So we’re just about there, a week out from Opening Day!!!! It’s about that time to roll out some predictions. So without any further ado here’s my outlook on the Brewers season. Plus, as Ben rolled out his NL predictions I’ll give you the AL predictions.

Why they will make the playoffs

This seems a bit simplified but I believe in Rick Peterson will be the reason why the Brewers will make the playoffs. Is this because I think Peterson is just that great of a pitching coach where he can turn water into a tall cold glass of Miller Genuine Draft? (Cannot wait to tailgate!!!) No, I don’t think he’s a pitching messiah. I do believe he’s an above average pitching coach though and he can help out the pitching staff a lot. For streaky pitchers like Bush and Davis, a pitching guru like Peterson will really help. He knows what he’s doing and he’s been around the game a long time now. Still, this is not the main reason why I’m pegging him to get us to the playoffs.

The reason being is he doesn’t need to be a miracle worker. The Brewers staff does not need to be a great staff for this team to do well. They simply need to slightly above average. The Brewers will again roll out one of the best lineups in all of baseball, better yet the NL alone. Castro was simply in over his head last year. I really liked Castro and wished the Brewers would have brought him back in some capacity but he was simply not right for the big job. The starters were never able to go deep into games and tended to walk way too many hitters last year. When a pitching coach comes out to talk to a pitcher you expect to see a pitcher calm down and maybe change his approach the rest of his outing. Weather it was Castro saying the wrong things or the staff simply not listening to him those in-game adjustments just never seemed to happen last year.

Peterson demands the type of respect that when he tells you something, you’ll listen. He can make the proper adjustments in the game to allow the starters to work deeper into games. If he can just get that starting staff to pitch to what they are capable of this team should playing some post-season baseball this year.

Why they won’t make the playoffs

 Like I said, the Brewers offensively are just loaded. Braun and Fielder is arguably the best 3-4 combo in the entire league. Between Weeks, Hart, and McGehee you have three guys who can drive in runs and hit the ball hard. Escobar and Gomez add a ton of speed to the lineup and should have enough protection around them to possibly have a breakout year. What hurts this team is our bench. The Brewers really lack a lot of depth. I like the Edmonds signing and do

think that’ll help if either Gomez or Hart are struggling or get hurt. After that I don’t see a lot that I like. Inglett is unproven and I wouldn’t trust him to play everyday in case of an injury. The ageless wonder Craig Counsell had a great year last year but I don’t want to count on him to repeat that. Gerut just isn’t any good, or at least he’s yet to prove that he is.

What do all those guys have in common? They’re all left handed hitters. We lack any creativity with our bench and that will hurt us late in games. It will not be hard for opposing coaches to figure what match-ups should work against the Brewers. Maybe Macha is planning on using Gallardo more as a pinch hitter this year? Regardless, this team might need to think about adding a right handed hitter along the way.

The Verdict

I have Brewers in the playoffs. I think they’re plenty strong enough to win the NL central but I’m going to give them the wild card. I still think this is the Cardinals division to lose. The Cardinals staff, after the big two, doesn’t look like much but I think I’ve said that every year over the last few and yet every year it seems one or two guys in the rotation have career years. Brewers added enough pitching this winter to take the wild card. I don’t see a team in the east coming close to winning the wild card this year. The west is very good outside of the Padres and I think they’re going to beat up on each other too much to allow one of them to take the wild card.

Injuries could de-rail the Brewers but that goes for any team. The Brewers are poised for a big year and looking to prove that 2009 was the fluke, not 2008.

AL Predictions

East- Yankees- The best team in baseball last year got better this winter. No reason to think they won’t win this division again.

Central- Twins- Twins roll out another strong lineup and Liriano looks healthy again, that’s scary.

West- Mariners- I really like what they did this winter. They have one of the best 1-2 pitching combos in the league and have a well-rounded lineup.

Wild Card- Red Sox- Good staff mixed in with a very strong lineup should be enough to hold off the young Rays.

-Ross

Random Baseball Thought

I keep hearing about this committee Selig put together to try and figure out different ways to improve the game. They already took out an off day during the playoffs to help speed things up, which I like. What I don’t like are these rumors about realigning the divisions. I’ve heard a couple reasons behind why but I don’t really care what the reasons are. It sounds like they would be drastic changes to the landscape of the game and it will eventaully take away from some rivilries. It’s those rivilries that help make this game great. Even if your team is out of it come September you hold out hope that maybe they can steal a few games from your enemy and knock them out of contention. Selig, instead of listening to a commitee you put togther why not listen to what the fans want?