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This time a year ago, the Milwaukee Brewers already knew. Their fans knew. You knew. I knew. Everyone knew slugger Prince Fielder wouldn’t be playing in Milwaukee this year.

Everyone also knew how difficult replacing one of the game's premier producers would be. Only two players, Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols, hit more homers than Fielder from 2006-2011. But check the Brewers' home run totals and you could conclude they don't miss Fielder all that much. They lead the National League in homers, just as they did last year when Fielder hit 38.

They miss him, of course. Any team would miss a 300-pound slugger with a .390 career on-base percentage who played every single day.

"There's no way we weren't going to miss him," lefthanded starter Randy Wolf said.

But here's the deal: His bat isn't all they miss. His bat, in fact, might not be what they miss most. The Brewers have done a better job replacing Fielder's power than his personality.

"He's one of those overwhelming presences in every aspect," Wolf said. "In the clubhouse and on the field."

Ryan Braun was and remains the Brewers' best player, but this was Fielder's team. He set the tone by playing—and celebrating—with an uninhibited joy that didn’t always sit well with opponents. He gave the Brewers an edge. He brought the swagger.

Although Fielder was the team's largest offseason loss, the Brewers are without eight other players who finished last season with the team. Coincidentally, most of the departed brought leadership to the clubhouse that hasn’t been replaced.

"We lost more than just Prince," manager Ron Roenicke said. "It was (LaTroy) Hawkins in the bullpen. It was (Mark) Kotsay with his experience. It was (Craig) Counsell. There's a big personality change in this locker room."

Exactly what kind of change remains to be determined. From a distance, the Brewers don't look like the same bawdy bunch as a year ago, though motor-mouth center fielder Nyjer Morgan insists their swagger remains.

"It's there," Morgan said. "It's there. Don't worry about that."

A slow start shouldn’t be much of a cause for any absence of fun; the Brewers are 9-11 compared with 10-10 a year ago. They didn’t take off in 2011 until a 23-3 run early in the second half boosted them from a tie atop the NL Central to an insurmountable nine-game lead.

The Brewers insist that Braun's troubled offseason hasn't lingered into the season, but you have to wonder. Braun is booed every time he steps into the box on the road, something his teammates notice as much as he does. With a .278 average and four homers, Braun is off to a solid start but nothing like last year. After 20 games in 2011, he already was on his way to winning the MVP with a .384 average, seven homers and 18 RBIs. Fielder was doing his best to keep pace, at .368 with three homers and 21 RBIs.

Three other Brewers regulars would trade their starts this season with any of Braun's past. New third baseman Aramis Ramirez, second baseman Rickie Weeks and Morgan have spent the first three weeks trying to lift their averages to .200.

Pitching, however, has been the team's obvious problem. Yovani Gallardo is supposed to be on the cusp of being a bona fide ace, but he can't beat the St. Louis Cardinals. He already has suffered two beatings against St. Louis this season and is 0-5 with a 12.24 ERA in his past five starts against the Cardinals. The other starters haven’t picked up where they left off last season when the Brewers were the NL's most improved rotation. Brewers starters rank last in the NL with a 5.42 ERA.

Their relievers, with the exception of closer John Axford, haven’t fared much better. The Brewers are last in the NL in bullpen ERA, too, at 5.16. "We've played pretty poorly," said Wolf, who knows his team is only one game under .500 and the calendar has yet to flip to May. "To know what we're capable of doing and where we're at now, it's exciting because I know this team will play much better than we are right now."

They aren't expecting an overnight turnaround. For one reason, "We have a lot of guys here that are historically slow starters," Wolf said.

For another, they're still getting to know each other. "We lost nine guys," Roenicke said. "That's a lot."

Especially when one is as irreplaceable as Fielder—in the clubhouse and on the field.