John Egan

Welcome to the newest Brewer Fanatic weekly recap for the Milwaukee Brewers. Writer, comedian and Brewers super fan John Egan, aka BrewersRaptor, will have a new article ready for you every Friday. Some stats, some insight, some humor and definitely making fun of the Chicago Cubs. Image courtesy of © Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK Hello! And congrats, you made it through the first week of the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers season. I am John Egan, aka BrewersRaptor, and will be doing a weekly recap of this year’s season. It’s been a good one, and remember to check back every week here at Brewer Fanatic to get insight on the week that was the Brewers. After a delayed Opening Day, the Brewers are a full week into the season, which included technically three off-days in that period. They sit at 4-1 and near the top of the very hot NL Central. As we head into the weekend, the St. Louis Cardinals might be the only team below .500. For a division that everyone kept saying is bad and that it’s not impressive when the Brewers win it, there has been lots of winning the first week. It’s still very early, but this Brewers team is already heading in the right direction. Every week, I will recap mostly what happened during the weekdays, some positive things, some negative things share insights, what I have been seeing and hearing and some other fun miscellaneous stuff. If you came here for WHIP stats and launch angle deep-dives, you are in the wrong place. This will be as informal as it gets. Let’s get started. Milwaukee Off To A Hot Start Would I have predicted a 4-1 start with a sweep in the opening series? Probably not. I did not know the Mets were as big of a mess as they are. Milwaukee could easily be 5-0, but a tough game on Wednesday against the Minnesota Twins dashed those hopes. It’s still a great start as they face off against a tough Seattle Mariners team this weekend. It’s hard to talk about positive things about the Brewers without mentioning Jackson Chourio. If you listen to Bob Uecker’s call of Chourio’s first home run at American Family Field (Am Fam Clam) and don’t feel something, you might not really be a Brewers fan. With only 20 at-bats under his belt, Chourio is showing why the Brewers gave him a 10 year deal and $80M guaranteed. This kid might be something seriously special. Over those 20 trips to the plate, he has 7 hits, one run, one stolen base, one home run, four RBIs and an OPS of .931 with a .350 average. That’s an amazing debut. Will he be able to keep it up? Who knows, it takes a while for pitchers to get film on players and know how to get them out. I will enjoy every second of this rookie season, though. His future, and the team’s future, seems very bright. The new additions are already making an impact as well. Rhys Hoskins has two home runs, five RBIs and an OPS of 1.076 over five games. Besides hitting into a few concerning double plays, he is showing his power and bat already, something this team desperately needed. Not to mention a bench-clearing fight in the opening series to bring the team together. Am I already worried Hoskins will only be here a year and get a monster contract offer after this season like Moose and Grandal after 2019? Oh yeah. But again, I am going to enjoy this type of bat after a few seasons of the team hoping an aging veteran can be the power hitter instead of the top first baseman free agent signing on the market. Two pitchers who impressed me were Bryan Hudson and Jakob Junis. After being traded to the Brewers in January from the Dodgers, Hudson’s debut for the Crew was a great one. He pitched three strong innings with four strikeout and no earned runs. I also really liked Junis’ debut. Sure, he was on a pitch count and working through some minor injuries. His four innings to kick off the home opener impressed me though. I loved the movement on his pitches, and could be a dark horse solid starter this year for the Brewers. If he can extend his four innings, three hits, one earned run and four Ks into five or six innings, that would help this team tremendously. Early Concerns For This Brewers Team My first concern is this bullpen getting burnt out. It helps we have one of the best defensive teams in baseball, but you can’t rely on that and the bats every single game. You saw what happened on Wednesday against the Twins when your starter can’t make it through enough innings and your bullpen isn’t on point. It leads to lots of runs, mistakes and you lose control of the game. Wade Miley and Aaron Ashby being added soon to the rotation will help. Also seeing longer starts from DL Hall and Junis will be great. There is a lot of potential there. The bullpen, however, will not be able to keep up if starters don’t start going seven innings once in a while. They need that rest, and Abner Uribe can’t close every game, as much as Pat Murphy probably knows he can and would use him for that. The Mariners will be a good test of that. I hope Colin Rea keeps continues to impress as well. The late innings at home I hope don’t continue. The offense seemed to disappear again. I love the fast starts this team is doing. They are scoring early and often and flying around the basepaths. But, they have to keep it going the whole game. You could see the defeat in those late innings in that second Minnesota game. It’s annoying, but I get it. The players are getting used to being back and had a weird schedule and routine this first week. If players like Sal Frelick and Gary Sanchez can start getting some hits together along with young players like Jake Bauers and Oliver Dunn, this offense can take the next big step and be a dangerous team in this league. Cubs Blogs Obsess Over Ticket Deals The last thing I want to touch on and observe from this week are the Chicago Cubs. The rivalry between the Brewers and Cubs will be at an all-time high this year. Counsell obviously threw a lot of coal into that fire, and Cubs fans and blogs are running with it. They are probably still upset about the Counsell meme going viral. This bizarre set of tweets then popped up from a popular Cubs blog. I hate to plug my own tweet/post (kind of), but this sums is up nicely of what happened. It’s this weird combination of things from Cubs fans. They claim their fan base is the only one who fills the Brewers stadium. Both playoff games and Opening Day was sold out, so that’s not true. Yes, the Brewers increase prices and have special ticket sales for Cubs game, but that’s because they want Brewers fans there. Cubs fans love starting fights and it’s been a pattern, so it’s not surprising. Plus, the team knows that fans will probably sell them to Cubs fans for 3x the price and then they spend all their money here. Then we get to sign Rhys Hoskins and Brandon Woodruff back. It’s a win-win except for all the dumb Cubs fans there to ruin the experience for Brewers fans. So then Brewers fans avoid going to those games, then Cubs claim they take over the stadium, but that’s only because of their actions. It’s a vicious circle. Anyways, back to them making fun of the ticket packages. They say we can’t sell tickets, but right now you can go on Groupon and get Cubs tickets for $5. I did not make that up. I’m sure the tweets/posts were done for the interactions and likes. But in theory, you are complaining about minimal games and acting like the Brewers can’t sellout ever. So let’s break it down. 50% off tickets the first Friday for home games for Wisconsin residents. That’s six games total this year. The second deal is a Sunday ticket bundle. That is for 13 games total. That means for 19 total games, one off the total from my port, there are ticket deals. 62 of the other home games are regular price. What are we doing here? I’m sorry you’re jealous the Brewers are making some games affordable for people and bringing people into the ballpark. The horror! And did I purchase one of the Sunday bundles for myself and three of my friends already? Of course! We are in the right field bleachers, probably get to wave Jackson Chourio and might somehow get an adult liquid of some kind in my junior soda while I watch my favorite team for a bargain. I suggest you do the same! Did I do the ticket package even though I basically hate hot dogs? Yes I did! I’m also interested in what classifies a “junior hot dog”. So that wraps up this week. Follow me on all my socials, links and podcasts. Let me know if you bought a Sunday Ticket package or trolled a Cubs fan. Is Christian Yelich still back? The answer is yes. Also, I have some big personal news coming up soon, so keep that in the back of your mind for the April 27th home game for the Brewers against the New York Yankees. Be a good person, and I’ll see you next week. View full article