The playoffs are in full swing for both the NBA and NHL, and with football still months away, Major League Baseball will soon be the only “Big Four” sport in action.
To be fair, so the MLS season has been underway since February, and no disrespect to them, but when we think summer, we think baseball. Especially in Wisconsin.
Heading into the season, Milwaukee was expected to win just 78.5 games in 2024, which would amount to a losing season. And yet, since Opening Day on March 29, the Brewers have come out of the gate hot, winning 20 out of 33 games and, at the time of this writing, sitting atop the National League Central standings.
Time to hop on that bandwagon while there’s still room! For fans new and old, here are the players (and fan) to watch for:
In December 2022, backstop William Contreras was part of a three-team trade that sent him from the reigning World Series champion Atlanta Braves team, where he had played the first three years of his career, to the Brewers, where he has since become a beloved part of the roster.
Earlier this month, Fox Sports’ Deesha Tosar called Contreras the best catcher in baseball, and it’s hard to argue with that take. After 33 games, he was leading the team in hits, runs, doubles and RBIs. Contreras has also been greatly improving his defensive skills during his short time with the Brew Crew, making his acquisition in 2022 even more of a steal.
Arriving from Miami in a trade following the 2017 season, Christian Yelich went on to make an immediate impact, playing in the 2018 All-Star Game and bringing the Brewers their first batting title in franchise history — taking MVP honors home in the process.
In the time since, he’s become a fixture in Milwaukee, and he was off to a hot start this year, hitting .333 over 11 games before falling to a back sprain in mid-April.
Yelich’s absence has left a gaping hole in the Brewers’ lineup, so fans took notice in early May when he finally began to take batting practice on the field with his teammates, signaling that he may return without needing to go to Nashville for a rehab assignment in the minors.
