What in hell's name is up with the Brewers?

The Milwaukee Brewers are the hottest team in baseball, and no one can stop them. After their 4-1 win over the Pirates this afternoon, their record sits at 10-2 with a current 9 game win streak. Where did this come from? They've scored 57 runs, while just letting up 29; that's almost twice as many runs scored as allowed! To what should we attribute this hot start? Let's break it down.

Hitting

Carlos Gomez

This is a man with a plan. After last year's (supposed) coming-out party, he looked ready to build off it with additional protection in the lineup. But he looks like a completely different player. Up until the beginning of this year, he had averaged less than 14 homers per 162 games. Then again, it happened to Granderson. It happened to Ellsbury. Could Gomez be next? Through twelve games in 2014, he is on pace for (an incredibly unrealistic) 54 homers. No one has hit more than that since Ryan Howard hit 58 in 2006. While his level of production is much higher than career norms, it is not unusual for someone of his profile to make a jump like this. Even more assuring is that he is actually hitting fewer balls in the air compared to his career average. Once that number comes back up, we may see even more big flies. Watch carefully, but an early MVP candidate if he can keep it up.

Jonathan Lucroy

Another guy entering his prime with nothing to lose. 2012 was Lucroy's best year, but he only got 316 at bats that year thanks to a platoon with Martin Maldonado. When Lucroy took over the full-time role last year, everyone had high expectations. Unfortunately, his production fell across the board, and was a good (but not great, as everyone was hoping) catcher. This year he is proving everyone that believed in him throughout the 2013 season right, current posting what would be career highs in batting average, on-base, and slugging. Given his age, 28, it looks like this might also be legitimate improvement and here to stay.

Ryan Braun

Not really much surprise here. He has returned to pre-scandal form. His OBP is actually pretty low, so look for him to improve a little.

Mark Reynolds, Aramis Ramirez

HERE is where it gets interesting. At 35 years old, Aramis is well over the hump, and would theoretically be worse this year. His OPS is 26 points higher and his batting average is an amazing 94 POINTS HIGHER than his career marks. This shouldn't continue, and if it does, critics everywhere will be shouting "steroids." Reynolds is a different story. Given a normal age curve, he should be in the prime of his career (he's only 3 months older than Braun). According to previous research, though, his "type," the single-dimensional slugger first-baseman, doesn't age well. This is quite a conundrum when trying to determine whether to buy or sell this early prduction. For both of these players, age seemed to be taking its toll, but maybe they both have a little left in the tank.

Pitching

For pitching, I am going to group everyone together, because it's pretty easy to see what's going on. Pitchers are simply not letting runners on base. All five starting pitchers are putting up career lows in WHIP, and that statistic only has a year-to-year correlation of .442 (FanGraphs), meaning that only 44.2% of WHIP production is repeatable AKA skill-based. For a measure that is so closely linked to success to be highly based on random chance means that WHIP will fluctuate a great deal year-to-year. Bottom line: the Brewers' pitchers are getting lucky. It's not to say that this level of production will not continue. Only that it doesn't really mean they've all made leaps forward, and you shouldn't pick up every Brewers starting pitcher in your fantasy league.

Better Late Than Never

So I guess it's been a while, hasn't it? I really haven't had the time to come on here and write, but I'm going to give it another go, and see if I can. This post is basically going to be a catch-up on what I have been doing for the past year, since I haven't been writing, and then we'll start some actual stuff next time.

Hey look! The text here looks a little different than the rest. I've been trying to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the past couple of weeks, but I will lay off it for the sake of your eyes. So far it is going alright, but it is a little intimidating. I figured I might as well try to add another weapon to my arsenal of skills.

I also went to the PBEO Job Fair at the Baseball Winter Meetings in Orlando last December. It was an amazing experience, where I got to meet so many people that are very important in the baseball world. Through there, I got a job working for a team during spring training and for the single-A team that plays there during the regular season. I plan on going this coming December when it will be in San Diego. I will be graduating around that time, so I will be looking for a full time job (so if you have a position open, let me know!).

I have been excelling in my classes this semester, and while it is not over, I think it might be my best semester yet in terms of grades. I have enjoyed my Business Intelligence and Analytics class as much, if not more than I though I would. Through that class, I have been able to finally confirm that I want to be a data analyst for a major league team. Most of the careers that I thought I wanted to do ended up being terrible fits for me, but I have finally found the perfect one (I think).

Well that's about it for now. I will try to write every day, but we all know how hard it is to do anything every day.

Game 3: Good, Not Great, Debut for Dempter

So the Red Sox finally lose a game. It took six months and a day, but the mighty Red Sox finally went down. I thought it might keep going, but then again, nothing lasts forever. Even the offseason.

What we saw was an OK Ryan Dempster with a stagnant offense. We won the previous game when letting up four runs, but the offense couldn't come through this time. I'll give props to the Yankees' pitchers last night, whose average age was 41.5 years old. I didn't know it was "Turn Back The Clock Night" at Yankee Stadium, but I guess Pettitte and Rivera had their own ideas. Lets just hope that this is a blip in the road, and the offense can keep producing at a high level for the rest of the season.

