Giants vs Brewers MLB Pick: Crafty Cortes Takes On Flamethrowing Hicks (Mar 14)

• The Milwaukee Brewers (9-9) host the San Francisco Giants (13-4)
• Milwaukee is the defending NL Central champs; San Francisco is trying to rebound from a bad year under a new front office
• Lefty Nestor Cortes starts for the Brewers and will be opposed by Jordan Hicks for the Giants

The Brewers sought to boost their starting rotation with the crafty Nestor Cortes, acquired from the Yankees. Milwaukee is a team that tries to find puzzle pieces instead of stars and over the winter lost star shortstop Willy Adames to the Giants.

After a third straight season hovering around .500, the Giants made sweeping changes to their front office firing Farhan Zaidi as head of baseball ops and replacing him with former star player Buster Posey. They have started the spring blazing hot winning 13 of their first 17 games.

Giants Are on a Spring Training Tear

Hiring Posey and retaining manager Bob Melvin signified that the Giants were moving away from Zaidi’s stat-centric team building and returning to the same type of club that won three World Series during Posey’s likely Hall of Fame career.

Matt Chapman is batting .478 this spring with 4 homers. Their second-round draft pick in 2022, Casey Schmitt, is batting .314 with 3 homers. Adames is at .333 with a homer.

Their starting pitching has also been excellent overall. Former Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray has a 1.93 ERA in 9.1 innings. Logan Webb has a 2.79 ERA in 9.2 innings.

A key to the Giants’ season is Jordan Hicks. He became a starter in 2024 and showed positive signs. This spring, he has made 2 starts and has a 6.75 ERA with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts in 4 innings.

Brewers’ Spring is About Configuring Their Regular Season Roster

As a team that needs to find useful pieces and determine where they fit, the Brewers’ spring training record is secondary to configuring their team. Part of that is finding a suitable replacement to make up for Adames’ lost offense, keeping Christian Yelich healthy, and getting their pitching staff settled.

They also traded closer Devin Williams to the Yankees for Nestor Cortes and a prospect.

Cortes’ lingering memory with the Yankees is the Game 1 walk-off home run he surrendered to Freddie Freeman, but that ignores his four years of gutting performances in pinstripes.

Milwaukee is using the crafty lefty cautiously this spring to make sure he’s healthy for the regular season. He’s thrown only 2.2 innings, striking out 2 and giving up 4 hits.

Infielder Vinny Capra is trying to force his way into the lineup with 5 homers and a .346 average this spring. Rhys Hoskins also has 5 homers and is batting .350. Jackson Chourio is hitting .370.

Giants vs Brewers Pick: SF Should Feast on the Slow-Starting Cortes

The Giants are hitting extraordinarily well and Hicks is due for a good start. Pitchers like Cortes need to have their timing and feel down to use their full complement of pitches and it is too early in the spring for that. The Giants should put up some runs and win the game.