By Tim Gutowski Published May 02, 2006 at 5:05 AM

As the Brewers blasted the ball around, through and out of Wrigley Field this weekend, a strange thought occurred to me: for the first time in recent memory, there isn't a gaping hole in the Crew's lineup. Sure, Brady Clark is struggling and Damian Miller probably won't hit .320 all season, but the lineup features professional hitters, a couple sluggers and future stars from No. 1 all the way through No. 8. Even Doug Davis was swinging a mean stick on Saturday.

As a longtime Brewers watcher, this is a fairly unique realization. Perhaps such a lineup can help the Crew get those extra two wins a month that Ned Yost believes are critical to challenging for the playoffs. I can't tell you for certain -- though they did so in April, finishing 14-11 -- but I can say that the team feels like a legitimate contender, at least in early May.

One way to judge if the 2006 Brewers are truly better than recent versions is by comparing each team's weakest links. In the past, Milwaukee's starting lineups were populated by has-beens and never would-have-beens. But the '06 starters seem different -- there isn't an obvious problem in the lineup or the pitching staff (not yet, anyways). It hasn't always been that way, especially not over the last five years.

The 2001 Brewers won 68 games only because they could club the ball, at least when they made contact. They hit 209 homers and had eight players reach double-figures in that category, including Raul Casanova (11)! But there were some weak links in the everyday lineup, including Ronnie Belliard, who never panned out in Milwaukee, Tyler Houston, an aging Devon White, Jeffrey Hammonds, Jose Hernandez (185 Ks) and current Cub Henry Blanco. The bench included luminaries such as James Mouton, Angel Echevarria, Lou Collier and Luis Lopez; compare them to Bill Hall, Jeff Cirillo and Gabe Gross. I won't even get into the pitching staff.

The next year's club (2002) wasn't much better. It featured Eric Young, Alex Sanchez, Hammonds, Houston, Alex Ochoa, Hernandez and Paul Bako. The starting staff relied heavily on newcomer Glendon Rusch, who went 11-28 across two seasons in Milwaukee (and served up four homers in 2.2 IP to the '06 Brewers on Saturday) and Ruben Quevedo. This team did feature my favorite Brewer pinch-hitter/role player of all-time (save perhaps Bob Hamelin) in Matt Stairs, who blasted 16 homers for the worst Brewers team ever. It's no wonder they won just 56 games.

When Ned Yost arrived in 2003, he didn't have much to work with. In fact, his ability to wring 68 wins out of the team should have earned him Manger of the Year consideration. The lineup featured Sanchez (prior to the trade that paved the way for Scott Podsednik's great rookie season), Young, Wes Helms, Royce Clayton, Eddie Perez and John Vander Wal. And other than Ben Sheets, the starters were awful: Rusch, Matt Kinney, Wayne Franklin and Wes Obermueller. Were it not for Richie Sexson (45 HR, 124 RBI), Geoff Jenkins (28, 95, .296 BA) and Podsednik, it could have been another sub-60 win season.

By 2004, Yost and Doug Melvin had started to make over the team's roster. It was far from great, but it was becoming more respectable. Junior Spivey, Keith Ginter and Craig Counsell represented small improvements, but the loss of Sexson and sub-par years by Jenkins, Helms and Podsednik (all hit .264 or lower) doomed the team to 67 wins. The rotation was starting to look more familiar, featuring Sheets, Doug Davis, a yet-to-turn-awful Victor Santos, Obermueller and Chris Capuano (who made 17 starts).

Last year, of course, represented the team's break-even season. By the end of 2005, the lineup looked a lot like this year's, save Russell Branyan at third (replaced by Corey Koskie), Lyle Overbay at first (replaced by Prince Fielder) and an improving J.J. Hardy at shortstop (Hardy's evolution from last April to this April has been remarkable). The staff swapped out Victor Santos/Gary Glover for Dave Bush, which appears to be an improvement. Rickie Weeks' 2006 season figures to best his 2005 campaign, and Fielder (5 HR, 16 RBI, .952 OPS) is on pace to match or better Overbay's totals (19 HR, 72 RBI, .816 OPS).

This is a young team, so I have to remind myself that periodic Cubs bashing will be interspersed with games like the previous weekend's 11-0 shutout at the hands of would-be Cy Young winner Aaron Harang. But for a change, those games look like the exception rather than the rule.

Sports shots columnist Tim Gutowski was born in a hospital in West Allis and his sporting heart never really left. He grew up in a tiny town 30 miles west of the city named Genesee and was in attendance at County Stadium the day the Brewers clinched the 1981 second-half AL East crown. I bet you can't say that.

Though Tim moved away from Wisconsin (to Iowa and eventually the suburbs of Chicago) as a 10-year-old, he eventually found his way back to Milwaukee. He remembers fondly the pre-Web days of listenting to static-filled Brewers games on AM 620 and crying after repeated Bears' victories over the Packers.