Sal On

 

The narrative of last year's Brewers team was that there were suddenly tons of young, rookie-to-second-year guys who were in position to succeed and capable of leading this team to glory. The narrative of this year's Brewers team is 'oh shit, there's even more!'

Already this season, we've seen rookie performers like Logan Henderson, Isaac Collins, Caleb Durbin, Chad Patrick, Craig Yoho and now Jacob Misiorowski coming up and joining the fun. Many of them have done extremely well. Isaac Collins has 4 homers, 19 RBIs and 8 steals, and is already in the running for Rookie of the Year. Durbin has 29 RBIs and 10 doubles in 59 games. Logan Henderson went 3-0 with a 1.71 ERA, and the only reason he's not up in the majors right now is that Miz, who pitched a beaut yesterday against Pittsburgh, has only allowed 3 hits and 0 runs in 3 starts. Until someone either gets injured or pulls an Aaron Civale, Henderson will likely stay in the minors, despite his MLB success. 

That's how many good young players the Brewers have right now. Because they have Freddy Peralta, Quinn Priester, Chad Patrick and Miz all in their sweet spots, they can give Jose Quintana, who's still on decent pace, some starts and continue to let Henderson develop. You also have to remember that Jefferson Quero is still hanging out in Triple-A and doesn't need to come up yet because William Contreras and Eric Haase are so good behind the plate. Hell, they just got Andrew Vaughn from the White Sox, and they haven't needed him in the majors yet because A.) he still kinda sucks, and B.) Joey Ortiz and Rhys Hoskins are better-hitting first basemen. 

The Brewers have options. Case in point: their outfield right now is Jackson Chourio, who's been on a tear recently, Sal Frelick, who's hitting .295 with 31 RBIs, and Collins, who's had an excellent rookie season. That's three young OF options who'll likely be around for a while. Frelick especially has been impressing people this season, and it's nice that he's become a fixture there after his fun come-up in 2023. Turang and Yelich are doing their usual thing, Abner Uribe's become an excellent setup option, and Trevor Megill's still holding his own at RP1. The pieces are there, and there's enough variance and depth to ensure that nothing goes exceptionally wrong.

And let's not even get into the obvious: Brandon Woodruff and Blake Perkins are still expected to return this year. So as good as the Brewers are right now, and gaining fast on the Cubs, they could be even better in a month's time. How cool is that?

Coming Tonight: Hard-hitting 1st baseman just trying to keep everyone from heading for the exits.