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Might explain why Lo hasn't been himself

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Grandal’s strength was his ability to frame pitches.  Not sure he’s the issue.   

I was a bit concerned coming into the year about the potential impact of losing DJ to the Reds.  In addition, their bullpen coach departed.  Still not sure what happened there as Tunnell’s contract was not renewed. 

 

Last edited by Tschmack

A lot of it is Knebel being gone and Burnes completely flaming out. 

But sometimes you get what you pay for. The Brewers don't have a single pitcher making over 6.7 million. The Brewers entire roster of pitchers currently on the 40 man roster (17 guys) makes a little less than 40 million. What's worse is that their 4 highest highest paid guys on that list are either hurt or not performing at the level they need to be. . 

Chacin 6.7 million, Anderson 6.5 million,  Nelson 3.7 million. Those three have pitched 131 innings and a cumulative ERA of 5.97. If you add in Knebel's 5.1 million, that's over 22 million dollars sunk into those 4 guys for a 6-12 record. 

The next level of guys have been adequate in the production for their contracts. Jeffries 3.1, Davies 2.6, Albers 2.5, Guerra 2.2, Gonzales 2.0, Claudio 1.2. 

The rest of the staff are minimum salary players: Hader, Woodruff, Peralta, Wilkinson, Houser, Barnes, and Burnes. 

There are 85 MLB pitchers making more than the Brewers highest paid pitcher. The Brewers payroll is a huge bargain right now because, if nothing else, Yelich at 9 million a year is a joke. They just haven't spent the money they need to on pitching to be competitive without more than 2 of the minimum salary guys being either superstars (Hader) or above average starters (Woodruff). 

 

Last edited by MichiganPacker2
Cheezers posted:

According to Adam McCalvy the Brewers starters have a 6.55 ERA in the last 30 games.   Ugh.

Woodruff has started 6 games in those span and has a 4.73 ERA. So the other starters, have been beyond awful.

Woodruff's stats aren't great, but that's really all they need is what Woodruff does. In 5 of the games, he's pitched well enough to keep them within striking distance. 6 or 7 innings with no more than 3 or 4 runs. It eats up innings and gets us to Jeffries/Hader at least within striking distance. The fact he's a great hitting pitcher helps a lot also. 

7 innings, 3 ER

6 innings, 4 ER

7 innings, 3 ER

6 innings, 3 ER

4 innings, 6 ER

8 innings, 1 ER

That’s really an incredible stat-  6.55 ERA over the last 30 games for their starters.

The fact they’ve been competitive is pretty amazing given they really don’t have one decent starting pitcher right now.  Woodruff has been solid, but I wouldn’t call his performance great by any stretch. 

I would have also added Davies to that list but he seems to be coming back to reality a bit.  He’s been pretty bad the last several starts.  

But doesn’t that seem to be a trend here?  

Jimmy Nelson had one decent year (2017). Same thing with Chase Anderson (2017).  Last year it was Jhoulys Chacin and Wade Miley.  In 2016, it was Junior Guerra.  

None of those guys have stacked or sustained those successes. 

At some point, the Brewers can’t just keep banking on β€œwhat if’s” or picking guys up off the scrap heap.  If they do this is what you can expect-  wildly inconsistent results.

Not to say Stearns doesn’t deserve a lot of credit for rebuilding the roster with guys like Yelich and Cain and Grandal and Hader and Moose (among others).   

 

Tschmack posted:

That’s really an incredible stat-  6.55 ERA over the last 30 games for their starters.

The fact they’ve been competitive is pretty amazing given they really don’t have one decent starting pitcher right now.  Woodruff has been solid, but I wouldn’t call his performance great by any stretch. 

I would have also added Davies to that list but he seems to be coming back to reality a bit.  He’s been pretty bad the last several starts.  

But doesn’t that seem to be a trend here?  

Jimmy Nelson had one decent year (2017). Same thing with Chase Anderson (2017).  Last year it was Jhoulys Chacin and Wade Miley.  In 2016, it was Junior Guerra.  

None of those guys have stacked or sustained those successes. 

At some point, the Brewers can’t just keep banking on β€œwhat if’s” or picking guys up off the scrap heap.  If they do this is what you can expect-  wildly inconsistent results.

Not to say Stearns doesn’t deserve a lot of credit for rebuilding the roster with guys like Yelich and Cain and Grandal and Hader and Moose (among others).   

 

The problem with a guy like Davies is that he doesn't have overwhelming stuff, so he has little margin for error. He doesn't strike out a lot of guys and his WHIP has always been around 1.3. His fastball runs in the high 80s. The problem the Brewer staff has is that most of their starters are nibblers. They don't have overwhelming stuff, so they have to have great command.If you have great control you can get by, but if you don't, it's a problem if you are even a little off. The list of superstar (or even consistently effective) pitchers that have that level of control is pretty short (Greg Maddux is the best example). 

Woodruff has a powerful arm and throws in the 96-98 mile range. If he gets better command, he can get a lot better. But even if he's a little off with his command, a 98 MPH fastball can still make you effective. 

 

Not having Cain in the lineup makes a difference.   I hope he can get his injury situation figured out because he’s such a good table setter for the rest of the lineup.  

As for Peralta, I don’t care how fast or how good his fastball is as a starter you can’t be a one trick pony and that’s basically what he is.   Hitters don’t have to worry about a second or third pitch because quite honestly he doesn’t have one.  Until he does he has no business starting games for this team. 

Woodruff is a legit starter and the added benefit is he’s a tremendous hitter.   He’s certainly a guy you can usually count on to give you a decent outing but right now the problem is just about anyone else they run out there is unreliable.  

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