Roster and Concessions Turnover for Brewers in 2023

All photos of 2023 Brewers Home Opener available on Flickr.

I attended my 14th consecutive (excluding Covid-impacted seasons) Brewers Home Opener with Megan yesterday in what amounted to one of the more exciting regular season experiences I've had at AmFam Field in a number of years.  It was about as "average" of an April weather day as you could ask for as we left our house around 11:00, with 45-degree cloudy skies and on-and-off rain showers.  In a way it feels weird that we haven't tailgated much since we moved within a mile of the ballpark, but I will also say that the ceremony of the procession to to the ballpark on Opening Day is unmatched and is something you miss from just waiting in line to get into a parking lot.

Opening Day always comes with its standard fanfare and pomp given what the game represents, and for the last several years there has also been a lot of hype over new concessions offerings which I'll get to in a bit.  But this year also had the added layer of the roster turnover.  The Brewers have a crop of young positional prospects that are finally starting to make waves at the big league level, the likes of which has not been seen in nearly 20 years when guys like Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, JJ Hardy, Ryan Braun, and others were all getting promoted for a sustained period of success.  It's been a remarkably pitching-heavy farm system for most of Craig Counsell's tenure as manager, but now that tide is slowly starting to turn back to hitting.  At the same time that the long term futures of homegrown rotation aces Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff hang in the balance, and with an almost completely revamped bullpen, we have some stability hopefully forthcoming with who the Brewers have dubbed "The Freshmen" - middle infielder Brice Turang, and outfielders Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick, and Joey Weimer.  Mitchell was the first one who got a bit of a taste at the end of last year, Turang made the opening day roster as a 2nd baseman, and Weimer joined shortly thereafter for Game 2.  They have all made a huge impact already this year with something the Brewers have not had for as long as I can remember - SPEED.  These kids can flat out run, not only in terms of sheer sprint speed, but baserunning, on-field awareness, and just in general HUSTLE.  Homeruns and steals are the sexy stats that show up in a scorebook, but things going 1st to 3rd on a single, outfield assists, running down fly balls, and legging out routine grounders to 2nd, are what endear you to the front office, the manager, and most importantly the fans.  It's a roster that has me equally if not more excited than any of our playoff teams over the last few years and I can't wait to see what they can all do over the course of an entire season, in what might amount to our last real chance to win it all for awhile.  It's scary to think Frelick is still in AAA and I have not even mentioned the #8 prospect in all of baseball, Jackson Chourio, so this lineup will in theory only get better in 2024.  Sadly, one disappointing part of the roster that I need to mention is that Keston Hiura did not make the team.  Fortunately he cleared waivers so he is still with the organization in AAA, and I know I speak for all Brewers fans when I say that I'm rooting for him to figure his swing out.

Moving from the roster turnover to the concessions turnover, there are two major changes to the ballpark this year in terms of vendors.  One is J. Leinenkugel's Barrel Yard in the left field corner.  This occupies what was originally a TGIFriday's when the park opened, and was semi-remodeled as "Restaurant to be Named Later" the last few years.  Well, it is now officially "later," and from what I saw, it was worth the wait.  The former lackluster, unmemorable restaurant space has transformed into a brewpub for Wisconsin's own Leinenkugel's, one of the largest and oldest craft breweries in the nation.  It features a small pilot brewery that will actually brew a few beers on site that will only be available at the ballpark, including the resurrection of long dormant favorites like Leinie's Red and Northwoods Amber.  The fact that a city with the beer heritage it has - with a team named the BREWERS for God's sake - did not have any sort of space like this until now is atrocious.  It reminded me a lot of the Terrapin Brewery inside of Truist Park in Atlanta, and is on par with other similar brewery type spaces in other major league parks.  They gave away souvenir aluminum cups on Opening Day which of course Megan and I acquired, and I'm excited to actually eat there as well at some point in the future.  We have tickets with my brother and sister-in-law at one of the outside tables for a game in September and I can't wait.  The second, more minor change is that the Brewers are finally spending money on decent food in the club level.  For the life of me I never understood why the biggest private area in the stadium had the fewest number of food options, but that has now been rectified with a local restaurant coming in and supplying a new menu.  I don't think the new menu items are quite as good as the other levels of the stadium (who similarly have restaurant-inspired menus), but anything would have been an improvement.  Megan and I both had the muffuletta - which was tasty - but the rosemary ham panini looked incredible and we will definitely be getting that next time we have tickets up there.

After devouring our sammiches and 22oz Leinies, we took in the opening ceremony and player introductions, which sadly did not include any of the Attanasio family for the first time since Mark bought the team.  I'm not sure if I should be reading into that, but it just made it feel like they forgot about Opening Day this year.  We then settled in for a wild 10-0 victory over one of the favorites to win the NL Pennant, the New York Mets.  The Crew chased Carlos Carrasco in the 5th and proceeded to ruin reliever Tommy Hunter's day, plating 7 runs in the inning, the parting shot of which was Brice Turang's grand slam for his first career homerun!  Unfortunately Megan and I were taking a lap around the stadium at that time, but it sent the entire 42,000+ in attendance into a frenzy and it was so cool to be there for that moment.  Fun fact: prior to Turang, the last Brewer to salami for his first career HR was none other than Shaun Marcum - hey, remember when pitchers used to hit?

I've got a full slate on the ballpark chasing front this year, and it should be another competitive year for the Brewers, so stay tuned and Go Crew!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/4/23:

Brewers 3-1; 3 v. Mets, 3 v. Cardinals, 3 @ Diamondbacks

Twins 4-0; 3 @ Marlins, 3 v. Astros, 3 v. White Sox

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 1