Tommy Ciaccio

Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images After a bumpy landing to start their two-series home stand, the Crew found their footing against the Astros, decisively taking games one and two before Houston returned the favor with a 9–1 rout to avoid the sweep. The Crew are now 6–4 in their last ten, a modest step forward from the broader .500 mark that defines their season so far. It’s been an underwhelming start for Milwaukee, but they now head to Tampa to face a Rays team struggling perhaps even more visibly. The series will be played at George M. Steinbrenner Field—the Rays’ temporary home while Tropicana Field undergoes repairs after Hurricane Milton quite literally tore its roof off last October. Usually home to the Tampa Tarpons, a Yankees affiliate, the stadium is now serving as the stand-in for Major League Baseball. Whether it’s the less-than-ideal new digs or just the familiar cycle: develop → compete → trade everyone → rebuild → repeat, the Rays seem off to a discombobulated start in 2025. Long defined by the mystique of their crafty defiance of budget constraints, this year’s club looks more like a team reckoning with the consequences of prolonged austerity. They aren’t dismal, but the spark feels hibernative, like a kid asleep in the backseat on a long car ride—waiting to wake up once they’re home. There’s no clear face of the franchise, and what star power remains is decidedly muted. The Rays have competed meaningfully and consistently long enough that this is likely a temporary aberration. But it’s one the Brewers would do well to exploit—if they can keep their momentum going on the road. Adjust to the Anomaly Win or lose, Milwaukee is a baseball city, and its hometown faithful are loud and proud. Nearly 42,000 pack American Family Field on any given night, sticking it out through all nine innings with the kind of raucous energy that fills the air and provides a spark. The Rays? Well, they’re not even playing at Tropicana right now. Ongoing repairs after Hurricane Milton have them at George M. Steinbrenner Field—a spring training park with a max capacity of 11,026. And even that’s not selling out. It may not be the most orthodox home field advantage, but the Brewers are used to the cheers and the jeers - indifference, though, may be a different beast altogether. The Brewers will have to bring their own energy, because they won’t be able to source it from the crowd. Aggression In Game One The Rays are sending Zack Littell to the mound as their game one starter—an intriguing choice, given his unconventional career arc. Littell joined Tampa Bay in 2023 after a brief, disastrous stint with the Red Sox, who waived him following a forgettable showing. It was a very Rays move: take a flyer on a slumping pitcher with clear upside. And, as usual, it’s paid off—at least to a point. From 2019 to 2021, Littell’s ERA zigzagged wildly: 2.68, then a brutal 9.95, followed by a solid 2.92. That volatility hints at both his ceiling and his fragility. Since arriving in Tampa, he’s shown signs of stability, but early 2025 has raised some red flags. A noticeable dip in velocity and a low strikeout rate could make for red meat for a slumping Jackson Chourio. It could compel a reticent Christian Yelich to substitute his discipline for power. Attack Rasmussen Early One time, Brewer Drew Rasmussen has been a bright spot for the Rays with a 3.09 ERA, but early-inning issues have accounted for much of the damage he has sustained this year. In the first, he pitched a total of seven innings with a reasonable 3.86 ERA, but that number ballooned up to 7.71 in the second. It would seem Rasmussen finds a solid rhythm once the game gets going, so it would be prudent for the Crew to exploit this weakness before he tightens up and they are forced to contend with a stronger Rasmussen and a very solid bullpen to follow. Predictions: The Rays just don’t feel complete this year, and it’s because they simply aren’t. Inasmuch as they might have a face of the franchise, they are either injured (Shane McClanahan) or having a down year (Yandy Diaz). Combined with the fact that they aren’t playing in a major league stadium, it has to be disorienting for the adrift Rays. I think the Brewers are likely feeling a touch refreshed from a fairly successful homestand and will take that momentum to Florida and take two of three. View full article

Image courtesy of © Michael McLoone-Imagn Images The last couple of weeks have erased much of the positive momentum Milwaukee had built amid this uneven start to the season. A missed opportunity to sweep the White Sox gave way to two dispiriting losses to start a home series against the Cubs—at home, no less. But then came a reminder that legitimately excellent talent still resides on the Brewers roster. Freddy Peralta pitched masterfully through six innings, allowing just four hits, walking one, and striking out seven. Peralta has been viewed as an ace-in-the-making ever since his 2018 debut with the Crew. Now, just a month shy of his 29th birthday, he looks closer than ever to realizing that promise. His start galvanized the team and helped them salvage a game, though they still lost the series. The hope now is that this inauspicious stretch serves not as a harbinger of things to come, but as a crucible in which to prove themselves. They’ll have the chance to do just that with a three-game set against the Astros, also at home. Houston, who entered 2025 hoping to dispel the notion that they are in the twilight of their dynasty, are coming off their own series loss—handed to them by none other than the Chicago White Sox. The Astros' offseason was a difficult one to evaluate, as it saw them endure a major shake-up of their identity. When they traded Ryan Pressly and perennial MVP candidate Kyle Tucker to the Cubs, and made it evident that Alex Bregman would be wearing a different uniform come Opening Day, it seemed like the 'Stros had almost accepted that another rebuild would soon be on the offing. On the other hand, the team did have bullpen depth from which to deal, and their maneuvers brought in two controllable position players, while making room for free-agent signee Christian Walker. It could also be argued that the team achieved addition by subtraction, in replacing Bregman with a very capable Isaac Paredes; replacing Tucker with top prospect (and immediate-impact rookie) Cam Smith; and letting Yusei Kikuchi and future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander walk in free agency. Yes, these moves do constitute major turnover for a team whose core had brought them a second championship in five years in 2022, but it freshens up their outlook for the second half of this decade. Still, where the Brewers sit one game under .500, the Astros are only one game ahead of them. Both teams seem to be in a bit of a haze, unsure if they are on the cusp of a soft rebuild or if their respective abilities to pull magic out of a hat will whisk them into the postseason once more. Either way, it projects to be a chippy series, with two teams looking to establish who they are, what they are and where they are going in 2025. Three Keys for Taking Down the Astros Let Cameron cook!: Look, I am not expecting Daz Cameron (son of former Brewer Mike Cameron) to come close to being the player he was once hyped to become. That said, there is a reason he hasn’t completely washed out of the league yet; it just happens to reside in less celebrated tools. He managed to get a hit and steal a base Sunday. The power/speed combo scouts saw in him has yet to play in the bigs so far, and at 28, it's hard to project a sudden renaissance. However, the 112.6-mph maximum exit velocity he yielded as recently as last year is enough to give me some hope—even with uncertainty swirling around Sal Frelick's health. A refreshed Yelich: Until yesterday, Christian Yelich had played every game since April 15—a welcome sight for Brewers fans, given the litany of injuries he’s battled in recent seasons. While the former MVP isn’t exactly slumping, though, his 2025 campaign has gotten off to a slow start. His .667 OPS won’t turn heads, but his elite plate discipline still makes him a nightmare for opposing pitchers. Yelich ranks near the top of the league in walk rate, consistently forcing pitchers into deep counts and mistakes. If he can find just a bit more thump in his bat, he has the potential to be a real difference-maker in Milwaukee’s lineup. A day off might be just what he needed to reignite the spark. Stay steady against Framber: The imposing Astros lefty has long been a menace on the mound; his track record is sparkling. That Framber Valdez is only a two-time All-Star feels like an oversight, especially given his past dominance against Milwaukee. But this year’s 1-4 start doesn’t feel like bad luck—it feels earned. Valdez enters this series with a 37:15 strikeout-to-walk ratio, a notable decline from his career norms. He’s still generating ground balls, but hitters are squaring him up more than usual, producing concerning exit velocities off his pitches. Not to pile on the struggling White Sox, but the fact that they tagged him for four runs—and that only 48 of his 87 pitches found the zone—should raise eyebrows. Whether it’s contract-year nerves or a real slip in form, the Brewers may find an opening against a pitcher who’s typically anything but generous. Expectations: Genuinely hard to predict this one. Both teams feel like they are in a very similar place in their competitive arc. Given said similarities, I’ll say the Brewers take two of three. View full article

