Milwaukee Brewers: Stacking Up Against The National League Central

The Milwaukee Brewers are in first place in the N.L. Central, and have been there for quite a while now, but how have they faired against the teams behind them in the division?

Their overall record against the Central is 20-17, and they are 48-40 overall. Looking at what the Milwaukee Brewers have done well this season, and what they have struggled with is important to try and predict if they can a run at a division title. Especially with the number of division games coming up in September.

Cincinnati Reds

The last place Cincinnati Reds, who are 9.5 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers, own a 3-7 record against the team pacing the division.

Cincinnati definitely a team the first place Brewers should be beating a majority of the time, but they do have a lot of firepower on offense that causes trouble for many teams.

The Reds just don’t have the pitching to be able to compete, so many of the remaining games against the Reds will be featuring young pitchers and a lot of hitters who aren’t worried about expectations, which can cause trouble for the young Brewers, but ultimately, this is a team you need to be able to win a lot of games against.

Pittsburgh Pirates

Next is the 4th place Pittsburgh Pirates, who are 7.0 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers and are 4-3 against them in 2017.

The Brewers caught the Pirates just as Andrew McCutchen was starting to get hot, and he was a very tough out in the series back in May. Pittsburgh has some talent that will challenge the Brewers, and their series should be interesting the rest of the season.

However, I don’t think the Pirates have a good chance at the playoffs this season, so the team could potentially trade some of their pieces and have a different looking squad in the future match ups with Milwaukee.

St. Louis Cardinals

The 3rd place team in the division is the St. Louis Cardinals, who are 5.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers and are an 5-5 against them this season.

The Cardinals are a team that has given the Brewers a lot of trouble in the past, but other than the first series of the year, the Brewers have handled the Redbirds well. The Cardinals are not out of the conversation though. At this point, they are going to try and compete.

This should create some important games in the remaining series with St. Louis down the road. Itt will be interesting to watch which team in the Central will be the biggest contender to the Brewers.

Chicago Cubs

Finally, the 2nd place Chicago Cubs, who are 4.5 games back of the Brewers and are up one game in the season series with Milwaukee at a 5-4 record.

The Brewers however, just went into Wrigley for a one game makeup and pounded the Cubs 11-2. That game is a big statement for this Brewers team, and it has people finally talking about this team nationally.

However, If the Cubs turn it around and play close to how they did last season, they could potentially be a problem. But the reigning World Series Champions haven’t played like that at all in 2017. There will definitely be some great series between these two throughout the rest of the season, and it will be a key matchup to see if the Brewers can handle the playoff pressure.

Milwaukee Brewers

With the Milwaukee Brewers being under or at .500 in the season series against everyone except the last place team in the division can be a bit concerning. But they are certainly holding their own against the other teams.

Before the makeup game against the Cubs I would’ve been a little concerned over how they played against Chicago, but at least right now, the Cubs have a lot of problems. Baseball fans can only hope that this is a fun race in the NL Central to finish out the year, but Brewers fans may want to see the lead grow a lot more due to not wanting a surge from the Cubs.

A big thing to watch from this division will be the trade deadline. The Brewers have been sending mixed messages about the deadline. Their owner has said they wont be going all in, and there have been reports that say they would go get Sonny Gray or Jose Quintana.

Next: Trade Deadline Preview

The Cubs and Cardinals have also had rumors that they would go and try to add to their teams and make a run at the division title. The most dangerous thing could be if the Cubs get a top of the line starting pitcher, because that is the Cubs main problem as of now, and it could ignite that team to what they were in 2016.