2020 Brewers Optimism Thread

[torts]

60-0 BABY!!!

 

LETS GET THIS GOING!!!

 

BRING ON THE TITLE BABY!!!!

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Yelich is going to win the HR title with 21 dingers!

 

Woody is gonna go 6-2, 1.88 ERA, and win the Cy Young!

[Soupbone]

I think the Crew is in good shape with it's roster makeup. The games are going to be really different with no fans but we will take baseball in any form right now. CC gonna have to manage his butt off. But he is up to that challenge. Go Brewers!

[A Swing and A Drive]

I think Yelich can hit .400 in 60 games. No problem.

 

I'll take the asterisk with it, even if it makes Ted Williams head roll in the freezer!

[CheezWizHed]

Well, the delay did help at least three injured Brewers. I'm guessing Lauer, Urias, and Knebel will all be available now.

[torts]

I WILL PROUDLY HANG A 60 GAME WS CHAMPIONSHIP BANNER IN MY OFFICE

[TURBO]

I WILL PROUDLY HANG A 60 GAME WS CHAMPIONSHIP BANNER IN MY OFFICE

 

Ditto!

 

Better we win it than someone else!

[brewtank34]

60 games! Every game is going to be... every pitch matters...buckle up cuz this is going to be epic. We get to watch the Brewers! We get to watch our new studs: Garcia, Narveaz, and cheer on players like Peralta and a Burnes. Both of them are going to be stars.

 

Yelich!!!

[Roderick]

60 games! Every game is going to be... every pitch matters...buckle up cuz this is going to be epic. We get to watch the Brewers! We get to watch our new studs: Garcia, Narveaz, and cheer on players like Peralta and a Burnes. Both of them are going to be stars.

 

Yelich!!!

 

It will be like it is September 1 right away. And we know Counsell pushes the right buttons in September.

[A Swing and A Drive]

[CheezWizHed]

Given how we had some open questions still going in ST (i.e. Smoak, Burnes, etc), the expanded rosters will help us see if their ST production is legit or if they fall back. The DH also gives us more reason to keep Smoak on the team.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Given how we had some open questions still going in ST (i.e. Smoak, Burnes, etc), the expanded rosters will help us see if their ST production is legit or if they fall back. The DH also gives us more reason to keep Smoak on the team.

 

I think Smoak was always a lock. Did you mean Morrison?

[CheezWizHed]

yeah, I get those two mixed up!

 

I started reviewing the roster now that plans are in place and realized how many new people we have this year. I have to refresh my memory on how we got here!

[Jopal78]

Brett Anderson is more likely to hold up for 12 or so starts than he likely would for 28+

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

yeah, I get those two mixed up!

 

I started reviewing the roster now that plans are in place and realized how many new people we have this year. I have to refresh my memory on how we got here!

 

It truly seems like the Brewers' crazy offseason roster turnover happened 4 years ago. But that lets me get excited by signing Brock Holt all over again

 

I also totally forgot that Shelby Miller was Brewer property. He was actually pitching pretty well back in March, and was making a potential play for an MLB roster spot. He'll be one to watch when things get going next week.

[CheezWizHed]

I'm predicting a big Corbin bounce-back year for 2020. I think we will get the Woodruff/Burnes/Peralta starting trio we thought we happen last year.

[tmwiese55]

CBS has MKE 20th in power rankings. I'm very optimistic they'll be better than that.

[torts]

20th all time more like it

[Minigoon]

60 game season. Probably the only way they don't lose 100 in 2020. This roster is garbage. 90% minor league filler.

[PeaveyFury]

They’re toast. Have been since May. Season was lost back in December-March when the FO failed to adequately staff the roster with MLB quality starting pitching. September will be how far can they climb in the 2020 draft order.

 

Hopefully you'll excuse me if I take your talent evaluation slightly less seriously than I take the ability of Stearns et. al., especially in the optimism thread.

[sveumrules]

60 game season. Probably the only way they don't lose 100 in 2020. This roster is garbage. 90% minor league filler.

 

Think you might be looking for OrioleFan.net (or, maybe TrollCave.org)?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Can the terrible troll negative posts be deleted from the Optimism thread?