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images The Brewers wrapped up a dismal road trip with two days of competent—if not outright strong—play against the White Sox, only for the South Siders to usher in May with a humiliating loss for the Crew. Chicago’s -32 run differential will get an eight-point boost when the stats update Friday morning—each of those runs unanswered by a Milwaukee lineup that looked utterly befuddled at the plate in Thursday’s blowout. That number might have been halved if not for a Herculean grab by Luis Robert Jr., who robbed Rhys Hoskins of a grand slam. But even if that ball had cleared the fence, the Brewers still would’ve needed four more to tie. Still, Milwaukee took the series, winning two of three from the rebuilding White Sox and returning home with a .500 record. They’re 9-4 at home, but they’d be wise not to exhale just yet: the other, far more dangerous Chicago team arrives next. Yes, the dreaded Cubs make their first visit to Milwaukee in 2025—and they’re coming loaded for bear (pun intended). The offseason moves by the Cubbies have proven to be a boon. Former Astro Kyle Tucker was traded in his contract year for, among others, Chicago’s number one draft pick in 2024, promising right fielder Cam Smith. Tucker is rewarding the Cubs for their expense by being the offensive powerhouse he’s proven himself capable of being over the last several years, already going yard eight times and swiping eight bags. Somehow, though, it isn’t Tucker who owns the lead for WAR on the Cubs. That title would belong to defensive wünderkind Pete Crow-Armstrong. All five tools have come to life for the youngster, who exceeded his rookie limits last year. Back then, Crow-Armstrong slugged 10 homers in 410 plate appearances. This year, he’s already hit six in just 120. His speed, however, could be argued to be his most lethal asset. He’ll steal a bag—and, in fact, already has 12 times so far this year—but where he really shines is in his dominance in center field. He ranks in the 95th percentile in sprint speed, recently covering 48 feet in 3.3 seconds to steal a softly hit ball from Tommy Edman. He currently possesses 14 outs above average, good for fifth in the league. The Cubs are so domineering this year that it feels like a flicker of the headline that it used to be that Craig Counsell is their skipper. Truthfully, the stakes feel too high in this series for sentimental narratives to be a big point of investment for Milwaukee. The Cubs are convincingly winning against good teams, even taking four of the last five games they played against the Dodgers. The Brewers, need I remind you, were just perpetrators of a two-hit shutout against the White Sox. It’s the first week of May, so literally nothing definitive can happen in terms of wins or losses for pretty much any team, but the Brewers can send a message if they put up a convincing fight against the Cubs. Here are some keys as to how they might. Three Keys To Take Down The Cubs Don’t waste Quintana’s start: Milwaukee’s current WAR leader, veteran lefty José Quintana, is 23 innings into his Brewers tenure—and thriving. After a quietly dominant second half with the Mets last year, Quintana has kept the momentum rolling in 2025. The Brewers scooped him up as a mysteriously overlooked, bargain-bin addition late in the offseason, and so far, the signing looks like a steal. He’ll take the mound against Jameson Taillon, who, unlike many of his surging Cubs teammates, is merely having a good—not great—season. If the Crew can support Quintana with one or two runs, and he keeps looking like he has, they can steal a win here. Don’t waste the Ben Brown start: On the other side of the Quintana excellence coin are Ben Brown’s struggles. The 25-year-old righty had a solid rookie campaign for Chicago last season, but has been struggling massively out of the gates to begin this year. His fastball has lost a mile and a half per hour off of its average, and the result is seeing way less swing-and-miss and way more hard hits. If the Crew avoid the lethal defense lurking in center field, they should use Brown’s start to match the offense the Cubs are likely to show up with. Brown is set to face Quinn