Surprise! It's a mid-week episode of Microbrew, where host JR Radcliffe is joined by Spencer Michaelis of Brewer Fanatic to get a full deep dive on the state of the Brewers highly regarded minor-league system. That includes several players in spring training this year and players who will contribute mightily over the next two years.

They discuss what traits allow the Brewers to shine, the shift from a pitching haven to a hitters paradise, the reasons we should be stoked for Jesús Made and Luis Peña, a trio of future (or present?) third-base options, the players most likely to impact the team in 2026, the best pitchers in the organization now that Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson are with the big-league team, the breakout stars in waiting, whom we're likely to see if we visit High A in Appleton and a few guys still below your radar. For now.

We'll be back Monday morning with our usual episode focusing on the big-league team.

The Baseball Prospectus PECOTA rankings believe the Brewers will finish around .500 and well behind the Cubs. Even though the Brewers won 97 games last year and bring back a ton of the same players. So why does the projection system have such a relatively low opinion of the Brewers (and not for the first time)? Jonathan Judge, the modeling guru of the PECOTA rankings, stops by (31:30) to discuss what his projection system looks for, why it prefers the Cubs so much more than the Brewers, which players are poised for a surprising year (good and bad) and why the Brewers have been able to overperform these rankings in the past. But also, perhaps there's some reason for concern?

Before that, Brewers reporter Todd Rosiak discusses the extension for manager Pat Murphy, the status of Trevor Megill in the context of the Milwaukee bullpen and what he's seen - if anything - through the first couple days of actual games. We also get an update on the Maryvale Cat, plus uniform takes! 

Didn't see that coming, did you? The Milwaukee Brewers made a surprise trade Feb. 9, sending breakout third baseman Caleb Durbin to the Boston Red Sox along with his primary backups (Anthony Seigler and Andruw Monasterio) for pitchers Kyle Harrison, Shane Drohan and infielder David Hamilton. What in the world is going on? The Brewers don't have any third basemen!

Brewers reporter Curt Hogg and host JR Radcliffe re-convened for an emergency look at the motivation behind the move, the players Milwaukee is getting in return and what options remain at the hot corner.