2010 Brewer Prediction

[bucks2281]

79-83.

 

Weeks will miss time once again.

I think we will have given up on Hart by the end of the year.

Wolf and Davis disappoint. And Yo, too.

The bullpen will be very, very solid.

Prince and Braun continue to be awesome.

[amt2138]

If Yo, Wolf, and Davis disappoint and we still manage 79 wins that would be a pretty impressive display by the offense. I'm pretty positive and upbeat about this season at this point so I say 87-75.

 

Yo will improve as he continue to develop.

Weeks picks up where he left off before injury

Manny Parra will take over the last spot in the rotation and put together a good season.

[owbc]

At least one article is predicting the Brewers to win the division:

http://msn.foxsports.com/...l-title-not-in-the-cards

[benji]

88 wins and a division title. Carpenter will get hurt and Cards fall to second place.

[Rhett16]

I'm going to go with 82-80.

 

I hope I am being a bit too pessimistic as I'd love to see us in the wild card hunt with 87, 88 wins but I'm too concerned with the pitching. Gallardo is fine, Wolf should be decent and I'm not even too scared of running Dave Bush out there. I am just not as much of a Doug Davis fan as some people out there. And of course, the 5th spot is still up for grabs and even though I think Narveson has earned that spot, it seems down to Parra or Suppan, neither of which are attractive at this point. I just have a bad feeling we'll be losing a lot of 7-6 games this year.

[zzzmanwitz]

I'm going to use my 2000th post for something positive...

 

Brewers go 92-70, win the Central, and eventual World Series Champions!

[sheethead]

76-86 (and a rain out game that, if played, takes us to 76-87)

 

When did they add a 163rd game to the schedule?

[uwisfan]

90 wins. I don't see this team going backwards with the pitching overhaul and slightly improved fielding. The offensive production and relief pitching will be roughly equal with last year

[MJLiverock]

I'll go 83-79. I think the pitching will be a few wins better but the offense will be a few wins worse, netting to minimal improvement over last year. Escobar will slightly outproduce Hardy of last year, McGehee will be a bit worse than last year, Hart will continue to struggle and will eventually lose playing time. Counsell as the super sub will regress from his resurgence last year. Catcher will be a slight improvement and 2b a wash. I think people forget how incredibly good Lopez was a Brewer, he had a .407 OBP and even prior to his acquistion McGehee and Counsell played out of their minds. I opptimistically hope Weeks can match the production the team had from 2B but it could easily be another offensive postions that takes a step back even with a decent year from Weeks.

[RightFieldCoder]

When did they add a 163rd game to the schedule?

 

I jumped ahead of myself. 76-85, with a possible rain out game making it 76-86.

[Fatter than Joey]

Sorry, pet peeve of mine when people start bragging about guessing a single team's win totals correctly like it means something

 

I didn't think anyone was bragging.

 

Fun is fine as long as people remember that is all it is.

 

Suggestion noted. However, I am going to choose to remember it as a demonstration of my superior analytical and statistical skills. Much like when the mighty elk antler wrestle, I am now the alpha elk. Harem advantage -> FtJ. (It should be clearly noted though that the other guy who guessed 80, I assume did so using divining rods and Bill James methodology, and was probably more lucky than anything else).

 

Anyway, like I said I'm guessing 85.

 

Clearly this number is incorrect, as the correct number is 78, which is not equal to 85.

[Tbadder]

I think Escobar will have a good year, better than expected offensively. RF is a black hole. Their best Rfer is Gerut and Macha is gonna sit the guy. I think catching will be better than expected as well, offensively. Defensively, I think it'll be in the lower 3rd. Gallardo is a solid #2. Wolf a solid #3. Davis a solid #5. Starting pitching will still hurt us overall. I expect the bullpen to be much improved because of the plethora of long relievers. If Macha uses them correctly (3 or more innings at a time) then the pitching overall has a chance to make us competitive. Oh mighty Casey--he will strike out. Too bad he's the guy you love to root for. Gomez is just a truly bad offensive player, but without an alternative (Brantley) we're just gonna suffer. I think the Brewers will be good enough to save Macha's job and that's the only real disappointment. Between 75 and 83 wins.

[TheCrew07]

I honestly have no idea as I believe the season hinges largely on Yo and Parra once again. I'll guess 84-78, slightly above .500 but the team could be significantly better than that if both young pitchers progress. Actually we need continued progression from all our young pitching including Butler and the AA staff.

[TooLiveBrew]

RF is a black hole.

 

This is hardly true. A black hole is starting Jason Kendall, not having three solid options for a corner OF spot. I know people are way, way down on Hart, but the worst-case scenario from his p.o.v. would actually be the best-case scenario for the Crew imo... which of course would be a Gerut/Hart or Edmonds/Hart platoon.

[Tbadder]

Maybe I should have said Macha's black hole. He's gonna put Hart's name in there much too often. And that will kill us offensively. Hart's my fifth outfielder this year. I'd run an Edmonds/Gerut combo, with Hart only playing against weak lefties. And what if Gerut doesn't comeback to previous offensive levels, and Edmonds hurts himself again? I don't know--smells like limburger--it's limburger.

