AnySportAnyTime

Ryan Braun (Wikimedia Commons)

In one of the most intriguing divisions in baseball, you have four teams that have a legitimate chance of winning the division, and two teams that don’t.

The Milwaukee Brewers haven’t won a division title since winning the American League East in 1982. Under the direction of General Manager Doug Melvin of Chatham, Ontario, this year is as good as any for the Brewers to win the division crown.

Milwaukee enters the year with an outstanding nucleus of strong pitching and hitting. Prince Fielder, son of former Blue Jay Cecil Fielder, had 30+ home runs for the fourth straight year (32). I would like to see Fielder’s batting average rise a little, as it was at .261 a year ago. Ryan Braun is showing baseball fans he is an elite outfielder. Last year he had a .304 batting average with 25 home runs and 103 runs batted in. The Brewers are also anxious to get right fielder Corey Hart back in the lineup (.283, 31 HR, 102 RBIs). He may not start the season because of a strained oblique muscle.

The Brewers also made a blockbuster deal with the Blue Jays in the offseason. They acquired starting pitcher Shawn Marcum from Toronto for second base prospect Brett Lawrie of Burnaby, British Columbia. They also made another huge deal with the Kansas City Royals, acquiring Zack Greinke, the 2009 American League Cy Young Winner. The question marks for Marcum and Greinke are their health. Greinke is starting the year on the disabled list with a broken rib while playing basketball in February, while Marcum missed the 2009 season with Tommy John Surgery. If they are healthy for the majority of the year, Milwaukee will have an outstanding 1-2-3 punch that will include last year’s ace Yovani Gallardo (14-7, 200 K, 3.84 ERA).

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