last year, but his age has taken a toll on him. If he misses time due to injury, prospect Angel Salome could get called up and get some time. Salome batted .360 at different levels in 2008 and looks to be the catcher of the future. Bill Hall slumped mightily at third base last year and could be replaced by Mat Gamel. Gamel is a great hitter but not so slick fielding third basemen the Brewers drafted in 2005. Bill Hall isn’t the best fielder either, so we could see Gamel get some Major League experience this season.
All in all, I think the Brewers might take a small step back in 2009. New Manager Ken Macha will have his hands full with the lack of starting pitching this team has. New hitting coach Dale Sveum will have to teach this team to be much more selective at the plate. The Brewers were 5th in the National League in strikeouts last season. That is something they need to improve on if they hope to contend for the division title this season.
I have seen the Brewers are predicted for 87 wins and second place in the NL Central. I think that sounds about right with the team they will be fielding this year. If the pitching stays healthy, and if the defense doesn’t hurt them too much, they will be right in contention to win the Wild Card again.
Is Trevor Hoffman a Hall of Famer?
Stigs, I know I was wrong about your boys last September but I don’t see a team with such thin starting pitching winning 87 games.
Feel free to rub it in my face if I end up being wrong.
“Wow, that starting rotation is an embarrassment. Only 1 or 2 guys they can count on, and this from a 2008 playoff team. Not good.” – An ironic quote from either Mark Buehrle or John Danks
enjoy trevor hoffman. great career, great revitalization with the masterful change-up he developed, but that change-up is worthless now when your fastball tops out at 88.
hope that offense turns into something special because you don’t want a bunch of close games with hoffman on the bump in the 9th.
Unfortunately Yes.
if the cardinals had made even one decent move this past off-season i could see them battling for second with the crew, but now that i look at it, the brewers have two former crappy cardinal pitchers, so they may just have a chance.
The NL Central was good last year. Who wants to bet they’re awful this year? Any takers? All of you? Really?
Hef, Im just waiting for Milton Bradley to set himself on fire and jump into the crowd.
Tampa, after rolling in glue and broken glass shards.
milton bradley doesn’t have rage issues, he’s just misunderstood, and both of you are being mean.
Fuck it. He opens fire with a handgun. Over/Under 80 games.
Then lights himself on fire and jumps in the crowd.
Over/Under 80 games suspension?
Big Papi thinks he should get a year, Ozzie too.
The Players Union would never allow an 80-game suspension.
Agreed. 15 games for firing a gun into the stands.
Hef it happens in less than 80 games. 15 games and community service. Then he kills a cat with his bear hands in front of kids during community service.
Ohhh…I see. It happens on April 28th. He kills the cat on June 13th.
/book it
15 games with pay for doing it at Yankee Stadium
Milton Bradley has bear hands? You’d think that would make it hard to play baseball.
Happy. For got the /stigs’d tag.
Typical for MLJ – a discussion on any baseball team develops into some sort of Cubs-hating conversation about 95% of the time. Wake me up when you have something interesting to say.
wrigley’s a dump.
God forbid we call a guy who threw a bottle into the stands, threw a bag of balls on the field and attacks umpires a bad guy. No, he’s a saint.
I find spencer’s comment interesting. I get to find out for myself when the Cubs play the Twins in June. I hope I don’t catch a case of gay from all the faggy frat boys.
Wait, the Cubs play the Twins this year? I can’t wait to scream obscenities at those chokers.
Don’t forget that Bradley injured himself going after the 1st base umpire. Pure class.
/bear hands