5 Things to Hope For in a Brewers New Year, Part 5

The thrilling conclusion to my five part series. This one took me longer to get to than I expected. The "new year" theme is a little tired considering it's mid-February, but I figured it's better late than never.

 5. Another exciting year in the outfield

5 Things to Hope For in a Brewers New Year, Part 4

The fourth of five parts.

4. A strong full season from Jean Segura

5 Things to Hope For in a Brewers New Year, Part 3

Part three of five.

 2. An improved bullpen

5 Things to Hope For in a Brewers New Year, Part 2

Part two of five in a series for the new year.

5 Things to Hope For in a Brewers New Year, Part 1

With the new year upon us I've come up with a list of five things, in no particular order, to hope for from the Brewers in 2013. I will serially publish each post over the next week or so.

Brewers Face Pivotal July

Thus far the 2012 Brewers have underperformed and, aside from stellar performances by Ryan Braun, Norichika Aoki and Zack Greinke, underwhelmed, to say the least. Although at times blame has been placed on the hitters and starting pitchers, the main problem has been the bullpen. Blown leads, blown saves, and altogether shoddy work have been the orders of the day far too frequently, and each reliever has an ERA of at least 4.06. Much of the finger-pointing finds its way toward John Axford, though in my opinion he's still the best available option in the bullpen and should remain the closer for the time being.

Despite the fact that it feels like every other day another game is lost by the bullpen, the Brewers have mostly tread water right around five games below .500. Sporting a losing record for each of the first three months of the season, they sit seven games back of the first place Pittsburgh Pirates(!), six behind the Reds, and 5.5 behind the Cardinals in the NL Central. Many now figure the Brewers to be sellers at the trade deadline and rumors have started to swirl, particularly regarding Zack Greinke.

My Take on Ryan Braun

I felt it important to publish my thoughts on this issue before the regular season begins, even if I'm late to the party. Warning: this is my longest and most thoughtful post yet.

Personally I don't think Ryan Braun is a cheater. He's simply been too consistent over the course of his career, is too smart, and has passed too many drug tests for me to think he increased his performance through performance enhancing drugs last year, or even sought to do so. I do think, though, that he violated MLB's anti-drug policy through abnormal levels of synthetic testosterone.