By WILL CASE
The Milwaukee Brewers have been a pleasure to watch the first three months of the season. But while many fans believe the 2014 squad will represent the NL Central come October, the question lingers in the back of my mind: will this last? If so, what needs to be done to keep it going?
Here are three things the Crew has to keep doing, in order to keep winning.
1) The bullpen must remain strong and fresh.
You can live by it, and then die by it. The Brewers scratched their way to three wins in a four game series in April against the Pittsburg Pirates. When the bats weren’t connecting the Brewers took advantage of some errors and found ways to win in one of the most memorable series this season. That kind of play simply isn’t possible without solid pitching. When pitching is good, eyes turn to offensive production. You can count the number of blowout wins by the Brewers on one hand but turned out a very impressive April, a weaker May, and a steady June. If the good pitching wasn’t there, the Brewers wouldn’t have even been in many of the games they won.
Their pitching staff represents both spectrums this year. Marco Estrada leads the league in home runs allowed, but on the back end, the Crew has the best closer in the game in Francisco Rodriquez.
In a season where Manager Ron Roenicke has kept the rotation fresh and been creative(even using catcher Martin Maldonado once or twice), the burden to continue that falls directly on him.
2) Offensive production must continue to improve… and be diverse.
It’s a valid argument to say the Brewers offensive production hasn’t peaked. But one thing is for sure, production must continue to come from everywhere.
When hitters like Braun and Ramirez go on rehab, the offense doesn’t seem to suffer consistently. Their top four sluggers have hit between 10 and 13 homers with the 5th best slugger(Ramirez) sitting with 8. That kind of spread production makes it easier to set batting orders and difficult to pitch successfully against. The Brewers don’t have “that guy” that opposing managers strategize their late innings against. Best of all, I think that’s the way the Crew likes it.
3) The Brewers must stay above .500 in divisional play.
Since opening day the brewers have gone 20-15 against NL Central opponents(Cards 3-3, Cubs 5-4, Reds 2-5, Pirates 10-3). Divisional rivals are harder to beat but the Brewers have certainly held their own through three months. They’ve only played about 30% of their scheduled games against the Cardinals who have consistently been 2-5 games behind them for weeks. The Reds have caused Milwaukee some headaches including a huge 7th inning meltdown last week. Overall I would give Milwaukee a B grade against divisional opponents. With a Cardinals series in every month through September (two of them in August, a month where they play each NL Central opponent) playing .500 ball is crucial to keeping that lead.
Will can be heard on the Saturday mornings at 8:00am on the Saturday Morning Showcase.
