New faces and a new year of baseball is coming in fast for the 2020 Season. With the Brewers making it to the post season in back-to-back years for the first time since the 1981 and 1982 season, so building on the success is important and try to make it three years in a row.
Counsell: “We’ll be good.”
This offseason the Brewers made some interesting decisions with players, but with the success General Manager David Sterns and Manager Craig Counsell have had the last two years makes it easy to trust the moves. Brewers lost two players at the end of last season: 3rd basemen Mike Moustakas and Catcher Yasmani Grandal- arguably the best hitting catcher in baseball last season. Outside of those two players, Sterns replaced 12 other players who appeared on their Wild Card Game roster.
BIG Shoes to fill
With the loss of 14 players, there were big spots to fill on the diamond. Sterns signed six players to help: Outfielder Avisail Garcia, infielders Jedd Gyorko, Justin Smoak, Eric Sogard and Logan Morrison, and utility man Brock Holt. All have at least seven years of experience in the big leagues.
Yelich and Cain and Pray for Rain
The biggest addition in the outfield is Garcia. He adds to a very strong lineup in the outfield with returning MVP Christian Yelich in Left, Lorenzo Cain in Center, and Matt Gamal playing a backup roll. This creates one of the biggest conversations coming into the new season with 2011 MVP Ryan Braun normally playing in left for most of his career, will be taking another shot at the infield. This will be his second time in his career working at first base – the first being two years ago when Brewers added Yelich and Cain. Braun’s infield experience was short lived because of the emergence of All Star Jesus Aguilar at first. Now that Aguilar is gone, Braun is taking as many reps as possible at first base to get comfortable.
YELi heading to Left?
With Yelich moving to Left and Braun working mostly at First this season puts the Brewers in the best position to win. With Braun entering his 14th Major League Baseball season it is important to manage his playing time. Moving to first base he will give him many more opportunities to rest while platooning with Slugger Justin Smoak who had 22 home runs with the Blue Jays in 2019.
All of the players are excited to be back for another season and see returning faces and new faces. Counsell, when asked about how he thinks the team will shape up this year, said, “we’ll be good.” Braun was equally excited. “This is the first offseason in probably 4-or-5 years that I was able to go through a regular offseason routine without having to rehab any kind of injury, so I think that I’m prepared physically to take on a larger workload than I have the last couple of years.”
Home Opener March 26
Just like the players, the fans are anxiously waiting for spring training to be over and for games to matter when the Brewers take the field at Miller Park against the NL Central rivals the Chicago Cubs at 1:10PM March 26.
Written by KonMan920
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Go Crew