Hot Stove:  A rundown of each team in the offseason and what they are looking to improve in 2012. 

Milwaukee Brewers:            Staying in the NL Central we move on to last year’s division champ, the Milwaukee Brewers.

Projected Starting Lineup:

1B            Matt Gamel

2B            Rickie Weeks

SS            Alex Gonzalez

3B            Aramis Ramirez

LF            Ryan Braun

CF            Nyjer Morgan

RF            Corey Hart

C            Jonathan Lucroy

Projected Starting Rotation:

Yovani Gallardo

Zack Greinke

Shaun Marcum

Randy Wolf

Chris Narveson

Projected Batting Order:

2B            Rickie Weeks

CF            Nyjer Morgan

LF            Ryan Braun

3B            Aramis Ramirez

RF            Corey Hart

1B            Matt Gamel

SS            Alex Gonzalez

C            Jonathan Lucroy

The Brewers of 2011 were fantastic.  After winning the NL central, they dropped a beating on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the divisional round of the playoffs before being upset by the Cards in the NL Championship Series.  But they are frightened of the prospect of 2012.  One of the biggest contributors to the Brewers’ lineup of the past 6 years, Prince Fielder, is gone.  In addition, last year’s NL MVP Ryan Braun is currently facing a suspension of 50 games for the use of performance enhancing drugs last season.  He is appealing, but no player has ever won an appeal.  Fielder and Ryan Braun made up one of the best 3-4 punches in the National League.  And that is a big loss.  They wanted Prince to return, but they have limited monetary resources and Scott Boras is his agent.  While the Brewers have plenty of money, they don’t have Scott Boras money, and he’d rather send Prince to a rebuilder with deep pockets than to a contender who can pay him plenty.  Just my opinion.  To help offset the loss of Fielder and the suspension likely to be faced by Braun, the Brewers signed Aramis Ramirez.  I doubt he puts up numbers anywhere close to Fielder’s, but hopefully for the Brewers he can play well enough to protect Braun, whenever he returns.  Braun led the team in AVG hitting 332, and was second in HR and RBI hitting 33 and driving in 111.  Fielder was second in AVG and led the team in HR and RBI so he will certainly be missed.  But Aramis had one of his best seasons in recent memory last year hitting 306 with 26 HR and 80 RBI.  If he can put up another season like that, the Brewers should still have the type of lineup that will make pitchers afraid to visit Miller Park.  As we continue to examine the Brewers stats from last season, we find another yet another reason that Braun is so valuable:  his speed.  He led the team with 33 steals last season.  After him, it was Carlos Gomez and Nyjer Morgan, who look to split time in center field.  The one only good news about Braun’s suspension is that both will have plenty of playing time, and the Brewers will get a better idea of who they want to play everyday in center, though right now Morgan has the upper hand.  After Braun and Prince, the other All Star from this team last year was second baseman Rickie Weeks, who was able to log 118 games and over 400 at bats.  And for him that’s incredible.  All those games saw strong production, as he hit 269 with 20 HR and 49 RBI out of the leadoff spot.  He only stole 9 bases, but he scored 77 R.  (just so you know Braun led in that statistic too scoring 109 R).  A full season of him could see 25 HR, 60 RBI and 15 SBs.  And 80 R.  So the Brewers won’t struggle at the top of the order.  In addition to the aforementioned players, Corey Hart has good power and occasional speed, hitting 26 HR and stealing 7 bases.  With that he delivered a 285 AVG and 80 R.  So the Brewers have plenty of strong offensive pieces.  The only question is whether they are strong enough to weather not only the loss of Prince for the entire season, but if they can stay close enough to contention to be a threat when Ryan Braun returns.

The Brewers have hit for years.  But last season their pitching really came on and that was what enabled them to win the division.  Yovani Gallardo was the ace, leading the team with 17 Wins, a 3.52 ERA and 207 Ks.  A healthy season of Gallardo was scary.  The next best pitcher on the team was Zack Grenike, who in limited action compiled a 16-6 record with a 3.83 ERA and 201 Ks.  These are power pitchers, who would like to see lower ERAs, but can give you innings, (Gallardo over 200, Greinke 172 in 28 games) and strike out a ton of hitters.  The number 3 starter for the team was Shaun Marcum, who showed up for 33 starts and went 13-7 with a 3.54 ERA.  That’s fantastic.  He was essentially the number 2 starter all year.  And while he doesn’t strike out hitters like the other 2 (he had 158) he is a horse who had over 200 IP and the lowest BAA (232) of any Brewers starter.  The number 4 starter was Randy Wolf, who was the third pitcher on the staff to crack 200 IP.  He went 13-10 with a 3.69 ERA.  That’s incredible production out of your number 4 guy.  He eats innings and gets outs.  He Ks even less guys, (134) but that’s not what they pay him for.  Even their number 5 starter, Chris Narveson, had a winning record at 11-8.  He was the only starter with an ERA over 4 (4.45) but he gave them 161 innings of solid pitching.  With the 4 stars in front of him, he doesn’t need to win games, just keep them in.  The Brewers have a fantastic pitching staff.  And with John Axford and Francisco Rodriguez on the back end of the bullpen, they have more than enough pitching to make them serious contenders to the division crown again.

2012 Prediction…The Brewers were easily the best team in the Central last season.  They had two of the best hitters in the NL, and finally a group of pitchers that were able to win some games.  But the loss of Prince was serious.  However they were a strong enough team that they probably could have weathered it with MVP Braun, All Star Weeks, new addition Ramirez and good role players like Hart, Morgan and Gonzalez.  However this team not only lost their All Star first baseman for the whole season, they lost their MVP left fielder for almost one third of the season.  I think that’s too much for the Brewers to deal with.  St. Louis is good again and the Reds are fantastic.  If Braun wins his appeal, this team will be in discussion with those other two for the NL Central title.  If not, then they will be one of the best second half teams in baseball that finishes outside of the playoffs.

Up next…Pittsburgh Pirates.