2017 Brewers Optimism Thread!

[homer]

Yes, this is the OPTIMISM THREAD

[Austin Tatious]

Arcia is hitting in the mid .240's and has a nine game hitting streak. This is good news as he's getting good experience and development time at a young age. Now, you might say, his OPS is .630 or whatever. That's low, but I'd say two things. One, his body isn't developed like some other guys. He will get stronger in time and I'd suggest he will hit some gaps with more authority in future years. The important thing to me is he's getting hits. Some of those singles will turn into doubles in a year or two. If he's got a mid .700's OPS, that's pretty good with the defense he's bringing. But getting the hits is a start.

 

By the way, we don't discuss him much, but Darnell Coles has been a spectacular hitting coach.

[SomewhereInTime]

With another Cardinal loss today the magic number is down to 112

[brewmann04]

it would nice if we can win when the cards lose especially playing aganist bad teams

[JohnBriggs12]

Cubs lose again! To the Padres no less!

[pacopete4]

Cubs, Cardinals lose again. Brewers will enter June in 1st place no matter what.

[Oxy]

For good measure, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh lost tonight as well.

[SomewhereInTime]

Cubs, Cardinals lose again. Brewers will enter June in 1st place no matter what.

 

And that'll knock the magic number down to 111.

[bork]

The Brewers will be in first place in June.

[tmwiese55]

It's weird to look at NL Central standings today. Every team lost last night and all are below .500 in last 10. We've lost 2 in a row, Cubs 5, Reds and Cards 3. We've been really close in a few of our games recently, it really wouldn't be far fetched at all to have a 4-5 game lead right now (I know all 3 teams at top of Central could say that) which would be crazy considering our expectations at the beginning of the season. Hopefully can get these 2 against the Mets before seeing Kershaw on Friday (I think). The longer we hang around in this the better, could make for a fun summer.

 

Also, as much as we all expect the Cubs to get it together. It's not unrealistic to think their struggles continue as their pitching is still largely not good right now. Last year relied heavily on Arrieta/hendricks and neither has really shown signs yet of being back to that level. and their 5th spot is still a mess with seemingly no fix in place as of now. Now if Lester gets hurt they're in trouble. I still expect Arrieta/Hendricks to be better than they have been (even if not on last year's level) but there is a shot they just continue to be mediocre guys this year just like our guys are for the most part. Just saying it's not unrealist at all for that team to continue to struggle and for the NL Central winner to only have 87-89ish wins, if that's the case anything is possible.

[JohnBriggs12]

Cubs swept by Padres!

[adambr2]

The Padres just swept the Cubs.

[brewmann04]

Let's hope the Mets don't do that to us

[ClosetBrewerFan]

I cannot recall in all the years I've watched the Brewers them having as deep of a bench as right now. Aguilar comes off the bench and fills the 3rd spot in the lineup. Sogard needs to find a way into the lineup. Perez has been solid and can fill in anywhere. The two catchers are both killing the ball.

 

Nice problem the brewers have. Counsell can start filling out the lineup card with his eyes closed.

[Jenkins5]

Orlando Arcia has been clicking at plate lately! Great to see! Has to really help the confidence to be finally experiencing success!

 

Thames hammy healing up! He's starting to hit again and hit a bomb today!

 

The bench is extremely impressive! So many guys needs abs right now & CC is a manager who is great at handling the line ups to do so.

 

Pina's pop times are completely off the charts! Never knew he was that impressive in that area. He also has 5 best arm per throw in majors right now. Maldy of course is #1 with nearly 85mph a throw. Still, 1.7 to 1.8 pop times with 81 mph arm for Pina is not too shabby at all! Add in the way he has been at plate.... Lucroy who? Lol

[brewmann04]

Took the season series from the Mets

[SomewhereInTime]

Magic number down to 110 with both the Brewers and Cardinals winning. 1.5 game lead on STL and 2.5 on the tanking Cubbies.

[JimH5]

Magic number down to 110 with both the Brewers and Cardinals winning. 1.5 game lead on STL and 2.5 on the tanking Cubbies.