Priester to start the season. Continued improvement from the infield: Caleb Durbin may not be turning heads on the national stage as he begins his rookie career, but the 5'7" third baseman is a massive improvement at the hot corner compared to what Oliver Dunn was producing. Isaac Collins, a waiver pick up from the Rockies, has already put up a 0.5 WAR in his 38 plate appearances. Those appearances contain one homer, ten hits and a respectable .781 OPS. Rhys Hoskins probably won’t be the slugger the Crew was hoping he’d recapture when they signed him, but he is actually doing some damage this year compared to last year. Joey Ortiz has taken a massive step back, but there is time to address that thanks to the robust back-up that’s been found in the depth. Predictions: The Cubs recently had the highest World Series odds, going by one slightly offbeat system, and it’s not hard to see why. They have a lineup that can slug, hit, steal, run the gamut on every offensive cliche you can drum up. They’ve passed the Dodgers barometer test, and looked like they were having fun doing it. There are genuinely some ways I could see the Brewers winning this series, but it doesn’t feel like the most likely outcome. I think it’s two wins to one, in the Cubbies' favor. View full article

Freddy Peralta takes the ball in the first game of a set on Chicago's South Side Tuesday, as the Brewers try to salvage a road trip that began with bad vibes and lots of losses. Beyond a tone-setting start from Peralta, what are the keys to a sweep for the Crew? Image courtesy of © Matt Blewett-Imagn Images At the end of a road trip marked by errors, walkoffs, and rallies rendered moot, the Brewers find themselves at a crossroads. Sitting one game under .500, they’re now looking up at Cincinnati and the Cubs. At just the right moment, they head to Sox Park, to face a still-undeveloped White Sox team. Can the Brewers make an example of this green squad—or will they leave Chicago in even worse condition than they arrived? There is no charitable light to cast on the Brewers for how this road trip has unfolded. The runs have come, yes, but Milwaukee is a team built on run prevention—and that's where things have gone most awry. Rallies can be exciting, but when the punctuation to the contest is a division rival walking you off, they only serve to highlight how the losses came to pass. In the case of games one and two of the three-game set against St. Louis, those losses may not have happened, had sloppy play not helped the Redbirds notch a few extra points. There is some potentially good news, though, should the Brewers make good on it. The last series on this jaunt pits Milwaukee against the lowly Chicago White Sox. The White Sox made history last year in all the worst ways—most infamously, by taking sole possession of the worst record in modern baseball history, a cringeworthy 41-121. It’s worth mentioning that they tied the previous franchise record (107 losses) on the first day of September, giving them almost a whole month of games to build on their horrendous legacy. Since then, the White Sox have done what they can to crawl their way out of baseball hell, and there are glimmers of competence emerging. The South Siders are still quite bad. You can’t go from that level of misery to competitive relevance in one offseason. That said, they do at least look vaguely like a team that can play major-league baseball. With the Brewers on their heels after back-to-back series losses that shouldn’t have been, this will be a good opportunity for them to reverse course and crawl back over the .500 mark. If the opposite happens, however, it will be an ill omen for their ability to meaningfully compete in a division that has a suddenly dominant Chicago Cubs team atop the standings. Three Keys for Taking Down the White Sox Tighten Up!: It's not a sprint; it's a marathon. No single series defines a team over a 162-game season. It's a comforting cliché to lean on when times get tough — but there's another side to the coin. We're not even through the first month, and Brice Turang has already committed three errors. Last season, he committed just seven all year. When the Platinum Glove Award winner is off his game, it redounds to the entire identity of the team. The White Sox are a bad team, but they aren’t as abjectly bad as last year, and could steal a win if the Brewers leave it on a plate for them. Work the count, but watch your back: The White Sox pitching staff is on pace for 126 hit batsmen. For context, the average for a team usually hovers between 60-70 per year. This is insanely high, and dangerous, but