After an off-season of waiting, some frustration, and a decent amount of self-righteous finger wagging , we’re just a week away from the start of the 2022 MLB season. A prolonged lockout resulted in a slightly delayed start to the regular season, but it is once again time to start thinking about the Milwaukee Brewers.
This is the greatest stretch of years in the Brewers franchise history. They have won nearly as many division titles (two) in the last four years than they did in the 48 years prior (three). They’ve made the playoffs four years in a row, which is also how many postseason appearances they had in their first 48 years as a franchise.
As for the current team, they have one of the best managers in the sport, an elite pitching staff, and an offense that has the potential to be great. This is a team that can make some noise, and even the loftiest of goals aren’t out of reach. It’s time to lock in.
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With that, let’s take a look at the schedule over the first month to begin to get an idea of what is ahead and the stretches where we can expect some challenges or an opportunity to make a run.
April
April 7-10: Four game series @ Cubs
The Cubs went 71-91 last year, finishing with a rather brutal 29-58 record over their last 87 games. Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Craig Kimbrel, and Javy Baez are all gone after a trade deadline fire sale. The Cubs are not a theoretical contender to win the NL Central and the team looks much different than years prior.
That doesn’t mean they’ll be a pushover though. Wilson Contreras, Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, and Jason Hayward are still in town, and they have a pitching staff that now has Marcus Stroman and Drew Smyly to pair with Kyle Hendricks and Alec Mills. Jonathan Villar might be a solid addition, and Seiya Suzuki has some potential coming over from Japan too. Chicago did pretty well this off-season to work towards competence. That won’t make an early season series at Wrigley easy.
Ideally, the Brewers win this series 3-1. A sweep would be a fantastic start. A split would be unfortunate but far from a problem. Losing the series wouldn’t be a good way to start the year, even if four out of 162 doesn’t mean a whole lot.
April 11-13: Three game series @ Orioles
The Orioles have been one of the worst teams in the league for a few years now. They’ve won less than 55 games in each of the last three full seasons. Maybe they’ll break that elusive 55 win mark this time around, but there’s nothing here to suggest any sort of massive upswing from this team. They should be pretty bad again.
This will be another good chance to pick up some wins for the Brewers. Walking away from a seven-game road trip at 5-2 would be ideal, and that’s more than possible here. Getting an early season sweep isn’t out of the question in Baltimore.
April 14-17: Four game series v. Cardinals
It doesn’t get much better than a four-game series with the Cards to open up the home slate. Last year, St. Louis started 31-24, went 41-45 over their next 86 games, and then finished the season on a 19-3 run that included a 17-game winning streak and put them back in the playoffs. Manager Mike Shildt still didn’t survive after a Wild Card game loss and Oliver Marmol will be the manager of the Cards this year.
This should be a pretty solid team. The core is still there in: Paul Goldschmidt, Paul DeJong, Nolan Arenado, Lars Nootbaar, Harrison Bader, Tyler O’Neill, Yadier Molina somehow, Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright somehow, and so on. Even Albert Pujols is back, which makes it seem like some more Cardinals devil magic is inevitable.
This should be a pretty good early test for the Brewers. It’ll be the best team they’ve played at that point in the season, and it’ll be an opportunity to make an early statement at home. Winning this series would be a very nice early season accomplishment.
April 18-20: Three game series v. Pirates
The Pirates have finished last in the NL Central three years in a row now. The addition of Daniel Vogelbach makes them automatic contenders for something good, but it won’t make them contenders in the only stat that ends up counting. This is a team that will be looking for signs of promise this year, and they might end up being better than they were last year. They likely won’t be a whole lot better than that though.
The Brewers did a good job against the Pirates last year, taking fourteen of nineteen. Doing the same again this year will be important, and that needs to start with a series win here.
April 22-24: Three game series @ Phillies
The Brewers get their first off day of the season before heading to Philly for what should be an interesting series. The Phillies have been knocking on the playoff door for four seasons now and just haven’t gotten over the hump. They’ll be hoping this is the year that changes. This should be a pretty good team. Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber will join a lineup that already has Bryce Harper, JT Realmuto, Rhys Hoskins, Didi Gregorius, Jean Segura, and more. Aaron Nola and Zach Eflin will lead the starting rotation. There’s reason to believe that this Phillies team will end their current play-off drought.
With that in mind, winning a game here would be a solid showing. Winning the series is certainly do-able and wouldn’t be surprising, but it would be an impressive effort. You don’t need to leave Philadelphia with a series win to feel alright about yourself.
April 25: One game series v. Giants
Not needing to fly out to San Francisco for this one should be nice. This will be an interesting one-game test. The Giants were obviously quite good last year in easily exceeding expectations, and the Brewers’ games against them last year were all well worth the watch.
A one game series at the end of April is a little hard to get a read on. Who knows what happens here in terms of pitchers and lineups for both sides. A win or a loss will end up being pretty much irrelevant. But, if San Francisco keeps their momentum from last year going and both teams enter into this one fully trying to win it, it could be a pretty good game.
April 26-28: Three game series @ Pirates
The Pirates are back in the schedule less than a week later, this time in Pittsburgh. Same idea here. You want to win this series.
April 29-May 1: Three game series v. Cubs
We’ve talked about the Cubs already too. A three-game series with them at American Family Fields is always a good way to end the month, especially when they’re very beatable. Winning this one and ending what could be a pretty good April on a high note would be big.
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