Start Rotation Focuses on Milwaukee Brewers

There was a lot of excitement surrounding the Opening Day opening rotation for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2019. After each was shown during the final stretch of 2018, the decision was made to give Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta a place in start five to start the year. However, that move ended up being largely disastrous. Only Woodruff managed to stay in the rotation throughout the season and has become the staff’s de facto ace. Burnes caught fire quickly with serious home run problems and eventually ended up in the pitching lab to try to work things out, while Peralta bounced between the rotation and the bullpen as he continued to fight the inconsistency in both roles. Slingin ‘Stearns would end up acquiring multiple veteran pitchers to help fill the gap, and things finally worked out when Milwaukee qualified for the Wild Card game.

Looking ahead to the abbreviated 2020 regular season, however, it appears the organization is poised to give the youth movement another chance. Woodruff had already been announced as the Opening Day opener in Chicago, and after Brett Anderson left IL with a blister, Corbin Burnes was named the starting player for game # 2. With the news that the first Josh Lindblom’s start would come in the second series, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy used context clues to put together what should be the first turn of the rotation for Menomonee Valley Nine:

When you add Adrian Houser to the group, that makes four headlines for the Brewers who are 27 or younger and all with less than two full years of service in the major leagues. The veteran of the quintet is Josh Lindblom, who doesn’t have much of an MLB background. Owner of just 147.0 career major league innings, Lindblom, of course, made a name for himself in Korea by becoming one of the dominant headlines at KBO for the past few seasons.

Woodruff comes from a season in which he was named to the All-Star team and finished with a 3.62 ERA and 3.01 FIP ERA in 22 starts and 121.2 innings. His season was interrupted by oblique tension, otherwise he would probably be generating more talk nationally as one of the best young starters in the National League this year. Houser is someone who apparently escaped the cracks during “Summer Camp” and all the talk about pitching staff, but he made his way for a similar stellar season in 2019 and has been a better MLB pitcher than Burnes or Peralta. . He finally settled into the starting rotation last season and finished with a 3.72 and 3.88 FIP ERA in 35 appearances (18 starts) covering 111.1 innings.

The Brewers seem to love the silver lining of Peralta and felt strong enough for him to be a piece in the future to sign him with a guaranteed five-year contract extension despite a career 4.79 ERA in 163.1 innings since his debut in 2018. Peralta’s ability to lose bats makes him one of the most exciting pitchers to see on the staff, but his inconsistency can be maddening and is the reason why he has yet to establish himself in a single role. He pitched in 39 games last year and made eight starts, working 85.0 innings with an ugly 5.29 ERA. Peralta’s FIP career (3.96) is almost a career shorter than his ERA, suggesting that brighter things may be on the horizon for him.

Corbin Burnes is the wild card of the group. A “favorite,” he went from being a fourth-round pick to a consensus prospect in the top 100 before debuting with the Brewers in the stretch in 2018 and dominating as a relief pitcher. He returned to the rotation last year and things completely fell apart. Burnes allowed three home runs in each of his first three starts and two in his fourth start before being demoted. He was unable to act on the minors and was eventually shut down and sent to the pitching lab in Maryvale to try to figure things out physically and mentally. At the end of the year, Burnes had an 8.82 ERA in 49.0 innings pitched, and although he struck out 70 against 20 walks, he served 17 home runs. But Burnes looked refreshed when spring this year began, impressing at the pre-closing camp and continuing his strong performance at the summer camp.

TO UPDATE:

Craig Counsell officially announced his starting rotation this morning, circling Houser and Lindblom in the back.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference