So the big thing that's been tripping up the Brewers lately has been the rotation, which is not at all the one they thought they were going in with this year. All winter they thought they'd be working with Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, Tobias Myers, Aaron Civale and Nestor Cortes. Well, one by one they all either get injured or fall behind schedule. Then the season starts and both Civale and Cortes drop. And so now their rotation consists of Peralta, who's doing everything he's supposed to and has a 2.31 ERA already, Tyler Alexander, usually a long reliever, rookie Chad Patrick, Jose Quintana, who had to be rushed from his late signing, and Quinn Priester, who was dealt from Boston after Milwaukee put out an emergency bulletin demanding the nearest available healthy starter. Honestly shocked the Orioles didn't give 'em Cody Poteet.
And look, these guys have done fine. Quintana has been excellent already. Priester finally seems to have clicked somewhere after struggling in Pittsburgh and Boston, as he shut out the Tigers last night. Patrick definitely looks like he has a future, even though it may not be in Milwaukee if all these guys become healthy. But...for a team that's supposed to be leading the division, this is not a great look for an imposing pitching staff. They're .500 exactly, 9-9, and that wasn't exactly in their plans. They probably figured the Cubs would be tough, but the Cubs have risen to the occasion, entirely. The Brewers have not.
What they have, which is still very important, is Jackson Chourio. Chourio had a very good rookie season, but so far his 2024 is even better, and starting way more confidently. Right now Chourio is hitting .275 with 22 hits, 17 RBIs and 5 home runs. And he is 21 years old. This is his confident second taste of the bigs, and he's already looking at what could be a 25+ homer year. This is why the Brewers gave him an extension before he'd even played a game. They saw so much potential, and he's been delivering on it so far. I'm getting a real Ronald Acuna or Manny Machado vibe from the amount of stuff he's able to do even before 25.
And then you have Brice Turang, who's following up his breakout 2024 with some even more strong work, a .329 average with 23 hits and 10 RBIs. Those two guys and Sal Frelick are the kinds of players a team can build on, and they'll be there for a while. Arguably Blake Perkins is also in this category, but he's out for a bit and needs to balance things out generally. Still, those are some big everyday pieces the Brewers are working with in their prime, and also more nice stuff from Christian Yelich and William Contreras, even with low averages at the moment. This is a team with so many really sharp, handy guys that serve multiple uses, and even with some spotty pitching issues they can outhit people.
The Brewers are not perfect right now, but they're in a place where they could build towards being great, and potentially taking the division. If Chourio keeps it up he could be in a position to lead this team deep, it just can't be solely on him.
Coming Tonight: Dude just hit 2 homers against the White Sox, which means I picked the right week to pick him up AND start him in my fantasy league.
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