Our biggest weakness...

[brewmann04]

This team lacks hitters  we have almost three automatic outs in this lineup. The left side is pathetic. Starting pitching has not been getting the job done and the bullpen been blah overuse 

[Brian]

Brandon Sproat and Trevor Megill have both been terrible.  But its not just one issue. 

[Jopal78]

They’re a pitching and defense team that hasn’t pitched or played defense very well the last week. That’s not a weakness it’s a performance issue. 

[Soupy]

Doom and gloom person….

its not our year

 

Optomistic person…..

its one week and we have injuries 

 

Time will tell 

[Playing Catch]

18 hours ago, Turning2 said:

Biggest weakness is a shortage of healthy All Star caliber talent.

The way the Brewers have countered this has been with an abundance of positive-WAR contributors (i.e. quality depth). But so far, those backups have largely struggled. 2 of 3 outfielders and 2 of 4 infielders have been dreadful so far. and ALL 4 of the newly acquired Sproat, Drohan, Zerpa, and Woodford have been bad or at least underperformed.

Taken another way, if a team needs established guys to step up during times of injury, Frelick, Perkins, and Ortiz, have NOT stepped up. And if a team needs new guys to perform like the old guys, Matos and Rengifo haven't performed either.

Add it all up, and you have an 8-7 team. Which, now that I've typed all that, doesn't seem too bad considering the circumstances.

But the injuries have both demonstrated the need for depth, as well as how fragile depth can be. None of us like to accept the impact of injuries, but really, if even just one of Chourio, Vaughn, or Priester had started the season healthy, they could have switched a couple losses into wins.

[Outlander]

Megill not being able to create any swing and miss is obviously a big weakness. Not a ton of confidence in Uribe either, 2025 Koenig isn't here and it's Royals Zerpa instead of WBC Zerpa.

[Frisbee Slider]

With Rengifo's rapid ascension (reaching base five times over two games), the Brewers are now at 0 WAR from 3B position this season. Rengifo has 14 G at 3B and Hamilton has 8 games at 3B. It is worth noting that Rengifo has .188 BABIP this season, nearly 100 points lower than his career average. Better days area ahead.

The Brewers are at 0.3 WAR from SS position this season. Oritz with 15 G at SS and Hamilton with 6 G at SS. Milwaukee has 17th best bWAR from SS this year.

The Brewers have -0.4 bWAR from RF. Frelick has 18 G, Perkins with 2 G and Matos with 2 G from RF.

source

[Ewitkows1]

How long till the bring Lara up to play the OF? someone beside Mitchell has to hit.

[RightFieldCoder]

On 4/19/2026 at 10:40 AM, Ewitkows1 said:

How long till the bring Lara up to play the OF? someone beside Mitchell has to hit.

Chourio will be back soon to play OF. Vaughn will also be back soon and probably push Bauers to the OF. The Brewers probably want to avoid burning an option to cover a week or two more ABs. Who knows whether an untested prospect will hit better over that span?

[jay87shot]

I would bring Tyler Black up within a week for either Jones or Matos (maybe even Perkins). Bringing Black up doesn't hurt any control time or 40 man spot and he has more upside than either of those guys. I think he came off the IL yesteday so he probably needs a couple games to get up to speed. He could also DH a bit while Yeli is out.

Any news on Chourio, I think we are over 3 weeks on the injury end of a 2-4 week injury that probably needs a week of rehab starts.

[bensheeps]

26 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

I would bring Tyler Black up within a week for either Jones or Matos (maybe even Perkins).

Agreed that we will probably see Tyler Black soon, but I wonder about the second part of the sentence.

Am I correct that Perkins has options remaining and could simply be sent down to make the Black transaction happen easily?   

But I believe the other two are out of options so they would risk losing either one of them if they are involved in bringing Black up. (I think I would be ok with that risk at this point as it would create an open 40-man spot for a possible later move)

[jay87shot]

16 hours ago, bensheeps said:

Agreed that we will probably see Tyler Black soon, but I wonder about the second part of the sentence.

Am I correct that Perkins has options remaining and could simply be sent down to make the Black transaction happen easily?   

But I believe the other two are out of options so they would risk losing either one of them if they are involved in bringing Black up. (I think I would be ok with that risk at this point as it would create an open 40-man spot for a possible later move)

Correct, I just think at some point in the near future Jones and Matos will be DFA'd so holding them an extra week until Chourio is back doesn't make much difference if you think Perkins can help more. I would guess 1 of Jones or Matos has a decent chance to clear waivers, Perk isn't hitting so I don't have an issue if any of the 3 get sent down.

 

[Frisbee Slider]

Milwaukee is replacement level or worse at every offensive position except C and 2B. DH we are 0.1 bWAR.  Relief pitching among the worst in baseball. source

On the bright side, we are still over .500! 

[umphrey]

Most years it feels like there are only 2 or 3 players carrying the entire offense at a time. The names change but usually 2 or 3 at a time. 

