The Milwaukee Brewers had a terrific season in 2023 that saw them win the NL Central division, and the Brewers are hoping to repeat that success in 2024. Repeating as division champs isn't an easy task, but Milwaukee thinks that they can do it.
Last year, the Brewers finished the regular season with a 92-70 record and they finish nine games ahead of the second place team in the NL Central, the Chicago Cubs. Milwaukee was swept in the first round of the playoffs unfortunately, but they are hoping to repeat their regular season success so they can avenge that poor playoff performance.
“You know, I hesitate to say this,” Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said, according to an article from USA Today. “But there was a team that was widely picked to win last year that finished 21 games behind us. And we finished nine games ahead of the Cubs last year. So, I appreciate the friendly competition and we're just going to focus on what we need to do game-by-game.”
Mark Attanasio made these comments shortly after the Cubs owner, Tom Ricketts, said that Chicago was the favorite to win the division. Last season, the Cardinals were the favorite, and they didn't come close to the top of the standings.
Attanasio knows that the division is going to be good this season and he knows it'll be hard to win, but he sounds confident in his Brewers.
“Look, I think the division is clearly better this year,” Attanasio continued. “We talk about our young players, the Cubs have a ton of great young players. And the Cardinals are always good. They ran into some bad luck last year, among other things. The Reds have maybe the most exciting young players on the field of anyone, including us at this point, and the Pirates have gotten better. So, I think it'll be a fun division this year because it'll be more competitive division this year. …I think competition is good for baseball and even for the playoff format, with the teams that have the runaway trains in their division, there's ways you can get into the playoffs. And that's good for baseball.”
The Brewers have the same goal as every team in the MLB. They want to win the World Series, and Milwaukee is a team that has never accomplished that goal. For an owner that can't stand losing, that's hard.
“I hate to lose,” Attanasio added. “I really hate to lose….I never imagined how hard this would be. But I made a commitment to always being competitive. And that's hard to do when sort of paradigm is to go all in to win and then rebuild. I never really wanted to rebuild. …Everybody uses a euphemism to say that they're not trying. I always want to try so I don't want to use these euphemisms. And the problem is you don't know that you're going to win. Just because you take a step back doesn't mean you're going to take two steps forward. So we're always trying to move forward.”
Attanasio knows that his team is close, and he is looking forward to when the Brewers finally get over the hump. If it's going to happen this year, it sounds like some young players are going to need step up.
“We’ve had a significant winning tradition where the last eight years we’re one of the best three teams in the National League,” Attanasio said. “And since I bought the club in 20005, we’re one of the four-best that gets disregarded in the national media. We have an expectation to win this year and we will have a lot of young players who will have their first real opportunity to shine in the major leagues, and we’ll see who seizes that opportunity. There are a lot of guys in that clubhouse who have significant ceiling and who we think will be big contributors to us.”
The Brewers have a lot of young talent in the organization, but none of it means anything unless they succeed with that young talent.
“We don't get to hang a banner in the outfield for having the No. 2 farm system in baseball, but we do get to do is hang banners for winning,” Attanasio said. “In my tenure, we have seven now for playoff appearances, division championships and whatnot. We don’t have the real one we want, which is a World Series championship, but we’ve been knocking on the door.”
We'll see if this is the year that the Brewers can get over the hump. Mark Attanasio is confident that his team will have a successful season.
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