Pitchers and catchers will have reported in 10 days. 1st game in 17 days. How does your team look.
Losing Adames in free agency and trading Williams looks like it would be a net negative for the Brewers but getting Woodruff back from injury, getting a full season of Yelich, a serviceable Cortez pumps up my hopes. Would like to see a bat at 3B but, hey, can't have everything. We'll be in the mix again.
I'm not hinging any hopes on a full season of quality production from Woody or Yeli. My hopes are deeper-rooted in the advancement of our young guys.
- I expect Yeli to DH a lot; hopefully that will reduce his wear and increase his ABs over 162 games. We don't need him in LF, we've got four young outfielders that are at least as good as he is defensively (Frelick, Perkins, Mitchell, Chourio).
- Chourio is only 20 years old and showed signs of being a future superstar the second half of last season. I look forward to see him take that next step.
- Frelick is 24, is a fan favorite and already won a gold glove. His offense has been improving in proficiency and consistency and I think there's more to come.
- Mitchell has shown signs he could be an all-star; he hasn't had good luck with injuries, though. Maybe this year he'll take that next step and stay healthy enough to rack up 400-500 ABs.
- Perkins is also very strong defensively and is not a plate liability.
Losing Adames is a tough one. It's not clear who will be taking over at SS. Most common speculation has been moving Ortiz to SS, but there's also been some chatter about moving our platinum-glover (Turang) there. There are some prospects in the mix, too.
3B could be handled by Ortiz or possibly a top prospect like 1B/3B Tyler Black - if he takes that next step. Ortiz was pretty solid last year in his first full MLB season and I look for more growth from him, too.
I liked what I saw out of Tobias Myers last year. He's commonly projected as the 5th starter in our rotation, but I think he could actually be one of our best pitchers this year.
Another top Brewers prospect is pitcher Jacob Misiorowski. I think we'll see him get some bullpen work this year and I look forward to that. He kinda has had a similar developmental trajectory as Hader did.
Ultimately, I trust the development of our farm system - which has been repeatedly been recognized as one of the best in the Bigs over the past decade or so; we've proven repeatedly we don't need to make a big free agent or trade splash to be competitive.
