7. Brewers competing in the NL Central
Entering the year, the Cubs were expected to dominate the National League Central. Chicago has baseball’s most talented roster, and aside from the Houston Astros, nobody else is that close.
Of course, the Cubs have underachieved. But entering the year, the Brewers were far from No. 2 in the division.
Milwaukee’s most notable player is, of course. Ryan Braun. He’s played reasonably well but has limited to only 30 games. Additionally, Jonathan Villar has followed up a career year in 2016 with a dismal 2017. Fortunately for the Brewers, plenty of teammates have picked up the slack for Braun and Villar.
Eric Thames has fallen off of his early season pace. But with 17 home runs and a .256/.396/.576, he’s still been one of baseball’s best first-half stories. Milwaukee’s offense has also been aided by strong starts from Domingo Santana, Travis Shaw and Hernan Perez.
Chase Anderson, meanwhile, has been a surprise of the starting rotation. He’s posted a 2.83 ERA and 1.19 WHIP with 71 strikeouts in 76.1 innings. Entering the year, he’d never had an ERA under 4.00. So, his performance has been unexpected.
Milwaukee is much like Minnesota. Given their flaws, it will be challenging for both teams to maintain the good play into the second half the season. But because of that, both are two of the biggest surprises that we’ve seen thus far.