The Brewers are the most improved team in baseball

[Team Canada]

Nice article by ESPN's Doolittle:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/36288474/milwaukee-brewers-most-improved-mlb-team

"They are younger. They are more athletic. They are more fun. They are deeper. And because of all these factors, they are better."

"Through the Boston series, no team had more WAR from rookies than Milwaukee."

"Of the nine players who have currently played the most at their respective positions, only three are carryovers from last season: Tellez, Adames and Christian Yelish."

"...players so often seem to just get better after they join the Brewers. For all the attention that has gone to teams like the Rays, Dodgers and San Franciso Giants for their ability in this area, Milwaukee ranks right with them. Two of the offseason acquisitions, Anderson and Contreras, are the latest examples of this."

"The Brewers rank in the top 10 positionally by fWAR at most spots and are in the positive at most of the others, except for DH. And that ranking could change fast if Winker gets going. They rank second in Fangraphs' team defensive metric and have an elite ERA+ of 120.

In other words, this is a complete team without any glaring weaknesses and with excellent depth (as long as the injury bug doesn't get worse), a balanced set of skills and a number of players who should continue to trend in a positive direction."

[kestrel79]

Nice to read, but it must of came out before all the injuries to Sal and Mitchell. Woody. Glad we have so much depth but it's going to be a test. Hope we can stay afloat.

[Underachiever]

Nice read. Of course, as I read this, Pittsburgh smacks Urías around for three in the first inning. Writing my first blog post: Will Pittsburgh Lose Another Game?

[MrTPlush]

Wake me up when they write this article about us in like September

[jerichoholicninja]

I can't find the article now and I'm surprised it was never posted here but comments from Counsell said that the Hader trade really deflated the clubhouse (obviously) but there were problems well before that that were addressed in spring training this year and the clubhouse is closer than ever. He didn't go into specifics but there've been questions about Renfroe in the past. He shows up and issues start. He's gone and so are the problems. This certainly is a different team than last year. Makes you wonder what/who was going on behind the scenes.

[Redd Vencher]

The Brewers had a 103 wRC+ 10th in R/G and 6th in RA/G through our first 50 games before pitching injuries took their toll. They're currently 100 wRC+ 12th R/G and 4th in RA/G.  

Hard to say most improved.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

The 2022 Brewers went 86-76. If this version is most improved team in MLB, how many are they gonna win? 110? 120?

[MrTPlush]

This thread actually reminded me of a totally stupid meaningless meme I saw today. If you compared the MLB season right now to a comparable point in the NFL season, we are at something like the 6:08 mark in the 4th Q....of Game 2.

 

[yourout]

Well I'm not real sure just how much they're improved they are definitely more interesting.

[Playing Catch]

ESPN? Are we sure that wasn't an article from The Athletic?

I think some of the quotes from Arnold and Counsell further illustrate the organization's commitment to avoiding negative WAR. Just have depth at every spot on the field and compete with every pitch, and you'll win a lot of games. I also agreed with the author's point about this team being more balanced. They aren't so pitching-dominant, bullpen-dominant, but they're very good defensively and competitive offensively as well. And yes, a lot more fun to watch.

[rickh150]

On 4/27/2023 at 2:51 PM, MrTPlush said:

This thread actually reminded me of a totally stupid meaningless meme I saw today. If you compared the MLB season right now to a comparable point in the NFL season, we are at something like the 6:08 mark in the 4th Q....of Game 2.

 

Why meaningless? It’s a simple comparison reminding us the season is young.
Also, we have been well into NFL Game 3 this week if you are going 162 MLB games divided by 17 NFL games = 9.5 MLB games per 1 NFL game. Right now Game 3 is almost over. Our next game we’ll get to the start of Game 4.
We are basically 2-1 in the NFL season.

[MrTPlush]

15 hours ago, rickh150 said:

Why meaningless? It’s a simple comparison reminding us the season is young.

Because the caption of the dozen or so stats of the graphic said it was meaningless. There wasn't any actual purpose to the graphic. 

I only mentioned the one because I thought it was relevant to the ESPN article and how premature such a title being given to us is.