2017 Brewers Optimism Thread!

[Greenleaf1]

This 3.5 game lead feels like the real deal to me now. I'd be very surprised if the Brewers weren't at least within shouting distance of a division title into September at this point.

 

Let's bump this up to a 5 game lead, grab ourselves a controllable SP and a solid reliever at the deadline and steamroll our way to a division title!

[Thurston Fluff]

The brewers pick up Oakland's castoff and he contributes more here than he did Oakland right away in the same year that the Cardinals release a big contract free agent because he sucked so bad. Those are two things that usually happen in the reverse order. I guess the good Karma moved north.

[stalton]

A bit arbitrary but at the end of last year the Brewers were 21 and 19 for the last month-and-a-half. The Brewers are not that far away from 162 game stretch of over .500 baseball

[SomewhereInTime]

74!

[DoubleSwitch]

After tonight's win the Fangraphs playoff odds calculator has the Brewers with an over 25% chance to make the playoffs and better odds than the Cardinals, both for the first time.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/coolgraphs.aspx?lg=NL&div=C&stat=poff

[MrTPlush]

Never thought the Brewers would be in an article with this kind of title this year.

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2719713-one-reason-each-mlb-contender-wont-win-the-world-series

[Boomer5]

This might be the Brewers year.

 

When one guy goes down either by injury or falling apart, guys like Sogard and Garza step up. We have so many having career years that it's bordering on the absurd.

 

Combined with a division that had 3 97 game plus winners in 2015 to now have every single one drop into oblivion, and the you have a scenario where the Brewers could win this thing.

 

Had they signed Holland instead of Feliz this thing might already be over.

[Lathund]

Anybody else hear Stearns in game interview today?????? Shocked by some of his answers. In a nutshell, he is looking to deal...

 

I saw/heard the interview, and you may be reading too much into it. Sounded like typical GM speak to me, very vague. "We're always looking to get better." That sort of thing.

 

Yeah he was essentially not ruling out anything. The one thing I think we can take away from that interview is him saying we're gonna stick to the plan; he was part of that Astros organization, and this year we can see the results of that. Stearns will want to see the same here. I also think he's going to be looking to strengthen, but not in big trades for TOR arms. Regardless of what he actually intends to do, he's not going to say that we're not looking to get better. Heck, even the threat of the Brewers going for it is good to have around. If it means the Cubs and Cardinals keep depleting their farm, that's good for us in the long run. Sure, it'll make those teams better for 1-2 years, but it'll also make them weaker beyond that which suits us just fine.

[Humans Need Water]

This might be the Brewers year.

 

When one guy goes down either by injury or falling apart, guys like Sogard and Garza step up. We have so many having career years that it's bordering on the absurd.

 

Combined with a division that had 3 97 game plus winners in 2015 to now have every single one drop into oblivion, and the you have a scenario where the Brewers could win this thing.

 

Had they signed Holland instead of Feliz this thing might already be over.

Brewers weren't spending what Holland wanted so not sure why people still bring him up. Blown Saves alone would give the Brewers a 6 game lead over Pitt, 6.5 over CHI and STL. With 3 months to go it's far from being almost over.

 

Feliz had 1 blown save. Knebel has 3. Feliz had 5 losses and 3 of those games he entered in a tie game (9th inning or later) so we have no idea if we end up winning those games or not in extra innings if he had scoreless innings. He guaranteed cost the Brewers 3 games this year (Knebel has cost us 4 including giving up a run in the 8th against Cincy recently). But he's killing it this year so we'll continue to point the finger in every other direction even though everyone has contributed in losses.

[Humans Need Water]

The Brewers have the talent to hold everyone off. They need to remain pretty healthy though. I can't see adding a rotation arm as doesn't make sense to me but I can see Stearns adding a solid young pen arm to team up with Knebel, Barnes, Hader. Hughes has been great for a while now and Oliver has been very solid too. Bolstering the talent by at least one arm would be great for the team overall.

