Staying True To The Brew Crew

Ever the optimist, that's me.

But, seriously, the Milwaukee Brewers will challenge for the Central Division title. In fact, I think they'll win it with 88 victories. Maybe 90, but that might be a little crazy talk.

Beyond those darn Cardinals of St. Louis, I don't see another challenger in the division. Well, maybe the Cincinnati Reds, but they won't get much beyond a .500 record, if that. The Chicago Cubs? Rebuilding and in chaos. The Pittsburgh Pirates? That ship has sailed.

Sports Illustrated ranked Milwaukee 13th among the 30 MLB squads as a World Series favorite. (Of course, the cash-heavy, talent-laden Los Angeles Dodgers are first, but that's a conversation for another day.)

No, I do see the Brewers as winning this year. After all, whatever could go wrong in 2020 did go wrong. That's in the past. There are several things that need to sort themselves out. A few of them

• Christian Yelich returns to an MVP-caliber form. That shattered kneecap at the end of 2019 interrupted a season that was on the verge of a second straight MVP probably took more time to heal than anyone thought. But get him back to hitting above .300 again and Yeli leads the team to wins.
• Aivisail Garcia, a career .271 hitter, also returns to form
• Lorenzo Cain comes back after sitting out 2020 due to Covid-19 AND teams with free agent Jackie Bradley Jr. to form a great defensive center field tandem
• Kolton Wong wears our pitching like he did as a Cardinal AND gives the infield a lot better defense at second base
• Keston Hiura gets hits bat going again AND gives the team a better-than-average defensive firstbaseman
• The Mayor of Ding Dong City, Travis Shaw, comes back and gives the team some power
• The pitching staff, led by Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burns and anchor Josh Hader, shines

Might be asking for a lot, but what the hey? It's spring and time for optimism.

Saw this on the MLB site that I found fascinating.....

Brewers

TL;DR: Great mascot, announcer and pitching

Christian Yelich is an all-world player, but he’s also human, as last year showed: Watching him get back to form is enough reason to get on board. But also, the Brewers themselves are just inherently likable. They have a massive, incredibly underrated fanbase that routinely passed three million fans in attendance a year, back when such a thing was possible. They also have Bernie Brewer, a mascot with a massive mustache that slides down a massive beer slide when the Brewers hit a homer. They also have a segment at their games where large personifications of meat race each other around the stadium. And, most of all, they have Bob Uecker. How do you not root for a team with Bob Uecker? Oh, and between Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes, Josh Hader and Devin Williams, they have some nasty pitchers.