More on the Brewers and Why I Think They Are the Threat This Year...

I briefly posted the day before yesterday on why I thought the Brewers were the real team to beat in this year's NL Central. I stick by that theory. Milwaukee has a chance to shock everyone by winning a whole lot of games.

Last year, Prince Fielder hit 50 homers. He drove in 119. He was a team leader. I consider him the best power hitter in the NL now, maybe in all of baseball. His slugging was .618 and his OPS was 1.018. His one base was almost .400. Would ARod be able to hit 50 in Milwaukee? Maybe not at this point. Milwaukee has another great young hitter, Ryan Braun (AKA the Hebrew Hammer). Last year Braun hurt his team with his defense, while crushing pitching to a .634 slugging percentage and a 1.004 OPS. That's not all for their hitting; also here is Bill Hall, who hit 35 homers in 2006, Corey Hart, who hit 24 last year and slugged .539, Rickie Weeks, who only hit .235 but walked a ton, has great bat speed, and finished the end of the season well, and J.J. Hardy, who hit 24 homers, though he was a shortstop.

Improving the defense this year will be veteran CF Mike Cameron, who pushes Bill Hall back to the infield at 3B, which moved Ryan Braun to left field. This tightens up things in their defense greatly, which will help their pitching.

The Brewers pitching staff is not without question marks, but it also has a lot of upside potential. Ben Sheets is still here, and still a great pitcher. The Brewers also have one of baseball's best young pitchers, Yovani Gallardo, who impressed in a half season last year. Solid 200-inning type pitchers Jeff Suppan and David Bush are here to help with the starting pitching. Chris Capuano had a rough year last year, but if he pitches like he did in the mid-decade, that will be a quality arm for the Brewers.

The bullpen is a bit more of a question, and the Brewers need to find some answers for this. Bullpens often come out of nowhere to play well, though, and it is difficult to project how things would shape. Eric Gagne is now the closer, which is no sure thing. Derrick Turnbow is still here; he was the closer in 2005, very successfully. Turnbow throws very hard.

Bench depth and experience exists, with Craig Counsell (always a great component for a winning team), Gabe Kapler, and Gabe Gross.

If things go well in Milwaukee, it could be the year for the Brew Crew.

For a breakdown of the Cubs' minor league prospects, check out this article:
http://cubs.scout.com/a.z?s=260&p=2&c=727638