Brewers Are Being Disrespected by Their 2020 MLB Win Total

In 2019, the Milwaukee Brewers came four outs shy of knocking the eventual World Series Champion Washington Nationals out in the NL Wild Card game. That collapse was a disappointing ending to an otherwise successful 89-win campaign for the Brewers, who took the NL Wild Card by three games over the New York Mets.

Behind superstar Christian Yelich and a brilliant bullpen headlined by Josh Hader, the Brewers have put together a strong two-year stretch. However, the Brewers' win total has been set at just 83.5 games for 2020, according to Fanduel Sportsbook.

The Brewers did lose some key pieces from the 2019 team to free agency in Yasmani Grandal, Drew Pomeranz, and Mike Moustakas, but they made several moves to replace them with significant contributors. Outfielder Trent Grisham was traded to the San Diego Padres for shortstop Luis Urias and starting pitcher Eric Lauer. The Brewers were able to make this move because of the rise of second baseman Keston Hiura, who impressed by hitting .938 OPS in the majors last year.

The Brew Crew also acquired catcher Omar Narváez from the Seattle Mariners, who hit .278/.353/.460 and was worth 1.8 fWAR last year. Overall, Milwaukee's offense looks just as good the 2019 version. It's anchored by Christian Yelich, who proved his 2018 MVP season was no fluke, improving his OPS from 1.000 to an even more ridiculous 1.100.

In the bullpen, the Brewers still have Hader and the underrated Brent Suter, who allowed only 1 ER over 18.1 innings last season. While the Brewers could still use more pitching help, they have made the playoffs the last two seasons behind the same formula of strong bullpens and starters that have success in the first two trips through the order.

Pitchers like Adrien Houser and Brandon Woodruff are underrated, and the Brewers also signed Josh Lindblom from South Korea to bolster the staff. Milwaukee has also repeatedly found bullpen talent from unlikely sources—just look at Drew Pomeranz, who went from the scrap heap to getting a multi-year deal as a reliever last year.

To beat their win total, the Brewers don't need to make the playoffs, they just need to go four games over .500. Given their recent ability to manufacture elite pitching talent and the offensive ability already on this roster, it's hard to see them being more than five games worse than last year.

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Tristan Jung is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Tristan Jung also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username tristan1117. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.