Aside from their recently suspended and shamed left fielder, the Brewers were already having a disappointing year.  They seem to have some nice pieces in place, with both Carlos Gomez and Jean Segura making the All-Star team this year, and some proven veterans in Ryan Braun until recently, and Aramis Ramirez, but that still wasn’t enough to keep the Brewers out of the basement of the NL Central.  So with a decent amount of talent on the Brewers, let’s take a closer look at where the Brewers are struggling this year.

First of all, those proven veterans in Braun and Ramirez have both missed a large portion of the season this year due to injuries.  Braun missed a month from June into July with a thumb injury, and Ramirez was out for most of April and June, so they have only been in the lineup for the same time for one month this season.  Obviously, that isn’t about to change due to Braun’s suspension for the rest of this season.  Some of the other veterans in the lineup are having particularly down years in Rickie Weeks and Yuniesky Betancourt, who are both hitting near .200 on the season.  Despite the high performance of the two All-Stars, the rest of the lineup’s struggles have contributed to the Brewers ranking 24th in the majors in runs scored, and 23rd in on-base percentage.

The Brewers lineup is struggling, but with Braun eligible to return in in the beginning of next season, and the expectation that some of the veterans will rebound a little bit give them hope in the future.  The pitching staff however, could be a bigger problem.  Kyle Lohse is the only Brewers starter who is having a decent season this year with an ERA of 3.49, and a WHIP of 1.15, while the staff ace Yovani Gallardo is struggling with an ERA of 4.58 and a WHIP of 1.42.  The problem is, the lineup hasn’t been able to take advantage of Lohse’s starts as he only has a record of 6-7 this year.  The bottom half of the rotation has been having its issues too, as the Brewers have had to have ten pitchers start for the team so far.  The bullpen has been a bright spot of the team with several relievers having good seasons, but as they are expected to go into selling mode here pretty soon, few of them may be with team much longer, and Francisco Rodriguez has already been shipped off to Baltimore.

The Brewers are definitely going to need to upgrade their pitching somehow if they are going to contend in the future, and hope Gallardo comes back to his career numbers a bit.  I don’t think a coaching change is in order, since this will likely be Ron Roenicke’s first losing season with the club, but with the Cubs in full rebuilding mode, the Brewers need to finish better than last place in the division.  With a full healthy lineup including Braun next year, and an upgrade in the rotation, look for the Brewers to rebound in 2014 and compete a little better in one of the best divisions in baseball.