GARY D'AMATO

D'Amato: Brewers appear to have everything ... except enough starting pitching

Gary D'Amato
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jimmy Nelson could bolster the rotation later in the year if he returns to form after shoulder surgery.

There are a million ways to win a baseball game. There is only one surefire way to win 90 games over the course of a major-league season: consistent starting pitching.

You can win a lot of games by outscoring other teams. You can steal runs on the base paths and save them in the outfield. A good closer can make a profound difference in a team’s record.

The Brewers would appear to check all those boxes.

But the only way to make it to the postseason is with effective starting pitching — if not one through five then at least with a dominant top two or three and a couple hold-down-the-fort types behind them.

Do the Brewers have enough with and behind Chase Anderson, Zach Davies and Jhoulys Chacin? They combined to go 42-23 last year (Chacin with San Diego), though few would call them dominant. For the 2018 team to have any chance to overtake the Chicago Cubs, those three will have to repeat their success and at least one other starter will have to surprise.

It didn’t help that Wade Miley, who was having a good spring, strained his groin eight days before the season opener.

The wild card is Jimmy Nelson. The Brewers should get him back mid-season, and if he is 80% of the pitcher who went 12-6 with a 3.49 ERA before suffering a torn labrum Sept. 8 in Chicago, it will be as if the team acquired a quality starter in a trade. But that’s a big if.

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One website ranked the Brewers’ rotation 17th in the majors, with two teams in their own division – the Cardinals (11th) and Cubs (sixth) – ranked ahead of them.

That doesn’t mean the Brewers won’t be fun to watch. And if everything falls perfectly, they stay healthy and get a little help, who knows?

Give general manager David Stearns a ton of credit for accomplishing the near-impossible by dramatically improving the roster year over year while simultaneously stockpiling the farm system, all on a comparative shoestring budget.

And although his record doesn’t show it – yet – I think Craig Counsell is one of the best managers in the game.

The Brewers open the season with a better lineup than the one that won 86 games last year. It’s probably as good as the team the Brewers put on the field in 2011, when they broke form to win a franchise-record 96 games and the National League Central title. But that team had Zack Greinke, an in-his-prime Yovani Gallardo and 13-game winners Randy Wolf and Shaun Marcum.

If the Brewers’ outfield isn’t the best in the game, it’s certainly among the deepest. The addition of free agent Lorenzo Cain and the trade for Christian Yelich showed that Stearns and owner Mark Attanasio believe the rebuild is well ahead of schedule. These were all-in moves.

With Ryan Braun and Domingo Santana in the mix, not to mention Brett Phillips and Keon Broxton in the wings, the Brewers have – barring a trade – six starting-caliber major-league outfielders at their disposal.

The left side of the infield is rock-solid with Travis Shaw at third base and Orlando Arcia at shortstop. The right side is less settled but Counsell has good options, depending on matchups, with Jonathan Villar, Eric Sogard and Hernán Pérez at second base and Braun and Eric Thames at first.

Last year, the Brewers were too reliant on the home run and finished 20th in the majors in runs scored (4.51 per game). Their offense dried up when they needed it most; they scored two or fewer runs 12 times in their last 37 games.

The additions of Cain and Yelich and the ever-improving Arcia all but guarantee a better offense this year. Counsell likes to run and has eight players who stole at least 10 bases in 2017 (and more than 700 combined in their careers).

It adds up to an exciting team, one that Brewers fans can be proud to cheer.

Now, if they can find one more starting pitcher …