Thought Experiment

[HarveysWBs]

Watching the Brewer pitching staff struggle this year (and especially this past month) got me thinking, and I’m interested in a little informal poll about a hypothetical: if Jimmy Nelson never slides back into first base, then:

 

A) the Brewers win a pennant in 2018

B) the Brewers win a title in 2018

C) the Brewers still come up short of hardware in 2018

 

Rationally, I get the whole randomness of baseball, and you can’t really repeat something like a baseball season, even hypothetically, in the way I’m imagining. If Nelson is an ace and healthy that probably changes a lot of decisions made by the brass last year, and who knows what happens as a result. But assuming all other things being equal, I have to think Nelson starting a couple games in that NLCS tips the scales to Milwaukee in what otherwise was as dead-even as a seven-game series can be. Put me down for A, though, because the Red Sox looked pretty tough last year.

[pitchleague]

I think "A" is probably the choice I would make. Boston was just a juggernaut.

 

But, yeah, I think some of Jimmy on the mound could have pushed them to beat the Dodgers in 6 instead of having to go seven. (I'm still disappointed that we couldn't take that 3-1 series lead.)

[Roderick]

The Brewers never sign Chacin. I don't see Nelson having any better a year and playoffs than Chacin had last year. Same end results.

[clancyphile]

I'll go D:

Brewers make the 2017 playoffs, and bow out in the NLDS against the Dodgers

 

Brewers then win it all in 2018. No Chacin means that Woodruff is in the rotation that year, and by the end of that season, he and Nelson are a 1-2 punch that helps them take the World Series.