Breaking: Milwaukee Brewers Strike Quickly To Sign $24 Million…..

The red-hot Milwaukee Brewers return home Monday, having just completed a statement-making road trip wherein they went 4-2 against the upstart Reds and the formidable Orioles. The opposing Padres enter sitting at an even .500 to start the season, fresh off an exhilarating series win against the division rival Dodgers.

Brewers Video
The Brewers start the new week at home after an absolutely dominant stretch of road games, a force to be reckoned with for the whole league. Opposing them is a team with a complicated overarching dynamic. Over just the past couple of years, the Padres have made bold moves to pull them from the morass of mediocrity that has held the franchise since the days of Tony Gwynn, by acquiring prodigious young talent like Fernando Tatis Jr.; making major investments in free agency with future Hall of Fame-caliber players like Manny Machado; and attempting to assemble a controllable corps with a shot at long-term stability.. The results haven’t amounted to much so far, and the Padres enter play on Monday with a middling record to show for it. Will San Diego play like it has something to prove, or will the Crew continue to run roughshod over their opponents? Let’s break it down.

Monday, April 15th
Joe Musgrove (1-2 6.87 ERA) vs. Joe Ross (1-0, 1.80 ERA)
It’s been a rocky start for Musgrove. His first appearance saw him surrender five runs in just 2 2/3 innings to the Dodgers, but that was in Korea, where nothing seemed particularly representative.

Since then, he’s played volleyball, with one bad start, one decent one, and one more stinker. When he’s at his best, Musgrove looks a lot more like the pitcher who showed up in St. Louis, striking out seven over six innings while giving up one run. If he’s the version that last pitched against Chicago, giving up four runs over as many innings, it will likely be a short start for the big righty.

One thousand, one hundred fifteen days is a long time in almost any context, but if you’re talking about times between major-league wins, it’s especially rare. Joe Ross joined that offbeat fraternity last Tuesday with a convincing win over the Cincinnati Reds. He pitched into the seventh, surrendering three runs but also striking out seven batters while walking only one. The most successful pitch in his repertoire this season is his slider, which is responsible for five of those seven punchouts.

Tuesday, April 16th
Dylan Cease (1-1 2.16 ERA) vs. Wade Miley (0-0 2.25 ERA)
In what felt like an offseason of epic storylines, the Padres snagged a last-minute exclamation mark to punctuate it all by acquiring former White Sox ace Dylan Cease from the South Side of Chicago. So far, Cease is looking like the pitcher who earned runner-up honors in Cy Young voting back in 2022. He’s striking out well over a batter per inning, limiting walks and suppressing power off the bat. He figures to be a pesky presence on the mound, though the Brewers have already shown they can at least put a dent in ace-caliber pitching.

Few players have seemingly found their mojo in a Brewers uniform more effectively than Wade Miley. Miley first joined the Brewers for a one-year stint in 2018 after one and a half dismal seasons with the Orioles. After resurrecting his career with the Crew, he spent almost a half-decade with the Astros, Cubs and Reds, with varying levels of efficacy. Then came 2023, and the Crew reunited with the journeyman. All told, Miley has played on eight different teams and has forged a pretty solid, albeit unheralded career. Not much can be made of the four innings Miley threw in his season debut, but he looked solid–a welcome fact, considering the trade- and injury-depleted pitching staff.

Wednesday, April 17th
Michael King (2-0 4.19 ERA) vs. TBD as of Sunday evening.
Another member of the Padres rotation to join by way of blockbuster trade is the promising arm of righthander Michael King. King came to San Diego from the Yankees as part of the Juan Soto trade, and thus far, he’s put together some solid starts despite troubling peripherals. The 7.34 FIP is ominous, and it could portend that King is in urgent need of refining his game before his good luck on the mound runs out.

Players To Watch
Jake Cronenworth: Ever since coming up in the pandemic-shortened 2020 and unexpectedly coming in second for the Rookie Of The Year Award (tied with Alec Bohm), Cronenworth has proven himself a valuable asset in the Friars’ lineup. In the following two seasons, he made consecutive All-Star appearances, before taking a sizable step back in 2023. It seems like whatever was hampering Cronenworth has receded, as he’s come roaring out of the gates. It also feels worth mentioning that he’s a viable trade candidate, should the Padres (now under new ownership) fall out of contention, and his skill set could prove valuable to the Crew should they continue to dominate. That said, at 30, he’s already hovering around his likely peak, and he’s at the beginning of an extension that will see him paid well through 2030.

Jackson Merrill: With the abundance of top-tier talent traversing in and out of San Diego, it may have been easy to overlook the ascendent talent of shortstop prospect-***-center fielder Jackson Merrill. Drafted in the first round out of high school in 2021, Merrill’s quick rise through the minors has been an impressive one. Currently slashing .306/.404/.408 with decent defense, he’s second in WAR on the team, behind only Fernando Tatis Jr.

Sal Frelick: Eight days ago, Frelick was hovering just over the Mendoza line at .222, but it seems that the early season malaise that plagued his bat has broken, and he’s since authored several multi-hit games. If he can maintain this kind of production, his bat (combined with his defensive versatility) makes him a candidate for everyday play.

William Contreras: Come, and marvel at his almost inexplicable presence on the Brewers. That the Braves went out of their way to make a player of this caliber expendable feels incomprehensible. Yes, the framing numbers are down, and while that’s not ideal, it should be said that 2023’s defensive excellence was the outlier to this point in his career. It’s fairly easy to ignore those numbers, though, when you see a catcher slashing .365/.443/.615 and one dotting it in the OPS column.

Prediction
The Brewers aren’t just eking out wins against good teams and taking series against bad ones. They’re taking to task squads of bona fide excellence, and doing so on their own turf. That the Crew is at home is all the more reason for me to say that they take this series, winning two of three.