The most likely scenario for the Brewers at shortstop is turning back to Orlando Arcia while giving third base to Travis Shaw, per the Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Luis Urías, meanwhile, could begin the year in Triple-A. Urías has been hampered by a left hamstring injury, which could account for a potential early-season demotion. The Brewers were hopeful the former top prospect would show enough to claim a starting job in the infield this spring, going so far as auditioning Arcia at different spots around the diamond. If Urías isn’t totally full speed, the Brewers can use his minor league options as a means of keeping Daniel Robertson and Billy McKinney, each of whom they’d have to expose to waivers if they don’t start the season on the roster. McKinney wasn’t a lock to stay in Milwaukee, but he has done his part with a strong spring, writes Andrew Wagner of the Wisconsin State Journal. The Brewers don’t have an outright need for McKinney, although it helps that the left-handed outfielder can play first base as well.
More out of Milwaukee:
- It has been a tough Spring Training for Eric Lauer, note Tom Haudricourt and Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Over five innings between three appearances, the left-hander has issued seven walks and given up three home runs. The Brewers optioned Lauer to Triple-A Nashville Friday, taking him out of the mix for a season-opening rotation spot. Acquired from the Padres as part of the deal that also brought in Urías and sent out Trent Grisham and Zach Davies, Lauer suffered through a brutal first season in Milwaukee. He allowed sixteen runs in eleven innings last year, issuing nine walks while striking out twelve.
- Lorenzo Cain and Devin Williams made their Cactus League debuts in last night’s game against the Reds, Haudricourt and Rosiak were among those to relay. Cain, delayed by a quad injury early in camp, took three plate appearances and played some center field. He’ll rest today but expects to be back in the lineup tomorrow. The Brewers have proceeded cautiously with Williams, who missed their playoff series last year with a shoulder injury. The reigning NL Reliever of the Year says he’ll have “three or four” more tune-up appearances before Opening Day, per Haudricourt and Rosiak.
Gonna be a fun season watching the Crew. I figure they’re at about 85 wins. I don’t think they have enough in the tank to win the division, but they won’t be a pushover. The NL central is just going to beat each other up all year and it’ll come right down to the last week again.
Opening games against the Twins will be brutal, as usual. They just love playing the Brewers.
All depends on how well they play in their division. It is not far-fetched to think they can pull off 45 wins in-division and play .500 ball outside of the Central. That would give them 88 wins.
45-21 within their division? Maybe it’s not far-fetched, but that record within the division does not seem likely.
As a follow up: 66 intradiviional games, 96 games outside the division.
But I won’t be too surprised if the Brewers win 88 games.
Pardonme for my error( bad math for me) 45-31 from 76 intradivsional games.
It wouldn’t be 45-21, there’s 76 divisional games so if would be 45-31.
It’s possible although I don’t think I would say it’s probable. To me it depends on how bad they can beat up on PIT. If they play ~.750 ball against the Pirates and then go .500 against everyone else in the division that would get them to about 42-34. I’d say about ~40 wins is probably more likely.
19 games against the pirates helps
Indeed, and I think the Reds may be a horror show on defense. The Brewers-Red series will be interesting, to say the least.
15-4 vs Pit, 10-9 vs the other three. 45 wins.
Milwaukee does have a history of beating the crap out of Pittsburgh.
I think they are better than 85 wins with their pitching and defense. 90 plus. Burnes is awesome.
They’ve got to find a way to put some early runs on the board. Last year they were down 2-3 runs in the first inning waaaay too often and it put the pitchers in a bad position. Wong and Cain should help that. Pitching is tough – I just don’t have as much optimism about the starters. I don’t think there is enough offensive firepower to put up the crooked numbers they’ll need.
The lack of in-game video as a tool seems to affected many hitters in the very short 2020 season.
Urias to the ATS/AAA to get lots of AB’s and hopefully get his confidence back at hitting a baseball sounds good to me. He’s only 23, and since acquired from SD has been injured or Covid’d. Arcia is tolerable at least till the deadline if Urias isn’t ready to help by then.
I’m not expecting much from Lauer, at least for this season, since the true severity of last years ST injury (torn shoulder capsule vs the impingement we were told it was) was recently revealed by Lauer himself just a couple of weeks ago. That’s the type of injury that could affect his career moving forward. Hope he can regain the increased velocity he showed last ST (95/96) and command at some point again.
With Freddy Peralta’s devastating 4 pitch mix and improving command, it looks like finally we’re going to see what Brewers fans have been waiting for since Woodruff, Burnes and Peralta were unleashed on the baseball world back in 2018, and that’s 3 of the top prime-aged starters in the game, all in the same rotation.
Then add the hardest to hit and 45%+ K backend duo of Williams/Hader with 11-13 K/9 arms of Topa, Perdomo to go with multi-inning arms of Rasmussen and Suter, with a 7-10 arm stable of arms that shuttle and you get a pitching staff that can easily be the most dominant in the game, and few outside of MKE have a clue what’s getting ready to be unleashed on the baseball world.
To bad the offense isn’t nearly as strong.
Peralta is terrible. Fastball Freddy is all he is, and they sit on it.
@brewcrewfan75 You’re outta your mind. Freddy also has a curve, and now a slider to go with his FB, which plays a couple different ways. He’s pitched 3.2 innings so far this spring and has recorded 10 of his 11 outs via K. That doesn’t happen by accident.
https://theathletic.com/2410349/2021/02/25/freddy-peralta-pitch-repertoire/
Dude, it’s spring training, and you are facing AA guys. He’ll be out of rotation by May 1st, and sent down.
Pet peeve: the word is “shoo-in”. Has nothing to do with footwear.
Some people just don’t get horse analogies
My pet peeve is that pet peeve has nothing to do with pets!
I know ST stats don’t mean too much, but when you surrender seven walks in five innings, it’s gonna be tough to snag a roster spot…
It’s even worse when the walks are coming from a crafty lefty who doesn’t have a high velocity fastball or nasty breaking pitches.
He’s reliant on good command to succeed and if he doesn’t even have good enough control to avoid walks then that’s not a good sign.
True that… and then the homers. Walks + homers is just not a recipe for MLB success if you’re a pitcher…
A lot of people thought the Padres were getting ripped off in that trade with the Brewers but unless Lauer and Urias figure something out this season or next I feel the Brewers made a mistake giving up Grisham so soon.
Yeah that deal is not working out too well for the Brewers. It sounded good at the time but has been nothing short of a disaster so far.
Lauer sent down? Impossible!?! Why there were some on Brewer fan sites that thought Lauer was going to slot right in the #3 starter spot and be a vital member of the team. Meanwhile, I was banned for calling that moron a moron.
I live in Milwaukee and I never heard that #3 talk….maybe it was one individual who said that but it’s certainly never been a serious consideration from the team or any majority of the fans. I think almost all Brewer fans and the team understand that they’d be lucky if Lauer made it as the #5 guy
There was one moron (well, I called him harsher than “moron”; I have zero patience for stupidity) that would say that, but most of the others there considered Lauer a full-time starter and a vital member of the pitching staff. I was universally derided for saying Lauer would be lucky to make the bullpen as the third lefty and was in danger of being cut if he didn’t have options.
Never heard of Lauer being considered a 3 either. Looks like it’s going to be Woody, Burnes, Peralta, Anderson, and either Hauser or Lindblom. Good depth outside the top 2
Dude, it’s spring training, and you are facing AA guys. He’ll be out of rotation by May 1st, and sent down.