Some of the stuff:
The Brewers offense remains strong, the defense much improved over 1985, and the pitching solid. Actually, even though the Brewers are 4th in the MGL in runs allowed and starters ERA, their 1st place position in FIP, pitching WAR, and strikeouts by pitchers seems to indicate that even with the improved defense behind them the staff has slightly underperformed their true talent if anything.
Eric Maisch is once again a contender for his 2nd Harris/Lee award after a few disappointing and/or injury shortened seasons.
Jim Atwell is the consummate innings-eater and as is often the case with him his surface stats are not nearly as good as his underlying and perhaps more meaningful stats are. He is tied for 2nd in the MGL in (f)WAR, 6th in BB/9, and has a FIP- of 79, which is exactly his career average. And the youngsters
Stephen Brooks and
Eric Fehrenbacher have both shown they belong in the big leagues and should only get better (
Brooks FIP- is 96 and
Fehrenbacher's is 95). Even veteran lefty
Austin Bond, with underwhelming stuff and no true out pitch, has bounced back pretty well from a dismal start to the season and his FIP- of 96 also indicates that he has been a bit better than his 4.57 ERA might indicate.
The bullpen remains strong, with 25-year old
Dan Folk emerging as one of the most dominant closers in the game.
Among Brewers position players, rookie right fielder
Jerry Lillie remains probably the biggest story, and in any normal year (read, a season when there wasn't a rookie like Phoenix' Hyeong-uk Chun having a record-breaking season) he would be a likely Rookie of the Year and even a strong MVP candidate. Shortstop
Willie Romero only has an OPS+ of 85 but is such a great defender (17.6 ZR) and his 17 homers ranks as 3rd best on the team to tie him with
Ryan Campbell for 2nd in WAR among batters at 3.3 (
Lillie leads in this category with 4.1 WAR). Veteran second baseman
Justin Banks is next with 3.2 WAR and leads the team in stolen bases with 27 (only 6 times caught stealing).
As is becoming something of a Brewer organizational tradition, the team signed a great veteran player on his last legs but with some skills yet who was languishing as a free agent to a minor league deal shortly before roster expansion and then brought him up to the big league club for the pennant race stretch on September 1st. A few years ago it was likely future Hall of Fame second baseman Josh Jenkins, and this year it is another great veteran second baseman, 39-year old former San Antonio Key (and former
Ryan Campbell teammate on that club)
Jared Hancock.
Hancock is a great influence on the youngsters, a sparkplug of a competitor who remains, even at his advanced age, dangerous on the base paths, a decent defender, and a pretty good hitter. Although he won't get a lot of chances to start down the stretch, he has the potential to make some key contributions as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner, and occasional starting second baseman. (Had Hancock not spent 17 seasons playing on a San Antonio team that saw younger future Hall of Fame middle infielders like Bud Lindsay and John Mussaw emerge to take the lion's share of the starts the positions Hancock primarily played, he may well have continued on a Hall of Fame trajectory that he was seemingly on through his age 30 season, as his reduced playing time after that point was almost entirely about the quality of his positional competition on the Keys and not about any significant decline in skills. As it is Hancock will likely stick around on the Hall of Fame ballot for at least a handful of years even if his chances of induction are on the longshot side of things.)
In addition to bringing up
Hancock, the Brewers also brought back 24-year old starting pitcher
Bernie Lopez, who in an earlier callup this season really struggled (1-2, 8.34 ERA, 1.85 WHIP in 6 games, 5 starts) after an excellent first start at Oklahoma City on July 27th. Also returning is 23-year old relief pitcher
Cesar Perez with fellow young relief prospect, 22-year old
B.J. Adams having rejoined the club just a few days prior to the roster expansion.
Nick Mull, the 25-year old second baseman most likely to be the future starter at that position, also got called up for a second stint with the big league club. A pair of moderate prospect outfielders who were tearing up AAA this season also got called back up to the big league club: 27-year old
Dave Wofford, who is a solid defender and fine contact hitter who has put up big offensive numbers the past several years at AA and AAA, and 25-year old corner outfielder
Matt Turner, who is slow and just an average defender but has good power (29 homers in AAA in 1985, and 31 this season). On a lesser team, either of these guys could be everyday starters and could be solid contributors but neither likely has a future with the Brewers and this may simply be an audition for trade bait status in the offseason.
The AAA Chester Big Stick are currently in 1st place in the KBL (King Bedlecom League), leading by 3 games over the Brooklyn Aces AAA franchise, the Tampa Thieves, with 11 games remaining in the regular season, and at least a few other Chester players are likely to get a callup to the Brewers once the Chester season is over, hopefully with the 8th championship win for the perennial powerhouse club. Particularly likely to get a first taste of the WPK when the time comes is 23-year old left fielder
Wayne LaCross, who earlier this season had a slash line of .372/.409/.602 (2.3 WAR in 252 PA) for the AA Nashville Red Wings which he then has followed up with a slash line of .353/.402/.601 (2.8 WAR in 306 PA) since being promoted to AAA Chester.
With a handful of AAA players joining the Brewers on the first of September, Chester got an infusion of talent up from AA Nashville, with reliever
Mike Sanchez, who had 20 saves with a 3.54 ERA and 1.18 WHIP and 10.4 K/9 at AA this season, being promoted, along with left-handed reliever
Sharaf Sanchez, who was just drafted earlier this year in the 3rd round and has raced up the system, dominating batters at both single A Bainbridge and AA Nashville. Chester also now has the services of top center field prospect
John Bittner, the Brewers 1st round pick in the 1985 draft. Although
Bittner is not a great contact hitter, he has plus plus power, a plus eye, and great speed and his OPS+ of 149 in 332 PA's in AA this season is the lowest yet at any of his minor league stops. He is also a strong defender and put up 3.4 WAR in his partial season at AA Nashville before being elevated to AAA Chester earlier today.