Milwaukee Brewers fans traditionally haven't had much to cheer about. Everyone knew Brewers were coming along, after all when a team sits in the bottom of the cellar long enough they are bound to pick up some good rookies.
Owner Mark Attanasio, General Manager Doug Melvin, and scouting director Jack Zduriencik have done an outstanding job of resurrecting the Brewers. The moment Beer heads were waiting for has finally arrived as most of the talent from the minor leagues are up in the majors. Players like Rickie Weeks, JJ Hardy, one of the most underrated players in Corey Hart, Manny Parra, two bomb threats that could eventually become MVP winners in Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun and a future Cy Young candidate in Yovani Gallardo.
Everything was in place for the Brewers who in 2006 finished at .500 for the first time since 1992, than in 2007 narrowly missed the playoffs after finishing 83-79, losing out to Chicago by two games. The youngest team in the league started to gain fans and a name for themselves as they blasted homerun after homerun. The problem wasn't hitting but pitching that caused them to miss out on the playoffs. They blew several games and going into the offseason the Brewers knew what they needed: relief pitching. They aggressively attacked the market and picked up Guillermo Mota from the Mets, David Riske from the Royals, Eric Gagne from the Red Sox and Salomon Torres from the Pirates. They also had a surplus of arms that would fight for the starting rotation between Big Ben Sheets, Jeff Suppan, Gallardo, Parra, David Bush, Chris Capuano, Claudio Vargas and Carlos Villanueva. Decisions as to who would be the starting-five were easy to make when the Crew released Vargas to free up cap space and Chris Capuano injured himself and is out for the year. So, everything was in place for a breakout 2008 season in which a lot of analysts either had Milwaukee winning the Central Division or finishing second again behind the Cubs and earning a Wild Card birth.
The season started out with a bang but the Brewers were inconsistent down the stretch as they either struggled on offense or pitching and the homeruns dropped considerably as did runs. Gallardo was hurt and missed the first part of the season but came back and pitched brilliantly before injuring himself again against the Cubs and is now out for the season. The Brewers other big acquisition during the offseason came when they picked up Mike Cameron who was suspended for the first 25 games. The Brewers were right about .500 when Cameron came back and he certainly provided a spark the first game he came back, picking up a few hits. This was when Milwaukee was supposed to breakout but they faltered and played terrible down the stretch. Ryan Braun who won Rookie of the Year last season, spoke up and said that they were playing hard but he didn't believe they were playing to win after the Red Sox swept them.
Things have looked up since than as the Brewers started coming together as a team and have now won their past six of seven games including a sweep of the Houston Astros and a comeback win against the Diamondbacks. Prince Fielder who struggled all season and after hitting 50 bombs last year, had a tough time getting the ball over the fence all year. Fielder has started to find his stroke hitting three homeruns in the past seven games and now has nine homeruns on the year. Everyone is firing on all cylinders now as the pitching, defense and hitting have all melted together to form a super trio. They have a long way to go to catch the high-flying Cubs but it should be interesting down the stretch especially when the Brewers won both series at Wrigley Field already this year.
Look for the Brewers to make some noise and put even more pressure on the Cubs, the same way the Cardinals and Astros have done all year.