also speaks to a fairly easily exploitable flaw in the opposition. If the Brewers can exhibit a bit of plate discipline, they can stake themselves to an early lead and sail to victory from there. Once men are on, time to slug: The 2024 White Sox outfield posted a dreadful -19 Outs Above Average, and not much has changed since, aside from the addition of Joshua Palacios—who owns a -0.1 dWAR. With defense being an uncharacteristic question mark for the Crew so far, the bats have a prime opportunity to come alive in this series. The Brewers aren’t a dominant power team, but they have enough pop to challenge a shaky outfield. Expectations: I’ve been too bullish on the Brewers over their last two series, so I’ll pump the brakes a bit on this. I still believe in the team and believe they can and should win series against teams that are inarguably worse than them, even if they haven’t done so in recent days. The White Sox are a compelling enough team, and one with home-field advantage, so I’ll say they win one to the Brewers two. View full article

Rivalries never die, but sometimes the boil fades to a low simmer. The Cardinals seem to be in the thick of an uncharacteristic identity crisis in the waning days of the Mozeliak era, returning to defend their home turf from last place in a division they once seemed destined to dominate. It may not make for as fiery a rivalry as it once was, but with the Cardinals chances at postseason play rapidly disintegrating, its not impossible to imagine sparks flying over the next three days. Does the Crew have what it takes to return to their winning ways, or to the Cardinals breathe life into their sinking season? Image courtesy of Matthew Stockman/Getty Images The St. Louis Cardinals have been a thorn in the side of the Brewers fan base as long as much of them have been able to cultivate memories. Ever since 2007, the shrewd hand of John Mozeliak has steered the Cardinals into a winning lane and kept them there. Almost immediately upon taking control, Mozeliak executed a trade that would set the tone for the first act of his tenure when he sent a sentimental favorite in Jim Edmonds to the Padres in exchange for a lesser known prospect named David Freese. Freese's career as a Cardinal would eventually culminate in winning the World Series MVP award for an unbelievable performance in the 2011 championship series. In the following offseason, Mozeliak would show his steely reserve once more in letting all-time great and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols walk in free agency. What seemed unthinkable in the moment proved to be the right decision as Pujols' production declined precipitously year after year, all the while the Cardinals continued to play meaningfully competitive ball, winning their division five times since getting that ring. In the last half a decade though, there has been a vibe shift. After an exciting Wild Card appearance pioneered in part by the leadership of manager Mike Shildt, the Cardinals front office made the puzzling decision to move on from the well-regarded skipper. The reasons were thin, and, for a famously convivial fanbase, felt unconvincing. “Philosophical differences” were the sum of the explanation, and for those differences Shildt was replaced by Oliver Marmol. The first year of Marmol’s tenure felt like vintage St. Louis baseball - competence at worst, dominance at best, and a path to the postseason. Since then, though? The situation has devolved into something frankly unrecognizable. 2023 was their first losing season since 2007, built largely on the sudden decline of likely Hall Of Famers like Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. There was also a palpable dysfunction felt, particularly as it pertained to the addition of Willson Contreras, who came with titanic shoes to fill as the ostensible replacement for Yadier Molina. 2024 was arguably a bit of a return to form as they managed a 83-79 record, good for a .512 winning percentage — but not good enough to reach the postseason. With flagging consistency, Mozeliak announced that 2024 would be his final year as POBO for the Cardinals, with Chaim Bloom set to take his place. As the siren song for Mozeliak rings out, the Cardinals are meeting the churn with fairly uninspired play of their own. Their recent 1-2 series loss against the Braves must have felt like an exhale as it punctuated a road trip that started with a four-game sweep at the hands of the Mets. As the Cardinals sit dead last in the NL Central, the Brewers sit just below the Cubs near the top, but things aren’t all gravy in Brewerville