My pitching coach in high school used to tell me to forget everything.

Be it the previous pitch, batter, inning, game, or even season, the best mindset to have in baseball is a forgetful one. If everything is going well, it is important not to get ahead of yourself, or to let the pressure get to you. If things are going poorly, forgetting the negatives will lead to the performance a player knows they can provide.

It seems that Christian Yelich has a similar mindset going into Spring Training 2019.  “Anything that happened last year, whether it was good or bad, whether guys had great seasons or bad seasons, it doesn’t mean anything this year,” Yelich told an MLB.com reporter.  “Everyone starts with a clean slate.  We’re all building from the bottom all the way up, and we all have that common goal in mind.  All your time and energy is focused on that…. It’s about 2019 and what we have to accomplish as a team.”

Unfortunately, that mindset doesn’t exist for the fans.  It will be extremely difficult not to make comparisons between 2019 and the incredible season they gave us last year.  Moreover, there is a belief among fans that we should be able to dig just as deep this season.  Don’t get me wrong, pessimism runs as deep in Brewer Country as is does anywhere, but this time it feels different.

Primarily, there really have not been many significant roster changes this year. Excluding the potential of losing fan-favorite Mike Moustakas to free agency and some usual shuffling of the pitching staff, the team that made a deep run last year is basically same. Perhaps I don’t pay close enough attention, but it has felt like an eternity since the Crew had a consistent roster.

Next, Brewers fans are some of the best in the league.  If you are not convinced that fans matter to the players, read Yelich’s piece in the Player’s Tribune from last season.

Furthermore, similar to the Bucks across town, the Crew were floundering at the bottom of the division only a few years prior.

However, one of the major differences between the two is the fact that ticket sales are not really affected by poor performance.  Average attendance has remained relatively stagnant over the years, while Bucks tickets were practically being given away when they were in a similar rut.

Simply put, the stars have aligned to reign glory down upon Milwaukee this year. The Bucks are on the right track to fulfill their destiny, but the pressure is always on the Brewers to get through the grueling 162-game season to follow suit.

The players are hungry to get a chance to finish what they started last season, and even though the Crew have a history of plummeting to low finishes after reaching the playoffs, this year should be different.