[trwi7]

60 game season. Probably the only way they don't lose 100 in 2020. This roster is garbage. 90% minor league filler.

 

The team is putting up a cardboard cutout of you in the locker room to prove you wrong. 100 losses in 60 games? Don't tell us we can't.

[PeaveyFury]

60 game season. Probably the only way they don't lose 100 in 2020. This roster is garbage. 90% minor league filler.

 

The team is putting up a cardboard cutout of you in the locker room to prove you wrong. 100 losses in 60 games? Don't tell us we can't.

 

"Every time we win, we peel a section."- Craig Counsell, probably.

[Smichaelis9]

First, that Minigoon person's post history is quite interesting to peruse. Rarely posts but sure seems like a barrel of fun.

 

Now for my deep dive into optimism. The Brewers have tended to start pretty well, then fade a bit in the middle of the season the last few years before getting hot with the extended September rosters. They led the division in 17, 18 and 19 at the 60 game mark. So if that trend were to continue, we'd be in good shape haha.

 

In regards to the newcomers. I am a huge Avi Garcia guy, have been a fan since his Detroit days and am really looking forward to seeing what he can bring to the team. Such an underrated athlete and still has some major untapped power. I think he can explode in Miller Park. Smoak was actually the guy I was hoping for most after the team declined the Thames option. Smoak was ridiculously unlucky last year by pretty much every metric that measures it. His power should also play up in Miller Park and just in general, he and Avi will see smaller stadiums than they did in the AL East.

 

Urias seems like he could be a small tweak away from being back to a 70 grade hit tool. Which would make for quite the offensive pairing up the middle. Narvaez can definitely come close to replacing some of the offensive loss that comes with Yaz leaving, the defense is... Well this is the optimism thread after all, so maybe some work with Charlie Greene can make him a closer to average defender! The combo of Sogard/Holt/Gyorko seems to give a good chance to have one or more of them being productive and the other(s) can brings solid versatility to the bench.

 

Lauer is a guy who flashed some new and improved velo and secondary pitches before getting hurt in ST 1.0, it would be a lot of fun to see those carry over to the actual season. Lindblom is definitely an interesting signing, I loved it at the time and I'm still excited about it. It came with very little risk but some mid-rotation upside. Any move like that is exciting to me. Anderson concerns me with what will likely be a pretty mediocre infield defensively, but hey once again this is the optimism thread! So I'll say this, Anderson has been solid pretty much every season and consistently fills the back of the rotation and gets the job done. Every team needs those types of starters.

 

As for returners, I will never, ever be able to quit Burnes or Freddy and have pretty high hopes for both figuring it out. Woody made such huge strides last year, maintaining that production would be great. But he also showed flashes of being able to take it even a step further which would be even more fun. Houser can definitely be a solid starter and I have some hope that he could break out a bit further as well. Continuing to improve his secondaries could go a long way towards doing that.

 

The bullpen should be getting Knebel back, has quite possibly the best reliever in baseball, some change of pace guys in Suter and Claudio and has some interesting options such as Ray Black, Rasmussen, Feyereisen, Devin Williams and Bobby Wahl. If one or more from that group make a jump to being solid MLB relievers, the pen should be in good shape. A pen that is to be managed by an extremely smart manager and that will have a plan set up by a very smart front office.

 

Offensively, Braun getting to DH should be great for his production. Cain was hampered by a ton of injuries and a lot of bad luck last year, he is a great bounce back candidate. He was a top defender in center either way and will likely always be able to bring quite a bit of value. Gamel could be the odd man out, but he's very solid depth for the outfield.

 

Most of the infield is filled with the newbies, but I can't wait to see what Keston does now that pitchers will be a little more aware of him and to see how he adjusts in the always fun sophomore season.

 

As for the other part of the catcher tandem, Manny is going to get the job done defensively behind the dish and hopefully can continue to hit well against lefties, as I imagine he will get the majority of those starts. It will be interesting to see who the third catcher ends up being, the one that is required to be part of the travelling taxi squad.

 

And finally, there's one other piece I haven't mentioned yet, and that's that mediocre outfielder we acquired from the Marlins in January of 2018. The guy who couldn't even win 2 MVPs in his first two seasons in Milwaukee. We still have him, so that's good too I guess