either. A comedy (or tragedy) of errors, most consequentially by two Gold Glovers in Brice Turang and Christian Yelich, allowed the Giants to rally for a win, taking the series in the process. The result? The always-awkward closed door team meeting. The series that starts on Friday figures to be a perfect storm that could brew some high-stakes intensity, insofar as such a thing could exist this early in the season. Start with the obvious acknowledgement of their historical acrimony, but that’s just sentimentality when you consider the material positions of both teams. Two division rivals are looking to right the ship, with the Brewers still reasonably clawing for a top spot. In St. Louis, there will need to be an urgent turn around for the Red Birds, or they will be firmly in the seller’s market by June. Also, the Contreras brothers! That’s kind of fun! Three Keys For Taking Down The Cardinals Gray stays Gray: Sonny Gray has had an interesting journeyman’s career to this date. Despite occasionally being ace-like in his game (finishing in the top-10 in Cy Young voting three times, most recently as a runner-up with the Twins in 2023) the Cardinals uniform will be the fifth uniform he has put on. Despite his occasional excellence, and regardless of what jersey Gray is wearing, Gray seems to have his troubles with certain Brewers bats. An ascendant Brice Turang is a career 4-for-9 against Gray, Christian Yelich is 5-21 with a homer, and Rhys Hoskins is 4-for-15. If the core can do its thing and knock Gray out early, it could force St. Louis to turn to their inconsistent bullpen — and deplete them for the next few days. Priester stays Priester: It’s hard to know what Quinn Priester is going to be, but what he has been so far is unequivocally and undeniably excellent. Priester’s curveball and change-up never played especially well in previous seasons, so they’ve taken the backseat in the righty’s repertoire. He’s filled the gap by turning the sinker into his primary pitch and adding an effective cutter to his game. At least so far, the results have been game-changing. Self-Assuredness: After years of living under the cruel crimson thumb of St. Louis, it feels fair to take a cheap and decidedly non-analytical shot and say that the Brewers should take comfort and even a little joy in just knowing they are the better team. Living outside of anything corroborated by metrics and analysis may be uncouth, but the Brewers and their fans deserve to simply revel in it, so let’s. Prediction: Even outside of being in the spirit of reveling in all of this, I genuinely do think the Cardinals are just a bit of a mess right now, and I don’t think it's the kind of mess that’s fixed by something as nominal as home field advantage. The Brewers just put up a convincing fight against an objectively better team out West and I think they can do so again in St. Louis. The Crew takes the series 2-1, if not an outright sweep. View full article

The week starts for Milwaukee with a bit of a sentimental four-game set out west, as they take their winning momentum to Oracle Park to take on the Giants—and visit an old friend. Image courtesy of © Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images The Brewers trade in one Californian opponent for another, this time leaving their home turf to trek westward to face the San Francisco Giants. As the season shakes out, the Giants and Brewers are refracting a similar energy: each is the perennial David to an intradivisional Goliath, although the Crew have been more accurate with their slingshot over the last several years. As the Dodgers have gathered up superstars, the Giants have had to be clever in their efforts to put together a meaningfully competitive lineup, but that pursuit has not been without some major hiccups. There were notable pursuits of Bryce Harper, who ended up signing a record-breaking contract with the Phillies; Shohei Ohtani, who took his talents to Dodger Stadium, instead; and Aaron Judge, who played the centerpiece in a now-infamous (though hilarious, misspelled and misinformed) tweet by Jon Heyman. There have been some successful additions, though, and Brewers fans need no introduction to their marquee addition from this season’s free-agent class. After several productive years in a Brewers uniform, Willy Adames cashed in on his stellar production at shortstop with a seven-year, $182-million pact with San Francisco. It has been slow going for Adames to this point, sitting just below the Mendoza line with a .190 average and only one homer. The peripherals surrounding his lack of production leave room for real