Dempster didn't really give us a clear idea of who he is going to be in Boston. Last year, with the Cubs, he was a great, bordering on elite, pitcher. When he switched over to the American League with the Rangers, he became a terrible, borderline Minor League, pitcher. Last night, he was kind of half way through. He gave up the lead early, but there was not too much bleeding after that.

Game 2: Jose Iglesias Quietly Shines Again

While it is obviously not a large sample size for the year, it looks like former "Shortstop of the Future" might be back to the current "Shortstop of the Future." After two impressive days in the field (as expected) and at the plate (very not expected), Jose Iglesias is looking like the player we thought he could possibly become.

Many thought (me included) that these first couple of days without Stephen Drew would feature stellar defense and a batting average between .050 and .100. But while it's not powerful, the contact is all there. He is 5 for 9 through two games, with four singles and a double. While it's unlikely he'll maintain a .556 batting average for the year, it looks like we may have underestimated Iglesias. As long as there is some offensive production, he is well worth it for the glove at short, and I would keep him in over a healthy Stephen Drew.

Game 1: Starting the Season off Right

The Boston Red Sox may not win the AL East this year, may not even make the playoffs, but you better start breaking out the sunglasses. "Why's that?" you may ask. Because the future looks bright. Very bright. Iglesias came through with a surprising three singles on his first opening day game. JBJ also came up big by getting on base twice, scoring once and driving in another. For an 8-9 combo with an average age of 22.5, I'd say that's alright. All in all, the Red Sox executed to perfection, and we came away with the first win on the season.

Positional Rankings - 1B

This is a new outlook on the rankings that usually go on before a season starts. I want to look at who's the best of the best right now, who has the greatest potential to be part of that group, and who may have been part of that group at one point but is now falling off the table. I will call these groups "The Best," "The Next," and "The Fading."

The Best 5
1. Albert Pujols
2. Adrian Gonzalez
3. Prince Fielder
4. Joey Votto
5. Mark Teixiera

The top spot still belongs to Pujols, and will for a long time to come. Despite his advancing age, he remains the epitome of hard work and preparation. Also, if you don't know of his story, please check this out. You might have a good chuckle at your own team for missing him back in the day. Adrian Gonzalez is not going to relinquish his spot on this list just because one shaky year. He is still has the best glove at 1B, and even if his homerun numbers drop a little, he will always be an on-base machine. Fielder gets the third spot because he will put up massive numbers batting after the reining AL MVP. From his own mouth, Mark Teixeira's best years are almost behind him. Joey Votto, on the other hand, is only going up.

The Next 5
1. Chris Davis
2. Freddie Freeman
3. Mark Trumbo
4. Paul Goldschmidt
5. Anthony Rizzo

Last year was Chris Davis's coming out party, along with most of the Baltimore Orioles team. The reason I put him on the "next" list is because I still think he can do better. Freddie Freeman has teetered on the edge of greatness, but because of the other star power at 1B and with the Braves, hasn't totally broken out. Mark Trumbo is the same way for me. He's hit 61 homeruns in his first two seasons, but has been greatly overshadowed by the other stars on the Angels. Also, his position is with much uncertainty, so even though he will be the DH this year, I still put him here (because where else do I put him??). Goldschmidt gets looked over, I feel, because of where he plays, and maybe a little because of his name. A solid producer last year for the D-Backs, he has the potential to be a gold mine with 25-35 homeruns for the next 10 years. Ever since he was a farm hand with the Red Sox, he has been touted as the next greatest first baseman in the majors. And maybe the talk has been louder than the production to this point, but in only a half-season last year, he put up 15 HR with a .805 OPS. Look out for him to explode soon.

The Fading 5
1. Ryan Howard
2. Lyle Overbay
3. Lance Berkman
4. Paul Konerko
5. Adam Lind

It is really too bad about Ryan Howard. He won the Rookie of the Year and MVP in back to back years, and he was seemingly on the top of the world. Ever since then, though, he has been fading little by little from the upper echelons of baseball stardom. Though you can attribute last year's struggles to injury, that has to be a concern going forward. Now maybe it was just me, but it seems that Lyle Overbay just fell off the face of the earth all of a sudden until surfacing this offseason with the Red Sox. It was just in 2010 that he had his last 20 homerun season. Berkman's 2011 revival looks to be a fluke now. It was a nice story while it lasted, but this is probably his last season in baseball. The revival happened a year earlier for Paul Konerko, in 2010, but now it looks like he's on the steady fall down. Will still produce this year, but I would give him a max of 20 homeruns. Adam Lind's career appears to have been super accelerated. At the age of 26, he had a career year, finishing 15th in the MVP voting. For the three years following, though, he had an OPS+ in the 90's and hit a new low last year with only 11 homeruns. Oh yeah, he's still only 29. Hopefully he can fix something, but he may get overshadowed this year with all the new talent in Toronto.

Spring Fling: Preview

I will be spending much of my Spring Break following the Red Sox around, keeping you all up to date on the happenings and whatnot. While I am down there, I will have many questions and situations that I will be exploring in anticipation of the upcoming baseball season. If YOU have any questions you would like to be answered or looked into first-hand, please write them in the comments or shoot me a quick email.