The Milwaukee Brewers started off hot last season with a record of 19-8 in April, and then went on to hold first place in the NL Central for most of the season until mid-August when they started to collapse. A lot of analysts and fans started to claim that the Brewers failed attempt to run away with the division was just a fluke, but considering the talent on the roster, their history the past 4 years, and having a great manager, the Brewers’ success, prior to the collapse, was no fluke. There have only been a few flukes throughout the 100 years of history of the game; for example, when the Rockies swept the NL playoffs as a wild card team in 2007, but then finished under .500 the next season and have not seen the playoffs since. The Brewers are not one of those cases though, especially when they have a great commander in chief in manager Ron Roenicke.
When a team gets close to locking down the division title, then chokes, they are even more motivated the next year to not repeat the same disaster. This Brewers team is solid all around in every category. They have a power-hitting outfield with Khris Davis, Carlos Gomez, and Ryan Braun; who all have good gloves too. The infield consists of defense with good contact hitters in guys like Scooter Gennett, Jean Segura, and Jonathon Lucroy. The Brewers also have a great combination of all ages with veterans and young kids, such as Aramis Ramirez being a 16-year veteran along with a young 24-year-old shortstop to his left.
The starting pitching rotation might have just lost the franchise’s all-time strikeout leader to a trade with the Rangers, but it is still a solid rotation with veteran presence that is throwing to a young talented Jonathan Lucroy behind the plate. The average age of the rotation is 30, that includes the top two guys being well over 30 with at least 10 years of experience in the MLB. The bullpen though, is more on the young side, but assuming that the Brewers re-sign Francisco Rodriguez or trade for Jonathan Papelbon, while along keeping Jonathon Broxton, it will help create a good framework for the pen.
Depth is the Brewers only problem, however, with a manager like Ron Roenicke running the show, there is a way to work around the small issues, like Milwaukee did a fine job of in the first 4 ½ months of the 2014 season. Ron has been named to two manager of the year awards in the minor leagues, was the 3rd base coach of the 2002 championship Angels, and was the runner up for NL Manager of the Year in 2011 when the Brewers won 96 games to take the NL Central crown. Milwaukee still has some work to do on their pitching before Spring Training starts, but, however, with Ron Roenicke’s magic changeups of a lineup with no depth on the bench, and the leadership ability of Lucroy behind the plate, the Brew-Crew should have no excuse to not at least compile 87 wins in 2015 to compete for a playoff spot or even the NL Central.
