Author: Corey Kempf

401227107

When we at Wisconsin Sports Heroics rolled out our Brewers’ season preview article, most of us predicted a 1st place finish in the NL Central. Three weeks into the season, the Brewers are indeed in 1st place, although not in the way any of us expected. Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, and Kolten Wong have all landed on the IL. Keston Hiura is still scuffling at the plate, batting just .118, while also looking bad at times adjusting to playing first base. Devin Williams hasn’t looked as sharp as he did in his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2020. The…

Read More
Brewers' manager Craig Counsell takes a frustrated Brandon Woodruff out of the fifth inning of Game Two of the National League Wild Card Series

It has been exactly six months since we last saw the Brewers take the field, but in some ways, it feels like longer. The 2020 season seems like a delusion, a figment of our imagination–a 60-game season, cardboard cutouts replacing flesh and blood in the stands, routine stoppages of play for many teams. We’re still feeling the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but with vaccinations on the rise, the surreal images from last year’s devastated baseball season appear to be somewhat behind us. Fans will return to the stands in a limited capacity. MLB will attempt to play their full…

Read More

It’s not exactly easy, being a fan of Wisconsin sports teams, is it? Sure, our Packers are one of the most storied franchises in all of pro sports. Yet, we’ve only two championships to show from 30 years of Hall of Famers behind center. Our Bucks are on the verge of a 50-year title drought. Our two major men’s collegiate teams in Madison have only one national championship combined, and that was almost 80 years ago. And then there are our Brewers. Over 50 years in and still struggling to reach the top. They’ve come close a few times, but for the…

Read More
topa

In a season full of small sample sizes, there weren’t very many players who gave us as small a sample size as Justin Topa. The Brewers’ reliever pitched in only six games, but that doesn’t mean fans can’t get excited about what they saw. (I certainly am.) Topa entered the season as a genuine unknown, and rightfully so. Hardly in consideration as a prospect at 29 years of age, Topa is the journeymen of all journeymen. He spent four years with the Pirates to begin his career, losing a year and a half to Tommy John surgery and was released…

Read More
cropped GettyImages 1210887846

If you’re looking for maybe the Brewers’ most puzzling player of 2020, you’ve come to the right place. The expectations for Lindblom were pretty unknown entering the season, and now that it’s over, I think most of that uncertainty remains. Lindblom was signed by the Brewers from the KBO, where he spent the last five years (except for one cup of coffee with the Pirates in 2017). His time in Korea culminated in an incredible 2019 in which he posted a 20-3 record and 2.50 ERA on his way to winning the KBO’s equivalent of the Cy Young. However, his…

Read More
1396fcb5 5a85 4e15 8f3d 650bcc5cb7b0 GAN 20200813 cjm kb1 080 scaled

Allow me to admit this right up front: I tagged Omar Narváez as my choice to be the Brewers’ biggest offseason impact acquisition. After all, he was coming off a breakout 2019 season with the Mariners in which he hit 22 homers and drove in 55 runs in the pitcher-friendly T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Boy, was I wrong. To be fair here, the Brewers’ other acquisitions didn’t pan out that great either. Brett Anderson and Jedd Gyorko made the biggest impacts, but Justin Smoak and Logan Morrison were released midseason. Furthermore, Narváez wasn’t alone in his offensive woes in 2020.…

Read More
GettyImages 1210893035 scaled e1588693287956 1024x684 1

When the Brewers let third basemen Mike Moustakas walk in free agency and sign with the division rival Reds last offseason, fans were … upset, to say the least. Needless to say, sentiments didn’t improve when they signed Jedd Gyorko to replace Moustakas. Gyorko was indeed coming off a career worst year in 2019. He batted just .174 and posted a downright embarrassing .498 OPS in 101 games, splitting time between the Cardinals and Dodgers. Moustakas, on the other hand, had been a critical piece of the Brewers’ push to two consecutive playoff appearances and a clear fan favorite. Perhaps…

Read More
Brewers WIld Card d1528283 2b70 4e79 80e3 ea3e7cfb5993

You’ll have to forgive me for the enigmatic title to this article, but I couldn’t resist. This is supposed to be a recap of the Brewers’ 2020 season. However, after they made the playoffs without spending a single day above .500, you really have to wonder how it actually happened. If we thought last year’s incredible run to the postseason and the 20-7 record in September without injured MVP-candidate Christian Yelich was improbable, we hadn’t seen anything yet. The Brewers celebrated their 50th year in Milwaukee this season and made the playoffs for the third year in a row for…

Read More
250724117 1 1

The Brewers playoff hopes aren’t exactly of life support yet, but the Reds dealt them a blow to begin the final week of the season. Milwaukee dropped two-of-three in Cincinnati this week, as their offense continued its tumultuous trek through 2020. They now sit just outside of the final Wild Card spot at 27-28. The Brewers are 0-9 in games that could’ve lifted them above a .500 record, including two of those losses in this series alone. Castillo Outlasts Woodruff in Opener Milwaukee’s offense once again showed no love to Brandon Woodruff in Monday’s 6-3 loss. The Crew’s run support…

Read More
images 20

The Brewers have seen plenty of September success the last two years, but the 2020 version has thus far delivered mixed results. Trying to keep pace in the NL Central, the Brewers dropped two of three to the Indians. It was a bit of a missed opportunity, as the two teams the Brewers are chasing, the Cubs and Cardinals, are facing off this weekend. Despite a nice offensive showing in Friday’s opener, the losses on Saturday and Sunday resulted from the same woeful hitting with runners in scoring position that have plagued them the majority of the season. The pair…

Read More