Article: Five Ways the Brewers Can Help Themselves Return to the Playoffs

[Kyle Ginsbach]

With less than a month left in the 2022 season, the Brewers find themselves outside of a playoff spot. With time dwindling, here are five ways the Brewers can find themselves playing in October for the 5th straight year.

 

Take Advantage of the Home Games
If there’s any time where a ball club wants to be playing home games, it’s in the middle of a playoff race in September. The Brewers currently have 26 games remaining in the 2022 season, and 20 of those games are going to be played in Milwaukee. This bodes well for the Brewers, who currently boast a record of 35-26 while playing at American Family Field, compared to sub .500 record when playing on the road. Obviously the Brewers need to start racking up the wins, and there is no better opportunity than the upcoming schedule presents.

Find Some Production in Center Field
Whether it's going to be Tyrone Taylor, Garret Mitchell, or Estuary Ruiz, the Brewers have been waiting all season for some production to come from the CF spot. As a unit, Brewers center fielders have a combined wRC+ of 72, placing the Milwaukee center fielders ahead of only Philadelphia and Cleveland offensively. There isn’t really a lack of offensive talent between the young trio, the Brewers just need an uptick in general. 

Stay Healthy
A given for any team in a pennant race, but keeping the best players on the field will be key to any kind of future success. While players like Jace Peterson have performed admirably filling in for injured players, the starters need to keep healthy. The Brewers are already a limited offensive group, and having backups playing in spots of already spotty production isn’t going to help their chances.

The Starting Pitching Needs to Step Up
Boasting a season ERA of 3.88* as a core, the Brewers starters haven’t been bad, but unlike previous years, the starters haven’t been the backbone of the team. Every Brewers fan knows what names like Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, and Freddy Peralta are capable of, while Eric Lauer, Adrian Houser, and Jason Alexander are capable stretches of high quality pitching. The group is finally healthy, and it's time for the rotation to live up to the expectations they’ve built over the last couple years.

Keep Using the Longball
There’s no denying it at this point, the Brewers offense is more successful when they hit home runs. Milwaukee has hit 186 total home runs in 2022, and they’ve managed to hit a homer in 94 of 136 games this year. They have a record of 57-37 in those 94 games. Like the old saying goes, “If it ain't broke, don’t fix it.”

 

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[BruisedCrew]

I think the best bet is to petition the league to let more teams into the playoffs.