Brewers: 4 Predictions for Rest of Regular Season

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.