Today marks February 1st, 2023 and in 12 days on February 13th something big happens. Yes, Pitchers and Catchers will report for spring training. The Status of the Brewers will continue to look at there pitching as the leader of the team to keep them in a playoff race and division race. Let’s be honest the hitting has gotten a little bit better than last season and that was the huge frustration for Milwaukee Brewers fans. Last year according to CBS Sports the Milwaukee Brewers hit as a team average .235, which is outstandingly horrible and should not be acceptable. Remember as well the totally collapse the team had at the end of September losing the series to the Mets, Marlins & Diamondbacks which eliminated them from a playoff run which they finished one game out of the playoffs behind the Philadelphia Phillies. Every Brewers fan went in the offseason on a bad note knowing it had been the first time since 2017 they have not made the playoffs, we were hearing things like “Fire Counsell”, “Fire Stearns”, “Sell the Team Mark”. Those were some key phrases at the end when looking through all the Milwaukee Brewers Community Groups. The offseason started out very quiet for the Milwaukee Brewers which is what made fans really frustrated as they were the last team in the MLB to sign a free agent over the offseason to begin with and they were making no moves at first. One last thing that was an absolute embarrassment of the team was the upper management with the Corbin Burnes arbitration situation. What happend was Corbin Burnes filled at $11.75 million in that process, and the Brewers were only willing to give $11 Million, which now sounds like it is heading to upper higher level and they will likely side with Corbin Burnes on this one.
Reasons they may be better in 2023:
- Three new player acquisitions that could help there batting average as team go up in 2023, William Contreras, Brian Anderson & Jesse Winker.
- The Milwaukee Brewers will continue to have a strong pitching staff in Baseball and arguably one of the best starting rotations in the MLB.
- With no shift in 2023, it may help some players on the team get more hits into spots they normally would hit to.
Why the Playoffs still might be hard?:
The Milwaukee Brewers could still likely end up with one of those records like 87-75 but it might be extremely difficult to make the Playoffs if they do not win the division. It is very clear in Baseball right now that the NL Central is the weakest division in the National League. So with that being said lets remember for a wild card situation they may have to compete with all of these teams which some of them could still win there division the Mets, Braves, Phillies, Padres, Dodgers & Giants. Then in there division having to compete with the Cardinals & now even the Cubs after the offseason they have had. It will be a tough road if they do not win there division, they will likely have to win 90+ games to make the playoffs as a wild card team.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Matt Peck: will be covering (WIAA) High School Sports, Brewers, Bucks, Badgers, Milkmen and Packers! On the side of all of this Matt broadcasts Wisconsin (WIAA) and Illinois (IHSA) High School Sports at MaxPreps since August 2022. Matt resides in the Milwaukee Metro area so very exposed to the Professional Sports Teams, and has watched them for most of his life. In Addition to all of this Matt is the Assistant Manager at a Sports Memorabilia store in Greendale, WI