Milwaukee Brewers Season Preview

The Milwaukee Brewers go into 2012 with many of the pieces to compete for a title.  They have a two headed monster for a pitching staff and an MVP in the lineup.  We’ll get to Ryan Braun in a moment, but first things first: Prince Fielder is gone.  The hefty lefty’s presence will surely be missed but by how much in 2012?

Projected Lineup

1. Rickie Weeks (2B)
2. Carlos Gomez (CF)
3. Ryan Braun (LF)
4.  Aramis Ramirez (3B)
5. Matt Gamel (1B)
6. Corey Hart (RF)
7. Alex Gonzalez (SS)
8. Jonathon Lucroy (C)

Projected Rotation:

1. Zack Greinke
2. Yovani Gallardo
3. Randy Wolf
4. Shaun Marcum
5. Chris Narveson

Strengths:

Pitching:  This is a really good pitching staff from top to bottom.  Zack Greinke is in a contract year and coming back from a year in which all of his peripherals suggest he had a better year than merely his 3.83 ERA would suggest.  Throw in Yovani Gallardo and his 200+ strikeouts in each of the past three years and a solid if not really good bullpen and this team’s pitching staff is good to go for the year.

Nyjer Morgan:  Morgan is a great addition to the culture in Milwaukee and fans have adored his hard working attitude and general swag.  Morgan bring a different life to the baseball field than does the team’s other star players.  Greinke never does an interview and I’m not sure the Brewers want Ryan Braun showing his face in public again.  Morgan also managed to hit .304 last year and may be the most famous bench/role/ 4th outfielder alive right now.  I’m a big Nyjer Morgan fan, and I’m not sure why I put this under strengths.

Jon Axford’s Mustache.

Weaknesses:

General character:  As much as I just talked about Morgan’s free going ways and the exceptional role he plays in Milwaukee, he was known as being a bit of a jerk at other stops during his career.  Ryan Braun is now a total jerk for not telling his fans why he failed that drug test (I’m sure it will come out in a way that will profit the Braun name brand, like in a tell-all book or just before he hits free agency).  Zack Greinke’s a weirdo and Aramis Ramirez is supposedly a stubborn jerk, throw in the wife beater Francisco Rodriguez and this may be the most dysfunctional and odd clubhouse in the Majors.

Bottom of the Order:  Carlos Gomez is a fourth outfielder at best and his .293 OBP fully supports my statement.  At this stage, Nyjer Morgan is in much the same boat and the Brewers are underestimating the importance of the loss of Prince Fielder on this roster.  They can no longer afford to have the bottom half of their order be wholly unproductive.  Alex Gonzalez reminded everyone of Rey Ordenez last year and another season of a .270 OBP out of the shortstop may doom the Brewers.

Storylines:

Braun:  I’ve written about Braun extensively here and am looking forward to booing him to oblivion during the course of the year, but the guy can straight hit a baseball.  He was an undeserving MVP last year, but still an MVP and brings a ton of productivity to the lineup. The baseball productivity storyline surrounding Braun includes both how he deals with the criticism of the steroid cloud (Will he go all Barry Bonds and just be better than everyone or all Lebron James and force everything because he thinks nobody like him) and the lack of protection in the lineup that was previously given by Prince Fielder.

Where’s Fielder:  How the Brewers replace the production of Prince Fielder from 2011 will be an interesting development throughout 2012.  Aramis Ramirez was brought in, but he’s not Prince Fielder at this stage in his career.  Mat Gamel is the new first baseman and frankly I’ve never really heard of the guy.  On baseball-reference, Gamel’s primary position is “Pinch hitter.”  He hit .310 with 28 homers last year in AAA and may well be serviceable at first, but I’m not sure the combination of Aramis/Gamel matches up with Prince/McGehee.

Prediction:

83-79, 3rd Place, NL Central.  I don’t think the Brewers will be bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they are not on par with the Cardinals or Reds.  The solid pitching will win the team its fair share of games.

Bold Predictions:

• Greinke dominates over his last 10 starts giving up only 4 runs.
• Ryan Braun serves a 50 game suspension for steroids
• Jon Axford shaves his mustache
• Rickie Weeks starts for the National League in the All Star game.  His brother Jemile attends for the A’s.
• Mat Gamel has an .842 OPS