Milwaukee Brewers Spring Training Tickets - Preseason Overview

The Milwaukee Brewers return to action this season after winning a Wild Card birth in the 2008 playoffs. Normally you'd like to keep your 90-win team together for the most part, but for the Brewers' pitching staff this proved a hard task to accomplish. There are a lot of changes on defense heading into spring training, but the offense will be just as potent as ever.

Fans who get Milwaukee Brewers spring training tickets online and make the trek from Minneapolis to Maryvale Baseball Park in Phoenix, Arizona will see all the new players and take a special note of how the pitching situation works out. First, let's see where this team is coming from. 2008 was a year of highs and lows for the Brewers (but mostly highs), so we'll go over the highlights and lowlights before delving into the current situation facing the team heading into their spring training.

2008 Highlights
The Brewers were one of the best defensive teams in the league last season. As a team they were ranked No. 2 in the National League in ERA (3.87). They gave up the 4th fewest runs and the 5th fewest walks, yet they gave up an unusually large number of home runs. Ben Sheets had a wonderful year, ending with a 3.09 ERA, 13 wins and 158 strikeouts. When C.C. Sabathia joined the team he immediately became one of the best pitchers in the league, and even garnered serious consideration for the Cy Young in the NL, ultimately finishing 5th in the voting. C.C.'s ERA while with the Brewers was 1.65. As a team on offense, the Brewers were only middle-of-the-pack, although they were great from a slugging percentage standpoint. They finished with the third most home runs. Ryan Braun was an All-Star starter and hit 37 home runs.

2008 Lowlights
In the batting order Bill Hall had an off year, but his slowdown was overcome by the power in the thick of the order. Jeff Suppan has also been deteriorating with age. Perhaps the biggest blight on the roster was reliever-closer Eric Gagne, who was paid 10 million (the second most on the team) despite throwing just over 46 innings with a 5.44 ERA and 10 saves.

Spring Training and Future
As we mentioned earlier, the Brewers have had a real shakeup in the bullpen, and the starting pitching rotation got its head cut off. With C.C. Sabathia taking the money in New York, free agent and injury risk Ben Sheets either shipping out or riding the pine, Eric Gagne (a free agent) probably heading to the minors, Guillermo Mota signing with the Dodgers, Brian Shouse signing with Tampa Bay and Salomon Torres retiring, the Brewers not only have few recognizable names in their pitching staff, but few viable arms at all. Acquisitions like aging saves leader Trevor Hoffman, as well as Jorge Julio, might stop the bleeding.

David Bush will immediately shoot to the top two of the starting rotation. If you find some good Milwaukee Brewers spring training tickets you'll see lots of pitchers vying for spots on the roster. The offense didn't lose much, and the key cogs are still there. It looks like the Brewers will be a force in the NL Central, but without a few pitchers breaking loose for unbelievable seasons it's hard to see the Brewers being as good as they were last year. Expect that they'll try to land another pitcher or two before the start of the season. If their defense can hang in there, the Brewers should be able to slug their way to the top of their division.

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