Day 14: Milwaukee Brewers

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Milwaukee Brewers

2007 Regular Season Record: 83-79

Cost per Win: $70,986,500 / 83 = $855,259 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Brewers had a season that exceeded expectations. They led the NL Central for a large part of the season and just came up short in the end but the expectations going into the season were nowhere near that. In the end they found themselves 2 games back of the Cubs in their division and 6.5 games back in the Wild Card race. They played a very exciting offensive game and led the majors in home runs in 2007 by hitting 18 more than the Phillies. The on-field power of the Brewers made for a good team to watch and that led to increased popularity of the team even though they played in a small-market.

The Brewers had several players that had incredible seasons. First of all was Prince Fielder who was in the running for NL MVP but in the end he lost out to Jimmy Rollins who put up better all around numbers. Fielder finished the season with a .288 batting average, 50 home runs, and 119 RBIs. Another very notable performance was from Ryan Braun who won the Rookie of the Year award after being added to the roster on May 25th for the first time in his career. Braun came right out of the gate performing well and hit .382 in June which was his first full month in the majors. Braun’s totals at the end of the season were a .324 batting average, 34 home runs, and 97 RBIs all while playing in only 113 games. Other strong performances for the Brewers came from Corey Hart, J.J. Hardy, and Francisco Cordero.

The Brewers didn’t have any major underperformers. Pitching wasn’t necessarily a weak spot but they didn’t have any one strong performance. The most wins they had from any one person were 12 by Jeff Suppan, Dave Bush, and Ben Sheets. Claudio Vargas also added 11 wins so they had a fairly consistent staff. It should also be noted that Sheets only started in 24 games after getting injured early in the season. Sheets is the highest paid of any of the Brewers so they look for solid outings from him and they certainly hope that he won’t have injury problems next year.

Key Free Agents: RP Francisco Cordero and 3 additional relief pitchers; Cordero is a major loss since he was the teams closer last season and had 44 saves and only 7 blown saves. The loss of 3 other relief pitchers creates a problem for the Brewers but they have already started working on increasing the bullpen depth by already adding 2 relief pitchers including Eric Gagne who they are gambling will regain his form. I question that move some but in the right situation players can turn their careers around and Gagne definitely needs to do that if the Brewers are going to make the playoffs in 2008.

Offseason Needs: Well personally I think the Brewers need to bring in another closer but they have already dedicated $10 million dollars to Gagne for next season so that is very unlikely. Besides the needs in the bullpen there aren’t any major holes in the starting roster. They could use a couple outfielders that can hit better besides Corey Hart the other 2 starts hit .254 and .235 on the season. So that is a need that could be addressed but isn’t something that they need to use a lot of money to fill that need.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I like the Brewers’ chances in 2008. They surprised a lot of people last year with their performance and I think they will only build on that. I think they go to the top of the NL Central early in the season and stay there all the way to the end. The division is something weak so I don’t see them getting a lot of pressure from the other teams. The Brewers then have a team that is built to perform in the playoffs. The power in their lineup will help them greatly in the postseason and I think they will contend for the NL spot in the World Series. I’m a fan of the Brewers so I would personally like to see them make it all the way but the Rockies also look good so that could create a very good matchup of young players and 2 exciting teams to watch if they end up going head to head.