concern—most notably, a significant drop in bat speed, which informs everything else about his at-bats. Still, the Giants' lineup is not without threats. Brewers arms will have to navigate and leapfrog batters, the combined efforts of which put up a deceptive .698 OPS that undersells their ability to outscore their opponents. That said, the Giants couldn’t outscore the Angels in two of the three games in their last series. Meanwhile, the visiting Brewers are fresh off a decisive series victory against an untethered Athletics team. The Crew won the first game but lost the middle game, before running up the score in a rubber-match victory, to the tune of 14-1. This shellacking pushed Pat Murphy's club two games above .500 to start their road trip. If momentum means anything, then this will be welcome fuel for a Milwaukee team still largely diminished by injuries. Adding further fuel to their fire was the exciting call-up of Caleb Durbin. At 5-foot-6, Durbin already defies a lot of what one might expect in a typical big-league player, but the small-statured infielder comes equipped with a fascinating offensive profile. Known particularly for his plate discipline and high-contact approach at the plate, Durbin has unlocked some pop over the last year and a half, hitting 10 home runs last season and two already this year. Three Keys To Take Down The Giants Don’t underestimate the middle of the lineup: The Giants have never been a team associated with pop. In fact, they hold the dubious and borderline unbelievable distinction of not having had a player hit 30 or more home runs in a season since 2004, when Barry Bonds mashed 45. Aside from Jung Hoo Lee (who possesses an eye-popping .355/.412/1.044 line) and some decent offensive output by Mike Yastrzemski, there isn’t a lot on the box scores that screams “imminent threat” at the plate. Much of the Giants lineup is composed of players with a history of streakiness, but right now, those players are performing with enough efficacy to support a +31 run differential - good for third in the league. Lean on the sidearmer: Pitching woes are still a bit of an issue for this team. One narrative that has slipped a bit under the radar is the one surrounding 27-year-old righty Grant Anderson. The sidearmer was designated for assignment by Texas last year after home run issues became an insurmountable problem for him; he gave up 2.3 homers per nine innings. Milwaukee’s front office saw paths to fixing that, however, and so far, it's working. Anderson is near the top of the league in stifling hard-hit balls, with only 2.8% of batted balls being Barrels—a massive drop from the 10% that did so last year. A major caveat, of course, is that the season is still brand-new. We haven't seen enough to know whether he can sustain this. A bit of discipline from Chourio: It’s a bit difficult to know what to make of Jackson Chourio’s sophomore campaign. His offensive output looks great, with the numbers to prove it. The young phenom currently leads the Brewers with five home runs. That said, the gap between his batting average and his OBP is razor-thin, at an almost comical .253 to .266. This is largely due to an untenable 41.5% chase rate, second-worst in the league behind Michael Harris II. This is not untrodden territory for Chourio, who had a slow start to last year’s season before turning it on and making a run for Rookie of the Year. If he can tighten up his game, his contribution can go from marginal to astronomical. Predictions: It’s really hard to doubt what the Giants have done. If it wasn’t for the behemoth that is the Dodgers, it’d be easy to see them competing for the top spot in their division. They just don’t have many holes, and the ones they do have feel manageable—but I don't think it will be a losing effort. The Crew takes two of four. View full article

Two teams with wind at their sails are on a collision course that will kick off on Friday in Milwaukee. After a rough loss to start the series, the Crew turned it on and dominated the Tigers for back-to-back wins. Meanwhile, the Athletics come to Milwaukee after absolutely feasting on the lowly White Sox. Can the Crew continue their winning ways, or will a provocative and pesky upstart A's team derail them at home? Let's dig in. Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images For the first time in a while, the Athletics are a source of serious intrigue in the league, but inauspiciously, not much of that intrigue is born from their quality of play. Over the last decade, the A’s have seemingly locked into a perpetual Sisyphean state of a churning rebuild, so much so that it’s difficult to associate the franchise with having a glory day period that includes three consecutive World Series victories from 1972-74. While the Athletics franchise still possesses those gilded memories, they are now unmoored from the city that’s hosted them since 1968. As the Oakland faithful bid their team a tearful goodbye, the A’s set into their temporary limbo state, packed with intriguing talent. The dominant righty closer Mason Miller, robust powerhouse slugger Tyler Soderstrom, and the newly extended Lawrence Butler, who figures to emerge into veteran-hood in a few years when the A’s permanently plant roots in their new home of Las Vegas. With all the disarray that has defined them in the last few seasons, you’d be forgiven for missing that they’ve shed their punchless ways. The offense to this point in the season is primarily anchored by the aforementioned Soderstrom, who possesses a beastly 1.101 OPS through their first 19 games. The record pretty solidly reflects their run differential, one game below .500 and -5 respectively, but this time last year that run diff sat at a glaring -15. As of Thursday evening, the Astros are in the surreal position of looking up at the A’s in their division. The mix of high-ceiling youngsters and the infusion of veteran influence like Luis Severino and Gio Urshela combine for a compelling alchemy to help shape the vision for what the A’s will eventually be. The Crew is emerging from winning another interleague series against the Tigers. In taking two of three, the Brewers corrected course after a couple of devastating bullpen meltdowns cost them a road series against the Diamondbacks. The Brewers will enter the series against the Athletics as one of only six teams left in the league who have yet to be shut out this season, helping winnow that number by delivering the Tigers their first shutout in 2025. The Crew sits just one game above .500 and one game back of a very convincing-looking Chicago Cubs team in the NL Central. This is in part thanks to some fantastic starting pitching, including newcomer Quinn Priester, who has been sharp in his two appearances with Milwaukee, and late free agent signing Jose Quintana, who is carrying over a torrid second half with the Mets last year, with an unbelievable beginning to his tenure with Milwaukee. Three Keys For Taking Down The Athletics Competence and Confidence: It’s not hard to see that the Athletics have some sturdy pieces on their roster that should be entering their prime the next time the A's pry open that competitive window, but they aren’t there yet. The Crew's studied, measured approach and caution around the more self-assured veterans might be enough to give Milwaukee the edge in this series. A resurgent Christian Yelich: Yelich broke an 0-19 streak on Tuesday and went yard with a 404-foot blast to center the next day. It’s been difficult to know which version of Yelich will emerge season-to-season ever since fouling a ball off his kneecap in 2019, ending an MVP-worthy season. Since then, it seems like elite-level production has been off the table for Yeli, but his heart and determination remain. He’s put up a decent 5.7 WAR combined over the last two seasons, but is off to a glacial pace to begin 2025. If he can position himself on the positive side of production, he’ll be a major help to his offense-starved team. Stave off J.T. Ginn and outlast Luis Severino: Athletics righty J.T. Ginn is fewer than 40 innings into his major league career but possesses some troublesome stuff. His chase rate and strikeout percentage are well above average, and he’s near the top of the league in ground ball percentage. Some bad looks in the infield has his WHIP sitting at 1.313, which indicates that he’s doing a fairly decent job of stifling exit velocity. Meanwhile, former Yankees and Mets arm Luis Severino is pitching fairly well in his first year out of New York. Contrary to Ginn, Severino’s relatively low 4.01 ERA seems largely thanks to good luck, as hitters are seeing his stuff and hitting it hard. Still, Severino is a reliable innings eater, averaging 6.1 innings per start. If the Crew can resist hacking at the wily stuff of Ginn and chip away at Severino, and perhaps exploit his lagging fastball, the Crew could put up a solid enough lead that makes their struggling bullpen feel a bit more at ease to wrap things up. Predictions: Predicting sweeps is never wise, but they do happen, so let’s be bold and say the Crew takes all three here. Why? They can do it because the Athletics seem like a great team to make an example of. View full article