Dairyland Express
Fansided

Milwaukee Brewers: End of Spring Training Takeaways

By Harrison Carter

MARYVALE, ARIZONA - MARCH 06: Christian Yelich #22 of the Milwaukee Brewers gets ready in the batters box during a spring training game against the San Francisco Giants at American Family Fields of Phoenix on March 06, 2020 in Maryvale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
MARYVALE, ARIZONA - MARCH 06: Christian Yelich #22 of the Milwaukee Brewers gets ready in the batters box during a spring training game against the San Francisco Giants at American Family Fields of Phoenix on March 06, 2020 in Maryvale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

With a final record of 13-11-3, the Milwaukee Brewers have officially ended their 2021 Cactus League play. After two exhibition games in Arlington against the Rangers, the Brewers will officially start the 2021 regular season at American Family Field against the Twins on April 1st.

While Spring Training games certainly don’t have a lot of value in predicting how a regular-season will shape up for teams or players, there are still takeaways to be had. Let’s dive into how Spring Training went for the Brewers with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

Christian Yelich

Christian Yelich looks more comfortable in the batter’s box than he did all of last year. In 25 at-bats, Yelich had a .400/.483/.920 slash line, good for an OPS of 1.403. Yelich’s confidence is noticeably higher. He appears to be seeing the ball better and chasing less, which is a great sign for the regular season. Milwaukee Brewers fans hope Yelich can return to his MVP form.

Kolten Wong

One of the newest Brewers made a very positive impact on both sides of the field during Spring Training. In 30 at-bats, Wong slashed .333/.412/.733 for an OPS of 1.145. Wong also did what he does best, and that is being a phenomenal defender. Wong showed off his glove on numerous occasions. If Wong can up his power numbers at the hitter-friendly American Family Field, coupled with his elite glove, Wong could become a top-five second baseman in the league.

Hitting as a Whole

I can’t mention every hitter that had an exceptional Spring Training because there were a lot of them. Performances from Manny Piña, Omar Narvaez, Avisail Garcia, and even top prospect Garrett Mitchell propelled the Brewers into having the highest team OPS of any team in Spring Training with an OPS of .842. As a whole, Brewers’ hitting looked really good. With many hitters having down years in the shortened 2020 season, a number of the comeback candidates had a really nice spring, which is a good sign for the regular season.

Corbin Burnes

Corbin Burnes led Milwaukee Brewers pitchers in innings pitched with 16.1. In those innings, Burnes posted a 1.65 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP with 26 strikeouts. Burnes is looking to build off of a stellar 2020 campaign where he received votes for the NL Cy Young award.

He continues to work on his pitch repertoire, as he had made it a priority to emphasize his off-speed, and it is working. If Burnes can continue to locate his off-speed pitches on top of what is already an electric cutter/sinker combo, he could be mentioned in Cy Young Award talk.

The Bad

Keston Hiura Strikeouts

In 2020, Keston Hiura was in the 4th percentile of worst hitters in strikeout percentage, where he struck out 34.6% of the time. This spring, Hiura has had similar strikeout problems. In 42 at-bats, Hiura struck out 15 times, good for a strikeout percentage of 35.7%. Hiura overall did have a very good spring, but the number of strikeouts need to be lowered for Hiura if he wants to be an effective part of the middle of the lineup.

Josh Lindblom

In his second year with the Brewers, Lindblom hopes to improve upon what was a shaky 2020 season for him. This spring, Lindblom threw 9.2 innings in which he posted a 4.66 ERA with a 1.34 WHIP while striking out 14.

With that said, I am fairly optimistic about Lindblom. Lindblom will begin the season in the Brewers bullpen but will surely get some starts as the year goes on. Starting Lindblom in the bullpen should allow him to find a rhythm and hopefully become an effective starter for the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Ugly

Adrian Houser

Set to be the third starter for the Brewers this year behind Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff, Houser had a rough spring. In 12 innings pitched, Houser finished with an 8.25 ERA with a 2.00 WHIP and allowed opposing hitters to hit .358 off of him.

Houser should find his footing in the regular season as he has proven throughout his career that he can force weak contact, shown by the fact that last year he was in the 85th percentile for pitchers when it came to opponents’ exit velocity. It’s also worth noting that Houser had a very good outing against the Rangers in the first exhibition game.

Orlando Arcia

After a pedestrian 2020 season, Orlando Arcia has had a very slow start this spring. In 43 at-bats, Arcia slashed .186/.222/.256, good for an OPS of .478. Arcia is officially competing for playing time with Luis Urías. Arcia has not been in a situation like this until now.  It will be interesting to see how Arcia responds to the challenge.

Spring Training objectively does not mean much. Every year players don’t perform well in Spring Training only to catch fire in the regular season, and vice versa. Brewers fans can only hope to see that players who were hot this spring continue that momentum in the regular season and that those who underachieved turn it around.

Home/Milwaukee Brewers