The Numbers

2001 record: 68-94, .420 (tied for 23rd overall) 2001 expected record*: 69-93 Runs scored: 740, 11th in NL Runs allowed: 806, 11th in NL: Run differential: -66 (21st overall) Starters' ERA: 5.12, 13th in NL Bullpen ERA: 3.88, tied for 4th in NL Payroll (Opening Day): $43.1 million (23rd overall) Local broadcast revenue: $5.9 million (29th overall) Attendance: 2.811 million (13th overall) 3-year record: 215-270, .443 (tied for 24th overall) 5-year record: 367-441, .454 (23rd overall) * based on runs scored and runs allowed

2001 in review
What went right?
The Brewers opened their new ballpark, Miller Park, and were in the top half of the majors in attendance. The Brewers were third in the NL in home runs with 209. Richie Sexson reached career highs in runs (94), hits (162), homers (45) and RBI (125). Rookie Ben Sheets tied with Jamey Wright for the team lead in wins with 11.

What went wrong
The Brewers finished with a losing record for the ninth consecutive year and led the majors with a whopping 1,399 strikeouts, 126 more than the next closest team (San Diego, 1,273). Jose Hernandez (185) and Sexson (178) finished 1-2 in the NL in strikeouts. After an impressive 2000 campaign, Jeff D'Amico struggled through an injury-filled season (2-4, 6.08). Jeffrey Hammonds, who signed a three-year, $21.75 million deal in the offseason, played just 49 games because of a shoulder injury.

In retrospect, the critical decisions were:
1. Signing Hammonds. He hadn't played more than 123 games in any one season, but the Brewers gambled that the injury-prone Hammonds would solve some of the Brewers' offensive woes. All the Brewers did was watch Hammonds -- and the $7 million or so he received last season -- sit on the bench.

2. Giving Sheets a spot in the starting rotation to begin the season. Sure, he struggled at times but you would think that making 25 starts in the majors will help Sheets in the year ahead.

3. Giving oft-injured reliever Chad Fox a spot on the staff. Fox, who missed all of the 2000 season after undergoing elbow surgery, was brilliant in middle relief, compiling a 1.89 ERA in 66.2 innings pitched. With closer Curtis Leskanic's immediate future on hold after undergoing shoulder surgery, Fox could be given the opportunity to be the Brewers' Opening Day closer in 2002.

Looking ahead to 2002
Three key questions
1. Will the Brewers offensively ever learn the strike zone? And will new hitting coach Gary Matthews have any more of a chance than his predecessor, Rod Carew, did in getting the Brewers hitters to be more disciplined at the plate?

2. Will any of the young starters step and be consistent and healthy over 30+ starts?

3. With the signing of Eric Young, Hammonds will not have to bat leadoff, a spot not particularly suited for him. But the question about Hammonds remains: can he stay healthy? The Brewers can only hope.

Can expect to play better
Geoff Jenkins suffered through an injury-plagued (sore shoulder) 2001 season. After hitting an impressive .348 with nine homers and 23 RBI in April, he batted just .240 with 11 homers and 40 RBI over the remaining five months of the season. If healthy, Jenkins is a likely .300, 30-homer, 90-RBI type player.

Stats Corner
Richie Sexson (above) put up far better numbers in the second half (.293-27-69 in 76 games) than he did in the first half (.251-18-56 in 82 games). Jeromy Burnitz is the only player in Brewers franchise history to hit 30 or more home runs in four straight seasons (38, 33, 31, 34). Jamey Wright was 8-3 with a 3.38 ERA in day games, but just 3-9 with a 6.47 ERA in night games.

Can expect to play worse
While Hernandez did lead the NL in strikeouts and hit only .249, he did play a steady, if not spectacular, shortstop. While it can be expected that Hernandez will remain a solid defensive shortstop, don't expect him to duplicate his power numbers (25 homers, 78 RBI) from 2001. Hernandez is a historically inconsistent player and prior to last year had put together only one other 20-plus home run, 70-plus RBI season (23 homers, 75 RBI in 1998).

Projected lineup
2B Eric Young
CF Jeffrey Hammonds
LF Geoff Jenkins
1B Richie Sexson
RF Alex Ochoa
SS Jose Hernandez
3B Tyler Houston / Mark Loretta / Ron Belliard
C Henry Blanco / Raul Casanova

Rotation
Ben Sheets
Jamey Wright
Glendon Rusch
Ruben Quevedo
Nick Neugebauer / Paul Rigdon

Closer
Curtis Leskanic / Chad Fox

A closer look
It's a sight, or to be more precise a statistic, for sore eyes: 1,399. That's right: 1,399 represents the number of times the Brewers struck out as a team in 2001. Seems a bit high, right? High enough that it set the all-time major-league record for strikeouts in a single season.

Jose Hernandez (185) and Richie Sexson (178) ranked 1-2 in the National League in strikeouts while Jeromy Burnitz (150) was sixth. And, as you would expect, to go along with the high number of strikeouts, the Brewers were tied for second-to-last in the NL in on-base percentage (.319). Burnitz's .347 OBP topped the Brewers, but wasn't even ranked among the top 40 in the NL. They were also 11th out of 16 teams in runs scored (740).

To put it bluntly, the Brewers were a bad offensive team in 2001. And they might not get much better any time soon.

Why?

Well, high strikeout rates and poor strike zone judgment seem to be a growing epidemic for many players in the Brewers' system. From Hernandez to Sexson to Burnitz on the major-league level there are also a number of hitters on the minor-league level who simply strike out way too much.

In a recently released Baseball America, featuring the top 10 prospects for each team in the NL Central, three of the Brewers' top five prospects are positions players -- shortstop Bill Hall and outfielders David Krynzel and Cristian Guerrero, who is a cousin of Expos outfielder Vladimir Guerrero.

And while Baseball America considers Hall, Krynzel and Guerrero to all be possible major leaguers in the future, they all too often failed to make enough contact in 2001.

Take a look at these numbers:

           AB   BB  SO   OBP
Hall       506  27  124  .327
Krynzel    524  36  150  .339
Guerrero   327  18  79   .349

Far too many strikeouts and far too few walks (and as a result, subpar on-base percentages), never a promising sign at any level of baseball.

And while this isn't a complete assessment of each player (Hall batted a combined .289 at Class A and Double-A last season and is considered a superior defensive shortstop, Krynzel hit .284 at two levels of Class A while also stealing 45 bases and Guerrero batted .312 at one level of Class A), it's something that definitely needs to be corrected. If it's not, the situation will likely not get much better if the three players ever reach the big-league level.

Speaking of the Brewers' current state on the big-league level, the first thing that comes to mind is mediocre. In other words, the Brewers are in baseball no-man's land.

A dreaded place for sure.

Matt Szefc is the assistant baseball editor at ESPN.com.