To
say that the Milwaukee Brewers have defied logic in 2017 would be an
understatement. Every analyst on the planet has been waiting for the moment
this season when the Brewers fall back to earth. While the Brewers missed the
playoffs by just a couple games, that “fall back to earth” moment really never
came.
The
Brewers had indeed been the story in baseball of 2017. On the night of September
19, the Milwaukee Brewers sat at 81-70 which placed them currently 3.5 games
behind the first place Chicago Cubs. More importantly, the Brewers were at that
moment, one game back of the Colorado Rockies for the second Wild Card spot.
The Brewers had won three in a row, and were 8-2 in those last 10 games. There
was still a chance the Brewers could have won the division, but it was more
more likely they would reach the playoffs via the Wild Card at that point. The
Cubs had gotten their act together and won seven in a row. The Rockies and
Diamondbacks meanwhile, were both sputtering to the finish line. Can we find a
sports writer that declared that the Brewers would have been deciding their
fate in the last ten days of the 2017 season? No, we can’t.
So
how exactly had the Brewers defied logic in 2017? Their offense had been up and
down all season, but their pitching had been phenomenal. Zach Davies became the Brewers new ace for the time being. Davies was 17-9 with a 3.89 ERA. Closer
Corey Knebel has been outstanding. For the season, Knebel had 37 saves at that
point, a strikeout-per-9 ratio of 15.3, a WHIP of 1.10, and an ERA of 1.29. For
a closer, that was wandering into the “Joe Nathan” zone of the territory of
insanity.
On
the offensive side, we do have to notice that certain batters got “hot” just as
others went cold. The fact that there was always a core of batters that could
put up runs, the team was able to stay in the hunt. As of this post, the
Brewers announced that their entire staff will be returning in 2017. Can the
team keep riding that high in 2018. Chances are good.
