Forum Friday: Exceeding Expectations, Prospect Promotions, And Frankie Montas

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Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The season is already 20% complete, giving the Brewer Fanatic community an opportunity to evaluate how the roster is performing relative to expectations. For all the ups and downs, Milwaukee is only a half-game back of the final National League Wild Card spot.

Here is a recap of three of the best thread topics from the past week:

Brewers: Individual Over/Underperforming expectation

The return of Andrew Vaughn and Jackson Chourio could be a turning point for the 2026 season. Until now, the Brewers are ninth in the league in runs scored despite playing fewer games than everyone else. On the pitching side, only three teams have allowed fewer runs than Milwaukee.

In aggregate, those team numbers seem to meet or exceed expectations. But how about the individual players?

Our community agrees that most players are performing at or above expectations. Brice Turang’s early pace for nearly 10 bWAR likely qualifies as an overperformance, even for those who entered the season with high expectations. Sal Frelick was the most frequently cited underperformer, despite clawing his way back to replacement level in terms of bWAR. Other perceived underperformers include Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, Angel Zerpa, nearly all backup outfielders, and, of course, our maligned left side of the infield.

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Brewers: 2026 Misc MLB News Thread

Regular-season off days are perfect for diving into miscellaneous topics. This week, our community took a much closer look at the 2024 trade that sent Jakob Junis and Joey Wiemer to the Reds in exchange for Frankie Montas. Posters noted that both Junis and Wiemer are off to excellent starts in 2026. In return, Milwaukee received 12 starts from Montas that, on the surface, amounted to replacement-level innings. Does that make it a bad trade?

Joey Wiemer’s breakout performance through 66 plate appearances is unlikely to be sustained due to his 38% strikeout rate, .500 BABIP, and sub-.300 xwOBA. Jakob Junis is on his fourth team in four years, and while his ERA has been shiny, his career FIP is 4.29. On net, the community believes the Brewers should be content receiving two months of Montas for two journeymen.

Lastly, there was a fascinating look into how former general manager David Stearns reportedly handled a 2016 attempted trade of Jonathan Lucroy.

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Minors: Promotion Speculation - 2026

May is graduation month across America, a perfect time to celebrate achievements and move on to greater challenges. The same can be said for minor league baseball. Our Brewer Fanatic prospect watchers are beginning to speculate on potential early-season promotions.

Is it time to promote 20-year-old shortstop Josh Adamczewski to Double-A Biloxi? Adamczewski currently has a 1.071 OPS for the Timber Rattlers. How about 22-year-old catcher Marco Dinges to Biloxi, as well? Lastly, one poster keenly observed that as much as fans may be clamoring for Luis Lara to get called up to Milwaukee, Lara is overperforming his xwOBA by 134 points, and 42 of his 101 batted balls this season have had a negative launch angle.

The Brewers face the Yankees this weekend at American Family Field. Come join the excitement in our game thread!

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