Brewers: 3 Players Under Pressure Heading Into 2020

The Milwaukee Brewers have lots of potential in this shortened season, but key players will have to step up to get back to the Postseason.

There’s a lot of chances for players to prove themselves over a 162 game season. In a 60 game season? Not as much. Some Brewers players were entering 2020 under pressure to begin with, and now with a shortened schedule, the pressure to perform is much higher.

Here are three Brewers that will have a little extra motivation this season.

Adrian Houser, SP

Let’s face it, the Brewers do not have a star-studded pitching rotation.They’re more centered around depth than anything else. This pitching staff will need to be very consistent in order to keep this team in the “sprint” to October. Adrian Houser is right in the middle of this rotation.

With Houser likely being the second starter in the rotation, that will come with very difficult matchups against other No. 2 starters, including possible matchups with Trevor Bauer (Reds), Miles Mikolas (Cardinals), Kyle Hendricks (Cubs), and Mitch Keller (Pirates). And this only includes division rival projected No. 2 starters according to ESPN.com.

Sophomore year slumps are very prevalent in baseball. And with this being Houser’s second full season in the bigs, this could pose problems for the righty as other teams now have a basis to work off of on video analysis of last year’s games.

Houser needs a huge year with a sub 3.50 ERA, to have a successful year (in my eyes). If he was in the back of the rotation, like you could see him being on other major league clubs, than the expectations would not be as high. But Woodruff can not do it all. With the lack of Major League experience and/or success outside of Woodruff, this rotation should be closely watched.

The amount of quality starts from starters 2-5 in the rotation will be interesting to analyze at the year’s end, as this whole rotation can be seen as mediocre. There is something to be proven this year by the new starters, like Josh Lindblom from overseas, but Houser is someone with some success that could take a big leap this year. The Brewers decided to not make a big rotation splash this offseason, like they rarely ever do, putting the pressure on Houser to take the reigns as the No. 2 starter for a contenting team in the thick of the NL Central race.