The Milwaukee Brewers are in first place 5.5 games up in the NL Central, and sit at 41-23.
The Milwaukee Brewers have been really good at taking homegrown pieces from the farm and melding them with yearly trade acquisitions and free agents to keep the roster above average for the better part of a decade. Their only sub .500 season since 2016 was the shortened Covid season.
The Milwaukee Brewers are finding a way to do it this season despite getting absolutely no offensive production from the entire left side of their infield.
So you’d think that if the Brewers weren’t getting any production on offense, they must be playing stellar defense over there on the left side of that infield? Well, one out of the three guys manning those spots is. The other two have been defensive liabilities.
So if the Milwaukee Brewers want to make the team better to prepare for a postseason run and maybe compete in a playoff series with the Dodgers for a change, they need to upgrade those spots.
Whole lotta chatter, but who are we talking about here? Well, the Brewers’ left side has been manned the entire season by three players. Luis Rengifo has gotten the most play manning third base almost every day. Joey Ortiz has been the weak side platoon at shortstop, and David Hamilton has gotten the strong side platoon reps. Both have filled in for Rengifo at 3B as well.
Defensively, Joey Ortiz has been the bright spot with 6 outs above average recorded. Rengifo has been slightly below average at -2, and David Hamilton has been one of the worst performers in the majors at -7.
You know the offense hasn’t been there because I told you so in the third paragraph above. How bad has it been?
They have a combined 521 Plate Appearances and 463 At-bats between the three of them. About the only good thing they do as a group is plate discipline, having walked 58 times and only striking out 16.5% of the time. Besides that…Combined .213 BA, 4 Home Runs, 21 Stolen Bases. Fourteen of the stolen bases are from Hamilton. That’s not going to get it done in October.
The best thing the Brewers can do is get some of their young players up now and adjusted to major league pitching, and they’ve set themselves up to do so with the Freddy Peralta trade for Jett Williams and homegrown Cooper Pratt. (Side-note: Luis Lara has made the biggest steps for the Brewers at AAA, but OF is a little more blocked up in Milwaukee)
I expect the Brewers will call one of them up after June 16th (The first day free agents can be traded in the first year of their contracts) and either trade or DFA Rengifo. It’s possible they also call both of them up and send Ortiz down. Either way, I’m stashing both guys here this week as we come into that deadline. Williams profiles to play more at third base as Pratt has been exclusively working at shortstop. My guess is Pratt comes first, and the Hamilton/Ortiz platoon moves over to 3B.
So what do they bring to the table?
At only age 21, Cooper Pratt brings excellent plate discipline with a 13.5% BB rate and a 14.7% K-rate. He has five Home Runs and sixteen Stolen Bases this far in 241 Plate Appearances at AAA. Is he a huge upgrade at this point, with his power not having filled in yet? Not really, but he is very much what we preach here in these articles – SAGNOF! Steals and Saves Ain’t Got No Face. If there is any organization in baseball where they’ll call a guy up and play him and let him run it is the Milwaukee Brewers. It’s the perfect SAGNOF situation.
Williams is slightly older at 22 and getting his second taste of AAA pitching this season. His walk rate is also really good at 13.4%, but he whiffs a little more with a 21.9% K-Rate. In 269 Plate Appearances, he also has five Home Runs to go with twelve Stolen Bases on the season.
Are either of these guys going to be elite when called up? Probably not. They will, however, be upgrades for the Brewers, and they will be SAGNOF for Fantasy Baseball.
Here’s this week’s Stolen Bases Leaderboard
The Speed Dials
Real quick picks this week because I am running out of time. Youth sports are awesome, but boy, do they take a lot of time. Hit one of two last week and are now 2 for 10 on the season, correctly predicting Stolen Base streamers on exact days.
Wednesday, June 10th – Twins vs Tigers
Luke Keaschall – His ownership has come down, but he is still running enough to make me want him, especially on days facing Framber Valdez, who allows 89.5% of opposing runners to succeed.
Thursday, June 11th – Rockies vs Cubs
Jake McCarthy – #7 in MLB in sprint speed vs the guy in Edward Cabrera, who has allowed the second most stolen bases since the start of 2024. Yes please.
As always, if you’re looking for anything further out for next week, where we don’t have exact pitching match-ups, hit me up here or on Twitter @TheGreatKnoche
