Brewers: 4 Predictions for Rest of Regular Season

2. Luis Urias Cements Role As Super Utility Infielder

It’s been a crazy year for Luis Urias. Coming into the season, the original plan was to split time at third base with Travis Shaw and be Orlando Arcia’s backup at shortstop. Then, just a week into the season, the Brewers traded Arcia to the Atlanta Braves for a pair of relievers.

Urias had some definite ups and downs as the everyday shortstop. After about a week games with multiple errors, the team traded another pair of relievers for Willy Adames and reliever Trevor Richards from the Tampa Bay Rays in late May. The reaction at first was puzzling, and fans thought they were already giving up on Urias. That didn’t appear to be the case at all. David Stearns revealed that he had his eye on Adames for years now, and was finally able to bring him to Milwaukee.

Urias was back as a utility infielder for a bit. Then a month later, Travis Shaw suffered a serious shoulder injury. He went on the 60-day IL and Urias was back to playing third base almost every day. Then, near the trade deadline, the Brewers brought in Eduardo Escobar to be the everyday third baseman and sometimes first base. Urias has bounced all over this season.

The Willy Adames trade meant less starts for Urias, but it didn’t impact his play. If anything, it improved it. Urias became quick friends with Willy and also started to improve on the field. Luis has some spectacular defensive plays this year, especially at third. When Adames came to the team, Urias was batting .208. with four home runs and 23 RBIs. He is now batting .248 with 16 home runs and 55 RBIs. In August alone, he is batting .340 and a .617 slugging percentage.

Urias is now a utility infielder along with Jace Peterson, an unlikely pair of players that are contributing on offense and defense for the Crew. It gives the Brewers an added depth heading into September and both will almost certainly make the roster if they make the playoffs. He’s only 24, and quickly becoming one of Milwaukee’s key depth pieces.

3.  One Of The Big 3 Win Cy Young

Going into the 2021 season, you knew the Brewers starting rotation was going to be solid. Not everyone expected their top three pitchers to be this amazing and elevate their game all at the same time. Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta are the pitchers at the top of the rotation fans have been waiting for. Even with Burnes going on the Covid IL earlier in the year and Peralta recently joining the 10 Day IL, it hasn’t stopped this team or rotation.

The Brewers are still winning, and the past month has had all three pitchers not even throwing their best games. All three pitchers were selected to this year’s All-Star game. Article after article is comparing them to the days of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz from their Braves years.

Currently, all three are in the top 10 of the MLB ERA leaders. Burnes is second in the NL with a 2.30 ERA. Peralta is fifth at 2.45, and Woodruff is right behind him with 2.48. The trio reached 500 strikeouts even before Woodruff made his last start on Thursday. They have 19 games between them where they have pitched six innings or more and only allowed two hits. Just incredible stuff.

Brandon Woodruff is sitting at a record of 7-7 over 24 starts and 167 strikeouts. His record should be a lot higher, but has not gotten the run support this year that he should be getting. Corbin Burnes has a 8-4 record with 175 Ks over 21 games. Freddy Peralta’s record is 9-3 and has 164 strikeouts. If they continue at this pace, one should win an NL Cy Young. The only problem is that all three are so great, that the league might have a hard time picking one and end up selecting someone else like Walker Buehler, Kevin Gausman, or Zach Wheeler. They shouldn’t, but it’s possible.

4. The Milwaukee Brewers Win the NL Central

I know the beginning of the article was to not get too confident yet. That is still true. But, I still think the Brewers win the division.

The Reds are a bit of a threat, but there is no way their offense can keep up the pace they are on. They have a solid offense even with Winker hurt right now, and there is no way I would want the Brewers to play eventually them if they make the second wild card spot. The Brewers take the number one spot and the Reds would win the Wild Card game, that seems like the worst case scenario to me. Cincinnati’s pitching just doesn’t appear as stable as Milwaukee’s, especially the bullpen.

But things still look as long the Brewers take of business in game against them. The Reds have an easier schedule that the Brewers the rest of the way. But they also have to play the Cardinals six more times and the Los Angeles Dodgers, so it won’t be a total cake walk. Who knows, maybe the Pittsburgh Pirates will try a few times in their multiple meetings.

I know you can’t go completely by Fangraphs or predictions from experts, but the outcome for the Brewers seems pretty good.

Milwaukee is sitting at 77-49 heading into the rest of the Reds series at American Family Field. They have a 8.5 game lead against Cincinnati with 36 games left to play. The Brewers also have a ridiculously great record of 42-21 on the road and have 15 games away from Milwaukee the rest of the year. That makes they will mostly have home field advantage, even if it’s against a lot of good teams. They are also on pace to have more than 95 wins on the season.

Besides their top three starting pitchers, the overall pitching staff of Milwaukee has been fantastic. Even with a few injuries to Brett Anderson and a trip to the Covid IL for Adrian Houser and Eric Lauer, the Brewers are still winning. No starting pitcher for the Brewers has an ERA over 4.15. Brent Suter has 12 wins on the season. Brad Boxberger’s comeback season has been remarkable. Devin Williams is back at top form and Josh Hader is doing normal Josh Hader superhuman stuff as the team’s closer. Hader has an ERA of 1.61 with 26 saves over 45 innings.

And pairing with their pitching is a Brewers offense that have only gotten better over the season. At the beginning of the year, people were calling for hitting coach Andy Haines’ head. Now, you don’t hear a peep and he probably deserves a lot more credit. Yelich is heating up. Omar Narvaez was an All-Star after a rough 2020. Avisail Garcia is having arguably the best season of his career. Willy Adames kick-started the team’s spirits and offense. Since joining Milwaukee in May, he has 15 home runs and 50 RBIs. His batting average went from .197 and has been .293 since playing for the Brewers.

Lorenzo Cain is back from injury and hitting the ball hard again. Kolten Wong is staying healthy and proving that the St. Louis Cardinals are fools for letting him go in the offseason. Rowdy Tellez has hitting in important spots and hearing his name chanted every at-bat.

This team is special. The writing is on the way that the NL Central will be theirs. Milwaukee is now listed fifth as most likely to win the World Series, and in the Top 5 on almost every Power Rankings list.

You could argue this is one of the best Brewers team ever assembled. But first, they have to win the Central.