[tmwiese55]

I can fairly confidently say that if they win today, they're going all the way.

[Bobafett89]

The bullpen is coming around. Just need to acquire one more good arm (brad hand anyone?) And this team can go a lot further than all of us thought back in march!!

[Invader3K]

Really did not think the Brewers would be leading the division near the All-Star break, but here we are. A 4.5 game lead on the Cubs.

 

I don't watch ESPN or MLB Network much at all (don't get MLB Network on our current TV package). Are the Brewers getting respect, or is it basically, "They'll come back down to earth, Cubs will come around", etc?

[igor67]

MLB network has definitely been treating them like legit contenders over the last week for sure. There has been a variety of opinions, but I'd say the average opinion is that the Central is a real race with the Cubs still narrow favorites.

Baseball prospectus just updated their playoff odds and it is now 51% Cubs 49% Brewers.

[JohnBriggs12]

11 runs with top two HR hitters on the bench. If that doesn't make a statement, what does? Say what you want about Davies, but his mental makeup from day 1 in a Brewer uniform has been something to behold. Bring on the Yankees!

[BrewersAA]

My optimism right now is based around Brandon woodruff. Our TOR acquisition has been on the DL and is almost ready to come off. What if, just what if he dominated like he has at every level?? His stuff has been nasty and dominant, and he's from Mississippi so I am predicting a Ben Shera like 10-0 debut. So without trading anyone the Brewers are going to be able to get better! Then when chase gets back look out! And not to bring negativity to the thread but isn't it time to option Guerra until they figure out what's going on with his velocity?

[lcbj68c]

2017 Milwaukee Brewers (through 89 games) 49-40.

2008 Milwaukee Brewers (through 89 games) 49-40. (Sabathia debuted in game 90)

2011 Milwaukee Brewers (through 89 games) 47-42.

 

They are keeping pace with a winning percentage at or better than their previous 2 playoff seasons.

[MrTPlush]

50 wins at the break.

 

5.5 game lead.

 

Rest of the division has been terrible.

[SomewhereInTime]

50 wins, 5.5 game division lead and a magic number of 68 at the all star break. This can't be real.

[A Swing and A Drive]

Only 4th time in Brewers history with 50 wins at All-Star break!

[rcc]

Fun times in Brewer fandom. I loved looking at the standings today.

[StearnsFTW]

I'm going to miss this team for 4 days......

[MrTPlush]

Where does this divisional lead rank all time at the All Star break? 5.5 games is a pretty big lead.

 

Since this is the optimism thread I am going to say this straight up: I truly think this team is going to win the division. This team is very balanced across all boards. We have solid depth to make up for any injuries. I think Stearns makes a little noise at the deadline to make this team even better. This team should be a pretty safe bet to put up a .500 record or better the rest of the way as long as there isn't major regression. Do that and the Cubs or Cardinals would need to be 100 win ballclubs the rest of the way out to make up the deficit. I don't see that happening.

 

Simply put this 5.5 game lead is massive if you think the Brewers will win at least half of their remaining games.

 

EDIT:

 

Just looked at the standings again. The Cubs...are closer to LAST PLACE than FIRST PLACE. Unbelievable.

[Fear The Chorizo]

The fact that this team, with the lowest opening day payroll by a fair margin, can have a 5.5 game lead on their division at the AS break while missing their highest profile hitter in the lineup for basically half their games (Braun), is a testament to how much team-controlled depth has been put onto their 40-man roster in a very short time. Aside from Braun, Peralta, Garza, and Nelson (who was up for only part of 2014), essentially the entire MLB roster has been turned over since the last time the Brewers thought they could contend in 2014...that's crazy.

[DuWayne Steurer]

This thread is like opposite of our game threads, where our bullpen is the alltime worst bullpen ever, all of our hitters are terrible with two strikes or with a man on third, and Counsell is the worst manager ever, and never makes good decisions.

 

Sometimes the optimism in here rides a bit *too* high, but it's occasionally necessary after dipping one's toes into the game threads at times.