The 133rd season of Major League Baseball is upon us. Over the next month and half, we will be taking a look at each ball club, leading up to the Expert Predictions of the esteemed staff at Sparty & Friends. We will be previewing each team, from worst to first. Brewers, beer, and baseball: what a country.  Esteemed S&F commenter sae has graced us with his time and expertise to give us a look-see inside the upcoming Brewers season.

In 2008, the Brewers returned to the postseason for the first time since 1982. It was quite a ride.

Before the All Star game, Milwaukee made a huge splash by trading for CC Sabathia. CC put the Brewers on his back and carried them to the playoffs. He finished the season starting 5 games in 17 days with an average of 106 pitches/game. Which, of course, led to him getting a wee bit tired and stinking it up in the playoffs (3.2IP, 6H, 5ER, 1HR, 5BB). We did lose to the eventual WS champs and we did win more playoff games (1) than the Cubs in the last two seasons combined…of course, that doesn’t mean crap.

Ben Sheets had a pretty good contract year, but got sand in his bajingo when the playoffs neared. Actually, it was pretty serious and he’s not with any team at this point. He did have successful surgery on his pitching elbow and hopes to return to a contender in the last two months of the season.

The other subplot to the season was the fans increasing frustration with manager Ned Yost. This finally led to his firing with two weeks (!) left in the season. What is this? Hockey?

Dale Sveum took the reigns as Milwaukee squeaked into the playoffs.

Last Season: 90-72 (2nd place in the NL Central, NL Wildcard)

Who’s Gone: RP Salomon Torres (retired), SP CC Sabathia (via FA, left for greener pa$ture$), SP Ben Sheets (FA, injury), RP Brian Shouse (FA), RP Guillermo Mota (FA), manager Ned Yost

Who’s New: RP Jorge Julio (via FA), RP Trevor Hoffman (FA), SP Braden Looper (FA), SP Chris Capuano (back from the dead?), manager Ken Macha

Projected Lineup:
1. Rickie Weeks 2B
2. JJ Hardy SS
3. Ryan Braun LF
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Corey Hart RF
6. Mike Cameron CF
7. Bill Hall 3B
8. Jason Kendall C
9. Starting pitcher

SP Yovani Gallardo
SP Dave Bush
SP Manny Parra
SP Braden Looper
SP Jeff Suppan

CL Trevor Hoffman

Key Bench Players:
Craig Counsell INF
Mike Lamb 3B
Brad Nelson OF
Mike Rivera C

Manager: Ken Macha

Lineup Outlook - Weeks (.234avg, .342OBP, 19SB): Not the BA you want from a leadoff hitter…however, he does an OK job drawing a few walks and HBP. He has a flair for making the unbelievable defensive play, but struggles with the boring plays making every game an adventure.

Hardy (.283avg, .343OBP, 24HR, 74RBI): Mr Streaky can carry the team for a couple weeks at a time and vanish for twice as long. Solid in the field.

Braun (.285avg, .888OPS, 37HR, 106RBI): the Hebrew Hammer. This man is an absolute monster, but looks to be about my size. An absolute disaster “defensively” at 3B in his rookie season, he has found a home in LF where he plays quite well.

Fielder (.276avg, .879OPS, 34HR, 102RBI, 3SB) : Fielder had a bit of a down year, but turned it on when we needed it to make the playoffs. Disappeared in the playoffs. He was rewarded with a nice 2 year, $18 mil contract and financial security for the first time since daddy Cecil ran off with his signing bonus. A content and relaxed Prince is a dangerous man with the stick. 45+HR a possibility.

Hart (.268avg, .300OBP, 20HR, 91RBI, 23SB): Hart had a great first half and got voted in the last chance to the All Star game. Possesses decent power and speed, but can come completely unglued with statements like this about his pitch selection:

Nothing is working right now with a lot of the guys. We’re trying to see pitches and see what we can do. … I’m not going to sit there and walk, though. I’ll eventually find it, and hopefully we’ll still be in it.

Cameron (.243avg, .809OPS, 25HR, 17SB), Yankees wanted him, we wanted to shed salary ($10 million), but apparently the Yankees wanted us to foot a big chunk of his salary (?!) which killed the deal. Still a pretty good defensive CF. Has nice power, but a tendency to strike out (142K).

Hall (.225avg, .293OBP, 15HR, 55RBI): Nursing a torn calf in spring training… His hitting has been tailing off since 2005, and his glove isn’t so great either (17 errors at 3B, 2 errors at 2B)

Kendall (.246avg): Played in a ridiculous amount of games for a catcher last season (151). Ned had a serious crush on this guy, considering Rivera swings a pretty nice bat and deserved more starts. His defense improved dramatically last season, he was even throwing out base runners. And the man has grit.

Starting Rotation - Suppan (10-10, 4.96ERA): At least for spring training, this guy is our #1 starter. Just an awful pitcher at his salary (4yrs, $42mil). Doesn’t get guys out, doesn’t eat innings. The sooner his contract ends or someone is dumb enough to trade for him, the better.

Gallardo (0-0, 4GS, 1.88ERA): After missing the first few weeks of the season with a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee, star in waiting Yovani Gallardo was lost to a fluke right ACL injury on May 1, colliding with the Cubs’ Reed Johnson. Hopefully, he doesn’t turn into our next glass Sheets. Yovani returned in time for the playoffs and pitched OK. Yovani has amazing stuff and can dominate games, he just needs to remain healthy.

Parra (10-8, 4.39ERA, 147K): A talented young lefty, but he tired down the stretch. 8 game winning streak through July 20, then went 1-6 the rest of the way. He did pitch well in limited duty in the playoffs. Should be our long term #2.

Bush (9-10, 4.18ERA): Awful start to the season but finished strong 4-0 in August and collected our only victory in the playoffs. Honestly, he might have been a better pick to start game 1 and let CC rest an extra day or two.

Looper (12-14, 4.16ERA for StL): Hopefully Looper pitches better than our last free agent pickup from the Cards (Soups-on). Don’t know quite where he fits into the rotation; he’s been hurt for most of spring training.

Wildcard – Chris Capuano: Had his second Tommy John surgery in 2008 and missed the entire season. If he can return even halfway to his 2005 form (18-12), this lefty would be a huge asset to the rotation.

Bullpen – A weakspot for the Brewers the past few seasons, they have retooled again – this time bringing in 85 year old Trevor Hoffman (30SV) to close out games (a $6 million bargain over last years $10 mil Gag-me debacle). Former closer for the Orioles Jorge Julio was brought in as setup man.

Prediction - 82-88 wins, 2nd (maybe 3rd) in NL Central. There’s no question this team can hit, but the team will only go as far as their pitching can carry them (cliche, I know). If Suppan is really Macha’s #1, we’re in deep trouble. Talent wise, Gallardo is clearly the #1 but Macha doesn’t want that pressure on him. For the first time in a few years, the media isn’t drooling over us being the sleeper team du jour. So, if a few things fall our way (like career years out of our pitching staff and the Cubs being the Cubs), I wouldn’t be shocked if we seriously compete for the division. I also wouldn’t be shocked if we imploded and were lucky to reach 80 wins.

All of the videos I find of the huge Braun and Fielder home runs from the stretch run suck, so here’s an old standby. This video is from the 2003 season, but the serious attitude of the reporters cracks me up every time.

Popularity: 6% [?]