[brewcrewdue80]

Our biggest weakness is Joey Ortiz' bat.  Adding up his ABs this year and going back to last season- Ortiz has 1 double in 177ABs.  There's a triple in those 177ABs.

 

Its been 87games and counting since a HR.  

[Playing Catch]

7 hours ago, brewcrewdue80 said:

Its been 87games and counting since a HR.

Yeah, I once had hope that he could develop into normal power for a glove first SS, but it just hasn't materialized.

[owbc]

7 hours ago, brewcrewdue80 said:

Our biggest weakness is Joey Ortiz' bat.  Adding up his ABs this year and going back to last season- Ortiz has 1 double in 177ABs.  There's a triple in those 177ABs.

 

Its been 87games and counting since a HR.  

If we consider positional adjustments, the "winner" of worst bat of 2026 so far is actually Luis Rengifo at -0.4 oWAR.

Sal Frelick and Joey are in a tie for second at -0.3 oWAR. 

The award for 'objectively the worst hitter on the team' surely goes to Joey. 

[TURBO]

It's pretty sad to me that when asked this question, there is no obvious answer, and not on the good side of no answer.

It's a toss up between the bullpen, the outfield (yes the entire outfield), 3B (as usual) and SS.

On paper, we look like we should have no more that 6-8 wins, yet we sit at .500.

Baseball.

[wiguy94]

40 minutes ago, TURBO said:

It's pretty sad to me that when asked this question, there is no obvious answer, and not on the good side of no answer.

It's a toss up between the bullpen, the outfield (yes the entire outfield), 3B (as usual) and SS.

On paper, we look like we should have no more that 6-8 wins, yet we sit at .500.

Baseball.

Do you really think that on paper a team with a Top 10 ERA in MLB should have no more than 6-8 wins?

[owbc]

1 hour ago, wiguy94 said:

Do you really think that on paper a team with a Top 10 ERA in MLB should have no more than 6-8 wins?

The offense is top 10 as well in runs scored/game. 

They have actually underperformed their pythagorean W-L by a game. They "should" be 15-12! 

[endaround]

18 hours ago, TURBO said:

It's pretty sad to me that when asked this question, there is no obvious answer, and not on the good side of no answer.

It's a toss up between the bullpen, the outfield (yes the entire outfield), 3B (as usual) and SS.

On paper, we look like we should have no more that 6-8 wins, yet we sit at .500.

Baseball.

Amazing how Mitchell just get called bad. ABS lowering the strike zone may have saved his career.

[sveumrules]

From 2023 to 2025 the Brewers bullpen was credited with 78 losses in 486 games (16%).

So far this year the Brewers bullpen has been credited with eight losses in 28 games (28.6%).

No Chourio, no Vaughn, no Yelich for half the season, no Priester, no Koenig, Frelick (102 PA of 83 wRC+), Rengifo (86 PA of 38 wRC+), Ortiz (74 PA of 42 wRC+), Perkins (46 PA of 34 wRC+), Matos (21 PA of 24 wRC+), and Jones (16 PA of -33 wRC+) stinking up the joint to varying degrees...this team could easily be in the Red Sox, Mets, Phillies danger zone but instead have never been below .500 all season.

[cragi]

2 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

From 2023 to 2025 the Brewers bullpen was credited with 78 losses in 486 games (16%).

So far this year the Brewers bullpen has been credited with eight losses in 28 games (28.6%).

No Chourio, no Vaughn, no Yelich for half the season, no Priester, no Koenig, Frelick (102 PA of 83 wRC+), Rengifo (86 PA of 38 wRC+), Ortiz (74 PA of 42 wRC+), Perkins (46 PA of 34 wRC+), Matos (21 PA of 24 wRC+), and Jones (16 PA of -33 wRC+) stinking up the joint to varying degrees...this team could easily be in the Red Sox, Mets, Phillies danger zone but instead have never been below .500 all season.

yeah its actually remarkable what this team has been able to sustain without a good number of their best players. In the past, a single one of them would be enough to tank the team.  If they can hold serve with these guys, they could be sitting pretty in a couple months.

[Playing Catch]

We've seen the ceilings and floors for all of the guys in the bullpen (and those that get occasional starts, like Drohan). Each of those guys, when they've been on, have flashed excellence. It's possible that the pitching is just slowly ramping up for a long season, tweaking, fixing, strengthening their arsenals, and that they'll get back to being a top-5 run prevention team (they are right around 5th-10th in MLB in most pitching categories right now).

It's also possible that Chourio and Vaughn can juice the lineup as we hope, and the Brewers will have a comfortable 3 game lead by June 1.

This is NOT the optimism thread, but there are plenty of optimistic scenarios one could forecast. Many of those possible forecasts could merely include across-the-board improvement/consistency from the guys on the field. They don't necessarily need a magic-bullet from outside the org to be really good. Maybe they just need the guys on the field to play a little better. This really shouldn't be that big of an ask for a young roster.