[TooLiveBrew]

I just think that's a worst-case outlook. Edmonds has shown his bat speed is still there, and his most recent MLB production against righties was very impressive. Gerut struggled after going from a full-time to part-time role, which isn't uncommon. He's a solid CF bat against righties. Hart is more than solid against lefties -- if there's a shared playing time situation, I'd want Hart getting 100% of the starts against lefties.

 

Which brings me to where we agree http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif I also worry about Macha's employment of shared playing time overall. It's looking like he prefers to use Edmonds in CF & Gerut in RF. That to me is pretty clearly 180 degrees from reality. Edmonds has the bat to justify use in the corner, & likely average to below-avg. defense at CF. Gerut doesn't really have a bat that makes him a no-brainer at a corner spot, but can give you average to above-avg. defense at CF. In any event, the biggest thing is to have the right players. I think the Brewers do. How Macha uses them is important, but less so.

 

Hart probably will get his shot as a full-time player to start the season (let's remember he had a great April 2009), but if he struggles I just can't see Macha having the patience to stick with him like Yost might have. The best thing that could happen for the Brewers' OF this season imo is Gomez to start off hitting well. If he 'proves' himself to Macha, he'll be able to get the plate appearances he needs to continue to develop, and would really force Edmonds to be used more in RF since Gomez's defense is so dang good.

[logan82]

I don't know about that. Macha stuck with Hall for a very long time last year and Hall had very long track record of sucking as a fulltime player.

[TooLiveBrew]

Hall played solid defense, I wonder if that factored in.

[WestSideWillie]

80-82, strength up the middle, compare to 09, worse at catcher with Zaun, worse at CF Gomez, 2nd base Weeks? and SS Escobar are still question marks. Corey Hart? 3b? We have two number 2 pitchers Gallardo and Wolf and a #4 starter Davis. Hells Bells is another year older, walked too many guys last year. Another prediction, 2010 Number 2, Attanasio will sell the Brewers and he and his ownership group will pick up the mess in Los Angeles at Chavez Ravine, after the dirt flies with the McCourts and the Dodgers. Closer to home and a bigger fish in the MLB pond. #3 Madison Dearborn Partners will buy the Brewers after the LA folks buy the Dodgers. #4 Jim Edmonds will be the starting CF by May 1st. #5, Why did the Brewers let Mike Maddux go---and now pay the same money for Peterson? #6 No depth at Catcher.

[TheCrew07]

#6 No depth at Catcher.

Yep Salome and Lucroy qualify as no depth.

[zzzmanwitz]

80-82, strength up the middle, compare to 09, worse at catcher with Zaun, worse at CF Gomez, 2nd base Weeks? and SS Escobar are still question marks. Corey Hart? 3b? We have two number 2 pitchers Gallardo and Wolf and a #4 starter Davis. Hells Bells is another year older, walked too many guys last year. Another prediction, 2010 Number 2, Attanasio will sell the Brewers and he and his ownership group will pick up the mess in Los Angeles at Chavez Ravine, after the dirt flies with the McCourts and the Dodgers. Closer to home and a bigger fish in the MLB pond. #3 Madison Dearborn Partners will buy the Brewers after the LA folks buy the Dodgers. #4 Jim Edmonds will be the starting CF by May 1st. #5, Why did the Brewers let Mike Maddux go---and now pay the same money for Peterson? #6 No depth at Catcher.

wow... if all those things end up being true and they go 80-82, i'll be amazed. That is one of the most negative outlooks i've seen on the Brewers this preseason.

[RockCoCougars]

I don't know why, because usually I am a pessimist, but I think that for a change, a lot going to break right for this team. No significant injuries, the offense clicks, the starters get the job done well enough until mid-season when another fairly big name arm is picked up. I'm going to say that both Fielder and Weeks end up in Top 10 of the MVP voting. Next to weeks, Zaun is the surprise of the year (channeling Eddie Perez)- having a career year at the plate, I'm going to say at least 12 home runs. Braun will have kind of a down year a la Fielder in 2008, but still put up numbers that would be great for most players. Hart will continue to struggle and be supplanted by mid season by Gerut, who will put up solid numbers. Gallardo will log an entire season, winning 17 games. Parra will end up having a surprisingly solid season after a slow start. Wolf will be solid, but not spectacular, Doug Davis will struggle however. The bullpen will be mostly solid as well. I guess the key word here is 'solid'.

 

I'm going to say 94-68, 1st in the division, 4 games ahead of the Cubs.

[brewerguy71]

Actually, for the past 3 years or so, the Brewers have had a lot of things go right for them. They have had one major injury issue each of the past few years its true, but they have exceeded their Pythagorean W-L record by about 5 wins each of the past 3 seasons. I would call that overachieving, or things breaking the right way.

 

Ive already predicted an 83-79 record, fair team, wont really be in it by end of August, but 94 wins, with the pitching staff they have on hand, as well as the offense, is a very huge optimism, imo.

[Crew2323]

80-82, strength up the middle, compare to 09, worse at catcher with Zaun...

How can Zaun be any worse than Kendall? Zaun would have to be spectacularly craptastic for him to be worse than Jason Kendall.

 

Edit: Should probably add my prediction. 89-73.

[Outlander]

87-74