 

As delighted and surprised as I am that the Brewers are winning, it is even more satisfying that Genius Joe Madden's Unstoppable TheoCubs are scuffling.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Cub payroll - $172 Million

Cardinal payroll - $151 Million

Pirate payroll - $100 Million

Red payroll - $93 Million

Brewer payroll - $63 Million (Combined Matt Garza and Ryan Braun are roughly 40% of their 2017 payroll)

 

I've seen enough of this Brewers team who's leading their division after 2 months of the season to really be entertained watching them - they obviously have holes and warts with a roster that's easily the smallest payroll in all of baseball, and with their star player being knicked up and out of the lineup a good deal recently. But, they have a diverse lineup that at times can really pound the baseball and also put pressure on defenses. Pitching will be a question mark for this team all season, which would be expected for a team with a $63 Million dollar payroll in 2017.

 

Do I think the Brewers are still going to be leading this division at the AS break? probably not. However, it's not because they are going to crater. To me, this team is very likely to outperform its preseason pythag record, and could do so by a pretty significant number of wins. With how bleh a vast majority of the NL is aside from a few elite clubs, they may very well be in contention for one of the wild card spots well past Labor Day - particularly if the Cards can't figure out how to hit and the Cubs continue their inconsistent season to avoid the expected cream of the division from running away and hiding.

[AdvantageSchneider]

Cub payroll - $172 Million

I've seen enough of this Brewers team who's leading their division after 2 months of the season to really be entertained watching them - they obviously have holes and warts with a roster that's easily the smallest payroll in all of baseball, and with their star player being knicked up and out of the lineup a good deal recently. But, they have a diverse lineup that at times can really pound the baseball and also put pressure on defenses. Pitching will be a question mark for this team all season, which would be expected for a team with a $63 Million dollar payroll in 2017.

 

Do I think the Brewers are still going to be leading this division at the AS break? probably not. However, it's not because they are going to crater. To me, this team is very likely to outperform its preseason pythag record, and could do so by a pretty significant number of wins. With how bleh a vast majority of the NL is aside from a few elite clubs, they may very well be in contention for one of the wild card spots well past Labor Day - particularly if the Cards can't figure out how to hit and the Cubs continue their inconsistent season to avoid the expected cream of the division from running away and hiding.

 

The Cards are trailing the wild card by 6 games (Colorado and Arizona). Which means if we weren't leading the central we'd be trailing the wild card by 4.5 games. That seems like the best NL division so maybe one of those two teams slips in the second half. Probably for Arizona depends on if Pollock can stay healthy which seems to be a problem for him.

[SomewhereInTime]

Magic number down to 110 with both the Brewers and Cardinals winning. 1.5 game lead on STL and 2.5 on the tanking Cubbies.

 

As delighted and surprised as I am that the Brewers are winning, it is even more satisfying that Genius Joe Madden's Unstoppable TheoCubs are scuffling.

 

Can you imagine how desperate things would be in Chicago if the Indians pushed across a run in the bottom of the 9th last year?

 

Honestly, their pitching situation doesn't look much better than ours.

[SomewhereInTime]

Cub payroll - $172 Million

I've seen enough of this Brewers team who's leading their division after 2 months of the season to really be entertained watching them - they obviously have holes and warts with a roster that's easily the smallest payroll in all of baseball, and with their star player being knicked up and out of the lineup a good deal recently. But, they have a diverse lineup that at times can really pound the baseball and also put pressure on defenses. Pitching will be a question mark for this team all season, which would be expected for a team with a $63 Million dollar payroll in 2017.

 

Do I think the Brewers are still going to be leading this division at the AS break? probably not. However, it's not because they are going to crater. To me, this team is very likely to outperform its preseason pythag record, and could do so by a pretty significant number of wins. With how bleh a vast majority of the NL is aside from a few elite clubs, they may very well be in contention for one of the wild card spots well past Labor Day - particularly if the Cards can't figure out how to hit and the Cubs continue their inconsistent season to avoid the expected cream of the division from running away and hiding.

 

The Cards are trailing the wild card by 6 games (Colorado and Arizona). Which means if we weren't leading the central we'd be trailing the wild card by 4.5 games. That seems like the best NL division so maybe one of those two teams slips in the second half. Probably for Arizona depends on if Pollock can stay healthy which seems to be a problem for him.

 

Only need one out of those three teams in the West to come back down to earth. The WC line right now is a lot better than what you'd normally expect. Colorado and Arizona are both due for a downswing, the numbers especially point to Colorado experiencing one. LA might be legit though.

[MadScientist]

Thames is healthy again and Guerra is dealing. This team could be poised for a run.

[tmwiese55]

Anderson looks great again today. So have Guerra and Jimmy lately. Rotation isn't awful if all 5 can just be solid, don't need anyone to be some superstar or anything. Could be enough to hang around for a while longer in this thing.

[SomewhereInTime]

109!