2008 Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers were one of the surprise teams of 2007 leading the National League Central for pretty much the whole year before letting the Cubs squeeze by late. The Brewers had their first winning season since 1992 going 83 -79. The team is full of young talent let by corner infielders 1B Prince Fielder and NL Rookie of the Year Ryan Braun. The team added some veteran leadership when they signed catcher Jason Kendall. The team also added some age in CF Mike Cameron. The addition in Cameron will send Bill Hall back to the infield to play third, and Braun will move from third base to left field. The team also added Eric Gagne to be the teams new closer. The Brewers are led on the bench by manager Ned Yost, who was in the running for NL coach of the year in 2007.

Pitching:

They are led by ace Ben Sheets who had a good year in 2007, but was only able to start 24 games. The team was comfortably in front in the Central before Sheets went down on July 15. So to say the team goes as Sheets goes, and they will need him at full strength in 2008 if they want to compete with the powers of the Central division. Behind Sheets the team has promising young pitcher Yovani Gallardo who went 9 – 5 last year in just 17 starts. Veterans Jeff Supan and Dave Bush fill the three and four spots in the rotation. The team hopes Manny Parra, a young prospect, can work his way into being the fifth starter. How well the team’s bullpen does will depend on if Gagne can return to the form that made him one of the best closers in the game. He will be backed up by one of the best setup men in the game in Derrick Turnbow. The offense should help out this unit by putting up some big numbers on the offensive end.

Offense:

The team has two of the most promising hitters in the game in Fielder and Braun. It will be interesting if they both perform up to the level they did in 2007. The addition of Cameron will add some more power to a team that led the NL in homeruns. This year the team might repeat as everyone minus Kendall has the power to hit at least 20 homeruns. Fielder led the league with 50 homeruns and was among the top 5 in RBIs. While 2B Rickie Weeks numbers don’t look great, he seemed to become a new hitter at the end of last season. We expect a break out year from Weeks, the team’s leadoff hitter. With an offense that can put runs on the board at any time the Brewers should find themselves in almost every game.

Defense:

The team should improve on this side of the ball with the moves of Braun to LF and Hall to third. Cameron is a proven centerfielder who is a 3 time Gold Glove winner. That should help the team in the error category where they were among the worst in the NL.

Prediction:

While we expect the win total to go up we don’t see them winning the division just yet. We have them finishing behind the Cubs for 2nd in the Central. This should be another fun race to watch and will most likely go down to the wire again this year. We just don’t think they have enough pitching to make it to the playoffs. The team needs to trade away a couple of its bats and get some better starters. The Brewers future looks bright for years to come.

2008 Milwaukee Brewers Odds to Win Worlds Series 30 – 1

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