Wily Peralta
The Milwaukee Brewers open their 47th season in Milwaukee on Monday afternoon, as their youngest roster in years goes up against the San Francisco Giants at Miller Park.
Right-hander Wily Peralta takes the mound for the Brewers and faces Giants’ left-hander Madison Bumgarner. In eight career starts against the Brewers, Bumgarner is 5-2 with a 1.96 ERA, including a 2-0 record with a 1.66 ERA in three appearances in Milwaukee.
The Brewers got a jump-start last summer on a long-term rebuilding plan, and seven of their 25 players are on a Major League Opening Day roster for the first time, Colin Walsh, Domingo Santana, Taylor Jungmann, Ramon Flores, Ariel Pena, Yadiel Rivera and Keon Broxton.
Pena was awarded the final bullpen spot on Sunday, while Broxton and Kirk Niewenhuis were given the final two outfield jobs.
Fifteen Brewers were not on last year’s Opening Day roster, and Milwaukee only has three position regulars from last season (Ryan Braun, Jonathan Lucroy, Scooter Gennett).
One thing is certain, if fans didn’t pay a lot of attention to the Brewers in the spring and they’re headed to Miller Park for Opening Day today, they might want to buy a program to figure out who is who.
While the Brewers are in a rebuild, they still want to win as many games as possible. What they’d also like to avoid is a 100-loss season. That means they need to win at least 63 games this year, to avoid the century mark.