At the start of the year, the makeup of the Milwaukee Brewers screamed, “Fire Sale Coming! Be Ready To Buy In July!” No starters! All bullpen! One formerly great superstar! Injured!

But, somehow, even without a decent number-one pitcher, the Brewers kept winning games. They didn’t dominate, but so far they’ve done enough to be first in the National League Central and now Christian Yelich is back off the injured list.

How did they hold on long enough for Yelich to get back and did they even think Yelich would hit .321 when he got back? A huge reason is William Contreras, who is hitting .359 with six home runs, a .434 on-base percentage, and 61 hits in 43 games. He is a steal of a catcher at $766,900 considering he leads in most of the major offensive categories for catchers. Compared to Salvador Perez, Contreras is being paid $19.2 million less, while performing better than Perez and Contreras’ brother, Willson (hitting .380 this year, a three-time All-Star and 2016 World Series champion).

Speaking of Wilsons (with one “l”), Bryse Wilson is now the ace of the staff, after posting a 2.58 earned-run average as a reliever last year, and the owner of a 5.52 earned run average the last time he was a full-time starter. The Brewers don’t let him go deep into games, But while he is on the mound he averages five innings per start. His ERA is a run-and-a-half lower than the average of the second, third, and fourth starters: Colin Rea, Freddie Peralta, Joe Ross. Can he keep it up? Maybe. And if the others don’t fold, maybe the Brewers become buyers in July.

If Gary Sanchez is a solution to your problems, your problems are not being solved. Sanchez has long been a ham-handed defensive liability who is also a strikeout machine. He occasionally hits mistakes or the one pitch out of 10 that he guesses correctly is coming. Other than that, he’s great. That’s sarcasm. 

Brice Turand actually has been great. The second-year player has cut his strikeout to walk ratio and had just one error in 187 total chances at second base. Wilson Contreras  Rhys Hoskins taking some rips as a designated hitter makes sense until you consider the other first baseman on the team, Jake Bauers, is a .212 career hitter. 

Jackson Choirio might be the cornerstone of the future. Right now he’s hitting .228 with five home runs. 

On the mound, the biggest problem for the Brewers  is a lack of frontline starters. None of the eight starters with multiple starts has a career earned run average under four. The bullpen though looks solid: Hoby Milner (1.66 ERA), Elvis Peguero (3.15), and Bryan Hudson (0.71) are either going to lead this team or be trade bait very quickly. 

The Brewers have gone from a fire sale candidate to being on fire. It is possible that management might sell the pieces while values are high. Lets see if the Brewers can continue their success, continue to surprise the league, and maybe even make it to the World Series.

Original projection: 82-80

New projection: 91-71