I knew that 2023 was going to be interesting considering that William and Willson Contreras, who were both on the same All-Star team last year, would be spending the season in the same division, with Willson suiting up for St. Louis and William behind the plate for Milwaukee. Yes, some of the true meat of this rivalry may have been excised by Rob Manfred dispersing the schedules and thinning out divisional series', but...they'd still play each other for important games down the stretch, and they'd both be big pieces of their competitive squads.
Midway through the year and William might be having the better season, which I did not see coming.
It's mostly because I didn't see the Cardinals' collapse coming, and I thought they'd still be pretty competitive this year with all things considered. Plus, Willson Contreras has been a light on bad teams before, surely he wouldn't be a part of the bloodshed. Ultimately, this season Willson has been just as disappointing as his team, hitting .238, hurtling towards average as a catcher, and only doing so much to quell the fears of Cards fans. Willson Contreras was supposed to be the last piece of a dynasty, it ended up being one of the final nails in their coffin.
William, however, has been one of the standouts of this year's Brewers team. Some of that admittedly has to do with a few of the disappointments of this team, like Brice Turang not hanging around for long as 2nd baseman, Jesse Winker still refusing to deliver a season like his 2021, Garrett Mitchell and Brian Anderson getting injured right when they figured things out, and Rowdy Tellez being even less dimensional than before. Contreras just being consistent and hitting .275 can be enough on a team like that. But Contreras has also been one of the team's best pure hitters this year, with a doubles amount seconded only by Christian Yelich, an .802 OPS and 75 hits. As a bonus, he's actually improved defensively after last year, and is actually a better defensive catcher than Victor Caratini this year, which is...interesting.
The Brewers are a very interesting team, because a lot of their depth has been subject to injuries, and they're very much the sum of their highlights: Yelich, Burnes, Williams and Adames. There are a few performances that are climbing the walls to make impacts, like Joey Wiemer and Blake Perkins playing defense alongside Yelich, Joel Payamps staying in for 2 or 3 innings without getting beaten up, and bench players like Owen Miller and Andruw Monasterio providing great pick-me-ups. The division is still not exactly paved for their success, as the Reds are still building momentum, and the Cubs, Pirates and Cardinals still have an outside chance of catching up. But the Brewers are still frontrunners, and having Contreras in a starting role definitely helps that case.
Coming Tomorrow- A guy who makes the All-Star team every year, I'm guessing, on account of spiting me.
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